Page 66 of Sunburned

Once our three minutes were up, we rose toward the light, surfacing into the full glare of the afternoon sun like waking from a nightmare. The swell was mild, the skies blue, the faintest breeze blowing over the surface of the azure water, no sign above of the turmoil beneath. Our yacht bobbed on the horizon, a monster of the seas.

Two of the male navy-shirted crew members I recognized from before leaned over the side of the dinghy to grab our hands as we emerged awkwardly with our giant packs from the water, once again susceptible to gravity. I let Jennifer, Gisèle, and Samira go up first, pulling off my fins and handing them up before I grabbed the ladder. As my feet struck the bottom rung, I realized my legs were shaking.

One of the crew members radioed to the yacht to send another tender as I dumped my pack on the pile with the others and collapsed onto the inflated side of the dinghy, pulling off my mask. Jennifer was still visibly upset, her hands trembling as she untangled the strap ofher mask from her matted hair, her makeup streaked down her face. “It’s okay,” I said, sitting next to her. “You’re okay.”

“That was really scary,” Gisèle muttered.

“I thought I heard a tank-banger in the Snares,” I said. “Was it one of you?”

Everyone shook their heads. “Did anybody see Tyson?” Samira asked, her eyes concerned.

“I saw him with Rémy,” Jennifer said.

“Me too,” Gisèle said. “Or I thought I did, it was really cloudy down there.”

Samira nodded, relieved. “I lost him.”

“What do you mean, you lost him?” Cody asked Samira as he came over the side of the boat.

“We were at the back and he kept swimming off by himself—”

“Like he always does,” Cody grumbled, pushing up his mask as he sat next to her.

“It makes me crazy,” Samira agreed. “This is why I don’t like to partner with him, but—” She shrugged with a sigh. “I tried to make him keep up, but I was afraid to leave everyone. Every time I turned back, he was there, but then it got so cloudy, I couldn’t see. I was scared and I had to keep going forward. Then in the shipwreck, I was looking for him, but I found you guys instead.”

Laurent climbed the ladder with urgency, ripping off his mask as he boarded the boat. “What the fuck?” he demanded of Cody.

Everyone’s heads snapped toward him, startled. The fact that Laurent was usually so even-keeled made his sudden outrage that much more shocking.

“You abandoned your dive partner to confront another diver not in our group,” he continued, hurling his pack onto the pile.

“Chill, man,” Cody said. “I didn’t abandon her, I was right there.”

“You never leave your dive partner, and you never confront another diver under the water. It’s dangerous. If you have a problem, figure it out once you surface.” Laurent shook his head, water dripping fromhis curls as he collapsed on the side of the dinghy next to me. “What were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t,” Cody said, holding up his hands. “I’m sorry, man. My bad.”

Laurent swallowed, and I could feel his biceps tense against my arm before he nodded, accepting Cody’s apology. “Okay. Just…don’t ever do that again.”

Cody put an arm around Jennifer, who was still shaking. “Sorry, babe,” he said. “You did great.”

Jennifer nodded weakly, putting on a brave face, but after today, I’d be shocked if she ever dove again.

Gisèle raised her brows at Cody. “Who did you confront?”

“That asshole Marcel was down there muddying the water to ruin our dive,” Cody grumbled.

So that was who I’d seen down below.

“Is that why it was so cloudy?” Samira asked.

Everyone looked at Laurent, who shook his head. “I don’t know. Cody is right. It could have been him. But also maybe a current.”

He bit his lower lip as he gazed toward the dinghy hurtling over the water toward us fromSea Ray. When it was close, one of the crew members started our engine and backed off the mooring ball, the water slapping against the side of the boat as we moved aside to let the other dinghy have our place.

“They have enough oxygen for twenty more minutes, but Rémy told me they’d be up in five,”Laurent shouted in French to the other boat.

The captain saluted him, and we puttered away, our speed increasing until we were skipping over the tops of the waves toward the giant yacht lurking on the horizon.

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