‘Wind out some of your fibre-optic so it won’t catch when I come through,’ Eddie told him. Cellini acknowledged. ‘All right, here I come.’
He followed the other man into the opening. Cellini helped him through. Again, the inflexible fibreglass rasped against the stonework, but even though Eddie was considerably stockier than the lithe young man, the bodies of their deep suits were identical; if one could fit, so could its twin. A quick twist, and the Englishman was free.
‘I’m through,’ he told his listeners, bringing himself back upright. Without the spill of illumination from the altar room, the passage beyond the broken slab was much darker. He used his lamp to scan the floor, then the ceiling. ‘Looks like some bits came loose from above,’ he said, examining the broken stonework littering the steps.
‘Is the ceiling intact?’ Nina asked nervously.
‘Yeah, but there are some cracks. Let’s not stay in here too long, eh?’
‘What about the second blockage?’ said Blumberg. ‘The robots couldn’t get through it — will you be able to?’
‘We’ll soon find out.’
Eddie and Cellini carefully made their way down the sloping tunnel. Before long, another obstruction appeared. Eddie had seen a photo of the pile of rubble before diving, and saw at once that something had changed. Cellini realised the same thing. ‘The explosion, it must have dislodged some of the stones,’ he said. Although loose, the pile had previously reached to the roof, but now there were open areas at its top.
‘We still won’t fit through, though. Good job we brought these!’ Eddie set down his case and opened it. Amongst other tools, it contained a steel crowbar and a folding shovel. He took out the former and made a few exploratory probes at the debris. The smashed stones shifted easily. ‘You were right about it being loose.’
‘How long do you think it’ll take to get through?’ asked Blumberg.
‘Probably only a few minutes,’ the Yorkshireman reported, knocking away a couple more pieces.
‘Just make it a clean job,’ said Blumberg. ‘Smashing priceless sites apart isn’t my style.’
Nina looked at the cardigan-clad man, whose retreating hairline had been feebly camouflaged by a swooping comb-over, but decided to keep her thoughts on his ideas of style to herself. Instead, she turned back to the monitors. Eddie and Cellini were indeed opening up the gap quite quickly. She was about to ask one of them to see if anything was visible beyond when someone entered the room. She sat up in surprise when she saw the new arrival. ‘Oswald, hi!’
‘And hello to you too, Nina,’ replied Oswald Seretse. The urbane Gambian diplomat had acted as the IHA’s interim director before Blumberg was appointed, but had since returned to the role of bureaucratic liaison between the semi-independent agency and the United Nations, with which she was sure he was far more comfortable. ‘I heard you were in the building.’
‘The UN grapevine’s as quick as it ever was, I see,’ she said, standing to shake his hand. ‘It’s been a while.’
‘Three years, I believe. How is Macy?’
‘Three years, I believe,’ Nina echoed, grinning. ‘No, she’s great. Very precocious.’
He smiled. ‘I am not surprised.’
‘I understand you’re responsible for getting me involved with this operation?’
‘I am certain Lester would have remembered in due course that you and Eddie have personal knowledge of the temple’s interior,’ said Seretse, greeting Blumberg. ‘After all, everyone at the IHA has surely read your book.’
‘Of course,’ Blumberg replied, hastily enough to give Nina the impression that he had skimmed it at best.
‘My first book,’ she told Seretse. ‘The second’s finished, and should be out by the end of the year.’
‘I know,’ he said. ‘I have already read it.’
‘You have?’
‘Your publisher sent me proofs of the manuscript so it could be vetted for security purposes. I was sure you would not have included any classified information, and I was right, but I read it anyway.’
‘And what did you think?’
‘That it was every bit as detailed as your first.’ She wasn’t sure if that was a compliment. ‘Oh, congratulations on your film deal, by the way! My son wants to know if I am in it.’
‘Thanks,’ said Nina. ‘I honestly don’t know what happens in the movie; after they bought the rights, they went off and did their own thing. I’ll find out in a month or so, I guess!’
‘I shall have to see it in a cinema like everyone else, then.’ He regarded the screens. ‘How are things progressing?’
‘They’re clearing the blocked stairway,’ said Blumberg.
Seretse nodded. ‘I will not distract you, then. I just wished to say hello.’
‘It’s good to see you again,’ said Nina. ‘And to be back at the IHA, actually. Even if it’s only for the day.’
‘A shame that you were not able to go on the expedition yourself. But I suppose one of you needed to be here for Macy.’
The redhead’s smile became thinner. ‘Yeah, a shame. I guess when only one of you’s dive-certified, it makes choosing who stays home easier, right?’ She forced a small laugh.
If he had registered her true feelings, the diplomat chose not to show it. ‘Indeed. Well, I shall let you carry on. Do feel free to see me in my office later.’
‘I will if I get the chance,’ she told him, knowing that she almost certainly would not. Seretse said his goodbyes, then departed.
By now, the widening hole appeared almost large enough for the divers to traverse. ‘Can you get through yet?’ she asked.
‘You in a rush?’ Eddie asked. ‘How long before you’ve got to pick up Macy from nursery?’
‘Not for a while,’ she replied.
‘You will get her on time, won’t you? Even if I’m about to discover an Atlantean UFO or something?’
‘Yes, I will,’ she snapped, mildly annoyed at being mocked.
He chuckled, then became more focused as a large piece of stone fell away. ‘Okay, I’d say that’s big enough to fit through.’ He shone his light through the new opening. ‘The tunnel looks like it goes all the way down to the bottom.’
Nina and Blumberg exchanged looks. ‘I’m not in a rush,’ the redhead said into her microphone, ‘but: get your ass down there!’
Eddie laughed, then cautiously swam through the hole. The passage beyond was indeed clear to its end. ‘All right,’ said Blumberg as Cellini emerged behind the Englishman. ‘Nina, Eddie, you’ve been here before. What can we expect?’
‘The stairs came out behind the statue of Poseidon,’ said Nina. ‘It was the biggest thing in the temple, about sixty feet high. The place got flattened by the Evenor, though, so I’m not expecting there to be much left of it. Some of the smaller statues around it might have survived.’
‘What about other entrances? Did you see anything that matched what we found in Brazil?’
‘Don’t remember seeing any other doors,’ said Eddie, as he and Cellini approached the tunnel’s end. More rubble came into view below. ‘We were a bit distracted, though.’
‘There were alcoves along all the walls,’ Nina recalled. ‘Most of them had statues in, so there could have been entrances behind them. But as Eddie said, we didn’t have a lot of time for sightseeing. There were people trying to shoot us.’ She had not been the only one searching for Atlantis — and her rivals were willing to kill to prevent her from reaching it first.
‘Not today, though,’ said Blumberg smugly. Then: ‘Nerio, what’s that?’