Doran and Solara had overtaken them by so far that Kane could barely make out the shadowy outline of their legs. He swam harder, hoping Cassia would match his pace. His lungs made him buoyant, so he released half a breath to help him sink deeper. He hoped there was a pocket of air inside the tram station, because he wasn’t even halfway there and already his chest burned.
When they made it into the station, everything turned black. Without sunlight he could no longer see Cassia to sync their breaststrokes. He didn’t even know if they were swimming in the right direction. The sensory loss made his urge to breathe nearly unbearable. Pressure filled his face until his head felt ready to explode. His hope faded until he detected a new sound, different from creaks and groans. He heard voices shouting—and if they could shout, then they could breathe.
There was air in the station.
Drawing on all his strength, he kicked upward, pulling the heavy body with him. He was so desperate to breathe that he would’ve let go if the anchor weren’t his only link to Cassia. Just when he didn’t think he could swim any farther, his face broke the surface and he drew the sweetest lungful of his life. He gulped it in, one breath after another, until his body was sated enough to notice the details around him. He heard Cassia surface and gasp, and then the echo of Doran and Solara speaking from somewhere farther away. Still blind, he felt below the water for the guard’s neck and hauled him up. Kane scissored his legs to stay afloat, but he was tired, and keeping the man’s head above water was hard without the leverage of something fixed to hold on to.
“Cass—” he said, cutting off as his mouth filled with water. He spat it out and spoke in a rush. “I can’t.”
“Let me help.” She wriggled closer to relieve some of the burden, but she sputtered and coughed as the weight dragged her under.
“It’s not enough. He’s too heavy.”
“Stay where you are,” Doran called. “We’ll come to you.”
The sound of splashing carried through the darkness, growing nearer until an arm struck the top of Kane’s head.
“Sorry,” Solara exhaled into his ear. “I can’t see my hand in front of my face.”
After some awkward feeling around, the four of them were able to support the man’s head. A loud crack from below reminded Kane that every yard the dome sank was another yard they’d have to swim before reaching the surface.
“We have to hurry,” he said. “We’re going down fast.”
“Which way?” Cassia asked. “I’m all turned around.”
Doran swore. “Me too. We need a—” He cut off and went quiet. The next thing Kane knew, brightness appeared from Doran’s palm. He’d switched on his data tablet. “Not sure how much battery is left,” he said, rotating the screen until its glow revealed a half-submerged tram sign, “so we’d better move.”
They began a clumsy, unsynchronized swim until Cassia directed their movements by calling “Stroke” in two-second intervals. Once they found a rhythm, it didn’t take long to reach the tram station, where the corridor ended in a T. Doran shone the tablet at each tunnel, revealing nothing but watery darkness. The tram’s connective tubing had cracked in both directions, but which tunnel was shorter: the left or the right?
“Be back soon,” Doran told them, then clamped his teeth around the tablet and disappeared beneath the water.
Darkness enveloped them once more, intensifying the sounds of the dome breaking and shifting. It was torture staying in one place, and even harder resisting the urge to call for help on the com-link. Kane reminded himself that if Necktie Fleece knew they were alive, he’d come back to finish the job.
A pinprick of light from beneath the water announced Doran’s arrival. He heaved a breath that dislodged his tablet and then scrambled to catch the device. Holding the screen toward the left tunnel, he said, “It’s our best bet. The break’s not too far, but there’s no more air after this.”
Anxious to move, Kane hauled the guard toward the left tunnel, savoring the last pocket of air until his forehead bumped the ceiling. He readjusted his grip on the man’s collar. “Everyone, grab a sleeve.”
The group drew a collective breath and dipped underwater. Kane used his boots to kick off the ceiling, propelling them forward into another synchronized swim. The light from Doran’s tablet danced with each breaststroke, but it was enough to keep them on a straight path as they followed the tram tracks.