Alaskan Mountain Pursuit Elizabeth Goddard (best short novels .TXT) 📖

He glanced at Sylvie. She quickly masked the look of no hope on her face, but he’d seen it all the same. He thrust the thumb drive at her. That was what she needed more than she needed him. She could finish this for both of them. He glanced at the knife, recalling the story of the man who’d cut off his own arm to escape being stuck between boulders.

Could Will do that? When he looked back at Sylvie she shook her head, terror in her eyes. He could bleed out before they could get to the surface. Attract sharks. And they would soon be out of oxygen.

Out of time.

She reached for him. He pushed her away. How did he get her to leave him behind? Would it be too horrific for her if he pulled off his regulator and let himself drown? Then she couldn’t save him and would have the time to save herself.

He shoved the images of his father’s underwater death from his mind.

God, I don’t want to die! Help me have the courage to live!

He didn’t want to die like this! Nor did he want to put Sylvie through this. It was too much, far too much, for her to handle, even someone as strong as Sylvie.

Then he remembered. How could he have forgotten? His mother always carried a crowbar in the plane. He bent and tried to shift, and pain shot through his leg. He pointed to the back, signaling in hopes Sylvie would understand what he needed.

She nodded.

While Sylvie maneuvered into the back of the cockpit, Will kept perfectly still. The last thing he needed was to cause the plane to shift and fall deeper into the ocean, taking them both with it.

Help could not arrive soon enough. Will wondered what was keeping his search and rescue friends. They couldn’t know just how at stake Will’s life was at the moment.

He steadied his breathing, despite the precarious situation. Even though it was becoming increasingly clear he was about to die. God, please save Sylvie. Please get her out of here!

Will had been selfish to encourage her to look for—

Sylvie held the duffel bag. His mother’s bag of tools and other necessities in case she found herself stuck somewhere. Will took the bag and tried to open it but the zipper caught. Sylvie whipped her knife around and sliced it open. Will pulled out what he’d needed—a crowbar. They needed leverage.

But more than that, Will would have to use his knife and make an incision to free the piercing metal from his leg, before the leverage would work. His vision blurred. He blinked a few times and then made the cut.

The pain was unbearable. He shut his eyes. Stifled a scream. He thought he would pass out. At least the cold seeping in would bring numbing relief.

Dizziness swept through him. He refocused his efforts. Together, he and Sylvie worked to pry him free, but even free, he wasn’t sure he could swim to the surface with a bum leg.

His leg shifted, and Will pushed himself away from the craft. Sylvie’s concerned eyes beamed. She dragged him farther from the plane, blood quickly coloring the water, faster than before.

Will didn’t have time to worry about sharks—another kind of danger drew his attention first. They’d been sidetracked, their attention on freeing him, and hadn’t noticed a different kind of predator waiting to take a bite of them. At first he thought it was the help they’d needed, but then he saw the glint of a knife and the hostile eyes.

She had the thumb drive in her grip—it could be dried out and the data recovered—but all she really cared about was that Will was free. What did the thumb drive matter, what did any of it matter, if Will died down here? Died while trying to help her? Suddenly, finding justice for their mothers didn’t seem so important. Though they needed this evidence to be free from those trying to kill them, her priorities quickly shifted with this new urgency. Will’s life was on the line.

All that mattered was getting him to the surface.

She signaled that they should head up now, and she would assist him to the surface.

Except the look on his face told her something was terribly wrong—something more than his injury. Will tried to pull Sylvie with him to the far side of the plane. They needed to ascend. He was losing his focus.

Oh, God, please don’t let him die. Will forced her around.

Two divers had approached, and one drew ominously near. Behind the mask Sylvie recognized the eyes.

Ashley?

Diverman floated a few feet away. Was Rifleman, the man from the ferry, manning their boat?

Shock had her gasping for breath. Ashley and Diverman. Of course. They were working for her stepfather. She’d been such an idiot to trust Ashley.

Will urged her to swim away with him, but no way was he going to be able to outswim these two with an injured leg. Ashley reached forward and tried to snag the thumb drive from Sylvie’s fingers. She’d forgotten she even held it there. Sylvie yanked her hand out of reach.

Ashley would have to fight for it.

She thrust a knife at Sylvie, who grabbed her wrist and held it tightly. The thumb drive in one hand, and Ashley’s wrist in the other, she couldn’t grab her diver’s knife. In her peripheral vision, she saw Will fighting with Diverman, and holding his own, even with his serious injury, but he wouldn’t last long. Sylvie and Will had just enough oxygen left to swim to the surface, cutting their decompression stops short. She needed to end this and now!

When Ashley eased back on the knife to thrust it yet again, Sylvie twisted her wrist back. Ashley reached for Sylvie’s regulator hose, but it was too late. She’d dropped her knife and it sank. Ashley and Sylvie locked grips, then, neither able to get free without risk.

She was breathing too hard and fast, using