“Could it have been the Frost sub?”

“No, sir. That was already heading back to the surface, while this was on the seabed. One of the divers must have destroyed it.”

Qobras turned to Philby for an explanation. “Kari-I mean, Ms. Frost-and Chase were inside the temple,” the professor said, almost stuttering in his nervousness. “It must have been Castille.”

“Go, Hugo!” Nina said, with no joy. Starkman fixed her with a nasty look from his good eye.

The furrows on Qobras’s brow deepened. “We needed the Zeus to plant the explosives! How long will it take to get a replacement here?”

“At least five days, sir.”

“Too long. Frost can get more people and equipment here before then. And this time, they’ll be prepared for us.”

“What about their other sub?” Starkman asked, gesturing towards the Evenor’s bow, and the Sharkdozer.

“Only I know how to pilot it,” Trulli said defiantly. “And if you bastards think I’m going to help you after you killed my mate, you can fuck right off.”

Starkman looked annoyed and raised his gun, but Qobras shook his head. “Have the remaining demolition charges from our ship brought aboard this one,” he said after a few seconds of thought. “Set two thirds of them below the waterline forward, and the remainder aft.”

“What are you going to do?” Nina asked.

“Since I can no longer destroy the temple with explosives,” said Qobras, turning back to her, “I need some other method. Three thousand tons of steel dropped directly onto it should be an effective alternative.”

Ignoring the armed men around him, Captain Matthews stepped forward. “Qobras! What about my crew? What are you going to do with us?”

Qobras eyed him dismissively. “I believe there’s a maritime tradition that the captain should go down with his ship. In this case, that will apply to his crew as well.” He glanced back at Nina. “And his passengers.”

“You son of a bitch,” Matthews spat.

“You’re going to drown us?” Nina said, horrified.

Qobras shook his head. “No, no. I’m not a cruel man, or some crazed sadist, whatever your friends the Frosts may have said about me. When the ship sinks, you will already be dead.”

Chase checked his air supply. The deep suits were designed for long durations underwater, but they still had a limit. He had around another hour’s supply.

One hour. After that, he and Kari would become permanent residents in the ancient temple…

Kari had had the same thought. “There must be another way out,” she said, pointing down the stairs. “The water couldn’t have filled the main chamber through the secret passage, otherwise this room would be flooded as well.”

“Doesn’t mean we’ll be able to get through it,” Chase reminded her as he descended the steps.

“We still have to try.”

“I know, I was just preparing for the worst. It’s a British thing. How many of those big glow sticks do you have? We’ll need as much light as we can get.”

Kari checked the pouch on her belt. “Six.”

“Same here. Okay, let’s take a look.”

They waded into the frigid water.

Castille swam back to the site of the entrance. The cloud of silt kicked up by the explosion was still hanging there, and he knew from past experience that such murky water could take hours to clear.

Undaunted, he entered the cloud anyway. It was like an extremely thick brown fog, even the beam of his flashlight almost completely obscured by the drifting sediment.

He didn’t need to see to know that the passage had been sealed, however. Chunks of shattered stone lay on the seabed beneath his feet. Locating the line Chase had led into the tunnel, he tugged it experimentally. It didn’t give at all.

Using the suit’s thrusters to return to clearer water, he checked his air supply and considered his options. An hour left. He could easily return to the surface…

But the mere fact that they had been attacked suggested that the situation topside was dire. Qobras’s ship would have reached the Evenor by now. Apart from his knife he was unarmed, and on the surface, trapped inside the bulky deep suit, he would be almost useless in a fight.

Which meant that all he could do now was find some way to help Chase and Kari escape from the temple.

If they had survived.

The atmosphere on the helipad was tense. A few of the crew were close to tears, or panic. Others muttered fast prayers. Qobras’s men circled them, raising their MP-7s…

“Wait,” said Nina, masking her terror with as much determination as she could muster.

“For what?” Qobras asked.

“I’ll make you a deal. Let the crew use the lifeboats before you sink the ship, and…” She took a deep breath. “And I’ll give myself up to you.”

Starkman snorted dismissively as Qobras let out a brief, humorless laugh. “I already have you, Dr. Wilde! There’s nothing you can offer me-I have what I want. I know the location of Atlantis, and now I’m going to destroy it!”

“There’s something you don’t know, though,” Nina said with a thin smile. “The location of the third Temple of Poseidon.”

Qobras’s expression changed to one of wary surprise. “There is no third temple, Dr. Wilde. There is the one in Brazil, which has been destroyed, and the one below us, which will soon join it. The trail of the Atlanteans ends here.”

“Uh-uh.” Nina shook her head. “There’s a third one. And sooner or later, somebody’s going to find it. You think that just smashing the temple’s going to eliminate all the clues? People know where Atlantis is now. Word’s going to get out, and people will come looking. There’s a whole city down there, not just the temple. Sooner or later, someone’ll put the pieces together and be able to follow the trail. The secret you’ve been trying to hide’s going to be found, and there won’t be anything you can do about it. Unless…”

“Unless what?” There was menace in Qobras’s tone, but he was also intrigued.

“Unless I tell you where it is. So you can destroy it personally.”

“This is bullshit,” Starkman cut in. “She doesn’t know anything, she’s just trying to buy time and save herself.”

“Mr. Qobras, tell Patch here to shut the hell up,” Nina said, defiant despite her fear. Starkman bristled, but said nothing. “There is a third temple, a third citadel. Before the deluge, the Atlanteans were preparing to establish two new colonies. One expedition went west, to Brazil, the other… Well, I know where they went. And I’ll tell you. If you let the crew live.”

Starkman pressed his gun against Matthews’s head. “Or we could just execute them one by one until you tell us.”

“Seeing as you were going to kill us all anyway, that’s not really much of a deal,” Nina retorted.

Qobras rounded on Philby. “Is she telling the truth?”

“She, ah, could be,” Philby said, flustered. “The final inscriptions inside the temple did seem to indicate that the Atlanteans were planning to resettle in more than one location-but I didn’t have time to translate enough of it to be sure.” He regarded Nina suspiciously. “And I don’t see how she could have either.”

“I’m a quick study, Jack,” Nina sneered.

“Can you translate the rest?” Qobras asked.

Philby shook his head and sighed. “Not anymore.”

“Ha!” Nina made a face at Starkman. “Betcha wish you hadn’t smashed the hard drive now, huh?” She turned to Qobras. “So, what’s it going to be? I made you an offer, and it still stands. Let the crew live and I’ll take you to the last outpost of Atlantis.”