They reached the coordinates on the map and touched down gently on the street beside the small temple. As their diving fins landed on the cobblestones they kicked up wispy clouds of sediment into the water around them and partially obscured the clarity of the temple for a few moments before clearing again.
“Who wants to be first?” Scarlet asked.
“I’m going first,” Hawke said in reply. “There could be boobytraps.”
“I can’t argue with that,” said Ryan, drifting back out of Hawke’s way.
He swam up the steps and made his way inside the temple, leaving the sun-dappled underwater world behind him and emerging into a newer, darker place. He flicked on his light and scanned the place for any sign of traps. “I think we’re good to go, guys.”
One by one, the team members headed for the temple, swimming up the steps and joining him inside. Jumbles of rocks and boulders lay on the floor alongside fallen marble support pillars and a few slabs of granite from the roof. A school of parrot fish flashed past them and burst out of the door and a large octopus drifted up from behind one of the granite slabs and pushed its way up out of a hole in the roof.
“Plenty of sea life,” Lea said.
“Yeah,” said Scarlet, “but where’s the pond life?”
“Just what I was thinking,” Ryan said. “The Oracle’s yacht is somewhere on the surface, but where the hell are they all?”
“Maybe they already got inside,” Devlin said. “But used another entrance.”
“I think they’re still too far away,” said Hawke.
Ryan swam over to a fallen pillar and gently swept aside a thick layer of silt and sediment. “Check out these carvings!”
“What have you found?” Kim swam over to him and passed her flashlight over the broken pillar.
Hawke turned in the water and joined them. He recognized what Ryan had found immediately — the carvings were almost identical to those they had seen all over the world, from the Aztec temple in Mexico to the ice caves of the Arctic to the strange jumble of ruins in Atlantis, not to mention the ones on the mysterious idols.
“We can add Pavlopetri to the list as well,” Hawke said.
Ryan gave him a thumbs up. “Whoever created these symbols had a worldwide presence. It links up with what Blankov was saying about a global capital city.”
“But they’re so ancient,” Kim said. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Wait, I think I see something,” Lea said. “Over there where the octopus was.”
Lexi spun around in the water and pushed herself across the temple. “I see it too!”
“It’s a bull’s horn!” Lea dived down to the floor and started to rub silt off the floor with her hands. “This is the mosaic in Alexander’s map!” She cleared it off until the entire bull’s head was visible, but one of the horns was obscured by a giant slab of granite that had fallen from the roof.
“It’s the entrance, guys.” Lea hovered above the slab with Lexi at her side and both women were shining their lights down into a narrow hole in the floor. “But it’s partially blocked by this slab.”
Hawke and the others swam over. “Damned thing probably came off the roof during an earthquake.”
“Time for more Big Bang Theory?” Ryan said.
Hawke raised his hand and gave him the thumbs up sign. “I’ll set the charge at the end of this gap between the slab and the mosaic. Should be enough to make a hole big enough for us to dive down.”
He pulled the explosives from his bag and started to fix them into place.
“Wait,” Lexi said through the comms. “Is that little fucker NG?”
“Of course.”
“What’s the problem?” Ryan asked.
Hawke replied as he worked. “NG, or nitroglycerine is best for this job. The other option is an ammonium nitrate explosive, but that needs a contact primer.” He set up a NONEL, non-electric detonator and made some final checks. “Nitro is less stable but cheaper. We’re on a budget after all.”
“We have a private jet,” Scarlet said.
“What are you?” Hawke finished setting the underwater explosives and looked up at her. “My accountant?”
“You couldn’t afford me, darling.”
He looked at her eyes hidden behind the gloom of her mask. “Shall we detonate?”
“You always know how to turn me on.”
They shared a look and then swam back outside the temple with the others in their wake. Safely tucked down behind the wall of a house opposite the temple, Hawke pushed his thumb down on the trigger and activated the explosives. The explosion was muted by the water pressure, but the shockwaves were still powerful enough to blow them back away from the house and onto the street.
Hawke was first to his feet and saw the cloud of sediment forming around the temple as dead fish floated up to the surface. “I’d say that was a job well done.”
“Fish killer,” Lea said, yanking on his arm.
They swam inside the temple again and soon found the bull mural. The explosives had done the job and cleared an enormous hole in the floor. They dived inside and swam along a wide, natural tunnel which ended when they surfaced in an underwater lake.
Hawke scanned the area and then pulled his mask off. The others joined him and after swimming to the shore they crawled out of the water. Standing in the cavern, they took off their fins, tanks and diving masks and checked their weapons. When they fired up some glow sticks they soon realized they were standing in not just a cave but another manmade temple.
Kim gasped. “What now?”
“We follow this tunnel, I guess,” Lea said.
They walked down into the tunnel and as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Lea saw a marble column plinth supporting an impressive statue. “Wow.”
“Minoan snake goddess,” Ryan said casually.
Ahead of them a stone ramp descended into a lower level. Statues of unknown gods lined the sides of the tunnel, each one a little more obscured by the darkness of the caves. On the far wall was an enormous arch carved into the stone. At the bottom of it, on an elaborately carved stone table, was a beautiful shrine supporting three life-size statues. Just to the left of the shrine was a deep chasm filled with black water. Hawke shone a light down at the surface and winced.
“They’re gods,” Ryan said without hesitation. “Brahma, Pangu and Ra.”
“Brahma, who and Ra?” Hawke said.
When Ryan looked at him, he shrugged. “Well, I’ve heard of two of them!”
“Thank heaven for small mercies,” Ryan muttered. “Brahma was the Hindu creator god, their head deity. The same distinction applies to Pangu who was the creator deity in Chinese mythology and Ra for ancient Egypt.”
“And their statues are in a sunken city off the coast of Greece… why?” Reaper asked.
“It’s all connected to my parent culture hypothesis,” Ryan said. “And if King Alexander was right there should be…”
“Too late,” Lea said with a wink. “I saw them first… the idols!” She stepped closer to get a better look.
“And not just any idols,” a voice in the darkness said. “But the final idols.”
Lea felt her skin crawl as she turned slowly in the gloom and took in the Oracle’s withered, ashen face.
“And your final destination,” he said, lifting a speargun and aiming it directly at Lea.
With a depraved smile on his face he squeezed his thumb on the trigger and fired the weapon. The spear burst from the gun and darted across the small space before anyone could react.
“No!” Hawke yelled and dived in front of her, pushing her roughly to the floor and out of the way, but the triple-pronged spear head buried itself into his leg. He screamed out in pain and staggered back over the edge of the chasm.