by Dani Pettrey
Jake’s admonition replayed in her ears, “You hang around here much longer and you’ll be part of the family, whether you like it or not.”
“Bay”—Cole nudged her—“you all right?”
“Oh yeah, fine.” She zipped her suit. “So how’s this going to work?”
“We’ll go in two teams. You and me. Piper and Landon. Gage and Kayden run topside. We’ll start with grid one. Piper and Landon are on grid two. First one to find something signals the others.”
“Sounds good.”
She readied the last of her gear, marveling at how the McKennas had turned their family boat into a diver’s dream. A platform at the stern made entry and exit a breeze, while the heated interior cabin made for cozy quarters after a dip in fifty-degree water.
Within minutes, Cole flipped off the side of the boat, and Bailey quickly followed—both deciding to exit the boat the old-fashioned way, for memories’ sake. The rush of water as she righted herself brought back the peaceful surge that always filled her when diving.
It’d only been a matter of months since she’d last been diving, but it had been a decade since she’d been beneath Alaskan waters. She’d forgotten how abundant the algae could be in the summer, the hefty phytoplankton blooms keeping visibility to a mere five feet.
Fortunately, the farther they descended, the greater their visibility grew.
Vast kelp forests blanketed the sea floor, and myriads of fish wove between the tall green stems. The ocean was alive around her.
She couldn’t believe she was here, diving again with Cole. How much had changed since that first dive lesson. Her heart thudded in her ears. If she could just go back and undo all the damage she’d done.
“We’ve got two at five o’clock,” Cole said over the headset, and Bailey immediately shifted her gaze in that direction.
A pair of stellar sea lions frolicked not twenty feet from their party. Their graceful, gliding movements mimicked birds in flight.
“There’s a sight you never tire of,” Cole said.
“Unbelievable,” she murmured, wondering what other incredible sights she might encounter.
35
Cole lugged the remainder of the equipment off the boat, frustration teeming beneath the surface. Three days and not a thing to show for it. It would be a lot less frustrating if their bottom time wasn’t so limited or if their bodies didn’t require such long surface intervals between dives. But nitrogen narcosis was nothing to fool around with. They’d adhere to standard dive table times or they wouldn’t dive at all.
Tonight they needed to relax, reassess, and refresh their supplies before heading back in the morning.
Piper sighed as she set the last of the tanks on the pier. “We need to rethink our approach.”
“No.” Cole smiled. “What we need’s a diversion.”
Kayden looked up from hosing out the cooler. “What do you have in mind?”
Bailey couldn’t stop laughing as she flew over the sand dunes. Her buggy jolting as she sped across the McKennas’ property. Kayden led the pack with Cole and Jake in hot pursuit. The rest of them seemed to be having fun in the moment rather than with the hunger to win. Gage skimmed across her path and, with a holler of glee, flew off the dune to her right.
Piper cut in front of him, making a beeline for the water, spraying him in the deluge off her rear tire.
Gage whistled. “Game on, little one.”
Piper bubbled with laughter as she sped away.
Cole closed in on Kayden, he and Jake racing each other more than her. If one of them didn’t back off, they’d be racing for second rather than beating Kayden.
Cole signaled for Jake to take her. Jake nodded with a grin and sped forward as Cole fell back. If Jake managed to win, Kayden would be fit to be tied.
Jake pulled into the lead with a hundred yards to go, fifty, forty, thirty.
He was actually going to beat her.
Twenty.
Ten.
They were nose to nose.
And . . .
Kayden won?
She took her usual celebratory donut spin before rocking to a halt.
Cole pulled to Jake’s side as he climbed from the buggy. “I thought you had her, man.”
Jake slipped off his helmet. “Me too.”
Cole narrowed his gaze. Jake didn’t look overly disappointed. “You didn’t let her win, did you?”
Jake chuckled. “Now, why on earth would I go and do something like that?”
Cole studied him more closely, wondering the very same thing.
Gage rocked to a stop beside them. “Let’s get the fire going. I’m famished.”
“When aren’t you?” Kayden asked with cooler in hand.
“I hope the meal didn’t get smashed to bits.” Piper bent, examining the contents.
Bailey removed her helmet, her cheeks rosy with activity.
Cole smiled at the flush on her face. “How’d you like it?”
“That was a blast!”
Bailey buried her toes deeper in the sand. The fire crackled beside her, casting a warm glow on her skin as a cool breeze wafted off the ocean. I’m in paradise. Not a soul around but the seven of them. The sea at their fingertips, the starlit sky dazzling overhead.
Cole lounged beside her, a contented glow on his handsome face, the peach flames dancing along his toned muscles. “This is the life,” he sighed.
She rolled onto her side to face him better. “You can say that again.” And, for the moment, she let herself imagine a life spent with Cole, futile as it was.
“You think we’ll have any luck tomorrow?” Landon asked over the crackle of flames.
Cole tossed a piece of driftwood in the fire. “I hope so. We’re running out of grids.”
“You think we’re off?” Piper asked. “You miss by an inch . . .”
“You miss by a mile,” Cole said. It was a truth every wreck diver knew. In the ocean if you missed the mark by an inch, you might as well have missed by a mile.
“Maybe we should look at extending the grid,” Gage said.
“We don’t have far to go. South, we run into Chirikof. North, the canyon system . . .” Cole sat up.
“What?” Landon’s eyes narrowed.
“The canyons.” Cole shook his head. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before.”
“Surely, you don’t think the ruins . . .” Bailey’s eyes widened. “I suppose that could be possible.”
“More than possible.” Cole clambered to his feet. “Logical. Think about it. . . . The island is swallowed whole in the quake. The ruins could have settled into the canyons. Over time it becomes part of the system. That would explain the damage to Liz’s tank and the calcite under her nails.”
“So what do we need to expand our search there?” Bailey asked.
“We’re talking a drop of thirty feet in depth, mountainlike terrain, and unpredictable currents within the canyon system—so strong they can disorient a diver in seconds. Basically, the danger level just skyrocketed.”
36
Cole moved through the still, silent water, Bailey at his side. He loved having her there, sharing his work and his passion for diving. It made thoughts of her imminent departure all the more painful. Like rubbing alcohol on an open wound.
She was everything he wanted in a wife—strong and determined, yet loving and gentle. She possessed an amazing sense of enthusiasm, a genuine love for the outdoors, and most importantly, a deep and abiding love for Christ.
And she stirred his soul. Always had.
He allowed his mind to drift back to the summer they first met. He sixteen, she fifteen—young and gorgeous, with a hearty chip on her shoulder and a reckless spirit that both enthralled and terrified him.
He’d hoped their friendship would be an anchor for her, and for a while it was. But looking back, he could see she’d always had one foot out the door, always looking for bigger and better. Unfortunately her idea of bigger and better equaled findi
ng fulfillment in empty things—partying and popularity.
As soon as summer ended and the school term began, she’d drifted away. New friends, new crowd. Skipping class to go island-hopping, neglecting her studies for parties and booze. He’d tried holding on, not wanting to lose her, but that night she’d left him no choice.
Against his voiced concerns, she’d drunk way too much at David’s party. Something that was quickly becoming a habit.
His heart sank as the gut-wrenching loss of that night knotted inside him.
She’d disappeared, and he’d foolishly spent a half hour searching for her, only to find her in bed with Tom Murphy.
Humiliation washed over him anew.
She’d given her virginity to a guy who cared nothing about her. When she reappeared, disheveled and drunk, she hadn’t even had the decency to look him in the eye. She slurred something about being sorry but having to move on.
Her “relationship” with Tom didn’t last the week, only the occasional tumble he was forced to hear about in lurid detail during gym.
Her partying increased until Monday-morning homeroom became a regular chronicle of her drunken escapades the weekend before.
Demeaning nicknames and locker-room jargon—he’d tried to ignore it all. Ignore the amazing girl he’d known and loved self-destructing before his eyes.
The pain it inflicted lingered, the experience branding him to a deeper degree than he’d realized. But Bailey . . .
He looked over at her descending the depths of the canyon, darkness enfolding her. He hated to imagine the scar it had seared into her.
For most who had gone through what she had, there’d be no healing, no freedom. But Bailey had found the answer. She’d found Jesus and, in Him, redemption and rebirth. It was time she started embracing the life He had for her, rather than drowning in regret over the sins of her past. Sins Jesus had already nailed to the cross.
Please, Lord, help her to release it all to you. Only you can make the broken whole. I know that only too well.
“Cole.” Kayden’s voice crackled in his headset.
“Yeah?”
“We’ve got a storm moving our way. This is going to be your only descent today.”
Storms weren’t uncommon on the Alaskan Peninsula—sunny days were. “How long?”
“An hour and a half tops.”
“All right, crew. You heard the lady. We’ve got fifty-five minutes down here before we push the narcosis limit. Let’s use all of it. Looks like this will be our only dive of the day.”
“You got it,” Landon said.
Piper and Bailey both gave the okay signal.
“Landon, why don’t you and Piper finish up grid six. Bailey and I can at least get a start on seven.”
“You got it.”
He waited until Landon and Piper faded into the darkness before heading with Bailey to grid seven. So far they’d cleared five grids with no signs of the ruins. A few alcoves, a small canyon, and the remnants of a ship he hoped to return to and explore when they had the time. But not now. Every day, every hour they lost gave the killer more opportunity to swoop in and find the ruins before them.
Fifty-five minutes didn’t give them much time, but at least they could take a look.
The sea wall narrowed as they progressed farther into the belly of the canyon. Coral encased both sides of the passageway, anemone moving in rhythmic sway with the water as fish darted in and out of their sea home.
Cole panned his light at an opening before them. “Looks like we may have found the entrance to a cave system. Hang back while I check it out.”
Bailey signaled in the affirmative.
Cole secured the guide rope around his waist and Bailey double-checked it.
“Be careful, Cole.”
“Always. Careful’s my middle name.”
“No it’s not.” Laughter danced in her voice. “I remember your middle name—Huckleberry.”
Why did his mother have to love Mark Twain so? “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
She nodded again, and he entered the hole, assessing the path before him. Two feet wide and not much higher. Slipping his tanks from his back, he pushed them in first, then wriggled in behind.
“What do you see?” she asked after a few moments of silence.
“Not a lot. It’s pretty cramped.” The tanks scraped across the rocks as he pressed forward, wriggling on his belly like a fish. Silt plumed up, clouding what limited sight he had.
“Maybe you should turn back.”
“I’ll give it a few more feet. Looks like there might be an opening ahead.” His torch bounced off the tunnel wall.
A few more feet and the cramped dimensions slowly widened until it opened up into an air-filled cavity.
Cold and damp, the scent of water lingered. He lit his secondary light and fanned it. A lake filled the center of the chamber, ripples reflecting off the domed rock ceiling. A myriad of tunnels branched off in various directions. Too many to search now. He checked his watch. Thirty-five minutes before they needed to start making their ascent. He checked his gauge. Plenty of air. He could explore one, maybe two, depending on how deep they ran.
But where to start?
He shone his light across the opening of each in turn, and his breath hitched when he hit the one directly across from him. Was that a marker flagging the tunnel entrance?
He moved toward it, across the lake, water rising over his ankles, creeping up his legs.
“Cole,” Kayden’s voice garbled over the radio, faint and distant.
“Kayd?”
More garble.
Bailey’s voice cut in. “Cole’s exploring a cave.”
More garble.
“Roger that. I’ll tell him,” Bailey replied.
A spurt of garble.
“Cole?”
“Yeah, Bay?”
“Kayden says the storm is picking up speed. She recommends we start heading up in fifteen.”
“Roger that. I just need ten to check something out.”
He descended into the depths of the lake, knowing straight across would be the fastest route to the marker, though he didn’t exactly want to think about what creatures might be sharing the dark water with him.
Reaching the other side, he climbed from the water onto the dry patch of land and grabbed hold of the flag. “I’ve got a marker flagging one of the tunnel entrances down here.”
“You think Liz and Nikolai left it?”
“That’d be my guess.”
“Great. Leave it and we can check it out after the storm passes.”
He shone his light down the tunnel. “It doesn’t look long. I’m going to take a cursory glance.”
“Time’s running short, Cole.”
“Give me five. If I don’t see anything, I’ll turn back.” No sense coming this far and not see what they were dealing with.
“Don’t push it.”
“Five and I turn back.”
He crept forward, once again sliding his tanks through the cramped space before him. Twenty feet in, the tunnel split, and a second marker flagged the right branch entrance.
He took it to its sudden end. Lowering his tanks until he felt solid ground, he released them and wriggled out. He panned his torch and his eyes widened in awe.
Leaving the markers in place, Cole retraced his path to the first entrance, where he found Bailey waiting on the other end of the guide rope.
Landon and Piper had joined her.
“You took long enough,” Landon said.
“I found it.”
“What?” Bailey’s eyes grew wide inside her mask.
“The church, just as Elma described, in the heart of the system.” In theory it had sounded remotely plausible, but seeing it intact and frozen in time . . . it’d been awe-inspiring.
“And the icon?” Bailey asked.
“No time.”
“Speaking of time.” Landon tapped his dive watch. “Kayden said the storm’s pressing in fast.”
37
Cole breached the surface of the water to gale-force winds.
The North Star rocked, tossed by the burgeoning waves cresting over the sides, sloshing water across their path.
He yanked off his mask and handed Gage his equipment. “Thanks, man.”
Going below, he changed into dry clothes and headed for the galley, the boat rocking as he trekked the narrow corridor.
He slid into the bench beside Bailey, who had also changed into dry attire.
“Don’t keep us waiting, man,” Landon said.
Cole exhaled. “Where to start?” He’d seen his share of amazing things, but . . . a church preserved through time a hundred feet beneath the sea. “It was literally like the canyon swallowed the church whole. Debris from the island must have settled on top, encapsulating it, if you will. Then the sea and its creatures went to work incorporating it into their world. The outer shell is covered with coral and anemone in a reef-like structure. The church itself is filled with air, as is the entry chamber where I located the first marker. The church’s contents appear untouched. The only water inside the system is a large underground lake in the primary chamber and it’s held in check by a series of tunnels, limiting it to the outer rim.”
Bailey angled to face him better. “I know you didn’t have long, but did you see anything? Can you describe any of the interior?”
Piper handed him a cup of coffee. “Thanks.” He took a sip, letting it warm him as the storm raged on outside.
“I didn’t see much, but there was a long, narrow table, tilted a bit to one side. I think one of the legs was broken.”
“Most likely the altar,” Bailey said, leaning in closer, her attention riveted.
He couldn’t wait to see her reaction when she saw it firsthand, to watch the wonder dance in her eyes and spread across her lovely face.
“Anything else?” she asked.
It was hard to focus with her so close and her attention so fixed on him. It almost inspired hope to rise within him, but he knew better. She’d already made up her mind and he didn’t factor in the decision. “A structure, sort of like a long wooden wall toppled on its side. I only had a moment, but it held a series of images and carvings, some appearing to have jarred loose. Very intricate work.”