The Hunt For Atlantis

instantly. It was the same as the replica of the Temple of Poseidon in the Brazilian jungle.

And unlike that now ruined structure, this one was intact.

“Bloody hell,” muttered Chase, leaning closer over her shoulder.

“Jesus. Evenor, do you see this?” asked Baillard.

“We see it,” Kari confirmed, handing Nina a headset. “Nina, you’re in charge.”

“Me? But I don’t know anything about submarines!”

“You don’t have to. Just tell him what you want to look at, and he’ll do it.”

“Okay…” Nina said nervously, suddenly terrified at the idea of accidentally causing the submersible to crash. She donned the headset, fiddling with the microphone. “Jim, this is Nina. Can you hear me?”

“Loud and clear,” replied the Canadian. “I’m about a hundred and fifty meters away. Can you see it clearly?”

“Oh yes.” The lower parts of the temple walls were buried beneath a sloping mound of sediment, but the top of its curved roof rose a good thirty feet above the ocean floor. Reflected laser light shone back brightly in places where the sheath of precious metals over the stone had remained intact even through the deluge. “I can’t believe it’s still standing.”

Philby leaned closer, apparently having trouble with the stereoscopic effect and dealing with it by simply closing one eye. “The design must have been incredibly precise, so all the blocks would support their own weight. When the island sank, it held together even when everything else collapsed. Amazing!”

“What’s the current like?” Kari asked.

Trulli gave a reading. “I’m getting about half a knot of drift, heading northeast.”

“No wonder it’s not completely buried,” said Baillard. “If that’s the prevailing current, then it’ll sweep a lot of the sediment towards the Spanish coast.”

“Is there anything else above the surface?” Nina asked.

The 3-D image jolted disconcertingly; the Atragon hadn’t changed course, but the laser scanners had been redirected to look off to one side. “I can see a few bumps where there might be things under the surface, but nothing actually standing out. How tall is this thing?”

“If it’s the size we think it is, it should be about sixty feet tall. Eighteen meters.”

“If that’s the case, then it’s maybe half exposed. There’s a lot of silt piled up around it.” The image shifted back to the temple.

“Sharkdozer, move in closer,” Kari ordered. “Head to the north end, keep clear of the Atragon.”

“Gotcha,” said Trulli. The second 3-D display showed his advance.

“Jim?” Nina asked. “Can you circle the building, please? I want to see what it looks like from the other side.”

Baillard complied. The maneuver took a couple of minutes, revealing a view much the same as their first sight of the temple. Its curved back, partly buried by sediment, reminded Nina of a turtle’s shell.

“Hey, Evenor,” said Trulli excitedly, “the north end here, the sediment’s lower. It must have been cleared away by the current. I can see more of the wall.”

Nina quickly switched her attention to the Sharkdozer’s screen. There was a smooth, almost bowl-like depression at the northern end of the temple, as though someone had used a giant scoop to clear the silt away. “Can you get in closer?”

“No worries. Hold on a tick.”

It took rather longer than the promised tick, but a few minutes later Trulli brought the hefty submersible to a hover a short distance from the temple wall. “I’m going to take a sonar reading,” he announced. “Hang on.”

One of the monitors flashed up a jagged graph. Nina couldn’t make head nor tail of it, but to the submersible pilot it was as clear as a photograph. “There’s something under the sediment-or rather, there’s something not under the sediment. Could be a hole in the wall.”

“Room to get Mighty Jack through?” asked Baillard.

“Maybe. Evenor, do I have permission to clear the sediment?”

Kari looked at Nina, who nodded in excitement. There was a way into the temple! “Go ahead, Sharkdozer.”

The operation that followed was frustratingly slow. Nina forced herself not to rap her nails on the desktop as Trulli moved his sub away from the temple. He carefully lowered the pump module to the surface about a hundred meters off to the northeast, extending its “tail” in the direction of the current, then returned to the temple. The Atragon’s LIDAR display showed the connecting tube stretching between the pump module and its mother ship as the Sharkdozer returned to position, taking up station above the base of the northern wall. The whole process took over twenty minutes.

“Ready to go, Evenor,” Trulli said at last. “Just give the word.”

“Go for it!” Nina cried, to everyone’s amusement.

The pump started.

Like the world’s largest vacuum cleaner, the Sharkdozer began to suck the accumulated silt into its gaping maw. The pressure difference created by the pump wasn’t huge, but it was more than enough to draw the layers of sediment into the pipe and through the detached module to spew out of the waste pipe one hundred meters away. The prevailing current gently swept the expanding cloud of suspended particles away from the temple. The value of a technique that had initially struck Nina as overcomplicated now became clear; simply digging up the silt would have wiped out visibility within seconds.

Another ten minutes passed with agonizing slowness, the Atragon providing a ringside view as the Sharkdozer slid from side to side over the foot of the wall, on each pass clearing away another layer. Then…

“I think I’ve got something here!” exclaimed the Australian. He directed his video camera at the spot. Drifting silt clouded the image, but not enough to stop Nina’s heart from thumping at the sight. “Looks like a way in.”

On the screen, a passageway disappeared into darkness. It was hard to judge scale, but if the temple had been constructed the same way as its counterpart in Brazil, the opening was roughly four feet across.

“I’ll use the secondary vac to dredge it out,” said Trulli. “Give me a few minutes.” One of the Sharkdozer’s arms extended, but instead of using the large bucket at the end to clear the obstruction, a narrow metal pipe extended from beneath it, probing the opening and sucking away the deposits inside.

Chase leaned over Nina’s shoulder to examine the 3-D display, his cheek almost touching hers. “You know… if this temple has the same layout as the one in Brazil, that passage might lead right into the altar room. There was a shaft at the back, but it had been filled in with rocks.”

Nina gave him an accusing glance. “There was? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t have time! You know, with the whole imminent death thing.”

“A priest hole,” said Kari thoughtfully. “A secret exit.”

Trulli worked for several more minutes before retracting the arm. “I’ve cleared out as much as I can. Jimbo, warm up Mighty Jack!”

While Trulli backed the Sharkdozer away, Baillard brought his own submersible closer, parking it at the edge of the expanded depression around the north wall. Once in position, he announced, “Evenor, I’m releasing the ROV… now.”

All eyes went to the Atragon’s 3-D display, which switched from the ghostly monochrome of the LIDAR system to a full-color video image as Mighty Jack left its cage and headed for the temple. The little robot didn’t have the laser imaging system of its parent vessel, but it still had stereoscopic cameras. As it entered the opening, the tight confines of the passage beyond gave a vertiginous sensation of speed. “God, it’s like attacking the Death Star,” Chase observed.

Mighty Jack proceeded down the passage. There were still clumps of sediment along its floor, but Trulli had cleared enough for the ROV to pass. The tension in the control room rose as the robot advanced, to find…

A blank wall.