Daedalus spoke into a two-way radio to his team members working to get the scuba gear down to the lake. They had already rigged a system of ropes from the side of the slope down to the basin the lake occupied, and now they were attaching the gear to the ropes and pulling it down to the lake on a pulley system. At least that was how it was supposed to work. He was well aware that there were a lot of things to go wrong with the system such as losing gear on the way down, the rope and pulley system itself failing, his personnel slipping down the mountain and falling into the icy lake, things like that. Preoccupied with thinking of every little detail that could go wrong with the execution of his dive plan, Daedalus failed to notice the small movements to his left, barely within his peripheral vision.
Two men crawled up out of the ravine behind him and paused, looking around. They saw Daedalus standing there, binoculars to his eyes, and then looked ahead and to their left at the rope and pulley system that ran out of sight down the slope to the lake, which they could not see from their current position. Further distracting Daedalus was his radio crackling with Phillipo’s voice, speaking in Greek.
“Copy, Daedalus. Three sets of gear down at the lake shore, one set on its way. You can make your way down to us whenever you’re ready. All your gear will be waiting for you, including the underwater video system.”
“Copy, see you soon.” Daedalus clipped his radio back onto his belt and walked to the edge of the slope. He looked down at the lake, gazing into its icy blue depths and wondering what he would find there. Time to find out, he thought, but first…
He unzipped his trousers and urinated into the snow.
Chapter 20
Jayden had to lay his face flat into the snow to stifle a laugh despite the seriousness of the situation. Carter remained stock still but kept his head up to watch Daedalus. As best he could tell, the rest of his team was down the slope off to his left, leaving him up here alone. Even better, although he couldn’t understand the radio conversation in Greek, he could see that Daedalus was preparing to join his team down the slope. Whatever was down there, they were very interested in it, because they had set up some kind of rope system that led out of sight down the slope.
Carter tensed as Daedalus zipped up his fly. If he turned this direction, he would probably see them. If that happened, Carter thought, they’d have no choice but to fight. At least it would be two-on-one until his team heard the struggle and scrambled up from down the slope, however long that took. It sounded like they were far down below, so that was something. But then, to his relief, that entire line of thought became a moot point as Daedalus walked straight over to the rope system, and without looking over at them, gripped the rope and walked out of sight down the slope.
Jayden picked his head up out of the snow and looked at Carter, who now found it was his turn to try not to laugh while looking at his friend’s snow-caked face. He pointed down the slope. Jayden’s response was to crane his neck and look around behind them, meaning, Is anyone else up here? Carter shook his head in the negative. Off to their right, maybe a hundred feet away, he thought he saw evidence of a campsite — some packs on the ground, maybe a tent set up. Down the hill they could hear some walkie-talkie chatter and the occasional yelled command to facilitate some kind of operation. Carter’s curiosity as to what they were doing down there was overwhelming, but he wasn’t about to stick his neck out over the slope and risk being seen. First things first, he thought.
The map. Whether original or copy, some version of it had to be up here somewhere, unless Daedalus had the only copy on his person. But Carter doubted that, and he knew there was only one way to find out. He and Jayden crawled a little farther away from the slope to ensure they couldn’t be seen when they stood up. When they regained their feet, they tip-toed over to the camp gear they’d seen.
An additional problem now presented itself. Carter held out a hand to signal Jayden to stop as they neared what looked like a mess tent, as well as a small cook fire still smoldering. They didn’t see any other people, but what if someone was inside the tent, sleeping, or working on kitchen detail, something like that? No doubt he and Jayden would be able to take him or her out, even silently, but they were using radios, and it would only take two seconds of frantic warning to send the reinforcements up to camp.
They stayed put for a full minute and observed the tent carefully, watching for shadows inside, and listening for any sign of human activity. But there was none, and so they crept over to the tent, whose flaps hung loosely open. Carter peered inside and saw that it was clear. Quickly he pulled Jayden inside and they did a more through sweep to make sure someone wasn’t actively hiding beneath folding table or the tarp on the ground. They found the space to be unoccupied.
“Jayden, you go back to the slope and act as lookout. I’ll look for the map.”
Jayden wasted no time slipping out of the tent and creeping across the campsite back toward the slope. Carter turned his mind to the map search. He didn’t know how long Daedalus and team planned to be down there, but all it would take is for one of them to come back up and they’d likely be gunned down like animals. Out here in the wilderness, no one would ever know. The trekking group would report them missing a few days after he didn’t check back in at the appointed time, but nothing would likely come of that in the way of an investigation — they’d be presumed lost in the mountains, and it would be too late for them, anyway.
Carter quickly rummaged through a couple of stuff sacks on the ground, and moved a couple of tarps around, but quickly came to the realization that this was only a mess tent and he wasn’t likely to find the map in here. His time was best spend searching elsewhere in the camp, so he left the tent and began moving around.
Glancing to his left he saw Jayden in a prone position to the right of the rope and pulley system, with a fallen branch strategically positioned in front of his head for concealment as he observed the activities down by the lake. This left Carter free to roam about the campsite. He went looking for backpacks, those personal items that would represent a likely place for something valuable one wanted to keep close at hand.
Daedalus stood on the edge of the lake and zipped up his dry suit, a diving suit that, unlike a wetsuit, did not allow any water at all to come into contact with the skin.
“Ready when you are, Daedalus.” Phillipo fastened the strap on his scuba rig’s BC, or buoyancy compensator. Of their other two team members, one would be also diving with them, while the fourth would be remaining on shores as both surface support — ready to aid the divers in and out of the water, enter the water to help if necessary-and to act as general site lookout. Daedalus’ main concern was that he had not filed any permit paperwork for archaeological operations here, so should they be seen by any type of Turkish authority, or even a local guiding operation who might report the activity to authorities, it could mean trouble.
“It’s cold,” Phillippo said with a grin as he stepped into the water, fins in hand. The underwater topography of the lake was such that there was a very shallow lip around the edge of the shore before it dropped off sharply down to depths that exceeded 100 feet. The trio of divers entered the water and hugged the shoreline while they adjusted their gear and tested it to make sure it was working properly, including the underwater video and photography equipment. With the drysuits on, the could still feel the chill of the iced water, but it was tolerable rather than life-threatening, like wearing a jacket in cold weather. The full suits restricted movement somewhat, especially with the SCUBA gear on over that, but there was no other way to explore places like this.