'They filter it first, Aya-chan.'
The water was murky, speckled with suspended dirt and debris carried down by the storm drains. It smelled like damp earth and rotten leaves.
'Does this light get any stronger?'
'Maybe this will help.' He flicked his hand, and the hoverlamp descended until its nose broke the surface.
The spotlight grew in intensity, and a half sphere of luminous water bloomed beneath Aya, as if she was hovering above an upside-down sunset in shades of green and brown.
She could finally see the bottom of the reservoir: a fine layer of silt, twigs, and construction rubbish with a few spots of ancient brickwork showing through.
But no Moggle.
'Hmm, this might be the wrong spot.'
'Too bad.' Ren lay back and stretched out on his hoverboard, staring at the arched ceiling. He raised his arms out in front of him, gesturing through the start-up sequence of some thumb-twitch game.
'Let me know when you find the right one.'
'But Ren-chan?' 'See you later, cam-loser.'
She started to protest again, but Ren's eyescreens started blinking a full immersion pattern, his fingers flexing and twitching?he was deep in the game.
Aya let out a sigh, stretching out facedown on her board, her chin resting on the front end. She let herself drift slowly across the water, peering down through the luminous muck.
Ren had been right about one thing: This was definitely boring. Every time the hoverlamp obediently followed her, its nose rippled the surface, and Aya had to wait for the water to settle before she could see again. She spotted a few surprising bits of rubbish?a boomerang, the remains of a crumpled box kite, a broken warbody sword?but still no Moggle. She could see why Ren would rather play games than stare into the bottom of a garbage- filled lake.
At least all her test scores yesterday had been aces, and her littlie-watching duty after lunch would build up the last few merits she needed for some black camo paint for Moggle.
When this story finally kicked, she'd be famous enough to never worry about merit-grubbing again.
As Aya peered into the underground lake's mysterious depths, her thoughts returned to what she and Miki had seen last night. What was so secret that you had to hide it in a mountain? And why had those people looked so strange? Even the most serious surge-monkeys never bent their bodies that far out of shape.
The Sly Girls were headed out again tonight to look for clues. Ren had given Aya a spy-cam the size of a shirt button, but it was only good for grainy close-ups. To capture the Girls in all their eye-kicking glory, Moggle had to be sneaking along behind.
Down in the depths, a small silt-covered bump rose from the reservoir floor.
'Moggle?' she murmured, rubbing her eyes.
It was the perfect shape and size, like a soccer ball cut in half.
'Hey, Ren,' she cried.
'Ren!'
His immersion blinker sputtered to a halt, the eye-screen glaze slipping from his face.
'Moggle's down there!'
He stretched his arms, swinging his legs over the side of his hoverboard. 'Great. Time for stage two, which is much more kick.'
'Good. I was kind of getting bored.'
He smiled. 'Believe me, you won't find this boring.'
Stage two turned out to involve a tank of compressed helium the size of a fire extinguisher, with a limp weather balloon hanging from its nozzle.
Aya stared at the contraption. 'I don't get it.'
Ren tossed her the tank, and Aya grunted under its weight. Her board dipped for a moment before the lifters compensated, smacking flat against the water.
'Feel how heavy that is?' he said.
'Um, yes.' Water trickled across the board's riding surface, getting her grippy shoes wet.
'That's to solve your floating problem,' he explained.
'I have a floating problem?'
'Yes, Aya-chan: Like most people, you float,' he said. 'It's all that pesky air in your lungs. That tank's heavy enough to carry you straight to the bottom.'
She blinked. 'Ren, wait a second ? I like my floating problem. I like the air in my lungs! I'm not going down there!'
He laughed. 'How else are you going to get Moggle?'
'I don't know,' she said. 'I thought maybe you'd make some sort of? little submarine?'
'Like I don't have better things to spend my merits on?' He pointed at the helium tank. 'There's a magnet on the bottom. Just balance the tank upright on top of Moggle, and it should stick.'
'But how do I get back up? This thing weighs a ton!'
'That's the clever part: Just turn this.' He drifted closer and gave a valve on the tank a turn. It hissed for a second before he twisted it back. 'The balloon fills up, and that carries you and Moggle back to the surface! Pretty kick, huh?'
'Okay. But I can't breathe helium. Where's my underwater mask?' She looked at the open cargo compartment on his hoverboard.
'Just hold your breath.'
'Hold my breath?'
Aya cried. 'That's your awesome tech-head solution?'
Ren rolled his eyes. 'The bottom's only five or six meters down?like the deep end of a high-diving pool.'
'Oh, thanks for bringing up high-diving, Ren. My favorite panic-making activity.' She frowned.
'And it's cold down there!'
'Good.' He nodded. 'Maybe next time you'll think about that before you lose your hovercam.'
Aya stared at Ren, realizing that Hiro must have put him up to this. If the two of them only knew how kick this story was, they'd understand why sacrificing Moggle had been worth it. But she couldn't explain yet, not until she found out what was hidden in that mountain.
'Fine.' She clutched the helium tank closer to herself, glaring down into the luminous water until she spotted Moggle again. 'Anything else I need to know?'
He smiled. 'Just be careful, Aya-chan.'
'Whatever.'
She sucked in a deep breath?and jumped.
The splash rumbled in her ears for a moment, but the weight of the tank carried her swiftly through the turbulence to the still waters deeper down. The hoverlamps glowed through her closed eyelids, and it was freezing cold.
Her feet bumped against the reservoir floor, grippy shoes skidding for a moment on loose dirt.
The heavy tank threatened to drag Aya to her knees, but she managed to stay upright.
She opened her eyes Rotten leaves and twigs swirled around her head, a mini whirlwind thrown up by her landing.
Depth had turned the light dull green, and spinning shadows danced across the reservoir floor.
A flash caught her eye?one of the shiny stickers on Moggle's cover, shimmering in the lamplight like the eye of some bottom-dwelling beast.
She walked in slow motion toward the hovercam, feet skidding on the slippery bricks. Every step stirred up whirligigs of silt and slime, dark clouds billowing around her. Moggle almost disappeared among them.
But there was no time to let the muck settle. Her heart was beginning to hammer against her rib cage, demanding more oxygen, and her fingers and toes were going numb in the freezing cold. The pressure of the water was dizzy-making, like two hands squeezed around her head.
