by S. L. Menear
I pulled out the leather pouch. When I slid the Eye into my hand, it filled with light and projected a hologram of the sphere flying low over an ocean at dizzying speed.
The image faded.
“That was wild.” Lance stared at the fading image.
Banger nodded. “I bet it’s returning to Atlantis.”
“Maybe, but it doesn’t know Atlantis is deep underwater now.” I slipped the Eye into its pouch and pocketed it.
“A more pressing question is whether anyone near the church saw the sphere.” Bryce pointed at the vertical tunnel. “We may get an angry reception if we have to return the way we came.”
“I don’t see another exit.” Mike scanned the curved wall with his light.
“Climbing up eight hundred steps isn’t my idea of a good time,” Banger said, as he ran his hands over the wall opposite the door.
Lance glanced around. “Sam and I encountered places like this in Petra, and she always found another way out.”
I surveyed the room and studied the symbols engraved on the walls. My light lingered on a familiar one.
“Here. This is like the ones I used in Petra.” I pressed my medallion against a mirror image of it recessed into the wall.
The floor vibrated as a stone door ground open on the opposite side of the room from where we had entered. Tiny stone particles reflected in our flashlight beams as a cool breeze rushed into the chamber.
Goosebumps erupted under my sleeves. “I hope this leads to a nearby exit to the outside world.” I shined my light through the open door. “No light at the other end—too dark to see where it goes.”
Mike moved me aside. “Stay here while I take a look.” He took a few steps inside, waving his light around. “Another dark, narrow passage. Looks like it slants downward at a thirty-degree angle.” He walked back to us.
“Should we follow it or climb back up the steps?” Bryce stuck his head through the door.
Banger shook his head. “Eight hundred steps? I vote we go that way.” He waved at the dark passage.
Lance turned to me. “We can always return this way if it doesn’t pan out. Right, Sam?”
Lisa grabbed my shoulders and spun me around, her voice tight with tension. “That thing is back.”
I faced the silent sphere. “Holy crap! I didn’t hear a thing.” Glancing up, I noticed the overhead hatch in the ceiling had closed. “What the heck?”
Everyone gathered around the pedestal table and stared at the sphere.
Bryce nudged Mike. “Is this situation normal for your sister, or should I be worried?”
Mike hesitated and glanced at Lance and Banger. “There’s a reason my brother and I nicknamed her Danger Magnet.”
Nervous chuckles filled the chamber.
Lisa squeezed Bryce’s shoulder. “Expect the unexpected when Sam’s around.”
Bryce glanced my way. “That shitstorm at Duxford was certainly unexpected, but it was nothing like this.” He waved his flashlight around the room and paused it on the silvery-blue sphere.
“If the Blue Dragon is a weapon like Poseidon’s Sword,” I said, “then this little sphere might be an important component, like that artifact I found in Hong Kong. We should take it with us.” I pulled out the canvas satchel attached to my padding and handed it to Lisa. “Hold this open.”
“Are you sure about this?” She opened the satchel and glanced at the sphere like it was a live cobra.
“If it doesn’t like it in there, it’ll laser its way out. So, don’t lean over the bag.” I grabbed the sphere and dropped it in.
No electric shock for me.
Lisa yanked the zipper closed and thrust it into my hands. “It’s all yours.”
I held it with outstretched arms and waited.
Nothing happened.
I exhaled and grinned at the team. “Alrighty, let’s go.” I followed them into the dark, slanted passage carved into the bedrock.
The door closed behind me with a loud thud.
Claustrophobic alarm bells clanged inside my head again as I concentrated on controlling my breathing.
We had to walk single-file, the pathway was so narrow. My medallion’s light reflected off the stone walls and ceiling, illuminating a tiny area in the endless blackness.
Must stay calm. The team is counting on me.
“Banger, any sign of an end up ahead?” I tried not to sound anxious.
“Hard to tell,” he said. “My mag light only reaches maybe ten feet.”
Slow, deep breaths. Good thing they can’t see the panic in my eyes.
Seven
We trudged downward for over an hour, seeing nothing but dark stone walls. Then the passage opened into a wide cavern where roaring water echoed off the granite. Our path ended beside an underground river that flowed swiftly into the darkness.
“I hope we’re close to getting out of here,” I muttered, unable to hide the tension in my voice.
Mike sat on the bank. “Let’s take a break and consider our options.”
“Options?” Lance peered at the water. “You mean swim or return the way we came?”
We sat beside the river, and I dipped my hand into the water. It looked clear and fresh, probably filtered through the rocks.
Banger stuck his hand in. “Cold—wouldn’t want to swim in this for more than a minute or two.”
Lisa tested it and jerked her hand out. “I wouldn’t want to swim in it for two seconds.”
“Neither would I.” I shined my flashlight along the riverbank. “Hey, what’s that?”
A large, dark object loomed beside the water about thirty feet away. It wasn’t moving.
Banger led us to what looked like a tubular metal watercraft mounted on a lift rack. The strange boat had a pointed bow, a curved keel, and a rudder protruding beneath the aft end. A curved clear section covering the roof appeared to be a long canopy hatch. Three large metal cylinders were mounted side-by-side on the outside of the flat stern, the outer two connecting to the central one. On the port side, I spotted a mirror-image symbol of my medallion recessed into the metal near the canopy’s forward rim.
I pressed my medallion into it, and the canopy lifted open.
A small instrument panel with gauges I didn’t recognize was mounted in front of a nose-cone seat with two rows of double seats behind it in the cabin.
Our team had six people, so we were short one seat.
Mike examined the interior. “If we decide to take this, Sam should sit in the control seat, the men will sit in passenger seats, and Lisa can sit on my lap.”
“Wait.” Bryce studied the small cabin. “We don’t know how much time we’ll be underground in this thing or how long the cabin air can sustain six people.”
I checked out the mechanism mounted on the stern. “This one is more exotic, but it looks a lot like the oxygen generators I’ve seen mounted in the seatbacks of old DC-9s. The chemicals in the outer cylinders combine to create oxygen, but the process produces heat. These are probably mounted on the outside so water will cool the cylinders.”
Lance studied the device. “She could be right—see the air vents where the hoses from the center cylinder connect to the cabin?”
“Any chance this is an execution chamber and those tanks are filled with poison gas?” Lisa asked, her voice a higher pitch.
Banger studied the lift rack. “Considering where this craft is located, the logical assumption is that it’s an escape boat.”
“Yeah, but this river is rushing downhill, and we don’t know when this boat was built, how strong it is, or how long it’s been sitting here.” Lisa ran her hands over the metal body. “This seems … different. Anybody know what type of metal this is?”
Always the smartass, especially in tense situations, Banger said, “Looks like unobtainium.”
“Funny.” Mike arched a brow. “I don’t know—it looks sturdy, and I don’t see any corrosion. Do we want to chance it? I can’t see another way out of here other than the way we ca
me.”
Lance nudged me. “Uh, Sam, are there any more hidden doors?”
“I’ll look.” I checked the rock wall from the corridor exit to where it ended in the water. “Sorry, no door.”
Mike gathered us. “I think this calls for a vote—take this boat or go back up the steps?”
Everyone hesitated and took another long look at the weird watercraft.
“Well?” Mike asked.
“Boat,” we replied as one.
Mike nodded. “Okay, climb aboard.”
“Good.” I shivered, rubbing my arms. “I’ve had my fill of dark, closed-in places.”
“Sorry, sis, I forgot about your claustrophobia. You hide it well.” Mike patted my back.
Lance grabbed my arm. “Assuming this boat is like everything else your touch activates, you’d better climb in last.”
I took a step back. “He’s right. Everyone else in first.”
Lance and Mike sat in the front row, with Banger and Bryce in the back. Then Lisa climbed in and sat sideways on Mike’s lap with her legs over Lance’s knees.
“Ready?” I sucked in a breath and tentatively swung a leg over the rail.
So far, so good.
I stepped in and sat in the control seat, being careful to hold the sack with the sphere between my knees.
“Give us a good ride, Captain.” Lance reached forward and patted my left shoulder.
A moment later, the hatch closed automatically, and the lift rack tilted to one side. We slid into the river, and the swift current carried us downstream in the dark, turbulent water.
“This baby is fast,” Banger, a typical fearless Navy SEAL, said as we zoomed through the whitewater.
Not feeling quite so brave, I kept my medallion lit in the cramped metal coffin. The river was ensconced in total darkness, rendering our clear canopy useless.
“Ow!” Lisa yelped when her head banged against the glass after a collision with a rocky curve.
“Sorry, Lisa.” Mike squeezed her. “I’ll hold you tighter.”
Foaming water splashed over the boat as we ricocheted off rocks along the turns in the winding river.
I couldn’t see anything outside as I braced my feet and held a white-knuckled grip on the panel.
Lisa clutched my seatback. “I hope this old bucket holds together.”
Mike ran his hand over the starboard side wall. “It must be stronger than it looks. I don’t see any indentations where we smashed up against rocks.”
Lance checked the port rail. “Nothing on my side either.”
“We’re good back here too,” Bryce chimed in.
Lance tapped my shoulder. “How’s it looking up front?”
Trying to sound calm, I said, “Dark and foamy outside—no leaks up here.” I had a death grip on the front panel as the boat rocked, rolled, and pitched like an amusement-park ride from Hell.
I stole a glance at my DARPA dive watch. The luminous dial indicated we’d been traveling five minutes.
It seemed a lot longer to me.
Why do all my Atlantis-related adventures involve deep dives and scary underground passages?
I longed for wide-open views and fresh outside air as our strange watercraft rushed down the Stygian path to Hades and slammed up against stone walls at every curve.
We’d been flailing around inside the craft for about twenty minutes when something made a hissing noise.
“Bugger! What was that?” Bryce looked around.
“Sounds like the oxygen generator just kicked in,” Lance said in his Texas twang. “That’d be a good thing.”
Lisa’s voice tightened. “God, I hope you’re right.”
I took a tentative breath. “Smell that air coming in? Definitely oxygen.”
Hurray for Atlantean technology.
“I hope it’s enough to last us until we get out of here.” Bryce’s tone radiated concern.
“Depends on how far the cave goes—not that we have a choice.” Mike tried shining his flashlight through the canopy. “Can’t see a thing except foam and blackness.”
As the long minutes passed, the river became more turbulent, and my heart rate bumped up another notch. I hated being shut inside a dark little boat on an even darker river.
Lance peered over my left shoulder. “Anything on the panel that indicates when we might be done with this whitewater adventure?”
“It’s hard to say.” I pointed a shaky finger. “That gauge looks like it might be measuring the cabin oxygen level—so far, so good.” I took a breath. “It’s in the green.”
Lance reached over my shoulder and tapped an instrument that read twenty-two. “What about this other one?”
“I think that might be our forward speed—twenty-two knots.” I shrugged. “But that’s just a guess. The gauges aren’t labeled.”
“What about directional controls?” Mike tapped my right shoulder.
“Just rudder pedals.” I zigzagged with short right and left turns to demonstrate.
We slammed into something hard and ricocheted back into the fast-moving river.
“Sonofabitch!” Mike swore. “How about missing some of those friggin’ rocks, sis?”
“How do you suggest I do that? I can’t see anything outside, brother dear.”
Banger cut in, trying to calm us down. “No sibling rivalry allowed on the mission, you two.”
“As you command, my liege.” I glanced back, saluted Banger, and glared at Mike.
We banged into another rock, and a foamy wave rolled over the canopy.
Banger chuckled. “If we survive, I could get used to this ‘my liege’ stuff.”
About half an hour later, the current spit us out of the river partway down a big waterfall.
“Hold on, we’re falling!” I white-knuckled my seat.
We plunged into the churning water at the bottom of the falls and bobbed to the surface. I closed my eyes a moment to clear my dizziness as we spun around under the thundering water. After a few nauseating minutes, the current carried us past the cascading water that had been pounding the canopy. We drifted beyond the falls, and I looked up at a full moon shining over us.
Thank God.
“Everybody okay back there?” I glanced over my shoulder.
“Lucky I’m not prone to seasickness or this would’ve been the vomit express.” Lance took a swig from his water bottle.
“Mike had to hold me so tight I might have some bruised ribs, but at least he kept me from slamming into the canopy.” Lisa rubbed her head.
“Hey, don’t I get credit for holding your ankles?” Lance gave her legs a gentle squeeze.
“Uh, we’re good back here too, not that anybody cares,” Banger grumbled.
“Your boat captain cares.” I turned and saluted them.
“That’s better.”
I steered us down the center of the river, and the current slowed to five knots, according to the gauge on the panel.
“Where do you think we are, Sam?” Mike scanned the riverbanks.
“The only waterfall near Lalibela is the Blue Nile Falls, which means our underground journey took us several thousand feet down to the Blue Nile River. All the blue names are encouraging. Maybe this river will take us to the Blue Dragon—if it’s not the little sphere already in my bag.”
“Hope springs eternal,” Banger said with his usual sarcastic tone.
Sweetwater’s Hideout
Deep rumblings dominated the night sounds around their cage.
“Well, now we know lions snore after a heavy meal.” Ross lay on his back and looked up at a brilliant, star-filled sky.
“What do you think Sweetwater will do if Sam comes here?” Derek rolled onto his side and glanced at the remains of the earlier carnage. Small chunks of torn limbs were strewn around the lion pen—all that remained of the mercenaries who’d been tossed in a few hours before sunset.
“He’ll probably make her watch while lions tear us apart. Then he’ll kill her slowly and painfully.”<
br />
Derek nudged him. “Bugger, don’t sugarcoat it, mate.”
Ross whispered, “Wouldn’t it be great if Sam could control the lions the way she controlled the kraken?”
Derek shook his head. “That giant squid was scary as hell.”
“Aye, but it obeyed Sam’s commands.” Ross yawned. “Maybe she can do the same with other animals.”
“So, ask her to send a hundred lions to eat Sweetwater. I’d love to watch that.” Derek rubbed dried blood spatter off his arm.
“Should I try to contact her again?” Ross glanced at him.
“May as well have a go. Might trigger a vision of where we are.”
“All right, here goes nothing.” Ross concentrated on mentally shouting Sam’s name over and over.
Eight
Blue Nile River
“Sam! Sam! Sam!” Ross shouted telepathically.
“Ross, I hear you. Where are you?” I concentrated hard on sending a mental message.
A pause, then “Sam! Sam! Sam!” again.
Frustrated, I hated not being able to reach him.
A vision of Ross and Derek flashed into my head. They were trapped in a cage inside a lion pen. A pride of lions slept nearby amidst what looked like torn and chewed human body parts. The big cats were covered with blood. So were the men.
“Oh, god!”
Lisa reached forward and squeezed my shoulder. “What’s wrong?”
“Ross contacted me telepathically, but he couldn’t hear my answer. Then I had a vision of him with Derek.” I told her what I’d seen.
Mike leaned forward. “Where’s the camp?”
“It was bordered by dense foliage.” I bit my lip. “Could be almost anywhere in the jungle regions of Africa.”
Something big bumped the underside of our craft, lifting us up a few feet and then sending us splashing down.
“What was that?” Banger strained to see over the side through the glass canopy.
“Did we hit a rock?” Lisa glanced around.
Another bump from underneath lifted the aft end of our boat and buried the bow in the water.
