Read Online Atlantis Found by Clive Cussler - Free Book Online Page A

containing food and medical supplies behind me on a line, but it was torn away and lost after a torrent of water swept me against an old drill rig.”
    “Were you injured?” asked Pat solicitously.
    “Black and blue in places I care not to mention.”
    “It’s a miracle you found your way through that maze of tunnels to our exact location,” said Marquez.
    The stranger held up a small monitor, whose screen glowed an unearthly green. “An underwater computer, programmed with every shaft, crosscut, and tunnel in the Telluride canyon. Because your tunnel was blocked by the cave-in, I had to detour to a lower level, circle around, and travel from the opposite direction. As I was swimming through the tunnel, I caught the dim glimmer of light from your miner’s lamp. And here I am.”
    “Then no one aboveground knows that we were trapped by a cave-in,” stated Marquez.
    “They know,” the diver answered him. “My NUMA team called the sheriff as soon as we realized what happened.”
    Ambrose’s face showed an unhealthy pallor. He failed to display the enthusiasm of the others. “Is there another member of your dive team following you?” he asked slowly.
    The diver gave a slight shake of his head. “I’m alone. We were down to our last two tanks of air. I felt it was too risky for more than one man to make the attempt to reach you.”
    “It seems a waste of time and effort for you to have made the trip. I see little that you can do to save us.”
    “I may surprise you,” the diver said simply.
    “There is no way your twin scuba tanks hold enough air to take all four of us back through a labyrinth of flooded tunnels to the world aboveground. And since we’ll either drown or die of hypothermia in the next hour, you won’t have time to go and bring back help.”
    “You’ve very astute, Doctor. Two people might make it back to the Buccaneer Mine, but only two.”
    “Then you must take the lady.”
    The diver smiled ironically. “That’s very noble of you, my friend, but we’re not loading lifeboats on the Titanic.”
    “Please,” begged Marquez. “The water is still rising. Take Dr. O’Connell to safety.”
    “If it will make you happy,” he said, with seeming insensibility. He took Pat by the hand. “Have you ever used scuba gear before?”
    She shook her head.
    He aimed his dive light at the men. “How about you two?”
    “Does it really matter?” said Ambrose solemnly.
    “It does to me.”
    “I’m a qualified diver.”
    “I guessed as much. And you?”
    Marquez shrugged. “I can barely swim.”
    The diver turned to Pat who was carefully wrapping her camera and notebook in plastic. “You swim alongside me and we’ll buddy-breathe by passing the mouthpiece on my air regulator back and forth. I’ll take a breath and hand it to you. You take a breath and hand it back. As soon as we drop out of this chamber, grab hold of my weight belt and hang on.”
    Then he turned back to Ambrose and Marquez. “Sorry to disappoint you, fellows, but if you think you’re going to die, forget it. I’ll be back for you in fifteen minutes.”
    “Please make it less.” Marquez stared back from a face as gray as the granite. “The water will be over our heads in twenty minutes.”
    “Then I suggest you stand on tiptoe.”
    Taking Pat by the hand, the man from NUMA slipped beneath the water and disappeared in the murky water.
     
KEEPING the beam of his dive light aimed ahead in the tunnel, the diver followed one of the illuminated lines displayed on his little computer. Looking up from the tiny monitor, he aimed his dive light ahead into the tunnel and swam toward the forbidding shadows. The water had risen to the roof of the tunnel, and the surge he’d experienced earlier had fallen off. He stroked and kicked his fins mightily through the flooded cavern, dragging Pat behind him.
    Stealing a quick glance backward, he saw that her eyes were tightly closed, her hands clinging to his weight belt in a death