Breathless

by Sharron McClellan

• ISBN13: 9780373389780
• ISBN10: 0373389787
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-02-12
• Publisher: Silhouette

Summary

Athena Academy's darkest nemesis is gunning for her, but USMC Combatant Diver Jessica Whittaker is not easily intimidated. Without thinking twice, she volunteers to help bring down the school's deadliest enemy.Her assignment: an expeditionary mission aboard a sunken ship. Salvaging for clues on an abandoned vessel should have been simple. But a hostile force--and an unbelievably handsome diving buddy--has turned up the heat. If Jess ever wants to set foot on dry land again she'll have to contend with her enemy--and her lover--or risk revealing her deepest secret.

Excerpts

U.S. Marine Corp Combatant diver, Jessica Whitaker stepped off the edge of the boat and into the Pacific Ocean, barely making a splash as she entered the water.With the setting of the sun, the submarine world off Oahu, Hawaii, was dark but also as warm and familiar as her own skin. For a few seconds, the only sound she heard was her breathing inside the full-face mask. Then the rest of her team entered the water, breaking the silence. She counted the splashes. One. Two. Three.A small team, but this was a training exercise, and in the initial stages, she found training to be much more effective if the recruits had personal attention.Not that they needed or demanded the one-on-one time. They were Marines. They didn't need anything but water, air and the burning desire to do the right thing.She could train larger groups, but Jess knew one axiom to be true: there was nothing more detrimental to a mission than a half-assed operative who didn't know what he was doing.Or worse, thought he knew but thought wrong."Sound off," she said, adjusting the vocals of her mask's transmitter and receiver."Latham." Newbie One."Taylor." Her first in command and a trusted friend, the older, weathered Marine was an excellent teacher with an innate patience that the recruits responded to."Eielson." Newbie Two.The three men gathered around her, their dark, wet-suit-covered forms making them almost invisible in the night water. "As you know, our objective is the enemy ship, Sushi," she said. "She's approximately one mile away, and her coordinates were downloaded into your personal GPS systems before you entered the water. Upon arrival, Latham and I will set a charge at the bow of the ship. Taylor and Eielson, you're taking the stern. Latham--" she addressed her partner for the exercise "--tell me our objective.""Disable and distract. Once she's crippled, the surface team will board her and retrieve the hostages.""Good," she responded. "Questions?"Nothing but silence. Not even the sound of burbling SCUBA tanks since they wore rebreathers to give themselves an unlimited amount of time underwater.Not that we have unlimited time, Jess thought. Nor did they need it. Marines did not screw around."Move out," she said. In unison, they swam to the diver propulsion vehicles, DVPs, that drifted in the water next to the boat that had transported them to the drop spot. Taylor and Eielson left first. Sinking below the waves, they'd parallel her and Latham as they made their way to the ship.She gave a short wave to the boat captain, who stood on the deck watching them depart, then powered up her DPV. Using the GPS coordinates for guidance instead of the running lights, she and Latham headed toward the Sushi.She almost chuckled at the name but kept quiet. Each new training group gave the ship a different name. Some serious. Some funny. Some as imaginative as blank paper.In this case, the name was given when the entire squad of nine went to a Japanese restaurant a few weeks ago. They'd eaten questionable sushi and sucked down sake.They'd spent the next day hungover and sick with food poisoning.She'd used the opportunity to take them on a five-mile run. Cruel, she mused. However, they'd all finished, proving their tenacity and strength of spirit not just to her but to themselves."How you doing, Latham?" Jess asked when they were a few hundred feet closer to their objective."Good, ma'am," he replied."It's just us for the next few minutes," she said. "If you have any questions, now would be the time.""None, ma'am."She didn't think he'd have any. One of her best recruits, Chuck Latham was a husky young man from the Atlanta inner city. He'd been given a choice when he was sixteen and standing in front of a judge for theft--join ROTC and get his life in line or go to juvenile hall.Despite the ridicule of his peers, he chose ROTC. After graduation, he'd put himself through co