Sam smiled. “Actually, that’s exactly what I was thinking.”
Chapter Six
It was another twenty-four hours before Sam managed to get the dive equipment flown into Cappadocia. A further twenty hours passed before he and Tom carted it down into the Derinkuyu washroom. During that time, they opened the contents of their attacker’s backpack. It held a flashlight attachment for the Glock, along with four additional magazines, each loaded with fifteen rounds. Sam and Tom split the magazines and Sam pocketed the Glock’s flashlight.
At seven p.m. and two hours after the tourist section of Derinkuyu closed, Sam finally laid out the equipment needed to explore the well. Permanent lighting had been set up, so the small cavern was lit up like an office. Next to him, Tom began constructing a winching tower, the sort of aluminum frame used by rescuers to winch injured people out of canyons and off cliff tops. It quickly formed a tripod shaped structure with a series of pulleys on top.
Sam carefully checked his dive equipment. He’d brought two tanks. Unlike ordinary twin mounted dive tanks, these would fit singly, with one in front of his chest and the other behind. Each tank had its own regulator, and clipped on for easy removal. They were the common set he used when cave-diving in shallow water, where he needed to squeeze through tight spaces. He could take them off and feed them through a tight space in front of his own body, if he had to. His fins were compact and rigid. Instead of the typical rubber ankle strap, he used a spring heeled strap.
Sam carefully lowered the dive tanks into the water below and then tied off to the rope. Tom double checked his SCUBA equipment as Sam connected his carabiner from his harness to the end of a second rope, which ran through a pulley system. The plan was to remain attached to the rope throughout the entire dive. That way, if the subterranean river’s current was stronger than expected he could make two hard pulls on the rope, and Tom would winch him back.
Sam met Tom’s eyes. “Are you happy with it?”
Tom took up the rope’s slack with a gentle downward pressure. “I’d be a lot happier if I was coming with you. We both know how much trouble you get yourself into when I’m not around.”
“I wish you were coming, too.” Sam’s eyes darted toward Sadik. “But I still don’t trust him not to leave us down there, if we both go together.”
“I don’t either,” Tom said.
“Then I’m good to go.”
Sam rested back into his harness until he felt the rope take his weight over the top of the well. It was narrow, but easily wide enough to take his solid frame without risk of becoming stuck inside. Not enough, though, that he could have carried the dive tanks on him while he descended. Not that it mattered to him he could easily attach them once he was out of the well.
Two thirds of the way down Sam switched on his flashlight. He carried a total of three with him on any cave dive, or wreck dive. One to use, and two for backups. He shined below, where it penetrated the crystal clear, stilled water.
His thin wetsuit felt painfully inadequate against the cold water as his legs touched the water. Tom stopped his descent, while Sam, found the two dive tanks and their regulators. He increased the air in his winged buoyancy control device, until he was neutrally buoyant. The benefit of the winged system was that as he breathed air in, it drew air out of the winged air seals, meaning that the overall displacement of water remained the same while breathing — allowing him to remain neutrally buoyant throughout the dive.
Sam fixed his mask so that it formed a perfect seal, placed a regulator in his mouth and placed a hand on his head to form an all okay signal for Tom. A moment later, he began his descent into a world of permanent darkness.
The round vertical shaft of the well continued for fifteen feet before opening to an enormous underground cistern. He swallowed a couple times until his ears equalized, and then glanced around his new environment. Sam guessed the original occupants of Derinkuyu were concerned about the subterranean river becoming dry, so had constructed a massive cistern to hold enough water to last a prolonged siege for months if not years. The only other option was that it wasn’t attached to any underground river, and instead was simply a large holding cell. The second option was unlikely, given Sadik’s reference to the occasional significant change in water levels. Either way, he’d find out soon enough.
Sam quickly and efficiently slipped into his dive tanks. He moved his flashlight around in slow clockwise swathes, sending out a powerful beam of light in a thirty degree arc. The flashlight never reached the end of the cavern. Every twenty or so feet, a vertical stone pillar reached from the ground to the ceiling, as though the original builders knew precisely how much the volcanic stone could take, before it needed to be propped up with structural support.
Sam corrected his buoyancy until he was completely neutral and then fixed his flashlight against the stony ceiling. He didn’t move at all. The water was still, or if not, very close to it. He checked his depth gauge. He was in eighteen feet of water, and was carrying two full tanks of air. He would probably start to feel the adverse effects of hypothermia before he ran out of air. Even so, he hoped the cistern wasn’t as big as it looked. He tugged on the rope firmly, once — sending a message to Tom to loosen the slack, so he could commence the exploration.
He kicked his fins and headed to the south. A couple minutes later he reached the opening of another well above him. It was narrow and impossible to climb without equipment. He continued to the south, finding a total of four wells before reaching the end of the room, approximately five hundred feet away. Sam made a note on his dive slate, and then returned to the starting point.
He followed the same process to the east and west, finding the shape of the cistern far narrower than he expected. Possibly two hundred feet wide at most. Sam found three more openings to wells, but none he could access without ropes from above.
Sam checked his dive time. He’d been submerged for nearly forty minutes. The water was cold, but he was maintaining his body temperature better than he’d expected. He decided to have a quick look to the north before returning to the bathhouse to warm up and prepare for another dive.
Roughly fifty feet out, he found the opening to a well. He ran the beam of his flashlight over it and stopped. This one had a vertical staircase dug into its edge. Sam unclipped each of his dive tanks, so they were trailing about seven feet behind, as he ascended the well. There was no light coming from above, giving him hope that he’d discovered a hidden chamber, once occupied by a Master Builder. He broke the surface of the well and removed the regulator from his mouth.
He climbed the vertical shaft nearly eighty feet before reaching an opening. An unlocked cover protected those above from falling into the opening. Sam briefly searched the area with his flashlight. He was at a crossroad in the underground city. Behind him, the tunnel had been intentionally blocked by the looks of it. Bricks had been laid with mortar to form a barrier to the south, which appeared oddly anachronistic with the tunnels carved by hand.
Sam disconnected his carabiner and attached it to the iron grate that covered the ventilation shaft where he’d just climbed up. He quickly searched the two tunnels to the east and west. They were short, and opened to large and empty storerooms. He walked a couple hundred feet down to the north, where the tunnel appeared to continue unhindered.