Trojan Odyssey

'Nothing,' Pitt replied with a slight shrug. He knew he could no longer bluff Rita. She had said all she was going to say. 'Keep her locked in the cabin until we reach Costa Rica. I'll have Rudi call ahead and have the local law authorities waiting on the dock to take her into custody.'

Exhaustion crept up on Pitt. He was dead tired, but so were the others. He had one more chore to perform before he could catch a short catnap. He looked around for the lounge chair, but remembered Renee had thrown it overboard. He stretched out on the deck that had been cleared of the phony fishing gear, leaned his back against a bulwark and dialed his Globalstar tri-mode satellite phone.

Sandecker sounded angered. 'Why haven't I heard from you people before now?'

'We've been busy,' Pitt muttered. Then he spent the next twenty minutes bringing the admiral up to speed. Sandecker patiently listened without interruption until Pitt ended by relating his conversation with Rita Anderson.

'What could Specter possibly have to do with any of this?' Sandecker's voice sounded confused.

'At the moment, my best guess is that he has a secret he wants to keep and will murder the crew of any boat that stumbles into his realm.'

'I've heard they have construction contracts with the Red Chinese throughout Nicaragua and Panama.'

'Loren mentioned the same connection over dinner the other night.'

'I'll order an investigation into Odyssey's activities,' said Sandecker.

'You might also check out Rita and David Anderson and a yacht named Epona.'

'I'll put Yaeger on it first thing.'

'It will be interesting to see how this woman ties in to this thing.'

'Did you discover a source of the brown crud?'

'We homed in on the position where it's rising from the seafloor.'

'Then it looks like a natural phenomenon?'

'Patrick Dodge doesn't think so.' Pitt stifled a yawn. 'He claims there is no way the mineral ingredients that make up the crud can rise up from the bottom like it was shot out of a cannon. He says it has to be an artificial upwelling. There must be something nasty going on here that borders on The Twilight Zone.'

'Then we're back to square one,' said Sandecker.

'Not quite,' Pitt said quietly. 'I have a little expedition of my own I'd like to carry out.'

'I've sent a NUMA jet transport to the airport near the Rio Colorado Lodge with a crew to patch up Poco Bonito before they sail it north. Gunn, Dodge and Ford will be transported back to Washington. I'd like you and Al to join them.'

'The job isn't finished.'

Sandecker didn't argue. He'd learned long ago that Pitt's judgment was generally on the money. 'What is your plan?'

Pitt stared across the sea toward the green forested coastal mountain ranges rising beyond white sandy beaches. 'I think a cruise up the San Juan River to Lake Nicaragua might be in order.'

'What do you expect to find so far from the sea and the brown crud?'

'Answers,' Pitt answered, his mind already traveling upriver. 'Answers to this whole mess.'

PART THREE From Odyssey to Odyssey

24

August 23, 2006 Navidad Bank

If there was one small benefit to Hurricane Lizzie, it was that she had swept the brown crud away from Navidad Bank. The water over the coral was blue-green again, with visibility at neatly two hundred feet. Along with the clean water, the fish had returned to their habitat and took up residence again as if no tempest had cast them out.

Another research vessel replaced Sea Sprite for the investigation of the sunken structure. Built and designed specifically as a dive support vessel for archaeological exploration in shallow water, Sea Yesteryear rarely worked out of sight of the shore. Her projects had included the underwater ruins of the Alexandria Library in Egypt, the. Chinese fleet sunk by kamikaze winds off Japan, early Swedish and Russian trade ships in the Baltic and a host of other historical events her team of scientists had surveyed.

She featured four-point mooring capabilities and both saturation and surface gas/air diving system configurations. A moon pool in the center of her hull was fully equipped for diving operations and robotic vehicle launch and recovery, and included machinery for retrieving artifacts from the seafloor. A spacious laboratory occupied the entire bow section of the boat and incorporated the most up-to-date scientific equipment for the analysis and conservation of recovered ancient artifacts.

Short by most research ship standards at one hundred and fifty-one feet in length, she was broad and roomy with an overall breadth of forty-five feet. Two big diesel engines moved her through the water at twenty knots, and she carried a crew of four and a team of ten scientists. Those who had served aboard Sea Yesteryear were proud of the times they had rewritten maritime history. And, as the Navidad Bank exploration proceeded, they were certain they were on the verge of the greatest discovery yet.

At first, the marine archaeologists who examined the rooms of stone were not even certain the structures were man-made. Nor did the area produce an abundance of artifacts. Except for the contents of the stone bed and the cauldron, the only others found came from the kitchen. But as the investigation continued, more and more incredible archaeological treasures were recorded. One revelation that the geologists on the team discovered was that the structure once sat in the open above a small hill. This came to light when the encrustation on one six- inch-square piece of wall in the bedroom was delicately brushed away and it became obvious the rooms were not carved from the rock but constructed of stone fitted on stone when Navidad Bank was an island rising above the water.

Dirk stood in the laboratory with his sister at his side, examining the artifacts that had been carefully transported to the ship's laboratory and immersed in trays of seawater in preparation for the lengthy conservation process. He very gently held up an exquisite gold torque, the neck chain that had been found on the stone bed.

'Every relic we've removed from the bed and the cauldron has belonged to a woman.'

'It's even more intricate than much of the jewelry produced today,' said Summer, admiring the chain as the gold reflected the sun coming through the ship's ports.

'Until I can make a comparison with archaeological records in European archives, I'd have to date it as Middle Bronze Age.' The voice was soft and punctuated, like a mild summer shower on a metal roof. It belonged to Dr. Jeffrey Parks, who carried himself like a wary wolf, with his face low and thrust out. He was six feet eight inches in height and constantly bent over from the stratosphere. A collegiate all-star basketball player, he was sidelined because of a serious knee injury and never played again. Instead, he studied marine archaeology, eventually gaining a doctorate with his thesis on ancient underwater cities. He had been invited on the expedition by Admiral Sandecker because of his specialized expertise.

Parks walked past the long table fitted with open tanks that held the ancient relics and stopped at a large board mounted on a bulkhead that displayed more than fifty photos taken of the interior of the underwater edifice. He paused and with the eraser end of a pencil tapped a montage of photos showing the floor plan. 'What we have is not a city or a fortress. No structures that extend beyond the rooms of your original discovery are apparent. Call