Free Going Deep (Divemasters Book 2) by Jayne Rylon Page A

from Archer.
    He rested his forehead on hers and smiled softly before murmuring, “Me too.”
    Some other time, Sabine would have to ask Miguel about their story.
    “So where do you want to start?” he asked her, drawing her thoughts back to the present.
    She drew a deep breath then let it out as she studied the ceiling of her brand spanking new laboratory. “While I was flying here, I reread every email Heinrich sent me during his collection trip and the follow up experiments at his research center. I’m starting to think he was trying to tell me more than I realized at the time. I should have listened closer.”
    Miguel tucked one of her unruly curls behind her ear. “Let’s focus on going forward. He wouldn’t want you to beat yourself up. You didn’t have all the information then that you do now. What did you figure out?”
    “There was one letter he sent, after they’d been in this area for about two weeks. He’d seemed increasingly frustrated, which wasn’t like him at all. Then one day the tone was totally different. He said, ‘Sometimes you fail to notice the obvious when you’re trying too hard or making things more complex than they need to be. What you’re searching for can be right in front of you. Until you change the way you look at things—blind yourself to what you think you know and dig a little deeper—you might never see it.’”
    “What the hell do you think that means?” Tosin rubbed his temple.
    She took a deep breath. “As best I can figure, he was letting me know that what he found originated from something ordinary. Probably something he or other marine biologists have studied countless times. As counterintuitive as it seems, I think I want to dive here and collect samples from the most common species around. It could be that he processed them differently than usual, or maybe that something about this location makes them slightly dissimilar—enough to have far-reaching implications—from other forms. Maybe no one noticed sooner because they dismissed those possibilities based on previous results, instead of on the facts alone. I need to blind myself to what I think I know, and start from scratch with the basics.”
    “It’s as good a theory as any, I suppose.” Banks hummed his approval as Tosin, Archer, and Waverly nodded in agreement.
    “Waverly and I can tell you from experience that assuming you know what’s going on instead of questioning everything can really steer you wrong,” Archer admitted.
    “A solid lesson for life as well as this experiment,” Miguel agreed. She wondered what parts of himself he was reexamining at the moment. Could their meeting have shaken him up also?
    “So you’ll go with me? Point out stuff you see all the time around here? Help me collect and tag everything while we’re waiting for my tissue samples to arrive? Run tests and track results once they get here?” Sabine asked Miguel. Having him by her side beneath the waves would keep her level. Another pair of hands in the lab would be invaluable, too.
    Already she trusted him. If his SCUBA skills were anywhere near as good as his fucking abilities, she had seriously won the assistant lottery.
    “Hell yeah. Let’s go diving.” Miguel grinned. “I can’t wait to go down with you.”
    For the first time since the explosion that had rocked her foundation from across the world, Sabine felt confident that she could do her mentor justice and complete his research. With this kind of unwavering support, how could she not?
    Heinrich’s death—no, his life —had to mean something.
    If she could give this to the world in his name, it would.
    She nodded at Miguel. “I’m ready.”
    “I know.” He kissed her, right there in front of his honorary family. She didn’t pull away either.

Eight

Two weeks later
    S abine had massively underestimated Miguel . Though she considered herself a seasoned diver, he took things to another level. A true expert, he was mesmerizing to watch, or might