"What kind of shadow was it?" Jareth asked once his mess was cleaned up. "Big, but… could it have been a ship?"

"At the base of the ridge?" Hellen took a sip of her own clear drink. It had the tiniest bubbles floating around in it.

Jareth shrugged. "Something that big?"

"No, I don't think so. I've never seen one that far down, and it didn't move like the hulks do."

Hulks. The engineers would have a field day if they were around to hear her use the word. They were a testy bunch, having built new ships in the last few years — the first every out of recycled metals. They were massive and unwieldy and ran on very small pods of specialized navigators. Because of their size and required skill, they were easy to spot.

If the shadow did go down that far, it would be massive but would move in a rigid line, if it moved much at all. They weren't exactly used as daily transportation ships.

Jareth had read about ferries and cruise ships from the old world. He figured they may be the polar opposite to the hulks.

"Mmm. You mean it moved at all."

Hellen snorted. "Indeed. It did. Not exactly like a bullet or anything, but the thing moved around. It wiggled. It swam."

"You a swimming shadow?"

"No, I wouldn't say the shadow swam, exactly."

Jareth rolled his eyes, more amused than he was annoyed, and took the opportunity to take a few extra bites of the soggy soy noodles. "So, you're saying you are not only looking for fish, you think you found one? I'd like to make sure I'm not hallucinating the conversation we just had."

Hellen took a long drink from her cup, pulling on the straw until she reached the ice at the bottom and left a slurping sound hanging in the air between them. Seeming satisfied that she had gotten every drop she could, she leaned over with her elbows on the table, her face hanging towards the middle of the table. Her eyes bore into Jareth.

He made uncomfortable eye contact until she started speaking.

"This doesn't leave this table, Jareth Markor Asketh. I saw something in the water that officially isn't there, and I've seen it more than once. When I tried to find the notes from the first time it happened…" Hellen leaned back in her seat. "There aren't any notes."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Jareth tilted his head. "Life in the water would be a huge deal."

"You'd think so." Hellen shrugged her shoulders. "My eyes are peeled, and I believe that other divers feel the same way. But what we come back with is exactly what they expect us to come back with — or nothing at all. I've had a couple bad swims recently."

"I don't understand —"

"You aren't supposed to, Jareth. Until recently I did everything I was supposed to. I dove down, collected bones, dirt, pictures, pieces of metal and concrete. I did what we thought the job was once you gave up all the childhood notions. But now some of us know better — now you know better," Hellen's voice rose just a bit as she interrupted him.

"They don't want to find it." He did understand, but didn't really want to. It swirled around in his head like a menace, not stopping for long enough to have a good look at it.

She shrugged. "Things are pretty good for the central government right now." When she finished that sentence, she threw a wink across the table and then stood up and walked away without a second glance. The conversation was over. All sharable information had been shared.

Now he had to figure out what to do with it and how to survive until he was in the water again himself.

The first step was to finish his own lunch and get himself out of the cafeteria.

The conversation hadn't gone on as long as he would have liked. Still, he must have lost his focus for a little while after Hellen left because, by the time he was making his way to the cafeteria door, the room had begun to thin out. A few of the folks that shared his schedule were milling about the hallways sill, having conversations, or had their eyes glued to fobs.

Jareth wondered if he had any messages or emails himself but didn't exactly feel like propping himself up against a wall to check at that moment. The whole scene displayed in front of him reminded him very much of high school — trying to move between classes and see friends, get to a locker, maybe sneak a tiny kiss from a crush or some equivalent. A wave of nostalgia hit as the memories resurfaced, but it didn't take long for the rose-colored feeling to fade and be replaced with reality.

High school hadn't been the best time of his life. It had been a stepping stone to get the job he wanted — the one he had. So instead of finding a second to log in to the system, he continued walked until he got to his assigned office, where he would finish off the day. He would be offered a small air break later. He could use that time to zone out in the ether. At least then he could do it alone instead of the discourties strangers who couldn't keep their arguments to themselves.

Jareth softly rolled his eyes and focused his attention on the ground underneath him to try and limit distractions. A few more minutes, and he would be back at work, printing stickers and coming up with a plan for his next dive. He only had, what, two more weeks?

As he entered his workspace, he let a sigh escape him. He often wished he was in a smaller pod. One that gave him shorter rotations, or longer time on the same job, instead of so much busywork that he didn't want to do. But diving generally wasn't skilled enough to warrant it and was in high demand. Every lab across the new 4 continents had large pods that cycled exactly the same way his did. So if he wanted in the water, this was his only ticket.

He sucked it up, as always, and let his body go into autopilot for the rest of the afternoon.