His head plunged below the waterline and his feet never reached the bottom. He quickly resurfaced. It was a good sign. The water was deep. If it had been shallow his theory would have already been debunked.
He took a couple deep breaths in and out in a process known as hyper-oxygenation and then dipped his head beneath the water again. He opened his eyes in the cool water. Obviously untouched for at least a month, the water was intensely clear. Sam removed the glow stick from his belt and held it out in front of him.
The water in the well glowed green all the way to the sandy bottom.
The water gave the well the impression it wasn’t very deep. A classic mistake in free-diving was to assume the water’s bottom was shallower than it really was because of the water’s clarity.
He swam downwards, using his arms in long sweeping strokes, while his legs kicked vigorously. The well ended somewhere around forty feet below the waterline. The solid stone brickwork used to form the internal wall of the well, continued all the way to the bottom, which appeared filled with sand.
Sam hyperventilated and then dived, face downwards toward the bottom. The water was deep, but barely an effort on his part. He worried more about Zara, but guessed he would deal with it once the time came.
If he found the lost chamber…
The old stonework stopped a couple feet from the sandy bottom. In its place were several large stones. They looked like they belonged. Most likely original pieces of stone carved off while the original construction took place.
Sam ran his hands along the larger stones. Nothing moved. They were all solid. Through the awkward haze of his unprotected eyes he found nothing that benefitted his cause. No place large enough to hide, even for a short time. He’d hoped at the very least, there would be a protected ledge where they could hide while their pursuers passed by. He expected they would send hundreds of rounds of ammunition down the barrel of the well, but he doubted many would have been interested in climbing down after them.
But instead, he found a solid circumferential stone wall that descended all the way to the ground. There weren’t even any cramped ledges which he could slide under or squeeze through. He ran his hands through the sand, slowly. He didn’t want to stir up the silt, but he needed to find what he was looking for. Perhaps his agent had buried what he needed?
His heart started to race. Sam’s body wasn’t being tested. He’d been a free-diver since he was a boy. If he was going to die here, it wasn’t going to be from drowning.
What if I’m in the wrong well?
He turned slowly in the cramped space to look directly above. He was glad the well hadn’t been dug any narrower or he would have struggled to turn around inside. To help, he used his right hand to hold the largest of five boulders at the bottom of the well. He pulled hard and shifted his body around to face upwards.
Happy, to have made the turn, he gripped the stone again to keep himself from surfacing immediately.
In an instant, the stone began to lift with him.
Did my hand just slip?
Sam moved the glow stick so he could see the stone. It still appeared firmly fixed in place where he’d seen it earlier. He pushed harder, but it made no difference. His lungs burned and as his dive watch showed he’d been free diving for close to two minutes. Sam shook his head, unable to explain what moved, and quickly swam to the surface.
Above the surface of the water he went through a process of blowing off the excess carbon dioxide built up during his dive, by taking slow, deep breaths. Two minutes later, he turned and dived below again.
This time he immediately dived to the large stone he thought had moved so he could examine it again. Sam was almost certain the thing had moved. He tried pushing it to the left and then to the right. Neither allowed him to shift the enormous stone even an inch. He pulled down heavily on the stone. Again, nothing moved. He shook his head, he must have been imagining things.
There was no secret vault.
And that meant it was all over. He’d gotten it wrong. Perhaps their agent had never buried the diamonds inside a well after all. Sam used the same stone to help turn himself upwards again. He would need to tell the others. It was time to make a new plan.
Maybe there was still time to kill the four closest riders and take their camels?
He pushed off the large stone to swim towards the surface. Only this time, it moved again. He hadn’t imagined it. There was definitely movement as he pushed away. Sam stopped and stared at the giant stone, examining it like a surgeon preparing for an amputation. He went through the same three axis of movement which were possible and then tried the one axis that was impossible — lifting the massive stone upwards.
The stone was enormous. Nearly three feet in height, the massive stone looked like it was wedged deeply inside the wall, making it impossible to lift. He didn’t expect much response as he attempted to lift the stone, but instead found it lifted freely from the ground — revealing an opening inside.
With his other hand he moved the glow stick so it shined inside. The opening was quite large once you got through the initial entrance. He tried lowering it again and then easily lifted it once more.
Sam grinned.
The damned thing is perfectly balanced on a fulcrum!
He gritted his teeth, and holding the glow stick out in front of him, quickly pulled himself through the secret opening.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
The entrance led to a much larger tunnel. It traversed in a horizontal direction for approximately twenty feet before gradually turning upwards. The distance didn’t stress him, but would be close to impossible for a non-free-diver. He hadn’t even considered if there was even air on the opposite side of it.
He’d already passed the point of no return. Now, all he could do was swim into the darkness and pray that he would find a safe exit. He kicked his legs, swimming diagonally upwards until his head broke the dark surface.
The other side opened into a large clearing, like a subterranean lake. The radiant green light of his glow stick stretched at least fifty feet forwards in a forwards arc. Sam swam upwards until his head broke the surface of the water and he found himself inside a massive subterranean cavern. He took a deep breath in. The air felt cool and sweet on his throat. He felt his heart rate eased and he felt his entire body relax.
The green glow stretched to the other end of the cavern — approximately fifty to sixty feet away. The entire place looked like a half dome shaped cave above an underground lake. It would be a cold, wet, place to take refuge for a number of days while they lost their pursuers, but it would do the job. His biggest concern was that if they couldn’t get out of the water they would freeze to death.
Sam turned around to orient himself and make the quick journey back to the well to get the others. In the process he noticed the tiny ripples he’d created along the surface all stopped at the same section at the middle of the lake.
He grinned. There was an island at the center of the lake.
Sam didn’t stop to investigate. He’d found what they needed to hide from their pursuers and cheat death. Now he needed to quickly return for Tom and Zara. He found the opening to the original tunnel and followed it all the way to the end where the large stone blocked his progress. The light from his glow stick was fading and without it, the tunnel appeared extremely dark.
The tunnel gradually became narrower until the stone blocked his progress. Sam placed his hands firmly on the ground and tried to push down as though he were doing a push-up with the stone resting heavily on his back. It didn’t take too much effort and the stone tipped backwards opening the tunnel fully.