Free Rusch, Kristine Kathryn - Diving Universe SS3 by The Spires Of Denon (v5.0) Page B

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    Meklos had cleared out the packs, finding nothing he hadn't seen before. He wasn't exactly sure what he was looking for—a small piece of equipment, a tiny receiver, something. But he hadn't found anything except the third suit.
    Was it simply a required precaution? Or was a third diver hiding somewhere?
    He didn't know enough about professional cave diving to be aware of what the required precautions were. Regular water diving didn't last as long as a cave dive; the suits weren't as sophisticated and weren't meant to last for days should something go wrong.
    He picked up the suit and poked it with his finger. It stretched, then embraced his finger, becoming a part of it. He had a hunch puncturing this thing would take a great deal of work. It might be impossible. So it wasn't as fragile as it initially seemed.
    If the suit had belonged to Dr. Reese, he would have punctured it and dealt with the consequences. But he didn't want to risk insulting the experts. Besides, they might need that third suit for a reason he hadn't yet thought of. He didn't dare do anything to it, at least until the dive was over.
    But he did turn it inside out. Controls were scattered throughout—some on the fingertips, some on the back of the hand. Others ran along the chin. The eye area was clear, but probably had some kind of communications screen. He pressed one of the control chips along the chin and the eye area lit up. He pressed another and got a temperature readout that ran along the side of the right eye.
    Then he pressed a third and the Spires appeared before the left eye, looking just like they did on the floor of the temple. Only on this image the Spires were clear, except for the outlines of the branches and a red dot at the edge of one of the wide areas.
    His heart started to pound. He picked up the suit and carried it to the steps. The red dot moved with him. He cursed.
    “Everything okay?” Yusef asked.
    Meklos almost cursed again. He had forgotten Yusef was here. “Yeah,” he said. “I accidentally turned something on. I need to figure out how to shut it off.”
    “Let me.” Yusef had to struggle to stand with all of his layers of clothing.
    Meklos pressed the controls again. The Spires disappeared.
    “Never mind,” he said. “I got it.”
    “Never seen a suit like that before, huh?” Yusef asked.
    “Not like this,” Meklos said. “Have you?”
    “I try not to do anything that requires I carry my environment with me,” Yusef said. “This is as close to an environmental suit as I get.” He indicated his coat and boots.
    Meklos smiled because he was supposed to. Then he shut off the other parts of the suit, turned it rightside to, and put it back inside the pack. He turned to Yusef. “You sure you don't want one of my team down here too?”
    Yusef shrugged. “I'm okay by myself.”
    “You've established emergency procedures?”
    “I have some field medicine training, if needed. Besides, I'm pretty sure they'll be fine. If the caverns below are anything like the caverns up here, there aren't even sharp edges for them to get caught on.”
    He was as cavalier as his employer. Maybe that was why Yusef and Dr. Reese got along so well.
    “I'll be back down before they're due to come up,” Meklos said.
    “Okay.” Yusef sounded like he didn't care. He pressed himself against the wall, getting white residue on the back of his coat. He sank to the floor facing the water, but pulled out his work pad. Meklos shook his head. Maybe he'd send someone down. After he had some time to think. Because he felt mildly stupid already. How could he have missed it? The Spires weren't some artistic design. They were a map. A three-dimensional map of the cave system below the city. But why would there be a map of the caves so visible from the mountaintop?
    “You guys ever figure out what the Spires were for?” Meklos asked.
    Yusef gave him an annoyed look. Clearly the man wanted to be left alone. “They were never my