Crocodile Tears

his hand back and held it in front of his own face, so close that it was brushing against his nose. He couldn’t see it. It was impossible to breathe normally. His heart was racing, trapped inside him, just as he was trapped in this car. He couldn’t deny it. He was terrified.
    He swallowed hard and somehow managed to speak. “Your dad’s unconscious,” he said.
    “ What happened?” He could hear the tears in Sabina’s voice. Like him, she was struggling for control.
    “ I don’t know.”
    “ What do we do?”

    It should have been silent here at the bottom of Loch Arkaig, yet Alex was aware of noise all around him. The engine was ticking and clanking as the engine cooled. There were strange, ghostlike echoes coming from the lake itself. The Nissan was groaning as it fought against the pressure outside. And—
    most terrible of all—a steady stream of water continued to splash into the cabin.
    Alex felt the water rise over his knees, a blanket of ice. He was sure that it had only been at ankle level a few seconds ago, but time didn’t exist down here. Seconds were hours and a whole life could be over in a minute.
    There was the sound of fumbling in the back, then Sabina spoke again. “Alex … the door’s locked.”
    “ Don’t even try to open it!”
    Different thoughts were spinning uselessly through his mind. The Nissan might have a self-locking system. If the doors had locked themselves electronically, it would be impossible to get out. But there was no point in getting out anyway. Inside or outside they would die.
    “ What are we going to do?”
    Alex was still blind. He reached up, hitting his hand on the ceiling. Where was the light switch over the mirror? He found it and turned it on. Nothing. Of course, the car’s electrical circuits would have flooded. But then he remembered. Edward Pleasure had consulted a map just after they’d left Hawk’s Lodge … and he’d used a flashlight. Where had he put it?
    He pushed the air bag out of the way and reached for the glove compartment. Somehow he managed to get it open, and more water poured out. God! They couldn’t have more than a few minutes left. The water had already risen over the edge of his seat, rushing between his legs. It was unbelievably cold.
    The whole lower part of his body no longer belonged to him.

    But he had found what he was looking for. A heavy rubber cylinder. He flicked it on and to his utter relief it worked. The beam leapt out of his hand.
    Alex had experienced more than enough in the past year, but he would never forget what he saw right then. It was the perfect nightmare.
    The car was already half filled with water, which looked as black and as thick as oil. More of it was pouring out of the ventilation ducts, coming in two steady streams. Outside the windows there was nothing. The glass didn’t even look like glass. They could have been buried alive rather than deep under the surface of Loch Arkaig … it would have made no difference. The two air bags took up most of the space in the front of the car. Edward Pleasure was slumped against his, a great gash on the side of his head. Alex undid his seat belt and twisted around. Sabina was looking more frightened than he had ever seen her. She had drawn up her legs as if she were cowering away from the water, but it had reached her anyway. It completely covered the backseat. The bottom of her silver dress was soaked.
    She was shivering with cold and fear.
    They were in a tomb. And they were alone. Nobody would have seen them leave the road. Nobody would ever find them. It would simply seem that they had vanished into thin air.
    “ Alex …” Sabina was staring at the flashlight as if it could somehow save her life. “What happened?”
    “ I don’t know. The car lost control.”
    “ Is Dad … ?”
    “ He’s okay. He’s still breathing.” The light flickered and for a brief second the darkness rushed in. It couldn’t go out now! Alex tightened his grip as if he could somehow will the batteries to keep working.
    “We’re going to have to open the window, Sabina.”

    “ Why?”
    “ It’s the reason the doors won’t open. We have to make the pressure inside the car the same as the pressure outside.”
    “ But then we’ll drown.”
    “ No.” Alex shook his head. “We didn’t sink that far. I don’t think we can be more than sixty feet down.”
    “ Sixty feet is a long way, Alex.”
    Alex drew a breath. He knew that there couldn’t be too many more