Adonia swam backward as hard as she could to get out of the way. “Cover your face!”
Victoria’s feet hit the surface, and her petite body disappeared beneath the water with a great splash. Adonia stroked to the churning ripples to help the other woman, and within seconds the Undersecretary’s head appeared, her short hair plastered to her face. She sputtered as Adonia reached her. “I’m okay.” She blinked water from her eyes. “The water is… really warm.”
“Can you make it to the edge?” Adonia nudged her toward the plastic wall, and got herself into position again and waited for the next jumper. “Head straight to the side of the pool and keep away from the rods. Six feet of water isn’t much clearance above them.” Each upright fuel rod was secured in a holding cradle, but unlike the fixtures in Granite Bay’s permanent pools, these looked as if they could be dislodged.
Victoria stroked toward the pool’s curved plastic wall, and Adonia waved back up at the ledge. “Stanley! You’re next — jump!”
Swinging his arms back and forth, van Dyckman leaped out, yelling. As he fell, he started kicking his legs and waving his arms, flailing in the air. He began to tumble, rotating forward. If he hit the water headfirst…
“Bend backwards!”
Before van Dyckman could right himself, he struck the surface with his body bent, his knees striking only seconds before his chest and face. He hit the water with a loud smack, and spray erupted in an oval geyser as he disappeared beneath the surface.
Adonia swam toward him, hoping he hadn’t broken any bones. She had to get him out of the way so the others could jump. When she reached van Dyckman, he was trying to claw his way back to the surface. She caught him, pulled him along. “Stanley, are you all right?” At least he hadn’t been knocked unconscious.
Water ran from his nose as he coughed. His voice croaked when he answered. “As long as I don’t have to jump again.” He saw Victoria hanging on the edge of the walkway, three feet above the surface of the water. “If she can make it, so can I.”
“You’re done for today.” She nudged him toward the side. “Keep swimming and stay next to the side — away from the rods.” He started off without answering, and she shouted up at the ledge. “We’re ready!”
Thin curtains of the yellow-marked gas continued to flow, increasing in volume like a waterfall of smoke over the ledge. It drifted down the wall, barely missing the pool and spilling down to the lower level.
Instead of Garibaldi taking the next position, Shawn came up, wrestling the reluctant Senator forward. Garibaldi helped hold him, pushing the big man ahead, but he was struggling. Shawn and Garibaldi seemed to have made their plans together. Shawn turned his back to the edge, grabbed Pulaski’s shirt with both hands, and jumped backward over the brink, pulling the Senator with him. As they plummeted together, Shawn wrapped the larger man in a bear hug, preventing him from flailing.
Up on the ledge, Garibaldi reeled, coughing from the halothane. The yellow vapors swirled around his legs, stirred up in the air. Even as the other two men were falling, Garibaldi staggered forward and followed them over the edge without waiting for them to get clear.
Adonia was already swimming toward the impact point to help as Shawn and the Senator smashed into the water. Garibaldi plunged into the pool less than a second later, only a few feet away. An enormous spray of hot water gushed into the air, accompanied by a wave that sloshed over the side of the pool.
Before Adonia could dive underwater to retrieve the Senator, someone behind her started coughing, retching, and splashing. Already half-stunned from hitting the pool, van Dyckman had not yet made it to the plastic wall, and the wave had caught him full in the face. He groped wildly, thrashing for the access walkway that ran along the pool’s edge.
With Shawn there to help Pulaski, Adonia swam back for van Dyckman. Clinging with an outstretched arm to the walkway, Victoria did not seem to know what she should do to offer assistance.
The Senator’s head had breached the surface, and he thrashed about, gasping for breath, yelling in panic. Shawn reached him and employed all the correct lifeguard procedures, keeping Pulaski’s head above water and moving him to the side.
Garibaldi surfaced, spluttering, steadying himself.
Adonia grabbed van Dyckman’s shoulder, flipped him around, and placed a hand behind his neck to keep his head above water. Kicking hard, she pulled him to the metal mesh platform where Victoria waited. Van Dyckman blinked at her with bleary eyes, obviously still smarting from his initial clumsy impact.
Reaching the wall, Adonia shook her former boss, making sure he was conscious so he wouldn’t slip back under the water. She boosted him partially up until he was able to grab the edge of the metal platform. “Stanley, hold on. We’ll get both of you up there in a minute.” She left him with Victoria. “Watch him, could you?”
“Right.” The Undersecretary made no move to help van Dyckman, but he clung to the platform himself.
Garibaldi started swimming toward them, but Shawn kept having real difficulties with the Senator. Pulaski had become more frantic and violent after the fall, and the unnaturally hot water spooked him further. He twisted back and forth, trying to pull away from Shawn, lashing out at his would-be rescuer. “You’re drowning me! Get away!”
Shawn went under in his attempts to dodge the Senator’s frantic blows. Adonia stroked over to help, but Pulaski was beyond reason.
“I can’t swim — I told you!” He gulped a mouthful of the heated water, which only increased his spiral of panic. “I can’t swim!”
Shawn tried to grapple with him, but the big man fought like a madman. He arched his back and flailed away from the side. Pulaski went under, and then clawed his way back up again. As he sank once more, he kicked, found some purchase underneath, and pushed off of something, but the water was too deep. He struggled to rise to the surface again.
Adonia swam underwater as she tried to reach him in time. With her eyes open, she saw that he had kicked one of the upright spent fuel rods, and he was now trying to stand on it. Despite the heated water, she felt a cold knife of dread. She swam faster.
Pulaski squirmed in panicked convulsions and struck out at Shawn, who tried to wrestle him under control. “Help!” When the Senator yelled, he gulped another mouthful of water.
As a championship swimmer, Adonia had more experience in lifeguarding than Shawn did. Drowning victims often sabotaged their own rescues by fighting back, and sometimes the only solution was to slug them hard and knock them out cold.
Shawn was exhausted from wrestling with the man, and the frantic struggles were putting him at risk, too.
Pulaski went under, kicked, and his long legs again pushed against one of the upright fuel rods set in a support cradle. In the standard configuration of a permanent cooling pool, the rods would be immobile, locked in place — but Stanley’s temporary cradle wasn’t designed to have a two-hundred-and-fifty-pound man kick off against them.
As Shawn grappled with him, somehow Pulaski twisted in the water and kicked him hard in the face with his heel. Shawn jerked back in pain as he was hit in the eye.
Adonia surfaced, racing toward them. She knew this was the most dangerous time of the whole rescue. The deadly AVIR syndrome — aquatic victim instead of rescuer — had killed hundreds of would-be helpers. “Back off, Shawn. I’ll handle it.”
Treading water and looking blearily through one eye, Shawn reluctantly let her take over. Pulaski kept rolling around in the water, gasping for breath, and Adonia circled behind him where he couldn’t see her. She had to let him exhaust himself so he wouldn’t pull her down.