Keen to go exploring after soccer practice, the boys of the Wild Boars soccer team ignored the sign at the cave entrance warning visitors not to enter during the monsoon season. What followed was a high-stakes international mission that very nearly didn't succeed. The ordeal riveted millions around the world. First came the awful news that 12 Thai boys, aged 11 to 17, and their young coach were missing. Then the flickering video of the huddle of anxious and hungry boys found by a pair of British divers nine days later. But the most difficult part was yet to come. Monsoon rains had raised the water level in the cave system, and the boys were trapped in an air pocket, surrounded by rising muddy water, over two kilometres from the cave entrance. None of them knew how to dive.