Page 46 of Buck (Diver Downeast #2)

Bobbie looked so beautiful, in complete control as she gazed off toward the horizon with her dark hair whipping around her. Her skin, even from this distance, looked sea-kissed; her stance powerful and confident.

An ocean goddess, that’s what she was.

Her brothers, on the other hand—as Buck reluctantly turned his viewfinder—looked anything but comfortable.

They were scrunched down in the cockpit, as close to the entrance below as they could get without actually being inside.

Neither had good coloring, and Buck couldn’t help but hope they were both feeling the full effects of sea-sickness.

They’d have to lean over the side to puke, and one good wave might…

No. He shouldn’t wish either one of the pricks death-by-sea. That would be too easy. They needed to be taken into custody and thrown in jail to suffer for many years, after all they’d put Bobbie through.

If they’d been normal human beings, Bobbie would have gone off to college; studied what she’d wanted, and come back to Orono to enjoy home ownership and…

Buck. Too true. If she’d lived the life she’d been meant to, Buck never would have signed up with the Coast Guard.

He probably would have worked happily at his father’s mill for the duration, both before and after he and Bobbie finally married.

A pretty picture, but only in Buck’s imagination. None of that had happened, and it was now time for the perpetrators of that miscarriage of justice to face the heat.

“Yup. That’s her.”

Buck reluctantly lowered the scope. He wanted to linger on her visage, but he didn’t want either of her brothers seeing the evidence that someone was following. Which didn’t mean, however, that he wouldn’t want to deploy the spy glass again and again to make sure Bobbie remained okay.

Of course, reasonable thinking had him questioning what the pair could do to her at sea? If they harmed her in any way, they wouldn’t have a pilot, and neither of those landlubbers was capable of sailing her boat.

That fact alone should keep her safe, at least until those awaited patrol boats showed up and had the Small Dream heaving to.

With nothing much else to do, and no floor space in which to pace, Buck tried to get comfortable again in one of the captains’ chairs, but he was just too antsy.

“I see you need a task,” Tabitha said from where she sat, one hand in Spencer’s while she navigated as if it were second nature. “Why don’t you help me check out this thing’s gadgets?”

“Sure,” Buck agreed. Anything to distract himself.

“On the console to the far right, you’ll see a button that says ‘cameras’ and a switch below it that toggles between a front and a rear view. Why don’t you give them both a try?”

Buck hit the button, and a picture appeared on a small screen in front of him. It was grainy, but he could see a few fish swimming around. He looked at the toggle and saw it was on “front”.

“Your bow camera seems to be working, although it might need its optics cleaned or tweaked,” he told her. “Let me see what we have to the rear.”

He worked the switch again, and…

Blank screen.

Just to make sure, he flicked the switch back and forth a few more times, but still got nothing.

“Your rear camera is out,” he told Tabitha.

She shrugged. “Not a big deal. I rarely use either of them unless I need to record footage to document something. I’m more of an eye’s-on kind of person.

More importantly, are my robotic manipulator arms operable?

There are four. I don’t want you to fully deploy any of them since we’re underway and the forward motion might damage them, but if you could see if they’ll activate, that would be helpful. ”

Buck examined the blank viewing screen as well as the keypad and joystick that would work each of the arms, then gave the system power.

The screen in front of him lit up with four squares, one for each appendage, and it seemed that at least the robotic eyeballs were all working.

“You have a visual from each manipulator,” Buck told her.

“That’s great,” she answered happily. “We’ll have to wait to see if all the robotics work when we’ve stopped our momentum, but having a confirmation that they’re hooked up is a positive sign.”

Buck agreed, then because he’d run out of tasks, he took his time looking over the rest of the controls, memorizing where everything was. He didn’t foresee a time where he’d have to pilot the sub, since it was Tabitha’s baby, but it was always a good idea to be fully prepared.

“Why don’t you have another look at Bobbie,” Tabitha finally suggested after he’d run out of things to keep himself occupied. “I’ve positioned us beside her, just not too close.”

Buck had been itching to do just that, but hadn’t wanted to appear too eager.

He went over to the periscope, raised it, then turned it to port and zoomed in.

This time, Bobbie was in the cockpit alone, looking far more comfortable at the helm since her brothers had clearly gone below. He wondered, since their crafts were adjacent, if there was any way to signal to her that he was here?

“Tabbi, Bobbie is alone on deck right now,” he relayed hopefully. “Is there any way to angle the sun off the lens of the periscope to signal to her that we’re here?”

“I can do you one better than that,” Tabitha answered with a grin. “Did I mention that this baby is an older model? On the mast, there are actual blinker lights specifically designed to send out Morse Code.”

Buck recalled seeing something labeled “blinkers”.

He located the button quickly. “This?” he pointed and asked.

“Yup. All you have to do is aim the mast using the periscope controls, then hit the button to cause light pulses, either long or short pushes depending upon whether you want a dot or a dash. Give it a try, and keep your eyepiece engaged so you’ll know if she sees you.”

Buck held his breath, put his eye up to the scope, then hit the button after aiming it at Bobbie. depressing it for a long hold that meant “look at me”.

He hoped she’d notice it before either of her brothers emerged from their hidey-hole.

“Come on, come on,” he prompted out loud, knowing Spence and Tabitha would understand his fervency.

Just when he thought he should give up, he saw Bobbie stiffen, like someone had virtually tapped her on the shoulder.

Slowly, she turned around and tipped her head.

Buck’s heart pounded harder as she squinted directly into his eyepiece.

He then gave her a signal she couldn’t mistake.

One, four, three.

Bobbie’s mouth screwed up in consternation, and Buck repeated the signal, hoping to differentiate the sub’s flashes from the sun that he knew danced across the sparkling waves.

One, four, three .

Within seconds, the most beautiful smile Buck had ever seen, broke across Bobbie’s face…

…and she blew him a kiss.