The Midas Legacy (Wilde/Chase 12) Read Online Free PDF

thumbed the throttle wheel on the control stalk. The suit’s thrusters surged, and he popped free of the obstacle like a champagne cork. ‘I did it!’
    ‘ We did it,’ Eddie reminded him sardonically. ‘Now, you going to help me through, or what?’
    The Englishman’s own journey through the gap was equally tight, but ultimately successful. Cellini helped him to his knees in a small space beneath what he realised was the statue’s shoulder. ‘Great, we’re in Poseidon’s armpit. And I bet he didn’t use deodorant.’
    ‘What can you see?’ Nina demanded impatiently.
    ‘You were right, Lester,’ said Cellini. A curved alcove was set into the wall, an overturned golden statue partly buried beneath rubble – but behind it was a narrow passageway. ‘There is an opening!’
    Eddie brought up his light. The tunnel headed back beneath the altar room for around forty feet before turning to the right. There was debris on the floor, but it appeared traversable. ‘Looks like we can get down it.’
    ‘So what are we waiting for?’ Cellini crawled forward until he had enough space to stand, then entered the passage. ‘Eddie, come on!’
    The older man shrugged as best he could in the suit, then followed. ‘Rushing into ancient tunnels – it’s like you’re here with me, Nina. You sure you don’t have any Italian relatives?’
    ‘You and Macy are the only relatives I’ve got,’ she replied. ‘Which makes sending out Christmas cards a lot simpler. Okay, what can you see?’
    Cellini reached the turning; Eddie caught up and put a hand on his shoulder. ‘Careful,’ he said. ‘The Atlanteans really liked booby traps.’
    The Italian was unconvinced. ‘They would not still be working after all this time – and being under two hundred and fifty metres of water.’
    ‘You’d think, wouldn’t you?’ Eddie took the lead, checking the way ahead. The tunnel ran for thirty feet into a larger chamber. ‘There’s definitely a room down here,’ he announced. ‘If we swim in, we shouldn’t set anything off.’
    He kicked off the floor and tilted forward, using his flippers rather than the thrusters to move down the passage. They crossed the threshold, the walls opening out around them to reveal . . .
    ‘ È incredibile! ’ gasped Cellini.
    Eddie was equally impressed. ‘I think we’ve found what you were looking for.’

2
    The room was not large, only a fraction of the altar room’s size. But it was every bit as dazzling a find. Like its larger counterpart, the walls were covered with metal sheets: orichalcum, the red-tinted gold alloy favoured by the Atlanteans. At the sight, Nina unconsciously touched a pendant around her neck, made from a scrap of the same material by her father when she was a child.
    Inscriptions filled the panels, recounting the history of the ancient civilisation. There was even a map, similar to one Nina had seen in the Brazilian temple. It showed the continents of the world, incomplete, distorted, but still recognisable. Lines weaved across both sea and land. The voyages of the Atlanteans?
    She didn’t have time to give it proper scrutiny, however, as something else had captured the divers’ attention. They turned to point their cameras at a statue at one end of the room. A man, life-sized, and sculpted in gold – in its pure form this time, the metal an auric yellow. He was clad in robes, a sword sheathed at his side. His hands were raised before him.
    Holding a large book.
    Nina stared at the screen, more than ever wishing she was seeing it in person. ‘Oh, wow. It’s just like the Talonor Codex . . . which means,’ she leaned closer to examine the statue’s face, ‘that actually might be Talonor!’
    ‘I’d say it’s a good bet,’ said Blumberg, enraptured. ‘So that’s what he looked like?’
    Talonor had been the greatest explorer of Atlantis, travelling as far as the Amazon basin to the west, and into the Himalayas to the east. The Talonor Codex, a record