Alexa - Legionnaire : Training an Assassin: Prequel to Alexa - The Series by Arno Joubert Page A

kitted up and submerged. They would act as a rescue team, monitoring Alexa and Kristian to make sure they surfaced safely.  
    “I’ll go first,” Kristian said, stripping to his swimming trunks. He dove gracefully into the water and surfaced. He took a couple of deep breaths, winked at Alexa, and showed her the OK sign. His head disappeared below the water and he dove.  
    Alexa and the rest of the divers leaned over the side of the boat, peering into the depths. After four and a half minutes, a large bubble exploded to the surface.  
    “Shit, he’s receiving air from the rescue divers,” Alexa said. “Here they come, make way.”
    They emerged a couple of seconds later with Kristian. He was unconscious, his head lolling to the side like a rag doll.  
    “What happened?” she shouted.  
    One of the rescue divers swam to the boat, dragging Kristian behind him. They helped haul his unconscious body over the side. “The idiot blacked out on his way to the top. He was pushing the limits, the bloody show-off.”  
    They helped the rescue diver into the boat, and he initiated emergency resuscitation on Kristian. “I saw him swallow a couple of gallons of water before he blacked out.”
    They rolled Kristian onto his side and fit an oxygen mask over his face. A moment later the man coughed and spluttered then pushed himself onto his hands and knees, vomiting water and slime. He took a deep, wheezing breath and glanced up. “How deep?” he asked, pulling the mask off his face.  
    Alexa lifted his arm and looked at his dive watch. “One hundred and fifty-eight feet. But it doesn’t count, you blacked out.”
    The other divers whooped and cheered, slapping Kristian on his back.  
    He smiled, drying himself with a towel. “I’m here, aren’t I? I’m alive, and my dive watch confirms the depth." He glanced at the other men on the boat. "I think it should count.”
    Alexa shrugged. “Bloody men,” she muttered. Then she balanced on the side of the boat and dove into the water. She hyperventilated, took a deep breath and descended, swimming slowly and gracefully, conserving her oxygen.  
    Once she reached fifty feet, she descended faster with less kicking, relaxing, allowing gravity to take her deeper. Her dive watch beeped as she reached one-hundred feet. Her ears felt like they were about to burst. She equalized by moving her jaws and swam deeper into the murky depths. The color of the warm waters changed from a hazy green to a muddy brown and finally to black. Thirty seconds later, Alexa could see the bottom of the ocean bed. She kicked slowly and grabbed a handful of sand at the bottom, then she pushed herself from the ocean floor with her legs and made a leisurely ascent.  
    Within a minute, she reached the scuba divers. They had opted to stay at a shallower depth to allow them enough decompression time. They swam up with her to fifteen feet and stopped. She burst through the surface and swallowed in lungfuls of air, then screamed triumphantly.  
    She managed to control her breathing and swam towards the inflatable. Voelkner and another diver pulled her aboard and sat her down on the side of the boat.  
    She dumped the sand onto the deck and looked up, smiling.
    “How deep?” Le Roux asked, deep furrows on his brow.  
    She glanced at her dive watch. “Two hundred and fifteen feet.”  
    They rushed towards her, one guy grabbing her arm to confirm the depth. He let out a low whistle. “Shit, Lieutenant, if this is true, it’s a new world record.”
    “Bullshit,” Kristian said, looking doubtful. “There’s something wrong with her watch. Let’s measure it.”  
    They retrieved a dive line and ballast from one of the compartments on the boat and lowered it into the ocean. A minute later it hit the bottom.  
    Kristian walked closer and read the measurement. He glanced at the sand Alexa had dropped onto the floor of the boat and looked back at Alexa. He pursed his lips and lifted his eyebrows.