She pinches her nose and equalizes, the pressure in her ears easing as she follows him down. The angled wall becomes a ceiling over her head, the mounting claustrophobia almost unbearable. She feels herself losing all orientation, the darkness and silence suffocating.

Now she is plunging straight down the face of a vertical shaft. Her depth gauge drops below 110 feet, her pulse pounding in her face mask, her mind screaming at her to break free.

The appearance of the luminous crimson light startles her. Descending farther, she blinks hard and levels out, staring at the glowing icon. My God … he actually found something! Wait a moment, I’ve seen this figure before …

She watches as Mick maneuvers around the shiny white facing, feeling his way along the outer edges of the metallic sheath.

I know … I saw it in Julius Gabriel’s journal—

Dominique’s heart flutters as a deep rumbling sound fills her ears. Gargantuan air bubbles burst out from the center of the facing and envelop Mick, then a monstrous torrent grabs her, sucking her toward the center of the portal and the blackness of a void that had not been there a moment earlier.

The current inhales her feetfirst into darkness. She twists sideways, caught in the turbulence of an underground river, the force of which pushes her face mask down around her neck, blinding her. She inhales water, then pinches her nose and retches into her regulator as she rolls wildly in the suffocating pitch, fighting to draw a breath.

The portal closes behind them, stifling the stream.

She stops rolling. Repositioning her mask, she clear it, then stares, transfixed by her new surroundings.

They have entered a vast underwater cavern of unearthly beauty. Surreal strobe lights of unknown origin illuminate cathedral-like limestone walls in intoxicating shades of blue and green and yellow. Fantastic formations of stalactites hang from the submerged ceiling, dwarfing them like gigantic icicles, their points descending to entwine around a petrified forest of crystal-like stalagmites, rising out from the silty floor of the underwater cave.

She looks at Mick, excited, astounded, wishing she could blurt out a thousand questions. He shakes his head and points to his gauge, indicating he has only five minutes of air remaining. Dominique checks her own supply—shocked to learn she is down to her last fifteen minutes.

Anxiety courses through her body. The claustrophobic realization of being trapped within a subterranean chamber, a rocky ceiling above her head, overwhelms her ability to reason. She pushes Mick away and swims back toward the portal, desperately attempting to reopen it.

Mick drags her back by the towrope. He grabs her wrists, then points to the south, where the entrance to a twisting cavern looms ahead. He forms a triangle shape with his two hands.

The Kukulcan. Dominique slows her breathing.