They all ate as much as they could manage without feeling uncomfortable. By the time they were done, the water was almost up to Kate’s waist.
She pulled up the top of her suit and Stephens helped her zip up.
Kate looked around the room. There had been so much tragedy here yet she was reluctant to leave. The ops room had been her home and kept her alive.
“Time to get wet.” Morrison said.
They all exited the Pheia together. Kate stayed at the back of the group and followed as they ascended to the top of the ops cylinder.
Morrison signaled to Kate: stay here, slow ascent. OK.
Kate gave him an OK, then hugged him, her mask pushing against his.
“Two hugs on one dive.” He thought. “A whole new experience.”
The three divers went hand over hand in single file up the winch cable. Kate watched as they moved up and hoped they would be OK.
She looked at her watch. Three hours to go up 150 feet.
Towed behind her were three other scuba sets, each one attached to a BC that had just enough gas in it to make it neutral in the water. She checked the line that tied them together was secure and tied off to her own BC then she began to climb.
She moved up one foot each time the second hand on her watch reached the top. It started out OK but when the divers were well above her and she was alone again, she started to feel hopeless. The water was cold. She was still warm enough in the dive suit for now and could feel the heat packs in her legs and sleeves. She hoped it would be enough.
Stephens’ gas ran out about 20 feet below the tanks and he used Washington’s spare regulator until they all reached the decompression tanks waiting for them. He was glad they had left the helmets in the Pheia and were using normal masks. The helmets didn’t have any way to use an alternate air source.
They all changed regulators over and checked tank pressures. They had enough gas for a decent stop and a slow crawl up to the hookah line 150 feet above them.
Morrison held the line with one hand and rolled over to look down. There, below him he caught the wink of a light in the water. He hadn’t felt like this for a very long time. Way down below him was someone he had started to care for. He wanted badly to go down and join her, but he knew Kate would follow the instructions he’d given her, and in a little under three hours she’d be where he was now. He hoped like hell that he’d be alive when she reached him.
Epilog
Kate sat in her underwear on the bed in the hotel room she had been staying in for the last two weeks. Outside, the Caribbean sun shone brightly and she thought about getting dressed and going for a walk along the beach. She got up and walked to the window. The last two weeks had been hectic. Her arrival on the barge had been met by applause and she was still very uncomfortable with that. There had been two TV crews on the boat: one from Cayman and one from Houston. She had burst into tears at the first question about how she felt, and that had more or less ended the first TV session.
They had both interviewed her again in the hotel, and this time she was more composed. But when they asked questions about the crew, she could only keep saying she was sorry to be the only survivor.
Everyone knew she hadn’t caused the accident itself or been responsible for Boris or Chas, and all the reporters had told her so both before and after the interviews.
Morrison and his crew had taken her drinking when she got done with the TV people. She didn’t ordinarily drink much, and to their credit they didn’t push her. She still ended up legless and had to be carried out of the bar. She had slept for fifteen hours.
The next day Morrison had told her they were leaving the island for a job in Bahrain. They would be gone for several months but he promised to get in touch when he was back in Maine. Kate had put his cell phone number in her phone more out of duty than out of any expectation they would speak again. She had hugged him as hard as she could with tears streaming down her face, then kissed him on the lips. She had to reach up a bit for that. Morrison had looked genuinely sad to leave.
Kate had gone to the airport and waited in the upper gallery for them to walk out onto the tarmac as they boarded their plan. She had blown Morrison a kiss and then wondered why she’d done that. Her emotions were all over the place.
Williams had been by to see her at the hotel several times. He had arrived with Babin and Leclerc the day after she got ashore and they had gone over everything in detail. Babin had apologized several times for the structural failure of the Pheia. Kate had hugged her too and thanked her for her help with the hydrogen system. She was a hugging person these days.
Traffic along the Seven Mile Beach road was busy as usual. She looked beyond the road to the sea and wondered when she’d dive again. Not any time soon. That was for sure.
A knock on the door brought her back to reality.
She opened it to find Williams standing there in a nice lightweight suit. He was tanned from days in the sun and looked a little more cheery today.
“May I come in?”
“Sure. Of course.”
Kate stepped back in to the room.
Williams glanced around. It was quite a mess.
“Can’t get quality help,” Kate said to him and smiled weakly.
“Yes, well I’m sure the hotel staff can help if you let them in. I came to let you know that the barge is on its way back to Maine with the Pheia on board. We have recovered all of the personal items that were left on board.”
Kate interrupted him. “I had a box…”
“Yes, we found that in the ops room. It’s all been taken care of.”
Williams sat in a chair and looked at his hands. Then he lifted his head and looked at Kate. “I know you are not keen on going to services. You’ll be pleased to know that most of the families have already held them back at home but we, the institute, will be holding one the week after we get back. I want you to be there and I’d like you to say something.”
He knew Kate would say no, and was preparing to push a little harder.
“OK. I guess I can do that.” She said.
Williams was taken aback but recovered quickly. “Good, well then, there is just one more thing to talk about. I have arranged our flights home for tomorrow morning. We need to leave the hotel around nine.”
Kate nodded.
“Well, then, that’s all I have. Would you like me to have one of the hotel people help you pack?”
He knew he’d make a mistake as soon as the words were out, but it was too late.
“Pack what?” She asked.
“Sorry. Well, I mean, just sorry.”
Kate touched him on the arm. Williams had tried very hard to be supportive over that last couple of weeks.
“I’ll see you at nine then.” She said.
Williams left, and Kate went back to the window. She really should go for a run. It looked fabulous outside. “This might almost be a nice place to come back to someday.” She thought.