The Survivors(65)

He swam on, distracted enough by his thoughts that it took him a second to realise that Verity had pulled up short. She was pointing at something through the water, and Kieran looked over to see George swimming towards them, very fast, his legs flipper-kicking up a cloud of sediment. Immediately on high alert, Kieran surged forward to meet him, one hand ready to grab for his back-up respirator line in case George reached up with that terrible cut-throat slashing signal. No air.

But no, Kieran could see now as they came face to face. George still had his primary respirator in his mouth, the bursts of bubbles flowing normally, if a little fast.

Kieran put his finger and thumb together. Okay?

George’s expression was distorted by his mask but his hand immediately went out flat, palm down, twisting back and forth at the wrist. Something wrong.

Kieran pointed, trying to work out what. Mask? Oxygen? George was shaking his head. He raised a hand, his thumb and first finger forming an L shape with his glove, and suddenly Kieran realised what was right in front of him. George was all alone. Kieran twisted around. Near the stern, he could make out only the beam of Sean’s torch as it bounced and swept over the twisted wreckage. He could see no other diver. No Liam.

George was making an L shape again and a frantic thumbs-up motion.

Kieran repeated it back to make sure he’d understood. Liam has gone to the surface?

George started nodding behind his mask.

Kieran put out his flat palm and twisted his wrist. Something wrong?

Yes. A mirrored reply. Something wrong.





Chapter 23


The ascent to the surface felt like the longest one Kieran could remember. They had found Sean and immediately begun the slow crawl upwards. Kieran could tell Sean was considering pulling ahead, calculating how far he could push the safety standards. He was starting to drift up, and Kieran had reached out and caught his wrist. Don’t. Stay. Kieran could see the effort it took him to slow down, but he did, and the four of them moved towards the surface together. Another minute, another nine metres.

Liam was on the boat.

He was sitting cross-legged, hunched over as he stared across the sea to the caves on the shore. He had stripped off all his equipment including his wetsuit and was shivering in just his shorts, a towel draped around his shoulders. He looked up as they emerged.

‘What happened?’ Sean was the first on board, his fear visibly waning at the sight of his nephew alive, if perhaps not completely well. Sean waited, but Liam wouldn’t meet his eye.

‘I dunno.’

‘You don’t know?’

Kieran had not often seen Sean angry, but he was fast getting there now.

‘Liam?’ Sean tried again. ‘Oi. Hey. You listening? What’s going on?’

‘I said. Nothing.’

‘Nothing?’

‘I’d had enough, all right?’

Sean stared at his nephew. ‘Are you serious? So, what, you just decided to come up? Didn’t bother telling anyone?’

‘George saw me.’ He didn’t glance at the writer, who was watching Liam closely, his brow creased.

‘That’s not what I bloody meant,’ Sean said. ‘And leaving George is a whole other thing for you and me to have a very long chat about, by the way.’

‘Yeah, okay. I can hear.’ Liam shook his head. ‘I don’t know what I can tell you. I’d had enough of being down there so I came up.’

Sean looked at him, shivering on the deck. ‘Did you even ascend properly?’

A small nod. The only sound was the water lapping against the boat.

‘All right,’ Sean said, finally. ‘Let’s get back. We’ll talk about this later. You got anything you want to say to everyone?’

No answer.

‘Liam? Jesus, you’re still not even listening –’

‘I am. Sorry. It’s just –’ Liam was frowning now, his eyes focused on the shore.

‘What? What’s going on, mate?’

‘There’s something wrong out there, you know.’

Sean blinked. ‘Down at the wreck?’

‘No. Out there.’ They all turned to follow Liam’s gaze, towards The Survivors and the cliffs and caves beyond.

‘What are you on about?’ Sean frowned.

‘The birds have been all riled up lately.’ Liam’s voice was still flat. ‘On and off. Something’s been scaring them.’

George tilted his head, squinting. Above the cliffs, the sky was mostly still and clear. ‘They look fine now.’

‘And what would you know about how things are around here, mate?’ Liam snapped. ‘You don’t even know how to kick properly.’ He sighed, his energy spent. ‘They’re fine right now, but they’ve been getting worked up about something.’ He jerked his head in Kieran’s direction. ‘It happened the other day when he and his baby were messing around down there, and the day before that.’

‘You went down to the caves?’ Verity said sharply, fixing Kieran with a gaze that made him squirm. ‘With Audrey?’

‘Yeah. Only once though. And not for long.’

His mother did not look away. ‘Why would you do that?’

‘I hadn’t planned to, I –’ Kieran stopped. He couldn’t explain. ‘The tide was out. It was fine.’