The Axelridge Series Book 3 Marc's Stolen Heart

ATLAS

“Ok, Steve.” I punch the computer and bring up the Stingrays monitor.

He adjusts the camera. “Check the systems.”

I run through them all. “All good.”

“Phil, if this works, we'll blow the Phoenix dolphin out of the water.” Steve grins.

“Thank God for Nano plankton. Now we can reduce the weight and our ROV will go ten times as fast.” I grin. “We'll make this trip in no time.”

Steve checks over the light blue stingray shaped water drone and turns on its wings. They slap the beach and he gives me a thumbs up.

Under the glow of the Heart of Atlas tree, we prepare for our own study of the tunnels that connect the Hearts lake to the Lazarus Pool in Phoenix.

I switch on all our equipment and it drowns out the moisture dripping from the caves roof.

“Launching in 3…2…1.” Steve drops the Stingray into the ocean water and three lines of aqua green lights light up down its back. Its tail is its GPS beacon. A yellow light blinks as I locate it on the screen.

“Ok. Got it.” I say as I type.

Steve comes back to me and joins my side with his computer beside mine.

“Let’s do it.” Steve grins.

“Send her out.” I smile back.

Steve types and the stingray comes to life. It turns into the ocean lagoon and dives down.

She spins and we watch saltwater fish swim around the coral, rocks and roots from the tree. This water will keep anything alive no matter what, but it doesn’t bring back the dead. Phoenix conducted its own experiments and surmised that it was something to do with what happens to the water at a certain spot along the tunnel systems.

The tunnels are big enough for ROV’s, but not manned ones and being ocean based researchers, we know more about water dynamics than most so, our machine will be more efficient and can collect the scans we need in a quarter of the time.

Under the water, the stingray’s wings slowly glide up and down as it swims around the Hearts ocean pocket. The dark water is lit up when the auto lights come on.

“The tunnel entrance is on the west side near the bottom.”

Small bubbles float from the Ray and she makes a sharp dive. She straightens out and skims the coral sand bottom. Plumes of dust rise from her wings as she swims.

Fish of all colors swim past. Crabs dart across the floor and corals sway in the currents. Barnacles coat the walls and rocks.

“Wow. I love the look of this.” Steve sits back in his chair.

“Yeah, if I hadn’t seen it a million times, I could appreciate it.”

“Ok. Tunnel in less than one minute.”

The stingray rights itself to its preprogrammed directions.

The dark tunnel entrance appears on camera and we both grin. The entrance gets bigger as we get closer.

Just before the stingray enters the tunnel, we get a visitor.

Out in front of the stingray, a little clownfish spins and swims up and down.

“Hey, look at that.” Steve says.

“Cute little guy. Better go find your dad, kid.” We both chuckle and move the stingray into the tunnel. The clownfish disappears and we switch to high beams. The tunnel is crawling with crab life and corals. Cave fish sit on the bottom waiting for dinner.

“Wow. It’s pretty dark in here.” Steve says.

“Yep.” I say as I punch up the navigations systems. I program the estimated width and height of the tunnel and make sure the stingray won’t hit the walls.

The computers blip and beep as the ray swims. The tunnel twists and turns. We amp up the speed and the ray moves faster. Its hydrodynamic shape allows it to slice through the water with ease.

The ray scans everything. Temperature, depth, even salt levels. It creates a detailed 3D map on another monitor as she bobs up and down.

“Looks who’s back.”

“Well, I’ll be damned. You’re not going to like where were going, little man.”

The tiny clownfish swims and dances around the front of the ray. He seems to be taking breaks and riding her wake before swimming on his own again.

This little orange and white fish entertained us for quite awhile as we turned and dove through the dark tunnel systems. We're miles away from Atlas' ocean. I can’t believe he’s still swimming with us.

Then the inevitable happened. We tried to tell him.

Steve brings the ray to a stop and we both give each other sad looks.

He slows down, his fins stopped moving and he goes belly up. Succumbed to the freshwater.

“Poor little guy.” I say solemnly.

“He asked for it.” Steve shrugs.

“Yeah…Wait.” I lean to the monitor and see the clownfish body float back up in front of the camera. His body is surrounded by gold light.

Small gold lightning bolts hit him over and over. The water around him seems to boil and then this brave clownfish sprang to life, swimming and darting around.

“He's back!” Steve laughs.

I check the map. “This must be the point where the water changes for the Lazarus Pool. Make a note.”

“Done! Get going, little fish!” Steve encourages.

“He's our canary. Unbelievable.” I shake my head as the fish rides the side walls and swims in front of us again.

The ray glides down and up. The tunnels seem to be quite active.

“Is that trout?” I point to a school just ahead.

“Yep.” Steve agrees. “How did they get in here? How are they surviving? There’s nothing to eat.”

“The Lazarus Pool. Look.”

I point to a dying trout off to the side. His body glows gold, the water boils and he comes to life. The process was repeated for a few others too.

“Wow. That sucks.”

“Imagine starving to death and coming to life over and over.” I whisper.

“They need to get out.”

“We'll try after our trip.”

The view shows a fork in the tunnels.

“That way is the pool. That way is the mountain. That’s where we’re going.”

“Apparently, the clownfish is too.”

The fish darts and dives then banks right. The ray tilts and swoops smoothly into the mountain tunnel to follow.

We watch the dark screen and notice the tunnels are bare here. There are a few crayfish and small fry swimming around lake grass, but not much else. Silt covers the bottom.

“Should there even be life here?”

“No. This is just a hole. There shouldn’t be anything here.”

The ray swims and the clownfish dances for us as the tunnel seems to end. It’s still dark, but our lights show us we’re not alone.

The mountain collapsed and the ravine redirected the Pools water to a literal pocket in the fallen rocks. There shouldn’t be anything in it, but I see perch, sunfish, trout and pike slowly swimming around a bottom that looks like it should be outside, not in a cave. A fully functional freshwater eco-system.

“This is amazing.” I grin.

The ray turns and the clownfish swims up then straight down.

“Where’s he going?”

“I don’t know.”

The ray redirects and we follow.

“I don’t get it. How is he still alive? He should have died again.”

“I think the water from the Lazarus Pool changed his need for saltwater.”

“That makes sense, I think.”

“Look.”

The camera focuses in the dark water and we see fish and other creatures coming and going out of tunnel at the bottom.

“So that’s how they’re getting in.”

“It must of opened during the fall.”

“So…where’s it go?”

“Want to find out?”

“Forward ho!” Steve chuckles.

The little clownfish narrowly avoids being eaten when we come up behind him. The trout runs off and we enter the tunnel.

“Don’t worry, little man. We got your back.” I grin.

Our partner for our journey spins and stops to pick at the walls a bit before continuing on at the rays side.

The tunnels drop then level. They turn and rise.

There’s a current in the tunnel pushing the ray forward. It’s strong, but not strong enough to stop fish traffic from heading our way.

“Whoa…Getting a little crowded in here.”

Our fish friend dives under the ray as schools of big lake fish come at us. The numbers are thick.

“Someone stocked.” Steve laughs.

“Some of these are a good size too.”

The fish swim over and under us and come in all shapes and sizes.

We slow down so we don’t get bumped into the walls and let them pass in the cramped tunnel.

The fish dart past us and our little fish comes into view. He beats his little fins and kind of shows off for our camera.

“Hey, buddy. You’re alright. The big fish scared you, huh?”

As if he heard me, he spins and swims back and forth.

“He looks like he’s dancing.” I chuckle. “Careful. The tunnel’s rising.”

Steve makes the necessary directional changes. This is all new information. We already have years of data collected and we still haven’t even found the source of the fish yet.

Zebra mussels coat the walls and algae sways in the current as the ray swims by.

We increase elevation and it seems to go on forever, but there’s a glimmer of hope.

We see fish swim by an opening and our fish friend starts to get excited.

“This is it.”

“Increasing speed.”

The ray speeds up then pops up out of the exit. She rights herself and it’s still very dark, but our jaws drop.

We watch hundreds of fish swim around the small lake. The floor is coated in grass, snails and crayfish.

“Another underground lake?”

“It looks like it’s been here for a very long time. The eco-system is extremely healthy.

“Which is extremely weird for an underground lake that never sees sun.”

“That’s true. It’s odd how thick and big they all are.”

“And perfect? How can each fish be perfect in every way?”

Steve shrugs as I travel the ray across the lake.

Fish dart around us as our clownfish tries to hide under our protection.

The lake is actually pretty big. There’s definitely water movement here. It seems like the mountain is feeding it.

We maneuver around some rocks and see the walls on the other side. Our lights floats over the rocks.

“I'm not seeing another tunnel, are you?”

“Not yet.”

The ray turns up and rides the lakes wall. It hits the surface and has to turn back down.

“This pocket is pretty big.”

“You got that right.”

As we circle around and descend deeper, I scrunch my brows.

“What’s wrong with little guy?”

“What?”

We both watch the monitor as our clownfish stops. He turns to the camera and just sits there. He seems to be having a staring contest with the ray. His fins slowly fan out and help him hover.

We're practically nose to nose.

“What’s wrong, buddy?” I whisper as I watch him closely.

“What the hell?”

His body starts to quiver as he hangs in front. He drifts around and his skin starts to swell and bubble. Our eyes widen as he starts to shake. He looks like he’s about to explode.

He vibrates more and the water around him bubbles. Red and blue light surrounds his body then he pops in a white cloud of bubbles that fill the camera.

“Uh…What just happened?”

I watch as the bubbles clear and my jaw drops. “Holy shit.”

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

I slowly nod as I see our clownfish swim and dart with another clownfish that is an exact duplicate of him. They play around and I slowly meet Steve’s eyes.

“Two?”

“Two.”

“Where are we?”

Steve calls up the map of the surface and compares the location of the ray to where in the country we are.

“According to this, smack dab in the center of Axelridge.”

I snap my fingers and point. “Get them on the phone now.”

Steve picks up his phone and dials.

I watch the two clownfish play as more fish come into view. A trout stops, then pops into two and they swim off.

“That’s why it’s so crowded in here. Fish swim in and get duplicated.”

“But it looks like it only happens once.”

“Do we have anything on this?”

I start typing and search the internet for anything that would tell us something about why this is happening.

“I don’t see anything.”

“Are you saying this is a new discovery?”

“I think so.” I agree. “Not only that, it’s in the chain of the Heart.”

He hangs up. “There’s no answer.”

“Wait.” He calls up the map. “So the Heart's here, the Lazarus Pool, here and this lake…If this connects back…”

I smile. “Our own Bermuda Triangle.”

“So cool.”

“We're going to be famous.” Steve grins.

“We need to get to Axelridge. This needs a team of researchers.”

We both look at the monitor again and watch more and more fish be duplicated and swim away.

The fish start swimming faster in all directions. Our clownfish swim off into the dark.

“What’s happening?”

“I don’t know.”

In the beams of our lights, rock falls off the wall and it seems like the water is being shaken.

The scanners go nuts as information pours in.

“Earthquake!”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I’m getting us out of here.”

I navigate the ray around and try to find the tunnel as fish scramble for safety.

I see the surface water bubble and white clouds of bubbles surround us. Rocks are falling into the water and narrowly missing us.

The water looks like it’s boiling as I steer the ray.

“Look out!” Steve points to the screen.

I swing the ray around as a boulder falls past her. I come about and see the tunnel.

“There!”

More rocks fall and the fish really start to panic.

“Out of the way!” I yell at the screen.

“Phil!”

“DAMN IT!”

The ray is clipped and sent spiraling to the bottom.

She lands on her back and the camera catches a dark object heading her way. I try to right her, but her wing is pinned. The dark object fills the screen then static appears on our screen.

“Awe, man.” Steve leans back and whines. “Titus isn’t gonna be happy.”

My jaw goes slack. “You’re telling him.”

Steve sits up. “I told him last time.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“I did, too.”

We get up, cross the beach under the tree and head for the elevator.

“I distinctly remember yelling. I told him.” I say smartly.

“HE WAS YELLING…AT ME!” Steve throws his arms in the air.

I scowl at him. “There’s no need to yell.”

He glares at me as the elevator door shuts.