Page 66 of Night's Reckoning
Cheng and Kadek weren’t as trustful of the sonar as Fabia and the professors were. They wanted to see for themselves. They stripped down to the skin on the top deck, leaving on nothing but short trousers. Cheng had a net bag attached to his waist like divers used to collect specimens, a slim black knife tied to his leg, and a determined expression.
“We’ll go down first.” He plaited his long hair into a single braid. “Before the humans. We’ll be able to tell for sure once we’re down there.”
Johari asked, “Do you want me along?”
Kadek shook his head. “We’re not moving anything tonight. We’re just going to get the lay of the ocean floor. You may be comfortable in the water, but you don’t draw strength from it like you used to. Save your energy for the heavy lifting.”
Ben watched Johari’s reaction, keen to discover any ulterior motive since Tenzin had warned him, but he detected nothing. Not agreement with Kadek’s order. Not impatience. Not disappointment. Wherever she’d gotten her poker face, it was professional level.
The two water vampires dove over the edge of the boat and disappeared into the darkness of the night sea.
Ben strolled over to Fabia, who was stationed at a mobile monitor of some kind, and bumped her shoulder. “Hey.”
“Hey.” She looked up. “You weren’t around today.”
He glanced at Tenzin, who was watching the surface of the water intently. “I was around.”
Fabia followed his eyes. “Ah. And how is that going?”
He shrugged. “It’s nothing. We’re avoiding anything disagreeable right now.”
“Avoidance. The strategy of every healthy relationship,” she muttered. “How long do you think you can continue that?”
“Me? Maybe to the end of this job. Her? Probably another thousand years.”
“She is such a vampire.” Fabia picked up the microphone and spoke into it. “Kadek, can you hear me?”
Ben frowned. “You have a radio on him?”
“Uhhh.” Fabia fiddled with some knobs. “Kind of? It’s something we’re trying. He can’t speak to me because he doesn’t have any air down there, but he has a camera and a waterproof whiteboard. The camera is not part of the Nocht system, so we will see if it holds up or if he shorts it out.”
A flickering image came on the screen.
“Look at that.” Fabia pointed to the screen. “Ben, are you seeing this? That’s the ship. It’s definitely the ship.”
Ben leaned closer to the monitor. “It looks like coral and rocks.”
It was hard to see anything in the darkness, but the narrow glow of Kadek’s flashlight illuminated craggy shapes and shadows.
“No,” Johari interjected. “I can see it. The coral is only on the surface.” Her hand moved to the monitor, but she drew back when the picture began to flicker. “What did I do?”
“You’re fine, you’re fine.” Fabia waved Johari’s hand away. “Just stay back and look.” She clicked on the walkie-talkie again. “Kadek, can you point the camera down a bit?”
Ben asked, “What are you looking for?”
“That.” She pointed to the screen. “Look at where it’s lying. It’s not sand; it’s sediment. At least half that ship looks like it has been preserved in sediment, which means the oxygen won’t have had a chance to work on it, which means we’re looking at intact artifacts.”
“That’s excellent news.” Ben looked at Tenzin. “Is sediment enough to protect steel from decaying?”
Tenzin looked skeptical. “Is itmagicsediment?”
“No, Tiny, I’m pretty sure this is just normal sediment.”
“Then no.”
“Great.”
Fabia brought the walkie-talkie up again. “Kadek, can you swim the length of the hull? Give us an idea how big it is?”
