of artwork.”
“There is one other idea that came to mind,” said Paul. “We could try getting to the Marbles before they got shipped into London.”
“When was that?”
“Early eighteen hundreds,” said Nordhausen. “The 7th Earl of Elgin actually wanted them for a home he was planning to build, and he was using one of his own ships after he finagled a way to get at them in the Parthenon. It was called the Mentor, and it suffered a little mishap on the route home.”
“That’s what I was thinking of,” said Paul. “The ship went down in a storm.”
“Correct,” said Nordhausen. “Sea transport of heavy items is always chancy. I’m amazed the British tried it in World War Two. Just two days out of port, the Mentor encountered rising winds and seas, and the Captain, a man named Hegland, found the ship was taking on water. He advised they run for the nearest port, which was Avlemonas on San Nikolo Bay, on the Island of Kythira. As they approached the port both of their anchors failed to secure to the seabed, and the ship was in very heavy waters. They tried to maneuver, but ran afoul of some rocks, and the whole thing went down, marbles and all. They eventually hired seven divers and mounted a salvage operation, but it took a full two years to get everything up.”
“I like that,” said Paul. “If we could get to them first, then we could get the key before it ever reached London.”
Maeve shook her head. “You propose doing a little scuba diving yourself? Didn’t you hear? It took them two years to recover everything.”
“I won’t do the diving, but I know someone who can—that ship, the Argos Fire. They’ll have well trained divers, even a submersible.”
Maeve rolled her eyes. “And just how do you propose to commandeer their ship, then move it in time to the desired point for this little salvage operation?”
“Alright, forget the submersible. Perhaps we could just borrow their divers.”
“And how do you get them there? When did this happen, Robert?”
“17th September, 1802. I did a good bit of research on this since Paul told us how he found that key. But she has a good point there, Paul. We can move you about easily enough, but divers?”
“Never mind that for now,” said Paul. “First I have to keep my appointment in the Azores. I’ll meet with them, propose these operations, and see what they say. That ship moved in time, and we still don’t really know how for sure. If they had some other means of pulling that off, I’d like to know about it, wouldn’t you, Maeve? After all, here we are trying to salvage this operation, and we’ve got these ships shifting into WWII! We need to get to the bottom of this, and if need be, to find a way to get to the bottom of San Nikolo Bay on a quiet night in 1802. It’s perfect! No one will see us, because it will all happen underwater. We find the Marbles using hand held radar gizmos, or night optics. Then we locate the Selene Horse and get that damn key. If it does secure another time rift, then I think I can tell you where it is. I copied those numbers I found on the shaft of the key, and I’ve done some checking. They’re map coordinates!” He smiled, a mischievous light in his eye.
* * *
The longer they looked at the readings the more precarious the situation became. The Golem Module had clearly identified the initial Point of Divergence as emanating from the accident on July 28th, 2021, and involving both the Russian submarine Orel and the battlecruiser Kirov. While Orel was destroyed, Kirov was displaced in time by almost exactly 80 years. Yet the data stream now showed the ship’s position in time did not remain stable, and the damage it was causing to the integrity of the continuum was considerable every time it moved.
“I don’t understand how the ship is moving in each case,” said Paul. “A few of the displacements seem to be the obvious result of these massive explosive events, but there are others where that is not the case. Their second shift was also catalyzed by the use of nuclear weapons, and they end up moving slightly forward in time, into 1942. That’s when they wreak havoc with the British Operation Pedestal.”
“Some real oddities crop up there,” said Nordhausen, his eyes running over the Golem reports. “This one didn’t