Clive Cussler - Wrath of Poseidon

“You’re sure?”

“Very. I have a near photographic memory. I can recall each of the photos I took, and none of them were of those men.”

“She’s right,” Dimitris told Sam. “If it wasn’t for the birds, we probably wouldn’t have noticed them at all, they were that far away. And we left shortly after. If they were doing anything, it wasn’t obvious to me, either.”

“Whatever they were doing,” Sam said, “it’s clear they think the two of you saw or photographed something that they didn’t want anyone to see. Maybe a field trip up there is in order. If we’re lucky, we’ll discover what has them so rattled.”

Nikos looked up at the clock. “It’ll have to be without me. I have a full crew coming in to start documenting the shipwreck.”

“Are you sure it’s safe for you to be out on the water?” Remi asked him. “What if Adrian Kyril’s men come after you?”

“I have a hard time believing they would be so foolish as to try something again in broad daylight. Especially now that the police are aware. And if that isn’t enough to dissuade them, perhaps the presence of nearly twenty divers and archeologists will make them hesitate.”

—

Their first stop before returning to Fourni was to replace the water-damaged cell phones. Once back on Fourni, Sam, Remi, and Dimitris hiked up to the top of the hill, where Remi had stood taking photographs. The offshore breeze swept across the hilltop as they surveyed the countryside. Remi, holding her auburn hair off her face, pointed to her right. “You see that patch of junipers about halfway down the hill? That’s where I saw the men.”

Dimitris nodded. “And the birds flew up from there. I think if we drive around to the other side of the island, it’ll be easier to get to that spot.”

Sam pulled his binoculars from his backpack, focusing in on the area. From this vantage point, there wasn’t much to see but the rocks and shrubs. “Let’s go have a look.”

They hiked down to the car, then drove to the other side of the island, having to stop for a herd of goats that crowded the road. Dimitris honked, slowly idling the car forward as the animals took their time crossing the pavement, before disappearing down the east bank in a cacophony of bleats and bells. Once past, he drove a bit farther, then pulled over, parking on the side of the road. Sam saw a number of footprints in the dirt on the side of the road, indicating several people had been there before them. He stopped the other two as they started forward.

“What’s wrong?” Remi asked.

“Nothing, yet,” he said, crouching down on the ground, eyeing the footprints on the trail leading up to the area. “How many people did you see?”

“Four, but then only three.”

“Interesting. There’re four sets of prints leading up. And look, over here, only three going back.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Remi moved next to Sam, crouching down beside him. “Maybe one set is older.”

“Maybe . . . We won’t know until we get up there.” He stood, moving around the outer edge of the trail. The area was a mix of low scrub and jagged stone angling up the steep hill like steps. It was slow going, but they made it to the area Remi had pointed out, recognized by the odd grouping of junipers around what at first appeared to be a level clearing of flat limestone.

“Wait here,” Sam said, then moved closer on his own. He crouched beside a spindly fig tree.

The sun glared down on them, keeping her from seeing what Sam was looking at. “Did you find something?” she asked.

“Possibly an explanation as to what they were looking at.” He motioned them to join him, adding, “Keep to the far right. There’s a few footprints here.”

She and Dimitris picked their way across the same path Sam took. When they reached his side, Remi was surprised to see a yawning, dark hole just in front of him. As she neared, she could feel the cool air coming up from the depths. “How deep do you think it is?” she asked.

Sam found a large rock and tossed it in. She heard it hit four times on the way down. “Deep enough,” he said.

Dimitris seemed shocked. “I didn’t know this was here.”

Remi examined the footprints in the patch of dirt near the cave entrance, seeing what looked like scuff marks, as though one of the persons standing there suddenly pivoted. She stepped across a narrow gap between two rocks on the right of Dimitris, thinking it might have a better view down into the cave. The stone beneath her foot shifted, causing bits of gravel to fall into the hole. She peered down, realizing what she thought was a solid surface was anything but. “Sam . . . ?”

“ Don’t move your feet.” He leaned forward, reaching out. “Take my hand.”

The urgency in his voice frightened her. She grasped his fingers, her palm sticky with sweat.

“Slowly, step toward me.”

She lifted her left foot, hearing more rattling as the limestone turned to sand under her weight. “You’re sure it’s safe to move?”

“I’ve got you.”

Remi’s throat went suddenly dry. As she moved toward him, her right foot slipped out, sending the top stone plunging down into the cave. Sam pulled her to him, wrapping his arm around her. Her heart thundered in her chest. When she was on solid ground, she looked back. The stone where she’d stood was completely gone. A coating of dust and gravel was all that was left in the space beneath.

“That was close.” She turned, looking up at Sam, who was still holding her.

“You okay?” he asked.

She nodded.

“You sure?”

She nodded again, but her heart continued to beat loudly.

Finally, Dimitris, with a scuffling noise and a very loud cough, reminded Sam that they were not alone. He held Remi a moment longer, then let go. When he found solid purchase, he turned on his phone’s flashlight, aiming the beam downward. It barely penetrated the darkness.

Dimitris kneeled beside him, trying to see in. “I have some gear, but Manos and Denéa are both climbers,” he said. “They’re out on the boat with my father. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if we borrowed some of their equipment.” He nodded at the tree growing on the other side of the rocks. “We could anchor to that.”

Sam looked up at the tree trunk, shaking his head. “I don’t like the look of these rocks. A few too many cracks for my comfort.”

“It looks solid right here.” Dimitris patted the rock beneath him. “Remi’s light. We could lower her down.”

Remi, standing behind both men, thought about her close call, and was glad when Sam nixed that idea. “What about a video camera?” she said. “We could lower it down. Safer than tempting fate.”

“That, Remi, is brilliant.”

Later that afternoon, they returned with the needed equipment. Sam had managed to rig a small cage that held the camera tilted at a slight angle downward with a flashlight next to it. To keep the contraption from spinning, they attached the cage to two sixty-meter ropes, Sam on one side of the cavern entrance and Dimitris on the other. The basket hit something solid close to the fifteen-meter mark.

“Must be the bottom,” Dimitris said.

They lifted the rope a few feet on each side, then moved in a clockwise circle. At one point, Remi thought she saw a flash of white, but the light moved past before she could tell what it was. Finally, they lifted the camera to the surface and removed it from the cage.

The three moved away from the opening, and sitting beneath the shade of the tree, Dimitris opened the control panel of the camera and rewound the video to the start. When he played it back, they saw the rough cave wall as the camera descended. Apparently what it hit wasn’t the bottom at all, but a ledge.