1
I’m back.
That’s what I thought when I arrived on the Cassandra for another
summer vacation.
Yes, I, William Deep, Jr., world-famous undersea explorer, am back.
One year older. One year wiser. One year tougher.
I breathed in a big gulp of salty air. I gazed at the clear green Caribbean
sea around me.
My little sister, Sheena, stood beside me. But I pretended she wasn’t there.
She sort of ruined the atmosphere for me. She usually does.
The Cassandra is my uncle’s boat. It’s a floating research lab.
My uncle, Dr. George Deep, is a marine biologist. My parents sent me and
Sheena to visit him on our summer vacation. They sent us the year before too.
Dr. D. lives on the boat in the Caribbean all year long, studying tropical
fish. It’s fun for us. We get to swim and stuff. My uncle is really nice. And my
parents figure we’ll learn a lot about science and ocean life while we’re with
him.
Last summer I made one of the most shocking discoveries in the history of
marine biology.
I found a mermaid. A real mermaid.
No one believed me, of course. I wasn’t a grownup scientist. I was a
twelve-year-old boy on vacation in the Caribbean.
Know-it-all Sheena thought I was lying.
My uncle, Dr. D., thought I was making it up. He didn’t believe in mermaids.
Until I proved him wrong.
We didn’t tell anyone about the mermaids. Some really bad guys wanted to
capture them and put them in cages. To protect the mermaids, Sheena, Dr. D., and
I agreed to keep them a secret.
So the world will never know…
And now, I’m back! I told myself. Billy Deep, one of the greatest
explorers in the seven seas.
And I’m not a twelve-year-old kid anymore.
I’m thirteen.
And this summer, I’m going to find something big. Something even more amazing
than a mermaid.
This time, the world will hear about it. This time I’ll be famous.
I hope.
* * *
The fire coral glowed bright red. I snorkeled near it, careful not to touch
it.
I’d stepped on fire coral once before. It burned my foot like crazy.
They don’t call it fire coral for nothing.
I studied the coral wall. Neon-bright fish darted in and out of the delicate
holes. It was beautiful. There, under the water, everything seemed calm. Quiet.
Peaceful.
But I knew better. I was an experienced snorkeler. A snorkeling hero.
An untrained swimmer wouldn’t have noticed it. That little ripple in the
water. The way the fish all suddenly disappeared.
But I felt it. That whiff of danger.
Something was coming. Something deadly.
2
I whirled around—and faced the intruder.
A giant octopus!
“ WHOOOA! ” The snorkel flew from my mouth as I cried out in shock. An
octopus! It rose up in the water, its purple body as big as mine !
I shoved the mouthpiece back into my mouth. And frantically tried to thrash
away from it.
But before I could get moving, I felt something cold and soft wrap around my
throat.
Ohhhh.
A tentacle as thick as a human arm.
Its suction pods snapped to my skin. It started to pull me… pull me down.
No!
Gasping for breath, I lifted my head out of the water. And let out a choked
cry for help.
I felt another cold tentacle slide around my waist. And then another around
my chest.
I thrashed and kicked. But the huge creature was too powerful. The big
suction pods made loud sucking sounds as they tightened against my skin.
The tentacles pulled me… pulled me…
Until everything went black.
No! No!
I wasn’t losing consciousness. The blackness that washed around me was
octopus ink.
I shut my eyes. Twisted and squirmed.
But the tentacles pulled harder. Pulled me down into the inky blackness.
I choked and sputtered. And struggled up to the surface.
The water tossed and churned, black with octopus ink.
The big suction pods bit into my bare skin.
The tentacles tightened… tightened around my ribs, my stomach.
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move.
I’m going under, I realized. I’m doomed.
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