Sara’s eyes widened as they rose from the ground and rested on the last person she expected to see deep under the ocean’s surface.
Slink.
He was flanked once again by Ettie and Tane. “No,” she said in surprise. “What are you doing here?”
“Dreams do come true.” Slink ignored her question. His smile widened, showing blackened teeth. His body looked more emaciated than ever.
“How’s your boyfriend?” Slink chuckled. “It looks like he’s doing a great job protecting you.”
“Shut up, Slink.” The deep, baritone voice caught her attention. She looked toward the opposite end of the long, narrow cell. A blond, tanned man strode toward them. His skin was dusted with white (salt maybe). Her defenses rose. There was something familiar about this man.
He sauntered over to her. “Sorry about Slink. I think his mother dropped him on his head when he was a baby.”
The stranger put his hand out to shake hers. She kept her hand to herself, not willing to trust this prisoner yet.
“Don’t worry, I won’t bite. I can’t vouch for those three.” His head jerked back towards Slink, Ettie, and Tane. “My name’s Josh, Josh Talbot.”
Sara’s jaw dropped. “You’re the famous deep sea diver. The one that was lost in a diving accident.”
Josh barked out a laugh. “You heard about that? It was no accident. I made the greatest discovery of this century, this millennium, probably of all time. Too bad you merpeople don’t want to be discovered. Nice to meet one that speaks English.”
“They aren’t merpeople. They call themselves Dagonians.”
Josh raised his eyebrow. “They?”
She ignored his question and looked around, inspecting the cell. It was not overly large, about ten feet wide and twenty feet long. The stone walls were layered in algae. Iron rings were bolted in the wall about every six feet. The floor was bare silt, except for a few rocks, a bowl of dirty water, and a couple of fish bones. The opposite wall was not made of stone, but was a wall of water. Sara couldn’t see much except blue water, grey silt, and a school of silver fish.
“Who cares what they call themselves,” Slink said. “They’re all worthless. They think they can keep us down here. We’re Americans. We have rights. These things don’t feed us. They give us dirty water to drink; there are no beds, no bathroom, and no hope of leaving. And she’s one of them. She’s the reason we’re here in the first place. I say we rip off her arms and have ourselves some seafood. What do you think, Ettie? Tane? You think you’re strong enough to do it?”
Ettie moved forward. “Oh, yeah. I could do it.”
“No one touches her without going through me,” Josh said.
“Back off, Talbot. She has it coming,” Slink said.
“You idiots don’t realize.” Josh shook his head. “She’s not like us. She can escape if we help her. Then, if we do, then just maybe she’ll help us get out of here too. Dudes, there are hundreds of feet of water between freedom and us. And as good a swimmer as I am, there’s no way I could make it to the surface. I’m not seeing any better option, are you?”
“I can’t leave,” Sara said.
Josh turned to her. “Sure you can. That lock doesn’t look too complicated. I know I could spring it.”
