"I hope those monkeys don't try and mess with these. The major seemed pretty adamant about having them in place and operating on time," Mendenhall said as he nervously eyed the trees around them.
Sanchez pressed the release valve on the hose and the large balloon filled with helium. Then the heat transponder was attached, and he slowly allowed the nylon line to play out through his fingers. They were on their thirteenth one; each one had to be placed as close to the tree canopy as they could get it. By the time they were finished they would have fifty balloons raised to a height of two hundred feet above the highest of the trees. Once that was done, the team would use the Zodiac to travel to the shore and tie every balloon to the roots of trees. Thus the entire lagoon would be lined with the heat-emitting elements.
* * *
Inside the engineering section, Jenks was preparing Snoopy 3 for her journey into the mine. The probe was five and a half feet long and had a pop-up floodlight and camera on each of four points. But the problem with using that much power for the illumination and cameras was that Snoopy 3 had a battery lifespan of less than an hour.
He reached for the intercom. "Okay, you in there?"
"This is Everett in sonar. Anytime you want, Chief."
"Go ahead, Toad, blast the hell out of the water and get me some readings to feed into Snoopy — and give it full amplitude."
* * *
Outside in the water, a sound wave was created by the loud sonar ping. The signal bounced off the rock walls and bounced around until it found its way back to Teacher, where the size of and distance to all underwater obstructions were recorded. Again the ping sounded, and again. Fifteen times at ten-second intervals, the sound bounced around the lagoon and even into the mine itself.
BLACK WATER TRIBUTARY
Robby watched the animal from within an enclosure in the cave as it moved around the darkened central cavern. He could see the amphibian turn and stare at him. Robby knew the beast was aware of its being observed. It had seemed agitated when it had returned only minutes before to herd several more members of the expedition team into the cave: two students who were carrying a third between them. In the semidarkness he couldn't make out who they were. He'd heard a lot of screaming by the animal but it had finally got its point across, and the three women had gone inside another of the dug-out slave enclosures. Then Robby had heard cries of relief from the people already inside, at the sudden reunion.
But now the beast traversed the floor of the cave. Every now and then it would raise its face toward the ceiling and then cock its head to one side. It seemed to be listening for something. Afterward, it would lower its head and look directly at Robby, stabbing him with its eyes across a hundred feet of cave. It would growl and shake its head and half swipe in his direction, as if it was he who was causing whatever distress it was obviously feeling.
"Did you see who they brought in?" Kelly whispered from behind him.
Robby didn't move his eyes from the animal. "No, they were pushed into the enclosure too fast. Look, it's acting strange. Something must be going on."
Kelly studied the beast as it just stood there. It tilted its head again and again, from one side to the other, and raised its right hand into the air as if trying to grasp something that wasn't there.
"My god, it's hearing something and is confused by it. Either that or the sound is making it uncomfortable. See how it's snapping its hand? Sound waves."
The creature suddenly placed both enormous hands over the sides of its head. It emitted a roar that echoed off the walls of the cave. It looked straight at Robby and Kelly, roared again, and took a menacing step toward them. Then abruptly it turned and awkwardly walked toward the grotto and fell in. There was a quick splash and the animal vanished under the clear water.
Rob walked around in the cave but could hear nothing. Kelly, on her hands and knees, began to crawl out of the enclosure, after the animal. "Robby, do you feel that?"
Robby stood stock still, but still didn't feel or hear anything.
Kelly crawled all the way out and stood. She ran as fast as the darkness would permit to the edge of the grotto, then went down on her hands and knees once again. Her palms were spread out on the floor of the cave.
"What are—"
"Shhh—"
"Come on, what's—"
"Come down here and feel," Kelly said as she felt around closer to the water. Then she suddenly placed her right ear to the wet stone. Robby finally joined her and pressed his ear to the ground.
"Don't you hear that?" she asked. Robby couldn't figure out what she was listening to.
Kelly, smiling, sat back up.
"What are you smiling about?" he asked.
"I think we have company in the lagoon, maybe our rescuers."
He looked from Kelly back to the floor of the cave. Whatever she had felt or heard had eluded him. There was a steady sound but he didn't know what it was.
"Active sonar. Someone out there is pinging the lagoon!"
Now Robby understood. The feeling through his fingertips, and the steady beat of sound that he had felt, was the sound of sonar as it pulsed through the lagoon outside and was acoustically transferred to the grotto through the best conducting material there was: water.
"What's wrong?" Kelly asked when she saw his face.
"That animal didn't look too happy when it left here. It was feeling the sonar pulses, too."
"Damn!" she exclaimed.
"Yeah, I hope whoever is out there is paying attention, because our slave master is about to pay them a visit."
* * *
"Well, she's ready," Jenks said into the intercom as he reached out for the lever that opened the small two-door hatch at the bottom near the bilges. He winched Snoopy 3 into the murky lagoon, then made his way back to the main lounge, where everyone had gathered for their first glimpse into the mine. Even in the radar and communications room, Jackson leaned forward in his seat to watch, and accidentally hit the Sonar Contact Alarm switch, an audible warning system that allowed the operator to be warned of the approach of something moving toward Teacher. When the switch was accidentally thrown, it effectively converted the sonar's programmed task to an ordinary eyes-only sweep.
* * *
Twenty feet beneath the keel of Teacher, the creature was now swimming on its back, kicking easily as it stared upward at the bottom of the boat. Every few minutes it would rise and run a hand along the hull and then quickly dart away. When Snoopy 3 was lowered into the water, the beast swam quickly toward the opened hatch but came up short when the doors silently closed. The hand slowly reached out and touched Snoopy's smooth, torpedolike shape. When the probe did nothing but sit there at zero buoyancy, the amphibian gently slapped at it, then struck it again as the device dipped its nose and then righted level. The beast became bored with the small craft and swam once again along the bottom, every once in a while rising and quickly peering through the underwater windows of Teacher. Finally it came to a window where several people sat on the opposite side of the clear acrylic. It closely examined all the faces within its view, slowly becoming agitated by what it saw. A second, smaller animal approached and was quickly chased away by the larger, more aggressive one. Even several of the plesiosaurs came close, out of curiosity, and were abruptly swiped at. They shot off into the lower extremities of the lagoon.
* * *
There was a buzz of excitement as Jenks made his way to the additional control panel he had installed in the lounge. Virginia was already there and he smiled at her as he sat down next to her. Jack was leaning against the bulkhead, Sarah sitting in front of him, by the large underwater window. Carl and Danielle were seated next to her. When Jack nodded, Jenks turned to the controls and threw a switch. The four monitors arrayed around the lounge came to life, along with the six-inch screen in front of Jenks. The probe's nose camera came on at the same time as the lights did, and they saw the bright green waters of the lagoon illuminate in a twelve-foot diameter around Snoopy 3 as the small
craft bobbed just below the surface.
"Here we go," the master chief said as he toggled Snoopy forward and down into the depths. Virginia patted his leg and then placed her hands in her lap.
Snoopy made a half circle under the boat and came out the opposite side, then made for a compass heading of magnetic north, toward the falls. As it approached, the water became choppier, but the master chief held it on course and depth, only adjusting the speed as he advanced the throttle to compensate for a current that was starting to push the probe back toward the center of the lagoon. Then Snoopy started forward again, its thruster started to gain a foothold in the current. To conserve power, Jenks kept only the forward light and camera on, the latter now picking up white water ahead as the two-hundred-foot falls struck the lagoon's surface. He lowered Snoopy's nose as the water became rough. He sent the device deep to smooth out its ride beneath the catarata. Ellenshaw was so nervous during this that he began ringing his hands together until Heidi reached and stilled them.
Despite its depth, Snoopy 3 was in tumult as it reached the cascading falls. Its nose dipped again as the free-falling water above the device created turbulence as deep as thirty-five feet. Snoopy rolled to the right as the nose came up, only to immediately lose buoyancy as the full weight of the falls struck its hardened plastic body. On camera, it almost looked as if the probe were being manhandled by otherworldly forces as it was tossed by the natural falls. Jenks wasn't too concerned, as his concentration was centered on the panel in front of him, where he had readouts showing speed, depth, and power usage. He held steady, then throttled back as the vortex of water pressure started to lessen. Most everyone in the room breathed a sigh of relief as Snoopy edged its way past the extreme edge of the waterfall and into calmer waters.
"Chief, can we get a fathometer reading on the depth of the water where she's at right now," Sarah asked.
Jenks toggled a switch. The readout on his remote control panel went from passive to active sonar. "I can only use this a few times, so this will be a quick scan of her surroundings. Just watch the monitors and the readout will appear there."
From within the confines of the ship, everyone in the boat felt as well as heard the powerful sonar ping that coursed through the water.
* * *
Outside, below the boat, the animal brought its large hands up to its head and started thrashing about as the loud underwater noise struck. Then it settled down, shaking its head from side to side, as the sound dwindled to nothing.
* * *
"There you go. It looks like we have twenty-five on the starboard side, thirty-seven on the port and… well, she's a deep channel, numbers are still going up," Jenks said.
The numbers from the sonar reading resembled those they had received from Teacher when they had probed the bottom of the lagoon. The body of water looked to be bottomless, with the exception of two large shelves on either side of Snoopy. Other than that small anomaly, the shear rock walls appeared to extend down infinitely.
"I am convinced this is a caldera — what we're looking at is a lava shaft that runs hundreds of thousands of feet below the surface here," Sarah said. "There's no other explanation."
"Maybe we just found the front door and long hallway to hell," Jenks joked.
The poorly timed joke was met with deathly silence by everyone. Caldera or underworld, the question remained whether any of the missing students were still alive.
* * *
Farbeaux and Mendez faced their men, on the far side of the rapids. The lagoon lay just beyond the bend, and the Frenchman had just seen the American craft sitting at the center of the lagoon, well lit and inviting within this hidden wonder.
"Now am I clear — we are to use the shoreline as cover as we skirt the Americans. We will be lost among the shore clutter if they are actively using sonar as security."
The men nodded. Even Rosolo admired the Frenchman's approach. It was just too bad he would not be following him. He had a detour to make.
Mendez, rotund and ridiculous in his shiny wetsuit, went from man to man speaking Spanish to each. Farbeaux caught a phrase or two. The Colombian was promising they would have riches beyond belief if they succeeded in their mission. Farbeaux suspected the mines were indeed full of gold, but how much could be removed before the Brazilian government moved in to take their find? That fool Mendez thought he could buy off anyone, any government. But why should a government accept his pitiful payout when they could have the entirety of the greatest gold find in history? The greedy Colombian couldn't be allowed to live once they reached El Dorado. The Frenchman didn't need the Brazilian authorities to ever gain full knowledge of the other treasures that were hidden in veins underneath the ground here, which the gold would lead them to. No, he could not allow that.
Farbeaux placed his face mask over his head and made sure his rebreather was operating properly. He held his hand in the air, then slowly lowered it toward the water and started off. He was followed by Mendez and his men. The last to enter the water was Captain Rosolo, who would swim as far as the boat with them.
* * *
"It looks like a very wide shelf on the right, about thirty-five feet I would say," Jenks said as Snoopy entered the cave behind the falls. The light picked up the calm water and the master chief proclaimed loudly that there was indeed a current inside, of about three knots.
"That means the waters in here must empty out somewhere," Sarah surmised.
Snoopy shallowed as Jenks pulled upward on the toggle. The camera went from showing a solid green frame of water to a darker variant of the same as it aimed the camera up through the surface of the canal.
"Turning to the right," Jenks called as he angled Snoopy in that direction just as the probe came shallow to fifteen feet.
Carl pointed at the screen. "Look at that! The shelf you were talking about has actually been carved out—"
"Are those steps?" Virginia interrupted.
On the monitor, the camera picked out first one, then two steps that went off into the distance on either side of Snoopy. These first two stone steps led to a third, then a fourth, and on and on.
Jack leaned in closer to the monitor. "Chief, can you get me a shot of the upper areas of the cavern?"
"Yeah, you see something?"
Jack just looked at him and didn't answer.
Jenks adjusted the right-side camera and brought three pounds of ballast into the small probe, tilting it to the left and raising the angle of the camera. As the lights disappeared into the darkness, the camera caught another sight that made everyone's mouth drop. Once again, a strained silence filled the cabin. Onscreen were level upon level of pillars and, beyond them, ornately carved walls.
"Look at those walls, how they angle inward toward the waterfall at the top," Virginia observed with awe.
"A pyramid," Keating said as he studied the camera's moving image. "It's a damned stepped pyramid."
"It's like we're looking at it inside out," Heidi said, moving closer.
Each level of the interior became smaller the farther toward the top they went. Each pillar lining its respective level served as a load-bearing strut, strengthening each story as they climbed higher toward the source of falls. Giant openings were visible beyond the pillars, indicating that there were portals into the mine itself.
"This is an impossible engineering feat," said Keating.
"The Inca must have turned the inside of a natural cave, or lava vent, into a more recognizable architectural interior. After all, they couldn't take anything out of here without praying and having their god Supay sanction the removal of his treasure," Sarah said and then looked around her at everyone. "I'm just guessing, of course." A silence followed.
"I think it's as good a theory as we have at the moment," Virginia finally said.
The camera continued to send back images of the vast expanse of the mine. Because of Snoopy's depth in the water and its being only the right-side lens that poked free of the surface, their view was limited. But to
Jack, this information, along with what Sarah had gathered in the diving bell earlier, indicated that the mine shafts not only rose with the pyramid, but also would lead down into the earth, far beyond the level of the lagoon.
"Surfacing," Jenks finally called, anxious to see the pyramid in a better light. He and everyone in the section again leaned forward in their seats, as Snoopy broke the surface. "Turning on all her lights and cameras," he said, and quickly flipped the switches on the other three cameras and three sets of lights.
On the monitor, the screen image separated into four separate camera angles. One showed the long staircase as it rose out of the water and continued another fifteen or twenty steps above the surface of the entrance canal. The steps terminated at what looked like a giant flat rock, about two hundred feet in length.
"A platform?" Heidi wondered aloud.
"Close, Heidi," Jack said, uncrossing his arms. "Do you want to tell them, swabby?" He turned to Carl.
The lieutenant commander rose from his seat next to Danielle and pointed along the image on one of the wall-mounted monitors. "See how this rises out of the water as a solid square of stone with steps petering out in the middle, and then they start up again on either side of this platform? Now, look along the edge of this giant stone — see these?" He pointed to ten different protrusions that lined the edge of the platform. They looked like a set of longhorns, each horn branching out left and right about three feet each. "They're cleats, and what we're looking at here is a dock."
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