Read Online Blue Abyss: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 3 (The Timewalker Chronicles) by Michele Callahan - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Michele Callahan
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often a girl died, travelled through time, was revived, genetically altered by an alien to breathe water, given a personal laser weapon, a tattoo, and a boyfriend she’d kissed once right before they’d both died. The whole thing made her want to laugh, and cry, and jump up and down like a two-year-old screaming and pulling her hair out.
Too bad her mother had run the tantrums out of her back when she was small Her mother had demanded they maintain outward control, no matter how bad the dreams got for either of them. At the first sign of tears, she’d been sent to her room until she could control herself. No lecture, no beating, just the silent stare of a woman demanding perfection. Mari had been a miniature adult by age four, always in control, used to facing down “demons” in her sleep.
If only she could let loose her rage, her fear. A good old-fashioned rant was so very tempting…but impossible. At least for her.
Instead, Mari did what she always had, pulled herself together, ignored the fear, ordered her racing heart to slow down and went in to wake up her crew. “Let’s go, gentlemen! Change of plans.”
An hour later, she zipped her diving suit tight and padded the pockets of her BCD with a few extra weights and Celestina’s special disk. She was going mermaid style, taking a knife, her spool line, two lights, and one nineteen-cubic-foot pony tank and mask that she’d strapped to a BCD for Raiden. She’d be breathing water like a fish. The thought both scared and excited her. What did that make her now? A female version of Aquaman? A mermaid without a tail?
No. A Timewalker. The very thing the nasty things down there had accused her of being.
“I can do this.” Mari wasn’t sure who she was talking to. Raiden? Celestina? Maybe the scary creatures waiting in their scary room at the bottom of the scary cave? Oh, yeah. Could be them.
Mari ignored her dive crew as they geared up behind her. They flew through their ususal routine, professional, thorough, and deadly cautious. There was no room for error on a cave dive. None. And watching them, she knew they wouldn’t be ready for another ten to fifteen minutes.
Mari couldn’t stand to wait and reasoned that taking them down with her this time would just put them in unnecessary danger. When she surfaced with Raiden, they could rant and rage all they wanted to, but their steel darts and knives weren’t going to do a darn bit of good against her enemy. No, if she let them go with her this time, she was just asking to get one of them killed. Besides, they knew more about the bends and how to deal with sickness than anyone else she knew. They might be able to help her with Raiden.
But until the Triscani in that cave were dead, taking them down with her was too big of a risk. “Gentlemen, meet me at fifteen feet.”
She grabbed the gear she’d put together for Raiden, tucked the pony tank and attached gear under her arm, and jumped off the swim platform, determined to take her first breath of water since Celestina had let her out of the tank in what for her had been just a few hours ago. She bit down alarm and told her brain to shut up when it protested the move. She grabbed hold of the anchor rope and held on with the top of her head skimming the top of the water in case she needed to make a quick exit. Mari opened her eyes, the first test, and found that she could still see perfectly without a mask. Genetic mutation holding firm? Check.
Time for a giant leap of faith.
Hours of diving and training kicked in as she fought off the panic and forced her body to do what it didn’t want to, what it shouldn’t be able to do, inhale liquid like air.
Cold fluid made its way down her throat into her oxygen-starved lungs. She ignored the sensation and focused on the play of sunshine on the waves above her, the cool slide of the current caressing her dive suit. She allowed her body to drift a few feet down as she hung on to her anchor rope and tried to
Too bad her mother had run the tantrums out of her back when she was small Her mother had demanded they maintain outward control, no matter how bad the dreams got for either of them. At the first sign of tears, she’d been sent to her room until she could control herself. No lecture, no beating, just the silent stare of a woman demanding perfection. Mari had been a miniature adult by age four, always in control, used to facing down “demons” in her sleep.
If only she could let loose her rage, her fear. A good old-fashioned rant was so very tempting…but impossible. At least for her.
Instead, Mari did what she always had, pulled herself together, ignored the fear, ordered her racing heart to slow down and went in to wake up her crew. “Let’s go, gentlemen! Change of plans.”
An hour later, she zipped her diving suit tight and padded the pockets of her BCD with a few extra weights and Celestina’s special disk. She was going mermaid style, taking a knife, her spool line, two lights, and one nineteen-cubic-foot pony tank and mask that she’d strapped to a BCD for Raiden. She’d be breathing water like a fish. The thought both scared and excited her. What did that make her now? A female version of Aquaman? A mermaid without a tail?
No. A Timewalker. The very thing the nasty things down there had accused her of being.
“I can do this.” Mari wasn’t sure who she was talking to. Raiden? Celestina? Maybe the scary creatures waiting in their scary room at the bottom of the scary cave? Oh, yeah. Could be them.
Mari ignored her dive crew as they geared up behind her. They flew through their ususal routine, professional, thorough, and deadly cautious. There was no room for error on a cave dive. None. And watching them, she knew they wouldn’t be ready for another ten to fifteen minutes.
Mari couldn’t stand to wait and reasoned that taking them down with her this time would just put them in unnecessary danger. When she surfaced with Raiden, they could rant and rage all they wanted to, but their steel darts and knives weren’t going to do a darn bit of good against her enemy. No, if she let them go with her this time, she was just asking to get one of them killed. Besides, they knew more about the bends and how to deal with sickness than anyone else she knew. They might be able to help her with Raiden.
But until the Triscani in that cave were dead, taking them down with her was too big of a risk. “Gentlemen, meet me at fifteen feet.”
She grabbed the gear she’d put together for Raiden, tucked the pony tank and attached gear under her arm, and jumped off the swim platform, determined to take her first breath of water since Celestina had let her out of the tank in what for her had been just a few hours ago. She bit down alarm and told her brain to shut up when it protested the move. She grabbed hold of the anchor rope and held on with the top of her head skimming the top of the water in case she needed to make a quick exit. Mari opened her eyes, the first test, and found that she could still see perfectly without a mask. Genetic mutation holding firm? Check.
Time for a giant leap of faith.
Hours of diving and training kicked in as she fought off the panic and forced her body to do what it didn’t want to, what it shouldn’t be able to do, inhale liquid like air.
Cold fluid made its way down her throat into her oxygen-starved lungs. She ignored the sensation and focused on the play of sunshine on the waves above her, the cool slide of the current caressing her dive suit. She allowed her body to drift a few feet down as she hung on to her anchor rope and tried to
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