David Golemon - Legend

"Turning to the right," Jenks called as he angled Snoopy in that direction just as the probe came shallow to fifteen feet.

Carl pointed at the screen. "Look at that! The shelf you were talking about has actually been carved out—"

"Are those steps?" Virginia interrupted.

On the monitor, the camera picked out first one, then two steps that went off into the distance on either side of Snoopy. These first two stone steps led to a third, then a fourth, and on and on.

Jack leaned in closer to the monitor. "Chief, can you get me a shot of the upper areas of the cavern?"

"Yeah, you see something?"

Jack just looked at him and didn't answer.

Jenks adjusted the right-side camera and brought three pounds of ballast into the small probe, tilting it to the left and raising the angle of the camera. As the lights disappeared into the darkness, the camera caught another sight that made everyone's mouth drop. Once again, a strained silence filled the cabin. Onscreen were level upon level of pillars and, beyond them, ornately carved walls.

"Look at those walls, how they angle inward toward the waterfall at the top," Virginia observed with awe.

"A pyramid," Keating said as he studied the camera's moving image. "It's a damned stepped pyramid."

"It's like we're looking at it inside out," Heidi said, moving closer.

Each level of the interior became smaller the farther toward the top they went. Each pillar lining its respective level served as a load-bearing strut, strengthening each story as they climbed higher toward the source of falls. Giant openings were visible beyond the pillars, indicating that there were portals into the mine itself.

"This is an impossible engineering feat," said Keating.

"The Inca must have turned the inside of a natural cave, or lava vent, into a more recognizable architectural interior. After all, they couldn't take anything out of here without praying and having their god Supay sanction the removal of his treasure," Sarah said and then looked around her at everyone. "I'm just guessing, of course." A silence followed.

"I think it's as good a theory as we have at the moment," Virginia finally said.

The camera continued to send back images of the vast expanse of the mine. Because of Snoopy's depth in the water and its being only the right-side lens that poked free of the surface, their view was limited. But to Jack, this information, along with what Sarah had gathered in the diving bell earlier, indicated that the mine shafts not only rose with the pyramid, but also would lead down into the earth, far beyond the level of the lagoon.

"Surfacing," Jenks finally called, anxious to see the pyramid in a better light. He and everyone in the section again leaned forward in their seats, as Snoopy broke the surface. "Turning on all her lights and cameras," he said, and quickly flipped the switches on the other three cameras and three sets of lights.

On the monitor, the screen image separated into four separate camera angles. One showed the long staircase as it rose out of the water and continued another fifteen or twenty steps above the surface of the entrance canal. The steps terminated at what looked like a giant flat rock, about two hundred feet in length.

"A platform?" Heidi wondered aloud.

"Close, Heidi," Jack said, uncrossing his arms. "Do you want to tell them, swabby?" He turned to Carl.

The lieutenant commander rose from his seat next to Danielle and pointed along the image on one of the wall-mounted monitors. "See how this rises out of the water as a solid square of stone with steps petering out in the middle, and then they start up again on either side of this platform? Now, look along the edge of this giant stone — see these?" He pointed to ten different protrusions that lined the edge of the platform. They looked like a set of longhorns, each horn branching out left and right about three feet each. "They're cleats, and what we're looking at here is a dock."

Everyone finally saw it. It was a two-hundred-foot-wide docking area, with two-pronged projections used for tying off boats. The stairs came up from either side of the dock, for swimmers to go to and from the canal.

"Think we can tie up there, Chief?" Jack asked.

"Be awful rough heading through those falls, not like the smaller ones we went through earlier. I don't think so, Major. My bet would be she would be battered to pieces."

"I suspect there may be a mechanism inside that place, which can alter the direction and force of the falls, to draw the fury of the water away from entering and exiting boats," Heidi ventured. "That's how the ancients collected their treasure."

Jack just nodded. On the screen he saw Snoopy back away from the dock, giving the four bright lights a chance to take in more higher up. Several darkened objects became visible on the top of the platform, shapes that the voyagers had come to know intimately. Two towering statues of Supay, the Incan god of the underworld, rose majestically on either side of the huge dock. The stone carvings stared down on Snoopy with belligerent eyes that were heavily lidded and appeared to be made of solid gold as the light from the probe played on it. The artwork was far more meticulous than on the two statues they had passed at the tributary entrance. The stone was studded with gemstones of all shapes and sizes; rubies and emeralds lined the arms and wrists of the giants. The trident and ax were also made of gold, and looked even more lethal than the ones outside. Then the light picked up something on one deity's belly. The statue on the right had been vandalized. Professor Keating loudly voiced his outrage, making everyone else in the lounge jump.

"What kind of a hoax is this?" he shouted as he went to the nearest monitor and raised his glasses. As the others looked at the image closely, just more than one jaw dropped. Curses erupted throughout the lounge. If Jack hadn't been so taken aback he would have laughed. Etched in paint on the belly of the giant deity was a graffito that had traveled from the docks of the Brooklyn shipyards in New York to Africa and through all of Europe and Japan during World War II, once used as a universal marker in all the places where American troops had already been:

"So, how long will you need to decipher this message?" Jenks laughed, but inside he was just as stunned as everyone else.

"After the days and the danger our people faced in finding the Padilla route, we find this ?" Heidi said angrily.

"Someone in our government has known all along that this was here," Virginia said, standing up. "What were they after, gold?"

Jack reached out and selected the proper switch on the intercom. "Stiles?"

"Yes, sir?"

"How's the transmitter coming?"

"Been online for five minutes Major; just finished up," Stiles answered from the main mast.

"Good. Get in here and get me Group, ASAP," Jack said as he watched the bobbing and unstable picture from Snoopy 3.

"On my way," was the quick answer.

"This can't be about gold," was all Jack said as he turned toward the radio room.

Rosolo had left the long line of men as they continued on past the American boat. He had easily swerved away without being noticed and swam toward the large hull, which was aglow with bright light emanating from the interior. He would have to be careful to avoid the underwater windows. He reached the stern, slowly made his way to the halfway point amidships, then studied the design. He placed his hand against the hull. He could feel the activity inside even through his gloves. He didn't need a flashlight, as the water was lit up as if he were inside a giant emerald. He reached into his bag and brought out a three-pound limpet charge. He placed it against the hull and pushed, engaging the large suction cups on the back of the mine. Then he traveled down toward the stern, where he'd estimated the boat's engines would be, and placed another charge there. As he set the timers for three minutes, he felt movement around him. It was as if something had swum by at a very fast speed, but as he turned he saw nothing.