The Hunt For Atlantis

“Stay back!” Kari shouted. Her knees were still in the water, but she managed to hook both her boots around the beam to drive herself forward.

The long head of the nearest caiman came fully out of the water, opening to expose its jagged teeth-

“Oi!” Chase roared, dropping onto the end of the beam and stamping one foot hard into the water, creating a huge splash. “Over ’ere! Hey!”

The larger of the two caimans changed direction with a flick of its tail, heading for him. The first, still gliding rapidly towards Kari, turned its head towards the noise-and took the heel of her boot against the side of its skull with a crack that echoed around the chamber.

The caiman released a sharp bark of air, thrashing its tail and dropping back into the water. Frantically, Kari hauled herself along the beam, looking back over her shoulder at the great reptile. It was circling in a sinister line through the water, arcing back around for her.

Chase kicked up another splash before leaping back onto the ledge as the caiman erupted from the water, its giant mouth agape. Powerful claws raked the stone wall as its heavy body thudded against the beam.

Kari was nearly jolted into the water by the impact. She clung to the beam with all her strength, the caiman crashing into it again and again in its attempt to pursue Chase, before it finally admitted defeat and dropped back into the pool.

The other caiman was still heading back at her, slimy water streaming from its mouth as it broke the surface. This time it had learned its lesson and was aiming for her upper body, out of range of her legs. Straining, she dragged herself forward again.

Her fingers touched cold stone, and she clawed for the tiny ledge, gaining just enough purchase to pull herself up from the beam and plant one foot upon it, thrusting herself upright.

The caiman lunged-

With a yell, Kari snatched the dagger from its resting place and plunged it down between the caiman’s malevolent yellow eyes, stabbing deep into its brain.

The reptile crashed onto the beam, then slid lifelessly back into the pool as she pulled the dagger out with a spurt of blood.

And where the blood blossomed in the dark water, it suddenly frothed, churned from below by dozens of fins.

Chase had been right.

Piranhas!

Kari flattened herself against the wall. One foot was on the beam, which juddered as the caiman’s body ground against it. The very tip of her other heel was on the little ledge. She waited until the beam stopped shaking, then looked around to see the result of removing the dagger. Something had definitely clicked when she’d grabbed it…

Two things happened at once.

From somewhere above Chase and Nina came a loud clang of metal. She caught a flicker of movement inside the opening Chase had seen, but it was too dark to make out the cause.

But she had no time to think about it, because the beam had started moving, retracting into the wall behind her. The supporting poles moved with it, slicing V-shaped ripples into the water-the whole thing was mounted on some sort of framework at the bottom of the pool, and now it was disappearing with alarming speed into the cold stone at her back.

“Eddie, do something, stop it!” Nina wailed, helpless as she watched the beam slide away from the side of the platform.

“How?” he demanded, looking for something, anything he could do to stop its relentless retreat. There was nothing.

Close to panic, Kari hopped her foot along the beam, only to have it forced back against the wall within moments. At the speed the beam was moving, she had a minute-less-before it completely disappeared and she was plunged into the pool with the remaining caiman… and the piranhas tearing at the flesh of its dead companion.

She still had the dagger in one hand, for all the good it would do her.

The dagger…

There must be something more, she realized. She had to do something with the dagger, not simply retrieve it.

“Throw me the flashlight!” she shouted.

“She’ll fall in!” Nina protested as Chase pulled back his arm.

“She’ll fall in anyway in a minute!” he shot back. “Kari! Ready?”

“Yes!”

He flung the flashlight. The brilliant light arced across the chamber like a falling star. Kari reached up with her wounded arm, and the light landed in her hand with a slap. Swaying to keep her balance, she brought it up, aiming the beam at the recess high above the other side of the pool. It was revealed as an alcove, a cube three feet to a side. Metal gleamed within, copper or gold, a foot-wide circular object like a shield standing up inside it.

Not a shield; a target.

There was only a meter of the beam still exposed, just seconds before it disappeared completely.

Kari turned and stepped onto it with both feet, snapping back her right arm to throw the dagger. The blade flashed through the torch beam-

It struck the target with a bang, dead center. The metal disc toppled backwards, disappearing from sight.

The beam stopped moving. With a creak of wood and straining ropes, the narrow drawbridge at the far end of the chamber fell, hitting the platform opposite with a whump.

Kari looked down. There was just enough of the beam still protruding from the wall for her to fit both her feet, if she turned them sideways.

She put her free hand against the wall for support, feeling very vulnerable. “Now what am I supposed to do?” she asked aloud.

As if in answer, there was a noise above her. A length of knotted rope, a chunk of wood weighing down its end, dropped from the ledge running along the wall.

Chase and Nina were already making their way to the bridge. “We’ll meet you on the other side!” Chase called as Kari gripped the rope and pulled on it, checking that it wasn’t about to break-or that it wasn’t booby-trapped itself. It seemed firm. Favoring her right arm, she climbed onto the ledge. It was only a foot across, but compared to what she’d just been standing on, it seemed as wide as a motorway.

Nina and Chase were waiting for her at the end of the drawbridge as she dropped down. “That was a hell of a throw,” said Chase as Kari slumped against the wall, exhausted. “How big was the target?” She held her hands a foot apart as Nina checked her makeshift bandage. “Bloody hell, I don’t think I could’ve made that. They weren’t kidding when they said it was a challenge of skill.”

“We’ve still got one more challenge to go,” Nina said.

“The Challenge of Mind? That sounds like your cup of tea, Doc. You up for it?”

She smiled nervously. “Do I have a choice?”

“How long have we got?” Kari asked Chase, voice tired.

“We’ve got… thirty-six minutes.” They all looked down the passage leading deeper into the temple. Even though it was no different from the others they had traversed, it somehow seemed more forbidding.

“Okay, then,” said Nina, standing straight with a defiance she definitely didn’t feel. “I hope my mind’s up to the challenge.”

FIFTEEN