Atlantis Gold

Chapter 15

The trio ran through an upward sloping tunnel with fake rock walls, irregularly shaped, dimly lit with concealed blue LEDs. Strategically placed ferns were implanted here and there into the walls and ground. Other people occupied the tunnel, some going toward the fleeing trio, some with them, but only Hunt, Jayden and Maddy ran, until the gunshots reached the entrance to the grotto tunnel.

Mass panic ensued, with everyone in the tunnel scattering in different directions, some simply dropping to the ground and covering their heads in blinding, deer-in-headlights fear.

Hunt, Jayden and Maddy kept moving fast, each of them pausing occasionally to help someone up or to offer words of encouragement. Then they saw daylight up ahead; the tunnel widened as it became steeper, until it transitioned into a stone stairway for the last few feet. Jayden marveled aloud at how much vertical distance they were travelling.

At the top of the stairs the tunnel opened up onto an outdoor area that was lushly landscaped to look like a tropical grotto. A series of pools with black bottoms and waterfalls draining from one to the next sprawled in every direction. Not sure of which way to go, Hunt knew they had to keep moving, so he pointed straight ahead to the largest pool.

Only a couple of feet deep and occupied by a dozen or so people lounging about, most with drinks in their hands, the artificial pond had a large waterfall draining into one end, on their right, and another spilling out of it at the other, to their left. The screams of those still in the tunnel leading out to the grotto echoed behind them as they waded out into the pool. Hunt glanced up ahead of them at a fake rock wall festooned with wet plants. It might be climbable, but it wouldn’t be fast and they would be sitting ducks on the wall.

Hunt told them they needed to keep moving. “They’re almost on us, keep going. Blend in with the crowd as much as you can.” As if to demonstrate this point, he picked up a floating straw sun hat someone had lost, and put it on. Then he quickly realized it looked funny to be standing around in a pool with clothes on, so he took off his shirt before replacing the hat. Jayden also removed his shirt, then suggested to Maddy that she do the same.

“I’d be topless if I did that!”

He grinned at her mischievously. “They’ll recognize that bikini top for sure.”

“Here, put this on over your top.’ Hunt handed her the T-shirt he’d just taken off. It was new, purchased in Nassau and read, “Visit the Bahamas and Forget the Dramas.” Maddy quickly slipped into it, got it wet and then rolled it up and tied it off so that it exposed her midriff, appearing like a stylistic choice rather than a hurriedly donned last resort. Maddy was silent, but Hunt knew she had to be petrified.

They heard shouts of terrified bystanders over near the grotto entrance and knew the Treasure, Inc. team must be getting close. “Let’s move, come on this way!” Hunt led them toward the left side of the pool. He wasn’t sure why, just that it was farther away from where their pursuers would be emerging any second now. But as they threaded their way past the few remaining people at that end of the pool, he realized his mistake.

“We’re really going to stand out here, two men and a woman, even with the change-up in outfits,” Jayden pointed out.

Hunt looked around and realized he was right. All Daedalus and his goons would have to do is glance over this way and they would be outed. But moving back to the right seemed suicidal, to head right toward them like that. And again, glancing up at the vertical rock wall of the grotto pool, it would be a tough climb and only make them stick out like sore thumbs. Behind them was a planter area abutting the side of a building, but it didn’t have enough ground cover to really conceal them. Looking in the only way remaining, to the left, Hunt cursed softly while shaking his head.

A wooden wall, five feet tall, with a closed gate in the middle of it barred further progress in that direction. A sign above the wall on the rocks proclaimed in red block letters, DANGER: AREA OFF LIMITS! AUTHORIZED PERSONELL ONLY! in English and Spanish.

They heard screams from the grotto pool behind them. “Come on!” Hunt moved to the gate in the wall. It had no handle, only a round keyhole set flush into the door. He pushed and pulled on the gate but it was locked.

“Up and over, let’s go,” Jayden said, interlacing the fingers of his hands so that Hunt could use them as a step. He did and sprang up and over the wall.

“What’s it like?” Jayden called as loudly as he dared through the fence.

“Who cares!” Maddy said, they’re coming!”

“Here!” Jayden gave Maddy the same boost he’d done for Hunt, hoping it would be enough for her. Surprisingly, she was agile and quick about it, and was over the fence in no time.

“You work out or something?” Jayden asked through the fence.

“Climbing gym, once a month.”

Jayden pulled himself up and over the fence and dropped into the other side with a splash. “Whoa!”

They still stood in the shallow grotto pool, but only ten feet in front of them, a rushing waterfall cascaded over the edge. They could hear water splashing into another pool far below. Hunt was ready to decide on a strategy as to what their next move would be, but the splinters of wood from the shredding fence following the burst of nearby gunfire put an end to that.

“Over we go, right now!” Hunt grabbed Maddy by the hand, knowing she might balk at the drop even with the specter of gunfire. He knew Jayden could hold his own, and he was right. The wily Asian-American ex-Navy man leapt over the falls without even looking at what might lie below. He did have the presence of mind to lay his body more or less sideways, not knowing how deep the water would be below. In fact, if the other pools were any indication, they only had a right to expect a couple of feet of water when they landed.

Hunt and Maddy jumped a second after Jayden, holding hands, feet first and laying flat. “Keep your head up!” Hunt warned, not wanting her to hit the back of her skull when she landed. They heard the rush of water on the way down and felt the spray from the waterfall. It was over in a couple of seconds.

Hunt saw a flash of Jayden rolling over in the water, and then he was hitting, bracing himself for a hard impact that never came. He was pleasantly surprised to feel nothing but water. In fact, soon he had to tread water to stay afloat; it was that deep.

“Are you okay?” he asked Maddy. The archaeologist had also been totally submerged, and now she gasped for breath, confused and disoriented by the rapid, high-adrenaline experience. “Yeah, I think so.”

“I’m okay, too, I know you were worried,” Jayden sputtered from a few feet away. “Looks like we landed in the deep end of the pool.”

Hunt looked around at their new surroundings, which were very different from the black-bottom grotto they’d just fell out of. He got the odd sense that there was a lot of water beneath him. He couldn’t see the bottom, unless it was painted a certain way as to blend in. He ducked his head underwater and opened his eyes, but all he could see were blurry shapes far below.

“Jayden, this is weird. Looks like we’re in at least forty, fifty feet of water.”

With a confused look on his face, Jayden also dunked his head and took a look below. “I see fish down there!”

And then it dawned on Hunt, who opened his eyes underwater again to confirm what he already knew. “This is the giant aquarium we saw from below, with the manta ray!”

“Manta ray?” Maddy stammered. Can those hurt us?”

“No,” Jayden said, “but the reef sharks they have in here might.”

“I’ll take a few reef sharks over bullets any day of the week,” Hunt said, reminding them of their current predicament. He knew their bold move had bought them a little time, but not much. They still needed to move. But where? Looking up, Hunt saw the first hand reach up and over the wooden fence they’d climbed. In a few more seconds, they’d be sitting ducks for the Treasure, Inc. shooters.

Looking around at the tank they were in — and that’s exactly what it was, Hunt saw — the perimeter was protected, walled off, by ten-foot high plexiglass siding. This was because the top of this pool was level with part of the grotto grounds, and Hunt saw a few tourists walking around the manicured paths outside the tank. Hunt heard the sound of feet thumping on the ground and looked up to see the first Treasure, Inc. hunter land on the other side of the fence. Spinning around and looking down the length of the tank, which was roughly oval shaped, with them having landed at one of the narrow ends, Hunt saw no other people inside the raised walls. He saw some kind of platform that extended a few feet out over the water of the pool about halfway across on their right side, and started swimming for that.

Jayden and Maddy kicked after him. Hunt worried that their splashing made for an easy target, but he didn’t see what other choice they had. He could only hope they would reach the platform before their pursuers started firing. Or even better, that Daedalus called his dogs off, although that didn’t seem likely. Hunt flashed on the Anubis statuette, the store-bought fake he’d gouged a chip out of on the foot, and the genuine article, now stashed away in his hotel room safe.

The work platform was a horseshoe — shaped catwalk of metal grating that extended out over the water, with an open drop into water inside the U-shaped walkway. Hunt recognized it as a diving platform, and recalled with a start the working scuba divers below who gave verbal presentations to tourists from inside the tank, talking about the sea life and archaeological replicas inside. Eyeing the work area now with diving in mind, Hunt thought he saw dive gear set up on the work platform.

He turned his attention to swimming the last few feet to the platform and locating the swim step that he knew should be there if in fact this platform was used for diving. He found it in the center of the structure, at the furthest point over the water. He tapped his friends on the arm and pointed to the steps. Jayden climbed up and out first, extending a hand to Maddy and assisting her. The first shot rang out as Hunt climbed up onto the metal grate-work. He heard police sirens now in the distance. He hoped that maybe the sound of them would scare Daedalus and his men off, but no such luck — a second shot rang out, and this time he saw a spark fly, accompanied with a loud ping as the bullet bounced off the metal and into the water.

Maddy put her hands in the air, convinced that they had failed to escape. The gunfire stopped. For how long, Hunt could only guess, but he wasn’t taking any chances that their fate would be kind if they were taken back into Daedalus’ custody after tricking him with a fake Anubis. He eyeballed the gray metal cylinder standing on the platform a few feet away. A scuba tank, already connected to a breathing regulator, he could see from the black hoses attached to the valve at the top of the tank, and a dive mask looped around the valve by the strap. Only one set of gear, but it would have to do.

He regretted not having the time to see if the tank was full of compressed air by reaching the submersible pressure gauge, but somehow he suspected there wouldn’t be time for that. He was right.

Daedalus’ voice boomed at him once again, this time from the top of the waterfall. It was somewhat hard to hear him because of the sound of the falling water — Hunt guessed he didn’t want to attract too much attention with a bullhorn. Regardless of what the man was saying, Hunt knew they had no time left. He blocked out Daedalus’ words and devoted all of his attention to his hastily forming plan of action.

The scuba tank. Use it. That’s all he could think of — to get out of harm’s way by going down into the tank itself. But there was only one tank and three of them. In a micro-flash of synaptic brain activity, Hunt considered leaving Jayden and Maddy here while he grabbed the tank and dove straight down. He could seek help down there, waving at people through the glass….But he dismissed the thought almost as soon as it had come to him. If he did that, then Maddy and Jayden — especially Maddy, since she was the expert on archaeology — would be used as bargaining chips by Treasure, Inc. They would be at his mercy. No, he had to take them with him somehow, there was no other alternative.

All of these thoughts transpired as Hunt’s hands reached the scuba tank. As if in slow motion, he felt his mouth opening to yell to Maddy and Jayden — stealth no longer mattered — to grab onto him and hold on…and then his fingers were closing around the valve, turning it as he pulled it into the water with him, turning it on in order to make sure the air would flow.

He felt Maddy’s hand slip off of his leg as he splashed into the water. He hoped Jayden would be able to grab a hold of her. He knew Maddy was a certified scuba diver at the recreational level, otherwise he never would have considered this plan. Hunt’s hands traced the rubber hoses back to the valve as he sank upside-down into the water, tracing the separate regulators. He found the primary and handed it off to Jayden, who had a hand waiting to receive it. Good, that meant he’s on board with the plan, Hunt thought. Now for the hard part…

He grabbed the second regulator mouthpiece — the one called the “octopus” that was designed as an emergency redundant backup with a longer hose — and pulled Maddy to his right side, so that Jayden was on his left and Maddy on his right. He felt her hand clawing his, scrambling for the mouthpiece. When he felt her take it from him, he slipped the mask strap off his wrist and put it over his head. He quickly exhaled forcefully though his nose to clear out the water inside the mask…and then he could see!

Unfortunately the first thing he noticed was a tracer stream of bubbles a few feet in front of them, slanting down into the water as a bullet was fired from somewhere above. Hunt pressed the button on the buoyancy compensator vest to make sure all the air was vented. Fortunately it was one of the style with integrated weights, so he began to sink, which was exactly what he needed.

Jayden got with the program, kicking down and paddling with the hand not holding on to Hunt. Hunt looked over at Maddy and saw her eyes wide open and full of panic as much as water; knowing she couldn’t see anything more than blurry shapes made him nervous she would panic and not be able to function, but so far she was kicking down also, knowing they needed to go down under the water to be safe from the shooters’ bullets.

After a few more kicks Hunt felt the strong urge to breathe, so he reached over to his left and tapped Jayden on the shoulder. Immediately his dive buddy passed him the regulator. It was awkward swimming tethered together by the regulator hose, but at least it kept them close together. Hunt greedily sucked four breaths of air from the mouthpiece before handing it back to Jayden. They would have to swap breaths like this the entire time they were underwater, while Maddy, being the more inexperienced diver, had her own regulator. Hunt hoped their was sufficient air left in the tank. There was a pressure gauge dangling down on its own hose somewhere, but he didn’t have a free hand to be able to look for it and drag it up to his face to be able to read it. What difference did it make, anyway, Hunt thought. If they ran out of air they would have no choice but to swim up to the surface and take their chances with the madman Daedalus and his henchmen. Not much of a choice really, he thought.

After a few more kicks Hunt began to see fish swimming about — a school of silver, sardine-like species, as well as large groupers, some the size of VW Bugs, lazily finning about. He craned his neck so that he could see up, to make sure the Treasure, Inc. Men weren’t entering the tank, or leaning right over the side for a better shot. But he saw no one up there. Turning his focus back to the bottom, he assessed the tank they now found themselves in. To their left, a pinnacle of a large, manufactured rock formation lay perhaps ten feet below. He tried to picture the tank from when he and Jayden had stood on the floor outside of it earlier with the rest of the tourists. He recalled a faux stone archway, some cheesy Aztec-type statues, and the giant manta ray, but not much else.

He looked the other way, to his right and down, and saw a stream of bubbles emanating from behind a synthetic shipwreck. That meant a scuba diver. But who? He fought back a surge of adrenaline as he imagined one of Daedalus’ men from the flooded pyramid about to attack them here. They wouldn’t stand a chance, the three of them sharing one scuba rig. But on the other hand, unlike in the pyramid, here they were in full view of the public, with hundreds of tourists right outside the glass. Even so, that hadn’t stopped them from shooting up the grotto.

But as hunt tapped Jayden on the shoulder and pointed, the diver came into view, swimming out thorough a hole in the side of the model wreck. He held his arms out while facing the people on the other side of the glass. Hunt knew he was speaking to them through a microphone in his special facemask, giving a narrated underwater tour of the tank, talking about the sea life and answering questions from the visitors.

Hunt knew that this person was their ticket to safety. He wasn’t sure Jayden or Maddy would be able to tell they were looking at a diver without their masks on, so he herded them toward the man — he was pretty sure it was a man from the physique in the wetsuit.

Hunt watched the underwater tour guide delivering his spiel to the crowd of onlookers on the other side of the glass as the cumbersome trio made their slow, ungainly approach. Hunt hoped the man would turn around, because if he did he would see them; he didn’t want to have to sneak up and tap him on the shoulder — that could really spook a person, Hunt knew, even though he would probably think he was a big fish at first. Hunt almost found himself chuckling at the thought, despite the seriousness of the situation.

A few frantic taps on his shoulder told Hunt that Jayden saw the diver. Hunt gave him the “okay” sign, thumb and forefinger in a circle, right in front of his mask, hoping he would recognize it. A few more kicks brought them to within a few feet of the aquarium diver, who Hunt could see was actively engaged with his audience outside the tank. Then the underwater presenter turned sideways while pointing at some feature of the exhibit, and did a double-take as he saw what had to be the strangest sight he’d ever seen while working in the exhibit: Three people breathing off of one scuba tank, only one of them wearing a mask.

Hunt watch the man’s eyes widen like saucers. He saw he had a white writing slate dangling from his wrist. Hunt pointed to it, hoping that a concrete task would keep the individual from panicking. He got the message and passed Hunt the slate with its attached pencil.

The name of a fish was already written on the slate, but Hunt only needed to write five simple words, and he scribbled them out in a corner of the slate while a confused Jayden and Maddy looked on: