This was no tunnel.
It was something entirely different — the very top of a pyramid.
At the opening stood a golden sculpture. The size of a large man, it held a spear pointing out towards a distant enemy. No light reached this spot, but as Sam focused his flashlight towards it, the spear glowed. Only it wasn’t a spear, at all.
“Do you realize what that is?” Sam said, already kicking his fins towards the ancient artefact.
“Like I said, The Ark of Light was real.”
Sam was certain the second he saw it.
A man who was quick to assess a situation, but slow and confident with a decision, he was used to being correct. It was because of this that the disappointment was so strong when he reached the structure and discovered it was nothing more than a sculpture, with a piece of glass at its center. Still doubting himself, Sam wondered if it was made of diamond, instead.
“Sorry, Sam,” Tom said, “I thought I told you I’d already searched the entrance? Even I would have noticed if it were the real Ark of Light.”
“It’s okay. I just got my hopes up.”
“Do you think we’ll find what old Ajtzak did with the Ark of Light somewhere inside this tunnel?” Tom asked.
“I’ve no idea, but I think this is the closest that mankind has come to discovering the weapon since it was lost in the fifteenth century.” Sam examined the structure of the entrance with admiration. “And something tells me this was never meant as a tunnel…”
“What then?”
“A tomb — Maybe Ajtzak’s final resting place? There was nothing in the history books about where they buried him, or even if he was given a King’s burial, as his bloodline suggested he should.”
“You might just be on to something there.”
“I’m certain of it,” Sam said. “What I can’t work out though, is how a fifteenth century civilization managed to build anything at a depth of 300 feet of water, especially something this intricate.”
“Maybe they built it on land and then lowered it off a massive ship?”
“No, even if they had the means of carrying something this large on a ship, there’s no way they could have sunk it and had it land so perfectly.”
“How then?”
“Let’s go find out.”
“Agreed.”
They swam inside the entrance of the pyramid, which was much less elaborate than its outside. The tunnel could just have easily been a flooded subway in New York for all the similarities of appearance. They swam downwards nearly thirty feet and then found one long tunnel heading both west and east.
“Diver Reilly, radio check Maria Helena?”
“Hearing you a little weak, say again.”
Sam stuck a relay transmitter and booster to the tunnel wall.
“How do you read me now, Matthew?”
“Loud and clear.”
“Good. What we have here appears to be the top of an ancient pyramid, probably Mayan given its location. All we could see from the entrance was the very top, surrounded by sand. There’s no way to guess how much further down this may go. The water here has the highest concentrations of hydrogen cyanide, so at least we’re onto something with our first mission — to seal the leak and contain the contamination. We’re going to explore this tunnel and see what we find.”
“Very good, keep us in communication range.”
“Will do.”
Sam looked at Tom, and said, “Let’s separate. You want to go east or west first?”
“East.”
“Okay, make certain you stay within radio range.”
“Will do, boss — you just call when you need me to rescue your ass.”
“You can count on it.”
The tunnel went for approximately 80 feet from one end to the other. At each end, the tunnel submerged further in a steep downward direction, as though the top of the outside pyramid was just the tip of the iceberg, which extended deep into the seabed.
Of course, that would be impossible…
“What do you want to do, Sam?”
“Plant another transmitter, and if you’re happy, let’s continue further down. I have a crazy feeling that we might just meet at the bottom. If you lose radio reception, double back, and meet at the Rock. I don’t want to take any chances.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Sam continued down the steep tunnel. There were boulders on either side, suggesting that whoever once built it, used stone to prop up the walls. Or that someone had actually built a real pyramid here first and then it was filled with water? Sam brushed the idea from his mind. It didn’t even warrant contemplation.
Sam checked his dive watch.
He was already 480 feet underwater. Their decompress time was going to be pretty long, not that Sam worried about that. He had the Rock, after all. It was his remaining Hydrox that worried him.
“How’s your Hydrox levels, Tom?”
“I’ve got another 40 minutes at this depth, how about you?”
“Same. Let’s just make sure we’ve got plenty of time to make the return. I have no intention of joining any king in his burial tomb.”
“I’m with you there.”
At 240 feet, the angle of the tunnel turned abruptly inwards, and the tunnel was once again horizontal.
“Your tunnel horizontal again, Tom?”
“Yeah, you too?”
“Yeah, it may have been just a tunnel, but it’s one hell of a deep tunnel, all the same. How any civilization worked out how to dig this beats me!”
“I’ve heard you use that voice before. You’re going to have to find out aren’t you? It will be Zanzibar all over again, won’t it?”
Sam smiled to himself as he shook his head, recalling the events of their discovery in Zanzibar last year. There’s no way I could be so wrong — twice.
“They’ll find how it was done one day, let me assure you. I just hope I live long enough to have my answer. Hey, I think I can see your light up ahead.”
“That’s not possible,” Tom’s voice was calm, but deadly serious.
“Why not?”
“Because I turned mine off more than a minute ago, when I saw your light.”
Chapter Two
Tom was so distracted by the brightness of the light, that he nearly missed the crack in the outer wall entirely. When the current grabbed him, he thought it was a monster of the deep drawing him into its jaws.
He would have been amazed to learn that the crack was no larger than his hand, but the extreme pressure gradient expelled the fluid like a jet. If he’d had time to prepare, he would have been able to brace himself, or at least avoid the direct point of flow.
Spinning from the pressure, his buoyancy disorientated by the flow, Tom’s helmet collided with the masonry of the tunnel wall, directly opposite to the crack.
Gas instantly began erupting from the fissure.
“Shit, my helmet’s been compromised…” he yelled, but no one heard his words. His radio, along with his faceplate, were destroyed.
Hydrox, the oxygen rich hydrogen gas designed for deep sea diving, flowed freely from his faceplate. The bubbles it created blinded him completely. With the high concentrations of hydrogen cyanide in his surrounding water, it was the positive pressure of the Hydrox that was still keeping him alive, but it would expire within minutes at this rate.
Tom flicked his flashlight on and off continuously. He had no idea which direction in relation to himself Sam was, but he knew that a message had to be passed, if he was ever going to see the surface. If he’d thought it through at all, he would have realized that, even with the ability to see, he would never have had enough gas to reach the Rock.
He was going to die.
Like all creatures, he refused to accept his fate, despite the circumstances. With no way of knowing that his radio had been damaged he kept trying to contact the only person on earth who had the chance to save him.