Amber by David Wood Read Free Book Online

pulled themselves by the door frame into the space.
    Willis was lying on the floor of the room in a far corner, reaching his hands into a low crevice of a space while his light bounced around randomly on a tether attached to his wrist. A second set of scuba gear—not the one Willis wore on his back—lay on the floor at the edge of the opening.
    “Talk to me, Willis!” Maddock and Bones swam across the mostly bare room to where Willis lay.
    “Prof tried but couldn’t fit through here with is tank on, so he took off his tank to fit back there to where he said it opens up into a larger space. Took a big breath and—“
    “How long has he been in there?” Maddock slid alongside Willis and directed his light beam into the crevice. Bones went to Willis’ other side and did the same.
    Willis eyeballed his dive watch. “Forty-five seconds.”
    “I don’t see him back there.” Bones swept his light toward the back of the crevice, where it sloped up toward some natural light.
    “I’m going in. Willis: stay here. Bones: swim around to the other side and see if you can access the space from where that light comes in.”
    “Dane, are you sure...” Willis began, but Maddock had already shrugged off his tank. He ripped off his mask and shimmied beneath the overhanging metal, as Professor had done before him. Carrying his dive light in one hand, he kicked into the narrow area, now without a mask on, since the full face masks with integrated comm were connected directly to the scuba tank. The only way to take off the tank was to take off the mask, too. In light of this fact, Maddock knew that Willis must have seen something that he deemed very promising in order to go through all of that potentially dangerous trouble.
    Yet when the three of them had looked into the area with their lights, nothing obvious was there. But Professor had surely seen something, but now he wasn’t even in here anymore...Maddock interrupted his own thoughts as he reached what he had thought was the rear of the cramped confines. Because light streamed in from above and a wall was only a couple of feet in front of him, he had thought that the chamber ended here. But even with his blurry vision, he could see this was not the case.
    He could even feel the floor drop out from under him as he reached the far wall, the skin on his face and neck reacting to the sudden decrease in temperature. Looking down, he saw a precipitous slope drop away until it passed beneath the wall of the room. Tilting his head upward to see the source of the light, he could tell that two crumpled pieces of metal met, leaving an irregular sliver through which light passed. He wasn’t sure if it was wide enough for a human to pass through. He looked around the room one more time to be sure he wasn’t missing Professor, and when he didn’t see him Maddock dove down into the new passage, if that’s what it was. For all he knew it could dead-end a few feet down. Which could be a good thing.
    In that case, Professor should be here. If he’s not... Maddock shoved the grim thought from his mind and pushed his way deeper, keeping his light out in front of him so that he would hit that instead of his head if something came up suddenly. It occurred to him as he swam down that the explosion they’d heard could have opened up this gap in the flooring—that maybe Professor hadn’t meant to come down here but had the floor drop out from beneath him.
    The first pang of oxygen starvation hit Maddock’s lungs. He had to find Professor and get back to their tanks, fast. And in the back of his mind, even through the predicament he now found himself in, he couldn’t help but wonder: what had caused that blast? It must be the Russians, but how? Depth charges? Mines? Semtex? Did they not care what damage they did to the wreck? Had they already recovered something of value from it relating to the Amber Room and so now had no qualms about destroying it? And did they know there were uninvited