Page 38 of No One Aboard
“They are okay,” Alejandro shouted to be heard over her hysterics. “Nico, go get them.”
Nico and Alejandro exchanged a grim look before Nico swam out again.
“They can’t see this. They can’t,” Lila gasped for air.
But it was too late.
The twins had been out of sight, under the shadowy bow of the boat. Tia saw the body first and tore through the water.
“MJ!” Tia cried, and she fought off Nico to swim to the dead woman’s side.
Rylan bobbed in the water. He looked as though he’d sink if he weren’t wearing his inflated scuba belt.
Nico guided Rylan up the ladder as best he could, leaving Rylan’s gear in scattered pieces, floating in the sea. Lila enveloped him the moment he was within reach, and she managed to slow his collapse to the deck.
“Get back on the boat, Tia,” Alejandro said sharply, blocking Tia’s path in the water.
Francis had caught up to her and hauled their daughter to the swim ladder. Lila stretched an arm out for her.
Lila held them both, tight and defensive, as Nico climbed on deck; as Francis and Alejandro pulled MJ’s body to the ladder; as they passed it up to Nico and laid it to rest on the bench in the cockpit.
Rylan swiveled suddenly and vomited over the side of the boat.
Tia found her feet, but Lila stayed kneeling beside Rylan, keeping his hair out of his face as he heaved.
“What happened?” Lila asked them all. She couldn’t stop herself.
The twins didn’t say a word.
“An accident,” Francis said. “Rylan came to get help, but it was too late. He said she got sucked into a cave.”
Francis fumbled, unblinking, to remove his own tank. Nico stood as still as stone, his hands trembling at his sides. Alejandro had his eyes screwed shut as he knelt by the corpse.
MJ’scorpse.
“My God...” Lila breathed. She ran her hand over Rylan’s wet hair.
“We need to... we need to collect ourselves. And clean up. As captain, I will handle this... this tragedy as best I know how.” Francis smoothed a hand over his scratchy chin and looked around at what remained of them all.
Six, Lila thought, and she wondered if she might vomit herself. She held tighter to her children, wanting to absorb her shaking son back into her body where he could be warm and still.
There are only six of us now.
Chapter 19
Tia Cameron
Call sign: Thimble
Day 3 at Sea
Tia’s pulse thundered in her head.
She couldn’t wrap her head around it. MJ dragged into a cave. Rylan going for help. And then thebody... Tia placed the heels of her hands on her temples, applying pressure as if she could physically keep her thoughts intact.
And then the body... then the body somehow moved from inside the cave to nearThe Old Eileen, near enough for Alejandro and Nico to find it.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Tia stated. If MJ had drowned, shouldn’t she still be in that cave? How did she drown while wearing gear that allowed her to breathe underwater? Maybe she’d had to ditch the heavy tank and BCD to outswim the cave’s current and had run out of air on the way up? That was the only explanation.
