Oceania: The Underwater City by Eliza Taye (novels for teenagers .TXT) 📕

on his part will call attention to him. If that happens, he will be brought back in front of the Master Coders and they will do a much more thorough investigation. They will check every video feed featuring Dylan.” Dr. Wilcox stared directly at me and only at me as he spoke the next sentence, “And you know what will happen if they do.”

I swallowed hard and nodded. I felt like I was being reprimanded for something not entirely my fault.

Dr. Wilcox smacked his hands together scaring me half to death as he shattered the serious atmosphere in the room. “Well, enough of the rough stuff. How did my suit—my SCUBAPS—do against the rigors of deep ocean maneuvering?”

“Well, obviously it worked because I’m still alive,” I laughed. “But there are some things you need to work on. For one, the jet propulsion device is very difficult to attach as the wearer and….”

“Tell me about the performance of the suit first,” interrupted Dr. Wilcox.

“All right. Well, overall it worked pretty well. The A.I. was extremely knowledgeable and helpful. The GPS was reliable all the way from the abyss to the surface. The oxygen system was fantastic. I had no problems breathing whatsoever. The flexibility of the suit made it easy to move around and swim comfortably without being overly tight.”

“Okay,” Dr. Wilcox opened up a screen from an orb that looked similar to the one Dylan had left for me on the beach. A virtual pad and pen projected in front of Dr. Wilcox and he grabbed it, ready to write. “Now tell me about the problems you had with the suit.”

“Well, the jet propulsion system worked really well except for when it was placed on high speed. I wasn’t quite prepared for it and had to struggle to keep my head up against the force. The only real problem I had was with the camouflage system. Somehow it failed somewhere between the twilight and photic zone.”

“How did you know it had failed?” wondered Dylan.

I couldn’t help but smile. “It was Jagger. He came up to me and wanted to play. I know dolphins are very smart, but I knew that he couldn’t have noticed me there without actually being able to see me.”

“And you’re sure it wasn’t only the anti-sonar device that malfunctioned?” wondered Dr. Wilcox.

“No, it wasn’t, he was looking right at me. Also, I didn’t hear him making any clicking noises.”

“Well, their clicks are often inaudible to the human ear, especially if they are searching for something large. They use different types of clicks such as long range and…”

“Dr. Wilcox, Allie may not be a scientist, but I think she would have been able to figure out if the camouflage had stopped working,” defended Dylan.

“Very well,” began Dr. Wilcox.

“Besides, I was nearly attacked by a shark twenty or so minutes ago. I know he wasn’t using echolocation.”

Both Dylan and Dr. Wilcox’s stares flung in my direction.

“Are you serious?” asked Dr. Wilcox.

“Were you hurt?” wondered Dylan.

“Yes and no. I am serious, but I wasn’t hurt. I used the jet propulsion device to give me enough momentum to tug on its gills hard enough to make him leave me alone.” Thinking about what I had mentioned earlier, I added, “That’s another reason I said the jet propulsion device’s speed needs to be altered. I rammed into the shark because I was going so fast that I failed to notice him before it was too late.”

“Okay…I’m very sorry, Allie. If you could give me the SCUBAPS, I can get to work on the alterations now.”

“That’s fine…I just need help getting the jet propulsion device off.” My annoyance reminded me of another issue with the SCUBAPS. “Oh, and the Jet Propulsion 500 is nearly impossible to put on by oneself. It took me five tries to do it!”

“I can do that.” Dylan stood behind me and unclasped each of the four latches securing the device to the back of the SCUBAPS.

“Thanks.” I groped around my neck for the tiny pull-tab that would allow me to unzip my suit. Finding it, I tugged it slightly and the zipper tracks reappeared. The suit immediately became loose and I easily slid out of it. Extending my arm out toward Dr. Wilcox, I said, “Here you go.”

“Thank you, Allie. I will go examine this right away.” Dr. Wilcox replied as he walked away.

Dylan must have noticed me watching Dr. Wilcox disappear into the back room because suddenly he said, “Allie, it’s going to take a while. No point in waiting.”

“Okay.” I turned away from the rear door, still very curious as to what lay back there.

“Allie,” Dylan ushered me over to the control panel seats and we sat down. “What was it like to use the SCUBAPS? Did you see anything interesting during your excursion?”

I waved my hand furiously back and forth as if I could erase the question. “Never mind that, Dylan, we have bigger problems.”

“Like what?”

I fiddled with the controls on the main panel, careful not to actually push any of them. “There’s this guy lurking around the beach where we usually meet that just doesn’t seem right to me. He said his name is Daniel Warren and he told me he was a private investigator looking for a couple of people that went missing. But that doesn’t add up. People don’t go missing in Sunnyville. It’s a quiet, sleepy town where nothing ever happens. It just doesn’t feel right to me.” I glanced up from the controls, my hand still hovering over one as I flung my head towards Dylan in surprise. “Could it be possible that the Master Coders sent someone to the surface to spy on you and see if you were meeting any Land Dwellers?”

“No, the Master Coders don’t even know the outside world still exists. I don’t think