Shipwrecked with Mr. Wrong - By Nikki Logan Page 0,23

into his mouth, sucked in a few test breaths and tumbled backwards over The Player’s starboard side. Honor looked over the edge and watched him descend. There was a flurry of splashing and bubbles and then...

Silence.

* * *

The last thing Rob saw as he hit the water was Honor’s pale face watching him drop. He didn’t understand how a woman who studied marine creatures for a living could have an aversion to boats, but her nerves were obvious on their short trip around to the south-east corner of the island.

Maybe that was why she had a thing for terrestrial marine creatures, he thought as he descended slowly into the colder water below the surface.

He checked all his gauges and straps and then looked around him. He could see the looming darkness of the drop-off towards shore, the outer edge of the same coral band he’d first met Honor on. But it was wider on the south side of the island and the drop-off was sheer. That was how the Emden’s besieged captain had been able to scuttle his own ship. He’d quite literally sailed from deep water right onto the reef two feet below the surface. As the Emden had broken apart in rough weather, the densest parts had slid off the drop-off and sank away out to sea before coming to rest on the sea floor.

He approached that floor now and the water turned from indigo to a richer, less earthly colour. The Emden didn’t lie so deep that natural light couldn’t filter down to it, but it was far enough that the light quality changed as it descended, becoming a strange, ethereal blue. He knew without looking his skin would be a sickly, translucent colour for the same reason.

The local fish had specialised for this unique light. Their colours were vibrant and complementary as they darted around the unexpected human arrival. Dark shapes on the ocean floor came into focus. Rob was excited, but forced himself to slow his breathing and his pace and remembered, guiltily, to ping the remote monitor. He swam on. If Honor called him back now he knew he’d have a hard time making good on his promise to return.

The wreck spread over some distance. Massive parts of it had completely broken apart, caking the sea floor with corroded residue. Nothing rusted down here; in the absence of air, it all just...dissolved. The densest parts survived the longest and Rob had no trouble making out the pointed bow of the SMS Emden. It was battleship grey no longer, caked now with golden corals, brain-shaped clusters and microscopic marine life. Sponge fingers waved in the gentle floor current and blue-lipped clams bonded to the old steel, filtering goodness from the water all around him.

It was just like the photographs and nothing like them.

He remembered to ping again.

He rounded the Emden’s bow and saw two enormous Mickey Mouse ears sticking out of the sand in the distance. His heart kicked out and the number of bubbles leaving his mask doubled. He swam towards the visible part of the Emden’s giant propeller, crusted over with barnacles and limpets. The other half had become sea floor.

Ping.

Fish continued to dart this way and that, braver now he’d shown them no harm. One or two became his undersea chaperones, following him with interest as he drifted around. He slowed to a stop and held his breath. Not the smartest thing to do while diving but he risked it for a chance to take in the otherworldly silence of the ocean floor.

Not silence, though. Any more than Honor’s island was silent. The water carried magnified noises to his exposed ears. The last of the bubbles floated off with his expelled breath and with them their distinctive and relentless bub-a-lub. The dense silence surrounding him was broken by the strange creaks, pops and squeaks of undersea creatures.

He saw a looming shape in the distance. Too small to be a shark, too big to be a fish. A ray, maybe? As it neared, its shape resolved into one of Honor’s green turtles. It glided effortlessly through the water, its bulk and weight meaningless in the low gravity environment. On shore, it would be a different story. He immediately thought of Honor and how excited she would be to see one in its natural underwater environment.

Honor...

Ping.

The hour passed all too quickly. Rob swam over the entire wreck, memorising the detail, examining everything and touching nothing. His mind buzzed with unanswerable questions about what he’d