The Hydra Protocol Read Online Free PDF Page A

climbing down the cable for a second. “Yes?” he asked. “Something on your mind?”
    “I just wondered—have you got the ring yet?”
    Chapel wanted to laugh. Never a great idea on a dive, of course. Laughing used up a lot of air. He forced himself to merely grin through the plastic mask. If any fish were watching with better eyes than he had, maybe they would see the scary monster from above the surface bare its teeth.
    “Yeah,” he told her. “It’s waiting for me back in New York. I just have to pick it up.” He pulled himself down another meter. Down.
    “Is it nice? Julia deserves something nice.”
    “I agree.” Down. One hand over the other. “It’s nice. A gold band with a single diamond. Nothing showy—you know that’s not her style. Not too big.”
    “I think if it were me you were proposing to,” Angel told him, with just a trace of jealousy in her voice, “I’d be perfectly happy with something showy. And big.”
    “Stop trying to make me laugh.” Down. Release with the left hand, clutch with the right. Release with the right hand, hold on with the left. Down.
    “You know I’m happy for you,” Angel said. “You know that.”
    “I do,” he told her. When he’d first told Angel that he was going to propose, it had felt distinctly weird. He was confiding in a woman he’d never met. He didn’t even know what Angel looked like. But it didn’t feel weird for long. She’d been whispering in his ear for so long he felt like they were old, close friends.
    “I mean, I’m happy for you now. I wasn’t . . . convinced. At first.”
    “I know,” Chapel said. Down. Angel had suggested he take his time and think about what he was doing. He and Julia had been fighting a lot, and they had both said things they couldn’t take back. Angel had suggested that maybe that wasn’t the best time to make things official. But Chapel was certain he was making the right decision.
    Down. One hand. The other hand. Down.
    He checked his depth gauge. Thirty meters. This was the farthest he’d ever dived before, and he was only a fifth of the way to the bottom. It had felt like no time at all. Or like he’d been doing this for hours.
    “How long until I can turn my lights on?” he asked.
    “A little ways, yet. I just wanted to tell you something. I know you can make her happy. You’ve never failed at a mission yet, Jim. I think if you put your mind to this, you’ll be a great husband.”
    Down. He wished he could kick his way down. It would be so much faster. But he had to stay with the cable. Down.
    He thought about what Angel had just said. “Is there a ‘but’ somewhere in that statement?”
    Angel was quiet for a while. He started to worry there was a problem with the transponder. But apparently she was just thinking about what to say next.
    “Not so much a ‘but,’” she said.
    Down. Hand over hand. Down.
    “More,” she said, “oh, I don’t know. A hope. I wanted to say that I hope she can make you just as happy. That you’re sure you’re making the right choice for yourself.”
    He stopped again. He told himself he was resting, conserving his energy. In truth, what she’d said had just distracted him so much he couldn’t concentrate on his descent. When he realized that, he forced himself to focus. He adjusted the pressurization of the drysuit and checked over his dive computer. Then he started down again.
    Angel couldn’t really be jealous, could she? Admittedly she was the woman he was closest to in the world other than Julia. And Angel flirted with him all the time—and he definitely reciprocated. But that was just the way they were, wasn’t it? It was just banter. Harmless.
    At least, he’d always thought it was.
    Down. Suddenly concentrating on climbing down the cable was a great distraction.
    “I am sure,” he told Angel. “I definitely am.”
    “Good. As long as you’re sure. Then I guess you have my blessing, though I notice you didn’t ask for it.”
    He