[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
were supposed to make my diving buddies visible through ten feet of submarine
darkness?
Don't panic, I repeated. They must be around here someplace. If they're not,
then all you have to do is follow the markers back to the anchorline, and fin
your way up to the surface again. The problem was, there wasn't a marker in
sight, and in turning around to look for my companions, I had completely lost
my sense of direction. I could feel the chilly tidal stream flowing gently
against me, but when we had started diving the tide had been on the turn, and
I couldn't work out which direction it was flowing in, or how far it might
have carried me while I was just flapping around here thinking about what to
do.
My breath came in short, tense gasps. I tried not to think about all the
things that Edward and Dan Bass had warned me to watch out for. If you have to
surface, even in an emergency, don't come up too fast. You could end up with
an air embolism in your bloodstream that could conceivably kill you. Don't
come up any faster than your smallest bubbles, that was what Dan Bass had
advised; and, if you can, take a decompression stop on the way.
Burst lung was another danger: overinflating the lungs at depth, and coming to
the surface with too much pressure inside them, causing them to rupture.
I dog-paddled where I was for a moment or two, calming myself down. There was
still no sign of Edward or Forrest, and I couldn't locate any of the search
markers, so I guessed that the only thing I could do was to surface. In spite
of the tidal stream, I couldn't be too far away from the Alexis.
I was about to start finning my way upwards when I caught a glimpse of
something white through the tumbling murk of the water. My facemask was
slightly misted, and it was difficult for me to make out exactly how far away
it was, but I remembered that, seen through a facemask, all objects underwater
appear to be three-quarters nearer than they actually are. It could only be
Edward or Forrest. There weren't any other divers in the area, and it looked
154
far too large to be a fish. I thought momentarily of Jaws, but Dan Bass had
wryly assured me that the only Great Whites that had ever been seen off the
coast of New England had belonged to Universal Pictures.
Swimming steadily, trying to control my breathing so that it was regular and
even, I made my way over the ocean floor towards the white shape. It was
turning in the water, turning and rolling, as if it were being wafted by the
tidal stream; and, as I swam nearer, I realized that it couldn't be Edward or
Forrest, it looked more like a piece of yacht-sail that had gotten tangled up
in a piece of heavy fishing-equipment, and sunk to the bottom.
Page 74
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
It was only when I came very close, no more than two or three feet away, when
I realized with a chilling feeling of abject horror and disgust that it was a
drowned woman. She pivoted around, just as I approached, and I saw a face that
was bloated and eyeless, a mouth that had been half-eaten by fish, hair that
rose straight up from the top of her head like seaweed. She was wearing a
white nightgown, which billowed and waved as the tide came in and out. Her
ankle was loosely wound in a sunken trawl-net - which had prevented her from
rising to the surface or drifting away - but her decomposed body was now so
inflated with gas that she was standing upright, and dancing a grotesque
underwater ballet, all on her own, drowned, beneath the waves of Granitehead
Neck.
I backed off, trying to suppress my horror and my half-regurgitated Wheaties.
For Christ's sake, I told myself, you can't be sick. If you're sick, you'll
choke, and if you choke, you'll end up like Ophelia here, with your eyeballs
eaten out by bluefish. So calm down. Look the other way, forget about Ophelia,
there's nothing you can do for her anyway. Calm down. And slowly fin your way
up to the surface, and call for help.
I began swimming upwards, watching my bubbles carefully to make sure that I [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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were supposed to make my diving buddies visible through ten feet of submarine
darkness?
Don't panic, I repeated. They must be around here someplace. If they're not,
then all you have to do is follow the markers back to the anchorline, and fin
your way up to the surface again. The problem was, there wasn't a marker in
sight, and in turning around to look for my companions, I had completely lost
my sense of direction. I could feel the chilly tidal stream flowing gently
against me, but when we had started diving the tide had been on the turn, and
I couldn't work out which direction it was flowing in, or how far it might
have carried me while I was just flapping around here thinking about what to
do.
My breath came in short, tense gasps. I tried not to think about all the
things that Edward and Dan Bass had warned me to watch out for. If you have to
surface, even in an emergency, don't come up too fast. You could end up with
an air embolism in your bloodstream that could conceivably kill you. Don't
come up any faster than your smallest bubbles, that was what Dan Bass had
advised; and, if you can, take a decompression stop on the way.
Burst lung was another danger: overinflating the lungs at depth, and coming to
the surface with too much pressure inside them, causing them to rupture.
I dog-paddled where I was for a moment or two, calming myself down. There was
still no sign of Edward or Forrest, and I couldn't locate any of the search
markers, so I guessed that the only thing I could do was to surface. In spite
of the tidal stream, I couldn't be too far away from the Alexis.
I was about to start finning my way upwards when I caught a glimpse of
something white through the tumbling murk of the water. My facemask was
slightly misted, and it was difficult for me to make out exactly how far away
it was, but I remembered that, seen through a facemask, all objects underwater
appear to be three-quarters nearer than they actually are. It could only be
Edward or Forrest. There weren't any other divers in the area, and it looked
154
far too large to be a fish. I thought momentarily of Jaws, but Dan Bass had
wryly assured me that the only Great Whites that had ever been seen off the
coast of New England had belonged to Universal Pictures.
Swimming steadily, trying to control my breathing so that it was regular and
even, I made my way over the ocean floor towards the white shape. It was
turning in the water, turning and rolling, as if it were being wafted by the
tidal stream; and, as I swam nearer, I realized that it couldn't be Edward or
Forrest, it looked more like a piece of yacht-sail that had gotten tangled up
in a piece of heavy fishing-equipment, and sunk to the bottom.
Page 74
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
It was only when I came very close, no more than two or three feet away, when
I realized with a chilling feeling of abject horror and disgust that it was a
drowned woman. She pivoted around, just as I approached, and I saw a face that
was bloated and eyeless, a mouth that had been half-eaten by fish, hair that
rose straight up from the top of her head like seaweed. She was wearing a
white nightgown, which billowed and waved as the tide came in and out. Her
ankle was loosely wound in a sunken trawl-net - which had prevented her from
rising to the surface or drifting away - but her decomposed body was now so
inflated with gas that she was standing upright, and dancing a grotesque
underwater ballet, all on her own, drowned, beneath the waves of Granitehead
Neck.
I backed off, trying to suppress my horror and my half-regurgitated Wheaties.
For Christ's sake, I told myself, you can't be sick. If you're sick, you'll
choke, and if you choke, you'll end up like Ophelia here, with your eyeballs
eaten out by bluefish. So calm down. Look the other way, forget about Ophelia,
there's nothing you can do for her anyway. Calm down. And slowly fin your way
up to the surface, and call for help.
I began swimming upwards, watching my bubbles carefully to make sure that I [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]