She moved the ruler to the object at the center of the innermost circle, a rectangle made up almost entirely of solid whites and blacks rather than the shades of gray of the rest of the picture. “Four hundred feet long and two hundred wide,” she announced, quickly converting from metric to imperial measurements. “Exactly the same size as the temple in Brazil!”
“There’s no chance those circles could be some natural formation?” Philby asked. “A collapsed volcano, or a meteor crater?”
“It’s too regular,” said Nina. “It’s man-made, it has to be. How deep is it?”
Frost had the answer. “The seabed is two hundred and forty meters below the surface, with approximately…” He glanced off to one side, checking something on another screen, “five meters of sediment.”
“Eight hundred feet,” Nina said for Chase’s benefit, as he made a pained face trying to do the conversion in his head.
“Kind of deep,” he said, before turning to Kari. “Good job you’ve got subs, that’s close to the limits for scuba gear. We could only stay underwater for a few minutes at that depth.”
“Actually, we have some new diving gear that should help with that,” she replied. “I’ll show you when we’re on the ship.”
“How are we going to deal with the sediment?” asked Nina.
Kari smiled. “I told you, wait until you see our submersibles. We built something quite special. This will be our first chance to use them for real.”
Philby leaned closer to examine the printout. “Am I right in thinking that the lighter something is on the picture, the stronger the radar return?”
“Not quite-the white areas are more like shadows, blank areas where the radar was blocked. The black objects are particularly strong reflections,” Kari explained.
“Which means there must be a lot of solid objects down there.” Philby pointed east of the center. “Look at this, for example. To me, that looks almost like an aerial photograph of ruins. Everything’s jumbled, as though the walls have collapsed, but it still has a fairly regular outline.”
“It’s Atlantis,” said Nina. “It must be. It matches Plato’s description too closely for it to be anything else. The three rings of water around the citadel, the canal heading southwards…” She tapped a finger on the dark rectangle. “And this-it’s the Temple of Poseidon, the original. There’s nothing else it can be!”
“How did it end up so deep?” wondered Chase. “Eight hundred feet’s a long way down.”
“A major tectonic shift or the collapse of a subsurface volcanic caldera could easily cause part of the continental shelf to subside over a very short period. It’d cause massive tsunamis as well, which would account for the cataclysmic sinking of the island that Plato described-and over time, it would continue to settle and sink deeper. Also, global sea levels have risen since the end of the last ice age, about ten thousand years ago-after the sinking of Atlantis. Combine the two events and you have something that nobody would ever find-unless they knew exactly where to look.”
“Which you did.” Kari beamed at her. “My God, Nina, you did it! You found something that people thought was just a legend!”
“Yeah, they did, didn’t they?” said Nina, with a pointed glance at Philby.
“Yes, yes,” he harrumphed, “obviously I was mistaken.” He extended a hand. “Congratulations, Dr. Wilde.”
“Thank you, Professor,” she replied, shaking it. After a moment, he leaned forward and put an arm around her.
“Well done, Nina,” he said. “Outstanding work.” She smiled, filled with pride.
“Well, I don’t want to interrupt this archaeological orgy,” cut in Chase, “but we still actually have to get to the place. Eight hundred feet of water, remember?”
“I can take care of that,” said Frost. “I’ll tell the captain of the Evenor to set sail as soon as possible. He has already made all the preparations-you can catch up by helicopter tomorrow.” He smiled. “Once again, Dr. Wilde, congratulations are in order. You’ve made another incredible discovery. I just wish I could be there to see it for myself.”
“So do I, Far,” said Kari.
“The next time we speak…” Frost smiled again, more broadly, “you will have discovered Atlantis. I am certain of it. Good-bye… and good luck.” The screen went dark.
“I second that,” said Kari. “Congratulations, Nina!” She went to the minibar, taking out a bottle of Bollinger champagne. “We should celebrate!”
“Out of the minibar?” laughed Chase. “Christ, that’ll probably cost you more than you’ve spent on the whole expedition!”
“I think it’s worth it. Here, Nina.” She handed over the bottle. “You deserve the honors.”
“And you haven’t just won a Grand Prix, so don’t shake it up!” Chase added. “Don’t want to waste any booze.”
Nina tore away the foil and unwound the wire cap as Castille handed out glasses. She twisted the cork. “Oh, I always hate this bit. I’m scared that I’m going to take somebody’s eye out.”
“Like Jason Starkman’s?” said Chase with a cruel smirk.
“That’s not funny-aah!” The cork popped free, Chase swooping in to catch the overflowing froth. “Thanks.”
“No problem. Go on, fill it right up. It’s yours.”
“Trying to get me drunk?”
“Yeah, I bet you’re a right raver when you’re pissed! Here.” He took the bottle from her and handed her the full glass in return, pouring drinks for everyone else.
“To Nina,” said Kari, raising her glass. Everyone else echoed the toast.
Nina paused. “Thank you… but I think we should remember the people who got hurt, or… or didn’t make it this far with us. Hafez, Agnaldo, Julio, Hamilton, Captain Perez…”
The others solemnly repeated the names before sipping their drinks. “That was very thoughtful,” said Philby.
“It just seemed appropriate. I hope whatever we find is worth it…”
“It will be,” Kari assured her. “It will be.”
NINETEEN
The Gulf of Cádiz
There she is!” said Kari, pointing ahead through the helicopter’s windscreen.
The deep blue of the Gulf of Cádiz stretched out before them, sunlight glinting off its surface. They were ninety miles from the Portuguese coast, a hundred from Gibraltar, and their destination was itself in motion, making a steady twelve knots into the Atlantic. The RV Evenor stood out against the endless blue as a slice of gleaming white, a 260-foot oceanographic survey vessel representing the state of the art in undersea exploration. As with all his other concerns, Kristian Frost had not cut any corners.
“Ah, finally!” said Castille. The Belgian had been extremely nervous throughout the flight, to the amusement of the other passengers. “I can’t wait to get my feet back on solid ground.” He considered this. “Solid deck. Rocking deck. Ah, so long as it’s not a helicopter, I don’t care!”
“You got any idea how hard it is to land a helicopter on a moving ship?” Chase asked mischievously. Castille gave him a sour look, then took a green apple from a pocket and crunched deeply into it.
“That won’t be a problem, sir,” the pilot assured him as the Bell 407 began its descent. “I’ve done this a hundred times.”
“It’s number hundred and one I’m worried about,” Castille muttered through a mouthful of apple. Even Philby joined in the jovial mockery that followed.
Nina looked over Kari’s shoulder as they approached the Evenor. The research vessel had an ultramodern and, to her admittedly inexperienced eyes, somewhat odd design. The hull was normal enough, but the superstructure seemed almost top-heavy, a tall, tapered block squeezed into the midsection of the ship with a radar mast towering above it.