Chapter One of a serialized novella
Next chapter this Thursday - new chapters every Tuesday and Friday
The tall, lanky man shrugged out of his tattered dive suit, then shook it at the project’s lead scientist, the ragged strips of cloth waving, tentacle-like.
“I can’t believe you didn’t consider the possibility that something like this could happen! I mean, the greatest find in recent history and we’re cutting corners? Really?”
“Look...I don’t know what you’re all worked up about...you know what the ocean’s like...it can be a dangerous place. Besides, you’re okay, the giant squid’s been captured, and The Venture is in one piece. I’d say that’s cause for a celebration – don’t you?”
The scientist reached towards his teammate. “Hey, why don’t you let me deal with that?”
“No, I’ve got it.”
Frank shrugged. “Fine. Why don’t you go cool off?”
Oscar glared at his teammate before shoving the tattered suit into his locker. He slammed the door so hard it bounced back and nearly hit him in the head.
“Dammit.”
He inhaled deeply, gently pushed it closed, and secured the lock.”I’ll be in my quarters, praying that the professor and his team of “experts” can convince Poseidon to let us live.”
Oscar slammed the door of his tiny berth and cursed. He had nobody to blame but himself, and that’s what pissed him off the most.
He should have known something would go wrong, but the money they dangled in front of his empty bank account had been enough to override his common sense.
The job was simple enough, but this was different than any dive he’d been on before. The ancient, submerged Grecian city of Pavlopetri had once been considered a myth until the professor and his team discovered it the year before.
At first, all had been going like clockwork...there were tons of artifacts; what looked to Oscar like old canons, large statues of the ancient god Poseidon that were as tall as a bus, and even what looked like some kind of metalwork.
Oscar had no real interest in the relics...the pay was good, and it got him back in the water...a win-win.
It wasn’t until they broke through the wall of some kind of temple that all hell broke loose.
The professor had been pushing them to move faster...it seemed as if the more relics they pulled from the sea, the more frantic the man became. Oscar knew it would only be a matter of time before something bad happened. He just wished he hadn’t been there to witness it.
He and two other divers had been removing pottery and what looked to Oscar like long, metallic canisters that could contain scrolls. They had nearly emptied the temple when one of the other divers – a nice young kid from Austin - was suddenly crushed by two of the temple stones as he swam between them.
To Oscar, it looked as if an invisible hand used the stones like a vice to squeeze the life out of his teammate before shifting back into their original position. It all happened so fast...one minute the kid was there, and the next, he was crushed; lifeless. It was horrid.
The Professor had insisted that, while he was sorry about the accident, the work was too important to stop, so the next day was just like any other day.
Until it wasn’t.
Project Deep Search was doomed from the start. A small team of independent scientists, retired military brass, and so-called psychics on the hunt for some ancient underwater city with the hope of finding a new source of energy.
He hadn’t been on the ship for a week before he began to suspect that the story was cover for something else...something that was birthed from the mind of an insane man with a god complex.
All of that ego, wrapped up in what he now knew was a madman at the helm...what could go wrong?
Benjamin Fellowes wasn’t a stereotypical professor. He wasn’t thin, elderly, and wiry, with a penchant for absentmindedness. No, Professor Fellowes was in his early 40s, with the physique of Joe Atlas, the mind of Einstein, and the attitude of a drill instructor on speed.
Oscar suspected that Fellowes’ real intention was to do just what they’d done: awaken the deity that had been slumbering for millennia. Of course, he couldn’t prove it had been the man’s intentions, but it was a moot point if the god decided to destroy them, just like he’d killed that poor diver.
Awesome start. I'll have to read two or three of these a week until I'm caught up.