Time itself seemed to slow as she made the last few strokes to reach the point where she’d seen Lauren disappear. Taking a deep breath, she dived down and searched with her hands, pulling up clumps of mud and slimy matter that felt like old rotting fabric, disintegrating as she swiped at it. Opening her eyes under the water didn’t help—all she could see was the silt she had dislodged, that had turned the water into clouds of murky brown. No sign of Lauren, or the babies. Soon she started to run out of oxygen; her lungs began to burn and her ears were pulsating painfully. With no choice but to surface for air, she swam up, stuck her head above the water and breathed hard. There on the shore was the dark figure of a uniformed officer.

“Sarge,” he shouted, “don’t put yourself in danger. You don’t know what’s under there.”

Harper drew a deep breath and dived again. I know what’s under here, she thought. One woman and two little babies. And they only have a few minutes.

Her hands met rocks, and soft mud. Her feet became entangled in something, but she shook them free. Beyond the dullness that filled her ears she heard someone, probably the young officer on the shore, shouting her name, but it seemed very far away. Much closer, she heard a musical sound, thin and high, like singing but not quite like any singing she had ever heard before; somewhere between a cello and a whale song. Soft but getting louder, the music entered her and she relaxed into it. It was so beautiful. For a moment she forgot about the pain in her lungs. She wanted to stay there, to listen to that song for a few minutes more. Stars appeared in her vision, and distantly she knew that this was not the sparkling display of ethereal lights that she took it for, that it actually signalled oxygen deprivation and imminent unconsciousness, and even though she knew that, she didn’t mind. What am I here for? she thought, before she remembered with a small jolt. I’m here to save lives, that’s right.

The urgency she felt before had all but gone. She carried on the search for Lauren and the boys with sweeping, dancing motions. If she found them, then great. But if not, what did it really matter, in the great scheme of things? She floated gently in the dark, enchanted by the sound and the twinkling lights. Just as it all began to dim, as she almost gave herself to the drifting, her hand clasped itself around something bony. A cold, round thing. Then, her fingers found a mouth-sized hole, with the unmistakable feel of the surface of human teeth on the pad of her thumb as she grasped it.