Page 100 of Daughter of the Deep

With the amount of abuse our suits have taken today, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Even if Halimah got the gist of my message, theNautilusis in no shape to give us any assistance. We’re on our own.

We burst onto the dock of the lagoon. The sunlight blinds me. I haven’t been outside in the surface world for over a week. There’s too much sky. The horizons are too wide. The colours are too bright.

The rev of a boat’s engines shakes me from my paralysis. TheVarunais pulling away from the dock.

Gem sprints after it. He takes a flying leap and lands on the transom. My jump is not as graceful. I slam into the aft railing,which doesn’t do wonders for my wounded side. Gem grabs my arm to keep me from falling overboard.

‘Thanks,’ I grumble.

‘Take a gun.’ He offers me one of his SIG Sauers. I have never seen him let anyone touch one of his precious twins before.

I start to protest. ‘Gem –’

‘Please,’ he says. ‘Just do it for me.’

I take the gun.

TheVarunapicks up speed, heading north for the wide new gap that theAronnax’s weapons blasted in the atoll’s ring. From where we stand, I can’t see anyone else on board. I hope that means the boat is lightly manned. I like small numbers, like one or two.

‘Split up?’ Gem asks, gesturing to port and starboard.

‘That’s always a mistake in the movies,’ I say.

‘Fair enough.’

Together, we make our way forward along the port gunwale, me leading, Gem guarding my six.

We reach the middeck. Still no one in sight. This feels wrong. The roar of the engines is deafening. I’d forgotten how loud the upper world can be.

I turn … and my question to Gem devolves into a scream when I see a familiar figure looming behind him.

Too late, Gem pivots. My brother smacks him across the head with a ratchet.

Gem collapses. Dev kicks his gun across the deck.

I step back, my heart in my throat. Gem’s second P226 quivers in my hand like a dowsing rod.

My brother glares at me. His hair has its usual cowlick crest along the front, but I don’t find it endearing any more. It looks like something dark and menacing is trying to push its way out of his skull. Somehow, he must have repaired the skiff well enough to intercept theVaruna. Where the rest of his boardingparty went, I have no idea, but Dev by himself is enough of a problem. Water trickles down the black neoprene of his wetsuit. It’s the same one he wore the last morning we dived together – emblazoned with the logo of the HP Shark captain. I tighten my grip on the gun.

Dev sneers, tossing aside his wrench. ‘You’re really going to shoot me? Go ahead.’

God, I want to. I know the bullets are non-lethal. I hate that my trigger finger is rebelling against me. But Dev is still my brother. No matter what he’s done, I find shooting him at point-blank range very difficult to manage.

‘I thought so,’ he growls. ‘Stupid little girl, you’ve ruined everything.’

Then he charges at me.

The two of us have had the same combat training, but Dev has had years’ more practice.

He grabs my wrist, slapping the gun from my hand, then steps in and twists, attempting to throw me over his shoulder. I use the ‘boneless toddler’ defence, collapsing so my entire body weight works against him. He shuffles, off-balance, and I turn my fall into a backwards roll, leveraging Dev’s own grip to pull him with me. He sails over my head and crashes into the starboard gunwale.

One point for Ana.

My wounded side is on fire. I can feel warm blood trickling down my belly. I struggle to my feet. Dev rises, looking unperturbed.

‘You’re wounded,’ he notes.

He has the audacity to sound concerned. His earlier words still drip in my mind like hydrochloric acid.Stupid little girl.

---