Free Diver Down (Mercy Watts Mysteries) by A.W. Hartoin Page B

why I’m worried.” I put the reg in my mouth, but found I couldn’t make myself fall backwards. It’s so unnatural, falling backwards on purpose. Mauro shook his head and pushed my forehead with his finger and there I went. Under the water in a rush and then right back up again. Awesome.  
    Mauro came in and one by one we went down the guide rope to the bottom, forty feet down. Ten minutes later we were all exploring an open sandy area surrounded by high coral walls. It was breathtaking in its grandeur. I felt like I was outside myself on another planet. There was a whole world down there. One that was totally unconcerned about us. Mauro led us through our lessons, basically the same stuff we’d done in the morning. We all succeeded and then we fanned out to explore. I followed Lucia and Graeme around the perimeter. Discreetly, I hope. Mauro stayed close, but he had a lot of us to watch.  
    A school of little box-shaped fish went under me and I hovered around a clump of sea anemones and coral, watching them feed on lacy fan coral. Dixie swam up and pointed. It took me a second, but I finally saw something odd moving slowly along the ocean floor. It was bulbous and opalescent with narrow fins lining the side of its body. Oh, a squid. I looked back to signal to Lucia. She was thrashing around and making a slashing motion across her throat. Her primary reg was floating free in the water beside her. No air. I darted towards her, but Mauro shot past me. He took her spare reg out of her mouth, put in his spare, and cleared it. I came up beside them and watched Lucia’s sides heave. Her brown eyes were huge and focused on Mauro. He gave her the okay sign and she gave it back. Then he pointed at me and gave me a thumbs up. Go to the surface. I okayed back.  
    Graeme swam up and wanted to know what happened. Mauro indicated a problem with Lucia’s tank. Lucia gave him the okay sign and he relaxed. Mauro told him to stay down and we slowly ascended. My ears were not loving it. They creaked and popped painfully, despite our slowness.  
    We surfaced five feet from the boat, blew up our BCD vests, and removed our regs.  
    “Are you okay?” I asked Lucia.  
    “I think so.” That’s what she said, but she was still huffing and puffing.  
    “Slow down. Mauro had you. You were never in any danger.”
    She nodded, her eyes darted around.  
    “Look at me,” I said. “You’re not having an attack. This is just panic.”  
    Lucia focused on me.
    “Blow out a breath with pursed lips.” I demonstrated and she imitated me. Her face relaxed into its normal soft lines. “Better?”
    “Yes. Does this mean I fail?” she asked Mauro.
    He laughed. “No. Equipment failures are not your fault. You did exactly what I want. Spare reg and then signal. Perfection.”  
    She smiled. “Oh, good. Graeme would be so disappointed.”  
    Well, we wouldn’t want that, would we?  
    We swam over to the boat and the captain, Alex, helped Lucia on board.  
    Mauro asked me, “Will you stay with her? I must go down.”  
    “Sure,” I said.
    “Is this what you were worried about, Mercy?”
    “I didn’t know it at the time, but yes.”  
    “We must talk.” Mauro went under and Alex helped me on the boat.
    Lucia sat on a side bench and wiggled until her tank dropped in the storage hole. I waddled over and sat opposite her, dropped my tank, and took off my vest. Alex helped Lucia off with her vest and disconnected her regs. She stretched and went up to the prow to her beach bag. Alex tested both Lucia’s regs, his forehead creased. Then he connected a fresh set of regs and tested each one.  
    “Tank’s good?” I asked.  
    “Yes. It is problem with regs,” said Alex in his heavy Honduran accent.  
    “Both regs were bad?”  
    “Yes.” He rubbed the graying stubble on his chin.  
    “How often does that happen?” I glanced toward Lucia. She was digging around in her bag and not paying attention.  
    “Never.” More