Temple of the Gods

there’s still Glas to worry about.’

Nina paced across the room. ‘We need to find out the truth about the statues — and, more important, the meteorite. What it can really do, how it does it — and how dangerous it might be. Not second-hand, like the Kallikrates text, or whatever Warden says about it. I’m sure Glas would have his own opinion too. No, we need to go to the source.’

‘Where’s that?’ Eddie asked.

She stopped and faced him. ‘Atlantis.’

22 The Gulf of Cadiz

The North Atlantic in November is an inhospitable place. Even though the weather on this day was not particularly bad, there was still enough of a swell to cause the research vessel Gant to pitch unsettlingly beneath the wet-slate sky. The helicopter’s landing on the pad at the ship’s stern was bumpy, to say the least.

‘Welcome aboard!’ called Matt Trulli, waving as Nina and Eddie hurried through the drizzle to meet him. ‘Great to see you both. Been up to anything exciting?’

‘You could say that,’ Nina replied with a pained smile. ‘You know, the usual.’

‘Ah, right,’ Matt said knowingly. ‘So what got destroyed this time?’

Eddie started to count items on his fingers. ‘A skyscraper, a helicopter, a secret US base…’

‘Jesus, mate, I was kidding!’ He shook Eddie’s hand firmly. ‘Seriously, though, I’m glad to see you again. I knew you were innocent.’

‘Thanks,’ said Eddie, smiling. ‘Would be nice if that were the end of it, but nope, we’ve still got problems.’

‘Which is why we’re here,’ said Nina. ‘Can we go inside?’

‘Sure.’ Matt brought them through a hatch into the ship’s interior, then headed down a passage. ‘Should warn you, Hayter’s about as happy as you’d expect that you were coming.’

‘How’s progress been on the excavations?’

‘Pretty good, I’d say. He can give you the details, but the biggest problem’s been that there’s a fairly huge piece of wreckage from the Evenor right on top of where you want to look. Too big to lift, even for Sharkdozer; we’ve had to cut it up. Most of it’s been moved now, though.’

‘Good. I saw when we came in to land that the subs are on the ship — why aren’t they working?’

The Australian grinned. ‘’Cause I knew you were coming! Figured you’d want to work the arses off them, so I brought them back up top to recharge.’

‘You know me so well,’ Nina replied with a grin of her own.

They went into a large compartment overlooking the foredeck, where the archaeological expedition’s two submersibles were suspended from their cranes. Waiting for them was Lewis Hayter. As Matt had implied, his thin face was not exactly brimming with joy at his boss’s arrival. ‘Oh, Nina,’ he said sullenly. ‘You’re here.’

She decided to try to make the best of the situation. ‘Hello, Lewis. I caught up with the daily reports on the flight over — it looks like you’ve made excellent progress. Thank you.’

He nodded, a little wrong-footed by the praise. ‘We’re doing the best we can. It’s cutting things fine, though — even if the weather holds, the Gant will still have to return to port in five days at the most. I don’t think we’ll be able to do any further work until the spring.’

‘Think of it as a positive,’ she said. ‘It means you definitely will be back in the spring! The entire excavation can be extended, and you’ll still be in charge. If that’s what you want, of course…’

It was a transparent attempt at manipulation, and they both knew it, but Hayter had little choice except to go along with it. ‘I think that would tie in with my plans,’ he said eventually.

‘Great. So, what’s the situation with the Temple of Poseidon?’

Hayter, with occasional interjections from Matt, gave a report on the state of the dig that Nina had ordered. With both submersibles, the heavy-duty underwater excavation machine Sharkdozer II and the more exploratory-purposed but still capable Gypsy, working to clear the rubble from the altar room, progress had been relatively swift — by archaeological standards. ‘If you just wanted the stones moved, we could have done it in half the time, but you lot get so shirty about breaking the stuff underneath them,’ said Matt jokingly, making Eddie laugh and temporarily uniting both archaeologists in humourless disapproval.

‘What about any finds?’ Nina asked Hayter.

‘We uncovered more of the texts on the walls,’ he told her, bringing up a collection of images on a laptop. ‘Still nothing from the very end of the chronology, but we must be close now. The new translation software has given us a fairly good idea of what it all says; the team back at the IHA are working out the subtleties.’

‘Nothing new about the statues?’

‘Not so far. Nantalas was mentioned once, but only in reference to what we’d already found — her so-called visions. She was trying to persuade the king to let her use the sky stone’s powers for war again.’

‘She’s a nice lass, this Nantalas,’ said Eddie.

‘How close are we to the last section of text?’ Nina asked. ‘Eddie, you saw it in person when we first discovered the place; can you remember exactly where it was?’

‘Show me that computer graphic thing,’ he told Hayter, who brought up a program on the laptop. The numerous photographs taken in the ruins had been mapped on to the walls of a 3D model of the altar room, producing a patchwork wallpaper effect that could be viewed from any angle. ‘That’s the shaft that we first came though?’ He indicated a particular feature, and Hayter nodded. ‘Okay, I remember that there was a pillar about there,’ he pointed at another part of the virtual chamber, ‘so the writing ended… somewhere round here.’

The closest photograph was just a few feet from the spot. Matt compared the graphic to a wider shot taken inside the actual room. ‘We’re pretty near. Once we shift that last piece of wreckage, we should be able to clear these stones in… I dunno, not long. A few hours.’

‘And how long to move the wreckage?’ Nina asked.

‘It’ll be a bit of a long stint, but I reckon we could do it all in a single dive.’

‘How quickly can you have the sub ready?’

‘It’s already prepped — we still have to go through the safety checks and lower it into the water, but about an hour.’

‘Great! Let’s get going, then.’

‘Might have known you’d be in a rush! No worries — we’ll have pictures for you before the day’s out.’

‘I don’t just want pictures,’ she replied. ‘I want to see it for myself. I’m going with you.’

Hayter looked startled at the suggestion, Matt less so. ‘You want to come along?’ the archaeologist asked. ‘In the subs?’

‘No, I thought I’d put on goggles and flippers and use a very long snorkel. Yes, in the subs.’

‘Sarcasm isn’t really necessary,’ he said sourly. ‘It’s just that Gypsy only has room for two people in addition to the pilot. As expedition leader I’ll be one of them, and I’ll need Lydia in support, as she knows the site first-hand.’

‘Not a problem,’ said Nina. ‘Eddie and I can go in Matt’s sub.’

‘We can, can we?’ Eddie grumbled.

‘Oh, you knew it was going to happen. You got to go down to the Temple of Poseidon last time — there’s no way I’m going to miss the chance now. Anyway, Sharkdozer has room for three people, doesn’t it, Matt?’

‘Four if you don’t mind being up in each other’s armpits,’ the Australian told her jovially.