Page 11 of Call of the Fathoms

Stalking to the back of the room, she slammed her hand down on one of the panels to open up a wall. Metal suits were lined on the other side. Suits that would withstand almost any pressure of the sea, just like her body could with all her genetic enhancements, and keep her alive even more than her own genetic enhancements could. The thin metal looked like ribs that would cover her own, stronger bones in the arms and legs that would prevent her own from being snapped if he caught her.

“What are you doing?” Doctor Barker asked, his voice shaking as he repeated himself. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m going after them.”

“You can’t go after them! You want to dive into open water with an undine? That’s suicide, Alexia.”

No, it wasn’t. Because she had her suit. Because they had spent countless years teaching her how to fight, how to tear apart the world with her fists, and how to learn from other people’s fighting tactics to see just how much she could push herself. She was one of the few people who could do this.

The red button on the wall opened the suit like a clam. She stepped into it, turning around so her back was pressed where it needed to be and then slotting her hands through the arms of the suit. Hissing sounds filled her ears as the suit reacted to her being inside of it, carefully closing and then sealing her within.

It wasn’t a suit that covered her entire body. More like an exoskeleton that would help her move faster and swim farther. The metal was light, barely adding over twenty-five pounds to her figure, but strong. Flexing her hands, she reached above her head and pulled down the face mask that would give her oxygen while she was down there.

“Is the reborn still alive?” she asked, shifting her feet in the boots.

“The temperature of the water... and we don’t even know why the undine grabbed her...”

“Doctor Barker!” Alexia shouted his name in his face, stepping out of the wall and advancing on him. “Is the reborn alive?”

He stammered, but finally answered her question. “It’s entirely possible, yes. The water is cold enough to perhaps put her back in stasis and as long as he did not remove her breathing tube, then yes. It is entirely possible that the reborn is alive.”

“Good enough.”

She hit the button to heat the suit up, enough that it would help her in the freezing cold temperatures of the depths. She’d trained in below freezing temperatures for hours. She knew what her body could take. The genetic enhancements were good for something, she supposed.

Alexia hit the water hard, sinking straight to the bottom of the plateau that surrounded Tau. Her boots hit the ground, silt and dust puffing up around her body as she shifted before hitting the button that would propel the boots. Suddenly, she was flying through the ocean.

Everything was illuminated, so it was easy for her to see where she was going. There wasn’t much of a hint of where he went, but she could follow the lights. The other guards were surely leading her toward the undine, so she didn’t go in the direction where there weren’t any lights. The speed with which she cut through the water was almost maddening.

But rage made her not think straight. This undine had taken something from her. It had made her look a fool, and even then, no one was allowed to come into Tau and take a single thing from the city that was meant to be impenetrable.

Lifting her wrist, she hit the button to speak. “The men that brought the undine into the city? Kill them.”

“Should we confirm with Original Harlow first?”

“Inform Harlow that they are the reason her reborn is currently in the depths of the sea, and then kill them. I don’t care. Mistakes like that will not be tolerated.”

And then she caught sight of him. The undine. The bastard who had stolen her greatest honor and made her seem incompetent. The flicker of a tail as the lights followed him through the depths of the sea that he called home. Hitting the buttons on the thumbs of the suit to go even faster, she pursued.

At first, it didn’t seem like he knew where he was going. Tau was a labyrinth. The entirety of the city wrapped around itself, like some kind of churning whirlpool of a building. It was easy to get lost. If he went straight up, which she almost hoped that he would, then he would run into the most powerful of all of their weapons. The lasers were very accurate. They would target only him, and not the reborn.

But the creature did not go straight up. Instead, he continued winding through the tunnels and through the difficult areas of Tau where he might accidentally get caught.

Was he trying to lose her? She knew the layout of this place far better than he could ever hope to. Surely he had to know that he would not escape her.

But he was heading toward an area that would make it more difficult for her to follow him. There was an abyss at the edge of Tau, mostly where they dropped all of their garbage and the bodies that they needed to get rid of. That would disappear into the depths of the sea and she definitely would have a hard time keeping up with them then.

If he made it through the shield. If he struck that with the reborn in his arms, they would both die. And she would still be at fault for the death of a reborn.

Lifting her arm, she shouted, “Drop the shield in Sector 254.”

“What?”

“Drop it now!”

She watched a shimmer of light ripple in front of them and swore the undine looked back and grinned at her. As though he knew she would drop the shield.

The lights of Tau only stretched so far. Of course, he went right over the edge of the cliff and down she followed him. Faster and faster, until she swore there were eyes on her from above, from the sides, from everywhere.

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