Page 107 of Casualties of War
Only, if they had brought the core ashore, everything that had come in contact with it would show traces, too. Bushes that had brushed against it as they carried it away. The ground where they would have rested it would buzz the dial—and they would have rested it, for the sucker was over a hundred pounds in weight, despite being only a foot square.
“We have to check the water,” she decided. “Pullout the dinghy. We’ll use it to keep station, while everyone swims and dives and sees what they can see. We’ll move up and down the bay, in files, until we find something or decide there’s nothing to see. Locke, you’re station keeping with me.” He deserved to take it easy as he had covered for her.
“I can help,” Adán said. “I’m a good swimmer.”
She knew that, although she had nearly forgottenall the barbecues at Adán’s house in the hills when Stuart and Adán had tried to out-dive each other in Adán’s strangely deep pool. “Thanks, but this isn’t a job for civilians.”
The men carried the little rowboat down to the water, skimming passed Adán. He glanced at them, then at Parris. “I’m a better diver than any man here,” he said. “I’ve trained for deep free diving.”
“My men are trained,”Parris assured him. She stripped off her backpack and handed it to Ramirez, who was waiting for it, then handed him her helmet, too.
“It’s over a hundred meters deep out there,” Adán said. “Your men can get down that deep with no tanks and no weight belt and still have enough wits left to see anything?”
Parris strode to the boat. Of course they couldn’t get that deep. No one could.
Adán grabbedher arm. “I can get that deep,” he said, his voice low.
“Caballero, sit your ass down on the sand and don’t move,” Parris told him. “That’s an order.”
He let go of her arm and held up his hands in a mollifying gesture. “You have no idea what it will be like out there, what you’re asking of them. There’s no moon. It will be pitch black beyond the radius of their flashlights. There are probablysharks in the area. There are always sharks in the area, because of the seals.”
Donaldson’s head jerked up from the circle of men stripping off their gear, down to fatigues only. They were piling the backpacks beneath the seaweed netting.
“Which is why you will sit tight and shut up,” Parris snapped back. “Do I need to put an armed guard on you?” She turned to Locke, who was already in the boat.“Draw up a grid. We’ll move up and back, twenty meters at a time.”
“Yes, sir,” Locke said.
“Iknowthese waters,” Adán insisted. “I dived in them every single day, growing up. I’ve been around boats and the sea my entire life. I’ve been a member of the California Free Dive Association since I was twenty-one. This diving—no weights, very deep—that’s what we train for. That’s what we do.”
Parrisspun to face him. “Sit. Down.” She spaced out the words. “Or I willmakeyou do it.”
Silence.
Adán was breathing hard. She understood why he was challenging her authority. He didn’t know his arguing was what got corporals busted back to privates and officers stripped of rank. Or if he did know, he didn’t care, because this was important to him. Heneededto help. Everything Adán had done sincethe war broke out was a product of his wild need to be of service. To be useful.
“We’re not talking about retrieving a flag or something cute,” she said. “If I’m right, there’s a cobalt 60 core down there that belongs to the United States. It’s up to us to retrieve it. It’s our shit spraying toxic waste everywhere. So take a load off, Adán. It would be rude of us to leave it all up to you.”
His shoulders didn’t slump. He didn’t sigh or roll his eyes. In the moonless light, she couldn’t tell what was in his eyes.
He turned and moved up the beach to the nearest patch of sand clear of seaweed and sat.
“Do I need to leave someone with you?” she asked.
Silence, for a heartbeat or two. “No,” he said heavily.
She nodded and turned back to the boat. “Let’s go.” She stepped into it.
Locke worked the oars. She would spell him in thirty minutes. The rest of the team clung to the gunnels, swimming alongside the little dinghy. When they reached the outer end of the south of the bay, Locke turned the boat to face toward the north point of the bay, about half a mile away. There was nothing but rising and falling black water, reflecting stars.
“Okay, everyone. Two yards from theboat, five feet between each of you. Dive to about ten feet and swim at that depth for as long as you can. See what you can see. Up for air and a breather, then back down again,” she told them. “Stay parallel with us.”
The waterproof flashlights flickered on, making green glowing cones in the water. The lights spread as the men swam, forming two lines out from the boat, like wings.
Locke gotthe oars going again, keeping the boat on the line between the cliff points and drifting ahead to keep pace with the swimmers. “You were a bit harsh,” he said, his tone mild.
Parris didn’t have to ask him what he was talking about. “If he was with the unit, I would have busted him for insubordination.”
“You might want to consider if you were overcompensating,” Locke said.
