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The sea was the perfect temperature, refreshing but warm enough on the surface that it shouldn’t be terribly cold down below.

I felt a shiver of excitement as I inserted my regulator in my mouth and sank into the calm blue water.

One of the things I loved most about diving was the inability to think of anything other than the present moment, something I was especially looking forward to today.

Beneath the water with masks, packs, and wetsuits, it became difficult to tell everyone apart, but Laurent stayed by my side as we descended as a group.

Like most of the guys, he was wearing a black rash guard and face mask, but his red shorts stood out, so he was easy to keep track of as we began to swim toward the reef.

The water was deep near the boat, but so transparent I could easily make out the sandy bottom.

I felt powerful and free as I moved through the water, my fins propelling me, breathing in and out rhythmically.

Almost immediately, Laurent nudged me and pointed beneath us, where I saw a four-foot-long nurse shark swimming slowly through the depths, paying no attention to us.

I pointed it out to Allison as we continued on our way, hoping Jennifer hadn’t seen it.

Up ahead, the reef rose from the ocean floor like a city in the desert, the coral in vibrant shades of purple, yellow, and brown, some of it shaped like leafless trees, some like bushes, some like brains.

A school of striped angelfish mingled with fat black fish at the edges of an outcropping of what looked like giant undersea mushrooms. I spotted rainbow-colored parrot fish, and deeper in the reef, a grouper that had to weigh two hundred pounds.

I’d never seen one so big. A turtle at least three feet in diameter sailed peacefully past, gazing at us curiously before taking off into the reef, and Samira pointed out a spiny Caribbean lobster backed into a clump of tubular coral.

I could hardly believe our luck. The dive would have been successful with these sightings alone, and we’d only just begun.

Coral rose up around us and fish darted into crevices as we entered the swim-through, the reef tightening around us.

The visibility was incredible, the sunlight filtering through the turquoise sea to illuminate the underwater world as we passed weightlessly through the reef.

We moved slowly, taking time to appreciate the colors and textures, the little silver and orange fish that flitted between the veiny sea leaves, the fluttering fingers of sea anemone and ubiquitous iridescent parrot fish.

Allison pointed out a pair of gorgeous eagle rays far below us, their spots rippling as their giant fins undulated, kicking up sand along the bottom.

The water grew cloudier, which was odd, given how far above them we appeared to be, but it was hard to determine depth in the water, and the rays could have been closer than I imagined.

The visibility continued to decrease, the coral above us shutting out much of the sunlight as the water grew more and more opaque. I didn’t know what was going on, but Rémy continued without looking back, so I kept swimming.

I thought I heard the ping of a tank-banger coming from somewhere behind me, and I turned back to Laurent, who had also turned.

There was a blond swimmer behind him—it was too milky and crowded in the water to tell whether it was Jennifer or Samira—regardless, she didn’t seem concerned.

Someone’s pack hit my shoulder as they passed, but the water was so cloudy that I could hardly make out their fins in front of me, much less determine who it was.

I felt my heart rate quicken at the changing conditions and reminded myself to breathe evenly. Rapid breathing burned oxygen. I checked my gauge console. I had plenty of oxygen left. Everything was okay. It was just murky.

Very murky.

After a few long minutes, the coral opened up around me and I saw the slanted deck of a submerged watercraft so close ahead of me that I almost swam headlong into it.

We’d reached the shipwreck, but the visibility was so poor that I couldn’t ascertain which part of the boat I was looking at.

Nor could I distinguish who was who as the other divers poured out of the Snares and dispersed around the wreck.

I looked back for Laurent’s red shorts, but everything appeared blue in the deep water.

Was the diver ahead of me Rémy? He was too big to be Rémy, I realized as I caught up, and when he turned back toward me, his features were unfamiliar. I sucked in a gulp of oxygen as a bolt of adrenaline shot through me, but before I could be sure of what I’d seen, he was gone.

For a moment I lost which way was up, and I grabbed on to a corroded railing until I could orient myself, pushing down my panic as I searched for Laurent among the fins and masks in the swirling sand. Who was that man? Or was I suffering from nitrogen narcosis, seeing things that weren’t there?

No. I wouldn’t let myself think like that. I was agitated, but I wasn’t hallucinating. That man was real, and I was okay. Laurent had said this wreck was a popular diving spot, it was entirely possible another group was down here.

I spotted what looked like red shorts and released the railing to reach out and tug on Laurent’s arm, but when the diver turned, it was Cody.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and spun to see Laurent, finally.

I breathed a sigh of relief as he flashed the OK symbol.

I gave him the so-so hand motion, gesturing to the water around us.

He nodded, motioning for me to calm, his eyes never leaving mine as he breathed in sync with me until my pulse returned to something like normal.

I pointed up, and he nodded, indicating the other divers scattered around the wreck.

I heard another tank-banger, this one louder, and Laurent and I both looked around for the source.

We swam toward the sound, converging on Jennifer, who was holding tightly to the mast of the ship, her air bubbles coming much too fast. I hovered close by as Laurent did the same check with her that he’d done with me.

Once he’d calmed her, he pointed to the two of us and indicated we should hold on to the pole and stay there.

I gathered he was going to look for Rémy so he could take us to the surface before Jennifer passed out or made any dumb mistakes.

Cody swam over to us as Laurent glided away, immediately going to work to calm Jennifer. Gisèle appeared out of the murk, followed by Samira, who both grabbed on to the mast too, clearly nervous.

It was only two minutes before Laurent returned, but it felt like two hours.

He pointed up, and my anxiety began to ease as we rose toward the surface.

By the time we paused for our five-meter safety stop, I was feeling silly for getting so freaked out.

I knew better. Anxiety caused mistakes. The best thing a diver could do in any situation was remain calm.

Once our three minutes were up, we rose toward the light, surfacing into the full glare of the afternoon sun like waking from a nightmare.

The swell was mild, the skies blue, the faintest breeze blowing over the surface of the azure water, no sign above of the turmoil beneath.

Our yacht bobbed on the horizon, a monster of the seas.

Two of the male navy-shirted crew members I recognized from before leaned over the side of the dinghy to grab our hands as we emerged awkwardly with our giant packs from the water, once again susceptible to gravity.

I let Jennifer, Gisèle, and Samira go up first, pulling off my fins and handing them up before I grabbed the ladder.

As my feet struck the bottom rung, I realized my legs were shaking.

One of the crew members radioed to the yacht to send another tender as I dumped my pack on the pile with the others and collapsed onto the inflated side of the dinghy, pulling off my mask.

Jennifer was still visibly upset, her hands trembling as she untangled the strap of her mask from her matted hair, her makeup streaked down her face.

“It’s okay,” I said, sitting next to her. “You’re okay.”

“That was really scary,” Gisèle muttered.

“I thought I heard a tank-banger in the Snares,” I said. “Was it one of you?”

Everyone shook their heads. “Did anybody see Tyson?” Samira asked, her eyes concerned.

“I saw him with Rémy,” Jennifer said.

“Me too,” Gisèle said. “Or I thought I did, it was really cloudy down there.”

Samira nodded, relieved. “I lost him.”

“What do you mean, you lost him?” Cody asked Samira as he came over the side of the boat.

“We were at the back and he kept swimming off by himself—”

“Like he always does,” Cody grumbled, pushing up his mask as he sat next to her.

“It makes me crazy,” Samira agreed. “This is why I don’t like to partner with him, but—” She shrugged with a sigh.

“I tried to make him keep up, but I was afraid to leave everyone. Every time I turned back, he was there, but then it got so cloudy, I couldn’t see.

I was scared and I had to keep going forward.

Then in the shipwreck, I was looking for him, but I found you guys instead. ”

Laurent climbed the ladder with urgency, ripping off his mask as he boarded the boat. “What the fuck?” he demanded of Cody.

Everyone’s heads snapped toward him, startled. The fact that Laurent was usually so even-keeled made his sudden outrage that much more shocking.

“You abandoned your dive partner to confront another diver not in our group,” he continued, hurling his pack onto the pile.

“Chill, man,” Cody said. “I didn’t abandon her, I was right there.”

“You never leave your dive partner, and you never confront another diver under the water. It’s dangerous. If you have a problem, figure it out once you surface.” Laurent shook his head, water dripping from his curls as he collapsed on the side of the dinghy next to me. “What were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t,” Cody said, holding up his hands. “I’m sorry, man. My bad.”

Laurent swallowed, and I could feel his biceps tense against my arm before he nodded, accepting Cody’s apology. “Okay. Just…don’t ever do that again.”

Cody put an arm around Jennifer, who was still shaking. “Sorry, babe,” he said. “You did great.”

Jennifer nodded weakly, putting on a brave face, but after today, I’d be shocked if she ever dove again.

Gisèle raised her brows at Cody. “Who did you confront?”

“That asshole Marcel was down there muddying the water to ruin our dive,” Cody grumbled.

So that was who I’d seen down below.

“Is that why it was so cloudy?” Samira asked.

Everyone looked at Laurent, who shook his head. “I don’t know. Cody is right. It could have been him. But also maybe a current.”

He bit his lower lip as he gazed toward the dinghy hurtling over the water toward us from Sea Ray .

When it was close, one of the crew members started our engine and backed off the mooring ball, the water slapping against the side of the boat as we moved aside to let the other dinghy have our place.

“They have enough oxygen for twenty more minutes, but Rémy told me they’d be up in five,” Laurent shouted in French to the other boat.

The captain saluted him, and we puttered away, our speed increasing until we were skipping over the tops of the waves toward the giant yacht lurking on the horizon.