Nico introduced them one by one, as they gathered into a group, remembering not only all their names but a little bit about each of them. When he got to Chaser’s name he paused.

They all looked around.

“Where the fuck is Chaser now?” remarked Rhys.

“Probably off chasing something,” quipped Odessa. More seriously she added, “I saw him walk off into the jungle a little while ago.”

“Well,” said their benefactor, “It’s a pleasure to meet you all. Unfortunately I can’t stay too long but Daisy here can help you with anything you need. Best of luck.” And with the click of his fingers he vanished, quite literally.

“Must be a teleporter,” Rhys remarked quietly to the group, and before the old woman could get too close he added, “I didn’t realise our passenger was going to be quite this old. Seems like a bit of a safety risk.”

Very loudly, Hoots replied, “I may look old but I assure you I am well-equipped to handle myself in the water, young man.”

“That’s some awful good hearing you have there,” remarked Nico with that soul-stealing smile.

Hoots squinted at him and then moved her head from side to side the way some animals did when they were trying to get a good image of something. Then she smiled. “All the better to hear the gossip with, my dear.”

Odessa laughed. “I see why they call you Hoots.”

The old woman smiled and nodded very slowly.

Odessa glanced around the group. Triss and Rhys weren’t looking too happy about their new passenger, happy-go-lucky Bob looked like he was trying not to laugh at this turn of events, and poor Donny looked so stunned that he’d forgotten to film any of the meet and greet. Odessa casually tapped her watch. She’d catch the next few seconds for him.

“Well, it is absolutely lovely to meet you.” Nico shook her hand.

“And you.” Hoots sucked in her lips and then licked them as she looked him up and down, “You are a fine specimen, you are.”

“Uh... Thank you.” Nico never lost his smile but it did falter a little as he released her hand.

Odessa tried not to laugh. It looked like grandma had good taste and wasn’t afraid to show it.

Rhys stepped up beside Nico and, all too aware Hoots could hear him, remarked, “You didn’t tell us that the passenger was going to be the benefactor’s grandmother.”

Nico looked like he was struggling to hold his smile. “Uhh..” he waved a hand. “I didn’t know. But it’s fine. He said she has experience. Unfortunately...” He turned to Hoots and in an apologetic voice said, “I think it’s best you come along on tomorrow’s dive rather than this first one; gives us a chance to all get acquainted first.”

“Oh, that’s no problem,” replied Hoots with a similar wave of her hand.

“Aiiiiiiiieee!”

A loud scream echoed though the jungle.

They all looked around for the source of it. It was followed by the sound of a small stream of liquid hitting water which made them all turn toward the pool and then look up.

There, on the far side of the inky abyss, at the top of the pile of rocks, stood Chaser, stark naked, and peeing into the water.

“Ughh.” Odessa turned her eyes away.

“Chaser! What the fuck?”

There were several other expletives thrown his way, which were then followed by a loud splash.

Odessa turned back to see Chaser swimming toward them. He walked out of the pool and then off toward his tent to grab a towel.

Odessa had seen Chaser naked before. They all had, except for Nico, Triss, and Grandma Hoots, that was.

Beside Odessa, Hoots was wearing a thoughtful frown, but when she caught Odessa’s gaze she smiled and then she turned and gave Chaser’s disappearing buttocks an appreciatory whistle.

Odessa laughed. “I like you.”

Hoots grinned. “At least one of you does.” She gave Rhys a pointed look. Then she turned to Odessa and replied, “When you get to my age you don’t waste time beating around the bush, at least not with sex.”

“What do you waste time beating around the bush for then?” Odessa inquired, but she never got an answer.

Chaser had returned with a towel wrapped around his waist and a drink bottle in each hand.

Rhys was holding out his hands in a ‘what the fuck’ kind of motion. Triss did not look happy, Nico looked a little stunned Bob was trying not to die in a fit of hysterics, and Donny finally had his camera out. Odessa switched hers off. She was pretty confident she had caught the entire dive into the pool, although she wasn’t looking forward to editing it later. She would have to though. She couldn’t put Chaser’s sausages and beans on the internet no matter how many people had already seen them; some filtering was going to be required.

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“Chaser, this is Hoots. Hoots, Chaser.” Odessa did a quick introduction.

“Oh, I could just eat you up,” Hoots told him.

Chaser laughed. He took a swig of his drink bottle, then he caught Rhys’ expression. “What?”

“I thought you said you didn’t want to shock our new friends? Also you peed like an hour ago, and we’re about to go swimming in there.”

Chaser shrugged. “We’ve done the introductions. We’re better acquainted now and we’re about to dive in each other’s piss anyway. Plus I had a lot of coffee this morning so now I’m rehydrating. Being dehydrated is how you get the bends.” He thrust the spare water bottle at Odessa.

She scowled, but took it, and drank from it anyway. He wasn’t wrong.

“Riiiiiight,” started Nico. “Shall we do one last gear check then? And go over the plan?”

Hoots wandered among them as they went through the gear list and dive plan. She was surprisingly light-footed and fast for her age. One moment, Odessa would glance up and see her over by Donny, chatting up a storm. The next second she’d be right behind Odessa, with all sorts of personal questions, not that Odessa minded. She freely shared enough of her personal stuff online as it was and Hoots was, as it turned out, quite the hoot. She was also very interested in Odessa’s human heritage.

Donny had been right. It was dark by the time they got in the water.

“Right, we all set?” asked Nico, from the water’s edge.

Everyone was there except for Rhys, who had been looking for something in the giant pile of new equipment for the last ten minutes.

“Oooh, found it! It is here after all!” Rhys exclaimed.

“Found what?” Odessa asked.

He held up three jade necklaces. “Mindwalking infusements.”

“What?”

“They let you talk telepathically,” Chaser explained.

“I know what they are, I just... you want us to use those?” Odessa asked. She wasn’t sure how she felt about other people reading her thoughts. Out of the corner of her eye she observed Nico’s fit figure, made all the more obvious in his tight wetsuit. Yeah, letting the others hear her thoughts was probably not a great idea.

Triss held out a hand for one. “They can be quite useful actually. Expensive though.”

Rhys gave her one then offered one of the other two up for anyone to take.

“I don’t know if you guys want to know what’s in my mind,” Chaser joked with a laugh. Odessa silently agreed with him.

Bob came over on his crutches then. “Surface support will take one. They’ll be distance limited and I’m not sure what effect the water or rocks will have but they do work though walls to some extent and you should be close enough.”

Triss nodded. “As long as we don’t go in any caves or below 30 metres I’d expect that to be in range. You’ve used them before?”

Bob nodded. “Just not for diving.”

Triss turned to Rhys. “You put these on the requested gear list?”

Rhys nodded.

She frowned and then shrugged and put the necklace on. She tucked it inside the neck of her wetsuit so it sat against skin. “Each one of these is probably worth more than that Rovex you’re wearing.”

Rhys seemed surprised. “Really?”

Triss laughed. “What, you didn’t know what you were asking for?”

“Well, I’ve never actually used one, I just thought I’d try my luck. I mean, can you imagine how easy communication would be with these?”

Triss nodded then held out her hand for the other one he held. “It is, when you know what you’re doing.”

Rhys held out the necklace with a sad look. “It can’t be that hard can it?”

Triss started to reply but Bob got there first.

To Triss he said, “They’re probably tightly wound.”

“Tightly what?” asked Rhys.

“Easy to use,” Triss translated. “Mmm...” She still seemed hesitant.

Chaser spoke seriously then. “Yeah but even then, first time using one... and you wanna do it underwater? You’ll hear things and read stuff you didn’t expect and start thinking someone else’s thoughts are your own. It primes you for disorientation, man.” He held out a hand toward Triss. “I’ve used one, I’ll take it.”

“You have?” cried several voices at once.

Chaser nodded but didn’t elaborate further.

“Uhh, how does it work?” Odessa asked nervously.

“Don’t worry,” Nico told her with a smile. “They can only read surface thoughts. As long as you don’t think too loud about anything they won’t be able to hear what you’re thinking.”

“Riiight, just don’t think of pink elephants is that right?”

“Right,” Nico grinned at her.

She was glad he wasn’t wearing one of the necklaces. He was an empath though so he could probably read what she was feeling. She was going be happy once they go into that cold water.

“You will hear our thoughts in your mind though,” Triss told her. “Perhaps it is worth everyone having a go with them out here first so they get a feel for what can be read and what can’t ...”

“Well, Odessa won’t be able to use one to read with anyway,” Chaser reminded her. “We’ll have to send our thoughts to her.”

“Oh, right, I forgot...” Triss blushed and bit her lower lip.

Only witches could use infusements, normally. Odessa’s old university flatmate had once mentioned that there were infusements that humans could use but they had to be specially designed. It wasn’t standard practice.

‘But you probably should get a feel for what it is like to mindtalk before we dive.’ Chaser’s voice was suddenly in her head.

Odessa spun to look at him.

‘Neat huh?’

He hadn’t spoken a word but it was like he had. She nodded.

‘If you do it right you can also create a sort of mind mesh, so everyone can hear everyone.’ His voice was different this time. Still inside her head but instead of feeling like he was whispering in her ear, it was more like she was hearing it from a distance.

‘That’s right.’ Triss’s words this time.

‘Good luck,” thought Bob.

‘Wait, how do I think back?’ Odessa wondered.

‘If you want everyone to hear you then you can project it, just think about who you want to send it to and I’ll take care of the rest,’ Chaser told her. ‘Otherwise you can just think at a person. Think my name and I’ll listen otherwise I’ll keep out of your thoughts, okay. Louder thoughts are easier to hear. Like yelling but in your mind.’

‘Exactly,’ agreed Bob.

‘This is going to take some getting used to,’ thought Odessa, then to test it out, in her head she shouted, ‘CHASER!’

‘Ow! Not so loud,’ he thought back.

‘That was loud?’

‘Yes, it doesn’t need to be that loud. Unless someone is very far away.’

‘Ready?’ Triss asked.

‘Ready,’ came the reply almost like an echo in her mind, or several thoughts at once.

She checked her watch battery, torches, tanks, spare mask, dive knife, all her equipment. Then she double checked Chaser’s equipment, Chaser double checked Rhys, Rhys double checked Odessa. Finally she put her regulator in her mouth and lowered herself down into the water, bracing for that moment when the cool liquid would flow down the neck of her wetsuit and wrap itself around her like a coat.

She faced the shore as she went under. Danny and Hoots were chatting up near the trees, both watching the divers enter the pool. Bob was standing closer to the water with a big stupid grin on his face, waving them good luck. Odessa waved back. And then, a moment later, they were gone.