by James Phelan
‘Yep,’ Sam said, donning his air tanks.
Maria gave the diving OK sign and pointed to the water. Sam and Tobias pulled on their face masks and respirators and they all gently toppled backwards into the warm sea.
They followed the reef to where it met the shelf in the seabed before dropping away into deep black water. Sam tried not to imagine what might be hidden in the darkness. They had tanks with enough air supply for two hours’ dive time and they each held personal propulsion units. For now, the small torpedo-like machines were unnecessary, the trio rocketing along with the current, but the units would be invaluable for breaking out from the powerful water flow.
Sam followed Maria’s lead, Tobias behind him. The reef teemed with sea life, the colours of the fish and corals almost too bright and varied to take in. After five minutes of being swept through the water, among schools of reef fish and small sharks darting curiously near them, Sam saw Maria changing direction. He continued to follow her closely, pointing the propulsion unit to his left and squeezing its trigger so that the propeller whirred at full bore and carried him out of the current. Tobias followed suit. They passed over the reef and to the other side, where the water was clear and calm.
Maria slowed to a stop and the three of them came together. She pointed to the bottom of the reef where it met the sand of the seabed. Sam gazed down and as he stared, more and more details emerged. The coral there had grown in thick, uneven patches which Sam realised sprawled over the wreck of a ship.
But Sam knew from Maria’s description that it was not the wreck that they were after. This was a big ship, metal, clearly made in the last century. Not the five-hundred-year-old timber wreck that they were searching for. The vessel was on its side and Maria pointed to a large open cargo hatch.
Really? In there?
Sam followed her, the propulsion unit leading the way. The hatch was crusted over with marine life and crabs scurried to escape as they entered. Inside the cargo bay, he pressed a switch on his handgrip that turned on a light. The space before them was huge.
Maria was getting further ahead, moving through the water like a fish, but Sam was wary about snagging himself on the wreck. He checked over his shoulder and saw that Tobias was about a body length behind.
The ship’s cargo area was vast, every surface covered in barnacles. Sunlight shone through the open loading hatches above, highlighting seaweed that hung like curtains from the rusted deck. Sam pushed through, spotting Maria’s flippers ahead. They reached the end of the cargo bay and went through a doorway and long corridor, heading down the ship’s internal staircase.
Sam spluttered water and a shower of bubbles as a huge eel flashed right in front of his face mask. Tobias bumped into him as he pulled up in fright.
Tobias gave him a thumbs up, his eyes knitted in concern. Sam nodded and they carried on, catching up with Maria by zeroing in on her propulsion unit’s light.
She’s clearly used to swimming with far better divers.
They passed through the engine room, the massive mechanical axles populated by crabs and crustaceans that scurried away from the brightness of their lights.
Maria stopped at the end of the room. In the rusty back wall was a hole that seemed to go on forever—an endless void not much wider than Sam’s shoulders. At first Sam didn’t understand what he was supposed to be looking for, then it dawned on him.
This must be the entrance to the underwater cave she told me about.
Even through the mask on her face, Sam could see Maria’s panic. Her breathing quickened dramatically, bubbles flowing fast around her and her body tensed up. Sam reached out to touch her shoulder lightly. He pointed to himself and then to the hole, indicating that he could go first.
Maybe that’ll help with her claustrophobia.
She shook her head determinedly and ducked down to swim into the inky underwater tunnel.
OK, then.
The darkness ate up their lights and soon, maybe twenty metres in, the tunnel narrowed to the point where it was only just wide enough to navigate forwards. Sam could feel the sharp barnacles and shells that covered the surface catch against his skin.
Well, there’s no turning back in here.
Sam felt his air tank scrape along the top of the tunnel and his vision was reduced as he powered on through a cascade of bubbles from Maria’s respirator in front. Finally, the tunnel widened out into a bigger tunnel, nearly big enough to drive a small car through.
An underwater car, that’d be cool … or a submarine.
Sam forced himself to concentrate on what was ahead. It was too easy to tune out, to get lost in the strange beauty of the surroundings. He slowed his unit as the tunnel curved ever so slightly, then seemed to start to incline.
The dive was long and made it difficult for Sam to keep track of time. What was probably five minutes of pushing through the tight confines of the tunnel, felt like an hour.
It’s like I’m floating through a dream …
Abruptly the tunnel opened up further into a large cave. The sudden change in light reflecting around the huge space startled Sam and the propulsion unit slipped from his hands. It stopped automatically and drifted idly forward in the water. He reached forward and caught it, gripping it tightly again and kept on after Maria, now just a small speck of light up ahead.
As he swam, he could make out the cave floor below—the walls barren but for tiny shrimp that lived in the murkiness, their glowing bodies making them look like some kind of alien species from another planet.
Up ahead, the light got brighter, making Sam’s eyes squint after becoming accustomed to the pitch darkness. Sam slowed and Tobias appeared beside him. Here the large cave split into two. Maria seemed to hesitate and then took the large opening to the right. It was big enough for the three of them to swim side-by-side and the tunnel inclined further upwards.
More light shimmered through the water ahead.
Is it the surface of the sea? Can’t be. We’re still too far down. It must be the top of the cave.
Their three rays of light bounced back from something in the darkness beyond. Sam felt a sense of dread mingled with surprise wash over him as he broke through the dark surface of the water and felt a blast of air hit his face.
24
ALEX
‘Almost there,’ Alex quietly called up to his mum.
Phoebe followed him down the ladder. It was painfully slow going. ‘There’s a reason I was never that keen on being in the field,’ she muttered.
‘Four more rungs and you’re there,’ Alex said, standing on top of the freight elevator, the glowsticks at his feet. Rick was inside the elevator with four Agents, having gone down through the hatch. Two Agents remained at the top of the shaft providing cover should anyone be following their path through the complex. ‘That’s it.’
Phoebe let out a sigh as she stood on the top of the lift alongside her son.
‘I guess it’s a family trait that we don’t like heights, eh?’ Alex said.
‘Yep.’
‘Well,’ Alex said, ‘if it makes you feel any better, I wasn’t as scared knowing that you were doing all the worrying for both of us.’
‘Any time.’
Alex laughed.
Rick popped his head up through the access hatch in the elevator roof. ‘Let’s get moving.’
Alex helped his mother down through the hatch and quickly followed her.
‘See,’ Alex said. ‘That wasn’t so—’
A loud whirring noise interrupted Alex and then the world went white.
Inside the lift, the control panel lit up, as did the fluorescent lights on the ceiling. Alex could see a corridor through the open lift doors, and lights blinked on one by one, dominoes of brightness in the subterranean maze.
‘Power’s up,’ Rick said, taking out a serious-looking automatic dart rifle. He spoke softly into his mic and held a hand over the ear that contained a tiny earpiece. The lights in the lift went out again.
�
��OK, we’ve got the generators up, but there’s only enough fuel to run the power for maybe an hour,’ Rick said, ‘half that if we have to use the lift to make it back to the surface, so let’s do this quick.’
The Agents nodded and started off down the corridor, the lead pair scanning with their stun weapons. Another Agent held the complex’s schematics on a tablet screen and directed the team with hand signals. Soon they were taking twists and turns through tunnel branches. Alex made sure he stayed close to his mother.
Funny, Mum worries too much about me, and I’m just as worried about her.
‘Most of what’s down here is not related to the Dreamer program,’ Phoebe explained quietly as they jogged along a corridor.
‘Old military stuff?’ Alex said.
‘Something like that,’ Phoebe replied.
‘This is it,’ one of the lead Agents said, stopping at a vault-like door labelled MAJESTIC 12. The door was made of polished steel and had an old-fashioned numerical keypad on one side.
‘Do you have the swipe card?’ Rick asked Phoebe. ‘Or at least the code?’
‘We have a code,’ Phoebe said, entering numbers from information on the schematic and pressing ‘Enter’. The keypad flashed red and let out a loud repeating beep. The door stayed locked. ‘OK, I expected that. Have the team upstairs try to route around it.’
Alex inspected the keypad as Rick spoke into his tactical headset. The keypad looked standard enough—the screen above it indicated that a four-digit code was needed to unlock the door. It reminded Alex of the kind of codes he and his friends had hacked dozens of times on each other’s phones. Changing the wallpaper to an embarrassing boyband picture and installing matching ring tones had been a juvenile, but fun, hobby.
‘There’s no response from up top,’ Rick said, changing channels on his radio headset and calling for the team.
‘What does that mean?’ Phoebe asked, looking concerned.
Rick said, ‘Could be just the concrete between us interfering with our tactical mics …’
‘That’s unlikely with our tech. Could it be something else?’ Phoebe said.
Rick nodded, looking worried. Alex saw the other Agents tense, and they didn’t need to be told to head back down the tunnel and set up a defensive perimeter against unwanted guests.
‘If you’ve got a screwdriver, I can open this door,’ Alex said, taking his phone from his backpack and holding out his hand. Rick passed over a screwdriver.
‘Give me two minutes.’ Alex undid the panel and searched for the wire he thought he’d jack into, but it wasn’t in there.
This keypad system looks …
‘It’s older than you are,’ Phoebe said, as if reading his mind.
‘I’ll figure it out,’ Alex replied, sorting through which wires went where, then finding those that fed into the computer board controlling the locking mechanism. ‘OK, this should do.’
He stripped the wires and fashioned them so they could be connected to the end of his headphone jack, then plugged it into his phone. He tapped away on his hacking app, working as fast as he could, eager to get out of this dark, eerie dead-end.
‘We’ve got company!’ an Agent down the corridor called to them, making Alex jump. ‘They’re hostile!’
Then the shooting started.
Phoebe bumped in close to Alex, drawing her dart gun defensively.
The numbers on Alex’s phone whirred.
‘Eight, three …’ Alex read off the screen frantically.
‘We’re outnumbered!’ an Agent yelled, moving backwards and shooting with his dart gun on full-auto.
‘Two …’ Alex murmured hurriedly. ‘Come on, come on!’
‘Argh!’ an Agent fell back, slumping against the wall. A stun grenade rolled from his hand and Rick kicked it down the corridor.
KLAP-BOOM!
‘Got it!’ Alex shouted.
CLICK!
The door in front of Alex made a series of churning noises and swung open. They dived inside.
25
SAM
Sam broke the surface of the water and swam over to sit on a rocky outcrop, catching his breath after taking off his air regulator and face mask. Shafts of light pierced the gloom, casting a strange green glow around the cave. The low ceiling was covered in stalactites with steep walls circling all around and a vast tranquil pool in the middle.
He knew they were still underwater—they had emerged into a giant underwater cave in the middle of the sea. Sam pointed his light across the pool to illuminate the other side of the cave. Part of the wall looked to have collapsed in on itself.
‘Dios mió!’ Maria said.
‘It’s incredible!’ Tobias added.
Sam turned around and saw in the midst of the gloom what looked like an ancient pirate ship, marooned on a steep bank of sand.
I don’t believe it … a ship on a beach under the sea?
Sam pulled off his dive gear and stood next to Maria on the rocks opposite the vessel.
‘It really could be an old Spanish galleon,’ Maria said in awe. She shone a flashlight along its keel, sunken into the sand. ‘It looks good as new.’
‘ This is what you dreamed?’ Sam asked.
Maria nodded, her mouth agape.
‘Look here,’ Tobias said, pointing his torch at the sand between the small rock pools that ran along the edge of the cave on the other side.
Sam and Maria hurried over the rocks to join him.
‘Footprints?’ Sam said, looking at them.
Maria crouched down and studied the markings in the sand.
‘My father!’ she said. ‘He must have made it here!’
Sam felt instantly on edge and looked around. There was no sign of anyone else.
Footprints don’t mean it’s her dad. Who else might have been here?
‘Papa!’ Maria called. The sound was gobbled up by the empty space of the huge cave. ‘PAPA!’
There was a rumbling overhead, and dust and debris filtered down from the ceiling near the caved-in section of the far wall.
‘Um, maybe don’t do that again,’ Tobias said quietly and Maria nodded.
‘Where’d you go in your dream?’ Sam asked her.
‘Up there,’ she said, pointing her light up onto the ship at an ancient-looking cargo net made of ropes. ‘I climbed the shrouds.’
‘Shrouds?’ Sam asked.
Maria said, ‘That’s what they’re called. They hold the masts steady. But see here, they’ve broken away, so now they’re hanging over the hull. Good for climbing up, right?’
Sam looked around. The ceiling was only a few metres from the top of the boat’s deck and there was certainly no room in here for masts.
Where are they?
‘It looks like the boat was stowed away in here, perhaps to weather a storm and it became stuck in here by a cave-in,’ Maria said, shining her torch all about. ‘Let’s get on board.’
‘OK, I’ll give it a try,’ Sam said. He clipped his torch to his belt and reached out to the first rung of rope. The ancient ship felt cold to the touch, the ropes wet and slippery. Sam hoisted himself up onto the first rung which held firm under his weight.
‘Maybe this won’t be so—’
Sam’s foot fell through a rotten rope rung in the ancient shroud net.
‘—bad.’
‘Watch your footing, Sam,’ Maria said, close behind him.
‘Yeah, thanks, nice tip,’ Sam replied. ‘You should take extra care, Tobias.’
‘What are you saying?’ Tobias said with a chuckle.
‘Nothing, you just have the greatest mass of the three of us,’ Sam said, and he heard his old science teacher laughing.
Sam climbed higher until he was level with the first row of cannons. There was another row of hatches above that and then the deck. He flicked on his torch and shone the beam through an open hatch. Inside he could see a long room with a low ceiling. Sam sized up the hatch. He could get through, but it would be a tight squeeze and
the timber floor inside might be rotten.
‘Keep climbing!’ Tobias called. ‘Get to the deck.’
Sam looked down and nodded. Tobias stood there with his torch light illuminating the way for Sam to keep climbing up the shroud net. Maria was shining hers around the rocky sand, looking for more footprints.
‘Here I am,’ Sam muttered, ‘climbing aboard a five-hundred-year-old pirate ship in an underwater cave. Another day in the adventures of Sam—’
His hand pulled through a rotten rope and he slipped down before catching himself.
‘—the Great.’
He reached the balustrade at the side of the deck and hauled himself up to it. It seemed sound and he swung his legs around so that he was sitting up then flicked on his torch.
‘Ah, guys …’ Sam said.
‘What do you see?’ Tobias called.
‘Looks old,’ Sam called back. ‘Dry and dusty. Lots of bats were here, I think—now long gone. Maybe there was a small opening somewhere in the cave.’
‘Be careful with your footing,’ Maria called up. ‘The deck may be fragile.’
‘Stick to the edges!’ Tobias said. ‘They’ll be the strongest part.’
‘Got it!’ Sam replied, and he dropped his legs down, his feet crunching through the dry, dusty remains of a long-abandoned but well-used bat toilet. ‘Here I am, on another adventure, ankle deep in centuries-old bat poo …’
‘What’d you say?’ Tobias called.
‘I said,’ Sam called down, shuffling along with his feet, ‘that it seems OK. You guys can come up. I think this is what they call the poop deck.’
Sam went to the side and shone the torch down the rope ladder. Maria put her foot on the first rung, getting ready to climb. He took a step to the side to get a better angle with his light.
CRASH!
Sam fell through the deck.
26
Sam coughed and kept his eyes shut against the dust, feeling about for his torch. He felt the base of a cannon, which he traced blindly with his hands, feeling the way to the open cannon hatch. He stuck his head out, breathing in the clearer air outside the ship.