"Well ... better this way," he muttered in reply. He took another step outwards, then stopped and turned to look at Eve again.
"I ..." he started to add, but he didn't finish the sentence.
"... You?"
"Nothing," he concluded, moving away.
The Nautilus had slowly approached the vast rock plateau, set at a depth of about four thousand meters. In the last stretch of its journey, it had been accompanied by herds of lantern fish and their fearsome predators, the blue-lit Malacosteus. Bryan had been fascinated by the latter because they had curious tactile filaments and real luminous organs, which helped them find their way in the dark in the search for food. Before descending into the abyss, he had studied as it should be and he knew that the upper step in their food chain was occupied by fe
