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The sun blinded me off the water.
Curiosity itched, shoving back my horror at being back on the ocean and the sorrow just waiting to drown me. “What does she see?”
Jack shot a look my way. “One of these days, I swear I’m gonna have her tested.”
“Excuse me?”
“Nerida.” He laughed as a dolphin suddenly launched itself out of the water in the exact location Neri had pointed at. “She always does this.”
“Does what?”
“Seems to hone in on wherever Sapphire and her pod are.” He pressed harder on the accelerator lever, making us skim over the water. “But it’s not just the damn dolphins. It’s the whales and the turtles, the migrating humpbacks and the octopus. She even seems to know where we’ll find saltwater crocs when we’re tasked with providing new data on their locations.”
“Has she ever told you how she does it?” I wiped away a droplet of sweat from my temple, grateful for the shade of the cabin and dreading going out on deck where the sun beamed relentlessly.
“Nope. She just says she has a nudge. A little push deep in her belly.”
“You sound jealous.”
“I am.” Jack laughed. “Don’t get me wrong. Anna and I are very open-minded. We’re fully self-funded by grants and other projects given to us by universities and researchers, and we’ve come across our fair share of unique and interesting people. We even travelled to Southeast Asia when Neri was eight to learn from the Bajau people. Some of them can hold their breath for up to thirteen minutes.”
My eyebrows shot up. “That’s impossible.”
“That’s what we thought. But then we went and trained with them. Their tribe has spent so much time in the sea that their bodies have adapted. They have much larger spleens than most and spend up to eight hours a day freediving. We wanted to learn how to protect ourselves if our oxygen tanks ran dry or if something happened while we were underwater. What we found was a way of life that embraced things that shouldn’t be possible –a way of life that is slowly going extinct, unfortunately—and it opened my eyes that just because we’re all human, it doesn’t mean we don’t have different adaptations that make us uniquely qualified.”
I mulled over what he said, trying to picture people who could swim underwater for so long. But Neri laughed as a dolphin broke the ocean and spun in the air, sending a wash of sun-gleaming droplets over the deck.
My heart squeezed.
Trying to ignore the annoying kick, I forced myself to focus on Jack again. “How long can you hold your breath for?”
Jack slowed the boat, quietening the purr to a gentle putter. “On a good day, just over three minutes.”
“Damn.”
“But that hasn’t come easy. That’s come from a lot of training and daily dedication.” He winked. “Anna can do over four minutes.” Cutting the engine completely, he stood from the captain’s chair and pulled on a baseball cap with the whale tail symbol I guessed was his business logo. “And Neri? Well, I call her my little fish for a reason.”
“How long can she hold it?”
“Five.” Brushing past me, he strode out of the captain’s cabin and headed to the front of the boat. Anna smiled in welcome, and Neri waved at the dolphins.
A sudden wash of loss clutched me around the throat.
They were so happy together. So safe and alive.
My eyes strayed to the turquoise sea, unable to fight the images of my parents, sister, and cousin floating underneath...nibbled and bloated.
Fuck, stop.
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I willed the stinging in my eyes to fade.
It’d only been two days, but I was sick of the heaviness of grief. Sick of the cloying stickiness of tears that never left me alone.
I just wanted to wake up and find this was all a nightmare. To wake in the hills where we’d been hiding and hug my family, just like Jack hugged his.
“You’re safe, Aslan. I promise the boat won’t sink.” Jack’s voice ripped my head up. I blinked back everything I couldn’t survive and went to join them.
Clearing my throat, I braced myself. “You brought me out here to work. So...put me to work.”
He studied me for a moment before nodding and pointing at my cast. “You can’t get wet. Therefore, you’re stuck on deck. There’s an area of coral below us that’s becoming a hybrid reef. That means parts have been lab-grown in a new venture to replace the dying Great Barrier Reef with a more robust coral that will hopefully withstand warmer sea temperatures. They were transplanted here a few months ago, and it’s up to us to see how the natural reef and fishes are interacting with the lab-grown coral.”
My eyes widened.
I had absolutely no idea any of that was possible.
For all my education, I’d never spent so much time around someone who not only held such passion for their calling, but held so much knowledge too.
