Page 19 of Austen

See.She saw what she wanted to see.

Besides, the last—very last—thing she wanted was to fall for a man who turned out to be a criminal.

Again.

No, better to keep moving, keep relationships from getting in the way.

A bump from below, something hitting her legs.She stopped kicking, realizing she’d made motion in the water.Pulling on her mask, she ducked her head down.

Just an endless, bottomless deep blue.Plankton stirring in the water.

Maybe she’d imagined it.She kept her face in the water, barely moving as she turned.

Still nothing?—

Another bump, this time against her tank, and it spun her in the water.

The shark darted away, its tail nearly hitting her.A great white, and he wasn’t the only one.In the murky distance, she made out more sharks.

A hammerhead swam below, deeper in the depths with more sharks—a couple tiger sharks and some scalloped hammerheads.And at least two great whites.

Oh no.She’d drifted into a migratory path.

If she deflated her BCD, she’d sit lower in the water, be able to face the shark, keep her eyes on him should he circle back.But then she’d lose her air, and her tank had already edged into the red.Although, given time, she could manually blow it back up.

She spotted the shark in the water, circling her, as if still curious.At least sixteen feet long, it wore scars on its dorsal fin, so it could be a female.A hook trailed from its mouth, so also a survivor.

The animal was too big for Austen to push away, but Austen could dodge the shark if she stayed alert.Unfortunately, twenty-six hours of floating didn’t bode well for her reflexes.

Still.She lifted her air hose and deflated her vest.As she replaced her regulator, her weights sank her in the water until she settled just below the surface.

There.Her killer, circling, some twenty feet away.Austen stayed upright in the water, not splashing, not moving.

Go away, Big Bertha.

She hung there, watching, as the shark came closer, circled again.She stayed with the animal, watching?—

It darted in.

Stay calm?—

Whatever.She caught Bertha’s nose, pushed, moving over it, away.Nearly surfaced.

Letting out more air, she sank five feet from the surface, her eyes on the animal.

Her air-gauge needle sank deeper into the red.

The shark skirted away, into the murky water, and Austen lost Bertha in the haze.

She turned, just in case any of the others wanted a taste.

“They’re more afraid of you than you are of them.”

Ha.Sure.

She stayed submerged, her breathing in her ears, her heartbeat a hammer against her chest.Minutes passed.Her oxygen hit the bottom of the red, and her watch started to beep.

Yes, yes,she knew?—

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