Down below the main deck, in a chamber built of, and concealed within, a five-story stack of Conex containers the titanium rings of the Tauber Tube bled frozen sheets and filled the chamber with a carpet of dense, chilled gas. Four men and one woman rushed through the mist, pushing before them a Zodiac inflatable boat loaded with gear. The boat trundled easily on the rollers of the loadmaster platform installed on the floor of the ramp. Pushing the Zodiac ahead, they vanished under the rings and into the fog and were gone.
The team leaped into the boat as one and clung to any handhold they could find. The raft was momentarily submerged in salt water end-to-end, then surfaced in broad daylight under a cloudless sky. The boat swayed in the light chop, adding to what the guys knew as the Tauber Effect, disorienting nausea that momentarily left travelers through the tube as helpless as kittens. The guys knew what to expect. As a manifestation virgin, it struck Bat harder. She fought to maintain consciousness after spewing the contents of her stomach onto the rising deck.
“Sound off!” Lee said.
The count was complete at five. All present and combat-ready if still a bit shaky.
They were in the Aegean on the open sea with no indication that they had fallen back millennia in time, not a sail on the horizon. The mist still bleeding through the open field hung on the water behind them, indicating the rip in time was still there with the day and time they left in the future still accessible on the other side of the drifting cloud.
Using the transmitter, Lee sent a text back through. He confirmed that they arrived safely along with the estimated time of day, three in the afternoon. They would establish the exact date later when they could take a star reading. He received an acknowledging text from Dwayne before the mist evaporated, leaving them alone on the sea.
Boats made an inspection to make certain their vessel was intact and the gear still securely dogged down. The center of the boat was piled with waterproof gear bags. They were made of oiled leather and closed with straps and standard steel buckles and bore no markings. Theoretically, they would not draw the attention of the curious.
“Well, skipper, what are our orders?” Jimbo asked. Boats stood on the deck and dropped the pair of electric outboard motors into the water. He then scanned the uninterrupted horizon all around.
“We have a few more hours of light. I say we make for the mainland at quarter speed to get there at last light. There’ll be more traffic closer to the shore. Best we aren’t spotted.”
He started the engines up and turned the tiller to point the bow dead east. The twin ELCOs purred, pushing them through the water at ten knots. Just a goose on the throttle and Boats could bring enough horses online to have them skimming over the water at sixty. The humble little raft was the fastest vessel in the world right now—land or sea.
The sun was sinking in a magnificent burnt orange sky behind them as they sighted the shore as a darker line along the horizon. They had still not seen another sail on their entire trip.
“Shouldn’t we have seen something?” Bat asked.
“These ancient mariners were pussies!” Boats proclaimed. “They didn’t like to sail far from land or at night. They probably all put in somewhere by now. We have the sea to ourselves.”
“Are you sure we didn’t go back too far?” she said.
“If a dinosaur pops its head out of the water, then we’ll know,” Chaz said.
The only animal life they saw was the growing number of gulls and terns in the air. A long flight of herons skimmed the water near them, heading for their perches on land before the sky grew full dark.
“I don’t see a beach,” Jimbo said, standing at the prow.
“Shouldn’t we hear breakers by now?” Bat said.
Boats stood and raised a pair of binoculars to his eyes.
“Shit.”
“What is it?” Lee asked.
“There ain’t no beach. No surf. It’s a tidal marsh,” the SEAL said with disgust.
They rode swells to where the water shallowed. Boats tilted the motor shafts from the water since the bottom was thick with vegetation. The shoreline north and south was a thick forest of mangrove alive with clouds of mosquitoes and biting flies. An impenetrable tangle of roots grew into the black water.
“This was all a beach. I’ve been here,” Bat said.
“The topography changes,” Jimbo said. “Especially near the waterline.”
“Change of plans,” Lee said. “We’ll have to make landing closer to the port than we planned. We follow the shore north.”
“And we’ll do it deeper waters,” Boats said. “Grab an oar, everyone. We need to paddle clear of this shit before I put our screws back in.”
Two to each gunwale, the team stroked away from the shore and the nasty fog of stinging insects until they were free of the undertow. Boats dropped the motors and steered them north, the dark mainland rolling along to their right.
Within an hour, they saw a wooded headland rising from the shore. The scopes showed a narrow beach at the foot of a steep bluff choked with scrub pines and brush. No place to conceal the raft.
Boats gave the headland a wide berth, and they came around it to find the city of Caesarea, the seat of power in Roman Judea, rising from the curve of a sheltered harbor. The full extent of the city was lost in the gloom of the moonless night. The structures they could see were mostly dark with only the soft amber glow of lanterns from within some of the buildings. Smoke rose
