Clive Cussler: The Mediterranean Caper

“You’ll have to pardon my ignorance of geological time eras,” Pitt interrupted, “but when did the Triassic Period take place?”

“Between one hundred eighty and two hundred thirty million years ago,” replied Gunn. “During this time an important evolutionary advance occurred in the vertebrate animals as the reptiles demonstrated a great leap over their more primitive ancestors. Some of the marine reptiles attained a length of twenty-three feet and were very tough customers. The most noteworthy event was the introduction of the first true dinosaurs, who even learned to walk on their hind legs and use their tails for a kind of cane.”

Pitt leaned back and stretched his legs. “I thought that the era of the dinosaurs occurred much later.”

Gunn laughed. “You’ve seen too many old movies. You’re undoubtedly thinking of the behemoths that were always portrayed in the early science fiction films, menacing a tribe of hairy cavemen. They never failed to have a forty ton Brontosaurus or a ferocious Tyrannosaurus or a flying Pteranodon chasing a half-nude, big-fitted heroine through a primeval jungle. Actually these more commonly known dinosaurs roamed the earth and became extinct sixty million years before man appeared.”

“Where does your freak fish fit into the picture?”

“Imagine, if you will, a three foot Teaser fish who lived, cavorted, made love and finally died somewhere in the Sea of Tethys. Nothing and no one took notice as this obscure creature’s body slowly sank to the red mud of the seabed. The unmarked grave was covered over with sediments which hardened into sandstone and left a thin film of carbon. It was this trace of carbon that etched and outlined the Teaser’s tissue and bone structure into the surrounding strata.” The years passed and turned into millenniums. And the millenniums became eons, until one warm spring day, two hundred million years later, a farmer in the Austrian town of Neunkirchen struck his plow against a hard surface. And presto, our Teaser fish, though now a near perfect fossilized version, once again returned to the light.” Gunn hesitated and ran his hand through a head of thinning hair. His face looked drawn and tired, but his eyes burned with excitement as he spoke of the Teaser. “One vital element you must remember; when the Teaser died there were no birds and bees, no hair bearing mammals, no delicate butterflies, even flowers had not yet appeared on the earth.”

Pitt studied the photograph of the fossil again. “It doesn’t seem possible that any living thing could survive this long without going through drastic evolutionary changes.”

“Incredible? Yes; but it has happened before. The shark has been with us for three hundred and fifty million years. The Horseshoe Crab has existed virtually unchanged over two hundred million years. Then, of course, we have the classic example; the Coelacanth.”

“Yes, I heard of it,” said Pitt. “That was the fish believed extinct for seventy million years until they began to be found off the coast of east Africa.”

Gunn nodded. “The Coelacanth was a sensational and important find at the time, but nothing compared to what the scientific world would gain if we could drop a Teaser in its lap.” Gunn paused for a moment to light another cigarette. His eyes betrayed the gleam of total absorption. “The whole thing boils down to this; the Teaser could be an early link in the evolution of mammals, and that Includes man. What I didn’t tell you was that the fossil found in Austria shows definite mammal characteristics in its anatomy. The protruding limbs and other features of its internal organs, place it in a perfect evolutionary line to advance in a general pattern toward the development of humans and animals.”

Pitt idly glanced at the pictures again. “If this so called living fossil is still floating around in its original form, how could it evolve into an advanced stage?”

“Any plant or animal species is like a related family,” Gunn replied. “One branch may produce offspring who are uniform in size and shape, while the cousins over on the other side of the mountain produce a race of giants with two heads and four arms.”

Pitt was getting restless. He opened the door and walked out onto the deck. The hot air struck him like a cloud of steam and he winced. All this expense and all these men sweating their asses off to catch a stinking fish, he thought. Who the hell cares if our ancestors were apes or fish — what difference did it make? At the rate mankind was racing toward self-destruction, it would probably be extinct in another thousand years or less anyway. He turned back to the darkened doorway and faced Gunn.

“Ok,” Pitt said slowly. “I know what you and your boatload of academic brains are searching for. Now the only question in my mind is where do I come in? If you’re having trouble with broken cables, faulty generators or missing tools, you don’t need me, you need a good mechanic who knows how to take care of his equipment.”

Gunn’s face looked puzzled for a moment, then he grinned. “I see that you’ve been pumping information out of Dr. Knight.”

“Dr. Knight?”

“Yes, Ken Knight, the young fellow who picked you up in the whaleboat this morning. He’s quite a brilliant marine geophysicist.”

“That’s an impressive description,” said Pitt. “He seemed friendly enough during the boat ride, but he hardly struck me as brilliant.”

The heat outside was becoming unbearable and the metal railing gleamed ominously. Pitt. not thinking, put his hand on the metal and instantly cursed as a burning sting etched his palm. Suddenly the pain set off an immense feeling of irritation Within him and he returned to the cabin, slamming the door. “Let’s skip all this crap,” Pitt snapped sharply. “Just tell me what miracle I’m supposed to perform that puts a Teaser over your fireplace and I’ll get to work.” He stretched out in Gunn’s bunk and took a deep breath and relaxed as the coolness of the stateroom calmed him once more. He glanced across the room at Gunn.

Gunn’s face was expressionless, but Pitt knew him well enough to perceive his discomfort. Pitt smiled and reached over and gripped Gunn on the shoulder. “I don’t wish to appear mercenary. but if you want me to join your little crew of scientific pirates it’s going to cost you a drink. All this talk makes a man pretty damn thirsty.”

Gunn laughed with relief and called over his intercom for some ice from the ship’s galley. Then he produced a bottle of Chivac Regal and two glasses from his bottom desk drawer. ‘While we’re waiting for the ice, you might scan this report I wrote concerning our equipment malfunctions.” He passed a yellow folder to Pitt. “I’ve covered every incident in detail and chronological order. In the beginning I thought it was merely accidents or bad luck, but now it’s gone far beyond the realm of mere coincidence.”

“Have you any proof of tampering or sabotage?” asked Pitt.

“None whatsoever.”

“The broken cable that Knight mentioned, was it cut?" Gunn shrugged. “No, the ends were frayed, but that’s another mystery. I’ll explain it to you.” Gunn paused and flicked an ash from his cigarette. “We work with a safety margin of five-to-one. For example; if the specifications of a cable state there is a danger of breakage with a stress of twenty-five thousand pounds or above, we will never place a stress on it higher than five thousand pounds. Because of this large safety factor NUMA has yet to have a single fatality on a project.

Lives are more important to us than scientific discovery. Underwater exploration is a risky business and the list is long with the names of men before us who have died trying to pry new secrets from the seas.”