Tom, focused on the plan, immediately began bolting the base of the tripod to the sheet of ice. He then tested it with the strength of his arms. Satisfied it would hold, the two returned to the snow machine to be suited up.
Thirty minutes later, each man was fully integrated within his ADS and ready to discover whatever was waiting for them in the depths of Lake Cheko.
“Tom, how do you read me?” Sam asked through the clear transmission of the advanced communications system.
“Loud and clear.”
“Then let’s go get whatever the hell it is Billie wants us to find so we can get out of these damn atmospheric suits. I feel like the Michelin Man!”
Chapter Forty-Six
Sam stepped forward with his large mechanical leg and into the hole they’d created in the ice. His ADS machine was set to positive buoyancy so that he floated more like a boat, with his spherical helmet remaining above the ice cold water.
Checking his internal instruments, he gave the ‘all clear’ signal to Tom. “Okay, I’m descending to ten feet to perform the first set of underwater safety checks.”
“Understood, I’ll follow when you confirm all systems functioning.”
Sam decreased his buoyancy by letting more water into his internal chambers, the same way a conventional submarine manages buoyancy. Likewise, when he wanted to increase buoyancy, he would simply blow out the excess water.
His ADS machine quickly sank to ten feet, where he then balanced the system until he came to a neutral stop. Below the ice, the world turned blue. It was frightening in its rich beauty and lethal environment. Here, any malfunction in their equipment would result in their deaths. No one knew they were here, and even if they did, nothing could be done to rescue them if something went wrong.
Sam paused for a moment and let the thought run through his mind while he enjoyed the surreal view.
He adjusted his position mildly. With each movement, he checked the responsiveness of the individual articulations of his machine. It was relatively simple to use, and as with normal diving, only took a short while to get the hang of maintaining neutral buoyancy. Happy with the controls, he began running a systems check on everything else.
Depth: 10 feet.
Distance to the bottom: 45 feet.
Air supply: 48 hours remaining — although he knew this number would rapidly change depending on his depth.
Power: 6000 Amp Hours.
External temperature: 34 degrees Fahrenheit.
Internal temperature: 80 degrees Fahrenheit — Sam carefully adjusted the thermostat, reducing it to a more comfortable 74 degrees. Ice diving always tempted him to set it higher than he needed.
“Okay, all’s good here. Are you ready to go find out what’s so important about this place?”
“Sure am. Here’s to beating Billie to Atlantis!”
Above him, Sam saw the still surface of the water below the ice sheets turn white with bubbles. The lake appeared upset by the disturbance, as though somehow its perfect, deathly peace, had been interrupted by the presence of a functioning machine.
Tom maintained his position on the surface for a few moments and then sunk to Sam’s depth. He then rotated his position so that he was almost lateral, looking back up at the frozen world above the ice. “That’s one hell of a view!”
“You can say that again, Tom.”
Sam continued to enjoy it, while Tom ran his system checks. A few minutes later he said, “I’m good. Shall we go find our answers?”
“Let’s. I don’t like the idea of becoming entombed below this ice if we spend too long down here. So let’s not dawdle too much.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Tom replied. “Preferably something warm and alcoholic.”
Sam laughed. “I’m sure we can find you just such a drink in Siberia.”
They slowly descended to 45 feet where the ground came up to come up to meet them. Sam stopped five feet above the sediment. “Do you see anything?”
“Nothing more than the bottom of an ice cold lake,” Tom said stopping next to him. “It doesn’t make sense. How can they hide anything in 45 feet of water?”
“Maybe that fence did a really good job to keep people out?”
“Not for over a hundred years it didn’t. If Atlantis is here, then someone would have noticed by now. Heck, even our guys wouldn’t have been able to keep that one secret.”
Sam lowered his ADS machine to the ground. It seemed unsteady, almost wobbly. Tom followed. Both men tried to take sediment samples. It would have been strong enough to support a SCUBA diver, but the heavy ADS had more momentum. Something felt wrong. Sam decreased his buoyancy and the unstable ground began to feel more like a giant trampoline.
Beneath his helmet, Sam grinned. “It’s not possible.”
“What’s not possible?”
“I can’t believe they got away with it for so long!”
Chapter Forty-Seven
Sam put his ADS machine to maximum negative buoyancy and then jumped. The ground shook beneath him. Because of the years of sediment built up, it was hard to tell if it was in his mind or not, but then he realized with surprise that it moved. Not much, but it was enough to confirm his theory.
“What is it?” Tom asked.
“See for yourself. Reduce your buoyancy, and then try jumping, and you’ll see it!”
A few moments later, Tom jumped. Then he jumped again. By the third time, he stopped and looked at Sam. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. They covered the lake to create a false bottom?”
“It would appear so,” Sam replied. “The question is, to hide what?”
“Well, we’re not going to get any answers jumping on it. Let’s get rid of this sediment and work out how we’re going to cut whatever it is.”
“Good idea.”
Together they used a powerful suction device to clear a way through the sediment the way a dredging ship removes a sandbar or maintains the depth of a shipping lane. It took more than an hour, and seven feet of soil, before they reached it.
Sam examined the material at the bottom of the hole they’d just created. It was made of some sort of thick synthetic polyurethane material. The thing even looked like a giant tarpaulin or trampoline. Whatever it was, it definitely hadn’t formed naturally at the bottom of the lake.
“Any idea what that is, Tom?”
“No idea, but I have an idea that this rotary saw will fix it.”
Tom moved the extension arm forward into the hole until its rotating saw began to cut through the material. It was tougher than he expected, but once the saw picked up speed, it sliced it open. A moment later, a gap was created that was large enough for both of them to swim through. Large amounts of surrounding sediment fell through the new opening.
“Tom, I think we’re about to find some answers.”
“I just hope they were meant to be found.”
“I can’t answer that, but this is where Billie sent us.”
They sunk through the opening and found a dark world — untouched by humans for nearly a hundred years.
Sam’s depth reading showed the true bottom of the lake as nearly 500 feet deep. “That’s more like the sort of place I would say Atlantis may remain hidden for many, many years.”
“500 feet is a little more serious. Even though the ADS machine is made for it, we’re leaving very little room for error if something goes wrong.”
The two men, feeling more like astronauts in their ADS machines, sunk into the hole of their creation, and into a new world. It was dark. A place that hadn’t seen the light of day for many years. There was no marine life to be seen. Sam shined his powerful shoulder-mounted flashlight around the new ceiling. Although the material was certainly much stronger than a tarpaulin, from beneath there was little to differentiate the two.