Time Storm Shockwave (13 page)

***

Mark and Ashlyn sat on the edge of the undersea pool for several minutes not speaking. There appeared to be no exit except for the way they had come in.

“A chamber full of air”—she motioned around them—“under the sea …definitely not naturally occurring. It has to have been here for a very long time to be completely buried like this. Now this is something they might kill you for.”

He didn’t answer. He sat brow furrowed looking around.

“What’s wrong?—” she asked “—I thought you would be more excited.”

“I am—” he took in a deep breath “—it’s just that we haven’t solved any mystery at all. We have only deepened it.”

Studying the room had not revealed an explanation for the illumination; it was just light. It was as if the light emanated from the walls and ceiling although there was no apparent glow. Mark finally decided that his facemask might be preventing him from seeing its source and began to remove it.

Ashlyn stopp
ed him, “What are you doing?”

“There is clearly oxygen in here; maybe I
will be able to figure this out if I can see it better.”

“
Wait—” she held his arm “—we don’t even know if the air in here is breathable.”

“
Well”—he continued to remove it—“there’s only one way to find out.”

Helmet removed, he took a deep breath and then waited. “The air smells musty and old, like a cave—big surprise.” When she didn’t move he said, “Come on, take yours off.”

She disconnected it and removed it. They both pulled off their flippers and climbed out onto the edge.

“I know what it
is”—he exclaimed.

She turned to him hopefully.

He gave her a lopsided grin. “It’s an alien Jacuzzi.”

“If that’
s the case, they must be cold blooded—” she shivered “—I’m freezing, and my wetsuit isn’t doing its job.”

“I wish I had my coat to give you,” he said gallantly.

She smiled at that. The two examined the room top to bottom.

“I think we’re going
to run out of oxygen before we figure this one out.—” she sighed “—have any brilliant ideas, doctor?”

“Well
—” he pulled his glove off and ran his fingers down the wall “—we don’t know what this material is. It didn’t allow any crustaceans or coral to grow on it in the water. It’s obviously air tight.”

“
Thanks”
—she mocked him—“I had already figured that one out.”

“If the pyramid sank at an upright angle, the ai
r would be trapped in here,” he suggested.

“
But why would NP not want you to find this?—” She shook her head “—it doesn’t make any sense.”

“That’s for
sure”—he threw up his hands—“besides, what does this have to do with the electromagnetic anomalies?”

“I’m
no archaeologist—” she had no answer “—but I’m fairly certain that this isn’t Egyptian or Mayan.”

“Yeah—” he continued touching various surfaces “—this material is entirely different from anything I’ve ever seen.”

“We had better go back to the ship and tell Stewart about
this”—she reminded him—“we will have to come back when we aren’t in danger.”

“You’re right, we should go
—” Mark leaned down to pick up his helmet when he saw something on the floor “—Ashlyn, look.”

The both carefully examined the markings. They
could now see that what had appeared as some kind of non-slip surface designs were actually very slightly raised inscriptions.

“T
his one isn’t just raised”—she said excitedly —“it feels like it’ll turn.”

He raised his eyebrows
. “Well, turn it already!”

She hesitated for a moment. Images from Indian Jones movies ran through her head.

“What are you waiting for?”

She
slowly began to turn it. She was right, and it moved easily and then appeared to lock in place. At first, nothing happened and then all of a sudden, they felt, more than heard, a soft rumbling sound.

Uh oh
—
she swallowed hard halfway expecting a bunch of arrows to come hurling toward them. When nothing happened, she chided herself for her silly thoughts. She let out a breath that she didn’t realize she had been holding just as a door slid open.

There had been no seams, nothing to indicate that it was different from the other parts of the walls. Her mouth dropped open in surprise.

“What in the—” Mark exclaimed.

She didn’t respond, overcome
by the magnitude of their discovery. For the moment, they both forgot that Stewart was still alone on the boat. Mark walked through the open door into a large passageway. The hallway was straight and level. Ashlyn followed him through. The hall was lighted just as the room had been, still with no obvious source.

“Wait
—” she stopped him “—“we should take our helmets; we have no idea if the entire pyramid is free of water.”

He nodded
his agreement. They picked up their gear and left the poolroom.

***

Stewart was well beyond worry now; the sun was low on the horizon. Surely, they wouldn’t just stay down there that long without communicating with him; besides, he thought, even the rebreathers might not extend the oxygen that long. He tried them on the radio again, but all he got was static. He pounded his fist in frustration on one of the bridge panels.

He felt more angst by the minute. There was no contingency plan in place. Why had they ventured off somewhere else? Ashlyn had been at one hundred and seventy-five feet, maybe they were just being careful to decompress properly. However, if that were the case, why had they not communicated with him? They had mentioned a cave; maybe it was blocking reception but his questions remained unanswered.

***

With all sense of time lost,
Mark and Ashlyn continued until finally the hallway opened up. Squinting from the dazzling light emanating from the enormous room before them, they waited for their eyes to adjust. This room also had a pool in the middle, with water pouring out of holes in the walls; creating fountains, which cascaded down into it. However, there wasn’t much else in the room. At least this one was not without a door. It had several hallways heading off in different directions. They studied their surroundings.

“Which
way do you think we should go?” he asked, motioning to the many choices before them.

She
opened her mouth to answer him, but before she could, a voice from behind them said, “This way.”

In unison, they turned
around. Dierdra stood there, gun in hand, pointing toward one of the hallways.

Chapter 12

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable

from
magic. — Arthur C. Clarke

~

It was now fully dark except for the
resplendent light show that the Aurora was creating in the sky. Stewart had lost all hope that they were not in danger. There was no way that Mark would have stayed down there that long without communicating with him. Something must have happened to them. Stewart had been sitting there on the flybridge for several hours chewing on the problem.

Something had
definitely gone wrong. An accident maybe, or possibly Dierdra had found them. After all, it was something down there she didn’t want them to find. However, the second option seemed out of the question. He had been on the lookout almost the entire time, and there had been no other boats.

Even when he
hadn’t been up top, the proximity alarm would have gone off if any other vessel had approached. Maybe the sharks had eaten them, possible, but unlikely. Mark had informed him that no one had ever been killed by a lemon shark, a few rare attacks.
Maybe Dierdra has a submarine.
He only considered that for a moment before deciding it was ludicrous.

He thought about Ashlyn’s
practically instantaneous decision to light fires on the water to find Mark. Stewart would have never thought of anything like that so fast, or even at all.

Maybe they can’t find the ship in the dark. No, not possible, I have it lit up like a Christmas tree.
Maybe I should call the coast guard. No, Ashlyn said there was a navy admiral involved—the coast guard might be in on it. I’m getting paranoid, but then who wouldn’t be after what has happened. I probably couldn’t reach them anyway; nobody can reach the United States. Wait, I’m not in American water. I don’t even know what country has jurisdiction here.

His mind whirled
round and round in a mish mash of disjointed ideas; he simply couldn’t make a decision. In the end, he settled on staying up there on the flybridge and hoping for a miracle. He went downstairs and got himself a blanket and pillow then went back up, though he doubted he would be able to sleep.

***

Ashlyn and Mark sat together on the floor in a locked room with no furniture. The walls were perfectly white, unpainted
, with a glassy surface like the pyramid. They couldn’t see even an outline where the door ought to be, but knew it was there because they had walked through it just before it shut behind them.

“I’m sorry,”
he said apologetically.

“Why
?”

“
I’m the one who wouldn’t leave without exploring the pyramid”—he looked stricken—“you’ve been trying to get me to disappear from the area ever since Dierdra left the yacht.”

“I shouldn’t have gone off
exploring”—she admitted—“I should have stayed with you at the top of the pyramid.”

“Then we wouldn’t have
found”—he looked around—“whatever this is.”

As if finding this and being locked up in some
kind of a cell is a good thing.
Thoughts of their exploration ruminated in her head, and she decided to come clean. “I didn’t really leave you to search for something more important. I mean, I told myself that it was because I thought you were looking in the wrong place, but that wasn’t my real motivation.”

He eyed her curiously, but when she didn’t continue, he spoke, “So what was your real reason?”

She looked around, clearly not wanting to answer, and then down at her hands. “I was jealous.”

“
What?—” He laughed “—who in the world could you be jealous of?”

She met his eyes.
“Not who—” she hesitated “—what …I was jealous of the …well, this stupid pyramid, alright.”

“I
guess I did give you some reason”—he admitted to himself aloud—“I’m sorry, truly. This is not an excuse, simply an explanation. I tend to get lost in my work. You know, I’m the absent-minded professor type. I get so excited about it that I just forget everything.”

“
I know”—she was fumbling with her hands—“you didn’t do anything wrong. Your passion for your work is one of the things I love about you. That’s the problem, again …I just …well, it’s like I said before, I haven’t been in love before and I don’t know how to deal with these irrational feelings.”

“Loving someone is scary for everyone you know.”

“Not you,” she argued.

“Trust
me”—he said—“I’m terrified.”

She looked into his eyes,
not certain that he was telling her the truth. “I love you.” She leaned her head against his shoulder.

He kissed the top of her disheveled hair
, and spoke gently, “I love you too.”

Freezing, and with no dry clothes to change into, they opted to stay in their wetsuits. The floor was hard
, and it turned out to be a long, miserable night. However, being in his arms made everything bearable.
I never want to be alone again.
She prayed that she wouldn’t have to be.

***

Stewart had finally fallen asleep, though he didn’t know w
hat time it had been. When he woke to the bright sunlight of the morning, he felt nothing but despair. He tried the
comm
. system again with no luck, and then looked around through the crystal-clear water in the vain hope of seeing either one of them, but he saw no one.

***

Down below, Mark and Ashlyn had managed to make it through the
long night, but that offered little comfort considering the circumstances. Mark looked at his dive watch and realized that it was finally morning just as the invisible door magically slid open. A man entered the room; he was wearing blue and gray colored fatigues. He had a tray with some food and some orange colored jumpsuits for them to change into. He said nothing, then left, the door once again blending into the wall.

Mark
glanced at her, surprised. “Not quite a five star hotel—” he stood up to get out of his wet suit “—I’m not sure why they haven’t killed us yet, but I’m glad for the food and dry clothes.”

“I have no idea why they haven’t
killed us either. Dierdra must not be the one in command around here—” Ashlyn scowled “—I wish they would have given these to us last night. Maybe they are trying to break us, like Chinese water torture, only in our case it’s wetsuit torture.”

“
No kidding—” they both laughed before he added “—that man was definitely navy.”

“How do you know,” she asked.

“The color of his fatigues—” he zipped up his jumpsuit “—speaking of color, blue is not mine.”

“Why Mark, I didn’t know you were so fashion conscious.”

“Oh, I have loads of secrets you have yet to discover—” he grinned “—I guess you will have to stick around if you want to find them out.”

“Hopefully, we will be alive long enough,” she stated wryly.

He took a deep breath and said, “I certainly hope so.”

Once they had changed into dry clothes, they ate their food quickly, not having eaten since the afternoon the day before.
They avoided speaking of Stewart; nothing could be done. Talking about him would have only made the unbearable situation worse.

***

Stewart went into the galley and
sorrowfully made breakfast for himself. He didn’t feel hungry, but logic told him that he should eat, in case he finally figured out what was going on and had to act quickly. After his forced nutrition, he sat down in utter despair.

***

At least an hour had passed since the food and clothing had been brought to Mark and Ashlyn. Again, the door opened. The same crewman entered and
told them to follow him.

Mark leaned over and whispered to
her, “Maybe that was supposed to have been our last meal.”

She rolled her eyes at his corny attempt at humor. Surprisingly, it did raise her spirits just a bit. They followed the bluejacket down a long corridor but lost all sense of direction.
His diving watch had a compass, but it was spinning hopelessly. The sailor led them into a large office. The modern furniture was wholly out of place within the ancient pyramid. A man in a Navy admiral’s uniform sat at the desk. He had a grim expression on his face but smiled slightly, exposing a gold canine. “Hello, Ashlyn.”

She
recognized him, but pretended not to. “I believe that you have me at a disadvantage sir.”

“Preston
—” he gave her a nauseating smile “—Admiral George Preston.” His voice was hoarse from years of smoking too many cigarettes.

***

Still
going crazy trying to figure out what to do, Stewart considered going to look for them, except that Mark and Ashlyn had the only two working rebreather systems. Then an idea finally presented itself.
Why didn’t I think of this before?
Stewart remembered seeing some regular scuba gear in the engine room somewhere—they just never used it.

He ran down the stairs and searched until he found it. The oxygen tank wouldn’t last as long as a rebreather, but it would do. It didn’t take him long to be ready once he had decided. He went to the lower landing behind the a
ft deck and did the standard fall back into the water.

He quickly made his way down to the tip of the pyramid, past the sharks, which were again circling. He had to force himself not to hyperventilate. He had thought he was afraid before, but now that he was alone, it was far worse. He followed the directions that he remembered hearing Ashlyn give Mark right before they lost contact.

Stewart looked down the side of what seemed to be a steep cliff. He felt dizzy and nauseous. This would have terrified him on a good day, but he could not allow himself to panic, or even worse vomit down here or he would die. He forced himself forward because the madness of not knowing had become far worse than his fear. He had taken a rope with him. Buoyancy had been an issue for Mark and Ashlyn, and Stewart didn’t want to have to drop his weights. However, he had weighted his belt for one hundred and seventy-five feet. The rope was simply added insurance. He allowed himself to sink. It didn’t take him long to find the cave that they had described.

He swam in and
suddenly understood why Ashlyn had been so excited. It was clearly an entrance to the pyramid above. He took notice of the two weight-belts that lay at the bottom of the angled, small, tunnel-like entrance. He dropped his belt next to theirs and headed up the shaft. When he lifted his head out of the small pool, into the air-filled room, he was as shocked as they had been. However, unlike their experience, he saw an open hallway. He pulled off his tank, flippers, and facemask then quickly headed down the corridor. He was beginning to feel hopeful.

Their radios must not have been able to penetrate the walls of the pyramid
. The only question remaining was why they hadn’t come back, then it all made sense.
Dierdra must be down here.
Stewart felt certain that they would have come back if it were possible, which meant that they were either prisoners or dead. Now he wished that he had brought Ashlyn’s gun.

***

The admiral’s near hospitality left Ashlyn dumbfounded. It made no sense at all.
She hadn’t seen Dierdra since their initial run in, but Ashlyn was sure this “nice” treatment had not been her idea.

“The last thing I heard from
Dierdra is that you wanted us dead,” Ashlyn stated accusingly.

“
Now why would I want that? —” he said with his raspy voice “—you’re a very valuable asset. I admit I was upset when you blew up our facility and killed one of my best scientists, but I’m over that now. I am a very forgiving man.”

Skeptically, she asked,
“Why did you send Dierdra after Mark?”

“
Obviously, I didn’t want him to find this pyramid.”

“So why don’t you kill him now?”

Mark shot Ashlyn a glance that said—
please don’t suggest that
.

“Circumstances change
—” the admiral stated succinctly “—I lost a lot of good people in the disasters, even my right hand man. I’m in need of a few people with …shall we say, special talents.”

He was clearly referring to Mark.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about?”

Mark eyed her strangely.

“You don’t think he has talents?—” The admiral was toying with her “—from what I heard, the two of you are quite close. You must think that he has some value.”

“
Of course I do”—she rolled her eyes—“I meant, what do you want with him? I’m reasonably sure that you understood that in the first place, so let’s stop playing games, shall we?”

The admiral
stood up and walked around his desk, lessening the distance between them. Ashlyn’s skin crawled, and an involuntary shudder ran through her.