She leaned on my shoulder. I turned us both so we could watch the horizon. “I know you won’t.”
The beach was no longer visible by the time the boat slowed to a stop. We sat through the safety lecture before they turned us loose. The water was still warm enough to be comfortable, but I felt the chill of the coming season lurking.
“What are we looking for?”
Trinity glanced around at everyone splashing. Fucking adorable in her giant mask. “Let’s get over to the reefs first.”
“All right.”
Beneath us, the new coral reefs rolled out onto the ocean floor. Theywerebeautiful and worth saving. Did that mean they were worth more than Trinity’s safety? No.
Trinity swam toward the highest point, still a good fifteen feet below the surface. If you looked closely, you could vaguely see the shape of the mountain of defunct cars that formed the framework for the restoration project.
Once we were farther away from the rest of the happy swimmers—loud enough it was a miracle any fish stayed near them—I asked her again. “What exactly are we looking for?”
“Anything weird. If they’re using the cars to dump chemicals, there has to be some evidence, right?”
“The flash drive has some videos of barrels.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Not that I would know. You five have kept me so busy I haven’t even had a chance to look at it.”
I shrugged without apology. “No regrets.”
“Well, let’s see what we can find.”
“It’s pretty deep,” I said, taking the camera and slinging it around my chest. “Can you hold your breath that long?”
She nodded. “I think so.”
I grabbed her hand, made sure she took a breath, and dove. The flippers helped us get down faster. Rainbows of fish hovered around the reefs, scattering when we got close. It really was beautiful.
One glance at Trinity told me she loved it. Her eyes were wide through the mask, taking everything in.
The conservation project my Omega was researching had done its job well. It didn’t really look like this entire thing was built on the bones of battered old cars. But if you werelookingfor those shapes, you could see them.
Trinity pulled her hand from mine and swam for the surface to take a breath. I had a bit longer.
I swam toward one of the topmost shapes, seeing a hole in the coral that looked suspiciously like a window.
The camera was right there, so I took a shot through the hole. Light flashed beneath the surface, startling the octopus who’d made the car his home. My apologies, sir.
Swimming to the surface, I took a breath and found Trinity waiting. “Anything?”
“Found what I think is a car. Might have traumatized an innocent octopus in the process.”
She gasped. “You saw one? Lucky. Hopefully he’ll forgive you.”
I laughed. “I’ll help you get down there.”
We dove together. This time I aimed for what might be the back of the car. I pointed when I saw the octopusflyout of the window hole and down the reef away from us. Rin lit up, losing some of her air in an exclamation. He’d come home once we left. We just needed to borrow it.
A high-pitched, excited noise came from Rin. She tugged my hand and pointed to a shadowy line that could be the trunk. Good call, violet.
There was definitely a space in there, but it was too small for the camera. I could barely get my fingers under the ridge. And now I needed to breathe.
We surfaced together. “Stay here,” I told Trinity. “I’ll have to break some coral to see inside, and as that’s illegal, I’ll do it.”
“Are you sure?”