“Not a good idea,” Ana reiterated.
Theo broke in hesitantly. “Maman, if a fisherman pulled this up, then it is well within the recreational dive limits. As long as it’s a sunny day, they will probably have great footage.”
I had to break through my mental fog, stop this train before it picked up too much speed. “Dad… I can’t…,” I started.
Ana spoke rapidly in Greek, her voice overlapping with mine.
My dad quickly reached for her arm, starting in Greek and then morphing to English. “Yes, I understand. But do you see? This is it. This. I have waited my entire life for this moment, and now my daughter is here to share it with me. It is a gift. A gift from Poseidon if you will. Ana, we must.” He whirled on me. “Liv, we will do this together!”
It was like a spotlight had centered on me. For a moment, my heart was welling up, spilling over. It was like when I was little, when I was so sure of what Indiana Olive was capable of. When I knew that I would be the one to find Atlantis. But then the light turned too hot.
“N-no,” I stammered. “No, I can’t dive. Not here.” I shook my head. “I’m certified, but I don’t do it. Not anymore.” Not here, and definitely not with you.
He closed his mouth, then opened it again. “But… you are certified? You have experience?”
“Well, yes. But…” His face was so hopeful, and panic rose up in me, as cold and dense as seawater. Scuba diving at a resort with my mom and James was one thing. Scuba diving with my dad—here—well, that was not going to happen. “I’m out of practice,” I blurted out.
His face blossomed in a relieved smile. “Santorini is an easy place to dive, and I am a master diver, certified even to take beginners. Once we are under, you can rely on me entirely.”
“Dad, I’m not going.” My voice came out way too loud, splitting the conversation in half. They all looked at me, surprised. It was me crying at the birthday party all over again. And I couldn’t offer up an explanation, not without telling them about my nightmares. “I’m not going under the water. Not here.”
Theo made a small noise in his throat, but whatever he wanted to say, he kept it to himself.
“It is entirely your decision,” Ana said soothingly.
“But—” My dad quickly stopped himself. “Of course, Liv. I don’t want you to do anything you don’t want to. I can dive on my own. You’ll stay above with Theo. Even an old dog like me can learn to use an underwater camera.”
My face was still hot, but I nodded, dropping my gaze to my feet.
“But, Nico, what about the asthma?” Ana said, emphasizing the last word.
“I’ll call my doctor. In the past he has told me that so long as I take the necessary precautions, I am fine to dive.”
“But…” She didn’t seem to have another argument for that, so she shook her head.
My dad rested his hand on her shoulder. “Let’s not argue anymore. We have a lot to do tonight, and it is already late.” He looked at Theo. “We need a plan.”
* * *
It was lucky that my dad had so many favors racked up on the island, because we needed all of them. The owner of a nearby dive shop reopened to get my dad fitted for what he needed. Theo tracked down a local photographer friend of my dad’s who agreed to loan us an underwater camera. Ana wrung her hands and snapped at everyone in Greek. I was put in charge of mapping out the next day’s plan—where and when would we meet Vasilios? What questions did we need to ask him on camera? What would my dad say and do before diving in? Would we film him from up above or let him handle it? How could we ensure he got good footage while he was down below?
By the time we reconvened in the shop, it was after eleven o’clock, and I was so tired that I was wired. There was an electrical charge in the air, our collective energy making the shop feel like pre-storm.
My dad had already spent close to an hour on the phone with Vasilios, and now he got out his maps and called the Egyptologist he’d been working with, then put her on speaker while we discussed exact location. I was right. The spot that Vasilios had told us was within five meters of the location that my dad and Dr. Bilder had pinpointed. My dad had insisted that I keep hold of the orichalcum, and as he spoke, I placed it on the map over the island of Aspronisi. White Island. In between calls, I’d done some research and now knew that it was half a mile long, with one small dock, a rocky beach, and very few visitors. According to internet lore it had been owned by the same family for seven generations, but no one seemed to know who that family was or why they cared to own it in the first place.
“The possibilities of finding something are of course very slim,” Dr. Bilder said, but she kept trying, and failing, to conceal the excitement in her voice. “Even if we get the location correct, the chances are still small. But I will say, the possibility is rather exciting.”
“Agreed,” I said, and my dad looked up at me over the map and smiled. It felt like it had at the excavation site. Spontaneous. Natural. How could it not? We’d always said we’d do this.
Dr. Bilder continued. “Remember that nature is irregular. The goal is to look for anything that doesn’t look irregular. Straight lines, circular formations, that sort of thing.”
My imagination instantly produced a wealth of aqua-tinted images that I couldn’t help but explore. The edge of a circular road. The corner of a golden door. Things that untrained eyes had overlooked but that we might be able to identify…
I know, I know. My delusional was showing. But also, what if?
My dad seemed to be imagining the same thing, and when he hung up, his eyes were shiny. “Now we need sleep. Tomorrow will be a big day.”
“One more thing.” Theo had been surprisingly quiet that night, doing his work without the usual banter. “Nico, every hero needs an origin story. And we need to film your personal history, like we’d planned.”
“Now?” my father asked.
I felt as incredulous as he sounded. Despite how excited I was, every cell in my body wanted to sleep. “Theo, it’s night. Where would we even film it?”
“Exactly,” Theo said. “What better time to capture the beginnings of Nico’s love for Atlantis than the night before his groundbreaking discovery? Think of the dramatic effect.” He said “discovery” like it was a given, which of course it wasn’t—but still, he had a point. “We could do it right here in the bookstore. Kalamata can help me re-create the setup we had last time we attempted this. Nico, you up for this?”
“Fysiká,” he said, nodding. If he was in, I was in too.
A burst of energy pulled me to my feet, and I spun around, taking in the long shadows playing across the bookstore walls. “Dad, you go change and get ready. You should wear one of your brighter shirts, something to make you stand out. Theo, you gather all the lights; we’re going to want as many as we can get. I’ll get the set ready. We want it to look perfect.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.” My father gave me a little salute.
“Did you know that olives are the very bossiest of all fruits?” Theo called over his shoulder, but my mind was already hard at work. We needed to set the scene.