Mickey took a moment to look around before starting to work, barely noticing the cold water trickling into her suit. The visibility was good, twenty feet or more, and she could see all the way down the twisted strands of kelp. A large school of blue rockfish swam lazily through the kelp, and on top of the reef, bright orange starfish were scattered among patches of frilly green lettuce-kelp.

The reef dropped off in a deep canyon beneath the boat, and the rock walls were covered with urchins, spiny shapes merging into a dark mass in the distance. Mickey's pulse quickened at the sight. Unsnapping the bundle of gear, she started swimming, fins pumping in slow steady rhythm. As a wave swept through the canyon, she made little headway against the incoming surge of water, but soared forward when the flow switched direction. Broken urchin spines and patches of bare rock marked Colin's progress, and she saw where he'd left off. Looking for a place to anchor the ring-net, she spotted a shallow depression surrounded by boulders and dumped the air from her float bag, equalizing the pressure in her ears as she sank toward the bottom.