into the water, but about an hour.’
‘Great! Let’s get going, then.’
‘Might have known you’d be in a rush! No worries – we’ll have pictures for you before the day’s out.’
‘I don’t just want pictures,’ she replied. ‘I want to see it for myself. I’m going with you.’
Hayter looked startled at the suggestion, Matt less so. ‘You want to come along?’ the archaeologist asked. ‘In the subs?’
‘No, I thought I’d put on goggles and flippers and use a very long snorkel. Yes, in the subs.’
‘Sarcasm isn’t really necessary,’ he said sourly. ‘It’s just that Gypsy only has room for two people in addition to the pilot. As expedition leader I’ll be one of them, and I’ll need Lydia in support, as she knows the site first-hand.’
‘Not a problem,’ said Nina. ‘Eddie and I can go in Matt’s sub.’
‘We can, can we?’ Eddie grumbled.
‘Oh, you knew it was going to happen. You got to go down to the Temple of Poseidon last time – there’s no way I’m going to miss the chance now. Anyway, Sharkdozer has room for three people, doesn’t it, Matt?’
‘Four if you don’t mind being up in each other’s armpits,’ the Australian told her jovially.
‘We’ll keep it to three, then. The only person who should put up with Eddie’s armpits is his wife. And even then . . .’
‘Oi!’ protested her husband.
Hayter was still displeased with the prospect. ‘Are you sure this is a good idea, Nina?’
‘This won’t be my first time underwater, Lewis. And if you’re worried about having your boss looking over your shoulder, don’t be. Until we uncover the last of the Atlantean text I’ll only be there as an observer, and even then it’s still your dig.’
That mollified him, however slightly. ‘Well, I suppose that if Matt’s happy to have you as passengers . . .’
Matt shrugged. ‘No problem for me.’
‘Excellent,’ said Nina. She got to her feet. ‘In that case, let’s go and find out the fate of Atlantis.’
It took more than the predicted hour, the safety procedures being slowed by the Gant’s wallowing, but eventually both submersibles were descending towards the ruins of Atlantis.
Even though she knew there would be nothing to see until they reached the ocean floor eight hundred feet below, Nina nevertheless leaned round Matt in the central pilot’s position to watch their descent through the large acrylic bubble window. The light from the surface faded surprisingly quickly, the cold blue of the ocean outside becoming darker and more ominous before ultimately turning to darkness.
Matt switched on the sub’s spotlights. Nina experienced an oddly vertiginous feeling; the intense beams picked out particles in the water as the submersible dropped past them, the effect making it seem as though they were plunging like a falling elevator.
But she knew they were perfectly safe. Nothing might be visible through the viewport, but Matt’s sub was equipped with a LIDAR laser scanning system that swept the ocean around them far beyond the range of the human eye. The engineer had used similar systems in his previous craft, but this went a step further by covering a full three hundred and sixty degrees. Sharkdozer II was an odd-looking vessel: its main hull was a fairly standard cigar shape, but protruding from each side like the steroidal limbs of a bodybuilder were huge mechanical arms, almost comically out of proportion to the rest of the sub. Making them even stranger were the tool-equipped secondary arms sprouting from behind their wrists, designed for more delicate work than the brute-force claws of their parents. The whole submersible was mounted upon four helicopter-like skids, each of which could be independently adjusted hydraulically to give it as much lifting leverage as possible against the ocean floor. The LIDAR scanner, allied with the cameras on each of the four ‘hands’, meant the arms could be operated even if they were out of direct sight of a viewport.
The only thing currently on the LIDAR display was the expedition’s other sub. Gypsy was some thirty metres to their right, the spears of its own spotlights visible through a small secondary porthole. It was a much more conventional vessel, equipped with a single, far smaller manipulator arm and numerous camera mounts and sample racks. Hayter’s voice crackled over the radio. ‘Passing three hundred feet, confirm.’
‘Confirm,’ Matt replied. Radio communications were possible underwater, but only at very limited ranges, and the message was already distorted.
Eddie examined the controls for the arms. Rather than being simple joysticks, they were also able to bend and twist.