Chapter 45

"So those are the rules that we have always had before and they will remain the same this time. What needs to be changed is the use of cell phones on this expedition is prohibited outside of port." Antonia paused as several crewmen were whispering to each other. Listening in, I knew what they were asking was the same questions men always asked when they were being asked to do something they had not done before.

Waiting until the noise level dropped, Antonia continued, "For what we are asking you to give up, since several of you have families, Brian and I are prepared to offer you not only a year's pay to be given to you now but as a bonus if everyone keeps the secret we believe we have found then we will double your pay."

"Better yet," I called out, causing Antonia to stop and look at me, "I will simply round up the number for all of you, calling each of your bonuses payable at the end of the voyage or the year, one hundred thousand dollars."

Before I could continue explaining someone I did not recognize, asked, "So it's true that you found something already?"

"Thank you whoever you are for making my point as to the reason for the communications blackout. If all of us can keep secret what we think we have found then the bonus is payable to each member of your ship. If we find out there is a security leak or that someone has talked then the bonus is no more for anyone as the bonus is paid out as a group.

Not surprisingly, each crewmember agreed though there were some discussions as to what we had found and what else we were going for. By noon though, the crew had made their decision unanimous with every one staying. Funny how money does that or maybe it was the idea we had discovered something important. Either way it did not matter to me, Antonia had her crew and my wife was happy.

Two of the crewmembers though were not happy the following morning as Sven had activated the gifts the terrorists had left behind for me in Lebanon that my friends in Israel shipped to me. What the two women were unhappy about was their inability to talk their families due to the three Russian jammers that had been converted to jam commercial cell phones.

I just smiled as both women made the case for their dismissal though they protested saying I had stated they could call their families when we were in port and right now, we were moored to a pier. Antonia talked to them while the rest then talked to me taking their side agreeing to the fact we were dockside right then. I knew we were arguing semantics but I relented though I was sure we would have other problems soon.

Agreeing to what she wanting, I had Sven shut down the jammers long enough for everyone to call home one last time saying good-bye to family using the excuse they would be outside of cell phone range for an unknown about of time. By lunchtime, the jammers were back on and while people were not happy they at least understood the reason for the secrecy when Antonia told the crew over lunch about the harbor in the cave and everything we had had found inside including what was in the storerooms. Antonia did skip over the cave and I was wondering how long it would take until someone started to ask questions as towhy ROV crew was brought along.

Telling the crew about what Antonia and I had already found excited them, though their exuberance was muted. Asking why they were so quiet, Antonia smiled saying they had been on other expeditions where great treasures were rumored only to find less than what they were told. Thankfully Antonia and I had a pair of allies in the ROV team who had already been in the cave who verified what Antonia was saying was there. People were still not excited, so I suggested everyone go for a swim.

By the time we returned to the ship, all disbelief was gone and the excitement I felt everyone should be feeling was evident. Even among the crew, there were two trains of thought with half the crew wanting to get going immediately hauling all their tools and supplies over to the warehouse while the second group wanted to fix the sea door and thereby allowing them to use their boats to move their supplies. With what they had seen the day before both teams went to work on their respective problems while I along with Sven sat back and let Antonia and her father deal with everything.

The first problem to be resolved was the sea door. The problem there was more bodies some of whom had fallen into the mechanism jamming the door partially closed. Clearing the door proved to be easier because in addition to the mechanism, the men discovered mountings set high in the roof for pulleys to connect in order to lift the door if the mechanism failed. Discovering those the engineers soon had pulleys rigged with the ropes run out to the ship using one of the winches there to lift the door using several thick ropes.

The next morning with the door raised and the morning sun shining brightly, Antonia and I, along with crew discovered the cavern was even larger than what we had seen with two more tunnels and a walkway around the edge of the harbor to allow men to gain access to the mechanism to raise and lower the doors.

The other team was not idle during the time the engineers were working on the sea door. Their work centered on setting up a mapping system for not only the harbor but also the storerooms. Then there was the need to inventory what each storeroom contained and with only five people to do the work, they would take weeks to do the inventory.

With them working on the harbor, Antonia and I had some time to ourselves and I wanted to show her the remaining tunnel. Heading down the tunnel, I could see the foot prints Mr. Nietzel and I had left previously and it was good to know no one had been down this way since. Walking down the tunnel, Antonia was back to analyzing as we went down describing the tunnel to me. What should have taken forty minutes to walk down took over two hours as she noted each change of the passage the most notable being the tunnel sloped downward, which I did not think about when I was here before.

The chamber at the bottom was just as impressive as the last time I was here with the bodies scattered around and the doors standing ominously at one end of the room. How long we stayed there I had no idea other than the camera, which I was carrying, was indicating a low battery by the time I talked Antonia into leaving.

For the next week, we spent every spare minute there with Antonia doing her thing with the bodies while I was more interested in the doors, trying to find a way through them without damaging them. In that time I realized a number of bodies would need to be moved, before we could open them, as they were in the path the door would take opening outward. I noted several other things, such as the doors were sweating but there was no visible rust on them. I was beginning to think the two doors were possibly made out of the same material as the metal piece sitting on my desk in my study. I was not worried about it as the doors had been here, if Antonia was right, over two thousand years and nothing was going to disturb them until we knew more.