Page 9 (1/2)

Pitt sloa"

"Can you make out details of the bottom?"

"Fairly well," replied Pitt "The water is transparent as glass but quite dark The scuht on the bottom by seventy percent It's a bit dark around the walls so I'll have to swim a search pattern so I won't miss the bodies"

"Do you have enough slack on the safety line?"

"Maintain a slight tension so it won't hinder o deeper"

For the next twelveevery cavity, descending as if revolving around a giant corkscrew The limestone, laid down hundreds of e, abstract iuid slow ht back and forth in front of hi over a botto

Finally, he leveled out over the floor of the sacrificial pool No firly brown silt broken by clusters of grayish rock "I have the botton of Kelsey or Rodgers"

Far above the pool, Miller gave Giordino a dazed look "They must be down there Impossible for them to simply vanish"

Far below, Pitt kicked slowly across the bottoood ht billow into a blinding cloud and reduce his visibility to zero within seconds

Once disturbed, silt could re back to the bottoave an involuntary shudder The water had turned uncomfortably cold as he passed into a cool layer suspended beneath the warh lift froht head-down, fins-up swi position

Cautiously, he reached down and gently sank his hands into the brown muck They touched bedrock before the silt rose to his wrists Pitt thought it strange the silt was so shallow After countless centuries of erosion froround above, the rocky subsurface should have been covered with a layer at least 2 meters (over 6 feet) deep He went motionless and floated over what looked like a field of bleached white tree linarled with small protrusions, he eased it out of the bed of silt He found hi at a spinal column from an ancient sacrificial victim

Giordino's voice broke through his earphones "Speak to me"

"Depth thirty-sevenaside the spinal column "The floor of the pool is a bone yard There must be two hundred skeletons scattered around down here"

"Still no sign of bodies?"

"Not yet"