𝙳𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝙸𝚗𝚝𝚘 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙳𝚎𝚙𝚝𝚑𝚜✓

𝚃𝙷𝚁𝙴𝙴

"I wanna go to Mana One with you."

Evelyn glanced up from her book, quirking an eyebrow at the fourteen year old as she continued, "I want to dive the trench."

"No," Jonas stated simply, "sorry Meiying."

Eve didn't want to face him after last night so she continued reading, barely paying attention to the conversation at hand.

"Why not? Mom was diving all the time at my age."

"Not to 25,000 feet."

"Saying it's dangerous?"

"To dangerous for you...But not dangerous."

"In psychology, they called that 'cognitive dissonance.'"

"In the real world, they call it 'parenting.'"

"You need to start taking me seriously as a scientist."

"You're fourteen."

"Exactly. I know every system on Mana One, every dive protocol and every animal we've seen down there."

"Hey look...You can come to Mana One. To observe the dive. And that's it."

The door to the room opened, having the blue haired look up from a page to actually pay attention to the brown haired female panting for breath.

"Jiuming is swimming with the Meg," Rigas reported. "He's doing what?" Evelyn instantly shot to her feet, grasping the book's spine tightly as she memorized the page number, slamming the book shut. She rushed out of the room when Rigas moved to the side to allow her to pass, Jonas and Meiying following in pursuit.

Once they got to the observation room, she opened one side of the double doors and entered. There were other people in the room, but she couldn't focus on them.

"Haiqi's vitals are elevated," Curtis spoke to the man in an all black wetsuit underwater, "be careful, she's definitely aware of you."

Jonas walked up to her and grabbed the walkie talkie she had so he could communicate with the male asking for a death wish. "Why are you swimming with the Meg, Jiuming?" He asked him.

'I am conducting an experiment,' the man simply stated.

Evelyn took the walkie talkie next. "Is the experiment called 'Do I taste good?'" Meiying grasped the device and spoke in Mandarin, "Uncle, are you crazy?"

"Not just crazy, he's batshit loco," Evelyn added.

'It's okay,' Jiuming reassured her, 'I've been training Haiqi since she was a pup.'

"A Meg is not trainable, Jiuming," Jonas interjected matter of factly after grabbing the device, "but if you wanna be eaten in front of your niece, go ahead."

Evelyn yanked the device out of his hands and counteracted in Mandarin, "ignore him. He's not right in his head now. Do not get eaten by that thing in front of your niece. I will, and when I tell you I will, I really mean it, not hesitate to get in the water and murder that thing myself, and add it as an item to the menu of my new sushi restaurant."

"You don't even have a sushi restaurant," Meiying inputted. "I might, soon," Evelyn gripped the button of the device.

"Fifty bucks says this is gonna end badly," Rigas quipped. "I'll take that action," a male with a beanie on, Lance? If she could remember, agreed as he walked past her.