I must have dropped it, he thought.
Angrily he berated himself for not looping the thong on the knife’s handle over his wrist to prevent that happening. Part of his mind told him not to be ridiculous as there had been no time, but the other part tried to come up with a plan.
Then Andrew noticed a third diver in black had appeared from the direction of the rubber boat. This diver also had a twin spear speargun.
We are all dead! Andrew thought bitterly. He turned to gesture to Carmen to swim. Get away! Swim for your life! his mind screamed.
To his dismay she had let go of Tristan’s body and had swum over to grab hold of him. Frantic for her safety Andrew tried to push her away and then he gestured furiously for her to get going.
To his annoyance he saw that she was shaking her head and holding on to him. Groaning with defeat and despair Andrew saw that the third diver had arrived and was looking around and making furious signals with his left arm and hands.
No chance now, Andrew thought. He began to brace himself for death—regret and terror becoming the dominant emotions.
Then he saw that the third diver was making angry gestures and pointing towards the rubber boat. Both the other divers began indicating to them to start swimming that way.
Not yet then, Andrew decided.
But the dread was tight in his chest and he was still gulping air too fast. And now the pain was starting. Up till then the wound had felt numb, but streaks of agony began to shoot up his spine and down along his right leg. The steel shaft of the spear felt as though it was grinding against the back of his thigh bone.
But there was no doubt that the divers wanted them to go towards the rubber boat. Andrew made a few feeble strokes, but Carmen gripped him tight and looked close into his eyes, face mask to face mask. Andrew saw the mingled fear and concern in her eyes and then she began towing him, holding him close as she did.
Andrew found he could hardly move and at last managed to slow his breathing. As he was dragged along he saw that Ella was swimming beside them, her head moving from side to side and her eyes wide with terror. Behind them came the three divers, their weapons aimed at them. The diver who had killed Tristan was towing his body, gripping it by the gauges on his air tank. A swirl of blood still seeped from Tristan’s head but was almost immediately dispersed in the water.
The sight of that blood got Andrew thinking. I must be bleeding too, he thought. But he could not turn his head enough to see. He found not knowing was worse. His imagination took over. Blood attracts sharks, he thought.
He remembered reading that even the tiniest amount, parts per million quantities, could be smelt by sharks at incredible distances. Another wave of gut squeezing terror engulfed him and he began looking around in an attempt to spot any attack before it struck him.
By then the combined effect of swimming and of the current had them close to the rubber boat. The third diver now pointed towards where the dive boat was anchored and made signals to the first diver. He dragged Tristan’s body up to the rubber boat and then hauled both himself and it aboard. Andrew watched with fascinated horror as Tristan’s legs and fins vanished up through the rippling silver ceiling that was the surface of the sea.
The third diver angrily gesticulated and pointed and the threat of his speargun got them moving again. Andrew tried to use his limbs but Carmen shook her head and held him so he stopped struggling and left it to her. As they swam they rose slowly and were now only five metres down.
I shouldn’t drown now, Andrew thought, conscious that his air must be just about exhausted.
In the end his air did run out. He sucked and nothing came and a second suck just produced panic. Frantically he gestured to Carmen and pointed to his regulator. She at once unclipped her alternate air source and held it out for him. Andrew spat out his regulator and grabbed the alternate and placed it in his mouth. A quick blast cleared it and he thankfully gulped a breath of air.
Thank heavens for all that training, he thought, remembering how much they had been drilled by the instructor during his Open Water and Advanced Diving courses.
Carmen now angled upwards and a minute later they broke surface. Andrew sobbed with relief as his head broke through into the fresh air and sunlight. But he kept his regulator in his mouth as he knew from experience that if he did not he could easily swallow a mouthful of salt water as he tried to breathe and in his current state that could be disastrous. Once she was on the surface Carmen inflated her BCD to give them both buoyancy.
The rubber boat appeared near them and the man in it, his speargun reloaded, pointed behind Andrew. He screwed his neck around to see how far they were from the dive boat and immediately regretted it as a stabbing pain lanced through him again. The horrible thought that the spear had damaged his spine sent chills of apprehension through Andrew. But he had spotted the dive boat. It was about two hundred metres away.
Maybe Mr Craig can save us, Andrew thought. But it was a feeble hope as Mr Craig was just an unarmed, middle-aged man against three armed and fit younger men. Who are they? And what are they doing? Andrew wondered. And what will they do to us? That was the real worry. Will they kill us too? he worried.
It took Carmen five minutes to swim the distance. Every minute added to the tension and apprehension building in Andrew. The rubber boat circled them continually and Andrew noted that Dan was not in it.
Where is he? he wondered. Is he dead or is he a prisoner like us? It was a terrifying mystery and it took all of Andrew’s courage to face whatever might be ahead.
From time to time as his face mask dipped under Andrew got glimpses of the other divers. They were swimming towards the dive boat as well, shepherding Ella. To make things worse other fears continued to nag at Andrew. Chief among these was the worry about sharks and he kept glancing around as well as he could in the vain hope of spotting any that might be approaching.
They were in the lee of the reef by then and Andrew saw the exposed coral and the small sand cay off to his left as Carmen towed him on his back. The waves subsided to less than fifteen centimetres and the current also eased as it spread in the wider waters beyond the reef.
What is going on? Andrew wondered. And how can we get away?
That and dread over what injuries he might have suffered—and might be facing—kept him mentally occupied as Carmen struggled the last fifty metres. As she did Andrew saw that a large, modern fishing boat of the ‘Game Fishing’ type with three levels of superstructure on its gleaming white hull was tied on the far side of the dive boat. Seeing the other boat explained to Andrew where the three divers had come from but left him shivering with shock and filled with dread.
As they reached the dive boat, Carmen swung Andrew around to bring him in head first to the steel mesh dive platform which was hinged down at the stern so that it was just below water level. She reached it and hung on, gasping for breath and trembling from the exertion and obvious distress. Andrew felt relief tinged by anxiety about what was to happen next but he had the hope that the men had brought them back to question them.
They would have just killed us out there otherwise, he reasoned.
Lying on his back as he was Andrew was able to look up. Squinting against the glare of the sun he made out another strange man, bearded and dressed in black and armed with a submachine gun. The man with the SMG was standing at the stern of the dive launch and had the weapon aimed at Dan and Mr Craig.
At least they are alive, Andrew thought.
Three heads surfaced nearby and the third diver hauled himself up onto the dive platform. As the man hauled himself upright using the port ladder for support he unclipped his helmet and pulled it off. This revealed him to have a thin, hard face with high cheekbones. His hair was cut very short and as he turned to look down at Andrew the hard look in his dark eyes sent chills of apprehension through him. The man pointed the speargun at Andrew.
Staring