Leap - 02(133)

Dirk and Sally both circled around from behind and popped their beaks out of the water.

We go now. We go now.

She looked at John. “Are you ready?”

“Yep.”

With that, the dolphins disappeared below, and Alison and Clay rolled forward, kicking their fins.

It was a clear day which provided the most sunlight and brilliantly lit up the beautiful coral below them. They hadn’t gone very far before Clay’s voice came over the speaker.

“Wow, Alison!”

She turned her head as they descended. “I know, right?!”

He stared, transfixed on the scene below them. The deep colors and vibrancy of the coral were almost unimaginable. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“Me either. This is what they pilgrimage to every year.”

Clay remained in awe as they drifted lower still. The amount and the variety of sea life were incredible, and he’d never seen underwater vegetation so encompassing. “I’ve never even seen this on a postcard before.”

Alison laughed.



Above them, Lee and Chris leaned over the small table together, trying to block enough sunshine to view the monitor clearly. The area was much tighter than their Prowler, but it was still a nice boat.

While they listened to Clay and Alison’s exchange over the speakers, Lee turned to Chris. “Are you going down again?”

“Heck, yeah!”

Lee laughed and looked around the white fiberglass cockpit of the catamaran. “Mr. Clay has a nice sailboat, eh?”

“He sure does. He needs a coffee machine though.”



Below the boat, Clay reached out and grabbed Alison’s hand. He kicked hard and accelerated, pulling her along with him. Still following Dirk and Sally, they glided over a small falloff in the coral, giving them a brief sensation of flying.

Several hundred yards behind them, the largest plants swayed rhythmically in the gentle current. Beneath the vegetation was a small crack in the coral. Very gradually, and almost imperceptibly, something small emerged from the crack barely a millimeter across. It slowly floated free and rose just a few inches before the bright, glowing green bubble popped and dissolved into the swirling water.

And if Clay and Alison had been able to view the reef from the air, the two would have noticed a strangely symmetrical shape. As though something large were buried beneath it.