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Fuck! It’s sinking.
Working frantically, I pushed the regulator from my air tank into the hole in the bottom of the nearest airbag and activated the emergency release valve. Bubbles spewed into the balloon, and I prayed we could redistribute the buoyancy and stabilize the yacht before it crashed back to the ocean floor.
Across the other side of the wreck, Dad was doing the same. It was a move he’d explained to me many years ago, but this was the first time we’d ever had to deploy it.
I swam to the next balloon, and as I repeated the process, keeping one eye on the status of the yacht, I searched for the damn shark. The stupid thing was about fifty feet away, shaking the yellow plastic back and forth like a dingo shakes a snake to kill it.
Dad and I added emergency air to six bags before the yacht began to rise again.
Sighing with relief, I turned off the emergency valve to my air cylinder and searched for the shark again. It was still playing with the bag. Maybe it was stuck in its teeth. Tiger sharks had powerful jaws and teeth sharp enough to slice leather.
Thank God he didn’t want to play with me.
I gave Dad the thumbs up, and he did the same. I checked my watch. We’d lost seven minutes. It felt like twenty. The adrenaline that had rushed through me moments ago vanished in a flash, and I felt like the weight of the ocean was crushing me.
I glanced up at the shimmering surface, where the shadow of Rhino’s underbelly hovered above us like a large rectangular spacecraft.
Although we had the wreck raised from the bottom, we were still many moves away from a successful salvage.
We didn’t have any surplus airbags, and if another balloon was attacked by a shark, we were screwed.
CHAPTER 9
Tyler
I paced along Rhino’s rear deck for the umpteenth time and used the binoculars to scan the ocean around us. Not a single other vessel was visible. It was good news, and yet I couldn’t shake the feeling someone was watching me. I’d had that sensation before, and I wished like hell I had acted on it last time. If I had, then Wesley would still be alive, and I wouldn’t have to worry about his mother hunting me down.
I returned to the air compressor, which sounded like jagged rocks in a blender. The fucking noise was getting right into my head. I monitored for fluctuations and checked the fuel gauge for the tenth time.
Indiana and her dad had been under the water for much longer than I’d anticipated. Not being able to communicate with them was doing my head in. My undercover work had been like that many times, except it was usually me who was exposed to the danger. I hated not knowing if they were okay. Indiana hadn’t given me any idea how long they expected to stay down there, and their air hoses had barely moved in half an hour.
I didn’t even know if they were alive.
Sunbeams were like flame throwers targeting my exposed skin. I had sunscreen on, and although I’d stayed in the shadow of the crane as much as I could, the sun bouncing off the ocean was just as damaging. The ocean was still, and there wasn’t a whisper of breeze. Sweat trickled down my back and everywhere else.
An explosion of bubbles erupted on the surface.
What the hell is that?
I raced to the side of the boat. A few more large bubbles burst on the surface, but I couldn’t see anything else down there.
I ran back to the compressor. The gauge showed the air was running smoothly.
As I sprinted back to the side, my heart jammed in my throat. Those bubbles were too big to be standard diver bubbles. Was it released air from the wreck?
Or did one of their air hoses get severed?
I studied their air pipes, praying for movement. But there was nothing.
Shit. Shit.
I swept my gaze across the shimmering expanse, desperately searching for signs of Indiana or Old Smithy. Or Chui’s yacht.
Maybe I could use one of the other air tanks and attempt to dive down there.
A smaller batch of bubbles burst on the surface again, and I ran down to the dive deck.
Like a ghostly apparition rising from the depths, the once opulent multi-million-dollar luxury yacht and heaps of yellow airbags attached to the wreck came into view.
