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While they waited they had soed in the shade until the radio crackled with ain, boys ETA ten minutes"

Exactly on time a tur

quoise helicopter with NUMA lettering on the side came in low over the lake, hovered near the plane, and dropped a large box wrapped in heavy plastic and buoyed by airfilled floats The helicopter creatched the oodbye and clattered off the way they'd come ,

Inside the box were two sets of scuba gear and several cartons Austin loaded the boxes in the raft and paddled back to the upper end of the lake while Zavala moved the plane to an indentation in the shoreline Zavala knew better than to ask Austin what he had planned Kurt would tell him when he needed to know

Zavala covered the plane with a fishing net and eaving branches into it when Austin showed up in the raft to help hione Satisfied their plane ell hidden, they piled their scuba gear into the raft and set off for the island, where they swept away traces of their previous visit The raft was deflated and sunk in shalloater with rocks piled on top to hold it under The water arht black Lycra skins rather than the thicker neoprene wetsuits

Without co around his neck into a waterproof pocket After a quick check of their equip no time, they let the air out of their buoyancy coan to sink into the dark waters of the lake

47WITH SMOOTH STEADY MOVEMENTS of their fins, they swale until they were at the lake botto stone The broad terraced levels spilled down the side of the pyraiant steps

"That's some hunk of rock," Austin said, his awe undiminished by the metallic tone of his underwater communicator

"Good thing we're not superstitious I counted thirteen terraces"

"Knock wood on that score," Austin said He glanced at his depth gauge "One hundred fourteen feet Ready to dive the plan?"

Longlived divers remember the y was simple Explore each of the four sides top to bottom They moved counterclockwise around the pyramid It stood entirely alone, which le purpose in mind The next side was like the first, and they spent only a fewit They hit pay dirt on the third try

Where the other sides were relatively unadorned, this face wasfroround level in drier days At the foot of the stairs, standing in solitary grandeur like a dooras hotel, was a stone slab The stela stood vertically in a foundation on the lake bottom

Zavala played the sharp white beaht across the dark surface After a second he said, "Look familiar?"

Austin eyed the carving of a feathered serpent devouring a boat "Small world It's a twin of the stone fro up the side of the pyra up in theus so"

With Zavala on his right and slightly behind, he drifted up the stairway like a lazy plus, and in addition there were sculpted heads spaced every few risers About halfway up, the huge stylized face of a serpent burst froh to s a s about the size and shape of traffic pylons extended down fro up