David Golemon - Legend

Twenty feet beneath the keel of Teacher , the creature was now swimming on its back, kicking easily as it stared upward at the bottom of the boat. Every few minutes it would rise and run a hand along the hull and then quickly dart away. When Snoopy 3 was lowered into the water, the beast swam quickly toward the opened hatch but came up short when the doors silently closed. The hand slowly reached out and touched Snoopy's smooth, torpedolike shape. When the probe did nothing but sit there at zero buoyancy, the amphibian gently slapped at it, then struck it again as the device dipped its nose and then righted level. The beast became bored with the small craft and swam once again along the bottom, every once in a while rising and quickly peering through the underwater windows of Teacher. Finally it came to a window where several people sat on the opposite side of the clear acrylic. It closely examined all the faces within its view, slowly becoming agitated by what it saw. A second, smaller animal approached and was quickly chased away by the larger, more aggressive one. Even several of the plesiosaurs came close, out of curiosity, and were abruptly swiped at. They shot off into the lower extremities of the lagoon.

There was a buzz of excitement as Jenks made his way to the additional control panel he had installed in the lounge. Virginia was already there and he smiled at her as he sat down next to her. Jack was leaning against the bulkhead, Sarah sitting in front of him, by the large underwater window. Carl and Danielle were seated next to her. When Jack nodded, Jenks turned to the controls and threw a switch. The four monitors arrayed around the lounge came to life, along with the six-inch screen in front of Jenks. The probe's nose camera came on at the same time as the lights did, and they saw the bright green waters of the lagoon illuminate in a twelve-foot diameter around Snoopy 3 as the small craft bobbed just below the surface.

"Here we go," the master chief said as he toggled Snoopy forward and down into the depths. Virginia patted his leg and then placed her hands in her lap.

Snoopy made a half circle under the boat and came out the opposite side, then made for a compass heading of magnetic north, toward the falls. As it approached, the water became choppier, but the master chief held it on course and depth, only adjusting the speed as he advanced the throttle to compensate for a current that was starting to push the probe back toward the center of the lagoon. Then Snoopy started forward again, its thruster started to gain a foothold in the current. To conserve power, Jenks kept only the forward light and camera on, the latter now picking up white water ahead as the two-hundred-foot falls struck the lagoon's surface. He lowered Snoopy's nose as the water became rough. He sent the device deep to smooth out its ride beneath the catarata. Ellenshaw was so nervous during this that he began ringing his hands together until Heidi reached and stilled them.

Despite its depth, Snoopy 3 was in tumult as it reached the cascading falls. Its nose dipped again as the free-falling water above the device created turbulence as deep as thirty-five feet. Snoopy rolled to the right as the nose came up, only to immediately lose buoyancy as the full weight of the falls struck its hardened plastic body. On camera, it almost looked as if the probe were being manhandled by otherworldly forces as it was tossed by the natural falls. Jenks wasn't too concerned, as his concentration was centered on the panel in front of him, where he had readouts showing speed, depth, and power usage. He held steady, then throttled back as the vortex of water pressure started to lessen. Most everyone in the room breathed a sigh of relief as Snoopy edged its way past the extreme edge of the waterfall and into calmer waters.

"Chief, can we get a fathometer reading on the depth of the water where she's at right now," Sarah asked.

Jenks toggled a switch. The readout on his remote control panel went from passive to active sonar. "I can only use this a few times, so this will be a quick scan of her surroundings. Just watch the monitors and the readout will appear there."

From within the confines of the ship, everyone in the boat felt as well as heard the powerful sonar ping that coursed through the water.

Outside, below the boat, the animal brought its large hands up to its head and started thrashing about as the loud underwater noise struck. Then it settled down, shaking its head from side to side, as the sound dwindled to nothing.

"There you go. It looks like we have twenty-five on the starboard side, thirty-seven on the port and… well, she's a deep channel, numbers are still going up," Jenks said.

The numbers from the sonar reading resembled those they had received from Teacher when they had probed the bottom of the lagoon. The body of water looked to be bottomless, with the exception of two large shelves on either side of Snoopy. Other than that small anomaly, the shear rock walls appeared to extend down infinitely.

"I am convinced this is a caldera — what we're looking at is a lava shaft that runs hundreds of thousands of feet below the surface here," Sarah said. "There's no other explanation."

"Maybe we just found the front door and long hallway to hell," Jenks joked.

The poorly timed joke was met with deathly silence by everyone. Caldera or underworld, the question remained whether any of the missing students were still alive.

Farbeaux and Mendez faced their men, on the far side of the rapids. The lagoon lay just beyond the bend, and the Frenchman had just seen the American craft sitting at the center of the lagoon, well lit and inviting within this hidden wonder.

"Now am I clear — we are to use the shoreline as cover as we skirt the Americans. We will be lost among the shore clutter if they are actively using sonar as security."

The men nodded. Even Rosolo admired the Frenchman's approach. It was just too bad he would not be following him. He had a detour to make.

Mendez, rotund and ridiculous in his shiny wetsuit, went from man to man speaking Spanish to each. Farbeaux caught a phrase or two. The Colombian was promising they would have riches beyond belief if they succeeded in their mission. Farbeaux suspected the mines were indeed full of gold, but how much could be removed before the Brazilian government moved in to take their find? That fool Mendez thought he could buy off anyone, any government. But why should a government accept his pitiful payout when they could have the entirety of the greatest gold find in history? The greedy Colombian couldn't be allowed to live once they reached El Dorado. The Frenchman didn't need the Brazilian authorities to ever gain full knowledge of the other treasures that were hidden in veins underneath the ground here, which the gold would lead them to. No, he could not allow that.

Farbeaux placed his face mask over his head and made sure his rebreather was operating properly. He held his hand in the air, then slowly lowered it toward the water and started off. He was followed by Mendez and his men. The last to enter the water was Captain Rosolo, who would swim as far as the boat with them.

"It looks like a very wide shelf on the right, about thirty-five feet I would say," Jenks said as Snoopy entered the cave behind the falls. The light picked up the calm water and the master chief proclaimed loudly that there was indeed a current inside, of about three knots.

"That means the waters in here must empty out somewhere," Sarah surmised.

Snoopy shallowed as Jenks pulled upward on the toggle. The camera went from showing a solid green frame of water to a darker variant of the same as it aimed the camera up through the surface of the canal.