“Well, yeah. I suppose.” He asked quietly, “You okay?”
“I trained for the sub,” Cally said. “I don’t know how to use one of those.”
“How hard can it be?” He waved Zoey over. “You know anything about these things?”
“Never seen one before,” she said, and hollered across the warehouse. “Anyone familiar with these suits?”
“Me,” said one of Gabe’s thralls, from among the group working. He handed off his light to another man, and approached them.
“We need a crash course in piloting one of those things,” Noah told him.
“A crash course, huh?” the man said dubiously. “Who’s going?”
“I am. I’m Cally.”
He nodded. “I know who you are. I’m Brent. You familiar with these suits?”
“No.”
Brent crossed his arms. “What about ROVs? Done any diving?”
“No.”
“Ever worked a crane? Or a forklift?”
Cally clenched her jaw. “No.”
He sniffed. “Piloted a drone?”
“No,” she said coldly. Then enunciated every word, “I’m starting from scratch.”
“Okay. Zero chance then.” He turned to leave.
“Brent,” Gabe snapped. “Get with the program. Callyisgoing down in one of those things, so your only job now is to get her up to speed, because you’re going with her.”
Brent turned back slowly, gave Gabe a stiff nod, then addressed Cally again. “This isn’t like a video game.” He paused. “Do you play video games?”
“No.”
He threw up his hands. “These suits are equipped with sophisticated hydraulics, manipulators, thrusters and ballast systems. You’ll have near-zero visibility, and even experienced divers become disoriented underwater, let alone a novice. You get a leg stuck between rocks, you’re dead. You fall over in it and can’t get up, you’re dead. You hit something too hard and disable the suit—done.” He narrowed his eyes. “Using those manipulators to do anything other than snap at fish and miss? No way. It’s a million-dollar piece of equipment, and you just can’t do it.”
Cally stepped close. “Who cares how much they cost? We’re not fucking buying them, we’re stealing them. And I don’t need to use the manipulators, becauseyoucan do that. I need to get down there to show you where to go, and you need to do the rest. This is happening, so unlessyouwant to end up dead, you’d better find the right attitude.”
He tilted his head, regarding her like a curiosity. “Just pilot it? No manipulations?”
“Just pilot it. No manipulations.”
“That’ll be hard enough. Every movement is slow and sluggish. Think astronaut in a bulky suit.” He raised an eyebrow. “You ever been to space?”
“No. Have you?”
“You got me there.” He grinned. “So we’re going anyway, huh?”
“Yes. We are.”
He let a whistling breath out between his teeth. “Can you at least parallel park?”
“What the hell has that got to do with it?”
