Fortunately,Hecatehasn’t warmed much since our previous dive, so we make quick progress to the spot where Finn ran into trouble the last time. That puts us roughly a hundred and forty meters into the tunnel, about a tenth of the entire trek. The temperature has held steady at ninety-four degrees over the last few meters.
While less suffocating than the wetsuit due to the air circulation layer and wicking fabric, it’s still really hot, and I’m pouring sweat.
It’s showtime.
I wave to get Finn’s attention and tap on my monitor. “It’s getting hot.”
“Ready?” Finn asks.
“Ready.”
I pull back the covered lever on my right forearm and press the yellow button. A rush of cold air sweeps through the suit, as if someone turned on the air conditioning. I check my dive computer monitor.
Green. Seventy-nine degrees.
“Shit,” I mutter. “That’s cool.”
“Brilliant,” Finn says.
The clock starts now. We’ve got about fifty-five minutes until the suit’s coolant runs out and, we start to cook if we’re still over one-twenty. Much hotter than that, we’re just done.
That gives us roughly twenty minutes in before we have to turn back. Less if we were sticking to a true rule-of-thirds plan, as we do with gas. We agreed to stretch it. We have to. What Finn hasn’t mentioned, but damn sure knows, is that these numbers aren’t adding up if we actually need to reach the end of the tunnels. Even at a breakneck thrust, there won’t be enough time to reach the end.
And then get back.
That’s a huge problem we’ll need to solve on future dives.
“Very good,” Finn says, pressing buttons on his computer. “The tunnels are still wide here, so we can afford to increase thruster speed. Thirty-eight meters per minute should be reasonable.”
I’m not convinced he’s applied any actual scientific thought to that number. But I can navigate easily, so I’ll let it go.
We move another three hundred meters through the tunnel, reaching a larger room and the end of the line, which is tied off on a rock protrusion. This is as far as anyone has gotten before. My water temperature reading says one hundred fifteen degrees. Wow. That’s scary.
I secure a new tie-off and begin laying the rope, securing it every ten meters for our new traverse.
“Will you look at that,” Finn says, awe in his voice.
I stop and turn toward him, then move into the larger chamber he’s just entered.
The Torches.
We’re in a large chamber, not as big as the Megaron, but close. It’s circular in form with low-lying stalagmites scattered throughout the floor. We’ll need more time to explore further, but it appears there are only two tunnels branching from the chamber, aside from the one we came from. Near the top of the eastern wall, two nearly identical circular openings gape above like twins.
When the team discovered these passages on sonar, Mads referred to them as The Torches, after the goddessHecate’s twin torches. The crossroads. Seeing them up close, the name is fitting. They seem too perfect in their symmetry to be natural. And they both have tight entrances. This is where the tunnels in theHecateget narrow, and it’s going to be a challenge to squeeze into them.
But that’s not going to happen on this dive. We’re already at eighteen minutes.
Finn adds some thrust and moves closer to The Torches.
“We need to go back,” I say.
“Just a peek.”
Shit, Finn, do you really want to do this again?
Resisting the urge to go after him, I raise my voice. “Finn, now.”
I make a decision. If he doesn’t listen, I’ll leave his ass like Crystal asked me to.
