Abigail had never been big on flying, so she spent most of the flight to Mexico with her hand wrapped in Ben's, eyes closed, and Riley's borrowed Ipod stuck in her ears. The boys were going over plans again on Riley's laptop as she pretended to sleep. They would arrive early in the morning, giving them enough time to check in to their hotel and grab something to eat before they headed to the caves. They had reservations for a private tour - they had permission to go without a tour guide because Ben knew how to dive and still held a degree in it.
"It's so hot!" Riley groaned as they drove down the highway in the car Ben had rented - a SUV similar to the one they had at home.
"The air conditioner is on." Abigail muttered, glancing back at Riley in the backseat, who was exaggerating his hotness by fanning himself with a tourist map he had found under the seat. "And we don't have very much farther to go."
"Ugh." Was all Abigail got in response. Assured that Riley would be quiet the rest of the drive, she continued to stare back out the window. They were driving along the coast, every once in a while passing a Spanish villa. It was rather beautiful - she wouldn't mind taking a vacation here.
"You know," Riley began again, leaning up between the seats. Abigail glanced over at him. "Abigail and I have no clue how to dive."
"It's not hard." Ben gave a slight shrug. "I don't have time to give you a full course, but just breath through the respirator in your mouth and make sure your oxygen doesn't get too low."
"That's it?"
"It's harder than it appears." Ben replied. They were pulling into the driveway to the place where the caves started, and people gave the tours. "You'll see in a minute."
Abigail followed Ben inside, merely glancing around at the gear and brochures they had hanging around. Ben was renting them what they needed.
The three of them pulled on wetsuits - Ben and Riley's with a blue stripe down the side, hers with a pink. Ben showed them how to pull on their gear before they headed to the beach, where tour groups were getting together. The trio stood off to one side, Abigail pulling her hair back into a long ponytail to keep it out of her face as Ben spoke.
"If we need to talk, there are built in radios, so all you have to do it talk into your respirator and the other two will hear you. I'm not sure how deep we're going to need to go down into these caves, but if our oxygen starts getting low, we're pulling back up no matter what." Ben explained and Abigail and Riley nodded.
"Right. Lets get this over with."
They waded into the warm waters, disappearing beneath the surface once their feet could no longer touch bottom. They were heading for the coastal drop-off, where the water instantly got deeper. There was a long rope that ran out - used for tour groups to hang onto so they didn't get lost. They used it to pull themselves along to the shelf, before sinking down. A school of fish swam by and Riley spazzed.
"Calm down Riley." Ben's voice echoed. "Nothing's going to get you."
"Except a man-eating shark."
"Shark attacks are rare." Abigail piped up as bubbles floated up around them.
"Knowing my luck, one will come out of these caves and kill me."
"Stop being so pessimistic."
They continued in silence, swimming vertical to the coastal shelf, until they reached a large opening with another rope tied across it. Ben led the way inside. Lights that had been built into the walls - probably by the people who offered the tours - lit the way through the darkness of the underwater cave.
"I can't believe we're actually doing this." Abigail said aloud. They were diving after crystals that let them have passage into the city of Atlantis. Which wasn't supposed to exist. But like Ben had pointed out before, they lived off this sort of thing. The other treasures weren't supposed to exist, but they'd found them. Abigail wondered if they'd be successful this time.
"Try not to think about it." Ben replied. "We're going to be famous again."
"Just what I want. More reporters following me around, begging for an interview."
"And more money." Riley pointed out. Abigail fell silent - she didn't care about the money. They had plenty of money already. She guessed it was for the fun of the adventure, but that seemed to be the only reason. That, and because she backed Ben up in whatever he did - unless it was something completely stupid - and where he went, she went. And Riley followed.
They swam deeper into the cave, stopping when they reached another rope that was supposed to mark the end of how far back most of the other tours were supposed to go - and it was where the lights ended. Ignoring it, Ben pushed past it. Abigail and Riley followed, flipping on the lights that were attached to their wetsuits. All three lights illuminated their way.
The passage opened into a large cavern, where two different tunnels branched off.
"Which way?" Riley asked as Ben looked between the two tunnels. Abigail frowned slightly, noticing there seemed to be markings etched into the walls around the two entrances. She swam forward toward them, running her fingers across them.
"You mother didn't happen to teach you how to read this sort of thing, did she?" She asked Ben, who moved to join her.
"No. But it probably tells us which way to go."
"Left."
They both looked to Riley, who had swam up behind them without either of them knowing.
"How do you know that?"
Riley pointed to one of the markings next to what appeared to be an arrow, pointing to the right.
"I know this symbol, at least. It's some form of old Latin that I used to take in high school because my mom thought it'd be useful. That symbol means death, and this arrow that points right - going right means death. So go left."
"You couldn't have told us you spoke Latin before?"
Riley gave a shrug in the water, swimming backward a few feet. "Never needed it until now."
Ben didn't say anything else, instead continued to the left. The cave was smaller as they were forced to swim single file - at least until it opened up into another cavern. Ben suddenly threw out his arms for Abigail and Riley to stop.
"What is it?"
Ben nodded upward and Abigail froze in her place.
Half a dozen sharks were swimming toward the top of the cavern - light shone through, meaning surface on the other side of the sharks.
"I told you." Riley whispered. "And it looks like the only way to go is up."
"Those things will kill us the minute we try to swim past." Abigail murmured, looking over at Ben, who was already starting to strip off his oxygen tanks. Panic flooded Abigail's chest as he handed them to her.
"Swim toward the surface. Don't look back." He said before ripping his respirator out of his mouth. Abigail began to protest when she saw him swimming toward the wall - of sharp rocks - but Riley grabbed her and began to tug her upward. She watched in horror as Ben raked his arm against the sharp rocks, easily drawing blood.
Instantly, the sharks that had been above now rushed by Riley and Abigail, straight toward Ben. She tugged against Riley, trying to get to Ben, but Riley was stronger and had tugged her above the surface before she could escape.
"Ben!" She screamed, voice echoing along the cavern as she ripped her respirator out of her mouth and shoved both her and Ben's scuba equipment at Riley, before diving back under. All she could see was a frenzy of sharks and the water tinted slightly red.
"No!" Riley was pulling on her again, pulling her onto some sort of rocky shore. He pinned her down as she tried to fight him off. "Let me go Riley!"
"Just give him a minute!"
Abigail sat there, hyperventilating for a long moment.
Suddenly, Ben surfaced, gasping for breath. She scrambled to her feet and waded back into the water, helping him out, mindful of his bleeding arm.
They tumbled to the rocky shore, breathing heavily. Abigail punched him in his uninjured arm.
"Don't you ever do that to me again!"
"Sorry." Ben breathed, clutching his bleeding arm.
"Looks like we won't be going back that way." Riley muttered. "Besides, our tanks are almost empty. We used more than half getting here."
"Is this even where we need to be?" Abigail asked, clutching Ben's hand as she pulled them both to their feet.
"I'd say so." Riley pointed to the side of the cavern that Abigail hadn't looked at yet. She was met with a dazzling display of the whitest crystals she had ever seen in different shapes and sizes. She stepped forward, reaching out to touch one. It felt almost as if it were vibrating against her hand. Ben's hand pressed against the crystal next to hers and their gazes met for a moment, smiles crossing their faces.
"So how exactly do we break these out of the wall?"
"We only need three of the little ones. It's the kind they wore around their necks in the city." Ben said, pointing to where several small crystals were growing out of the wall. He reached forward and easily snapped three of them out of the rock, handing one to Riley, one to Abigail, and keeping one for himself.
"Now the hard part of getting back out of here." Abigail said, looking toward the ceiling. "No hopes of going that way."
"It's like the Templar Treasure - there's supposed to be a secondary shaft out for air, since they used to use this place as a mine for these crystals." Ben said, looking around now.
Riley tripped and stumbled, falling into the wall. It crumbled away, revealing another passage.
"You mean like this?"
. . .
"Sir, they're back on the surface. Headed back to their car now."
The dark haired man glanced at the screen, then to the man standing beside him.
"Let them go for now. We'll catch up with them soon. Let Gates do the work. We follow."