Amanda kept her promise and woke Sirius for his shift. He kissed her good night and then went and stood by that door, all the while thinking how much nicer guard duty would have been with the both of them. But it was important they were well-rested, for today they would be venturing down into the depths of the sea.

  It was a nice day with just a bit of wind. Amanda leaned over the railing and stared down at the sea while Pinto organized the last of the diving equipment.

  Sirius leaned over the railing next to her. "There's a whole world down there," he remarked as if he couldn't wait to dive in.

  She loved the way he looked at the ocean. The water was dark and impossible to see very far into. It filled her with trepidation but also a sense of excitement, one that made her feel alive. It wasn't the same way Sirius felt. She could see that. For him the ocean seemed to bring only calm, as if he were as much a part of it as every wave.

  The longboat was lowered down into the ocean but not before Morgan waltzed up with the two remaining men from The Piper and shoved them on board.

  "They're yours now," she said to Sirius. "And apparently they can both dive."

  Sirius frowned but he didn't argue. And so they set off with no less than nine in the little boat.

  What had seemed like little waves up on deck suddenly felt much larger now they were closer to the water. And as they moved further and further from the ship, into shallower territory where it dare not follow, the sea itself also seemed to grow in size. It expanded out in all directions as far as the eye could see, with only the tiniest jutting of rock remaining to remind Amanda that the world wasn't completely covered in water. How terrible it would be if they lost sight of that ship.

  They were tied to that ship in a way, via long think ropes which they'd attach to the cargo. But once the cargo was attached to the ropes, the longboat would be free to drift.

  One glance at Sirius's expression eased her mind. He really did belong out here she realised. The sea was his home.

  But she watched as his gaze found their two new friends and he frowned. Sirius noticed her watching him, and he leaned forward and in a low whisper remarked, "Evidently Morgan prefers there be less risk to the lives of her crew."

  "Diving's not so risky as long as you do the planning," Amanda replied. And trusted your companions, she thought. She eyed the rest of the men. There was Pinto, who seemed knowledgeable enough. She’d watched him do his checks and the pre-dive planning and he’d done a good job there. Ryan she remembered from the beach when they’d first been picked up from Smuggler’s Cove. He was fair-haired and telekinetic and seemed to be in charge of their small group for the day. Riki, the healer sat opposite him. Morgan hadn’t wanted to let him come but Riki had argued it would be safer if anything went wrong. Stinger had agreed and that had broken the tie. Stinger had also wanted to come but at that Morgan had put her foot down so he was absent from their little group today.

  Then there were two men Amanda knew very little of. Brutus, who was solid but not overly tall. He was always scowling but Sirius said was nicer than he looked and a strongarm like himself. The other was a man named Miles, whom everyone called Miley. He was lean but not skinny and she wasn’t sure what his power was. Finally, there were the two from The Piper and Amanda felt a little bad that she hadn’t yet learned their names.

  "Somehow I don't think it's the dive she's worried about," Sirius replied.

  Oh right, the Kraken. She'd almost forgotten about that. How she had forgotten about that she didn’t know but now that had been brought to the forefront of her mind it seemed to dwarf even the sea.

  She must have looked worried for Sirius said, “Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll be fine. We’ve faced one before.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her in a teasing manner, one probably meant to ease her fears by lightening the mood.

  Amanda smiled and hoped they didn’t have to face one again. To distract herself and ease her conscience a little she struck up a conversation with the men from the Piper.

  “So, what are your guy’s names?” she asked.

  The pair shared a look and then the bigger, beefier one, with brunette hair replied, “I’m Sam.”

  “Abe,” said the other. This one had rust coloured hair, dark brown with a tinge of red.

  “You guys are divers?” Amanda asked.

  Sam nodded.

  Abe got a guilty look on his face. “Actually, no, I can’t even swim.”

  That got Sirius’s attention. “What!?” he exclaimed.

  At questioning looks from further down the boat, Sirius repeated to them what Abe had just said. There was a chorus of groans in response along with a couple swears and some chuckling from Sam.

  “But you’re a sailor?” Amanda asked.

  Abe shrugged. “I always meant to learn, I just never got around to it. It’s not like we actually spend a lot of time in the sea itself.”

  At the looks he was getting he quickly added, “I just didn’t want to stay on the boat with the captain.”

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  Ryan had his head in his hands. Riki was now laughing harder than Sam was.

  “But you could teach me right? I mean, it doesn’t matter if I sink a bit at first cause I’ll have air right?”

  Amanda caught Pinto’s eye and shook her head quickly at him, indicating she didn’t think that was a good idea at all.

  Pinto looked grim and he quickly agreed. To Abe he said, “No, you’ll stay on the boat. We need people at the surface anyway, although you not being able to swim is still far from ideal.”

  To Sam he said, "you can dive right?"

  Sam gave a slow and serious nod.

  Amanda studied him more closely. He had a full beard and unreadable expression. Apart from when he'd been laughing at Abe she couldn't remember him smiling. But then, he was a prisoner on someone else's ship. She wondered what Morgan would do to them once they parted ways at Scarlett. Would she keep them on board regardless of whether they wanted to or not, or would she let them go?

  "Where are you from?" Amanda asked them.

  Once again they shared a glance with one another. She got the impression they didn't trust her. Even Abe , who occasionally did smile at stuff, seemed cagey, at least when he looked at her and the rest of Morgan's crew. But she also caught him stealing glances toward the sea with a similar look to the one Sirius had when he regarded the waves. Abe may not be able to swim but he obviously loved the ocean. In contrast, Sam kept his gaze focused directly ahead like a soldier waiting for the noose.

  "I'm from Hope's Town," replied Abe.

  Amanda gave him a surprised look. "In the desert? That's not that far from Little Rock."

  He shrugged. "That's where I first got on. It's a popular port despite it's size. They don't tax as much as The Emerald City."

  "Don't ask as many questions either," remarked Ryan with a knowing look.

  Amanda looked to Sam next.

  He was quiet long enough that she thought maybe he wasn't going to answer but then he said, "The Groans."

  That was a place she didn't know. When she cocked her head Sirius explained, "It's north, across the equator.

  She was about to ask them more questions when Ryan said, “Right, I think we’re in about the right spot.”

  Before launching the longboat, they had given Amanda a wetsuit. It was a little too big but it would have to do. They’d had a similar problem finding a wetsuit for Sirius, only for the opposite reason. They’d fixed that issue by using Pip’s materiokinesis to add a little extra fabric at the seams. Pip hadn’t been confident of how long it would last though. Out of the rest of the men on the longboat, only Riki, Ryan, and Miles weren’t wearing wetsuits. Even with Abe not diving, Amanda still wasn’t sure how they were going to manage this. There seemed to be not enough oxygen for this many people to do three and a bit trips. That was the number which Pinto had planned. He’d talked about keeping each trip to no more than 30 minutes total. They weren’t exactly sure how deep the cargo was but the hope was that it was more than 50 metres which meant they’d probably need 20 minutes for ascent and decompression leaving them only 10 minutes to actually retrieve any cargo. Even then, it seemed like they might be cutting it close with the air. Each set of tanks probably had about 40 minutes in it max assuming an average breathing rate. The fact that Amanda didn’t really know these men all that well, added to the danger.

  Part one of the plan was the recon trip. One diver would go down to assess the location of the treasure and then report back. That trip would be done solo, which was dangerous in its own right but even with that risk Amanda couldn’t see how they were going to split the air. There were six divers, Amanda, Sirius, Pinto, Brutus, Miles (who she expected would probably swap in for Abe), and Sam. And there were 32 tanks with no spares. On each trip each person would carry two. That made two for the first trip and then 36 total tanks over three more trips, unless Pinto was planning for them to swap in and out across those trips Amanda calculated they were short six tanks. Except she remembered him very explicitly stating that it would be at least three trips per person.

  Her question was answered when, after coming to a complete stop, Miles stood up and simply leapt over the side, no wetsuit or tank. In midair he shifted form into something that looked like a dolphin. Then with a splash he was gone.

  “Oh, he can breathe underwater,” she mumbled in awe.

  She heard a small chuckle from Sirius and then he said, “Technically, he’s only holding his breath. Dolphins can’t breathe underwater but they are good divers. He’ll scout out where we need to go.”

  Pinto nodded. “Which will be a lot of help for us since we’ll need to move fast. We probably won’t have more than ten minutes down there but I want everyone to keep a very close eye on their air. You don’t want to be shortchanged coming back up. You overestimate how much air you need for decomp you’re fucked. You cut decomp too short and you’re also fucked. Got it?”

  A series of nods went up around the group.

  “What if we see a kraken coming for us?” Brutus asked with a grin that suggested he was joking.

  In a serious voice, Pinto replied, “Do not cut your decomp time short no matter what okay?”

  Another series of nods.

  “Now, let’s hope he comes back and tells us it’s not more than 50 metres.” Pinto said. He watched the spot where Miles had disappeared for awhile then he turned back to the group. “Lets go over this one more time. Down there I am the supervisor. If you’re not in the middle of doing something then you should have your eyes on me as often as possible okay. I decide what cargo we take and when we come back up. You want to go back up, you signal to me first. My job is to keep an eye on all of you and the cargo. The strongarms, that’s Sirius, Brutus, and Sam, you are in charge of moving and lifting the cargo. According to reports these containers are heavy. Amanda and Miles are in charge of trying the ropes. Make sure you tie good knots. Any of these break free during the haul back and we could lose the entire cargo and potentially damage the ship. And if you’re on board the longboat, Ryan’s in charge. Got it?”

  More nods. Nobody joked or smiled now. Amanda could sense the apprehension in the air. It was almost time. They all remained silent until Miles returned.

  He leaned over the edge of the boat and shook his brown hair. His face bore a smile and his tanned skin gleaned in the warm sun. It wouldn’t be quite so warm in the water though, not once they got deep enough.

  “Depth?” Ryan asked.

  “46 metres. On a bit of an angle and more cargo than expected. Some of it’s too deep. There’s about 18 crates we should be able to reach, stacked a bit precariously but if we do it in the right order I reckon we can get about half of them. I doubt we’d fit much more given the space we got in the hold anyway and I think they’re gonna have to empty them out as we go but they can do that in between dives. You should see it. It’s all metal like some kind of monster. Even the crates are metal, about 6 by 3 by 3 metres.”

  Ryan turned toward the strongarms. “Doable?”

  “Depends on what’s in them,” Sirius replied. “Each strongarm here can lift a couple thousand kilograms no problem.” He glanced toward Sam with a questioning look.

  Sam nodded in confirmation, although he looked a little annoyed at the question.

  “I can do over 10,” bragged Brutus. “A shipping crate that size is no problem even if it’s made of metal.”

  “Not if it’s filled with lead,” countered Sirius.

  Brutus looked like he was going to argue but Ryan held up a hand.

  “Alright, let’s see how we go.”

  “Time to gear up!” commanded Pinto.