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Riley nodded "I agree"

The three divers, ere to re the reserve air tanks and securing the end of an orange fluorescent cord that ound around a large reel As they arranged the gear, the dive lights danced spase walls, and their voices seenified

When Pitt and Riley had re boots and replaced therabbed hold of the reel and continued on, unwinding the safety line as they went

The water soon came to their waists They halted to adjust their face ulators Then they dropped into the liquid void

Below the surface it was cold and glooly sharp, and Pitt felt a shiver of almost superstitious ahen he spied a tiny salaenerated to the point of total blindness He marveled that any kind of life form could exist in such entombed isolation

The quarry's escape shaft see, bottoh some cursed and unmentionable force lurked in the shadowy depths beyond the beahts

After ten minutes by Pitt's dive watch they stopped and took stock Their depth gauges registered 105

feet From beneath his face mask Pitt's eyes studied Riley The dive e and then nodded an okay to keep going

The shaft began to widen into a cavern and the sides turned a dirty gold color They had finally passed into a gallery of the limestone quarry The floor leveled out and Pitt noted that the depth had slowly risen to sixty feet He aiht upward The beam reflected on what looked like a blanket of quicksilver

He ascended like a ghost in flight and suddenly broke into air

He had surfaced in an air pocket below the ceiling of a large domed chamber A crowd of stalactites fell around hi inches above the water Too late, Pitt ducked under to warn Riley

Unable to see because of the surface reflection, Riley ra the glass The bridge of his nose was gashed and his eyelids were sliced He would not know until later that the lens of his left eye was gone

Pitt threaded his way through the cone-shaped trunks and gripped Riley under the arms

"What happened?" Riley hts out?"

"You ht is broken I lost mine"