A wooden wall, five feet tall, with a closed gate in the middle of it barred further progress in that direction. A sign above the wall on the rocks proclaimed in red block letters, DANGER: AREA OFF LIMITS! AUTHORIZED PERSONELL ONLY! in English and Spanish.
They heard screams from the grotto pool behind them. “Come on!” Hunt moved to the gate in the wall. It had no handle, only a round keyhole set flush into the door. He pushed and pulled on the gate but it was locked.
“Up and over, let’s go,” Jayden said, interlacing the fingers of his hands so that Hunt could use them as a step. He did and sprang up and over the wall.
“What’s it like?” Jayden called as loudly as he dared through the fence.
“Who cares!” Maddy said, they’re coming!”
“Here!” Jayden gave Maddy the same boost he’d done for Hunt, hoping it would be enough for her. Surprisingly, she was agile and quick about it, and was over the fence in no time.
“You work out or something?” Jayden asked through the fence.
“Climbing gym, once a month.”
Jayden pulled himself up and over the fence and dropped into the other side with a splash. “Whoa!”
They still stood in the shallow grotto pool, but only ten feet in front of them, a rushing waterfall cascaded over the edge. They could hear water splashing into another pool far below. Hunt was ready to decide on a strategy as to what their next move would be, but the splinters of wood from the shredding fence following the burst of nearby gunfire put an end to that.
“Over we go, right now!” Hunt grabbed Maddy by the hand, knowing she might balk at the drop even with the specter of gunfire. He knew Jayden could hold his own, and he was right. The wily Asian-American ex-Navy man leapt over the falls without even looking at what might lie below. He did have the presence of mind to lay his body more or less sideways, not knowing how deep the water would be below. In fact, if the other pools were any indication, they only had a right to expect a couple of feet of water when they landed.
Hunt and Maddy jumped a second after Jayden, holding hands, feet first and laying flat. “Keep your head up!” Hunt warned, not wanting her to hit the back of her skull when she landed. They heard the rush of water on the way down and felt the spray from the waterfall. It was over in a couple of seconds.
Hunt saw a flash of Jayden rolling over in the water, and then he was hitting, bracing himself for a hard impact that never came. He was pleasantly surprised to feel nothing but water. In fact, soon he had to tread water to stay afloat; it was that deep.
“Are you okay?” he asked Maddy. The archaeologist had also been totally submerged, and now she gasped for breath, confused and disoriented by the rapid, high-adrenaline experience. “Yeah, I think so.”
“I’m okay, too, I know you were worried,” Jayden sputtered from a few feet away. “Looks like we landed in the deep end of the pool.”
Hunt looked around at their new surroundings, which were very different from the black-bottom grotto they’d just fell out of. He got the odd sense that there was a lot of water beneath him. He couldn’t see the bottom, unless it was painted a certain way as to blend in. He ducked his head underwater and opened his eyes, but all he could see were blurry shapes far below.
“Jayden, this is weird. Looks like we’re in at least forty, fifty feet of water.”
With a confused look on his face, Jayden also dunked his head and took a look below. “I see fish down there!”
And then it dawned on Hunt, who opened his eyes underwater again to confirm what he already knew. “This is the giant aquarium we saw from below, with the manta ray!”
“Manta ray?” Maddy stammered. Can those hurt us?”
“No,” Jayden said, “but the reef sharks they have in here might.”
“I’ll take a few reef sharks over bullets any day of the week,” Hunt said, reminding them of their current predicament. He knew their bold move had bought them a little time, but not much. They still needed to move. But where? Looking up, Hunt saw the first hand reach up and over the wooden fence they’d climbed. In a few more seconds, they’d be sitting ducks for the Treasure, Inc. shooters.
Looking around at the tank they were in — and that’s exactly what it was, Hunt saw — the perimeter was protected, walled off, by ten-foot high plexiglass siding. This was because the top of this pool was level with part of the grotto grounds, and Hunt saw a few tourists walking around the manicured paths outside the tank. Hunt heard the sound of feet thumping on the ground and looked up to see the first Treasure, Inc. hunter land on the other side of the fence. Spinning around and looking down the length of the tank, which was roughly oval shaped, with them having landed at one of the narrow ends, Hunt saw no other people inside the raised walls. He saw some kind of platform that extended a few feet out over the water of the pool about halfway across on their right side, and started swimming for that.
Jayden and Maddy kicked after him. Hunt worried that their splashing made for an easy target, but he didn’t see what other choice they had. He could only hope they would reach the platform before their pursuers started firing. Or even better, that Daedalus called his dogs off, although that didn’t seem likely. Hunt flashed on the Anubis statuette, the store-bought fake he’d gouged a chip out of on the foot, and the genuine article, now stashed away in his hotel room safe.
The work platform was a horseshoe — shaped catwalk of metal grating that extended out over the water, with an open drop into water inside the U-shaped walkway. Hunt recognized it as a diving platform, and recalled with a start the working scuba divers below who gave verbal presentations to tourists from inside the tank, talking about the sea life and archaeological replicas inside. Eyeing the work area now with diving in mind, Hunt thought he saw dive gear set up on the work platform.
He turned his attention to swimming the last few feet to the platform and locating the swim step that he knew should be there if in fact this platform was used for diving. He found it in the center of the structure, at the furthest point over the water. He tapped his friends on the arm and pointed to the steps. Jayden climbed up and out first, extending a hand to Maddy and assisting her. The first shot rang out as Hunt climbed up onto the metal grate-work. He heard police sirens now in the distance. He hoped that maybe the sound of them would scare Daedalus and his men off, but no such luck — a second shot rang out, and this time he saw a spark fly, accompanied with a loud ping as the bullet bounced off the metal and into the water.
Maddy put her hands in the air, convinced that they had failed to escape. The gunfire stopped. For how long, Hunt could only guess, but he wasn’t taking any chances that their fate would be kind if they were taken back into Daedalus’ custody after tricking him with a fake Anubis. He eyeballed the gray metal cylinder standing on the platform a few feet away. A scuba tank, already connected to a breathing regulator, he could see from the black hoses attached to the valve at the top of the tank, and a dive mask looped around the valve by the strap. Only one set of gear, but it would have to do.
He regretted not having the time to see if the tank was full of compressed air by reaching the submersible pressure gauge, but somehow he suspected there wouldn’t be time for that. He was right.
Daedalus’ voice boomed at him once again, this time from the top of the waterfall. It was somewhat hard to hear him because of the sound of the falling water — Hunt guessed he didn’t want to attract too much attention with a bullhorn. Regardless of what the man was saying, Hunt knew they had no time left. He blocked out Daedalus’ words and devoted all of his attention to his hastily forming plan of action.