The Silent Sea: A Novel of the Oregon Files by Clive Cussler & Jack B. Du Brul

Author:Clive Cussler & Jack B. Du Brul [Cussler, Clive & Brul, Jack B. Du]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Action & Adventure
ISBN: 9780425240083
Google: siVySgAACAAJ
Publisher: Berkley Books
Published: 2011-02-15T18:41:41+00:00

FIFTEEN

CABRILLO WAITED FOR THE WINCH TO START HAULING him up, but nothing happened. Then he realized that wasn’t true, more of the line was coming down the shaft and forming an ever-enlargening loop just below where he hovered in the water. Max had hit the wrong button. Juan tried to hail him over the comm link but received no reply. Hanley had gone off alone to deal with the Argentine threat. And in his haste had trapped Juan in the Treasure Pit.

The prudent thing to do would be to surface according to the dive tables he’d memorized decades ago and wait for Max to return. But Juan wasn’t one to let opportunity go to waste, so he inverted himself and swam back for the bottom. There was no sense leaving until he was positive he’d missed nothing.

He examined the niche first, going so far as to press himself into it to see if it activated any kind of device. The chiseled stone around him remained innocuous. He sank lower still. The silt he’d kicked up earlier had settled back to the bottom. He cleared away an area where the wall met the floor. And something caught his attention. He pulled his dive knife from the sheath strapped to his calf and ran it along the seam. The tip vanished into a tiny gap between the floor and wall. He tried again at another spot and found the same thing.

Three more attempts convinced him that the floor of the Treasure Pit was fitted like a plug. There was something deeper in the earth, something buried below this false bottom.

He thought for a moment. There had to be a way to get there. The Ronishes had figured it out. Cabrillo swam a slow circuit of the floor, his dive light shining on the joint. It was in a corner. A stone was wedged tightly between the floor and a small irregularity projecting from the wall.

Juan didn’t touch it. Instead, he pulled his knees up to his chest and thrust them down onto the floor. The impact sent pain shooting up from his heels but also made the entire floor of the pit bobble ever so slightly. He glanced back up at the niche.

Clever, he thought. Very, very clever.

He returned to the rock wedge and got himself ready. He had no idea how much time he had, but he assumed he’d have to be quick. Reaching out a hand, he pulled the stone free, then finned for the grotto as fast as he could. Where a second ago all he could hear was the sound of his breathing, the pit was suddenly filled with the scrape of stone against stone.

The bottom of the chamber was an enormous float, kept in place by the wedge. Juan threw himself into the niche just as the silt-covered floor reached it. He pressed himself as far back as possible. The pit’s designers hadn’t had bulky scuba tanks, so the fit was tight. He watched in awe as the floor rose higher and higher.

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