“Ya look awake to me,” Pete replied, “but then what the hell do I know?”
Toby climbed to his feet.
“Did all that really happen or did I dream it?”
He leant down, grabbed hold of Pete’s hand and helped him to his feet.
Pete shook his head. “Fucked if I know,” he said. “I need a good stiff drink. I feel like I’ve just run a marathon.”
“My balls are aching,” said Toby giving them a jiggle.
Pete wrapped an arm around Toby’s shoulders. “I’d offer to massage them for ya, but I don’t even wanna think about sex for at least a day.”
Toby laughed. “I hate to say it, but I agree.”
Chapter 8
A small delay in the Suez Canal caused by a pair of container ships going slower than a rainy Sunday could not dampen the spirits of the crew aboard The Phantom. The Mediterranean was just a few hundred metres away and the first half of their journey was nearing its conclusion.
Toby and Bird were lying naked in hammocks, enjoying the sun and swapping stories about the first time they had sex.
“Mine was in the backseat of a married man’s car,” said Toby.
Bird started chuckling. “Dirty bastard. How old were you?”
“Fifteen.”
“So he was a dirty old bastard then?”
Toby shook his head. “Nope. He was about thirty and I was the one who went after him. I was in the supermarket getting some chips or something after school and this guy in a suit came in. He was hot. Tall, tanned, and well-built. I was just a scrawny kid, but I knew what I wanted. I followed him around the aisles, giving him the eye and rubbing my cock through my pants to let him know I was, you know, interested. Next thing I’m in his car parked at some sports oval and he’s sucking me off.”
Bird sat up in his hammock. “Man, that’s hot. Makes me sucking and fucking my best mate off a bit lame.”
“You ever had a boyfriend?” asked Toby.
“Nah. Been in the closet. Only really get with another bloke when I’m away,” said Bird. “Where nobody knows me. How about you?”
“Me? Give me a break. I’m only eighteen. Lived with my mum all my life. I could have moved out last year, but since my dad shot through she gets kind of lonely.”
“Mama’s boy,” said Bird.
“Coat hanger.”
There was a brief moment of silence during which Toby stared up at the seagulls wheeling overhead.
“Hey what do you reckon will happen now?”
“What do you mean?” asked Bird.
“I mean do you reckon this Atlantis stuff is true?”
“I don’t know. If you’d asked me a couple of months ago if there were giant sharks and octopuses and purple genies I would have called the loony bin. Now I don’t know what the hell’s going on. Probably just as much chance of it being true as not.”
Toby tucked his hands behind his head.
“I still don’t know why the Captain’s bothering. Pete was telling me there’s no way he’ll be able to keep anything he finds. It’ll belong to some government or other. They’ll take it off him.”
“As long as I get paid, I don’t care what happens,” said Bird. “Same for Zeke. He reckons the Captain’s got his head up his arse, but we’re here to do a job and as long as we get paid then there’s no harm done, hey?”
Toby nodded.
“That’s where they are now,” continued Bird.
“Who?”
“Your Pete and the Captain. They’re over there in the Captain’s quarters talking about Atlantis, plotting the area they’re going to search.”
“First of all he’s not my Pete…”
“Aw come one. Everyone knows he is.”
“Secondly,” Toby continued, raising his voice and talking over Bird, “I thought Captain Bartlett had a map.”
“He does but it’s not like there are any landmarks to go by.”
Toby sighed.
“Like you said, as long as we get paid.”
Another silence descended. Toby’s thoughts turned to memories of the beaches at home—Port Beach and Cottesloe, and Swanbourne, the nude beach he liked to visit on rare occasions. He remembered summer holidays when he’d spend every day of every week by the cool blue waters of the Indian Ocean. As a kid he’d gone snorkelling and seen all manner of fish, stingrays and starfish. There hadn’t been much in the way of coral but the marine life was interesting enough for him to eventually take up scuba diving lessons.
“Hey, can you dive?” he asked.
Bird sounded as though he had been dozing. “What do you mean? Like Olympic diving?”
“No, I mean scuba diving. Olympic diving isn’t going to be much good to us, is it?”
“Nope. Not even that good at swimming. You ever seen me go overboard? Except that one time with Zeke? And that was only because no-one else could go with him. Nah. I love the water but prefer to be on it than in it. You?”
“Enough to know what I’m doing,” said Toby.
The conversation petered out, which suited Toby. He had to get up to relieve himself. As he was stuffing his cock back into his shorts, the sound of voices at the Captain’s door drew his attention.
“Tomorrow then?”
“Yep.”
“I’ll make sure everyone’s ready.”
The Captain disappeared into his cabin.
“So how did the top secret talks go?”
Pete threw his arms around Toby and kissed him on the lips.
“I’ll tell ya later, Sexy,” he said guiding Toby’s hand to the semi-hard cock in his trousers.
Toby pulled his hand away. “No, tell me now. Come on, we’re all itching to know what’s going on.”
“All of you?”
“Well Bird and me,” Toby said with a guilty chuckle.
“Okay then, ya bossy little shit. Come with me while I tell Zeke what’s happenin’. No use repeatin’ myself.”
Toby followed Pete up to the helm where Zeke was at the wheel.
“Hey Zekie. The Captain wants ya to get us to these co-ordinates. He reckons once we’re here we’ll be right over Atlantis.”
Zeke studied the map carefully.
“We’re here,” he said pointing to a spot on the map that Toby couldn’t tell from any other spot on the map. “So from here to there…” Zeke frowned. “…looks like three or four hours of sailing.” He glanced at his watch. “We could do it tonight so we’ll be set to go tomorrow.”
Pete nodded. “James’d like that. Then he can get a full day’s divin’ in.”
“No problems,” said Zeke.
Pete slapped Toby on the shoulder as they walked back to the deck. “You gonna come down with us tomorrow?”
“Try and stop me,” said Toby.
That night everyone on board The Phantom turned in early, although it was a long time before sleep found Toby. When it did, his dreams were underwater fantasies of sunken cities and buried treasure. There was even a sexy merman or two, and in his dreams they were anything but the nightmares he’d encountered off the coast of Africa.
* * * *
Only the faintest traces of sunlight could be seen on the horizon when the Captain burst into the crew’s quarters to wake the men up.
“Bird, you get some breakfast going while the rest of you help me get the diving gear organised.”
Bird looked uncharacteristically grumpy, wiping sleep from his eyes as he threw his legs over the edge of his bunk.
“This is bloody criminal,” he mumbled as he stepped into his jeans and pulled them on.
“How are ya this mornin’?” said Pete giving Toby his, by now, regular good morning kiss.
“Oi, cut it out you two,” moaned Sandy.
Pete reached out and slapped Sandy’s arse.
“I’m bloody well warning you!” Sandy snapped as his hand became a fist.
Toby smiled. “I’d say I was feeling the same as everyone else here.” He pulled on his underpants and
a T-shirt. “No showers this morning?”
“The Captain wants us to get goin’. We’ll have them later, after the dive.”
Once on deck everyone was given their instructions. Toby and Sandy were sent down to the hold to retrieve the diving equipment. Pete, Lennie, Chad, and even Zeke, who’d been called down from the helm, had to prepare the hoist and get the crates and packaging prepared. The Captain, responsible for the safety of his crew, inspected the diving equipment after Toby and Sandy brought it up from below. Meanwhile, Bird stayed out of sight and out of mind in the galley, preparing a hearty breakfast of fruit, cereal, yoghurt, and eggs on toast. There was tea and coffee, but the usual bacon and pancakes dripping in syrup were nowhere to be found.
“Need a healthy breakfast when you’re diving. Something for your body to burn up to keep you warm. It gets bloody cold down there.”
“Pissing in your wetsuit usually keeps me warm,” said Sandy, laughing.
“Can we make him bring his own wetsuit?” said Chad looking disgusted.
After breakfast, the galley was full of dirty dishes, but Bird had more pressing duties above deck.
“Do them later,” said Pete. “We’ll get someone to help ya.”
The Captain, Pete, Sandy and Toby suited up for their first dive. The dinghy was lowered over the side of the ship and after each of the four men had climbed down a simple rope and wood ladder into the boat, the equipment including air tanks, fins, and masks was likewise lowered. Finally, Bird scrambled down the ladder.
Once everyone was safely in the boat, Bird started the outboard motor and took them racing across the Mediterranean to a place just a few hundred metres from a small island whose sole inhabitants were seabirds.
“Just here,” said the Captain looking at his hi-tech compass.
Bird reduced the throttle and the boat came to a stop.
Toby pulled on his fins and Bird helped him with his air tanks. After checking his diving regulator, he noticed a small pod of dolphins, which were by now a commonplace sight, since they often accompanied the ship. He kept an eye on them until he was ready to dive and then suddenly they were gone.
When the others were good to go, he slipped the strap of his diving mask over his face. Captain Bartlett gave the thumbs up and one after the other they tipped backwards over the edge of the dinghy and entered the water with a splash.
Toby had forgotten the luxurious sense of freedom diving gave him. He’d always thought of it as flying without the danger of crash landing. He could easily believe he had shed his physical form, slipped from its cumbersome confines to glide through the water, propelled forward by the smallest movement of the fins on his feet. Beneath him, the seabed was sandy, though as yet he and Pete, who was swimming alongside him, had not encountered any marine life.
Pete indicated that they should swim towards the rocky outcrop which would eventually become the small island they had seen earlier. It surprised Toby how large the tiny dot in the Mediterranean was from beneath. The small knob of rock that stuck up out of the water fanned out considerably under the blue water, creating a sanctuary for seaweed, coral, and probably several dozen species of fish.
They approached the outcrop cautiously. Toby looked to Pete for directions. As they swam alongside the base of the island, Toby kept his eyes open for any signs of the legendary city, although he wasn’t sure what he was looking for. Bits of column, he imagined. Perhaps pieces of pottery. Whenever he caught something archaeological on television, they always seemed to find bits of pottery. Armless statues covered in seaweed and barnacles were another item he made a mental note of keeping his eyes peeled for. Coins too, although how he was expected to find a few coins in a whole sea he didn’t know.
Suddenly he realised he’d been concentrating more on itemising Things-To-Look-For than on actually looking for them. He glanced across at Pete, who hadn’t seemed to notice. He was busy scouring the reef for clues.
‘He looks damned good in that wetsuit,’ thought Toby as his eyes ran over the aerodynamic lines created by the suit of rubber; moulded to Pete’s flesh like a second skin. The black suit did wonders for Pete’s arse, Toby thought, slowing a little to allow Pete the chance to get a little further ahead so he could better appreciate the sight of Pete’s arse encased in rubber. He felt himself getting hard. He couldn’t believe how horny he was all of a sudden. He glanced down along the line of his body and saw a noticeable bulge in the crotch area of his wetsuit. Even that looked better in rubber.
With a burst of energy, he surged ahead of Pete and pointed to his bulge. Pete shrugged his shoulders as if to say, ‘What can I do about it now?’ then swam over to give the tempting bulge a good squeeze.
It was possible Pete might have gone a little further had something not distracted him. Toby could see his lover’s eyes go from the deliciousness of his erect cock pushing against the rubber wetsuit to something behind him. He turned around and saw the pod of dolphins he had spotted earlier diving towards the reef.
Pete gave the signal to follow.
The first of the five dolphins appeared to swim right into the rock face at the base of the island. The second and third dolphin followed and it wasn’t until Pete and Toby swum closer that they saw the last two dolphins disappear through a small aperture in the rock.
Toby didn’t claim to know much about marine life, at least not to any great depth, but he had never seen or heard of dolphins swimming into caves. He looked at Pete who pointed to the narrow gap and shrugged. Toby considered his decision for a moment. Undersea caves could hold all manner of dangers. Moray eels for one. Yet he figured that if the space beyond was safe enough for dolphins, whom it was well-known were very intelligent, then it must be safe enough for them. He nodded.
Pete slowly swam to the opening and poked his head inside. He hovered at the entrance before swimming inside, allowing Toby to follow after. The first thing Toby noted was how large the cavern on the other side was. Secondly, and most surprisingly, was how easy it was to see. The gap they had swum through only let in the smallest fraction of light and yet somehow Toby was able to see Pete swimming metres ahead of him. He couldn’t see any sign of the dolphins.
Further back the cavern narrowed to a tunnel, which was even more brightly lit than the space near the entrance. Toby searched the roof but could not see an opening or any other explanation for the brilliance of the illumination. Besides, he surmised, an opening would only let in a single shaft of light, unable to provide the magnificence of clarity they currently had. The only other explanation was that the opening on the other side was a massive, gaping hole that allowed sunlight to pour in.
Pete finally slowed and when Toby arrived at his side he could see why. The mystery of the light had finally been solved. It was emanating from a source beyond the water, although not from above. It was radiating out towards them from a point directly in front of them; a point where the water suddenly stopped and dry land began. Toby swam to the border between sea and land and could make out a scene of ancient beauty. He turned to Pete, but before Pete could signal him, he stepped through the water onto the sandy ground of Atlantis.
He turned and saw Pete still in the water, arms and legs moving slowly as he trod water. He beckoned Pete to follow.
“Come on!” he said after removing his mouthpiece and mask.
Pete stepped from the water.
“Can you believe this?” said Toby, beaming. “It’s amazing.” He scrambled out of the harness attached to his oxygen tanks and took off his fins. “How do you think it does this?”
Pete appeared at a loss for an answer. While he unburdened himself of his diving equipment, Toby climbed the few steps that led to the landing and feasted his eyes on the panorama before him. He barely noticed the sharp inhalation of air, or the fact he had forgotten to release it, for stretching out before him in every direction were crumbling walls of white rock and columns of great buildings that had collapsed across paved roads and pathways. Empty aqueducts dissected
the vista in a pattern of rings radiating out from the centre of the metropolis. Enormous statues lay strewn with missing limbs and heads, although, Toby noted, a scant few still stood where they had been erected all those thousands of years earlier.
“Can you hear that humming?” asked Toby.
Pete nodded.
A sharp crack under Toby’s feet alerted them to the need for caution as they strolled into the remains of Atlantis. There were bowls, pots, and urns that had been lying in the same position for countless millennia which neither of them wanted to destroy. Despite the fact they lay covered in a fine layer of sand, they were no less spectacular. Some had even retained enough of their former glory for Toby to be able to catch glimpses of everyday life that had been meticulously painted on the sides. But the one thing that truly took Toby’s breath away was the large plinths, positioned at great distances from each other for as far as the eye could see. Atop each one stood a large shallow dish containing an enormous metallic ball. Each of the balls spun between a pair of gleaming metal arms that had been fixed to the side of the dish.
“Mystery solved,” said Toby.
Pete looked at him blankly.
“The humming. It’s coming from these things,” he said. “What do you suppose they’re for?”
Pete shrugged. “Beats me, but have ya noticed that?”
Toby followed Pete’s finger to the roof of the cavern and noticed it was not rock, as he would have imagined, but sand. Not only that, but he could see it moving overhead at the whim of the currents in the sea above.
“What’s keeping it up there?” asked Toby.
Pete grabbed one of Toby’s arse cheeks playfully and kept walking. “I think ya’ve answered ya first question with ya last question.”
Toby shook his head. His eyes went from the sea floor to the great metallic ball nearest him and back again.
“That’s…” His lips parted and closed, parted and closed again as he realised the inadequacy of his vocabulary.
“And if ya come and stand here,” said Pete, “ya can feel the energy it’s givin’ off.”
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