In Too Deep by Coert Voorhees

is at the bottom of the Devil’s Throat?” I said.
    “Probably not the Jaguar itself, no,” Alvarez admitted. “But a clue. Maybe the clue.”
    My head was spinning so fast I could hardly see the documents in front of me. Only moments before, I was about to get busted for drinking on my community service spring break trip. A community service trip that was a farce, engineered so my teacher could go fishing with an old friend. But now it turned out that there was more to the trip after all. Much more. And Alvarez needed me to make it happen. Whatever Plan A had been, I was Plan B.
    “Want to go for a dive?” Alvarez patted the table and leaned back.
    “Yes, please.”
    I felt the strangest sense of calm wash over me, a feeling as invigorating as it was unexpected. It didn’t matter what had happened up to this point. I was here. With treasure nearby. Not some rumor I’d read in a book, but real treasure. And I was here because of who I was, really . Everything in my life had been leading me toward this moment, and Mr. Alvarez had recognized it and had chosen me, and I felt—I hate to say—special.
    “You like a small wetsuit or medium?” Wayo said, and it was only then that I noticed the two piles of gear he was assembling by the door.
    “What, now? At night ?”
    Alvarez said, “If we do it during the day, we may run into someone else—other divers, like those idiots at the airport who just have to hit the Devil’s Throat before downing a six-pack of Coronas underneath the beachside palapa .”
    “You can no touch the coral,” Wayo explained, holding up a bright yellow wristband. “The Parque Nacional is protected by the government.”
    “We can’t risk being seen and reported,” Alvarez said.
    “Tonight, though?” I would have preferred a practice dive first, during the day, so I could get a sense of the current, or the feel of the cavern itself, especially if I was going to be using unfamiliar equipment.
    “There’s no moon, the seas are calm. Conditions will never be better,” Alvarez said. And then a little more forcefully, “It has to be tonight.”
    “How do you know it’s still there,” I said, “whatever it is?”
    “I don’t. Not for sure, at least. But the only people who know about it”—Alvarez pointed to the research—“are in this room.”
    I shook my head. “Unless someone else came to the same conclusion as you did.”
    “My god,” Katy said. “Little Miss Rain Cloud over here. How about some optimism?”
    I tried to ignore her. “Isn’t that dive spot hard enough to find in the daytime?”
    Wayo shook his head. “Right after the fishing tournament today, I attach a…how do you say…glow stick? A glow stick at the bottom, fifty meters south of the entrance to La Garganta.”
    I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “The Devil’s Throat at night,” I said, this time to myself. “I don’t know.”
    “Just think what you and your family could do with the money,” Alvarez said.
    “Don’t bring my parents into this.” I had to defend our honor, and I think I actually pulled off the indignation pretty well, but the truth was that I’d already begun to think about the money.
    “The way your dad talks about you in the teacher’s lounge, I would have thought you’d go crazy for this chance.” Mr. Alvarez crossed his arms, disappointed. “I guess I was wrong.”
    “It’s not safe,” I said, choosing to ignore for the moment the fact that my dad talked about me in the teacher’s lounge. “It sounds hurried and poorly planned, and—”
    “I’ll do it,” Katy said.
    Alvarez whipped his head around. “What?”
    “I’ll do it. You need another diver, someone who can fit through the opening—who better than a circus freak?”
    “She can touch her toes to the back of her neck,” Nate said.
    Alvarez squinted at her. “You really think you can handle the dive?”
    “I’m certified,” Katy said. “We did that resort course in the Bahamas.