Page 14 of Drowning in Sins
“Understood. This won’t happen again.” It felt like a lie coming from her. Her hand hesitated on the doorknob before she slipped out of my room as fast as we had entered it.
I ran a hand through my hair, then punched the wall next to my door. The metal wall was unscathed compared to my hand. I watched the blood drops hit the floor, blending with the water that puddled from wet clothes.
Chapter Thirteen
ROSALYN
With a groan, I climbed back up the ladder and slid the SCUBA gear off. I didn’t understand. The tanks were full and good to go before we dropped into the water. We checked them. All of them were ready. Everything should’ve been fine.
One mishap, sure. The chances that all three of our tanks were faulty was astronomic. What made them all go out of whack? I peeled the suit down to my waist before walking over to Alice and looking down at the computer screen with her.
“Could something down there react negatively with them? Did your scanner pick up something different this time?” I rubbed my forehead in frustration.
“This is some bullshit!” Tyler argued with Collin. “All three of us could’ve died. You realize that, right?”
“Yes.” Collin nodded. “Trust me when I say I’m already putting a call into the company that manufactured these tanks.”
“Let’s send down the AUV for now. I want to see what’s inside that chest,” Bryan inserted. “We can see if it’s even worth us going back down there.”
As much as I was curious too, we couldn’t risk damaging it with the machine.
“We can’t risk it,” Tyler replied and shook his head, glancing around. “I trust that it can bring it up though; it just needs to be properly secured. Everything is fragile down there.”
I think if Bryan wascarefulenough, he could’ve pulled it up, but for the short amount of time I’d known him, I thought he was too reckless and impatient for this task. As much as I didn’t want to dive back down at this moment, I knew I needed to face my fear. I took in a deep breath and slowly let it out as they argued over what to do next.
“Do we have more tanks?” I interrupted.
Bryan looked surprised. “You really want to go back down there?”
No.
“Me too.” Tyler nodded. “We can get it carefully wrapped. Maintain a slow pace and we’ll keep hold while traveling down and back up.”
“Let’s not run anything else. Don’t wanna risk anything interfering with these tanks.” I laughed to ignore the fear. One little life-threatening accident wasn’t going to keep me from continuing down this path.
“I mean, if the two of you want to go down and wrap it, I’ll handle driving the AUV from here.” Bryan grinned. “Let’s take ten, and then it’s go-time.” He shook his head as he left the room. “Again.”
It was a good-enough plan. I knew Tyler would want to dive quickly again too. We couldn’t chance putting off the next dive and letting our nerves get the best of us. So, we headed down to the storage room and grabbed new tanks to carry up on deck and toward the platform.
We took our time inspecting them both before hooking up the rest of the equipment. The others on the team were already lowering the AUV and getting it ready to go down with us.
“Be careful.”
I turned to see Frederick. His voice had been quiet as he stood close, hand tightly gripping the railing next to us.
“Always,” I assured him. The worry in his eyes was both heartwarming and frightening. Did he know something I didn’t, or was he genuinely worried about me?
Tyler clapped. “Ready?”
“Y’all got this.” Beth smiled nervously.
I zipped up the suit and stepped down to the platform. “Let’s go.”
Within seconds, we were masked up and dropping into the water again. I steadied my heart rate and allowed myself to calm before submerging fully into the water.
Tyler and I held onto the side handles of the AUV as Bryan controlled it from above. The light it provided was ample, more than the ones we wore on our heads before. Once at the seafloor, we grabbed the rolled-up net from the back and swam into the wreckage.
We signaled to one another as we put it in place. An arm extended on the AUV to push the chest at an angle. It was weird to work with a machine like this instead of a person. I supposed it shouldn’t have been, since Bryan was operating it from above.
