Morocco
Alexa crawled out of the ocean on all fours and collapsed on the ground, sucking in deep breaths. Captain Kristian Le Roux sauntered towards her, jotting notes on his clipboard. He dragged her out of the waves by her belt and dumped her on the beach, then he strolled to a whiteboard and updated the rolling record of the divers’ efforts.
“No one can catch up with you now, Guerra. It seems you’re going to graduate top of your class.” He rolled his eyes. “Again.”
She rolled onto her side on the scalding white sand, coughed up some saltwater, and then slipped out of her army fatigues and removed her boots. The sun was beating down mercilessly, and she cupped her hands over her eyes as she spoke. “Good.”
The first men appeared behind the waves, and Alexa glanced over the shiny ocean surface. “Shit,” she said and jogged back into the sea.
“What?”
“Voelkner’s taking strain,” she shouted, wading deeper.
Le Roux lifted his binoculars to his eyes and scanned the horizon. “Leave him.”
“Then you’ll need to tell Laiveaux you allowed one of his men to drown,” she shouted and dove into a wave.
“Whatever,” he mumbled, scribbling some more notes.
She returned a few minutes later, dragging Voelkner out of the waves by his collar. Coughing and spluttering, he collapsed on his back on the beach. “Thanks,” he said between breaths. “I thought I was going to be a goner.”
“You going to save the others as well?” Le Roux asked, checking the progress of the men in the water.
She rubbed her arm over her brow. “Voelkner was my only concern.”
Voelkner nodded appreciatively, wiping the water from his face, struggling to slip off his backpack.
The captain sauntered to where Alexa sat on the beach, her arms on her legs. “Are you ready for a real challenge, Lieutenant?”
Alexa sat back with her hands in the sand and studied him for a moment. He was tanned and sinewy. She smiled and nodded. “I’m always ready for a challenge, as you put it, Captain.”
He tapped his clipboard with the pen. “Free dive, the deepest man wins.”
Alexa considered this for a moment. He was good. He held the record at a hundred and twenty feet. But he was also too smug to her liking. “Or the best woman,” she said as she wiped her hands on her pants.
“We shall see,” Le Roux said with a grin. He ruffled her hair. “See you in five minutes, at the quay.” He glared at the ocean then spoke into a two-way radio. “Pick them all up, no one’s coming out today, by the looks of things.”
A couple of minutes later, she met up with Le Roux, Voelkner accompanying her, and they took an inflatable rubber speedboat to an area clear of coral and rocks. Two assistant divers kitted up and submerged. They would act as a rescue team, monitoring Alexa and Kristian to make sure they surfaced safely.
“I’ll go first,” Kristian said, stripping to his swimming trunks. He dove gracefully into the water and surfaced. He took a couple of deep breaths, winked at Alexa, and showed her the OK sign. His head disappeared below the water and he dove.
Alexa and the rest of the divers leaned over the side of the boat, peering into the depths. After four and a half minutes, a large bubble exploded to the surface.
“Shit, he’s receiving air from the rescue divers,” Alexa said. “Here they come, make way.”
They emerged a couple of seconds later with Kristian. He was unconscious, his head lolling to the side like a rag doll.
“What happened?” she shouted.
One of the rescue divers swam to the boat, dragging Kristian behind him. They helped haul his unconscious body over the side. “The idiot blacked out on his way to the top. He was pushing the limits, the bloody show-off.”
They helped the rescue diver into the boat, and he initiated emergency resuscitation on Kristian. “I saw him swallow a couple of gallons of water before he blacked out.”
They rolled Kristian onto his side and fit an oxygen mask over his face. A moment later the man coughed and spluttered then pushed himself onto his hands and knees, vomiting water and slime. He took a deep, wheezing breath and glanced up. “How deep?” he asked, pulling the mask off his face.
Alexa lifted his arm and looked at his dive watch. “One hundred and fifty-eight feet. But it doesn’t count, you blacked out.”
The other divers whooped and cheered, slapping Kristian on his back.
He smiled, drying himself with a towel. “I’m here, aren’t I? I’m alive, and my dive watch confirms the depth." He glanced at the other men on the boat. "I think it should count.”
Alexa shrugged. “Bloody men,” she muttered. Then she balanced on the side of the boat and dove into the water. She hyperventilated, took a deep breath and descended, swimming slowly and gracefully, conserving her oxygen.
Once she reached fifty feet, she descended faster with less kicking, relaxing, allowing gravity to take her deeper. Her dive watch beeped as she reached one-hundred feet. Her ears felt like they were about to burst. She equalized by moving her jaws and swam deeper into the murky depths. The color of the warm waters changed from a hazy green to a muddy brown and finally to black. Thirty seconds later, Alexa could see the bottom of the ocean bed. She kicked slowly and grabbed a handful of sand at the bottom, then she pushed herself from the ocean floor with her legs and made a leisurely ascent.
Within a minute, she reached the scuba divers. They had opted to stay at a shallower depth to allow them enough decompression time. They swam up with her to fifteen feet and stopped. She burst through the surface and swallowed in lungfuls of air, then screamed triumphantly.
She managed to control her breathing and swam towards the inflatable. Voelkner and another diver pulled her aboard and sat her down on the side of the boat.
She dumped the sand onto the deck and looked up, smiling.
“How deep?” Le Roux asked, deep furrows on his brow.
She glanced at her dive watch. “Two hundred and fifteen feet.”
They rushed towards her, one guy grabbing her arm to confirm the depth. He let out a low whistle. “Shit, Lieutenant, if this is true, it’s a new world record.”
“Bullshit,” Kristian said, looking doubtful. “There’s something wrong with her watch. Let’s measure it.”
They retrieved a dive line and ballast from one of the compartments on the boat and lowered it into the ocean. A minute later it hit the bottom.
Kristian walked closer and read the measurement. He glanced at the sand Alexa had dropped onto the floor of the boat and looked back at Alexa. He pursed his lips and lifted his eyebrows. “It seems that you are an official world record holder in freestyle diving, Lieutenant.”
The men gathered around her, shaking her hand and slapping her on the shoulders. Kristian stuck out his hand towards her. She grabbed it, and he shook it vigorously.
“Well done, mon amie, you never cease to amaze me,“ he said, his blue eyes shimmering as he smiled.
She grinned back at him and laughed. “Get used to it.”
Alexa looked up from her dive charts as someone rapped softly on her door. “In,” she called.
The door opened and Kristian peered around the corner. “Major Batet wants to see us in his office.” He chuckled. “I guess it’s about our competition we had yesterday.”
Alexa pulled herself from her seat and strode towards Kristian. “Right now?”
He nodded, holding the door open for her. They made their way through the compound towards Batet’s office. “Should we be worried?” she asked, glancing sideways at Le Roux as they walked.
He twirled his Kepi around his finger. “Nah, apparently he’s taking heat from one of his superiors. It’ll probably be a rap over the knuckles, nothing more.”
“Shit, it’s probably Laiveaux.” Alexa pulled her uniform straight as she stopped in front of the major’s door. Kristian frowned.
She knocked once then entered, Kristian closing the door behind them. They marched to his desk and stood to attention. “Major.”
Batet was holding a telephone receiver in front of him, making a talking gesture with his hands. He cupped the mouthpiece. “Your excursion has upset a certain General Laiveaux at HQ.”
He put the phone to his ear. “Yes, yes I do understand, General. Yes I will. No, never, General. Yes, right away, General.”
He held the telephone out to Alexa. “He wants to speak to you, Lieutenant.”
She took the phone and gingerly put it to her ear. “General?”
Laiveaux spoke in English. “Alexa, my girl, are you all right? Do you know how concerned Bruce and I have been about you? What is this rubbish with diving records and stuff? We send you to the most remote station in the League and still you manage to put yourself in harm’s way.”
Alexa frowned at Batet. The major shrugged, the corner of his mouth pulled up in a smile. She placed the receiver back on her ear.
Laiveaux hadn't stopped talking. “Do you not understand I worry about your safety every day?” His words came out in a French drawl, the word “safety” pronounced “saffe-tee.”
“Sorry, General. It won’t happen again,” Alexa said, trying her best to suppress a smile.
“You promise me now. You put your hand on your heart, and you swear to me you won’t try a stupid stunt like that again.”
“I promise.”
“Let me talk to Batet.”
She handed the phone back to the major.
He took it with a sigh, making the yapping gesture with his hand. “Yes, General, I’ll tell her. Right away.” He took the phone from his ear and whispered to Alexa. “He says you need to swear, in front of me.”
Alexa sighed and put her fist to her chest. “I swear.”
Batet cradled the receiver between his shoulder and ear while opening his drawer. He pawed around and dug out a silver hip flask. “Yes, General, I saw the official depth on her dive watch. No, it won’t come out, General.” Batet rolled his eyes. “We’ll keep the news as tight as a hornet’s ass.”
He took a swig from the flask and shook his hand, like he was in trouble. “Yes. Yes, sir, I do understand the gravity of the situation.” He sighed again, moving his head from side to side, willing the conversation to be over. “Yes, I do apologize for my disrespectful tone. Yes, General. Very well. Good-bye. Yes, good-bye.” Batet slammed the phone down and shook his head. “You truly did get a bone stuck up that mongrel’s ass.”
Alexa and Kristian glanced at each other, trying to hide their smiles.
“A world record, eh?” Batet said, offering the flask to Alexa. She politely refused.
“Very well then, we don’t need to mention any names." He looked at them conspiratorially. “We need to keep the identities of our soldiers a secret, you know?”
Alexa and Kristian nodded.
He leaned back in his chair, folding his hands behind his head. “But still, we could mention the fact the Elite Diving Combat Unit of the French Navy has another record to its name, don’t you think?”
Alexa and Kristian nodded again. “Yes, Major.”
He waved his hand. “Dismissed.”
“I’ll be damned, a free-diving record,” Batet mumbled as she closed the door behind her.