Helena nodded approvingly.
A half hour after the boat’s engines stopped, the eight-man dive team slipped into the water, while a four-man team monitored the computer data in the ship’s cabin. Breaking up into pairs, Jack joined the lead diver and his companion in the search.
As he floated in the water and waited on the signal to descend, he stared up at Javi and Helena. A slow grin crossed his face under his dive mask. The scene reminded him of his dive three years before, but instead of Selena Arista, he would now be waving goodbye to Helena. It felt good that he had finally moved on.
A minute later, lead diver Frank Chelmsford, gave the signal to descend. Jack waved a goodbye, then breathed out his air, reducing his buoyancy. Now under the surface, he clinged to the DVP (diver propulsion vehicle), and depressed its throttle. Instantly, he surge ahead. Angling the vehicle, he quickly picked up the leader and followed him downward, using a colored rope to guide them to the ocean floor.
“How’re you doing, Jack?” Frank asked.
“Fine. Right behind you,” Jack responded through his internal mic and headset.
“We move fast down here, so if we get separated, holler out and we’ll come get you,” he instructed.
The descent to the bottom took only five minutes. Huddled at the end of the anchored rope they noted the time left for the mission. At one hundred feet below the ocean’s surface, they calculated that they could spend an hour and twenty minutes before they would need to ascend. Their ascent would include one elevation where they would need to “hang” until the effects of the nitrogen buildup in their blood was neutralized.
After marking their time, they then took a bearing on their location and the direction each team would need to move to. With all four teams coordinated and synchronized, they headed off on their separate assignments.
Just as he had seen three years before, the ocean’s floor was covered with soft sand and green vegetation, mixed with tiny reefs and rock formations. As the DVP’s pulled them along, their bright lights lit up the darkened world, illuminating the beautiful tropical fish.
Minutes after leaving their check point at the anchor-line, they had already moved to their destination: a large meandering ridge of rocks and boulders; the seven-thousand year old remains of the ancient Atlantean shipwreck that produced the previous crystal globe.
The four teams quickly got to work. Using long poles with bright flags waving off one end, they began to drive the markers into the sand at regular intervals along a straight path. Once the markers were set, string was wrapped from one marker to the next, creating a path to follow. An hour later, the team had created a visible grid pattern with which to work in. The pattern of squares would be monitored as they worked. When a grid square was searched, they would simply mark it off their list and move onto the next, insuring no two locations were searched twice.
Next, the team positioned their radar equipment for future analysis. With time running out, they quickly set up and tested the equipment, getting feedback from the team aboard the ship, then making small adjustments.
“Time’s up. Regroup at the check point,” Jack heard through his headset.
Following Frank Chelmsford, Jack steered his DPV toward the anchor-line far in the distance. Three years before, when he had dived on that site alone, the time to swim back to the anchor-lines location took him nearly twenty minutes. With the DPV, they made it in five. He smiled at the efficiency of the modern expedition, barely moving his feet as the vehicle dragged him through the water.
Seconds after regrouping, the team began to ascend. A minute later and twenty feet below the surface, they stopped at a colored flag that hung off the anchor-line. Next to the flag were a collection of fresh air tanks, suspended at that elevation by a separate rope that hung from above.
Having experienced deep water diving before, Jack mentally prepared himself for the boring hour long wait they’d all have to endure at elevation under the water. Strapping on the new tank, he clipped into the anchor-line and allowed his body to dangle. Slowly, his eyes began to close…
“Hey Jack, you alright?” a voice shouted into his head set.
Jack’s eye snapped open. He grinned through his mouthpiece, breathing in a great rush of air.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he called back.
“Dude, you gotta stay awake down here, Ok?” Frank scolded mildly.
“Sorry. Won’t happen again,” Jack reassured, feeling embarrassed by his amateurish mistake.
After an hour, the seven broke through on the surface. They climbed aboard the boat and discussed their next dive.
“Ok, team two, you’ll start your analysis on the southwest corner, we’ll start on the northeast corner. Once we finish our scan, we’ll ascend and decompress at the twenty foot marker. At that point, that’ll be the signal for teams three and four to enter the water. You guys will man the vacuums and search each grid just completed. So basically, while teams one and two are decompressing, teams three and four will be vacuuming. We’ve got a hundred and twenty grids to complete in one month. If each team can scan and vacuum two grids per day, we should be able to search the entire wreck site in the time allotted. Any questions?”
“How long will it take to scan one grid?” Jack asked.
“Almost two hours,” Frank shot back.
A confused look spread across Jack’s face at the answer.
“If we’re only allowed to stay down there for an hour and a half, max, how do you propose to scan a grid if it takes two hours?”
“That does seem like a dilemma, doesn’t it?” Frank responded. “Don’t worry. My guys have been known to do the impossible.”
Jack stared at the determination in Frank’s eyes. He looked at the other men. They all had the same expression: cold and calculating. Jack had an uneasy feeling about them, but pushed it out of his mind. He thought about Frank’s words, and considered his own worth.
“You know, I’m kind of like a ninth wheel down there,” Jack joked. “Maybe I should search on my own. You guys are making a systematic search, starting at the far corners and working your way in. I think it’s a great plan, but it is time consuming. I’d like to start at the point where I found the other crystal and work my way out. It kind of makes sense to me to do that and because the location is toward the center of your grid area, I wouldn’t be disturbing the work you’ve already completed.”
“We don’t swim alone Jack, always in pairs,” he countered.
“I wouldn’t really be alone. You guys will be no more than fifty feet from me at any one time,” Jack reasoned.
“We consider “beyond an arm’s reach” to be alone,” Frank replied.
Javi looked over to Jack. He could see determination in his eyes.
“Jack, don’t get any ideas,” he joked.
“Why Javi… whatever do you mean?” he responded, feigning ignorance.
“You know exactly what I mean. When you get that look in your eye, there’s no stopping you. You’re not secretly planning on “accidently” wandering away from your team, like you did the last time, are you?”
Javi’s tone was humorous but his message wasn’t. Frank looked over to Jack with scorn.
“In the military, we follow orders because if we don’t, plans get confusing and people die. I hope you respect the essence of those lessons learned,” he said coldly.
Jack swallowed hard. There was something intimidating about Frank’s nature. He wasn’t sure what the man was capable of, and he didn’t want to find out.
Jack only nodded in understanding.
----- ----- ----- -----
Two hours later…
Dive teams one and two, slipped back into the water, along with jack, while the rest of the teams waited at the surface. Just as Frank discussed, the two teams went their own separate way, with team one heading for the southwest corner of the grid and team two moving to the northeast corner.
Jack watched momentarily as Frank worked the radar and the other
man managed the ultrasound: one man following the other. As they took their readings, the team onboard the ship sent down feedback, requesting them to slow their scans, or to rescan certain areas. While the two man team worked, Jack trailed just behind them and removed loose debris that could interfere with the second team’s vacuuming.
A half hour into their work, Frank stopped to monitor their progress. They weren’t even a third of the way through. He called to the second man to increase the speed of their scans and for the topside team to compensate. Another half hour passed. The increased pace was paying off. Now two thirds of the way complete, they found the right speed to finish on time.
At the one hour and ten minute mark, the team topside called down to them.
“Ten minute warning guys.”
Frank watched his progress closely. As the time slipped by, he adjusted his speed accordingly. Just as the topside team called “time”, he and his partner finished their work. On the other side of the grid, team two had managed their progress just as Frank had done. In the hour and twenty minutes, two grids had been scanned.
Ten minutes later, as team one and two clipped into the rope at the twenty foot level to decompress, they watched as teams three and four descended down to the ocean floor.
Jack couldn’t help but think that their efforts were wasted. As they drifted into the blackness below, he wondered about his earlier suggestion.
----- ----- ----- -----
The next day…
The team headed out mid-morning. Like the day before, they arrived at the dive site an hour later. With a routine established the previous day, the first two teams descended. Jack followed them down. The hour and twenty minutes seemed to drag as he watched the two men move along their predetermined course. With each stone he removed from behind them, he stopped and made his own visual scan.
At the center of the grid, a five foot high ridge of boulders ran north to south. It was along this line three years before, that he first realized the mass wasn’t just a coincidental arrangement of rocks, but was in fact, the ancient seven-thousand year old ship. Toward the northern end of the formation, he had discovered the crystal globe, buried amongst the boulders. Once located, it was just a simple matter of dismantling several large stones and removing the crystal.
As he stared at that location, in his mind, he could almost see the other crystal. He knew it had to be there and the idea of it taunted him. As Frank and his teammate worked thirty feet away, the thought of sneaking over to it was tantalizing. Each time he pondered the move, he remembered Frank’s icy stare and reconsidered.
“Time,” the topside team announced.
As Jack drifted higher, once again he stared at the nagging location. Even after it moved out of site, his mind continued to see it.
While the second team vacuumed the sand and debris from the previously scanned grid, Jack and the first two teams finished their decompression. Back onboard the boat, he sat next to Helena and discussed the work already done.
“How’d it go down there?” she asked.
“Same as before… boring and unproductive,” he responded in frustration.
“You’ve got to give it time,” she replied encouragingly.
“It’s a waste of time. I know where that other crystal is. They should at least search that area first,” he shot back, ignoring her logic. He thought about the absurdity of the situation and blurted, “They’re so rigid in their thinking. Drives me crazy.”
Helena put her arm around his shoulder in a half hug.
“Jack, don’t get any ideas… please. Just follow the plan, ok?”
She kissed him on the cheek. Her warm touch felt good and soothed his inner conflict.
“Only if you promise more of that,” he teased.
“It’s a deal,” she said seductively.
----- ----- ----- -----
Two weeks later…
Day in, day out, the same routine was repeated and the monotony of the exercise began to wear thin. As Jack’s patience waned, so too did his desire to follow the plan. Several times, Frank caught Jack drifting toward the bank of rocks that called to him. Each time, he forced Jack to refocus, calling him back to help with the mission.
For the previous two weeks, the water had been smooth and the weather near perfect. On the fourteenth day, that all changed…
Standing on the dock, preparing to leave, a light rain began to fall. With the winds picking up, the chop in the harbor increased, causing the boats to sway from side to side. As Javi stepped into the boat and sat, his face already was losing color. An hour later, as the engines stopped and the team prepared for the dive, the rough seas were too much for him. Barely able to stand, he clung to the boats railing and vomited over the side. As time passed and the weather became increasingly more foul, Helena joined Javi at the railing. For the next three hours, the two vomited without letup, as the crew fought to complete their work.
Finally, with the day’s mission complete, the boat left the dive area and headed home. An hour later, too weak to walk on their own, Javi and Helena were helped off the boat by a man on each side. Seated on a bench in the driving rain, just feet from the boat, the two refused to move. For the next half hour, the stable ground and the cool rain, helped to soothe their seasickness.
Now able to walk on their own, Jack loaded them into the car and drove them to Javi’s beach home on the main island of Caicos. It would be two days before they felt well enough to join the expedition.
----- ----- ----- -----
Two days later…
Javi and Helena stood on the dock and stared out at the rolling waves in the harbor. The previous two days it took to recover from their seasickness was still fresh in their minds. Dread and apprehension flooded their thoughts. Knowing what was about to come, the two couldn’t bring themselves to join the day’s mission. As they watched the boat sail out of sight, both pondered Jacks fate and if he too, would succumb to the effects of the high seas.
An hour later…
Anchored in place, the boat rocked from side to side, making it difficult for the men to don their wetsuits. As the team inside the cabin secured loose equipment, they too struggled to work.
Jack stared out at the cloudy sky. With another storm on the way, he almost wished he had remained behind. He knew things were about to get rough.
A half hour later, the first team descended with Jack in tow. He followed them to the floor, where they split into two teams. As Frank and his partner picked up where they left off the day before, Jack looked over at the end of the rocky ridge now only fifteen feet away. The closeness to the site was irresistible. He casually drifted over to the area, watching for the others, insuring he wasn’t seen. As he floated across the boulders, he could see the excavation in them where he had dug for the original crystal. Everything looked just as he remembered from three years before. The notch in the ridge looked like a gaping wound that never healed, easily spotted from a long distance away. He thought about working the area a little, but reconsidered. Quickly, he headed back over to Franks two-man team.
Following behind them, he lifted up a small boulder. He thought about carrying it off to his left, away from the ridgeline. With a sly smile, he turned right and carried the rock toward it. Just at the edge of the grid, he turned and waited. His heart began to beat faster.
Suddenly, he saw Frank turn toward him. Jack lifted the stone and hurled it through the water the best he could, exaggerating his movement for Frank to see. Without a word, he hurried back behind Frank. Just as he had done moments before, he lifted another stone and carried it back to the edge of the grid. Once again, he waited for Frank to watch. Moments later, he saw Frank turn toward him. Like before, he hurled the stone and swam back for more.
This was it. He now knew Frank would ignore any future activity at the ridgeline. He grabbed another stone, this time one by Frank’s foot and carried it away. He tossed the small stone off the grid, then got to work.
Just behind the lar
ge gash he had created in the ridgeline three years before, he began to remove large boulders. Rolling them off the top of the mound, he created a larger opening. With each newly exposed area, he wiped his hands over the surfaces, clearing away the silt. Confirming the exposed areas were made of stone, he continued to remove more boulders.
As time passed, he realized his presence would be missed. He rushed back to the team and grabbed more debris. Rushing back to the ridgeline, he continued with his work. One by one, he removed more stones creating a larger hole in the outcropping. Like before, with each new area, he wiped down the surfaces with his gloved hand and studied the texture.
“Dammit,” he said under his breath. “Where is it?”
He swam back to the team and retrieved another stone. Moving back to the ridgeline, he realized he had excavated nearly ten feet. Looking at the expanse of the notch he just created, he decided to work the other side. Quickly, he began to roll boulders off the top of the ridgeline and toss them to the outside of the grid.
With nearly four more feet of the wall removed, he began to work the interior of the ridgeline. Pulling out small stones, he was able to loosen larger ones, then roll them out of position. In less than a minute, he was able to clear away a half dozen boulders. He looked down at his work and realized he had removed the stones right down to the sandy bottom.
“Man, I’m like an excavation animal,” he joked inside his mind.
He noticed a large boulder that was wedged into the side of the ridgeline. He knew if he could dislodge it, a half dozen other boulders would come crashing down around it, creating an enormous open area for him to search in. He tried to move it, but failed. Its size was just too large. He needed to gain some leverage. He worked his foot into a flattened area on one side of the boulder, then stepped down onto the sandy floor he had just exposed. With one great effort, he shoved with all his might. Instantly, his foot in the sand slipped as if he were on ice. He fell over backward and rolled to his side.
Tomb of Zeus (Atlantis) Page 12