‘I’ll check it out with you,’ she called out. She jumped in and followed him.
She caught him up outside and he headed deeper into the main tunnel, the surface of the water now close to the ceiling. Stratton stuck to the side closest to the scrubber room, hoping to find an opening or a corridor that would lead to where the noise had come from. He considered the possibility of not being able to return to the scrubber room but he still felt compelled to find the source of the noise. He could never ignore his instincts when they were this strong.
Stratton came to the top of a door and glanced back to see that Christine was closing in on him. He ducked beneath the surface to feel if it was open.
It was slightly ajar and he heaved against it, wedging his body into the gap and pushing the door open wide enough to get through.
He broke the surface to find himself in a small room with a raised floor. A single emergency light provided some weak illumination. He pulled himself out of the water onto the raised ground.
Christine broke the surface and swam to the edge of the floor. After pulling herself out of the water she stood beside Stratton, rubbing her arms against the cold that was gripping her. Stratton put a finger to his lips. They were in a miners’ storeroom. There were piles of picks, hammers and shovels, drill bits and chisels, mining helmets, harnesses and overalls. Stratton tested the light on one of the helmets. It worked and he left it on to provide more light.
The sound came again, still with the muffled effect that made it seem like it was coming from beyond the walls although now it was louder than before. Stratton put his hands on the wall as if trying to feel where the noise was coming from.
Christine looked back at the water rising above the top of the door they had just come through. She wondered if they would be able to make it back to the scrubber room.
The metallic tap came again. Stratton followed the wall to the edge of the floor where it disappeared under the water and he crouched to examine the spot. He climbed off the platform into the water and quietly sank below the surface.
Christine watched as the water was disturbed further along the wall.
A moment later Stratton surfaced. ‘There’s a way through.’
‘Can you tell me why we’re doing this?’ she asked.
‘Not exactly,’ he replied.
She nodded. ‘OK.’
‘It’s a hole, right below me, a metre or so down. I’ll see you on the other side.’ He ducked below the surface again and was gone. Christine did not lack courage and lowered herself into the water. The cold attacked her immediately. She was blindly following a man she didn’t know into oblivion and was doing so without much of a second thought. It didn’t feel like the wrong thing to do, either. She took a breath and ducked under the water.
Stratton surfaced inside a large natural cave that was brightly illuminated by a string of small halogen spotlights hooked onto the walls. There was a large rudimentary triangular metal framework made up of dozens of pieces of iron lengths welded or fixed together with clamps, bolts and cables. An acetylene bottle and gun leant against a wall. A pulley hung from the apex of the framework near the ceiling with a cable running through it, one end disappearing into the water, the other over a rocky plateau above him.
Christine surfaced beside him, wiped the water from her face and eyes and looked surprised at the contents of the cave.
Stratton climbed out onto the plateau to see Hamlin propped against a winch that was secured to the rock floor. He had a hammer in one hand and a chisel in the other. He looked as if he was asleep. Christine climbed out of the water as Stratton went to Hamlin’s side and put a hand on his chest.
Hamlin opened his eyes and took a moment to focus on the face above him. ‘Ahh, the ferryman,’ he said, a smile forming on his lips. ‘Come to take me to Hades? I do believe I’m finally ready.’
The end of the cable that came from the pulley at the top of the derrick-like construction was secured onto the winch drum which Hamlin had evidently been trying to free.
‘How you doing, Tusker?’ Stratton asked in a soft, friendly voice.
‘Not too good . . . Gann screwed me up,’ Hamlin said, releasing the hammer and chisel. ‘I warned you he was a son of a bitch.’
‘If it makes you feel any better he isn’t any more.’
Hamlin nodded approval and as he took in a breath it was accompanied by a gasp of agony. Several of his ribs were clearly cracked or broken. He took a moment to concentrate on his breathing, keeping it as shallow as possible to reduce the pain. ‘Gettin’ outta here is all I’ve ever wanted to do,’ he said.
‘You can still make it,’ Stratton said, fishing for the ‘how’ of Hamlin’s escape plan, wondering how lucid the older man was and if he would share whatever it was he had been coveting. Stratton had no doubt that Hamlin had hatched some kind of plan.
Hamlin shook his head in disagreement. ‘Gettin’ through that goddamned sump nearly killed me . . . You know how many times I’ve swum through there? Gotta be more’n a thousand.’
‘How’d you find this place?’
‘They let me alone for hours at a time to repair the mining stores next door. I found it when I was snoopin’ around one day. I flooded it so they’d never find it. Last two years’ve been the most enjoyable I’ve had in any prison. Maybe even beats some years when I wasn’t . . . Building it a little at a time, day by day, gave me something to wake up to.’
‘Building what?’ Stratton asked.
‘Gettin’ all the right pieces was tough . . . especially the plates. Then gettin’ ’em through that damn sump. That was as much of a challenge as puttin’ it together.’
‘You built it in here?’ Stratton asked, looking at the derrick again.
Christine did not have a clue what either man was going on about but she sat back, listening intently.
‘Piece by damned piece.’ A spasm suddenly shot through Hamlin’s body and he went rigid as he fought the pain. A moment later it subsided and he took a breath. He looked over at Christine. ‘Wish I’d gotten to know you better, ferryman.Takes a special kinda guy to find a chick in a disaster at the bottom of the ocean.’
There was a distant rumble, followed by a surge of water from the sump. The level increased dramatically. Christine looked with concern at Stratton, fearful that they would not make it back to the air supply.
Stratton got to his feet, frustrated with the old man’s ramblings, and wondered if he could figure out for himself what Hamlin had built. He studied the framework, noting the cable leading from the pulley down into the water with another, thinner cable coming out beside it where it was wrapped several times around a large rock to secure it.
Christine stepped beside him and kept her voice low, though even a gentle whisper echoed in the cavern. ‘Should we try and get him back to the air bottles?’
‘He won’t make it,’ Stratton replied, looking at the water where the cables went into it. It was separated from the sump by a natural wall of rock but there was something that looked different about it. He crouched and brushed the surface with his hand and the water that churned up was white as milk. ‘This water comes directly from outside.’
‘We’re just above the sea bed here,’ Hamlin said. ‘The opening down there is big enough to drive a truck through. It’s what started me on the idea.’
Stratton crouched beside Hamlin again. ‘What is it you built, Tusker?’
Hamlin looked into his eyes. ‘First one was made two and a half thousand years ago.’
Stratton looked back at the water, the cable going up to the ceiling, the spacious cave, the entrance apparently big enough to drive a truck through, the metal plates that Hamlin had described. He looked back at Hamlin who was wearing a smirk.
‘A bell?’ Stratton asked.
Hamlin’s smirk broadened before a painful cough wiped it away. ‘Finished it a couple weeks ago,’ he said, recovering. ‘Took me a week to get it outside. I got pretty damn good at holding my breath.’
Hamlin’s expression turned serious as he held out a hand. Stratton took hold of it. ‘Take it up for me . . . prove to those sons of bitches that I could do it.’
The water level rose again, creeping up the rock and reducing the surface area of the small plateau they were on.
