AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Save me some of that ouzo,” a gruff voice said. After a pause, the man laughed and spoke again, this time from the other side of the bow. “Fuckyou.”
The footsteps receded and Ronan marked the time on his dive watch. While he waited, he untied the rope looped around his waist and grasped onto the hook on oneend.
He swam a few feet away from the boat and tried to gauge the force and trajectory necessary to hit one of the bow’s metal railings. He was on his fifth attempt — casting out the rope, listening to the clink and miss, pulling it back through the water to try again — when the hook finally caught on therailing.
He held onto the rope and sank under the surface, his eyes searching for the lights that marked Julia, Nick, and Braden’s position. He found them right away only a few feet from where he’d leftthem.
He flashed his own light to make sure they could see him. “We’re clear and tied on,” he said into the comms system. “One guard so far, and I don’t know when he’ll be back, so be quick and keep itquiet.”
Their lights rose toward him like fireflies. He waited until they’d reached his position and surfaced withthem.
They pulled off theirmasks.
“Everybodygood?”
Theynodded.
“Let’swait.”
They treaded water in silence. When footsteps sounded on the bow again, Ronan checked his watch: twenty minutes since the lastcheck.
He held up two fingers, then a fist to indicate that the guards were working in twenty-minute intervals ondeck.
The guard wasn’t talking to anyone this time, and Ronan held his breath as the footsteps paused at the edge of the bow. The scent of cigarette smoke drifteddownward.
The motherfucker was stopping for a smokebreak.
Ronan looked at Julia, watching her for signs of fatigue, but she seemedokay.
A cigarette butt landed in the water a few feet from Ronan’s position and the guard’s footsteps moved around to the other side of the bow, disappearing toward the back of theboat.
Ronan held out the line for Braden, who would climb first to keep the deck clear while everyone elseascended.
He stripped off his mask and oxygen tank, then kicked off his flippers. He reached for the rope as the gear sank through the water and started climbing, using his bare feet as leverage on the side of theboat.
He was aboard the boat less than two minuteslater.
Nick followed suit and Ronan handed the rope toJulia.
“Just drop everything?” sheasked.
He heard the fear in her voice, and he understood it. Once they dropped the scuba gear, there was no way off the Elysium without one of the small motorboats attached theyacht.
But they’d been over it a hundred times, and there was no other way. It would be too difficult to climb with the gear. More importantly, they had no place to stash it on board the Elysium, and leaving it in plain sight wasn’t an option for obviousreasons.
“Just drop it,” he said. “It’ll be okay. You’ve got the rope and you’ll be on the boat in notime.”
She hesitated, water beading on her face, and he wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms, kiss the salt from her lips, and tell her that she wassafe.
Except he couldn’t tell her that, because it would be a lie. It had been a lie since the moment they’d entered thewater.
She dropped her face masl. Her oxygen tank went next, followed by theflippers.
“Remember,” Ronan said, “climb as fast as you can before your arms getfatigued.”
They’d practiced, but only on the smaller boat they’d been using for their dives. The Elysium’s bow was four times as high off thewater.
She grabbed onto the rope and hung for a few seconds before her feet made contact with the bow. Then she started moving, surprisingly fast, pulling herself hand over hand up therope.
