Senior Year Box Set

We left the gear tent and walked over to the tent where their dad was. He was all business and looked a little excited. Umberto pointed to a hand-drawn map that showed the site. It appeared to be a pretty detailed representation of the cave system. The map showed where the caves started at the edge of the island and worked their way to where we were.

“We’ve been able to map the path from the sea to this point. I thought we were at a dead-end, but Alex spotted rocks piled up here,” Umberto said as he pointed at the map. “After some careful investigation, we determined that someone had put the rocks there; it wasn’t a natural phenomenon. For the last two days, we worked to remove the rocks and discovered a tunnel that we hope will lead us to the artifacts.”

“We’ll be the first people in there in hundreds of years,” Nat said excitedly.

Alex seemed to be just as enthused, and their excitement was contagious. I looked forward to seeing history rediscovered. Personally, I doubted we would find any hidden treasure, but who knew?

“Let’s get this started, then,” Alex said.

Umberto pulled the SUV close to a taped-off area. I followed everyone to the site. What I found was a hole in the ground. The twins and I stepped over to the edge and looked in. Sunlight would occasionally reflect off water that had to be at least ten feet down, if not more.

I discovered why Umberto had pulled the SUV over: it had a winch on the front. His helpers pulled the cable out. They put a loop in it for a foothold so they could lower us into the water.

“Squeak!” Alex yelled, followed by a splash.

Alex and I looked at each other and nodded. If a girl could jump in, we weren’t standing around with our thumbs up our butts.

“Wait!” Umberto called as Alex and I jumped.

For a terrifying second, I worried I’d made a colossal mistake. Luckily, the water was deep. It was also cold; I was glad I’d rented the wetsuit. When I reached the surface, I found the twins grinning like they’d just snuck a bottle of their father’s best whiskey from his private stash.

“You kids are going to be the death of me,” Umberto complained once he’d made sure everyone was okay. “Your job is to dive through the tunnel and confirm there’s a room on the other side. Take pictures and come back. Radio us with what you find. And make damned sure you use the guidelines!”

“We know the drill,” Alex called up to his clearly pissed-off father.

While we had been talking, I’d noticed Nat had donned her gear and set up a bright yellow guideline. She then dove for the opening, trailing the line. I watch her light disappear.

“Where’s Nat?” Alex asked me, looking concerned.

I pointed, and he rolled his eyes.

“That little brat never listens to me.”

“Isn’t that true of women in general?” I asked with a straight face.

“You’re probably right, but we dive together for safety. It’s especially important to always use guidelines when you’re cave diving. If you get disoriented or lost in a cave, you very likely will die.”

That gave me pause. What I’d initially thought of as a lark had a very real element of danger to it, so I resolved to be careful.

“We’d better get going,” Alex said.

The two of us put on our fins and masks, tested our regulators, and turned on our lights. We followed the guideline to the tunnel opening, and I was glad to see it was big enough for someone to walk through. I’d been afraid it would be tight like the tunnel Brook and I dove through in the Caribbean.

It was dark in the cave, but fortunately, the water was crystal clear, so our flashlights lit up the tunnel for a good distance in front of us. It really bothered me when I realized it would be pitch black if our lights went out. Up ahead, I saw a light point toward us. I realized it was Nat, but the old saying about it possibly being an oncoming train ran through my head.

When we came to the end of the tunnel, we found steps leading upwards cut into the stone. Nat had anchored the line on a rock a couple of feet under the water and had paused until we were all together before going on.

“You brat, why didn’t you wait for me? You know better than to dive alone,” Alex scolded her.

She gave him a cute pout. I shook my head when the mad in Alex seemed to drain out of him.

“Be more careful next time,” was his last comment about it.

We took off our fins, mask, tanks, and other equipment and left them on the stairs. When we were just in our wetsuits, we went up to see what we would find. The room had a tall ceiling I would estimate to be about twenty feet high. The room itself looked to be about twelve by twenty.

Alex spotted something on the wall and was brushing it off.

“Alex! You know better,” Nat chastised her brother.

“I just wanted to confirm this symbol is from Barbary pirates.”

“Let me see,” Nat said.

I looked over their shoulders. Engraved in the wall was what looked like a knife that had been split in the middle and curved outward like an exaggerated snake’s split tongue.

“Take pictures of that,” Alex told his sister.