Rhys, who had stayed at the bottom on the other side of the pool, searched for the source of the sound. The others watched him from the top of the rock.

After some searching in the back of the buggy, he turned and held up, not one, but two cellphones.

Odessa left the satellite equipment at the top of the rock and careened down to Rhys to confirm what she already knew. Neither Donny or Bob, had their phones with them. For whatever reason, both of them had left them here at camp.

A chill went through her, and as she turned to look at the lone dive line, still going down into the water, she wondered if something bad had happened to all three of their missing friends.

“We need to go after Chaser,” Odessa told Rhys and Triss once they got back to the bottom of the rock with the satellite equipment.

Triss checked her watch. “We still haven’t finished off-gassing.”

“That doesn’t mean we can’t go in early,” Odessa replied. “It just means we have to decompress for longer.”

Triss hesitated.

“It’s not like them to leave their phones here,” Rhys added.

Nico was eyeing Hoots, who looked like she was still asleep. “What if her grandson did something to them?”

Triss held up her hands in disbelief. “What?! What would he do to them?”

“I dunno. I just know something is off here,” Nico replied.

“Okay, okay, hold on, you guys are overreacting. Chaser’s missing, and from what you’ve told me that’s normal for him. That said, it probably is about time we go in and look for him. But to do that you all need to be level-headed. As for your other two friends, they just left their phones here. Unlikely for both of them, sure, but not impossible, maybe they left in a rush and stuff was lying about so Hoots tidied things up. Kevin might have been on a tight schedule or something.”

Odessa nodded. Triss’s argument made sense, and yet, Nico had a point too. Something didn’t feel right. But feelings weren’t always accurate. She’d had pre-trip jitters before, and things had always worked out. Except this wasn’t pre-trip. This was right in the middle of one.

“I think we need to get Chaser and make sure he’s fine. Tie him to a damn tree or something so he doesn’t wander off, and then get Hoots to take us to Donny and Bob,” Rys said.

The others agreed.

“Alright then,” remarked Triss, “Rhys, you do the dive calculations, everybody else get your gear, then double check Rhys numbers and make sure they work for you. And we’ll pack some extra air on this dive, just in case.”

“What about Hoots?” Nico asked. His eyes hadn’t left the old woman.

But as he spoke, she stirred.

“Mmm?” She rubbed her eyes, sat up, and looked around. Spotting them she commented, “Sorry, I must have dozed off. I wasn’t keeping you all waiting was I?”

“Oh, not at all.” Nico shook his head. Odessa was amazed at how quickly that friendly smile had returned to his face, almost as if no suspicions had been discussed.

“Listen, Hoots,” Triss started. “We’re a bit worried about Chaser so we’re going to do a dive just to check where he is and bring him back, okay? And I think it’s best if you stay here for this one.”

“That’s no problem, dearie. I’m still quite tired from lunch anyway.”

Odessa didn’t remember actually seeing Hoots eat anything apart from the coffee. She must have had her lunch before they surfaced.

They gathered up their gear. The wetsuits, while still wet, were nice at warm from the sun. It was only a matter of minutes before everyone was geared up, except Rhys who was studying the dive tables and comparing them with the computer.

“What are we diving on, Triss?” Rhys confirmed.

Triss paused. “Chaser wasn’t supposed to go deeper than 30 metres, and he took Nitrox 32%, so we’ll dive the same.”

Rhys nodded. “Time limit?”

“Let’s plan for a bottom time of 2 hours, but we’ll turn around before the 45 minute mark, and add some extra gas on top of that.” Triss glanced at the others. There were no objections.

“Anything I can do to help, dearie?” Hoots asked from her perch on the lawn chair.

Triss smiled coolly. “No thanks, we’re alright.”

“Can you show me which cave he went into on the map?” Odessa asked Hoots.

“Certainly!”

Out of the corner of her eye, Odessa noticed Triss stiffen, but she didn’t say anything.

Rhys commented though. “We just have to follow his dive line, Dess.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Do we? Are you sure he’ll be at the end of it?” Odessa asked him, worried there was a chance Chaser had wandered away from it.

Rhys hesitated.

“Better safe than sorry,” Triss added, nodding at Odessa to get the information.

They were soon back in the water. The sun was almost directly overhead now and the pool looked deceptively safe.

They dropped down, following Chaser’s dive line until they reached the tunnel. It looked reasonably wide but it curved around sharply, which meant they couldn’t see all the way through.

As the smallest, Odessa was tasked with going first. That way she could provide intel to the others before they followed. Chaser had fit so it was certain that the girls could, but both Rhys and Nico were bigger than Chaser, so Odessa would need to judge for their sizes.

The walls were close enough that she could have reached out and touched them on both sides, if she’d wanted to. She tried not to think about the fact that if anything went wrong now she couldn’t just shoot up to the surface. The only way out was back through the curving tunnel. Chaser’s dive line added an extra hazard and she had to be careful not to get caught on it. She kept her movements slow and smooth too, so as not to stir up much silt. Small brown and green floaties circled in the small eddies created by her hands.

She twisted her way around the corners easily. It would be doable for the others but Nico especially, might need to rearrange his tanks.

‘How’s it look?’ Triss asked in her mind.

Odessa tried to send her an image back. Not certain how much of her visual thoughts Triss could see, Odessa added, “Plenty of room but the guys might want to unmount. Watch the dive line.”

‘You through yet?’

‘Almost,’ Odessa replied as she emerged from the horizontal shaft to find herself in a vertical one. ‘I found another hole.’

Beneath her the floor dropped away into darkness she could not see the end of. Chaser’s dive line disappeared down into it. How far did it go? Several more tunnels lined the walls around her, like a maze inside holey cheese. It would be easy to get lost. The width of the shaft was large enough to fit maybe two divers side by side. A little bigger than she could reach across.

She waited until she saw Triss’s face appearing in the tunnel before she dropped down a little to make room for the others. Her gaze slowly followed Chaser’s dive line into the darkness.

‘You got any read on Chaser yet?’ she thought to Triss.

‘No. Nothing. He might be masking though.’

‘I don’t think he would do that if he knew we were looking for him. I mean, okay, he might, if he wanted to sneak up on us, but I don’t think he’d do it here in the tunnels. It’d be too dangerous.’

‘It was dangerous in the main shaft. What if you’d shot to the surface fast in response.’

‘Well he did have my foot so-’

‘-So if you’d inflated your BFD or dropped weight you might have dragged him up with you.’

‘I think he was reading my mind. I think he’d know we’re worried now.’

‘He’s probably not reading. You do have to focus to make it work,’ Triss explained.

‘Does it use a lot of energy?’ Odessa asked. She knew witches had a limited supply of magical energy. If they used up too much magic too fast it could be dangerous.

Triss dropped down beside her as Rhys emerged from the tunnel.

‘No, it’s not so bad. Maybe if I use it for the whole two hours. Standard commercial infusements are usually designed to operate efficiently though.’

‘WHOA! WICKED!’ Nico’s thoughts filled the whole shaft as he popped out into it. ‘Golly, it’s cramped in here.’

‘Only cause of your fat arse,’ Triss joked back.

Odessa raised her eyebrows as Triss’s improved sense of humor. Then she twisted around and followed the line down. She watched the depth read on her watch.

‘It’d be just like Chaser to disappear into one of these side tunnels,’ Rhys thought tensely.

Odessa stopped at 30 metres. The dive line continued down.

‘Uhh, Triss...’ Odessa looked back up to check where the others were.

Triss was just behind her but she remained silent.

‘Argh, fuck!’ thought Rhys.

‘Maybe he just dropped tied a weight to the end, dropped it here, and went in a side tunnel. It’s got the depth markers so...’ Nico thoughts trailed off.’ It was a nice theory and Odessa appreciated his attempt at optimism, but there was no way that was what had happened.

‘Stay here,’ Triss commanded as she dropped down past Odessa and continued after the end of the dive line.

‘What?’ Odessa thought. She wasn’t going to keep going down was she? On Nitrox 32% she’d run the risk of oxygen narcosis if she went too deep.

‘Stay.’ Triss’s command came back firmly.

Odessa ignored it.

‘Dess!’ Rhys’s voice echoed in her head.

But Odessa followed Triss. Triss was experienced, if she thought it was okay to drop down herself then Odessa could too. The logical part of Odessa knew that thought process was a lie. Just because someone else could didn’t mean she could, especially a witch compared to a human, but the emotional part recoiled against any limitations. She could be the best. She could be just as good as everyone else. She convinced herself their physiological advantages meant nothing.

She nearly crashed into Triss.

Where was the dive line? She couldn’t see it below her. She shook her head. Her damn ears were ringing.

‘I told you to stay.’

Odessa checked her depth gauge. 38 metres. Shit. She should ascend.

But where was the dive line?

Was it just her or was the tunnel getting smaller?

Where was the dive line?

She could see one end. The end that led up. She followed it down with her gaze.

‘Odessa!’

‘Hang on,’ Odessa thought back to her. She just needed a second.

Down. Down. Down. The dive line ended in Triss’s hands. But where did it go after that? As Triss shifted her hands Odessa could finally the see the end, but there was no clip like she was expecting, and no Chaser. There was just a few frayed strands, as if something had torn off the end of the rope.

‘Ascend!’ Triss’s voice penetrated her thoughts again but she barely registered it.

Where was Chaser?

The cave around her blurred. Someone handed her a yellow rebreather. It was Triss trying to get her to switch gases. Was their air in the pony bottle or Nitrox? It must be air but she couldn’t remember. It did bring her current situation back to the forefront of her mind. How long had she been at this depth?

Odessa pushed Triss’s hand away and then headed up. Her vision was spotty. She just needed to get higher. No way was she going to risk swapping rebreathers while she was at risk of passing out.

As she rose, she spotted another tunnel to the side. A more direct one, straight through back into the main shaft. She could see the light on the other side. It looked so close.

She just needed to get back out. Up into the open where she could think, and plan, and breathe. Where was Chaser?

She went for it.

‘Odessa, stop!’

‘Dess!’ Rhys’s voice.

A part of her listened for Chaser’s voice, but it never came. Only echoy darkness surrounded her. And the others thinking her name. But no Chaser. She headed for the light.

It took longer than she thought but eventually she was back in the main shaft, sunlight somewhere up above her. She kicked up toward it.

‘Stop! Decompress!’ her own mind screamed at her. But she just needed a moment in the air. If she just got to the surface for a moment, then went back down fast enough, that was okay. You could do that. That would be fine. Just real quick.

But suddenly she found herself stuck, unmoving, neither up nor down, as if she were swimming against a current. She kicked as hard as she could but she couldn’t move. And then something yanked her down.