To do so required money and power. Both of which, Sam’s family had in abundance.
He looked at the flight manifest. Ignoring the other three passengers, whose roles would most likely be limited to that of lab technicians aboard to examine artifacts and sea life, Tom’s eyes reached the name of the man he wanted to meet.
Dr. Bill Swan.
The four passengers stepped out of the helicopter and moved towards the main cabin with military efficiency. Each one carried an identical large duffle bag over his shoulder. They could have all been top of their field scientists – nerds – but they meant business.
Tom took notice of the only woman amongst the new arrivals, as the only one who didn’t appear to be a scientist. Her features were clearly part Southeast Asian, but her height betrayed her European heritage. She was wearing olive cargo pants and a light tank top. Her face displayed all the signs of a person who hadn’t slept much in the past 24 hours. There were slight bags under her almond shaped hazel eyes and her messy dark hair had been tied back in a careless ponytail, a pair of Ray Bans propped on top.
Matthew shook her hand as he greeted them all at the rear of the Maria Helena, and despite her obvious fatigue, she responded with a warm smile, full of perfect white teeth. She could have been a model.
I bet that smile’s gotten her whatever she wanted many times before…
Tom wondered what such a beautiful woman was doing aboard their ship. Already, he’d decided to make it his mission to find out. He would have approached her directly, but first he needed to meet the new archeologist Sam had sent him. Work would have to take priority over pleasure.
Tom approached Matthew after the group of new arrivals were shown to their respective living quarters, “Have you seen this person?” Tom pointed to the name Bill Swan, “This man.”
“Bill, the archeologist?”
“Yeah, that’s the one.”
“Sure have…” Matthew laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“Did Sam tell you that Bill was the best archeologist he’s ever met?”
“Sure did. In fact, he told me specifically, that he has asked him to join Global’s Deep Sea Expeditions since old man Reilly first put him up to running the project, but each time was rejected. This was the first one that grabbed Bill’s attention enough to bring him out. Why, do you know him?”
“Yeah, I’ve never met Bill. But I’ve heard the rumors.” Matthew’s left eyebrow was raised, as though he was trying to hint at something, “Sam’s been trying to get Bill to join his team for nearly a decade. Rumor has it they studied together at college, but I’ve heard that it was more personal than just that. Either way, I don’t know how he’s managed to persuade Bill to join us…” Matthew then laughed again, “Only it’s not Bill… its Billie. She often uses the name Bill on her dissertations, because in our apparently equal world, people still take more notice of a man’s view.”
“Holy shit! You mean that angel who came in just then is the archeologist that I have to look after for the next two weeks until Sam gets back?”
“That’s the one, you lucky bastard.”
It was at that point that the angel returned.
“Matthew, I just spoke to Veyron…” she said, her waspish voice betraying her adorable face in a second. “That fucking asshole sends a couple of his goons to pick me up and virtually drag me from a research core sampling station, 20 miles deep, in Antarctica, a week before my two-year project reached its conclusion, starts telling me a whole bunch of bullshit about finding one of the greatest archeological discoveries of this century – and now I find out he’s not even here. I don’t even know how he found me…”
Matthew just smiled at her as she stopped her rant.
“How did he find me?” she asked. “Has that fuckwit been keeping secret tabs on me again? You know that’s why I left him last time. I was sick of the secret bullshit that seemed to follow him wherever his projects led. So, Matthew, tell me… where the fuck is he, and what’s more important to him than this amazing discovery?”
“The Mahogany Ship,” Tom replied, not making an attempt to conceal the grin that beamed across his face.
“Who the hell are you?”
“I suppose I’m the man who’s going to be your tour guide of the deep blue sea over the next couple weeks until Sam returns.”
“Billie, meet Tom Bower. Sam’s Director of Operations and the Maria Helena’s helicopter pilot. He’s been friends with Sam since they were kids,” Matthew said.
“You’re Tom Bower?” She looked him up and down with what appeared almost like admiration. “I kind of expected you to be bigger. Sam spoke a lot about you while we were at college. You both became helicopter pilots for the Corps… only he got out and you stayed and served your country at the Sandpit …”
That’s strange. He neglected to mention anything about attending college with a half-Asian goddess with a foul mouth…
Instead of mentioning it, Tom replied, “Yeah that would be me. You two must have been pretty close. You sound like you know him pretty well.”
A crooked smile appeared, but even that looked delicious.
“Yeah, you could sure say that again.”
There was obviously a past between the two of them, but she certainly wasn’t going to be forthcoming about it.
Matthew, on the other hand, held no such restraint, “Sam and Billie have a past that goes way back… Are you kidding me, you haven’t heard the story?”
“No…” Tom started to reply, but was interrupted.
“And he’s not going to either,” Billie said. “So, he’s finally discovered the Mahogany Ship, hey?”
“Sounds like it,” Tom replied.
“Okay, I have to actually run this ship, so I’ll leave you two to get better acquainted,” Matthew said.
“Thanks, Matthew,” she said. “So, why aren’t you there?”
“What do you mean? I’m looking after his real work.”
“I thought you two were like best buds or something.”
“So what?”
“So, Sam Reilly’s been after the Mahogany Ship since he was a boy, searching for it with his dad! No wonder he left this project in an instant. He’s been obsessed with it ever since I met him. What I don’t understand is why he wanted to go after it alone?”
“Yeah, well that makes two of us.” His recent feeling of betrayal echoing in his voice, Tom said, “It sounds like the Mahogany Ship’s already been discovered and he just had to go there to make certain it was over, and didn’t want to lose what we’ve discovered here.”
“All right, so what have we discovered here?”
Tom looked around, determining which of the newcomers were within earshot of their conversation. He trusted the crew of the Maria Helena, but who could say where the loyalties of the specialists who just arrived might lay?
He walked to the back of the boat, where their conversation was less likely to be heard by anyone else aboard. “How much did Sam tell you about it?”
“Not much.”
“Really?” He didn’t believe her. “You left your project of two years, and flew half way across the planet, to join a man I’m not even convinced you like, at a new project, which you know nothing about?”
“Like I said, a couple of his goons literally dragged me off my research station in the Antarctic. All Sam told me on the phone was that he found what appears to be a very old Mayan Tomb in the shape of a pyramid, at the bottom of the ocean. Don’t get me wrong, that sounds pretty interesting, but nothing that couldn’t wait until next winter, after the hurricane season. He certainly didn’t suggest that he’d discovered Atlantis or something like that!”
“Did he tell you how big it was?”
“No.”
“Well its big… you just need to look at it for yourself. Anything I say about it won’t do it justice. It appears a local mine damaged part of it while blasting deep below the pyramid, releasing a thousand-year-old cyanide store, w
hich set into motion the destruction of most of the sea life within the Gulf of Mexico.”
“How did you get around that?”
“We’ve filled the section with concrete. A team of mining engineers are now installing a more substantial plug on the other side of their mine’s tunnel. We’re now excavating our side of the pyramid again. There’s more to go, but there will be enough for you and me to enter the pyramid.”
“Anything else that might shed some sort of explanation for why Sam was so insistent on bringing me in on this case? Anything that can help before we dive tomorrow?”
“Yeah, do the words Master Builders mean anything to you?”
Billie’s face didn’t change at all, as she replied, “No, never heard the words before. Certainly not in the Mayan culture.” It was so casual, that Tom’s experience working as a SEAL kicked in – did she already have an answer to that question prepared?
“Not at another site or project you and Sam worked on previously, perhaps?”
“Not any that I can recall, but I know that Sam’s worked with a number of archeologists over the years for a variety of projects. I’m sorry, Tom. It was nice to meet you. I’ll see you first thing in the morning, say 5 a.m.? I have to check on something.”
“Yeah, 5 a.m. I’ll see you at the moon pool. Welcome aboard, Billie. Let me know if I can do anything for you.”
She nodded her head and left quickly.
*
At 0500 sharp, the diving bell began its slow journey to the bottom of the ocean. Neither spoke as it descended, and Tom noticed that the slightest appearance of concern had not left her face since he’d first mentioned the words Master Builders.
“You said that you studied with Sam?” Tom asked.
“That’s right. Why do you ask?”
“You studied archeology… what else did you major in?”
“Ancient maritime archeology.”
“You were looking for Atlantis?”
She laughed, “No, I’m searching for something very different, and much more elusive.” Billie said, mysteriously. “Not that I don’t believe Atlantis existed. That’s for certain, but the shape of the world would have been very different all those years ago. It was probably some other land-based civilization that became buried with the turn of an ice age.”
“Then what drew you towards the ocean?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Was that how you met Sam?” he pestered.
“No, that’s a different story.” Her smile told him that there was a lot more to it than that, but that she wasn’t going to reveal her and Sam’s history. “Let’s just say, I’m a third generation archeologist, and I’m still trying to find the answer to a question which plagued my grandfather his entire life.”
“What was he looking for?”
“Materiana – A mythical lost city in the clouds.”
“I’ve never heard of it,” Tom acknowledged.
“The search for its answers drove my grandfather insane – or so we thought, until it got him killed. Obviously, someone took interest in his research.”
“Did your father continue with his research?”
“No, my father knew better. There are people out there who would kill to find it, and those who would kill to keep it a secret.”
“And that’s what you were searching for in Antarctica?”
She looked out the porthole and replied, “No, that’s just what drove me to the field of maritime archeology. Like my father, I know when something is too dangerous.”
Her evasive answer only served to intrigue him more, but he could see that he was making her uncomfortable.
“Was it Sam who introduced the Master Builders into your world?”
She ignored the question and continued reading the known schematics for the mine below the pyramid from her tablet.
There was no way Billie was going to be pushed into speaking about the Master Builders – even though they were now deep under water, where prying ears would struggle to listen.
As the dive bell reached the bottom, the two geared up and prepared to commence their dive.
“Are you ready for this?”
“Let’s see it…”
The tower looked grand up ahead.
“It’s not as large as Sam made out. It looks similar to the great pyramid of Giza, but nowhere near large enough.”
“Just wait until you see what lies beneath the sand. Veyron has left a dive hub on the seafloor, in front of the pyramid’s entrance. A place where we can base ourselves over the next few days while we work.”
Slowly, they kicked their fins toward the entrance, and then descended the tunnel. At the very end of the tunnel, his flashlight shined on the remains of the wrecked Sea Witch.
“Yours?” she asked.
“That one was Sam’s idea. He used it to stop the flooding of the mine below us. A desperate attempt, and one that nearly got us killed – but it saved a lot of lives.”
“That sounds like my Sam.”
To the very left of it, a small hole had been drilled, just big enough for the two to swim through. On the other side, the tunnel narrowed and descended vertically. At the very bottom, Tom turned down the tunnel to the left.
“What’s that way?” she asked.
“About a million tons of concrete. That’s the side that had the leak. It’s been filled with concrete, and the owner of the mine is paying for it to be repaired and then excavated from the other side.”
“Gotcha…”
They dived the next hundred feet down the diagonal tunnel, which ran along the inside of the pyramid.
The pressures were tremendous and the tunnel narrow, playing havoc on the most seasoned diver’s emotions. Many, without any previous knowledge of claustrophobia, would discover a fate worse than death in such a place.
“How you doing?” Tom asked.
“I’m fine… I’ve been in much worse places than this,” she teased. “How about you?”
An image of the incident that nearly killed him last time he was inside the pyramid’s tunnel flashed across his mind. It was no more than a second, but enough to give him pause before he spoke.
“I’m fine… just so long as the walls don’t cave in on me this time.”
He shined his bright flashlight down the tunnel. Its powerful LED light shined like a laser, reaching the bottom of the pyramid.
“There it is… the bottom.”
“I can see it.”
Making the sharp turn, and with self-regulating neutral buoyancy built into their dive suits, it was disorientating whether or not they were now moving laterally, diagonally or vertically. Tom, a confident cave diver, felt the reassurance of bubbles floating on the top of the granite blocks above their heads, allowing him to orient himself.
They were now level.
A little over a hundred slow kicks with his fins and the opening to the first of the three chambers came into view.
It still glowed.
“It’s glowing?” Billie voiced her surprise.
“Yeah, it sure is.”
“Do we know what’s causing that incandescent light?”
“Some sort of large crystal at the center of the King’s Chamber that radiates straight through each level of the tomb.”
“Somehow drawing light from above?” she suggested.
He kicked his flippers gently, propelling himself closer to the entrance ladder, and replied, “No, that’s what we assumed at first, too. Then, when we stayed overnight, the light seemed to just keep glowing.”
“Any ideas what would make that happen?”
“None. We were hoping you might just find out for us, because we sure don’t have any idea.”
“Must be some sort of marine creature… or element that radiates light…”
“No, it’s not that simple…”
“What do you mean?” Billie’s voice betrayed her surprise, “Why not?”
Tom gripped the first rung of the ladder before replying,
“You’ll just have to see it. Can you make it up that ladder?”
“Sure can,” she replied, climbing with the additional 80 pounds of dive equipment as though it were nothing. She was fit, that was for sure.
Tom followed her and, climbing into the first of the three chambers, removed his dive helmet.
Billie paused, “Are we certain it’s safe?”
“The cyanide?”
“I’m an archeologist, but even I know how lethal it can be.”
“It’s safe, but just in case, our life support watches will let us know if there are any changes.”
“And the air in this room?”
“It’s good. We should have several days’ worth of oxygen to look after us.”
Tom left all of the equipment they would need for the next few days at the first chamber, and they climbed the ladders to the second and then up and into the last one. The King’s Chamber.
Watching her enter the room, Tom saw her reaction immediately…
“Motherfucker! He’s found the Master Builders…”
Chapter Nine
Sam gripped the throttle of his dive scooter, propelling himself towards the dark tunnel ahead. Two had already been searched thoroughly, but this was the first opportunity that he’d had to travel through any of them.
The tunnel was wide, providing ample room to maneuver the specialized underwater craft. With its narrow lines, it resembled a miniature torpedo more than the life sustaining dive machine that it was. Its propellers broke hydrogen bonds that formed to create water, releasing oxygen for the rider. In addition to its carbon fiber dive tank, it had the ability to provide enough breathable gas for its rider, up to 5 hours.
He wasn’t going to need anywhere near that length of time today. Instead, Sam planned a simple half an hour trip to see how far he could get. He’d already seen the sonar images of the tunnels – now he wanted to see it with his own eyes. Searching for the Mahogany Ship, which had managed to remain hidden for so many years, required something more along the lines of a treasure hunter’s art as well as science.
The Sam Reilly Collection Page 36