Familiar Mirage. Caroline Burnes
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scientists, and they followed the markers down through the depths.
Beth’s first glimpse of Herakleion made her stop her progress and simply stare. In all her excursions to date, she’d always worked to bring a buried site from the soil, carefully brushing layer after layer of soil away from the ruins. In this instance, the city rested on the white-sand floor of the sea. Some silt had built up, but most of the city was visible, rising from the floor of the sea like Atlantis.
Entire buildings were still intact. Beth’s crew stopped behind her, all of them staring at what had once been a thriving seaport.
Beth motioned her crew forward and they swam into the city, the three pairs each covering a different quadrant as they searched for an edifice that might be a temple to the goddess Con.
True to his word, Omar stayed just behind her. She found his presence both a comfort and a distraction as she swam through the watery streets.
The scientists who’d done the initial work on the city had determined that an earthquake on the coast of Egypt had sent Herakleion and Menouthis into the sea. She saw that several ornate buildings, which had once been supported by columns, had collapsed. All the columns had fallen in the same direction, indicating that it was indeed an earthquake.
Omar touched her shoulder, pointing to the columns, and she was again struck by his knowledge of her profession. She swam on, wondering about the mysterious Omar Dukhan. Why was he working as her guide?
There was far more to the man than he’d presented when he’d applied to lead her expedition. Far more.
She found that she was troubled by that thought as she led the way down a narrow alley. A slight movement up ahead made her halt. Small schools of fish swam by, monochromatic flashes of silver in the dark water. Near the surface, she knew, they would take on the iridescent hues of blue, yellow, red and green.
When Omar touched her shoulder, she pointed ahead to where a swirl of water sent fish darting and weaving away.
Omar kept a hand on her shoulder until he slipped past her, turning on a diving light whose beam cut through the water and revealed a narrow alley.
Almost at its end a huge black shape spun, whirling sand and fish in all directions. Omar reached back and caught Beth’s hand, pulling her forward.
Her first instinct was to resist, but Omar’s gentle tug brought her alongside him as he moved slowly toward the black shape, the light beam shifting from side to side until the giant ray was fully revealed.
The black wings of the creature seemed to cover the entire alley as it spun and lifted into the water above them, a dark shadow passing swiftly over their heads.
Beth had done extensive diving, but she’d never seen a ray that big. They both watched as the creature disappeared.
This time Omar led the way into the alley.
While the other divers had selected the heart of the city to begin their search, Beth was operating on a hunch. Con was a goddess who came and went in Herakleion. Alexandria was actually the place she’d called home, as had her ancestors. Because much of Con’s fortune-telling abilities came in dreams, Beth was working on the premise that Con’s temple might be on the western edge of the city, where the sun set.
Legend had it that one of Con’s ancestors was the lover of Alexander the Great, and that she’d waited for his return in the city that bore his name. It was said that this ancient seer was the woman who’d given Alexander his greatest battle strategies. With her ability to see into the future, she could divine the plans of his enemies. Once Alexander knew their plans, he deployed his armies to defeat them.
Most scientists didn’t believe in Con or in any of the legends attached to her lineage. But most scientists were men, Beth thought as she swam behind Omar, watching his long legs kick rhythmically.
Men never wanted to believe that women had that kind of power. Or, at least, most men. A question that interested Beth personally was why, if Con had indeed had the power of second sight, she didn’t use the power for her own advantage. Why had Con and her female ancestors used their talents for men?
Beth gazed at the doorways of what once must have been a thriving area of the city. Most were hollow openings, the doors either long gone or nonexistent. She was about to follow Omar to a turn in the alley when she saw an engraving on a stout bronze door that was slightly ajar. She stopped to examine it. The long neck, the elegant head of a feline caught her immediate attention. It was a beautifully crafted carving. She traced the pattern with her fingertip. At her slightest touch the door fell open, and she found herself in a narrow entrance hall that led only to darkness.
She felt movement in the water behind her and turned to find that Omar had come back for her. She pointed into the hallway, and he fumbled with the light, finally bringing the beam to illuminate the interior.
Just as she was about to swim forward, Omar dropped the light. It seemed to fall in slow motion, as if it would never strike the bottom. Omar followed it, but he was too slow. The light struck the floor of the sea and went out.
Left in darkness, Beth wanted to cry or curse. She was on the right track—the proof that she so desperately needed had been within her grasp. But without the light, it would be insane to go into the dark recesses of the building. Most sea creatures were completely harmless, but not all of them.
Omar tapped her shoulder and made apologetic gestures. She forced herself to pantomime that she understood. It was an accident.
Checking her watch, she made a decision. She would send Omar back to the boat for another light. She would mark this spot with some of the floating markers she’d brought along and then try to find some other members of her crew and use their light.
She tried to make her decision clear to Omar, regretting each moment that she hadn’t purchased the more expensive dive equipment that would have allowed verbal communication. Hindsight was always twenty-twenty. She’d scrimped on the dive suits to be able to buy the underwater video, still-camera equipment and optic computer that would document her find.
Finally giving up on making Omar understand, she marked the spot with a balloon that she tied to the doorway and began to go in search of other crew members.
Omar swam behind her, keeping close enough to stay constantly in her thoughts. He was a highly perceptive man, and one who knew about diving. Why had it been so difficult to make him understand her need for another light? She gnawed at that question as she swam.
They’d swum for ten minutes when Omar tapped her shoulder, indicating that he was headed up for another light. Beth nodded, then continued on her way to find John and Ray or Judy and Sam.
She’d memorized the quadrants of the city that the others were searching and swam toward the nearest section with as much speed as she could muster. She saw the air bubbles before she saw the divers. John Gilmore was examining what could only be a sarcophagus. Camera at his eye, he was documenting the carvings and hieroglyphics that covered the stone funery.
He must have sensed her arrival because he looked up, lowering the camera. Ray swam over from the carvings he’d been studying. Beth motioned to them to help find the others. They immediately swam north while she headed west. It didn’t take her long to find Sam and Judy. She led Sam and Judy back to where she’d discovered John and Ray.
As soon as John and Ray returned, Beth made a few motions, describing her discovery, and they all swam back toward the alley.
Eyes open for the floating marker, Beth covered the same territory twice before she realized that, somehow, the marker was gone.
Borrowing John’s light, she searched the area until she found the alley. Once there, she led her crew to the doorway with the carved cat. Watching John’s face, she knew that her intuition was right on. His face registered the same excitement she felt, and he was already preparing the video camera.
Slowly, in the beam of two lights, the small crew entered the dark hallway, swimming carefully until they were suddenly in an open room that brought all of them to a stop.