Page 96 of Secrets Beneath the Waves
Her mind raced for a solution. She couldn’t match him in strength or speed—not here. He swung wildly, with the same problem she faced. The knife lacked any speed or momentum behind it. She easily avoided it.
But she now had a greater worry.
She glanced down in horror to find that her oxygen tank was at zero. She took a breath but found barely enough oxygen to fill her lungs one last time. She panicked when she realized no more was coming.
She struggled to wrestle with him and keep his knife away from her. Her limbs screamed from the effort of fighting the water’s resistance. Every motion felt like it was draining her faster than normal.
I can’t keep this up,she thought, as she scrambled for her knife, now half-buried in the sand at her feet.
He was unrelenting. He held both of her arms now and managed to push her to the floor of the sea. Using the momentum to land on top of her, he grabbed at her mask. She clawed at his face.
When it seemed like he might get the upper hand, she saw movement to the side.
Luke.
He had come to help the diver finish her off. There’s no way she could stop them.
To her shock, he slammed into the diver with a force that sent them both tumbling. Like a linebacker tackling a runner in the open field. The sudden impact freed Ellie, and she gasped, sucking for a breath that wasn’t available.
She watched, stunned, as Luke grappled with the man, his movements fierce and calculated. For a moment, confusion paralyzed her.He’s helping me?
The fight was brutal as each man struggled for dominance. Luke managed to disarm the diver, sending the knife spinninginto the depths. But not before the man had landed a glancing blow to Luke’s side. Bubbles erupted from Luke’s regulator as he flinched, clutching his ribs. Blood seeped from a shallow wound, darkening the water around him.
Ellie’s shock gave way to resolve. She spotted her knife glinting in the sand below and dove for it. Her fingers closed around the hilt just as the diver gained the upper hand, pinning Luke against the ocean floor.
Ellie surged upward, gripping the knife tightly. She swung with all her strength, slashing through the intruder’s oxygen hose. The hiss of escaping air was immediate and violent, bubbles erupting in a chaotic stream around the man’s head. His hands flew to the severed hose, clawing desperately to stop the leak.
For a moment, Ellie hesitated, as she watched the diver flail. His movements were erratic, his body twisting as his air supply rapidly depleted. Fear radiated from him, even through the dark visor of his mask.
Before she could decide her next move, Luke had regained his footing.
She flinched as he raised his knife in the air.
It struck with brutal efficiency. But not at her. The blade plunged into the man’s chest. Blood clouded the water as the diver’s body convulsed. His hands still clutched at the useless hose. He thrashed weakly. His legs kicked as if trying to swim upward, but he had no strength behind the effort.
His limbs slowed, and his struggles faded into a lifeless drift. The man’s body hung suspended for a breathless second before beginning its slow descent to the ocean floor.
Ellie tried to reconcile the scene before her. Even as the diver’s body disappeared into the sandy floor below, the vivid image of his panic remained burned in her mind.
Luke’s hand gripped her shoulder, snapping her back to the moment. His eyes were hard, his chest heaving as blood seeped from his wound.
There wasn’t time to think. They had to move.
Ellie pointed upward, toward the surface. She put her arm around him and pushed them upward, forcing herself not to let them rise too fast.
Then she remembered the third man on the boat. She swam a small distance, so she’d surface next to the boat. Not in the open where he could see them.
Her vision blurred as blackness crept in from the edges. Still ten to fifteen feet from the surface, her chest screamed for air, every second an eternity. She couldn’t give in.
Ellie’s head broke the surface. She gasped, her lungs burning with desperation. She pressed herself against the hull of the boat, keeping her movements silent, her eyes darting upward.
Luke surfaced beside her, clutching his wound, his breaths sharp and shallow. Ellie slapped her hand over his mouth, silencing him before he could give them away. She shot him a sharp look, then pointed toward the boat, her meaning clear:He’s still up there.
Luke nodded faintly, his eyes narrowing as he pressed himself flat against the side of the boat.
Ellie’s mind raced, her exhaustion battled with the adrenaline that still coursed through her veins. They couldn’t stay in the water for long—not with the blood clouding around them like a beacon for whatever else might be lurking.
But climbing aboard the boat wasn’t an option either.
