The Penny Drops (Sea the Depths Book 1) by Karmon Kuhn (warren buffett book recommendations TXT) 📕

I pulled out some of the fish from Moz’s refrigeration cabinet and dug my teeth in. Penny’s face turned green again, and she turned her face away. Her expression became tense and focused.

“I apologize, Penny. Is it the smell?”

“It’s fine,”she answered.

I opened my throat and swallowed the rest of the fish whole to give her some relief. It didn’t take long for me to feel a bit stronger from the meal. So, I laid back down, and Penny turned her back to me.

I had a singular goal. To change. This time, when I urged my body, it followed my commands. My skeleton began the process, and I gripped my fists tightly and clenched my jaw out of instinct. Next, my muscles followed and the skin. As I neared the end in a daze, Penny was at my side. She was a comfort but also a distraction. The process slowed and stopped, but it didn’t feel right.

“Your eyes are yellow again this time,” she said and brushed the sweaty hair off my forehead. “Is that bad?”

Chapter 20

M

oz entered with a satchel. “The cart is outside. Hurry and get into the suits.”

We did as we were told. Then, he checked the hallway, and we stepped carefully into the cart. Moz covered us with his favorite manuscripts and I saw him running his claws over them with longing. With a nod, he placed a final book over my face and pushed the cart through the tunnel.

Penny struggled with the ride. I could feel her deep, steady breaths as she controlled her panic. I wanted to comfort her and coach her through it, but all I could do was snuggle in closer and hope that she understood my intent.

Even though I’d traveled from the department up to the sea-floor parking, this trip was like none before it. The constant fear that someone, anyone, would greet us around a corner created a stunning tension.

I counted each turn. And when we rounded the last corner, hope filled my chest as I breathed in. Before I could let it out, a lockdown alarm thundered through the tunnel. This had only happened once during my work at the tsez̈ø when a virus in medical was not properly contained. At the time, it was a mild annoyance and was taken care of quickly by staff of the department. I prayed, to no one in particular, that this time would be the same.

Moz walked on and pushed the cart closer to the exit. Even though we wouldn’t have access, he tried it anyway. Penny shivered. I wanted so badly to explain the situation and comfort her, but we couldn’t afford to make any noise.

We waited. I expected a team of aggressive captors to round the corner and overtake the three of us any second. Instead, a few harmless-looking researchers came to check on my colleague and ask what was happening. It unsettled me to have anyone nearby, but I much preferred them to some other nefarious persons who might surface from inside another secret part of the compound.

Moz made polite grunts of listening until even that was too much. At first, I thought he was just bored of the conversation, and then, I heard a voice.

“What’s in the cart?”

“Some volumes that I am taking to my home for further study,” Moz answered.

The guard dipped down and removed a book. I could see him as he straightened up and inspected it. He’d chosen the copy that covered my face, leaving behind an eerie blank space camouflaged like the bottom of the cart.

“Yes. That one is a classic piece of human literature, Treasure Island. Have you read it?”

The guard’s face was unbelieving as if Moz had asked him something ridiculous. The guard leaned over to grab another book, and Moz slid between him and the side of the cart.

“The adventures of the human in this are incredible. He survives shipwrecks and capture and then is marooned on an island. The way in which he interacts with the water is so deliciously foreign. I wrote my most recent thesis on the themes therein . . .”

The more that Moz talked, the lower that the guard sank. Not in submission, but out of abject boredom. Moz was a genius.

“And the end, fellow, the end! Jùṣù. It . . .”

“Yes. Very well then, fellow,” said the guard, peeling himself away from the cart.

“Oh! Well, if you want to borrow my copy, let me know. I will gladly . . .” started Moz.

“No, no. That will not be necessary.” He punctuated the desperate goodbye by tossing the book back onto the pile.

Moz leaned in and positioned the book to its place over my face and went back to grunting to the polite small talk of his colleagues. After much too long, there was an all-clear signal and the exits audibly clicked back into accessibility. The other researchers showed varying signs of relief, which Moz mirrored. Penny sighed and Moz mimicked her to cover up the noise as he hurried out the door.

***

After exiting the entry tunnel down, we advanced to the parking area. Usually, it was quiet and relatively abandoned, but due to the lockdown, there were researchers exiting the tunnels on all sides of the lot.

Moz pulled a loose cover over the cart to keep the books from floating out and ushered it toward his juz̈uṣùs̈. In the chaos, he kept a calm and neutral pace. Once we reached the vehicle, he operated the doors and then nudged the cart toward it. He removed books by the handfuls into the vehicle, but before he could help us up and out of the cart, something interrupted him.

We were so close, but Zhoshi had found us! With a jolt, Moz pushed the cart roughly into the juz̈uṣùs̈ and closed the door behind us. I rushed to the front and turned it on with a quick switch. Penny followed slowly, and sat next to