A moment later the rogue wave split in two. To each side of the Maria Helena, a wall of water at least a hundred feet high loomed. And then it passed them by.
Elise stared at him. For the first time, her face displayed fear. “What the hell was that?”
Matthew embraced her as he watched the wave disappear. “I have no fucking idea!”
Chapter Fifty Five
Tom shined his flashlight into the room on the other side of the obliterated door. The room was small by comparison to the others within the trimaran, but it was large enough for Tom and Genevieve to turn around. Maybe ten feet by ten feet to form a perfectly square room — no more than four feet high.
It was filled with gold and treasure.
The most prominent of all of these was a golden eagle perched on its own golden frame staring up at them with its wings spread outwards. It was nearly a foot high and held its wings outwards slightly wider than a foot. As the light reached it, several small dots of golden light ricocheted off the wall behind — forming an unknown celestial constellation. There were three piles of Gold Sovereigns spread around the room. Tom picked up a few coins and ran his hands through them. Their faces were of the monarchs of Britain, Portugal, Spain, and France. The most recent dates he could find was 1772.
Tom let the coins fall through his fingers. “I guess the stories were true. These guys really did hunt the western ships.”
Genevieve pointed towards her dive computer. They were desperately short of Heliox and Tom was still sharing her gas. “Until the Antiqui Nautae got it wrong and died in their search for treasure. Let’s not make the same mistake. We’ll come back later for this.”
“Okay, sounds good.” Tom grabbed the golden eagle from its perch. It was heavy in his hand and he secured it to his dive belt next to the rest of the heavy lead weights. Something told him that it was important and he wasn’t willing to leave it behind. He increased the gas in his BCD to compensate for the weight and bring him back to neutral buoyancy. “Wait here until I’m attached to my own dive gear and then follow. If you lose sight of my light, let me know immediately.”
“Gotcha.”
Tom disconnected Genevieve’s secondary gas tube from his own facemask. He then held his breath while he swam towards his dive tanks. He worked quickly and efficiently as he reattached his own tanks.
And then took a deep breath of Heliox. “Okay, we can go.”
Tom kicked his fins in a slow but continuous rate. He was torn between the balance of trying to reduce the time until he reached the spare tanks, and using an excessive amount of Heliox through exertion.
He confidently swam through the disturbed silt. “Run your hand along the side of the tunnel and keep going. There isn’t enough room here for you to turn around even if you wanted to, much less by accident.”
“Okay.”
Tom swam vertically into the next level and out along the complex killing room. He swung his flashlight around it looking for the way they had come in originally. There were 53 exits by his recollection. And only one that took him to the surface. At first glance, they all appeared identical. Then his light caught the original green guideline he’d used when he entered the wreck.
Tom pointed with his flashlight to where the guideline had been screwed to the wood. “There it is. Attach yourself to the guideline and let’s go.”
She held up her dive computer so Tom could see it. There was less than twenty BAR remaining. Not enough to reach the open deck. “I think I’m out of time.”
“No you’re not.” Tom held his breath as he disconnected his own tank and replaced the nearly empty tank Genevieve was using. Then, he took her almost empty tank and reconnected it to his own. He then smiled at her. “I’ll meet you at the safety point.”
“Good luck.”
Tom swam through the opening which led to the long tunnel. At the end of it, he reached the Viking room. He breathed long, slow and deep breaths. It was a discipline designed to utilize every bit of oxygen stored in the Heliox, while at the same time slowing his heart rate and metabolic need. He followed the next tunnel until it reached the end. He tried to breathe in — but there was no more gas to breathe.
He blew out slowly as he ascended to the top level. Then he swam along the long tunnel until his lungs burned. He turned right and followed the short tunnel to the opening in the center cockpit and out into the open water.
Tom could see the twin dive tanks approximately thirty feet away from him, but his vision began to go all dark. He knew exactly what was happening. His brain was starved for oxygen, and it could no longer make any sense out of what he was seeing.
He continued to kick his fins, but it was no use — he could no longer see. Tom heard Genevieve’s voice, but couldn’t make any sense of it. He was on the verge of unconsciousness.
And then he took a deep breath.
The gas inside his dive mask flowed easily. It felt cold, and sweet. Am I dead this time? Tom had been close before when other dives had gone wrong, and he knew that when you approach death, there’s normally a period of warmth and euphoria.
Then he opened his eyes. No, he hadn’t opened them — they were already open. Only now, he could make out something. Or someone? His vision was blurred and full of a green light.
His green friend had returned. Tom couldn’t quite make out its body, but he could see the face. It smiled at him. The same face. It had the same distinctive cleft chin below its mysteriously kind smile. Now he knew he was hallucinating.
Gradually the green turned to the warm light of Genevieve’s LED.
She kneeled down next to him and tried to look at his face through his dive mask. Tom reassured her with a smile. “You reached the spare dive tanks for me.” It wasn’t a question. Simply a statement.
“Yes. Well you told me you’d be all right. And I believed you — until you stopped moving. So I thought I’d better help you out a little.”
Tom grimaced as full sensation returned. “Thanks.”
“How are you feeling?”
“I’ve got one hell of a headache, but other than that I’ll live. Let’s commence our ascent.” Tom flashed his light towards where the Maria Helena’s anchor chain should have been — only it wasn’t there. “Oh crap!”
Genevieve checked her dive computer. “What is it?”
Tom pointed to where the anchor chain from the Maria Helena should have been. “It appears the Maria Helena’s abandoned us.”
Chapter Fifty Six
“Maria Helena, Maria Helena, come in!” Tom yelled into his dive radio.
No response.
Genevieve moved closer. “Why would they leave?”
“I have no idea.” Tom tried to contact the ship again. “Maria Helena, are you receiving our transmissions?”
Silence.
“Matthew, answer me you bastard!”
More silence.
“All right Genevieve, let’s begin our ascent. We’re not going to get any answers down here.”
“Agreed.”
At the thirty feet mark Tom waited to decompress for ten minutes. Then, moving to the surface he said, “Let’s see if we can find out why they left us.”
Tom’s head barely cleared the surface and he saw it. A wave, at least a hundred feet into the air, if not more, and radiating bright green.
He turned and ducked his head back under the water. Grabbing Genevieve’s buoyancy control device, Tom depressed the air release, sending her on her way back towards the bottom. “Quick, we have to dive again!”
“What is it?”