Asa Larsson [Rebecka Martinss Until Thy Wrath Be Past (epub)

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.Something to do with climate change, I reckoned.“As soon as they close down the holiday cottages for the winter,” I said to Simon as we struggled home with the kayak, “we’ll be able to use their boat as well.”But then the ice came, and we had to wait until it was thick enough to bear our weight.We could hardly believe our luck when it didn’t snow – we’d be able to see through the ice.A metre or so at least.But of course we’d be diving down much deeper than that.Simon sawed through the ice.He started by hacking a hole with an axe – the ice was still thin enough to do that – and then he used a hand saw.A chainsaw would have been too heavy to carry, and besides, it would have created a hell of a noise: the last thing we wanted was to attract attention.What we were doing suggested a book title to me: Wilma, Simon and the Secret of the Aeroplane.While Simon was sawing through the ice, I nailed some lengths of wood together to form a cross we would place over the hole after attaching a safety line to it.Stripping down to our thermal underwear, we pulled on our diving suits.Then we sat down at the edge of the ice hole.“Go right down to 4 metres,” Simon said.“The worst that can happen is that we lose our air supply if the regulators freeze up.The start is the riskiest bit, just beneath the surface.”“O.K.”“We might also run into trouble lower down.You can’t trust mountain lakes.There could be an inlet somewhere, causing currents.The temperature could be below zero.The riskiest place is just beneath the surface, though.So: down you go.No hanging about.”“O.K.”I didn’t want to listen.I wanted to get down there.Right away.Simon wasn’t an expert on the technical side of diving, but he’d read up on it.In magazines and on the Internet.He continued his unhurried preparations.“Two tugs on the line means ‘come up’.”“Right.”“Maybe we’ll find the wreck straight away, but probably not.Let’s get down there and take it as it comes.”“O.K., O.K.”And so we dive.Simon goes in after me.The cold water is like a horse kicking him in the face.He places the wooden cross with the safety line attached to it over the hole in the ice.He checks the dive computer during our descent.Two metres.As bright as day.The ice above us acts as a window, letting the sunlight in.When we were standing up there the ice looked black.From underneath it is light blue.Twelve metres.Murky.Colours disappear.Fifteen metres.Darkness.Simon is probably wondering how I’m feeling.But he knows I’m a tough customer.Seventeen metres.We head straight for the wreck.Land on top of it.I don’t know what I’d been expecting, but not this.Not that it would be so easy.I can feel laughter bubbling up inside me, but it can’t come out just now.I’m looking forward to hearing Simon’s comments when we’re back by the fire getting warm.He’s always so calm, but the words will come tumbling out after this.It feels as if the plane has been lying down there waiting for us.But we’d sounded the depth; we’d already done the searching.We knew where it ought to be.Even so, when I see it at the bottom in the greeny-black darkness, it seems so unreal.It’s much bigger than I’d imagined it would be.Simon shines his torch on me.I realize that he wants to see my reaction.The happy expression on my face.But of course, he can’t read my face behind the oxygen mask.He moves his outstretched hand up and down.Remain calm, he means.I notice how heavily I’m breathing.I need to collect myself if the air is going to last.There might be enough for twenty minutes.We’ll be very cold by then as well.We shine our torches on the plane, the beams of light working their way over the mud-covered fuselage.I try to make out what model it is.A Dornier, perhaps? We swim over the hull, wiping away mud and slime with our hands.No, the metal is corrugated.It’s a Junkers.Following the wing, we come to the engine.It feels a bit odd, somehow.Something isn’t right, something seems.We swim back.I’m close behind Simon, holding on to the safety line.He finds the landing gear.On top of the wing.Facing me, he turns his outstretched hand through 180 degrees.I understand: the plane is upside down.That’s why it looks so odd.It must have flipped over when it hit the water.Turned a somersault, then headed down into the depths, its heavy nose first.But settling on its back.If that’s how it happened, I expect they all died instantly.So how can we get in?After searching for a while, we find the side door just behind the wing.But it’s impossible to open it.And the side windows are too small to wriggle through.We swim to the nose.There used to be an engine there, but it’s gone.It probably happened just as I suspected.The nose hit the water first.The engine broke off [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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