Take me to the Deepest Blue
CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“How long do you plan to be down there?”

They sat in a kayak, floating aimlessly. A night dive made navigating more difficult in an area unfamiliar to them. But they had come equipped with a compass, a satellite phone that Louise had managed to steal from Pete’s bag earlier in the afternoon, and some snacks and bottles of water taken from the mini-bar. She smiled at the thought of Pete paying the hefty hotel bill at the end of the trip.

She had also geared up in case she was needed. Part of her wanted desperately to be in on the dive, if only this act were enough to redeem herself—but Nick insisted that she remain in the kayak.

“And what am I supposed to do with this?” She held an oar that had her Bluetooth speaker stuck to it with masking tape. Nick hadn’t said much when he took it from her room, and now she wondered if he wasn’t high on adrenaline. What exactly was he planning to do—lure the siren with music?

“Here, take this.” He handed his phone to her. The screen showed a playlist of his songs.

“You want me to play all of these?”

“No, just this one.” His finger glided over one particular song. “On repeat.”

She made a scoffing sound.

“You think she’s going to hear it all the way down there?”

Nick cocked his head. “Just do it, please.”

She rolled her eyes at him as she turned on her Bluetooth speaker. She held the oar so that the speaker was facing over the water.

“This is beyond crazy.”

“Yeah, I know.”

With a loud splash, he was gone, just like that. Gone searching for his siren of the sea.

As he dove deeper, the music became more muffled, but he was confident his plan would work. It had to. He held on to his hope in the midst of all the uncertainties that encroached on him. As he neared the cavernous area, he paused and remained still in the water. Something told him that she would come. If he’d wait long enough, she would come to him.

At first, Narya thought she had imagined it, but the melody kept ringing in her ears. She sat up from where she lay and poked her head out. The fishes around her scattered nervously. Something was unsettling them. She heard it again, more distinctively this time. She swam out of her hiding place, willingly lured by the familiar melodious song that echoed in the ocean.

Nick counted twenty-six minutes. The song had been repeated seven times; he was keeping track. A sense of despair crawled over him. She was either too far from shore or she was not willing to see him. A scene from the day before went through his mind. The way she ran—he’d never seen her panic like this. As much as he wanted to stay put, he began to realize his mistake by coming up with this foolish plan. It was time to leave.

A small flicker of light caught his eye. Thinking it was the scales from a school of angelfish, he swam toward them, and they skittishly dispersed, paving the way for what awaited him.

He recognized the unmistakable flaxen hair that flowed in front of her and, like that day at the shipwreck, her enchanting face emerged from the murky water. The mermaid he had been aching to see magically materialized before him. Her tail sparkled with its colorful scales as it swayed back and forth. She stared back at him with eyes that took on a golden shade underwater. His outstretched his arms pulled her in and embraced her tightly—the only reassurance he would ever need to feel alive again.

“No fucking way!” Louise cursed under her breath at the sight of a fishing boat approaching.

Pete leaned forward, his arms looped around the railing. As they neared, she could make out the wide smile on his face—smug and triumphant.

“You didn’t think I’d give up this easily, did ya?” he shouted as he gave her a sarcastic half bow.

“I wouldn’t jump in there if I were you,” he said when seeing her prepare to dive in.

With a wave of his hand, she saw a large fishing net being lowered into the water.

A sudden thud made Nick release her involuntarily. A sense of panic overtook him when he saw that a metal fishnet had been cast over them. Narya looked at him in horror, and regret flooded through him. His hands fumbled for the pocket knife he kept with him. He opened it swiftly and tried to cut through the metal wires. As hopeless as it seemed, he had to try.

The metal net was old and rusty, and Nick couldn’t cut through the wires. They were trapped and appeared to have no way out. His hand clutched his pocket knife, and he stared at it intently, wondering what else he could do. Turning to Narya, the look on her face sent a chilling sensation down his spine. Her eyes were a fiery golden and they appeared to be burning. She must surely have thought he was involved in this ruse. He felt his heart sink. As his grip around the pocket knife tightened, he felt a sharp pain and realized he had accidentally cut himself. Without a second thought, he took the knife and pressed down as he cut deeply across his palm. He watched the red liquid gush out of his hand. If Pete thought that he was the perfect bait, he couldn’t be more right.

As the net was pulled up, they saw a familiar shadow coming toward them. Grey. Nick could feel Narya’s body tense. The shark approached the net and Nick saw that he was infuriated. Grey circled around them until Narya reached her hand out of the net and calmed him with her touch. Grey sank back then suddenly lunged forward with a violent force, charging full speed at the fishing boat.

Louise sat in her kayak, torn between staying still or diving in and taking a look for herself. She heard a loud thud coming from underwater. The fishing boat shook violently as though being attacked. The crew began shouting in Swahili, and she could see Pete’s uncertainty and fear in his body language.

“Pull it up! Now! Sasa hivi!” Mike commanded the ship crew, all of whom were panicking and shouting. When the shaking stopped and the water became still again, Pete moved forward to get a closer look. The boat swerved again, causing him to lose his balance and fall overboard.

“Screw this.” Louise decided to let her curiosity get the better of her. She’d feel safer underwater than on this tiny kayak anyway. Whatever was causing trouble was worth a look. She put on her diving mask and gear and jumped in.

A great white shark, astonishing in size—one of the largest great whites she had ever seen—had its jaws clamped on the fishing net. Its magnificent rows of teeth were visible as it pulled at the net with a mighty force. Narya and Nick were trapped inside the net, and from what she could see, the shark was trying to free them. And she had a tail. Narya stared back at her, stunned to see Louise underwater.

The scales that Louise had caught a glimpse of at the hospital were now intricately dotted over Narya’s upper body, and they formed a colorful tail where her legs had been. Dumbfounded, Louise remained motionless in the water, trying to take it all in.

As the shark tugged violently at the net, it began to loosen. Soon, the upper right corner broke free, and Narya escaped, followed by Nick, through the small gap.

She was about to swim toward them when she saw a shift in the shark’s movement. It headed speedily toward the boat then paused as though searching for something, or someone. She saw Pete’s legs kicking in the water, trying to make his way back to the boat. But the shark advanced menacingly and began to charge again. This time, Louise wasn’t sure if she was brave enough to look. She quickly surfaced; her hands frantically searched for the rim of the kayak and she latched on.

When Louise emerged from the water, her eyes looked for any sign of Pete. As much as she detested him, she was not prepared to see him torn to pieces by an angry shark. She was astounded to see him again, terrified, as he floated in the water. The shark was less than one meter away from him. Its snout was out of the water, its jaws wide open, but it appeared hypnotized by something as it lay immovable in the water.

Then she saw her—the girl she had doubted to be a true shark whisperer, who now had her hand atop of the shark’s snout. She pulled it close and put her forehead gently against it, her lips moving as though murmuring a secret language only they shared. The shark seemed to have understood whatever was being communicated, and it slowly sank down, its fin disappearing into the deep blue.

Louise saw Pete let out a deep breath and watched his teeth chatter, not from the cold, but from the fear of being devoured by his favorite research sea specimen.

She made her way toward them, and as she swam by Narya, her hands accidentally brushed against her tail, feeling the uneven surface of her scales.

“Nice tail,” she whispered to her mermaid friend.

“Thanks.” Narya smiled faintly and made her way to Pete, her tail hidden below water. An audience had formed aboard the ship, heads poking about to see the daring heroine that saved Pete from what could have been a gruesome death.

Pete wheezed as he scrambled to hold on to the ring buoy one of the crew had thrown down. He didn’t see Narya until he heard her speak.

“I’ll need those back.” She held out her hand to him, confident that he knew exactly what she demanded from him.

“What?” Pete was either playing dumb or had been disconcerted by his narrow escape from the shark.

Narya made a quick circular motion with her hand, and a large fin emerged from the water. She laid one hand on the fin and held out the other to Pete. He was in her territory now, and he may be the ocean expert, but she was its guardian, and both she and he knew she was in control of his fate.

Pete stammered for a few seconds before his hand fumbled in his vest pocket, and he hurriedly retrieved the blood sample and the plastic container that held her scale. Staring at them in the palm of his hand, he was reluctant to let them go. These were his most prized possessions; he would revolutionize marine history. Only moments ago, he had the road to success within his grasp.

Detecting his hesitance, Narya nodded, and he saw the great white shark emerge from the water. This time, his jaw was fully visible and slightly parted, just enough for Pete to see the fearsome rows of teeth that would be his fate should he fail to hand over the specimens. He was greedy, to be sure, but he was no fool. He threw the tube and the container to Narya, and she caught it in mid-air. He shut his eyes, and when he opened them again, the shark, along with the mermaid, were nowhere in sight.

“So, Pete, how’d you enjoy your midnight swim?” Louise swam past him, her tone suggesting how much she had relished the show put on by Narya and the shark.

The boat crew threw down a rope ladder and yelled for Pete to grab on, but he didn’t react. His eyes stared straight ahead, and he was obviously still in shock, unable to move from where he was. His fingers stayed fastened onto the ring buoy, unwilling to let go.

“I told you we were planning your funeral. You’d better leave before she changes her mind again.”

Her words woke him from his daze, and he wholeheartedly heeded her advice as he speedily climbed up the ladder.

As soon as he reached the boat, he was seething in anger as he approached Mike, who was still in shock from what he just witnessed.

“Get me the fuck out of here—now.

”The boat’s engine rumbled and soon Louise felt the vibration in the water. Within minutes, the boat moved steadily further away. She waited until it was a small dot before she swam out in search of Narya and Nick.

Neither of them spoke for what felt like an eternity. Nick hung on the edge of the kayak, floating with Narya in the water. If he could, he’d choose to remain by her side. She was here, within his arm’s reach, but now seemed to be drifting further away from his world, his reality. Her tail occasionally popping out of the water, a hauntingly beautiful, glistening accessory—reminding him what was at stake here. Under the moonlight, he made out the contour of her gills, opening and closing as she breathed. Had it been only a few days since he first saw them, touched them? There was so much more he wanted to know about her, not just the mystifying underwater realm she came from, but specifically her. Unasked questions multiplied in his head, forcing out all logic and ultimately leaving him no room to think straight. He inched closer to her and, in the darkness, he felt her hands clasping the sides of his face. He couldn’t tell who leaned in first, but it didn’t matter. The moment was sublime and electrifying—exactly what he wanted at this moment. His mermaid was kissing him back.