text said that some of the royal court were opposed to using its power. Or maybe they didn’t originally have all three statues—or anyone who could use them. It was obviously a big thing for Nantalas to be able to channel earth energy, so it could have been as rare an ability then as it is now, even among Atlanteans.”
“Maybe you’re her great-great-great-great-et-cetera-granddaughter,” Eddie suggested.
Nina treated the jokey comment with more seriousness. “Maybe. I’m descended from someone from Atlantis, so who knows?”
The collapsed temple disappeared from view. Beyond it, something far larger came into sight.
The Temple of Poseidon.
Even after the destruction wrought upon it by the impact of the sunken Evenor, it was still an imposing structure. The submersible was approaching its northern end, where Eddie had first entered the temple five years earlier. An enormous wall of dark stone rose out of the sediment, stepped in tiers like a ziggurat near its base before curving smoothly inward to form a great arched roof.
Nina noticed a sudden tension in her husband at the sight. “Hugo?” she asked quietly. Eddie gave her a silent nod; one of his closest friends had died here. Matt also became uncharacteristically somber for a moment. Eddie had not been the only one to suffer a loss at Atlantis.
The submersible drew closer. “That’s the tunnel,” said Eddie, pointing at a small hole in the wall. The shaft had been constructed by the Atlanteans as a secret passage leading directly to the altar room.
“You don’t need to crawl through a little hole to get inside now,” said Matt as he guided the Sharkdozer toward the roof. The wreck of the Evenor came into sight, a long white ax that had sliced the four-hundred-foot-long temple in two. Something bright flickered in the gloom atop the rubble. “There’s the altar room.”
He brought the sub into a hover near the object, a marker pole covered in reflective material that caught the spotlights. Not far from it was a twisted mass of metal—part of the Evenor’s superstructure. The excavated sections of the altar room were visible before it, orichalcum sheets glinting on the walls.
Gypsy moved ahead of them and came to a stop above the dig site. “Sharkdozer in position, confirm,” said Matt over the radio.
“Read you, Sharkdozer,” Hayter’s crackly voice replied. “Gypsy also in position.”
“Roger that.” Matt turned to Nina and Eddie. “This is the boring part, I’m afraid.”
“That’s okay,” said Nina. “I want to watch the whole thing. You never know what might turn up.”
“I’ll give it a miss,” Eddie said. He took a creased paperback thriller from inside his leather jacket and thumbed it open. “Been meaning to finish this for ages. I got interrupted by the whole wanted-for-murder business. I’ll just read it while you’re telling Matt how to dig.”
“I’m not going to do that,” she assured Matt.
“Too bloody right you’re not!” the Australian replied with mock offense as he took the manipulator controls. “Okay, Gypsy, I’m ready to start.”
The other submersible moved closer, spotlights and cameras panning for a clearer view as Matt began the long and involved task of removing the debris covering the altar room. The first priority was the wreckage from the Evenor; even though most of it had already been cut away, it was still a hefty chunk of steel heavier than the Sharkdozer could lift using its thrusters alone. It wasn’t until the sub touched down on top of the temple and used its skids to brace itself that the arms could apply enough leverage to start raising the broken section of superstructure.
It took the better part of an hour to get it safely clear. Once it had been dumped in the silt away from the building, work began in earnest. None of the fallen slabs was as heavy as the ship debris, but they were still fairly massive in their own right.
Time passed. Matt took a break to recharge with an energy drink and a sandwich, while Nina forced herself not to tap her fingers impatiently. Eddie smirked at her over the top of his novel, knowing how she was feeling. Then the work continued, the obstructing blocks gradually becoming fewer in number. Until—
“There!” said Nina as Matt hauled one of the remaining slabs out of the way. “There it is!”
A golden light reflected back at them from the sheet of precious metal covering the newly revealed wall. It had been damaged in several places, a great jagged rip through one entire section obliterating the text … but the crucial