The Oracle's Message. Alex Archer
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was eighty and seemed to be fighting his growing age with a tenacity that defied the aging process.
Did he think the pearl would help him stave off his inevitable death?
It was possible, she supposed. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d run into crazy people who thought that immortality was worth whatever price you had to pay to try to achieve it.
Annja glanced at her oxygen gauge. They’d been underwater for almost forty minutes and would have to surface soon.
Hans seemed to read her mind and pointed back the way they’d come. Annja followed him. They left the warmer waters and Annja shivered slightly as she breached the cooler waters where the reef dropped off.
She glanced to her side, thinking about how close she’d come to being devoured by the tiger shark yesterday. Out there in the deep waters, they ruled the roost.
Hans pointed ahead and Annja saw the rest of the team had reassembled back at their entry point.
Time to surface.
Annja checked her depth gauge and saw she’d have to rise slowly. She’d gone deeper than she had yesterday and would need extra time to reduce the danger of the bends.
Mueller and Heinkel went up first. Annja watched them slowly rise toward the surface. Spier and Gottlieb went up next and then Hans and Annja started their ascent.
Annja watched her air bubbles.
Hans watched her as they rose together, his eyes locked on hers.
Annja tried to grin at him, but she tasted more salt water and gave up trying. There’d be enough to talk about once they got back onto the boat.
Sunlight filtered down through the waves and Annja could feel its warmth even ten feet below the surface. A few small fish rose to investigate her, but then quickly scattered when Hans moved his hands in the water.
Annja kept her eyes always moving. She could taste the last third of her oxygen now. It was stale in her mouth.
Spier had timed his exploration perfectly.
Annja broke the surface a few minutes later and saw that dark, angry clouds blotted the horizon.
The sloop bobbed in the waves nearby. Mueller and Heinkel were already aboard, with Spier and Gottlieb closing in on the sloop.
Hans came up next to her. “You all right?”
“Absolutely.”
Hans noticed the clouds. “Looks like things are going to go downhill from here, don’t they?”
“Definitely going to rain. Hard.”
Hans nodded. “So, it will be a good afternoon for a hearty lunch and then perhaps a nap.”
“A nap?” Annja asked.
He winked. “I’m a growing boy. I need my rest.”
She pushed him toward the sloop. “Let’s get aboard.”
She swam over to the sloop and Hans helped her climb up. Heinkel took her oxygen tank and weight belt. Gottlieb handed her a towel and Annja rubbed it over her hair.
Spier smiled at her. “So, Annja, what did you think of our first dive?”
“It was bigger than I imagined. I thought it was just like any other reef when I started to explore it yesterday.”
Spier laughed. “Hardly. Although I’m not surprised you were drawn to it. It’s intriguing, isn’t it?”
“You could say that.”
“So, are you convinced?”
“About what?”
“That the reef is, in fact, the remnants of a lost city.”
9
“How can you be so sure?” Annja asked as the sloop whisked them back toward the Club Noah resort. “Those ruins might be something else entirely. There’s no record of the civilization ever existing.”
“But the pearl had to come from somewhere, didn’t it?” Spier’s eyes sparkled in the fading sunlight.
Annja glanced to the west and saw the clouds growing darker. They’d be lucky to get back to the dock before the sky opened up on them. Already, the waves they bounced over were churning white as the wind kicked up.
“We don’t have the pearl yet,” Annja said. “So, there’s no way of knowing for sure where it might have come from.”
Spier smiled as if he were humoring a child. “I think we’ll be able to convince you more fully on our next dive.”
Hans frowned. “That likely won’t happen until tomorrow. Judging from the approaching storm, it’s going to be quite unsettled for a while.”
Spier shrugged. “We could always go night diving tonight once the storm clouds pass.”
“A night dive?” Annja frowned. She hadn’t gone night diving in a very long time. The risks of diving at night were always so much more than during the day. For one thing, visibility was almost nonexistent unless you had state-of-the-art lights.
“We’ll be fine,” Spier said, as if reading her thoughts. “We’re all experienced night divers and Heinkel here has brought along the powerful lamps we’ll need to set up on the reef.”
“You think the dive master will let us take his boat and gear out for a night dive? He strikes me as rather easily upset,” Annja said.
Hans laughed. “A few well-placed dollars should suffice.”
“More bribery?”
Spier shrugged. “Why not? At least this way we know we’ll be able to get what we came here for.”
“And what did you come here for?” Annja asked. “I mean, I know you want the pearl and all, but for what purpose?”
“I thought I told you last night,” Spier said. “I wish to have the scientific community take a look at it. Examine it. Discover the true nature of the pearl and what its powers might be.”
“Maybe it’s just a black stone,” Annja said. “Without any powers whatsoever.”
“That would be regrettable,” Spier said. “To have traveled all this way only to find out such a thing. Tragic.”
Annja felt a few raindrops hit her face and looked up. The sun had vanished, replaced by the boiling cloud mass above them. Dark streaks mixed with gray, swirling about like steam from some evil black-magic cauldron.
“I think we’re about to get—”
Annja never finished her sentence because at that moment a crack of lightning flashed above them, followed by a rumble of thunder.
A deluge of rain flowed down over them in sheets of tepid water. Mueller guided the sloop to the resort’s dock and they scrambled ashore, grabbing their gear and making for the dive master’s shack.
He seemed genuinely glad to see them and took all the equipment back. Spier smiled at him. “You’ll refill those tanks right away, won’t you?”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because we’ll need them again later tonight.”
“Later? This storm isn’t going to let up anytime soon. You’d be foolish to go venturing out in this.”
“We won’t,” Spier said. “But we will once it passes.”
“That could be midnight.”
“So it might be midnight.” Spier held out his hand and, while the team looked away, Annja saw the dive master pocket the sheaf of bills Spier passed him.
Money certainly doesn’t seem to be an issue for Spier, she