Atlantis Gold

Chapter 20

Hunt steadied the pathetically anemic beam of his mini-light in his shaking hand. He simply could not believe what he was looking at. I must have nitrogen narcosis, he thought to himself. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time a diver had succumbed to the so-called rapture of the deep and imagined fantastic visions deep underwater. Divers had even been known to offer their breathing mouthpieces to passing fish because they thought they needed air.

But Hunt knew this was no illusion. It was too solid, and he was far too experienced a scuba diver to have that vivid of a hallucination.

He was looking at the top of a pyramid.

The feeble light from his beam glinted off what appeared to be a crystal surface. Astounding, Hunt thought. Absolutely amazing! The structure was massive, descending into the dark depths beyond the reach of his meager light.

It took his next breath to tear his mind from the exotic sight. It was hard to pull. Air! He clawed at his pressure gauge and read the dial: deep in the red. He would be out of air, his tank completely dry, with any breath now. Time to go!

Hunt mentally kicked himself for being so complacent, so lax about his situation, as he physically kicked for the surface far above. He remembered to check his depth gauge so that he could report to the others on how deep the pyramid was: 150 feet. Very deep, at the edge of what was safe for the recreational diving gear they had with them. Still, it was doable. Kicking hard for the surface while keeping his mouth open to avoid an air embolism — the expansion of the lungs due to decreasing water pressure while going from deep to shallow water — Hunt allowed his mind to wander. He had so many questions. How big was the pyramid? From what he could see of it, plenty big, maybe the size of a three-story building if it was intact all the way down, but who knew? What was a pyramid doing here at the Bimini Road, concealed beneath a capstone identical in shape, though not in scale, to a gold piece found in a statuette of Anubis in the Azores? What, if anything was inside the pyramid?

He only knew one thing for sure as he continued to kick toward the small oval of bright light that represented the capstone opening to the shallow seabed above. They had to get fresh tanks and come back down here for a full dive.

On the seaplane, Hunt explained to Maddy the dangers of the dive. The deep depth, the unknown factor of the pyramid itself, having to exit through the narrow capstone opening. But despite acknowledging these hazards, Maddy insisted on making the dive with Hunt and Jayden.

The three of them set up their gear with fresh air tanks, and then prepared to hit the water again. Hunt rummaged around the plane’s safety equipment and found a full-size waterproof flashlight that would suffice as a real dive light, and added it to his gear. Sitting backwards with the door open, Hunt glanced all around the plane, checking for any boat traffic. He saw a large vessel on the other side of the main Bimini Road, perhaps a mile away. High above them, a small airplane passed by. Double-checking the seaplane’s anchor, he gave the go-ahead for his team to enter the water.

Once at the open capstone, the three divers conducted a quick check of their equipment as before. Satisfied all was in order, Hunt led the way down through the narrow opening into the hidden blue hole below. Once they were clear of the stones that jutted down, Hunt straightened his body out and began dropping down feet first. Jayden and Maddy followed suit. Hunt shined his powerful dive light beam all around, but so far it was as if they had entered a liquid void. The only direction in which he could see anything was up, to the Bimini Road’s underside.

The trio of explorers dropped down through the inky void. Hunt’s light beam was flanked by the weaker backup light rays of Jayden and Maddy. Hunt kept his own small backup light he’d used on the first dive in reserve in case his primary light stopped working. Around 100 feet down, Maddy had to pause the descent in order to equalize the pressure in her ears to avoid pain in the ears from increasing water pressure. Hunt and Jayden were able to do this while on the move, but Maddy, having less experience, needed to remain in one place while she pinched her nose and breathed into it until she felt her ears pop, relieving the pain. Once that was done, the three of them continued their descent.

Hunt again marveled at the total lack of sea life down here. He saw no fish, no floating jellyfish, nothing. He stabbed his beam into the darkness below, searching for the tip of the pyramid. Still nothing. He glanced at his depth gauge: 125 feet. The tip was at about 150. Or was he at 150 when he first saw it and it was deeper than that? He felt confused, and a little panicky that he’d imagined the whole thing due to nitrogen narcosis and would be embarrassed that he’d brought Jayden and Maddy down here for nothing. Or maybe they’d drifted too far to the right or the left? He swept his light in both directions, angled downward, but still saw nothing. He forced himself to calm down. They continued their descent, and a minute later, he spotted a gleam down in the gloom.

Hoping it wasn’t the sides of a silvery fish, which would be the first one he’d seen down here, he continued dropping down while steadying his light on the object. Yes!

The pyramid.

But this time he wasn’t looking at the tip of it. They’d come in to the left side, and Hunt had to aim his beam up to see the pointy tip.

He consulted his depth gauge, cautioning himself to stay on top of his diving metrics. What’s your depth? What’s your air? 160 feet, and about three-quarters breathing gas remaining. Okay.

Jayden and Maddy floated next to him, facing the unknown structure, gawking at it with unabashed wonder. What is it? He could practically hear them thinking the question. But there was only one way to find out. Hunt tapped each of them on the shoulder and pointed to the pyramid. Then he began to swim toward it.

As they neared it and more detail became visible, Hunt speculated on it construction. He would have thought that it would be made of limestone blocks, the same as those of the stones that comprised the Bimini Road above. The lack of growth was to be expected because the structure had existed in total darkness, with the capstone in place for who knows how long, there was no plant life marring the stone. But what he hadn’t counted on was the building material.

Gold.

The metallic luster was unmistakable. It didn’t gleam like a polished jewelry piece, but had the dull glow of something that had existed underwater for centuries. Although no plant life marred the surface, there was a patina of other growth, coral perhaps, sponges, encrusting worms. But overall, the structure appeared to be in remarkably good shape.

Hunt reached the structure and ran a hand over it. Gold! He removed his glove so he could really feel the material. Solid, it certainly felt like the real thing. He went so far as to take his dive knife to one of the bricks in order to feel how hard it was. He knew that real gold was actually a fairly soft metal, malleable and relatively easy to gouge and chip. He drove the butt end of the knife into a section of gold brick and grinned when he saw it leave a mark, brighter gold gleaming beneath the dented surface metal.

Jayden and Maddy also inspected the surface of the pyramid. Hunt checked his gauges again. Unfortunately the depth was great enough that they really didn’t have much time to spend down here. He aimed his beam up until it glinted off the pyramid top. Way above that he could see the rectangle of light representing the open capstone. Then he shone the beam in the opposite direction, down along the widening base of the pyramid. It was all smooth tiles as far as he could see; there were no openings or protruding features that he could make out.

Now he aimed the beam horizontally along the pyramid’s face, attempting to see how wide it was. He couldn’t distinguish the end. He decided they had enough air to check out at least one more side of it, so he signaled Jayden and Maddy to move along the strange monument’s face.

Hunt used the lines of the blocks or tiles, whatever they were, which were tightly sealed together by some unknown construction technique, to keep him oriented on a straight line course as he swam along. He kept his light sweeping from top to bottom, searching for any extraneous feature as they swam, but so far he saw only the smooth gold bricks of the pyramid’s alluring exterior. Then it occurred to him that he’d been thinking of this pyramidal structure like it was the Great Pyramid of Giza — hollow inside, or at least parts of it — with sculpted passages, chambers and cutouts. But maybe it was solid all the way through? Hunt chuckled at the staggering amount of gold that would represent. Probably enough to drop the international market price, he mused. He supposed it could have an inner solid core of limestone, like the road stones above, with only the outer surface layer being comprised of gold blocks, or even tiles. Who could say without taking some penetrating radar and other gear down here, which would be tricky due to the single, narrow entrance and exit.

At least that was the only entrance or exit he knew of so far. Maybe there were others, deep down somewhere in this blue hole? Something else to investigate another time, he told himself. Right now, the prudent thing to do was to head back to the surface with plenty of time to do so safely. Then they’d discuss what to do next — who, if anyone, to tell about this remarkable discovery, what gear to bring back — and act accordingly.

They reached the end of the pyramid’s side and turned right along the next face. Hunt tapped Jayden and Maddy on the leg to get their attention. He pointed to his watch and then up to the surface, which beckoned through the small capstone opening. Time to go. Both of them nodded and gave him the “okay” sign. Maddy snapped off a few pictures of this side of the pyramid while Hunt and Jayden scrutinized it visually, checking for any external features. They saw none.

Hunt gave them a thumbs up sign, indicating it was time to begin their ascent. They did so slowly and as a group, only a few feet away from each other. Rising vertically, Hunt watched the pyramid as they lifted away from it. He burned with the desire to know what secrets it held, but diving safety dictated that they leave now. We’ll be back, he thought.

They swam up toward the distant rectangle of light, each thinking about the pyramid and what it meant. When they reached a depth of forty feet — twenty feet below the capstone opening — Hunt signaled for them to level out at this depth for a decompression stop, which entailed remaining at a shallow depth while breathing in order to avoid ascending too rapidly, which could result in nitrogen bubbles forming in the blood, otherwise known as “the bends.”

Hunt looked down while he waited and breathed, straining to pick out the pyramidal form that he now knew waited in the gloomy depths, but he could not see it this far up. He lost himself in thoughts of what might lie inside the enigmatic structure until his dive watched beeped, indicating the preset decompression time had elapsed. Hunt gave the others the thumbs up sign to ascend.

Then, just as they began to swim up toward the opening, they heard a heavy grating sound. Hunt looked up in time to see the piece of limestone they had removed sliding back over the opening. He caught his breath and stopped kicking for a moment, so stunning was the revelation.

Someone was sliding the capstone back into place!

Hunt kicked hard for the rapidly eclipsing aperture. Jayden and Maddy followed right behind him. Even as he swam, his mind rejected the less ominous theories: a local scuba outfit wanting to correct the out of place Bimini Road stone to keep their tourist attraction in place, or a strong current moving the stone by chance. With the empty sea plane floating at anchor on the dive site, scuba dive flag up on the plane as Hunt had left it, no one in their right mind would cover the opening without waiting for the divers to emerge. And since visibility was stellar on the sandy flats where road was, it would be plain to see that no divers were nearby, which meant they had ventured down through the rabbit hole…

A chill overtook Hunt as he strained for the diminishing portal to the world of air. There was only one explanation.

Treasure, Inc.

And then, while Hunt was five feet from the last sliver of opening, the capstone slid fully into place, sealing Hunt and his friends in total darkness, except for their artificial lights.

Like Arctic seals trapped beneath the ice when their breathing hole freezes over, Hunt, Jayden and Maddy had a limited amount of time before their air ran out and they would drown if they couldn’t find another way out.