Part 1: Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

PART IV

CRETE

"Some 3500 years ago, a cataclysmicevent wiped out the flourishing Bronze Age Civilisation on cree in the Aegean sea.The obvious culprit is a volcano on the island of Santorini, which is known to have erupted at that time.
The eruption on Santorini must have been one of the biggest bangs in history...The most destructive eruption in modern times occurred in Indonesia in 1883, when a volcano on the island of Krakatoa exploded. But the crater left behind at Santorini is four times as large as that on Krakatoa. Vulcanologists estimate that the ancient volcano ejected 2 to 3 times as much ash and rock.. Parts of the Cretan coast experienced waves up to forty metres high..."
- New Scientist

The biplane taxied back along the calm Mediterranean waters, leaving Indy and Sophia standing on the isolated pier. Behind them rose the Cretian hinterland. It was deserted.
"Shall we begin?" asked Indy as they paced along the wooden pier. The weather was much cooler here, but still pleasantly warm. The sun still rode high in the sky: by Indy's estimation, it wasn't two o'clock yet.
Indy and Sophia had landed at the site of the ruins of Knossos. It seemed to be as good a place as any to start. Knossos was founded around 3500 BC, and quickly became the principal city of Crete. Its renown spread across the Mediterranean, as one of the principal cities of the Aegean civilisation. The culture of Crete at that time was the Minoan culture, one of the most enduring of the Mediterranean cultures.
Knossos was the palace city of the legendary King Minos, son of Zeus, who featured heavily in Greek mythology. Greek legend had it that at Knossos, King Minos had Daedalos build a labyrinth underneath the palace. Inhabiting the labyrinth was a fierce man-beast with a bull's head and a man's body, who killed all who entered. Legend also had it that this creature was the result of the union of King Minos's wife, and an animal, a punishment from the Gods intended for Minos. Zeus, king of the Gods, was himself held to have lived in a cave known as Dictaeos, near Knossos, for most of his youth.
Indy had, during his career, studied the Greek mythology and, as had many others, concluded that the legend of King Minos had its grounding in fact, as Crete was supreme amongst the civilisations of the Aegean region. The Palace of Knossos was an example of this, enhanced as it was by brightly painted frescoes of people, landscapes and animals.
The rise of Knossos continued, until the year 2000 BC, when it was the principal city in the lands of the Aegean sea. Only three hundred years later, however, a massive earthquake levelled the city and caused massive damage to the Palace. This date, 1700 BC, also marked the end of the one phase in the history of Crete. Though the original palace was virtually destroyed, the new dynasty work began almost immediately on the next. The rebuilt Palace of Knossos was created to a far more elaborate scale: it rose three or four stories high and contained many extensive rooms and passages, including a luxuriously decorated throne room. Curiously, many of the paintings and murals that dotted the palace depicted the sport of bull-leaping, a precursor of bullfighting. The Minoans of this age were well educated, with a complex mathematical and philosophical base of knowledge.
The destruction of Knossos came at the hands of the warmongering Mycenaean civilisation of Greece in 1400 BC. The rest of Crete soon followed as Minoan civilisation collapsed. Knossos was no more.
Several things had led Indy and Sophia to Knossos. The first reason, suggested Sophia, was that Knossos was simply the finest, most advanced of all the cities of Crete - so where else would you look to find influences of Atlantean culture? Indy conceded the point.
The second was the chronology of Knossos. Plato gave a figure for the Lost Kingdom existing ten thousand years ago, but as Hermocrates wrote in his introduction, this could be either one thousand or one hundred thousand years ago. The former figure fitted in well with the history of Knossos, given its rise in 3000 BC and eventual fall in 1400 BC. In particular, the earthquake which levelled the palace in 1700 BC was interesting - could it have been an aftershock of the destruction of Atlantis?
The third, admittedly slim reason, was the connection between 'tall horns', and the obsession of Knossos with bullfighting, and indeed the Minotaur legend. Indy had always held that if you sifted through the soil of legend, you found grains of truth. It was a tenuous link, to be sure, but tenuous was better than none at all.
The last reason was that Knossos was still a city of mystery to archaeologists. The site was first excavated in 1900 by Sir Arthur John Evans, who uncovered the Royal Palace. He and later archaeologists discovered up to three thousand stone tablets, containing scripts of a language named (by the archaeologists) Linear A and Linear B. Neither language had been deciphered, making the contents of the tablets a complete mystery. "Perhaps these writings contain the secret knowledge of Atlantis," suggested Sophia. Indy half-agreed with her.
The labyrinth of King Minos had not, yet, been discovered. Legend had it that the layout of the labyrinth was based upon a mural upon the floor of the Palace. This mural had been found, but not the labyrinth itself. Sir Arthur John Evans worked the site from 1900 to 1906, and continued his work in the area until early 1935. Now Indy and Sophia were here, a mere two months later.
They came to the end of the pier, walked up several flights of stone steps, and found themself in the remains of an open air courtyard. To their left were several large thick slabs set into the hillside. Indy caught a glimpse of a stone spindle. To their right, a dirt path led the way to the ruins of Knossos. Indy and Sophia took this path, passing several upright stone slabs. Sea breezes blew at salt shrubs by the path. From this vantage point, they could see both sides of the peninsula.
"You know, Sophia," said Indy. "Is it possible that all the Greek gods and goddesses were just Atlanteans? Zeus, Jupiter, Poseidon, Pandora, Athena et al, they all had fathers, and sisters, and sons and daughters, just like humans. Do that sound possible to you?"
"Yes," said Sophia. "It does. Plato's Lost Dialogue has that chapter where it refers to the Atlanteans making their huge colossus to make themselves like gods. Maybe they succeeded - for a short while."
"Where would Nur-Ab-Sal fit into all this? The Greeks didn't pick up on him, that's for sure."
Sophia snorted. "Hmmm. Nur-Ab-Sal never left Atlantis for the Greater Colony or any other of the Colonies. The Greeks were probably unaware of him altogether."
The path was widening. They passed a rocky knoll on the right and there, before their eyes, lay the ruins of Knossos. Indy spotted a suspended rope bridge which spanned the path and led to a rocky outcrop spanning the city. "Come on," he said to Sophia as he walked over to a set of stone steps which came to the bridge. "We can see the entire ruins from up here."
Indy and Sophia walked along the rope bridge warily. It swayed under their movements, but remained firmly seated. On the other side, they walked along the top of the ridge for several metres, passing over dirt, rocks, and masonry slabs until Indy saw an instrument up ahead. He stopped to examine it.
"A surveyor's transit," he said, looking at the metallic object mounted on a tripod. "Must have been left here by Evans' group."
They turned and looked down on the ruins. Evans' team had done a good job. Dotting the ground were small, hut like buildings, some complete, others half broken down. Remnants of some steps and stone pillars remained. Everywhere was evidence of the dig: planks laid down to span certain gaps in the ground, timber shored up out of the way, piles of stones and gravel. Indy and Sophia's attention, however, was caught by two tall horns which jutted out of the ground, isolated from all the other buildings or rooms.
"Just like on the mural at the lesser colony," breathed Sophia.
"They look like the town centrepiece," said Indy.
Having seen enough, the two turned back and recrossed the rope bridge. Climbing down the steps toward the dirt path, Sophia spoke. "We were right. Knossos is the Greater Colony." She walked under the rope bridge toward the ruins.
"What are we looking for?" asked Indy behind her.
"A Moonstone, of course," responded Sophia. "Without it, we'll never get into the Colony itself."
Indy looked around. The ruins were even more spectacular at ground level. To think that, thousands of years ago, this was the seat of high civilisation... "Here we are in the ruins of Knossos," said Indy conversationally.
Sophia stopped. "I'm getting something!" Quickly she moved her arms into the aerial position. "Nur-Ab-Sal speaks!"
To his surprise, Indy didn't groan.
"He tells me that in his travels, he has walked this ground! He bids us find the underworld passage to his ancestral home!"
"The labyrinth, you mean?" asked Indy.
Sophia brought her arms down. Evidently the message was over.
"How do you do it?" asked Indy. "Radio? Semaphore? The fillings in your teeth?" Actually, by now he was starting to take the messages seriously. The matter of how Sophia could hear them and he couldn't was giving him some gyp, though.
"Still the wiseguy," said Sophia. "You'll learn."
"Already am," said Indy. "I suppose that scuppers your theory about Nur-Ab-Sal never having left Atlantis. And mine about the Greek gods being Atlantean," he added, virtuously.
Sophia said nothing.
"Maybe Nur-Ab-Sal never has left Atlantis. Metaphorically, at least. Maybe Atlantis is something we carry around inside with us."
"Are you driving at anything here?" asked Sophia.
"No. It just sounds interesting," said Indy. He pointed at the ruins. "If we're going to be looking for the Moonstone, we may as well start by going through the rooms. Maybe Evans missed something, or didn't know how to interpret it correctly."
They started walking again. The first room they came to was partly covered by a dirt slide. Inside, the walls were coloured by a garish grey, maroon and blue scheme, made no better by having faded. There was a small painting of a Minoan on the wall. The floor was completely empty.
They left and tried the next room, a few metres away. Much the same.
They continued in this pattern, walking deeper into the ruins, and closer to the horns. Sometimes the ruins had cracked pots, or piles of masonry rubble: Indy and Sophia scoured through these, but got nowhere.
"Some palace the Minoans had, eh Sophia?" asked Indy as they walked out of another half destroyed building.
"According to Nur-Ab-Sal," said Sophia loftily, "they were nothing but the Atlanteans country cousins." The next room they came to, however, engaged Indy and Sophia's interest immediately. "Hey...what's this?"
They were looking at an ancient, faded mural on the inside wall, which was different to all the other side-on portraits they'd seen. The flaky paint of this one resembled the picture of Crete in the Lesser Colony.
"Looks like an ancient diagram of some kind," said Indy. "There's a bull's head, horns and tail. The lines appear to converge on that circle. Could the circle be one of the stone disks?"
"Well, we know where the horns are," said Sophia. "But where are the head and tail? We haven't seen anything resembling those." She raised her arms experimentally. "Nur-Ab-Sal is silent."
"Do you understand what this means?" asked Indy.
"It's not too hard," said Sophia. "One line goes from the bull's head, past the left horn, to the circle. The other line goes from the bull's tail, past the right horn, and also to the stone circle, forming a triangle. So if we can find the bull's head and tail, and line these up with the horns, we should be able to triangulate where the circle is. And I'll bet we'll find a stone disk there." She thought for a moment. "We'll need the surveying transit to make the measurements," she said.
"Okay, I'll go and get it," said Indy. "You see if you can find those heads and tails anywhere."
Sophia nodded, and walked firmly over to the bull horns. She stood under them and looked up. The horns loomed against the perspective. Sophia estimated a height of five metres. There was no way they could have survived so long, exposed like that. There was clear evidence that Atlantean construction had helped build these horns.
Sophia looked around at the ruins. For the first time, she noted the large piles of stone and rubble heaped around the site. Rather than be evenly distributed along the ground, as you might expect, the rocks were piled up in small cairns about one and a half metres high.
Some distance away on the rocky bluff, Indy was struggling back with the transit.
Sophia walked over to the stone cairn nearest the left horn. She started pulling away the dusty rocks, suspicious. Bronze gleamed out. Sophia pulled the rocks away faster, exposing more and more of the metal statue. Soon, she had uncovered almost all of the bronzed structure. At the top of the statue, a bushy tail poked out. This trailed down to a concentric spiral in the ground, partly hidden by rubble. Clearly the statue had been discovered by Evans, but covered by a stone cairn for safety.
Sophia looked over at the right horn. Another pile of stones was nearby. Quickly she ran over and started pulling down stones. Sure enough, a bronze head was soon poking out at her. It reminded her of speculative illustrations she'd seen of the Minotaur.
She looked at it and the tall horns for several minutes until Indy arrived, red faced and panting, and set the transit down. "This thing is heavy," said Indy when he managed to catch back some breath. Indy looked around. "Say, you found the head and tail! Nice work." Indy picked the transit up and set it down in front of the head statue. Peering through the eyesight, he turned the lens around until he had the edge of the right horn lined up. He studied the patch of ground behind the horn which lined up with the transit, then picked it up and carried it, sweating, over to the other statue. Indy set it down and repeated the process, this time for the left horn.
He stood up. "Where do they converge?" asked Sophia.
Indy pointed at a pile of rocks near a shrub. "Just in front of those rocks." They walked over to the rocks. Indy knelt down, took out the ship rib, and started to dig into the ground. It made a half-decent makeshift shovel.
"Need help?" asked Sophia after a minute, during which time Indy had gone down a foot in the soft soil. Indy shook his head. Moments later, there was a dull tap.
Indy scraped the soil out of the hole. "I've hit stone." Sophia held her breath. Indy brushed away the soil using the ship rib, and finally was able to pry out a stone disk. It was slightly smaller than the stone disk, also had a hole in the middle, and had lunar images carved onto the outer circumference.
"A Moonstone," breathed Indy and Sophia together. Indy put it away with the Sunstone. He stood up, a bit out of breath. He pointed to the path leading back to the pier. "Come on," he said.
"Where?" asked Sophia.
"There was a stone spindle in the courtyard," said Indy. "Maybe it opens one of those stone slabs."
They walked back along the path. The excitement was flowing in Indy's veins like few times he could remember. He could smell it. And it was big. They walked in silence, as fast as possible without appearing to be actually running. Thus it was not long before they emerged once again in the sunny open courtyard. The sun was barely changed in its location - perhaps half an hour had passed. Indy walked Sophia over to the stone spindle in the ground. He placed the Sunstone and Moonstone onto the spindle - again a perfect, tight fit. Indy aligned the morning sun with the tall horns etched into the pavement, and then consulted the Lost Dialogue.
"...with the noon sun riding above the full moon..." read Indy. He rotated the Moonstone so that the image of a full moon was directly above the image of the noon sun on the Sunstone. He paused to take a deep breath, then pushed the spindle.
The central stone slab swung outward, grinding noisily against the paving. "What do you know?" said Indy. "A secret door. Well, that settles it. The Nazis can't have been here yet."
"I don't know," said Sophia cautiously. "Something tells me they're not far away."
Indy picked the Sunstone and Moonstone up and pocketed them. They nestled snugly in his jacket, a comforting weight. He looked up and into the passage behind the slab. Leading down into grey darkness was a set of stone steps.
"Are you ready for the labyrinth, Sophia?" he asked, looking at her.
"As always," replied Sophia.
Indy nodded, and walked into the darkness.

The stone steps led down into the deeps. Indy kept count of about fifty before the passage began to level out. It continued in this vein for a short distance, before Indy came out in a small antechamber. Sophia emerged behind him, wide eyed.
Indy looked around - the chamber led to an open brass door. Through it, Indy could see passages branching off left and right. Indy started - he could see them. How? Where was the light coming from? It was lighter than a night of full moon down here.
He ruffled his hat, confused. "So, the legend of a labyrinth under the ruins of Knossos was true! The legend of Atlantis isn't any more far fetched. Maybe it's true too."
"I think the last stone disk," said Sophia behind him, equally awed, "and Atlantis, are waiting for us somewhere beyond that door."
Indy nodded, looking around the room. To the right, the floor seemed to have fallen away completely. Indy thought about looking over at the chasm, then decided against it. By the main passage, some stone from the outside courtyard was strewn about. Indy was still having trouble with where the light was coming from - maybe cracks in the ceiling?
No way. They were too far down.
"Hey, Sophia!" said Indy, pointing to his left. "What're these, do you think?"
Sophia looked. Indy was pointing at a stone slab by the floor. On it, however, and the main items of interest, were what looked to be three stone heads. From where she was, and in this light, which was admittedly poor, the carving looked to be of a fairly low quality.
Indy was crouched down and looking at the three stones. "You know, I think I recognise these. Yes! They're Greek gods!" He pointed at the bearded head on the left. "That one there is Zeus, that one is Apollo, and that one on the right is Ares." He looked thoughtful. "Maybe this is Dictaeos instead."
"Don't be ridiculous," dismissed Sophia. "Would Dictaeos require stone disks for entrance? This is the Greater Colony. Okay, it doesn't look good at the moment, but I'm certain we'll find something."
"You've convinced me," said Indy. He picked up one of the heads, to test its weight, and was somewhat surprised when the stone slab rose slightly.
The brass door rattled a little, and lowered slightly.
Watching the door intently, Indy picked up Apollo. The door rattled again, and fell, this time slightly lower. Indy put Apollo and Zeus back. "A counterweight door system! The Minoans were more advanced than I thought. Most evidence points to counterweight systems being unknown until 300 BC."
"That because it's not Minoan, Indy. Not down here. Down here, it's Atlantis."
"Okay," said Indy, "but hopefully there's a little more to show for it than a door." He gave one last look at the three Greek Gods, then walked over to the brass door. The ground under his feet was dusty, and slightly damp. And there was a faint smell, wasn't there? Not brass, but something more organic.
Out in the passageway beyond, Indy could immediately see there would be problems. There was a passage to his left, a passage to his right, and a set of stone steps leading to another passage above. Each looked as likely as any other.
Sophia joined him. "Which way?"
Indy hesitated only a moment. "Right."
They headed over to a low archway, which appeared to have been dug out of the stone and then propped up by stone slabs, like the ones in the courtyard outside. Indy and Sophia ducked their heads as they passed through, and emerged into a small antechamber, about four metres wide and five metres high.
"Dead end," said Sophia, disappointed. Indy looked at the far wall - it appeared to have been bricked up. He walked over and looked at the mortar. Testing its strength, he couldn't even get it to scratch. They may as well have never dug out the passage to begin with.
"That leaves two," said Indy. "Come on." He led the way back out and to the left passage. The archway here was higher - they could walk through at full height.
And there was noise - a thin, running sound. Indy emerged into the wider cavern, and saw a small underground stream, running from an outlet high in the left wall to a small hole directly in front of them, about five metres away. The smell here was stronger - almost putrid.
Indy walked over to the hole and peered down, curious. He could see nothing.
"Come on, Indy," said Sophia, and pointed to a passage at the far end of the cavern. Indy got up again, and followed her past the stream. He was slightly put off by the displaced majesty of the place. The cavern was large, nearly twenty metres high, the kind of place that dwarfed your presence. It was clearly man made. And there must be hundreds of places just like it, if this really was the Labyrinth of Knossos. Yet for all the signs of occupation, it might have well just been a natural cave system.
Indy entered the darker connecting passageway. There was something wrong here - and Indy couldn't place what it was. Traps? Ravines?
Who needed them when you had the Minotaur?
Indy caught up to Sophia, in another stone room. There was a narrow passage on the far side, and steps leading up to another level of tunnels. "So, where do you think the Minotaur is?" he asked, half joking.
Sophia gave him a Look, which he managed to catch despite the dim light. "Minotaur? Don't tell me you believe that old fairy tale."
"Fairytale?" said Indy loudly. "You've been prancing on about Atlantis for weeks and suddenly the Minotaur is a fairy tale?"
"Well, obviously," said Sophia. "Punishment from the Gods for not sacrificing a bull - bull! The Atlanteans never demanded sacrifice from the other Aegean civilisations. They were above such superstition."
"Oh good," said Indy. "I'm very reassured." He walked over to the far passage, and peered through. Apart from a small, dark blue pool of, well, it looked like water, there was nothing else of interest. "Another dead end," he reported to Sophia as he returned.
Sophia shrugged, and walked over to the stairs. The echo of her footfalls on the smooth stone rang out sharply, clearly distinguishable. Indy winced with each step.
Here at the top of the stairs, another passage led out. Indy took the lead, and strode through the arch. As he emerged on the far side, he stopped in his tracks. There were no passages leading off from here. The room was not that deep, maybe five metres in total. But only two of those had floor. Indy looked down. In front, and to either side, the stone dropped away sharply, into a chasm of unguessable depths.
Sophia drew in breath behind him. "The Minoans couldn't have built this," she said. "Not in a thousand years."
Indy wasn't really worried about this. What really had caught his attention was the first signs of real human habitation. A chunk of crumbling stone masonry. And a clump of bones by the doorway. Indy knelt down and examined the bones. He could see two skulls. They weren't fully intact - indeed, one appeared to have been crushed by unthinkable pressure.
Very few of the other bones appeared to be intact. Some were even bent into wholly knew shapes, which had only the most passing resemblance to homo sapiens.
"Dead end," said Indy humourlessly, turning a skull over in his hand, then returning it to the ground. He wasn't in the mood for Shakespeare.
"Bones of previous explorers, probably," said Sophia, also slightly sombre.
"No doubt," said Indy. He got up, face blank, and walked back out. "Now, can we retrace our steps?"
"Try down, left, right, straight," said Sophia behind him. Indy had already started off. He was starting to feel the adrenaline in his system.

Before too long, they had made it back to the first chamber. There was no discussion of which way to go this time - they only alternative they had was up. Indy led the way.
The passage at the top of these stairs was different. Not propped up by stone blocks, but circular, as if tunnelled out by giant man eating gophers. Indy had a fleeting image of a giant man eating gopher gnawing its way through the Labyrinth, and despite himself, had to laugh. Luckily, Sophia didn't catch it.
The room this chamber led to was small. Several stone pillars stood in one corner, marked with strange symbols. Sophia walked over to them and looked at the images. As far as she could tell, and the images were unfamiliar, it appeared to be some sort of calendar. And at the top, the stylised image of a bull.
Indy was looking at the options. A passageway on the left, which lead off into an even dimmer area. And the ground sloping down to a passageway on the right, and the hint of a large open space beyond. Looked like right again.
Indy looked at Sophia and pointed. She nodded. Indy lead the way through the tall passage. Looking at the ground, it may have just been his imagination, but the path seemed to be worn somewhat.
Emerging from the far end of the passageway, Indy whistled. No wonder. He and Sophia appeared to have emerged in a multi-level plaza. The air smelt cleaner, and the floor looked almost swept. From here, the top floor, two more passages lead away. A lower second floor lead to another passage. And at the bottom, three more passages. And, standing slightly higher than a man, what appeared to be a statue. Intrigued, Indy walked over. Yes, it did appear to be a statue. A marble carving of the head of Jupiter was set onto a slab of granite three metres high. Set against the granite was a marble slab, at about Indy's height. There was a slit in the granite, which appeared to be designed to allow the marble slab to move up and down.
Indy looked at this, and then he looked at the passageway beside it. It was blocked, by a bronze grilled door - exactly the same door as at the entrance to the Labyrinth.
"This doorway is probably a counterweight system," said Indy. "And you know what? I think it 's been set to operate at the same weight as the entrance door."
He grasped the grills of the door and tried to lift it anyway. Nothing.
Indy let go and looked at his hands - they were free of rust flakes. Curious.
"So we have to get those busts of Zeus and all from the entrance, do we?" asked Sophia. "Should have guessed. Those things look like fifty pounds each."
"Yeah, we do. Because sooner or later, the Nazis will get them for us."
"Where are they? Do you think they've made it here to Crete, already?"
"I don't know. But you can bet they're already on their way." Indy looked at the other two passages. "Might just check what's through here first." He walked over to the right passage.
Sophia was about two metres behind Indy when he emerged at the far side, his body silhouetted against the room beyond. She was thus in a good position to see Indy look up, gasp with shock, and fall over. Sophia emerged herself, and quickly looked up.
It was certainly bull like, you could say that. Whatever its creators had been thinking of, bulls were certainly high on their agenda as they set about their masterpiece. It was tall and intimidating, maybe four metres high and one metre wide, and that was before you took the stone pedestal it stood on into account. It had the head of a bull, the body of a man, and it was made entirely of stone.
Sophia herself fell over, only she was laughing uncontrollably. "So much for your Minotaur!" she managed before losing herself in her clear, shrill laugh, not caring a whim for what creatures it might attract.
Indy didn't need her laugh to tell him the Minotaur was not dangerous - he'd seen it was a statue even before he hit the floor. But not soon enough to prevent making a scene out of himself. Feeling a bit foolish, Indy stood up. Sophia was rocking back and forth on the floor, giggling away.
"All right, all right," said Indy in the tone of one who can see the joke, "You were right, I was wrong, there's no Minotaur." He looked at the statue a bit closer, now that he could do so without losing his footing. "Mind you, it still looks pretty fearsome. I mean, if I was a superstitious type of person, this is the kind of statue I'd go out of my way to make an offering to."
Sophia was starting to get over her laughing fit. "The original Minotaur."
Indy walked over to the Minotaur, climbing the steps so he was directly underneath. "I used to wonder why Minoans were so obsessed with bull headed figures. Come to think of it, I still wonder." Indy craned his neck to look at the head. It looked heavy - very heavy. And slightly loose.
Needing something manly to do, Indy uncurled his bullwhip and whipped it at the neck of the statue, releasing all his pent up anxiety and aggression. There must have been more there than he thought - the neck of the statue proceeded to crack, and the crack spread in a most alarming manner.
The head of the Minotaur wobbled, and fell forward.
Indy ducked to one side as the massive head slammed into the stone step beside him. There was a massive booming sound, as of a cannon firing. Indy felt the shockwave up his spine. Sophia, who hadn't been prepared for such an event and in any case was looking the wrong way, screamed.
The head didn't explode in thick shards. Instead, it somehow held together as it bounced up, presumably out of a thick patch of dirt, and clunked its way down the steps. Bouncing off the last step, the head proceeded to land on the stone below, and come to a rest. The floor sagged.
Indy walked over, curious.
The impact of the stone head seemed to have defined a stone slab within the ground, about two metres by two metres. But if this was sagging, what was the stone resting on?
Indy thought of the bronze door. "Sophia! Get over here!" Sophia, who looked a bit flustered from shock, came over slowly.
"Know what I think this is?" said Indy, reaching for her hand.
"What?" said a confused Sophia.
Indy grabbed her hand and pulled her onto the stone slab. "Elevator."
There was a grinding noise of stone on stone as the slab beneath them shook, and then began to grind its way downward. "Oooh!" said Sophia, bewildered. "What's going on, Indy?"
"A primitive elevator of some sort." said Indy, his head already sinking below floor level. The foot of the elevator was opening into a cavern much larger than the room above. And there was a rushing sound - Indy looked to his right, and saw an underground stream - possibly the underground stream, as seen earlier. By now his head had passed through the stone shaft and he could see clearly into the cavern. The elevator was supported by stone columns on either side of the slab.
"I always thought Mr Otis invented the elevator," said Sophia as they neared the bottom. With a jolt, and a crushing sound from below, the slab came to a stop.
"Yeah, well this is our floor," said Indy. They stepped off the elevator together. The ground here was softer, and slightly wet.
Indy felt a rush of air behind him, and turned to see the elevator returning to the surface. "Hey, wait! That was our ride!" The elevator continued to rise. "Oh, darn," said Indy.
"Indy," said Sophia in a low voice behind him. Indy turned, and Sophia pointed at something. A skeleton. A skeleton, moreover, dressed in khaki shirt, brown pants, woollen socks, shoes, and safari hat. A skeleton still possessed of fragments of flesh and skin. This was a recent explorer. Indy suddenly had a nasty suspicion who it was.
Before he had even reached the body, he knew. "Looks like our old friend Professor Sternhart. Looked like he starved to death." Indy felt slightly sick. He knelt down at the thin corpse, which appeared to be holding a note in its right hand.
"How awful!" said Sophia beside him. She sounded distressed.
"I guess he knew a lot more than he let on."
"But not enough, apparently."
"Yeah," added Indy. "We'll starve too if we don't find a way out of here."
Sophia looked at him, almost angry. "I really wish you hadn't said that, Indy."
Indy reached out and gently took the note from Professor Sternhart's hand. He peered down at his thin, neat handwriting, hard to read in the gloom. He read to Sophia. "It says: 'I am convinced the Map Room lies beyond the next chamber. Alas, I cannot get past the gate. I need that orichalcum detector.'" Indy looked at Sophia, feeling a small amount of relief. At least we've got it.
"Too bad for Sternhart," he said. "He came a long way." Indy placed the note on the ground, and looked toward Sternhart's feet - where, sure enough, he saw a Worldstone. He leant over and picked it up.
"The Worldstone Sternhart swiped in Tikal!" he said. He examined the images carved into the outer rim, and showed them to Sophia. Then he hid the stone in the recesses of his jacket. Taking one last look at Sternhart, he noticed a thin wooden walking stick. Indy reached over and picked it up. It was eerily regular.
Indy surveyed their surroundings. "Some date, huh?" he offered in an attempt to lighten the mood.
"This is not a date, Jones," said Sophia. Indy was starting to notice a pattern here - being called Indy was good, being called Jones was bad. "We're not dating. If this was a date, I would have stood you up."
"You know, you look great in this light."
"What's that supposed to mean? It's almost pitch dark!"
Indy held up his hands. "Okay, okay. No more from me. Let's just see what else is down here, all right? For starters, how about that passage at the back?"
About twenty metres away, there was another stone slab passageway. This gave Indy some hope - maybe everything down here was connected with everything else. "Do you think we're lost?" he asked as they walked over.
"Who knows?" sighed Sophia. "I'm too lost to think."
But Indy's hopes were shot when he saw that the chamber they entered only had one exit, and it was barred by another bronze grilled door. There was no marble slab on this side of the door to help them. Indy stared through the grill door at the pulley on the far side. It was maddeningly out of reach. Then Indy stepped back and happened to look at a hole in the stone wall, about two metres off the ground and half a metre wide. Now where does that go? he thought.
"Oh, great," said Sophia when she saw there were no exits. "How are we going to open the gate?"
"Err, Sophia," began Indy.
"What?"
"Looks like we're stuck."
Sophia was looking around. "Maybe not," she said, pointing at the hole Indy had noted earlier.
"Yeah," said Indy. "Let me boost you through that hole."
Sophia gave him a strange look. "I'm not going through there! I bet it's full of spiders, or rats, or snakes!"
"Well, boost me through the hole," said Indy.
"You?" replied an incredulous Sophia. "I couldn't boost you as far as I trust you, let alone up there."
"Fine, we'll rot down here like Sternhart," said Indy sharply, slightly put out.
"I'm not worried," said Sophia. "You'll think of something."
Indy was getting a bit angry at the carefree spiritual guide in front of him. But now wasn't the time, nor place, to start an argument. Nevertheless, as he turned away to head back to the elevator, he couldn't resist making a parting comment: "Oh, you probably wouldn't fit anyway."
Sophia's voice was ice behind him. "Was that a crack about my weight?" Indy turned to see she had her hands on her hips, and a frown on her face.
"Perish the thought," said Indy sarcastically. When no response was forthcoming from Sophia, he added: "I just meant it's an awfully narrow passage."
"Are you saying I won't fit?" said Sophia menacingly.
Indy really was getting very exasperated with her. Stuck down here, and all she can worry about is her figure? "It's not exactly a barn door, you know," he responded.
Sophia's mouth dropped. "Ohh, you are so insulting!" she said angrily, and turned her back. A few seconds passed in which nobody said anything.
"Sophia..." started Indy, still angry but wanting to apologise."
She turned around, face violent. "Hmph!" she dismissed.
That did it for Indy. "I'm sorry I opened my mouth," he said sourly.
"Don't be. You look good with your foot in it."
"What's the matter with you?"
"Nothing, Jones. Go find a pit and jump in, would you?"
Indy waved his arms about. "Don't be such a ... a ... girl!"
"Woman to you, buster," was her acid reply.
Indy backed away, heading back to the elevators. He had no desire to continue this particular discussion. If that's how it was, well, she could rot down here. And get a good figure, at the same time. Indy walked over to the elevator and looked at the waterfall. It had a soothing, hypnotic effect. Indy stared at it for several minutes before he saw the chain hanging behind the waterfall. He immediately put two and two together. "The elevator counterweight!" he said softly.
There was a small space behind the falling water. It was just large enough for Indy to fit through. Pausing for a moment to consider his options, Indy stepped through the water.
A sheet of ice cascaded over him and he was soaked before he got through the other side. "I hate getting wet," said Indy, shaking the water off. He looked at the chain. It was damp, but not overly so. He looked upward. The shaft extended seven metres up, where the chain disappeared over a clump of rocks on the shaft wall.
Indy got a handhold on the chain, and leapt upward. Taking care to keep a firm grip, he slowly winched himself upward. She's always rushing off, he thought. So bloody irrational. Thinks she knows it all. How can she? It takes more than a few spirits and cosmic forces to explain everything.
A minute later, Indy was scrabbling at the top for purchase. Any hope of getting up the counterweight shaft dry had long since, for lack of a better term, evaporated. He was soaking wet. And very cold. Finally, after much cursing, he was able to pull himself up into a narrow horizontal passageway. Dragging himself through the narrow tunnel, he pushed aside some small rocks to emerge once more in the temple of the Minotaur. It looked a lot less impressive without its head. And there it was, sitting on the elevator, which had returned to its rightful position.
Indy stood there for a moment, catching his breath. For the moment, all he could think of was Sophia, and all her maddening traits. Finally Indy realised he may as well try and retrace their steps. He left the room and returned to the plaza, still glowering.
Indy looked at the bust of Jupiter. Now what was behind there? he wondered, glad of the diversion. We'd been planning to open the gate, hadn't we?
Indy looked at the third level door, assessing the possibilities. Retracing their journey looked to be easier than they had first thought, mainly because their footprints were still visible in the still dust, as if deposited on some lunar surface.
Indy decided to go for it. Nothing good ever comes of brooding.

Fifteen minutes later, a warmer, nay hotter Dr Jones stretched his trembling muscles to hoist Apollo onto the shelf with his mates, and as his fingers broke contact the bronze gate swung up. Indy looked through into a dim passageway, which then turned right to new pastures. Small trails of dust blew over his feet.
In the entrance room, with the sea just audible from above, Indy had considered just leaving. And rejected it utterly. Angry as he might be, he still couldn't just leave Sophia to die, like Sternhart. But at the same time, Indy didn't want to return an hour later, empty handed, like a kid who's been sulking. Because of a slight suspicion that this what he was actually was doing, Indy intended to potter around here, and hopefully find something useful. Better to be the bearer of good tidings, than no tidings of all.
Indy walked into the passageway, around the corner, and came to a Y junction. The path on the left sloped upward, and was slightly larger. The path to the right continued on at a level. Indy chose to go left. He was now using Sternhart's walking stick, and marvelling at how well it balanced his motion.
The path curved left, and right. In one corner, another set of bones. Another unlucky explorer? Who else knew about this place? Indy bent down to examine the loose collection. The bones crumbled even as he touched them.
Indy shrugged, and kept walking to the far side of the tunnel. Here, there seemed to be a doorway. Indy walked through and ... was surprised again.
Directly in front of him, the ground was split by a stone shaft plunging into the darkness. Its shape was regular, almost square. And hanging above the shaft, looking like the meanest punching bag ever devised, was a stone counterweight. Indy, taking a closer look, saw that a chock of wood had been wedged to hold the counterweight in place.
This wasn't the only notable feature of the room, however. For a start, this really was a room, not just a natural cavern or cave. Indy could see bricks set into the walls on either side. There were also decorations. Set into the walls were numbers of carven mosaics, featuring what else, but bulls. Sixteen sets of eyes glared down on Indy from their elevated place in the centuries.
But even these failed to hold Indy's attention for long. What had really caught his interest, from the moment he walked through the arch, was a small stone table on the far side. On the table, gleaming dully in the dim light, was a small golden box. Behind it was just a tunnel, leading to a large open door. Indy wasn't interested in that, he was caught by the box. It almost seemed to be casting a faint golden glow on its surroundings. Acting on a hunch, Indy took out the amber fish and let it hang down from his hand. It circled indecisively, spun around, and kept on spinning around. Which meant no orichalcum. Indy tucked the fish away and looked for a way to get over.
He looked at the chasm. It was just, just, too long to jump. Maybe if he freed the counterweight... Using Sternhart's walking stick, Indy poked at the chock, which popped free and tumbled down into the darkness. There was a faint echoing clank as it hit the bottom not soon after.
Indy was looking at the counterweight. It shook slightly, the chain creaking as it supported the movement, and was still. No elevator magically appeared from below.
"Shoot," said Indy. The bulls looked at him disapprovingly. "But ... hey, what if..."
Indy turned briskly and left the room, powering his strides with the walking stick. Maybe, that other path at the Y junction led to the bottom of the shaft. Maybe it did. And if it did, then that meant ... well, he'd work out what it meant when he got there.
Having reached the junction, Indy took the lower path and was pleased to find it sloping down gently. Once again, Indy was wondering ... natural or man made? He still couldn't tell.
Another low stone arch, and suddenly Indy emerged at what had to be the bottom of the stone shaft, because he could see the base of the counterweight hanging above. Below and next to the counterweight, a smooth and regular stone square. The elevator. Right next to the elevator, a stone head about four metres high.
Indy was taken aback. Looking at the piece, it did appear similar to the Minoan work he'd seen at the dig site. The statue was a carving of a young, almost boyish face, with a straight nose and bald head. The eyes, each about the size of Indy's arm, had no pupils. The mouth appeared to be pursed shut, except for a small cleft right in the centre. Indy knelt down and peered into the hole, and saw nothing.
The head was positioned so as to be looking right at the elevator. Obviously he had to do something with it, but what? Indy picked up Sternhart's stick and poked it around in the mouth, hoping to trigger something.
He did more than that. Pushing the stick as far as it would go, there was a sudden crack sound as the end was seized by unknown hands inside. Indy's hold on the stick was broken as it was pulled into the mouth with sudden force. There were further crunching sounds. Splinters sprayed out of the small opening.
"Hey!" said Indy, annoyed with the loss of the stick. Then a low throaty rumble came from the statue. With sudden, effortless ease, the elevator began to rise.
Indy looked up, and saw the counterweight falling beside him. The shaft was shorter than he first thought ... maybe six metres high. They were rising quickly, too - he could already see the room above, and the gold box casting its faint glow over the surrounds.
The elevator stopped. Like that. Smooth. Flush level with the floor on either side. Indy cared little for this, he was walking slowly toward the box.
Indy's face began to glow golden as he came closer. From here, he could now see the tiny filigree carvings on the edges of the box, which was perhaps half a feet in width and length. Now against the table, Indy reached out hesitant, trembling hands toward the box. His fingers grasped the edge, which felt almost slick.
Indy gently, slowly, carefully, raised the box, which was a comfortable, hefting weight. Nothing seemed to happen. Grinning, Indy tucked the box into the folds of his jacket.
At which point the entire room shook. A crashing rumble reverberated in the tight space. Small shards of rock fell from the ceiling, raising clouds of angry, disturbed dust. Indy looked around, startled.
The elevator was dropping - already it had disappeared from view. Indy could see the top of the counterweight, still rising. Before Indy could react, however, there was a low, massive thump behind him.
Indy looked up into the passage behind the small table. A smooth two metre boulder had dropped into the tunnel at its rear, and was now rolling down the smooth incline, gaining deadly speed. Each time it bounced, dust and rock fell from the ceiling. Small shards of stalactites and stalagmites were obliterated as it rolled past.
"Oh ..." Indy began, and realising he could either run, or die, Indy turned and pelted for the elevator. With a sinking heart, he realised he'd never make the jump - and, if he did manage to somehow grab the other side, the boulder would obliterate him on its way through. So instead Indy ran to one side of the shaft, where the counterweight was nearly finished its ascent. The floor was shaking, and the air behind was pushing at him as Indy reached the edge and leapt into space. He hit the counterweight, which swung out alarmingly, and clung for dear life.
Beside him the boulder slammed into the elevator shaft. The far edge of the shaft buckled and cracked from the strain. There were a few more crashes as the boulder dropped down, and then a final explosion as the statue encountered something unexpected. That left Indy, stranded on a tree trunk sized counterweight two metres from either side of the tunnel, swinging back and forth.
Indy's hands began to slip on the smooth stone - there was nothing to grip. His body was sliding, slowly but surely, down a two metre counterweight hanging over a six metre drop.
Indy took one hand off the counterweight and fished around in his jacket. He began to slip faster. He pulled out the bullwhip. Rocking the counterweight as much as he dared, Indy drew back his arm and cracked the whip at a brick jutting out from the wall by the door.
It smacked into the brick, curled, and caught.
Releasing his hold on the counterweight, Indy swung into space. It might have made a decent swing in other circumstances, but this particular time Indy's feet clipped the top of the shaft. He tumbled and fell into thick blankets of dust.
Indy paused there for a moment, and caught his breath. A large stone fell from the roof and slammed into the dust by his head. Indy coughed. There was another rumble, from who knows where within the labyrinth, and more stone fell. A stalactite hit his back. Pebbles were raining down his neck. Indy decided it was maybe time to get moving again. He jumped to his feet, snapped the bullwhip off the brick, and ran to the archway.
It crumbled and fell behind him as he emerged into the winding tunnel. Here, at least, there didn't seem to be any mortal dangers. Indy pelted along the tunnel, past the Y junction, and emerged with a cloud of dust for company back in the plaza. Indy caught his breath again, nailed it to a large post, and took out the golden box, now that he had the time to examine it a bit closer.
It wasn't glowing any more. Slightly disappointed, Indy prised the top off the box.
"Well, whaddya know?" said Indy. Nestled in the interior of the box, which seemed to have been lined with lead, were two orichalcum beads. But the orichalcum detector? What happened there? Indy took out the fish and hung it again. As if on a leyline to the beads, the fish rotated around and upward so as to be pointing at the box.
Indy shut the lid. The fish immediately lost interest and started aimlessly surveying its surrounds again.
So ... a gold box that shielded orichalcum. Indy was suddenly thoughtful. Did that mean that orichalcum had some kind of radioactivity, like Uranium? Indy was suddenly glad of the discovery of the box - at least he'd be safe from any effects. And look at Sophia. No wonder she's barking mad with that great big orichalcum source hanging from her neck.
Oh yes, Sophia. Indy set out to the Minotaur statue and the elevator. It was probably beyond time for them to patch their differences.
Indy chuckled at the Minotaur as he walked onto the lift. Its right arm had fallen off, apparently from whatever shocks Indy had set off. But, the lift seemed to work fine.
As the lift grindingly descended, Indy was pleasantly surprised to see Sophia standing by the lift, below, instead of still sulking in the antechamber, arms crossed. Still, it had been a while. Sophia looked at bit distraught, possibly from all the recent underground activity that had been going on.
The lift reached bottom, and Indy stepped out, suddenly feeling contrite for his hasty departure. "Err, Sophia?" he began.
She didn't seem interested in an apology. "What was that, Indy?" she cried out. "It felt like an earthquake! I was nearly killed by falling rocks!" Indy looked to the right and saw that Sternhart, in addition to all his problems, had been impaled by a six foot stalactite to the head. Indy winced.
Sophia really did look distressed. Indy moved over and put a hand on her shoulder, waiting for her to calm down. She sniffed twice, then looked at Indy, and Indy's hand.
"I'm sorry I was rude before," said Indy.
Sophia reached up and gently removed his hand, still looking at him. "You're just trying to get on my good side ... but I forgive you anyway."
They could have looked at each other for a good deal longer, but there was another rumble, far off this time, and the moment was broken. Indy started walking to the room at the back, with Sophia in step beside him. Indy took out the golden box and showed it to her.
Sophia looked at it intently. "Where'd you find this?"
"It's a long story."
She opened the lid, and gasped at the sight of two beads. Indy nodded, grinning. Sophia handed back the box.
They were now at the gate. Indy pointed at the tunnel above. "Come on, climb onto my shoulders."
Sophia was still wary. "I'd rather not."
Indy was, this time, a bit more confident about proceedings. "I think I've said it before, but you probably wouldn't fit anyway. It's not important."
"Are you saying I won't fit?" said Sophia.
"After a few days without food, we'll both fit," said Indy pointedly. Sophia sighed.
"We're really not getting anywhere until I climb through there, are we?"
"'Fraid not."
"Okay. Boost me up."
Indy made a stirrup with his hands. Sophia put her right boot into it, and held onto Indy's shoulder's for balance. Indy heaved.
"Watch those hands, buster," said Sophia sharply. Indy grinned. The moment was really over.
Indy heaved again, and Sophia scrambled for the tunnel opening. She got her hands in, pulled her shoulders through, put her feet on Indy's head for lack of any other purchase, and made her way in. Soon she had disappeared.
There was a tumble and a thump on the other side. Indy's grin grew wider as he walked to the gate. Sophia was standing behind it, looking slightly dishevelled.
"There's a pulley on this side!" she cried out.
"Well, pull it!"
"Hang on." There was a clank, and the gate quickly rose. Sophia looked at Indy. "Happy?"
"We're not out of the woods yet, but nice going!"
Sophia pointed to her left, where a tunnel appeared to branch in two. "Through here!"
Indy followed, and soon found himself at another Y junction, suspiciously similar to the one he'd seen before. Sophia was already walking to the left, upward tunnel. Indy followed. The tunnel went on this way, leading them past several broken masonry columns and more skeletons.
"What do you suppose they used this section of the labyrinth for?" asked Indy.
"How would I know?" asked Sophia. "Bull fights?"
"Possibly."
The tunnel was sloping downward now, and suddenly the wall on the right hand side fell away, revealing a narrow, fathomless chasm. The path looked dangerously narrow.
Indy carefully lead the way along the path, and all was well until they came to a small river, gurgling over the path and down into the bottomless deeps. They couldn't even hear the splash of the water hitting the bottom.
Indy leapt the stream in one smooth jump, turned at the far side and waited for Sophia. She slipped slightly as she landed, yelped, but Indy grabbed her hand.
"Thanks," said Sophia, sounding a little put out. Indy lead the way again, along the path which, thankfully, became a tunnel again as the chasm came to an abrupt end. Walking briskly, they soon found themselves emerging ... from the right hand tunnel of the Y junction.
"Back where we started!" said Sophia.
Indy was as disappointed as her. He thought about Sternhart's final note. Why had he been trapped, to starve to death?
"'I am convinced the Map Room lies beyond the next chamber,'" quoted Indy. "'Alas, I cannot get past the gate. I need that orichalcum detector.'" Sophia looked at him.
"Of course! Get the orichalcum detector out!"
Indy reached into his jacket, and pulled out the forlorn fish. With nerve-straining accuracy, the golden fish spun on its string so that it pointed straight at Sophia's necklace.
"It must be detecting the orichalcum residue," said Sophia.
"Yeah," said Indy. "Listen..."
"What?"
"Can I borrow that necklace of yours for a while?" he asked delicately.
"Why?"
"I think it would look better on me," joked Indy. He had to admit it wasn't a very good joke, but surely it wasn't as bad as Sophia's reaction might indicate.
She looked shocked. "You're trying to trick me. But it won't work! He's MY spirit guide, not yours!"
Touchy, thought Indy. And yet, he was just a bit worried about her. "Err, Sophia, I think Nur-Ab-Sal is getting to be a bad influence on you."
"WHAT?" roared Sophia. Indy took a step back, his turn to be shocked. Her voice, it sounded utterly unfamiliar - there was a deep booming power to it he'd never heard before. "YOU DARE TO QUESTION THE PRESENCE OF THE MIGHTY NUR-AB-SAL? DOWN, YOU SIMPLE APE!"
Indy was completely flabbergasted. Sophia's face looked to be fighting itself. Then her expression cleared.
"Sorry," she said, once again her normal self, and she looked utterly bewildered. "I don't know what came over me ... what were you saying?"
Indy suddenly thought - she's lying. "I really need your necklace." And you really need to hand it over. What is going on here?
"Why?" she asked, as if completely unaware of what they'd been talking about.
Indy decided to come clean. It was far too risky an area to do otherwise. "I think it's throwing off the orichalcum detector. Like in the Professor's note."
"So?"
"So, we need to hide it."
"You think so?" asked Sophia, irritated. "Then say: Nur-Ab-Sal is a mighty king, and his Eyes See Through."
"See through what?" said Indy automatically.
"It's a chant," said Sophia, "just say it!"
"'Nur-Ab-Sal is a mighty king, and his Eyes See Through,'" said Indy dutifully.
Sophia appeared to be mollified by this. "All right. I can't give you my necklace, but tell me your plan, and I'll try to help."
My plan? thought Indy. I'd really like to drop it down a long deep fissure. What he said was: "I want to put it in the gold box."
Sophia seemed to find this acceptable. "Okay. Give me the box, and I'll put it inside." Indy handed the box over, and watched Sophia unclasp the necklace from the back of her neck, look at it one last time in the light of the box (it was glowing again, and Indy suspected he knew why), and placed it gently in the box. She closed the lid.
"There. But only for a few minutes."
"That's all the time we'll need." said Indy, grateful. And did Sophia look just that bit better without the necklace? Mayhap she did.
Indy took out the fish, and let it hang in the still air. No longer pointing at Sophia, it was mere seconds before the fish decided it liked the look of the left passage.
"That way," indicated Indy. He walked up the incline, watching the fish intently. After about ten metres, as they were passing some singularly uninteresting piece of wall, the fish suddenly began to turn left, until it pointed straight at the wall.
Indy looked at the wall. It appeared to be crumbling a bit. In fact, now that he had time to notice it, the whole area seemed unstable.
"Doesn't look all that strong," agreed Sophia. Indy fished around and pulled out the ship rib. He started to scrape away at the wall. Sods of dirt and pebbles came out almost to the touch. Sophia lent a hand in pulling out the material and brushing away dirt.
It took only two minutes of work, with Indy barely sweating, before they had managed to uncover the outline of a door. Indy looked at it.
"Well, I'll be."
He pressed his hands to the stone and pushed. Moving as if on greased rails, the door swung inward, revealing a narrow passageway to treasures beyond.
Indy pointed. "Let's go."
Before long the narrow passageway emerged into a larger cavern, the roof supported by tall pillars. Indy spied a gold bead winking in the dust, and picked it up.
"This must have been what attracted the orichalcum detector!"
"Great," said Sophia. "Now take this gold box. I want to wear my necklace again."
"Why?" asked Indy. "You look good enough without it." But Sophia was already rummaging in the box. She took the necklace out, handed over the box, and clasped the chain at the base of her neck. She looked relieved.
Indy looked at her for a moment, then turned his attention to the rear of the room, where there was a very large, very heavy looking, black as midnight stone door.
"Uh oh," said Indy.

There are many, many rooms in the Labyrinth. Though Indy and Sophia had encountered less than two score, Indy was right when he suggested there might be hundreds of rooms, tunnels and passageways.
No longer are all of these accessible. There was a time when every room in the Labyrinth could be reached from any other room. Now, much of the Labyrinth has been shut off by tunnel collapses, and other such rock movements. Many others are kept secret behind massive boulders. These rooms and many more lie undiscovered, forever containing their unknown secrets.
One such room is the Map Room. There are larger rooms in the Labyrinth, so large that even 'cavern' perhaps falls a bit short. There are more impressive rooms. But the Map Room is alone in its design.
The Map Room is about ten metres square. Four doors branch off from it, though we are not interested in them. What interests us is the floor.
There is, in a circle about eight metres in diameter, a small, intricate model of a city. Actual houses, buildings and even trees are all laid out in carven granite. It is a most unusual city, separated as it is into three concentric circles, each isolated from the other by a flat moat. One might gaze in wonder a long time at this city, so detailed is it. But one's curiosity would be immediately piqued by the centre of the city, where there is not one building. Only a raised stone circle one metre in diameter, with a stone peg at the very centre. Perhaps, one thinks, that's the sundial.
But one would not have such an opportunity to think, because the Map Room has never been discovered. It sits alone, in pristine silence, forever destined to...
"Uhhhh!"
The sounds of rock on rock, scraping rudely.
"Come on door, move!"
The door rocked on its base and fell into the Map Room, crashing against the floor.
"Whoops," said Indy. Sophia joined him as they walked in.
Indy ruffled his hat. "Well, either Atlantis is a lot smaller than we thought, or we've found some kind of map, or scale model."
"Laid out in three concentric circles! Exactly as Plato described!"
"Amazing," said Indy, looking at the city.
"I'll say."
Indy looked at the centre of the city. "Looks like a job for the stone disks," he said as he walked over, careful to avoid stepping on anything fragile.
Let's see, it was morning light on tall horns, full moon above noon sun, and ... hmmm, dying orbs plummeting into the eastern sea. That's east sea above setting sun...
Indy pushed the spindle.
Green light. Indy turned, and saw a statue by the edge of the city. It looked like the statue in Caswell Hall. Its eyes were glowing a bright green, and it started to speed around the perimeter of the city. As it passed, buildings rose and fell in its wake.
Indy and Sophia watched, stunned.
The statue had completed two circuits when it stopped and span on the spot. A door behind them suddenly opened. The statue died.
Indy and Sophia looked at the door. Another tunnel. Where did this one lead? Indy knelt down to pick up the stones, then walked over to the door. He looked at Sophia. "Ready?"
"Lead the way," said Sophia. Indy did so.

After about twenty metres, Indy found himself emerging in a small four metre square room. It was a dead end.
"Sophia!" he called out. "Hurry up!" He turned and looked at the tunnel exit, waiting.
He was waiting for Sophia, that impetuous red head. What he wasn't waiting for, really, was Kerner, the dumb blonde.
Indy felt a deep shock in his chest, as if he'd been slugged. His eyes boggled. He stumbled backward.
Kerner looked as calm and authoritative as ever as he pulled a gun from his green/blue army uniform and pointed it at Indy. "We've got her, you foolish Amerikaner!" he gloated. This really was too good.
Not quite what Indy was thinking. "Kerner!" he exclaimed. "What rock did you crawl out from under?"
"I have no time to trade insults-"
Indy rode over his voice. "Keep the girl out of this." he said flatly.
"You're in no position to bargain, Doctor Jones," said Kerner, unimpressed by the bluster. Kerner was of the persuasion that you have to be possessed of a special kind of stupidity to be a Westerner. The Third Reich was possessed of no such weaknesses. "She'll be perfectly happy to join the winning team. Unfortunately, I cannot guarantee her safety. Unless you hand over the stones!"
"You'll take the stones over my dead body!" said Indy sternly.
"Don't tempt me!" said Kerner. "This is your only chance!"
Indy reached into his jacket and took out the stones. Barely concealing his rage, he handed them to Kerner.
"Better a live coward than a dead hero, eh Dr Jones?"
"Get out of here," snarled Indy.
"I swear you'll never see me again," said Kerner happily. "Or anyone else, for that matter." Keeping the gun trained on Indy, Kerner reached the tunnel, and made his way out.
"Ha Ha Ha Ha!" he laughed, unable to contain his glee.
"Kerner!" yelled a furious Indy behind him. Indy ran to the tunnel, around several bends, only to find at the very end an enormous boulder blocking the way out. Indy kicked at the boulder, pushed at it, heaved it. In return, the boulder acted as if it didn't know what the word 'budge' meant. "What a slimy toad," said Indy, unable to contain his contempt. Admitting defeat, Indy trudged back to his four metre room, or rather, his four metre cell.
Now that he had time to notice it, the back wall seemed to be crumbling a bit.
Indy got out the ship rib, his one foot archaeological implement, and regarded it thoughtfully.
Oh well...
Indy started scraping at the wall, and soon was making some progress. The rocks were unnaturally loose, almost as if they hadn't been there long. As if there was a tunnel here, collapsed maybe, but still reachable.
Rocks were falling easily now. Indy managed to dislodge a particularly large and recalcitrant item and soon the whole wall began to slide down. Indy jumped out of the way, but was still caught several stinging blows.
There seemed to be a space behind the wall. Indy looked at it.
"Well, whaddya know?"

"Fraulein!!" screamed Kerner, his boots ringing out sharply on the top of the submarine. "Halt!!"
Sophia had not shown any signs, so far, of halting. She was striding away to the bow of the sub, taking no interest in Kerner's rantings. But there was no more room to move - she was running out of sub. Sophia turned and looked at Kerner, the way one might look at a particularly unpleasant newt habiting the toilet.
Kerner gestured with his gun. "You must board the U-Boat!"
"I'm not going anywhere!" replied Sophia. "What have you done with Indy, you creep?"
"Forget about Jones!" said Kerner disdainfully. "How can you expect a man to lead you through Atlantis, when he can't even find his way out of the Labyrinth?"
"And you're practically an Atlantis tour guide, I suppose," said Sophia.
Kerner was getting pretty annoyed. "We have charted an underwater entrance to the Lost City," he said, managing to omit the 'So there!'. He looked eagerly at Sophia. "Together we will discover its secrets!"
Sophia tossed her hair dismissively. "Good luck."
Kerner pointed the gun at her. It was a pity, but they needed her expertise. "You have a choice, Fraulein. Join us, and fulfil your life's ambition." He nodded at Crete. "Or join Jones. Another rotting corpse on the way to glory."
Sophia purred. "Well how can I refuse hospitality like that?" She walked past Kerner, no longer interested in his antics, toward the entrance hatch.
Kerner brushed a hand through his blond locks. "Jones was a better man than I thought," he admitted grudgingly, "if he could put up with her!" He set off after Sophia again.

Indy, meanwhile, was scrambling up a narrow fissure in near pitch darkness. This wasn't a part of the Labyrinth, he had now realised, because there was no light. But it was going up - a good sign.
His head bumped into stone.
Heart sinking. Indy put his hands to the stone and felt the edges. It felt regular, almost like brickwork. Indy shoved upward.
Movement. For just a moment, the edge of the brick was lined by brilliant sunlight. With unlooked for hope, Indy set his feet firmly and pushed again.
The brick came out completely. Shoving it to one side, Indy stuck his head into the small gap.
It was like entering another world. There was light, so much light that he could hardly see. There was noise, the fluttering and chirping of birds and the whisper of waves. And there was movement, the feel of air brushing against his cheeks.
But there was, alas, no time to pause. Indy scrambled his way out of the fissure and onto the ... pavement. He was on the courtyard again. "This is where I came in," he said.
Indy stood up, testing his legs, and looked to the sea. And there, docked against the pier, was what he'd been expecting. "A Nazi U-Boat," said Indy. "I hate those Nazis." He stood there for a moment longer, looking at the sub and seeing no activity. Indy's brain was about to speak up and talk about what he should do next, what the options were, what the chances were, but his feet intervened, sending him steadily to the pier.

The captain was making the last minute adjustments to allow them to get underway, when he was disturbed by a small knock from the entrance hatch. Annoyed, he climbed the ladder, opened the hatch, and saw a dirty, sweaty man looking at him in a suspicious way. And he looked American, too. The man appeared to be grinning, possibly at his smart blue uniform.
"I'm the captain here," said the captain, reasserting the social order. "And I don't tolerate stowaways!"
The man didn't look that concerned. "Are you the sub-captain?" he inquired. "Or merely sub-human?"
"Why, you!" said the captain. The man turned and climbed down the ladder. Running away, was he? The captain, whose blood was now up, set off after him. "Where do you think you're going!" he called out. Scared, eh? he thought as he descended.
The captain reached the bottom. Now...
Indy punched him in the gut. The captain doubled over. Indy brought his knee up, sinking it into his groin. The captain gurgled, and attempted a swing. Indy dodged it easily and punched him in the chest, twice. The captain tottered backward, stricken. He looked at Indy.
Indy's fist flashed in a right uppercut on the point of the chin. The captain's head jerked back violently. The force of the punch lifted him into the air, sending him over the edge of the sub.
There was a loud splash as he hit the water, unconscious.
Indy stared at the floating body, rubbing his knuckles. "Looks like I'm captain now." As he climbed the ladder again, the ship started to shake. "Looks like we're getting underway," observed Indy, quickly crossing to the hatch and opening it. He climbed down the ladder to the small captain's room, closed the hatch, and looked around.
"Let's hope we're headed for Atlantis."

Ten minutes later and they appeared to have levelled. Indy was watching their progress through the portholes set on all sides of the captain's room - they afforded a great view. Apart from that, he wasn't sure what else to do. There was a large bank of dials and controls on one wall, but no apparent steering controls, which was a relief, because Indy didn't know where they were going. The only control lever that really caught his attention was a large, wooden affair. "It says Flugeldufel," read Indy. Which could mean anything.
Leaving the controls to their work, Indy looked at the ladder which descended through an open porthole to the main sub below, and decided it was time to swing into action. He began to climb down, and was maybe two thirds to the bottom when he looked around the deck and saw German soldiers to the left and right, chatting about something. Indy quickly scooted back up to the top.
I'm a dead man if I go down while those Nazis are around, he thought. Once again - what was the captain supposed to do on a sub? Indy looked around, and saw an intercom. That's it. A captain is supposed to give orders.
Indy flipped the switch on the intercom to TRANSMIT.
"Uhhh...your captain commands," began Indy in what he thought was a commanding voice, "all hands to the stern torpedo bay!" Thank goodness for German technology, he thought: Indy could just hear himself coming from the speakers below, and he sounded like someone trying to chew cornflakes and make a speech at the same time. There was a minute or two of tense waiting as the sound of marching feet was heard below, then utter silence.
Indy decided to chance it. Quickly scaling down the ladder, he reached the grille mesh floor and looked around. No one in sight, although, if he craned his head against the wall, he could just see the crew lined up in the stern section. Good old Army discipline, thought Indy.
Now where was Sophia? And, for that matter, the stone disks?
The ladder continued below the upper deck to a lower level. Indy started to climb down, and had hardly gone down two steps when a female voice cried out from below "Indy!"
Indy grinned.
"Jones?" queried a German soldier from below. Indy stopped grinning and started climbing. He heard activity below. "Where?"
Indy got to the top and got out of sight of the lower level. "Sorry," said Sophia apologetically. "Must have been my imagination."
"Grrr," said the guard. There was a little more movement, then silence.
So Sophia was down there. And guarded. He'd have to be just a little creative to get her out. Having no immediate ideas, Indy started off toward the bow, hoping to find something of use.
There was a door on his left immediately next to the ladder. Indy opened it to find the toilet. Great. Indy closed the door.
Following on from there, Indy passed a group of sleeping bunkers, recessed into the wall. At the far end of these, another door, opening onto a closet. Nothing of interest here. For a moment, he fancied he could hear voices, coming from below. He listened, but there was no more.
Indy ducked his head as he entered the bow section. His face wrinkled in distaste when he saw the Nazi flags in their red splendour. In here were another set of bunkers, several torpedos hanging from the roof, and the torpedo tubes. In other words, no help here.
Indy left the bow section, and there they were again. Tiny voices. He looked down at the grille, and was surprised to see a trapdoor set into the mesh. He pulled it up and descended the small ladder, into a small, closeted space. Here there was nothing but a metal box, attached to a wall and looking frail. And, coming from behind the wall, voices.
Indy pressed his ear to the wall.
Someone was talking excitedly about something. Indy hadn't heard this person talk before, and his first impression was of a creaking door that's learned to speak English.
"Try to relax, Herr Doctor," came the reply. Indy's eyes widened - Kerner!
"Relax?" was the indignant reply. "Relax?! We're approaching a civilisation that played with nature the way we play with toys!"
"Come now," said Kerner condescendingly. "Don't exaggerate."
"How else do you explain the wonders of orichalcum?" questioned Herr Doctor. "Or the stone disks?" There was a slight pause in the conversation. Indy didn't dare to breathe.
"What have you done with the stones?" asked Herr Doctor, sounding a bit frantic now.
"Calm down, Dr Ubermann, they're right behind you in the Captain's strong box." Indy looked at the 'strong' box. It didn't look all that strong to him.
"Oh," said Dr Ubermann. "Where was I?" Their conversation then lowered in pitch and volume, so that Indy caught only snippets of the following. In any case, he wasn't paying much interest anymore.
The strong box was right before him, a cube a foot wide made, he assumed, of steel or tin.
"...perpetual motion..."
It didn't look strong at all. In fact, rust had corroded the surface so much that with a couple of blows, he could probably force it open.
"...flying cars..."
But it wasn't really an option, because with just the first blow Kerner and that Dr Ubermann person would immediately hear. And quickly recapture him. Well, bugger.
"...I hadn't thought of that..."
Perhaps he could cut it open, if he had the right tools. But even that was a bit risky.
"...vegetables that grow themselves..."
Indy took the ladder in both hands and started climbing. He needed to look around the sub a bit more.
"...talking animals..."
"...fascinating..."

Indy reached the top, walked briskly over to the ladder, and up to the captain's room. He flipped the intercom on. "All hands to the bow," he said before flipping off. Hee hee hee.
Indy waited the requisite two minutes, then ducked back down and headed astern. Here he passed a small storage and experimental area, checked the lockers for weapons and found none, and passed through into the sculley.
Make that sculley/bedroom - here were yet more bunks. These army folks didn't seem to eat too well - all the food Indy could see was either cold cuts, stale bread, or sacks of flour. Yum. Looking through the utensils, Indy could find nothing sharper than a bread knife. Not very useful.
Past the kitchen, and Indy was into a far more utilitarian section of the sub. Another wall was adorned with the dials and switches that were so familiar. Two of these were particularly prominent - a sliding lever that resembled a throttle, labelled "Ausgeschnitzel", and a bright metal toggle switch labelled "Krauskefarben". Indy noted these, and left. The stern torpedo bay was a repeat of the bow torpedo bay, and Indy was about to leave when he saw another trapdoor in the grille. Lifting this one up, Indy descended once again into the lower decks.
Down here, Indy could hear quite clearly the roar of heavy machinery. It was also quite dim, and slightly damp down here. These must be the engine compartments. Indy walked along the oily floor, back toward midship, peering around for any clues. None.
Past the engine he came to a row of batteries stretching twenty feet, each stacked two foot high. A lot of power. Indy found himself looking at a particular battery - it seemed to be leaking.
As he drew closer, Indy saw the battery had leaked, and there was now a large pool of battery acid on the floor. Indy was careful not to step in it. Looking at the battery, Indy could see it was still leaking - which meant the puddle below was fresh and corrosive. This was confirmed by the thin tendrils of smoke rising from the puddle.
Indy realised he could put this puddle to good use.
He walked to the end of the lower deck, climbed the ladder and raised the trapdoor which opened on the sculley. Keeping it open he looked at the crockery and found a thick porcelain mug, looking perfect for the purpose he had in mind. He climbed down the ladder and used the mug to scoop up a small amount of battery acid. It was a transparent yellow/brown, and smelled slightly. Indy stood up, holding the mug gingerly away from his body, and climbed the ladder to the sculley. He walked quickly to the bow side, lifting the trapdoor slowly and carefully, and quickly descended to the captain's strong box. He wasn't worried about the crew finding him - they were standing against the wall, and the narrow entrance to the bow section meant they wouldn't see him.
Indy looked at the strong box, and looked at the mug.
"...x-ray goggles..."
He tipped the acid onto the box. Immediately, on contact, the acid would eat away at the corroded metal, causing it to glow slightly. Indy's face was lit by yellow and red as smoke began to rise from the carcass of the captain's box. He finished with the acid and put the porcelain mug down. The metal was still being eaten away - but silently, except for tiny crackles that Kerner, locked in conversation, surely wouldn't hear.
"...go on..."
The smoke was starting to clear, which was just as well because Indy's eyes were starting to water. The acid had done its work, all right - one side of the captain's box had been eaten away completely, revealing the three stone disks stacked on each other.
"...weather machines..."
Indy reached in and took the stones. Take that, Kerner! Having removed the stone disks, Indy also saw a small golden key. He took it too.
At the top of the stairs he shut the trapdoor. Round one to me, he thought. Indy was walking briskly back along the upper deck, toward the sculley. This was because, having collected the acid earlier, he'd noticed a small grille set into the far wall of the lower deck - the near wall, from here. Indy had a suspicion where that grille led, and intended to confirm it.
He descended the ladder to the lower deck, and crept over to the grille. Peering through, he could see a big clump of red.
"...you'll NEVER find Atlantis..."
Indy tried to peer around the big clump of red, and succeeded in bringing into view the right side of Sophia's guard. He didn't look that charitable.
"...water torture..."
"...lips are sealed..."
"...pokers..."
Indy decided to risk communication. "Sophia?"
"Indy?" came the urgent, whispered reply. At least, to her credit, she didn't turn around.
"Jones can't save you now, Madame," said her guard derisively. He waggled his gun for effect.
"Uh...wait!..." began Sophia uncertainly. Then she raised one hand to her head, the other twiddling in the air. "I'm getting a message..."
Indy grinned. Smart move, bringing Nur-Ab-Sal to the party.
"A message ... from Nur-Ab-Sal!" She lowered her arms and looked at the guard defensively.
"Nur-Ab-What?" asked the guard.
"An old friend from Atlantis," explained Sophia. "His spirit is calling me." The guard didn't skewer her alive for this particular outburst. Evidently Sophia's reputation as a crackpot psychic had spread somewhat.
Under Sophia's cover, Indy whispered "Can you get rid of the guard?"
Sophia spread her psychic antennae. "Alas, Nur-Ab-Sal is weak, and far away." That, Indy decided, meant no.
"Tell Nur-Ab-Sal that I've got a plan," whispered Indy.
"Nur-Ab-Sal is listening," said Sophia. The guard was watching with a mixture of bemusement and contempt.
"Well what does Nur-Ab-Sal suggest?" whispered Indy.
"Nur-Ab-Sal is confused..."
"Why don't you just sic Nur-Ab-Sal on the guard?"
"Nur-Ab-Sal is not amused by the jokes of fools. He rises above the common herd."
Indy sighed. "Just distract the guard for a while, okay?"
"Nur-Ab-Sal understands all," said Sophia, which obviously meant okay. "...wait...what?...oh, darn." She looked at the guard, and though Indy could not read her expression, she probably looked disappointed. "I've lost contact."
"Too bad," said the guard. He waved the gun again, in case he'd been forgotten about.
Indy crept back from the grille, careful to make no noise, and climbed the stairs to the sculley. As he walked over to the ladder, he wondered how Sophia was going to distract the hypervigilant guard. Just as he had hoped, as he put his foot on the first rung, Sophia said "Excuse me, Mr Guard Person?"
Indy descended. "What is it now?" said the guard impatiently.
"I was just wondering..."
"Yes?"
"Oh, it's probably nothing."
Indy reached the bottom. He turned to see the guard, several metres away, his short and stocky back turned. "I order you to finish your sentence!" barked the guard. Sophia stood beyond him, making an effort not to make eye contact with Indy and betray his presence. Indy was pretty glad to see her again. He reached for his bullwhip and crept forward. A couple more steps, and goodbye guard...
The guard turned sharply. His eyes were wide and manic behind the goggles. "Who are you? Talk fast, and I better like your tone of voice!" He thrust the gun forward for emphasis, nearly butting Indy in the chest.
Behind him, Sophia looked worried. Indy, looking from the highly strung guard to Sophia, saw a bucket by Sophia's legs. It looked strong, thick and sturdy.
The guard didn't seem to take this lack of attention well. "I asked you a question!" he shouted. Spittle flew from his cracked, flabbering lips. "Answer me now, or you're a dead man!"
Indy crossed his arms and smiled at him. "I'm Dr Indiana Jones, buckethead."
Sophia appeared to take the message. She reached down to pick up the bucket.
"Buckethead?" screamed the guard. "What kind of insult is that?"
"I'll let Sophia explain it to you."
The explanation was short, sharp, to the point, and made a clanging noise.
Sophia dropped the bucket. "Indy!"
"Nice work," said Indy. The guard, would he have been conscious, would have to agree. "So, what do we do now?"
"Kerner claims to have charted an underwater entrance to Atlantis near here. But he didn't say where. My guess is that Atlantis is on the sunken volcanic island Thira."
"Of course!" said Indy. "Thira exploded two and a half thousand years ago, causing massive destruction across the Mediterranean. Maybe it was the final destruction of Atlantis. And you know what? I think the Lost Dialogue can tell us where it is!"
Indy opened the dialogue, leafed through the thin pages, and read aloud.
"'So glorious Atlantis founded two colonies, the Lesser 350 miles north of the City and the Greater 380 miles to the south.' If you take into account the tenfold error, that gives us thirty five and thirty eight miles."
"All we have to do is find the entrance, and dock the sub."
"Uhhh...yeah," agreed Indy. "Listen ... uhhh ... do you know how to run this boat?"
"The sub?" asked Sophia incredulously. "Are you kidding, Jones? I'm a spiritualist, not a navigator!"
"Thought so," said Indy glumly. "Only thing is, you're looking at the honorary captain for this voyage."
"You're in charge of this thing?" asked Sophia, even more incredulous.
"No one else is," said Indy. "They're all lined up in the bow torpedo bay."
Sophia chuckled. Indy's attention was caught by a large wheel protruding from the wall, right under what appeared to be a periscope sight. It was padlocked. Indy rummaged in his pockets for the tiny gold key he'd gotten from the strong box. He tried the padlock.
It clinked open. "What's this?" he asked Sophia.
"Beats me," said Sophia.
Indy bent down and peered into the periscope. It gave a view to one side of the sub. Indy saw a world of inky blue. The ocean bed was almost eerily clear, and a white/grey slag colour. Occasionally, a lone fish would swim past, not interested in being in a shoal. Indy swivelled the periscope so that he was facing the direction of motion. Either side of the sub, he could see the ocean floor falling away beneath them. There did not appear to be, as yet, any kind of opening or entrance to any kind of dead volcano.
Indy experimented with the wheel, giving it a slight turn to the left. He was alarmed and slightly thrilled when the sub did likewise, tilting slightly to port. Indy quickly turned the wheel back to correct the course of the sub. He stood up.
"This must be the rudder control," he said to Sophia, who clearly couldn't care if it was the Queen of England. "And the other controls are on the upper deck." Indy looked up, thought a moment, then made for the ladder. He stopped at the foot of the ladder when he realised Sophia wasn't following. "Aren't you coming?" he asked.
"I'll just stay here, and make sure Sleeping Beauty doesn't wake up."
Indy nodded, and climbed up.

He walked along the grille, keeping his footsteps quiet, when he realised the crew might be getting a bit suspicious. So he reversed, climbed the ladder to the captain's room, and flipped on the intercom.
"Now hear this: maintain your position in the bow torpedo bay." He flipped it off . "You fools," he added. Now that he was up here, he noticed, or remembered, the large lever labelled "Flugeldufel." Indy gave it an experimental tug downward.
Immediately he felt the ship lurch, and drop suddenly. Indy hurriedly pulled the lever back up - they decelerated into an even keel. So, that made Flugeldufel the depth control. Indy looked at the lever sheepishly. Surely the crew had noticed that. Surely they were getting just a bit tired and a bit suspicious by now. But then again, maybe it was just his sea legs.
Indy decided to leave the tower and get back to his original plan. Did you have sea legs on a sub, anyway?
At the second control deck past the sculley, Indy released a long deep sigh. No one was coming. If the crew had been noticing his poor driving, evidently they feared the captain enough to stay just where they were put.
Indy looked at the Ausgeschnitzel lever, a long double handled affair which had been pulled up about two thirds of the way. Indy reached for it and gently pulled it back down. As he did so, he noticed the hand of a dial nearby also swing back to zero. The dial was labelled MPH.
The Ausgeschnitzel lever was now at the bottom. Ausgeschnitzel must mean throttle. With the sub now safely immobile, Indy started looking around for an odometer. Maybe this one - the dial next to the speedometer had a similar hand, was the same size, and was stationary at 32.
"Good," said Indy under his breath. "Good good good."
So. He could make the sub go forwards, or stop, go up and down, and turn side to side. "Looks like the captain's just taken charge," he said out loud, and for a moment wished that someone had been around to hear that line.
He gently pulled the throttle up again, and waited for the odometer to click over.

At 37 miles from Crete, Indy pulled the throttle down to zero and skipped to the captain's room. He pulled down the periscope viewer, which extended into this room, and looked out. The first feature, immediately noticeable, was a large swelling mound in the ocean floor, to the front of the sub. It wouldn't break the surface, but it dwarfed the gentle slopes and valleys of its surroundings. Indy turned the magnification on the periscope up to peer closer at the hill.
On closer inspection, it wasn't so regular. Here and there, objects appeared to jut out of the surface. Well, objects was the only word he could think of to use. He certainly wasn't going to use 'buildings'. It was in the middle of a large clump of these objects that Indy spied a dark cleft, nearly at the base of the hill.
The entrance.
Not taking his eyes from the periscope, Indy felt around for Flugeldufel, and gave him a gentle push downward. The sub began to descent. Indy wasn't worried about what was below - even though the entrance was located near the base of the hill, it was still elevated from the plain of the ocean floor.
They descended, through deepening shades of distant light. The room grew darker, and somehow dirtier. They were going out of the blue, and into the black.
When he adjudged the depth to be correct, Indy pulled the lever back up and stood back. He realised the crew wouldn't have noticed any dimming - only the captain's room had outside illumination. It was time to get things moving.
In the upper deck control area, Indy pulled the throttle to about one tenth its maximum position. He looked to the bow, where little activity could be seen, crossed his chest, and returned to the lower deck.

"Nearly there," he said to Sophia, and bent down to the periscope viewer. With a hand on the rudder he pulled the sub slightly to the left, then a titch to the right, and maybe just a tad to the left again.
The hill, as it drew closer, began to loom. From a distance, it really looked too flat and uninteresting to do this. But getting closer, with the entrance beginning to look less like an entrance and more like an open maw leading to the furnaces of hell, the hill looked considerably more impressive.
They were now gliding amongst the objects, although Indy really had to jettison his use of the word objects. These were buildings. Undeniably, buildings. Even 'buildings' was probably understating things: the sub was dwarfed by them. Indy was entranced by the architecture, which combined arches and columns in ways and styles that looked familiar, like examples of known historical structures, but somehow larger, more real, as if these were the molds from whence the wonders of the world had sprung.
The hill was almost lost from view. The edges of the underwater entrance now filled the periscope. As the sub passed from open ocean to open tunnel, Indy felt a sudden shudder of dread. He bent up and dashed to the ladder. A quick climb to the top, another dash past the sculley, and Indy had reached the control panel, where he pulled the throttle down to zero. The sub was still. For a moment indecisive, Indy suddenly made for the captain's room. He was seized with the fear that at any time, the crew would wake up and find him. But he was even more afraid of what lay ahead.
In the captain's room, Indy pulled on the depth control, bringing the sub slowly up. He wasn't quite sure what he expected to find - possibly, the ceiling. But the sub struck nothing. Instead, they rose steadily.
The light from outside did not get brighter. But there was noise - the slap of water on the windows. Then, completely unexpectedly, the sub surfaced.
Indy returned the depth control to level. He stared through the windows in wonder. It was still as dark as ever - there was no light from outside. Instead, light from the captain's room, and from two red beacons at either end of the submarine had spread out illuminate a chamber maybe fifty feet by two hundred feet. By one side of the chamber, a stone pavement was set at a level just above that of the water.
The submarine light was harsh in this undisturbed hollow. Shadows of boulders fallen and steps leading up from the pavement were stark and lifeless.
Indy was still looking around. They were hundreds of feet below sea level. They should still be underwater. But something was holding the water down.
It's still alive. Whatever's been powering this place, it's still here.
Shaken by these thoughts, Indy swung onto the ladder and went to fetch Sophia.

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