Over the side they went and into the cool water. The cold slipped in through the lose gaps in her wetsuit. Down the hole at her neck it went and surrounded her body. Cold but not freezing. It would help to form an insulating layer even though right now it made her almost catch her breath. She focused on that, on the even in and out of the air flowing into her lungs. The limited amount of air they had made it even more important to keep relaxed. She knew she would get used to the water soon even though it wasn’t going to get any warmer as they descended.

  She looked around and then quickly picked up the pace. The others had already started their descent and they were moving fast, following Miles into the darkness.

  They all carried lights and wore basic flotation devices and weight belts. The tanks were all painted a bright yellow, a non-standard colour for what they were carrying but they were all the same basic air mix so there was no chance of mixing them up. The gear looked old and worn even though Amanda knew some of it couldn’t be more than a few years old. They obviously did this a lot. Despite the dents and scratches and fading colours, everything had been in working condition and Amanda had watched Pinto doing his checks.

  There were risks with this sort of dive, least of which was the idea of some monstrous kraken hiding out there beyond the reach of her vision. Krakens had some of the best vision of any animal in the ocean though so even though she may not be able to see it, if there was one out there, there was a good chance it was watching them right now. And for every metre they descended and every second they stayed down, gas would dissolve into their bodies creating a silent threat that could kill anyone who ascended too quickly.

  As her eyes adjusted Amanda could make out a dark shape lying on the ocean floor not far below. It was easy to see now and she was amazed she hadn’t noticed it before given how close it really was. Miles description had been accurate, the sunken ship was a monster in its own right. She had seen movies brought over from the old world, stories about human navy vessels and comics depicting aliens from outer space. She had thought metal ships just a fantasy, something they put in their films for fun, but here below her was one that looked so very much like those giant metal ships in the movies she watched. More than anything though, as it lay there surrounded on all sides by water, its hull torn open wide by something large, it looked like a spaceship from an alien planet, and Amanda wondered if such things like this could exist, then what else from her comics and movies of the old world were real. Were there aliens in outerspace too?

  She tried to keep pace with the others, but they moved fast. She was sure the only reason she didn’t lose them completely was because they were carrying the ropes to be tied to the containers. She saw Sirius pause and turn to look for her. He waited for her to catch up and then he offered her a hand and gave her a hard pull, granting her a bit more speed.

  The sunken ship didn’t get any smaller. Indeed it dwarfed Morgan’s own ship and then some. It had to be at least twice as big if not more so. The sea floor sloped down and it was clear that the giant hole in the lower end was the cause of its sinking. It looked like it had been torn off completely and Amanda could see no remnants of it anywhere nearby. She didn’t want to know what size creature had been capable of such damage, certainly not the one that had attacked The Black Dog. Something bigger was responsible for this. It was a little too far away to see but the edges of the hole looked strangely smooth. The depth they were going to on this dive was right on the safe limit for avoiding narcosis from the gases they were breathing and the lower end of the ship lay beyond that point. Technically 30 metres was the actual safe limit and there was always some risk but as long as they kept above 50 metres, it was manageable.

  Miles led them in through a door. It was a large metal one which looked like it weighed a couple hundred kilograms. It was wide enough and tall enough to fit a shipping container through. Brutus pushed it open and then had to find something to wedge it in place with due to the slight slope in the room making it want to swing shut again. Amanda slipped into the room quickly, deciding she wouldn’t want to be in the way of the door if that wedge came loose.

  Inside, twenty or thirty shipping containers lay stacked, or at least they once had been. In whatever chaos had occurred when the ship had been sunk, the containers had been wildly thrown about and she could understand what Miles meant when he said they’d have to be careful about the order they moved them in. Some of them were stacked like haphazard 1000kg blocks in a giant’s Jenga game. One wrong move and several crates could easily come tumbling down.

  Near the front of the group, Miles, now in octopus form, was pointing out specific containers to Pinto who was gesturing and pointing in reply. After several seconds of some back and forth Brutus went over to join them, tapping his wrist to remind them that they were on a tight schedule.

  Amanda felt a tap on her shoulder and she turned to find Sirius. He pointed out the door where not far away a school of silver fish were swimming past. He watched them for a second and then he turned back toward the others to make sure he wasn’t missing anything.

  Amanda continued watching the fish until Sirius got her attention again and handed her the webbing which was attached to the end of the large ropes which would be used to reel the crates in. Attaching the webbing and making sure it was secure was her and Miles’s job. Sirius pointed to where she should stand until they’d gotten the crate into position. The plan was for the strongarms to move it as close to the door as possible. Miles joined her a moment later, still in octopus form, as the three strongarms got into position around the selected crate while Pinto gestured out a plan.

  The crate they’d picked was one which sat on the topmost portion of the pile. It sat almost entirely on one edge resting between the two angled tops of the crates below it and the wall behind them. At first Amanda wasn’t sure why’d they’d picked that one. It looked to be more precariously positioned than any of the others but it was also higher up above many of the others too, making a hazard of itself no matter which crate they moved. Getting this one out of the way also looked like it would free up some access to the others below it.

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  Amanda watched with concern as Sirius took the rear and slightly lower position. If anything went wrong he was the one who would be crushed. Hopefully the things weren’t that heavy.

  Sam took up the topmost position, directly opposite Sirius, while Brutus got in under the centre of the container.

  Using only his hands, Pinto did a countdown while Amanda and Miles kept well back.

  3… 2…1…

  From underneath Brutus looked to be putting in everything he had. Sirius and Miles weren’t positioned to put in as much direct strength but they still did what they could and they maintained the balance of the container.

  For a second it looked like they were making progress.

  Just as they started to get the crate up in the air, Brutus suddenly let it go. It came crashing down with loud clang. Luckily it hadn’t been so high up and Sirius and Sam managed to keep the lateral position pretty much constant.

  After a short amount of communication by gesture they gave it another go. It seemed like it was heavier than Brutus had expected but not out of the realms of doable.

  Sirius got himself more directly under the end where he could get more leverage and aid Brutus with the lifting. It also meant he was more in the falling line of the crate and less where Amanda could see him. She didn’t like it but there wasn’t much she could do about it. It was safer if she stayed out of the way for this one. She just hoped they knew what they were doing.

  Once more they gave the container a decent lift. Up it went, same as before, then even higher than before. Then they started to move it sideways.

  Amanda tried not to hold her breath. She wondered how much faster they would burn through their air using their magic. It did make some difference she knew. A lot of that depended on how efficient they each were. Combined with the fact that men tended to churn through their air faster than woman meant she was far more worried about them than she was about her own air supply. Then again, they were probably all a lot fitter than she was, but bigger too. And bigger bodies meant bigger lungs which meant more air consumption. Still, narcosis wasn’t a completely eliminated risk and keeping her breathing relaxed and constant would help her avoid that.

  They got the container about a metre or two from its starting position and then disaster struck.

  The crate suddenly tilted backward. Toward Sirius.

  Brutus made several sudden grabs but the container edge allowed him no solid grip.

  And then with a clatter and one ginormous crash it fell head over tail and landed on its side further down the stack of containers.

  Amanda swam forward. Where was Sirius?

  But she needn’t have worried. A moment later he popped his head up from behind one of the lower crates. It seemed the runaway crate had gone right over him, without leaving a scratch.

  Amanda relaxed and kept back. Although she longed to hug him and check he was alright, she knew there wasn’t time. The minutes were ticking by and they hadn’t got a single container out yet.

  Several questioning gestures were made in Sam’s direction, the latter of whom simply shrugged in reply. Then Pinto was gesturing to a different container and they were soon back at it.

  This one proved easier to move, whether it was because it was lighter or the position was just easier, Amanda wasn’t sure. But they got it to the door in record time and there they held it while Amanda, Miles, and Pinto affixed the webbing. Once that was done and everyone was clear of the crate the strongarms pushed it out the door while Miles swam for the surface, still in octopus form, to let them know they could start reeling things in.

  When Amanda turned back toward the others they were already getting started moving the next one. This one went faster than the previous. They had three sets of rope and webbing so they could tie this one in even before the last one had reached the ship. Even the tying felt faster, so much so that Amanda thought maybe they’d made up for the time they’d lost on the first failed attempt. But when she checked her air she knew it wasn’t so. She was surprised to see how low it had gotten already and when she looked up at the others, Pinto was signaling for them to go back up.

  Their decompression time took nearly 20 minutes and Amanda’s air ran out right about the moment they surfaced. She ripped off her mask, took in some gaping breaths of surface air, and tried not to think about how close they had cut it. And they’d only gotten two containers. They’d have to move a lot faster next dive if they wanted to get three. The initial scoping had added some time though and as they sat in the boat and counted down the time it took to off-gas Pinto was already discussing which containers they should go for next.

  Sirius reached over and took a look at Amanda’s air gauge.

  “Shit!” he remarked when he saw how low it was. “You had basically nothing left.”

  She shrugged. “How much did you have?” She checked his gauge but it wasn’t as low as hers.

  Brutus’s was similar though, virtually out. Pinto’s was more like Sirius’s, and Sam refused to share his with anyone.

  Ryan watched the activity going on back at the main boat with a frown. “Only two crates?”

  “We’ll get more next time,” Pinto told him.

  “Will we?” Sirius asked. He glanced briefly at Amanda and she had no doubt what he was worried about.

  She shook her head. “I’ll be fine. We were pretty comfortable about the decompression time anyway.”

  “You don’t want to cut it too close,” Riki reminded them. “I can help if one of you fucks up but I can’t heal more than one person at a time.”

  Pinto shook his head. “We had a cock up with the first crate and we know which ones we’re going for this time. It should be a lot more straightforward.” To Amanda and Brutus he added, “Keep a close eye on your air.”

  They stayed long enough on the surface to be sure not to have to add any more decompression time for the next dive. Normally something that wouldn’t have been possible unless they’d returned to the main ship for several hours. However, it turned out Riki wasn’t just there in case something went wrong and despite Pinto’s warning about not cutting decomp short Riki had long since perfected the art of speeding up the time it took for dissolved gasses to leave a person’s system in a safe manner. It still took him well over two hours at some increased risk of developing cancer in the future, although Riki assured them it was only a very small risk with his magic. He did also clarify once again that if everyone decided to cut their decomp short, he wouldn’t be able to save them all.

  “Riki’s one of the best healers on the entire southern seas,” Sirius reassured her. “He was training to be a sorcerer once.”

  “Failed my first year,” Riki told her.

  That didn’t worry Amanda though. Just getting into sorcery school was an achievement. It also made her feel a lot better about any potential risks of decompression sickness. There was still a lot that could go wrong of course, especially since Riki wasn’t down there with them but it was something.

  “His specialty is dealing with drownings,” remarked Ryan, his eyes never leaving the activity at The Wolverine. “I’ve seen him bring at least two men back from the almost dead.”

  Amanda hoped he wouldn’t have to give demonstration.

  Their wait time worked out roughly about how long it took the crew back on The Wolverine to empty out the containers of their contents. The containers themselves were then dumped back in the sea. Once the ropes and webbing were rowed back out to them, down they all went with fresh tanks.