Salvage Rights
adventure◐ MatureThe Meridian Cross lies on her side in ninety meters of black water. She took three men Mara loved down with her. Now Mara hangs above the torn hull, her own breath bubbling against her helmet, the signed salvage claim folded against her chest. Two hundred meters off, the Vares team's dive lights swing toward her through the dark. They have no claim. They came anyway.
Mara holds her position. She wants to know who these people are before she turns her back on them in the dark. One diver leaves the Vares group and rises to meet her, hands open, no tools, no weapons. A voice crackles over the shared channel: "We need to talk before you go in there."
What happens next?
2 ways forwardMara holds the diver where he is and lets him talk. He says Vares used to work the same routes as the Meridian Cross, and they know exactly why she went down. "You won't believe what's in that hold," he says, "and you won't believe who put it there." He offers to go in with her, lights linked, so neither of them can pull a knife in the dark.