Page 31

Once I’d changed into my swimsuit and shorty, I descended the stairs at the far end of the pool to find ten tanks and dive vests laid out on the sugar scoop at the stern.

Jennifer and Cody were already there, checking their equipment with the aid of the dive master, a wiry man with a shaved head who looked to be about forty.

“Bonjour,” he greeted me, flashing a smile. “I am Rémy, I will be leading the dive today. I love your—” He gestured to my shorty. “The green—” He kissed his fingers with such gusto, I wondered for a moment whether he was Italian. But no, the accent was definitely French.

“Thanks,” I said. “I’m Audrey.”

“Welcome, Audrey.” He checked his clipboard. “Your dive partner is Laurent.”

I nodded, pleased, as he crossed to the vest on the end. “This is yours,” he said, looking me up and down. “I think the”—he grabbed the weight belt and stared at it, perplexed—“I have lost the word.”

“Weight belt?”

“ Oui, oui . The weight belt I think will be good, but you see.”

Allison appeared at the top of the stairs looking sleek as a seal in her wetsuit with Gisèle and Samira close on her heels in rash guards and bikini bottoms. “All?,” he called out to them.

As he rushed over to get the others sorted, I took a seat on the bench to wait for Laurent so that we could do our buddy check, and Jennifer collapsed next to me.

I’d washed my face and tied my hair back in a braid, but she was just as perfectly made up as usual.

She was going to be a mess after the dive, but to each her own.

“You dive often?” she asked.

“Used to. What about you?”

“I got certified in Turks at Christmas,” she said, zipping up her navy shorty. “But yeah, this will only be my third dive.” She showed me her hand, which was shaking. “I’m kinda jittery.”

Jennifer’s inexperience worried me a little, but if the rest of us were seasoned enough, she’d likely be okay. “Just breathe,” I said. “You’ll be fine.”

“Jennifer’s better than she thinks she is,” Cody said, coming over to join us as he checked his buoyancy control device.

Tyson jogged down the stairs, his eyes hidden behind mirrored aviators. “The swim-through is gonna be epic,” he said with a grin, slapping his brother so hard on the shoulder that he nearly lost his balance. “Hoping we see some sharks.”

“Sharks?” Jennifer asked, her eyes wide.

“Most likely nurse sharks, which are harmless,” I said.

“Just don’t provoke them,” Tyson said, grabbing her knee so quickly she jumped. He laughed. I wanted to punch him, and Jennifer looked like she did too.

We weren’t the only ones. Allison glanced up from her equipment at Tyson’s back, a look of pure hatred crossing her face before she arranged her features into a more accommodating expression.

“We saw a beautiful hammerhead yesterday,” Rémy said, joining us. Clearly, he hadn’t heard Jennifer’s minor freakout. “And a school of eagle rays. There’s a little current that will take us through the Snares, easy.”

“The Snares?” I echoed.

“This is the name of the tunnel through the reef,” Rémy explained.

“Conditions look perfect,” Cody said, casting a glance at the crystal-clear water.

“It’s pretty cool all you guys dive,” I said, taking the bottle of no-fog from Jennifer when she was done rubbing it into her goggles.

Tyson threw an arm around Samira’s shoulders and she gave him a kiss. “Tyson told me he couldn’t marry me if I didn’t dive.”

“What’s up with that guy?” Jennifer asked, staring across the water.

I followed her line of sight to a nearby yacht—gray in tone and smaller than ours but still sizable—where a tall man in black board shorts and a rash guard was standing on the bow with his arms crossed, looking down at us with what appeared to be disdain.

He was wearing sunglasses and I couldn’t fully make out his features, but he definitely seemed displeased.

“That’s Marcel,” Allison answered, her voice low. “One of the developers who’d like to kill us.”

Jennifer spun to face her, a look of alarm on her face. “What’s he doing here?”

A crew member came up behind Marcel with a pair of fins in his hand, and Marcel turned to follow the man, out of our view. “Looks like he’s diving,” Cody commented.

Cody, Tyson, and Allison exchanged a dubious glance. “Seems awfully coincidental,” Allison said.

I had to agree.

“Let’s beat him to it,” Tyson said.

I glanced behind me to see Laurent exiting a crew door under the stairs. Rémy pointed to his pile of gear, and he began checking it as I sidled over to him, my flippers and mask in hand. “We’re partners,” I said.

He smiled, rising as he adjusted his air supply knob. “You will like this dive.” He breathed into the yellow emergency regulator, then shouldered his pack. “It’s one of my favorites.”

His eyes traveled the length of my body as I inserted my arms in the sleeves of my wetsuit and zipped it up. “What?” I asked.

He ran his tongue over his bottom lip. “Just memorizing your wetsuit so I don’t lose you.”

“Shit,” I heard Tyson say. “My O-ring’s broken.”

Laurent and I both frowned as our eyes met. Without the O-ring, air would escape the tank or water would enter it, rendering the regulator inoperable and necessitating an emergency ascent.

“That wouldn’t have been fun to discover in the water,” Cody said dryly.

“This is why we check,” Rémy said calmly. “Don’t worry, I have another pack.”

As he scurried over to fetch the other pack, Tyson pointed a finger at the rest of us. “One of you fuckers trying to knock me off?”

Allison slapped Tyson on the back, her lips curling into a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “If any of us were trying to knock you off, I think we’d do a better job than that.”

It was meant to be funny, but it fell flat.

Rémy handed Tyson the extra pack, and they carefully checked it together as the rest of us found places to sit to slip on our fins and adjust our masks.

Once Tyson was satisfied that his new gear was working perfectly, Rémy came to stand at the back of the boat and whistled for our attention for the pre-dive briefing.

“Today we will dive in St. Barthélemy Natural Reserve. As you can see, the water is very clear, so we will have lots of fun and see lots of fish. Rays, tortues —turtles,” he corrected himself. “And maybe sharks too.”

At this, Jennifer gripped Cody’s arm.

“We will go down here and swim along the reef toward the big rock you see there, then we will go through the Snares to reach the wreck.” Rémy’s English seemed to have improved as he got into his groove. “The little boat—”

“Dinghy,” Jennifer supplied.

“Merci— dinghy —will wait for us on the mooring ball closest to the wreck and we can surface there.”

Nods all around.

“We will have a safety stop for three minutes”—he held up three fingers—“at five meters. If you need to surface early, the dinghy has extra gear and a kit médical . Is everybody ready?”

A smattering of claps and a chorus of “Yes” and “Let’s do this,” and Rémy grinned. “Okay, divers, in the water.”

A splash, then another, and another, as Tyson, Samira, and Gisèle plunged into the water. I looked back at Laurent, pulled my mask down over my eyes, and stepped off the back of the boat.