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Once we get to the place they found the Grady White boat, John B grabs the anchor and drops it down. "This is empty. You took empty tanks?" Ki says, grabbing the timers on the tanks and looking at them.
Before John b can defend himself she interrupts him, groaning, "Okay this one's a quarter full. Enough for one of us." She drops her hand into her lap in defeat. "Love it when a plan comes together," Pope mutters to JJ which makes me believe that this whole thing was JJ's idea.
"Well I guess it's me." I shrug, pulling off my shirt to reveal a baby blue bikini top. "Are you sure you know how to dive?"Ki looks at me and I nod.
"It is kind of a kook sport so that makes sense." I hear JJ say and I roll my eyes. "My dad took me. Not because I'm a kook but because he wanted me to get certified incase I wanted to become an officer."
JJ puts his hands up in fake surrender, making a smile appear on my face. I've missed his humor these last few days. "Just make sure you don't come up too fast or nitrogen can enter your blood and you can get the bends." Pope recites, sounding like an encyclopedia and I blow out air, trying not to laugh.
"Bends like- bend over and..." JJ jokes, sticking his butt out and I send a look his way. "The bends kill you." That shuts him up pretty quick. "Here let me make some calculations."
Pope pulls a piece of paper out of nowhere and starts furiously scribbling. I shoot a wary glance at JJ who just shrugs in return. "The boat's about thirty feet down right? So it'll take 25 minutes at most to reach that depth. Which means you need to make your safety stop at about ten feet. Alright? For two minutes. " He pauses, looking up at me to see if I'm understanding and I nod.
"For two minutes. Got it. Swim. Ten feet. Two minutes." I repeat and suddenly the boat starts to rock and I notice that Kiara is gone. "Uh did she just jump into the water?"
John B purses his lips be for nodding his head, "Seems like it. Not sure what that was about." He looks at me like I know, which I obviously don't. Him and I know exactly how Ki feels toward me and let's just say it isn't good.
"Okay so uh," JJ starts to say before he notices that I'm taking off my shorts and completely stops, checking me out. "Can you stop that!" I hiss lowly, trying not to let Pope overhear us. "Sorry." JJ whispers back before pulling himself together and continuing.
"So when you're down there you look for the cargo hold. You stick this thing inside and twist and pull, okay?" He says, holding up the key and demonstrating how to do it as I hear Pope mutter something from behind me.
"What was that?" I whip around, clenching my fists at my sides as Pope looks back at me, startled. Before he can say anything I see Kiara pop up from underneath the water about five feet from the boat.
"Hey! So I tied my t-shirt to the anchor chain about ten feet down. That's where you need to do your safety stop." She says and I shoot her a great full look. Even though we don't get along that well anymore I can tell she still cares about me. "Thanks."
As I start to pull on the gear Pope grabs the air timer and leans it my way, "Alright keep an eye on this. You need to make sure you have air to decompress."
"Don't worry I'll try to breathe as little as possible. Now let's get this show on the road before we get our asses dragged out of here." I smile as I step onto the edge is the boat. "Diver down." Ki murmurs, glancing at me which only makes my smile grow bigger. "Diver down." I say, saluting before I make the plunge into the water.
It's a little colder than I expected it to be but I'm also not wearing a wetsuit so that was inevitable. As I pass Ki's t-shirt I make a mental note to grab it once I go up, not wanting her to lose it. The swim down seems a lot shorter than it appeared and in no time I was approaching the Grady white. I float inside of the boat but I can't seem to tell which way I'm supposed to go to find what I'm looking for.
The water in the bottom is pretty murky so the odds of me being able to see anything that isn't right in front of me are slim. But by some chance I find the cargo hold and try to put the key in. It doesn't go in a first but after wiggling it a few times it finally gives in and opens.
There, lies a black duffle bag and I pull it out with ease. There's no time to look inside of it right now so I pull it up my shoulder and push off the boat, starting my way back up to the top. It's easier going up since I can follow the anchor line and soon enough I reach the white t-shirt. I glance up to see a black figure above me, wait no two. The HMS Pogue and with it what looks like a police boat.
T-shirt. Ten feet. Two minutes. I chant as I glance at my timer that reads 1:15. I can do this, if you can handling popping your dislocated shoulder back into place you can handle holding your breath for a minute. The timer keeps counting down and once it reaches five seconds I take a deep breath and it turns to zero. But the damn boat won't leave.
I count the amount of seconds that goes by and once I hit around 100 I can feel my lungs beg for air. I glance back up to the shadows above me to see the police boat start to drive away and once it's far enough away I swim up to the top of the water.
The second I break air I tug off the mask and I can hear the peanut gallery breathe out in relief. "Did you find something?" I hear JJ ask and I nod, too out of breath to respond. The others lean of the side of the boat as I swim towards them and when I reach the side I hoist up the bag, handing it to John b. I grab onto the side of the boat and pull myself up as they look at the bag in awe.
"That's what I'm talking about!" JJ exclaims, smiling at me as he glances toward the duffle bag. I hand Pope the mask and he takes it as Kiara helps me take the tank off. "You okay?" She asks me as I run my hands through my hair, still trying to catch my breath.
"Yeah I ran out of air but it's okay." I pant and she comes up to hug me. "Even though we're not close anymore, you still scared the shit out of me." I smile as she pulls away.
"Well the cops were here but we took care of them." Pope says casually, setting the tank down and India's my eyebrows. "My dad I'm guessing?" He nods as I push my hair from out of the front of my face, looking at JJ. When JJ finally looks back at me, his face changes completely.
"Del what the fuck happened to your eye?" He asks, his eyebrows furrowed my hand reaches up to my eye. Shit the makeup must have washed off.
Before I can answer back Kiara is glancing behind us, pointing. "Hey guys! Guys, bogey two o'clock."
✧✧✧ I don't really have that much to say about this chapter other than it was a little difficult to write but very much worth it. I hope you enjoy reading it.
