Riptide

'That's a polite way of saying it's a bug.' Neidelman turned to Streeter. 'Where's Wopner?'

'Asleep on the Cerberus.'

'Wake him up.' Neidelman turned to Hatch and nodded toward the door. They walked out into the hazy sunlight.

Chapter 15

There's something I'd like to show you,' the Captain said. Without waiting for an answer, he set off at his usual terrific stride, his long legs sweeping through the grass, leaving a backwash of pipe smoke and confidence. Twice he was stopped by Thalassa employees, and he appeared to be directing several operations at once with cool precision. Hatch scrambled to keep up, barely having time to glance at all the changes around him. They were following a roped path, certified safe by the Thalassa surveyors. Here and there, short aluminum bridges spanned old pits and rotten areas of ground.

'Nice morning for a stroll,' Hatch panted.

Neidelman smiled. 'How do you like your office?'

'Everything's shipshape and Bristol fashion, thanks. I could service an entire village from it.'

'In a sense, you're going to have to,' came the reply.

The path climbed the island's incline toward the central hump of land, where most of the old shafts were clustered. Several aluminum platforms and small derricks had been placed over the muddy maws of shafts. Here, the main trail forked into several roped paths that wound around the ancient works. Nodding to a lone surveyor, Neidelman chose one of the central paths. A minute later, Hatch found himself standing at the edge of a gaping hole. Except for the presence of two engineers on the far side, taking measurements with an instrument Hatch didn't recognize, it seemed identical to a dozen other pits in the vicinity. Grass and bushes hung over the lip and sagged down into darkness, almost obscuring the edge of a rotting beam. Gingerly, Hatch leaned forward. Only blackness showed below. A flexible, metal-jointed hose of enormous circumference rose from the invisible depths, snaked across the muddy ground, and wound its way toward the distant western shore.

'It's a pit, all right,' Hatch said. 'Too bad I didn't bring along a picnic basket and a book of verses.'

Neidelman smiled, removed a folded computer printout from his pocket, and handed it to Hatch. It consisted of a long column of dates, with numbers beside them. One of the pairs was highlighted in yellow: 1690±40.

'The carbon 14 tests were completed at the Cerberus's lab early this morning,' Neidelman said. 'Those are the results.' He tapped his finger on the highlighted date.

Hatch took another look, then handed back the paper. 'So what's it mean?'

'This is it,' Neidelman said quietly.

There was a momentary silence. 'The Water Pit?' Hatch heard the disbelief in his own voice.

Neidelman nodded. 'The original. The wood used for the cribbing of this shaft was cut around 1690. All the other shafts date between 1800 and 1930. There can be no question. This is the Water Pit designed by Macallan and built by Ockham's crew.' He pointed to another, smaller hole about thirty yards away. 'And unless I'm mistaken, that's the Boston Shaft, dug 150 years later. You can tell because of its gradual incline, after the initial drop.'

'But you found the real Water Pit so quickly!' said Hatch, amazed. 'Why didn't anyone else think of carbon dating?'

'The last person to dig on the island was your grandfather in the late forties. Carbon dating wasn't invented until the next decade. Just one of the many technological advantages we'll be bringing to bear in the coming days.' He waved his hand over the Pit. 'We'll begin construction of Orthanc this afternoon. Its components are already down at the supplies dock, waiting for reassembly.'

Hatch frowned. 'Orthanc?'

Neidelman laughed. 'It's something we created for a salvage job in Corfu last year. A glass-floored observation post built atop a large derrick. Somebody on last year's team was a Tolkien fanatic, and the nickname stuck. It's fitted with winches and remote sensing gear. We'll be able to look right down the throat of the beast, literally and electronically.'

'And what's this hose for?' Hatch asked, nodding toward the pit.

'This morning's dye test. That hose is connected to a series of pumps on the west shore.' Neidelman glanced at his watch. 'In an hour or so, when the tide reaches the flood, we'll start pumping 10,000 gallons of seawater per minute through this hose into the Water Pit. Once a good flow is established, we'll drop a special, high-intensity dye. With the tide ebbing, the pumps will help push the dye down into Macallan's hidden flood tunnel, and back out to the ocean. Since we don't know which side of the island the dye will emerge on, we'll use both the Naiad and the Grampus, spotting on opposite sides of the island. All we have to do is keep an eye out for the place where the dye appears offshore, send divers to the spot, and seal the tunnel with explosives. With the seawater blocked, we can pump out the water and drain all the works. Macallan's pit will be defanged. By this time on Friday, you and I will be able to climb down in there with nothing more than a slicker and a pair of Wellingtons. Then we can make the final excavation of the treasure at our leisure.'

Hatch opened his mouth, then shut it again with a shake of his head.

'What?' Neidelman said, an amused smile on his face, his pale eyes glittering gold in the rising sun.

'I don't know. Things are moving so fast, that's all.'

Neidelman drew a deep breath and looked around at the workings spread across the island. 'You said it yourself,' he replied after a moment. 'We don't have much time.'

They stood for a moment in silence.

'We'd better get back,' Neidelman said at last. 'I've asked the Naiad to come pick