Zara picked up the wetsuit. “I’m going to get changed. If either of you turns around while I do so, you’ll curse saving my life in the first place.”
“Yes ma’am,” both men replied, dutifully.
Facing away from Zara, Sam attached his dive tank to his BCD and dive computer. He then opened the tank fully, and rotated the nozzle half a click back to reduce the likelihood of the O-ring seizing. He removed his polo neck shirt and cargo shorts. Leaving his underwear on, he donned his 3/16 inch, neoprene full length wetsuit. It was probably a little warm for the local water temperatures, but he guessed the deep chambers of the pyramid were going to be a little cooler than the surrounding waters.
Tom reached for his wetsuit and started to get changed. He laughed as he looked at the mountain of hardened sand. “Trust you to find a hidden temple.”
“Thanks for bringing the gear,” Sam said.
“No. Thank you for bringing me along.”
Zara stepped lithely across the sand toward them. She looked up and said, “All right, you can turn around now, boys.”
Sam glanced up at her. “Hey, it fits you!”
The neoprene hugged the athletic curvature of her body in a flattering way. She was tall. An inch off six foot and her figure perfectly matched her height. Suddenly he recognized the dive suit. It was the same one Aliana, his ex-girlfriend had used when she came diving in the Caribbean. The sight of it gave his heart a momentary pause. Until that moment, he hadn’t realized how similar the two women were. Both extremely intelligent, career driven experts in their chosen fields. Both the same height and athletic frame. Aliana was blonde with blue eyes and attractive in the typical fashion magazine type of way; whereas Zara had dark hair with hazel-green eyes and olive skin, giving her an exotic, and sexy appeal.
Zara smiled at him as she set up her dive equipment. “What is it?”
“Nothing. You just remind me of someone, that’s all.”
“Well, are you going to stand there, or shall we find some answers before this island disappears?”
And Zara’s a much harder woman than Aliana ever was. Sam smiled. “Let’s go find the Nostradamus Equation.”
Chapter Ninety-Four
Sam stood at the entrance to the small rectangular lake. The edges of the opening were rock solid. Either sandstone or sand mixed with some sort of cement. Either way, it confirmed his original theory that the opening was man-made and led to some sort of structure. The water appeared dark, giving no indication how deep the tunnel stretched.
He switched on his flashlight. “You sure you want to come with us?”
Zara bit her bottom lip. “No. I’m not sure. I hate everything about this.”
“Do you want to wait here?” He asked, in honesty.
“Yes. But there’s no way I’m going to let you have all the fun. If this thing really leads to an ancient Egyptian chamber, and the Nostradamus Equation, there’s no way in hell I’m going to let you two explore it without me.”
“All right. Good for you. Challenge your fears. If you get stuck, remember, I’ll be right in front of you and Tom’s going to be behind you. Don’t try to turn around. The tunnel looks too narrow for that. Your dive tank will get stuck in the walls. We’re on push to talk wireless communications. If you need help, let us know. There’ll be somewhere to turn around at the end of this.”
“And if there isn’t?” she asked.
“If we hit a dead end, I’ll remove my dive tank and turn around. Once I’m facing in the right direction, I’ll help you with yours. Don’t worry. I’ve dived something like this once or twice before. Just stay calm. We have plenty of air supply.” Sam looked at her. Fear radiated from her eyes. “You still want to come?”
She grinned. “You bet.”
Sam entered the water first. He adjusted his buoyancy and slowly descended to ten feet. He was followed by Zara in the middle and Tom keeping an eye on things from the back. The rectangular lake descended in a diagonal downward direction. His computer gauge told him the passageway ran at a forty degree slope. He was playing his flashlight beam close and then far all the way down the descending tunnel, but so far he couldn’t see where it ended. The walls appeared carved out of solid stone, as though someone long ago had spent years chiseling downward to make the tunnel. He placed his dive knife on the ceiling section and pushed hard. The knife didn’t advance. He breathed softly, feeling more confident the structure was solid, and only the exterior section had crumbled into sand.
Approximately eighty feet down he noticed a second tunnel, split in an upwards direction above. The upward tunnel was the exact same gradient, but in an opposite direction. Sam took a piece of red chalk and made a large circle at the entrance to the new tunnel. Then, inside, he wrote the number one.
“Are we going up first?” Zara asked, over the radio.
Sam shook his head and continued his descent. “No. I want to start at the deepest chamber and then work our way up. I can better manage our nitrogen levels that way.”
“Diving 101,” she said.
“Yeah, something like that.”
At a depth of a hundred and eighty feet the diagonal passage opened into a large, empty chamber. Sam shined his flashlight along the walls. There was nothing. A completely vacant room, which probably took the better part of a decade to carve out. He wondered what purpose it once had.
Sam turned around to face the surface, in one quick motion. “Okay, let’s start our ascent.”
When he reached the opening in the roof-line that ran in the opposite diagonal direction he turned and began following the new passage. This one maintained the same forty degree angle as the original one, but instead of heading downward, this one slanted up. Sixty feet along, a second passage opened. This one ran horizontal.
Sam took out his red chalk and drew another circle. This time he placed the number two inside. “This place starting to feel like something to you, Zara?”
“Yeah. I feel like we’re on a tour of a miniature version of the Pyramid of Giza.”
Sam flashed his light ahead, but he still couldn’t make out the end of the passage. “If that’s the case, we must be heading to the queen’s chamber.”
Tom joined the conversation. “The question is, are they going to hide the Nostradamus Equation in the king or queen’s chamber?”
“My guess, it will be in the king’s,” Sam said.
“Odd. My guess would have been the queen's,” replied Zara.
The passageway opened into a small chamber. It was completely vacant with the exception of a single, sealed sarcophagus at its center. There were no writings and only a few Egyptian pictographs.
Zara swam next to him and stopped. “This is the queen’s chambers.”
“Do you see any reference here to Nostradamus?” Sam asked.
She shook her head. “No. It’s a silent prayer for her soul. Nothing more.”
“What about the future?” Tom interjected.
She checked the other sides of the sarcophagus. “No. Nothing.”
Sam asked, “Any sign Nostradamus has been here?”
Zara said, “No. And there shouldn’t be any, either. Remember, Nostradamus spent much of his life trying to locate the equation. He knew it was there, and knew I would find it, but he would never set eyes on it in real life.”
Sam turned around. “Okay, let’s double back and continue our ascent. We can always come back here later if we don’t find anything in the king’s chamber.”
He reached the diagonal passage, turned and continued his ascent. Twenty feet up and the water ceased. Sam climbed a series of steps until he was standing in a dry passage. He removed his facemask and took a slow breath in through his nose. The air smelled stale, but breathable.