Glass Ceilings (38 page)

His body jerked
and he wrenched his head around to face
her
. H
is eyes
look
ed huge in his mask, the cl
assic
sign of a panicking diver. H
e
made
de
sperate sounds in his throat while gesturing
wildly
with one arm—t
he
other
one
was wedged between his body and the rock wall.

He was trapped.

Verity’s
eyes widened in
horror as he
made the
‘cut throat’ signal
with his free hand
and promptly spat
out his regulator
. She watc
hed as it fell to the ocean floor
, emitting only
a brief burst of
sparse bubbles
.

Royce
was out of air.

Verity
quickly
felt
aro
u
nd behind her own tank for
the spare regulator
. As soon as she had hold of it, she pushed
it towards Royce
.
He jammed it into his mouth, and s
he wondered if he wou
ld drain
her
tank
dry
.
He close
d his eyes while drawing in the
precious air, and when he opened them
again
, she saw the panic subsiding.
She smiled encouragingly at him and w
as pleased to see his eyes tilt
weakly in return. He was safe for the moment, but she knew
her tank’s air supply wouldn’
t last
very long with two
of them breathing from it.

She tur
ned her attention to finding a way
to
release
him from his rocky trap.
H
e
indicated
hi
s right side
and s
he
found his tank’s gauges there
,
and pulled them free.
A puzzled frown cross
ed
her face when she saw
the pressure gauge still reading full.
It
should have indicated
half
empty at the most, as hers did—
or had done
last time she looked
.
She gave a shudder. T
ime was quickly run
ning out and she had to free Royce
as soon as possible. Once her tank was
empty
of air, they were both in big trouble.

She hurriedly located the first stage on his tank, which was wedged against the roof.

He’s caught the valve on the rocks while scraping through the tight entrance
... t
hat
could
have turned it to the off position,
stopping
the flow
to his regulator
,
she thought hopefully
.

If there was still air in his tank that she could release,
it
would give her more time to free him.

Here’s hoping
....

Her finger
s felt anxiously for the
valve and managed to turn it
. A thin trail of blood flowed into the water. She’d cut her fingers on the sharp rocks in the process. Royce saw the red stain
suspended in the water,
and
made as though to grasp
her hand. S
he shook her head
impatiently
and
grabbed his regulator from where it floated
uselessly in front of him, hurriedly
p
ressing
the release button. Nothi
ng happened so s
he tried again,
eager
to see
a rush of
precious air bubbles
. B
ut
once more,
there was no reaction
.
The regulator sat limply in her hand.
She tried turning the valve again, but it was no use
.
Royce’s air tank was
emp
ty, despite what the gauge rea
d.

Verity
anxiously checked her own
tank’s
pressure.
It was down to a quarter full. Dread rose in her
but
Royce
was watching
, so
she had
to
stay
calm.

No good both
of us panicking
, she
reproached
herself.

Drawing back a little, she
took a second to think, scrunching up her face in concentration. Royce reached out and took her hand, and her heart turned over at the trust she saw in his eyes
.
Sh
e tried to smile
reassuringly
.

I have to save him,
I just have to.

She
knew h
e would have tried everything
in his power to free himself, so he
must be
well and truly stuck. Judging by his position, he had become wedged in the narrow entrance after
hastily trying to reverse
back out
, presumably after discovering
he was running out of air.

She had to face facts
,
it may not be possible to get him
free
on her own.

Her tank was running low, and the longer they both relied on it, the shorter the time she had to free him.
When she realised she had only one option, s
he look
ed away so he c
ouldn’t see her
expression
.
Taking a deep breath, she
turned back to grasp
his free arm
and pull
ed
hers
elf to within inches of his face
. H
e eyed her anxiously
and she
gave him a confident wink, with a
self-assurance
she didn’t feel
.

When s
he gestured
that she was abandoning her gear
to make an
emergency ascent to the surface, h
e
gave a troubled frown but
nodded his understanding. Reaching
over to grip the straps of her BCD
so he could hold her tank when she took it off, he pulled her as close as he could. Mask to mask, his eyes
bored into hers.

W
as
it
fear for his own
safety
,
or hers
,
she saw in their depths?
She knew it was risky—
divers only made eme
rgency ascents as a last resort—
but she didn’t hesitate
. She
undid
her weight belt and
the straps on her BCD
in preparation for the ascent.
As she braced herself to take o
ne last breath, Royce wedged her
tank under his upper
body so he could
touch her cheek
with his one free hand
.

The intense look in his eyes made her pause
. They
gaze
d at each other
for a
brief
moment, their breaths almost synchronised.
S
miling
encouragement
, Verity
took
the
regulator out of her mouth and dropped
her weight belt.
F
reed from the restrictive weights, her body
rose
quickly in the water, and she kicked herself away from Royce and towa
rds the hole in the cave roof.
When she reached its rocky edge, she
held he
rself there and carefully lodged
her bright yellow torch
among the rocks
as a marker
,
so the entrance could be more easily found. Then she looked down at Royce once more
be
fore pushing herself
up
wards,
towards the sunlight.

Royce watched from below as Verity’s
fins
disappeared through the hole. Closing
his eyes
, he
tried to slow his breathing
,
w
onder
ing
if these
might
be his final
breaths. He had
to preserve as much air as possible
, to give them time to rescue him
.

He had so much to live for
....

Forcing herself
to remember the training in her dive
course
,
Verity opened her mouth
and began
carefully
expelling
air
in a long ‘ahhh’
as she rose
from the depths
.
Doing that
seemed crazy in the circumstances, but she knew from her training that the pressurised air
she held in her lungs
would expand as she rose throu
gh the atmospheres
, and could cause serious injury to her lungs if not released
.

She
was
gaining momentum, but already
felt the urge
to take a breath, and
still had som
e way to go.
Using all the strength in her legs, sh
e
kicked powerfully
, wondering
if she would
get to
the surface
in time
.
Faster and faster she rose, one arm outstretched
above her head
, the other tucked into her side to streamline her body, bubbles coming in a
continual flow
from her open mouth.
Her lungs strained less a
s she
ascended and the air inside them expanded
. She could see the surface ra
pidly approaching.

S
he was going to make it.

* * *

Everyone was quiet and withdrawn during the trip home. Royce’s close call had given them all a fright, none more so than his errant buddy
. All the way to the jetty, the man
kept apologising and
rebuking
himself for being
so
irresponsible.
Royce soon tired of reassuring him they were both at fault, and withdrew to a far corner of the deck. There he sat silently, watching the
horizon as they headed towards the island
.

The only ones who seemed unaffected by the incident were the boat’s crew
, apart from
a guilt-ridden Andy
.
The
y
kept
recoun
ting
th
e story to
the other returning divers
,
describing Verity
“
exploding
from
the water
like a Polaris missile
”
,
shouting ‘Ahhh!’ and then
gasping lungs full of air
and yelling
to alert them of Royce’s plight below.
T
he skipper and first mate had immediately donned scuba gear and descended, armed with a spare tank, to extract Ro
yce from his rocky predicament.

Verity appeared in the doorway of the bridge.
She had been in there ever since Royce was help
ed aboard and she’d
satisfied
herself
that
he was alright.
She was pale from the ordeal but her eyes held a steely gleam and her mouth was set in a grim line. She looked over to where Royce was sitting, a little detached from the other passengers. Just then, the captain beckoned her
in
to the cabin saying, ‘I’ve got Hank from the dive shop on the rad
io for you,’ and she went inside
again
.

Royce was oblivious to all around him as he sat lost in his own thoughts.