“Given this area of the World, it would have to be a Pyramid built by the Mayans or Aztecs,â€� she reasoned as she peddled, “but one has never been found outside of Central or South America.â€� she fell into silent thought. This was Jessica’s first theory, and she would not consider any other. No other seemed plausible.
Before she arranged to rent the airboat, she locked up her Cannondale mountain bike on the bike rack of her Jeep and began to assume the role of a skeptical scientist. Jessica changed from her bike clothes into kaki shorts, a light beige blouse and hiking boots, and then she drove a short distance to the Marina.
“I would like to rent an airboat.” Jessica told the weathered, white-haired clerk behind the worn counter in the marina’s boat rental office.
He looked at her somewhat doubtfully, “Miss, have you ever driven an airboat?”
“Yes, on several occasions,â€� Jessica assured him, “In fact, if you will check your records you will find I’ve rented one here twice in the last three years.â€� She gave him her name, handed him her driver’s license, and a major credit card to pay the fee. She didn’t rush the man, and knew it wouldn’t have served any purpose to do so. Jessica had spent some time fishing and exploring the area, however she hadn’t grown up in Okeechobee, but she understood the locals. In a few minutes, the clerk had the necessary forms ready for her to sign, and then he checked her out on the controls of the craft.
Satisfied Jessica could handle the craft, he informed her, “Have the boat back by dark or you’ll have to pay extra,â€� his Florida Cracker accent strong, and no nonsense manner common for the older folk of the area.
“No problem, I’ll be not far, just west of the locks.â€� Jessica told him. She tossed in a small cooler with drinks, and a bag with some small tools she had scavenged from her Jeep.
She expertly started the hybrid craft’s loud engine, backed the boat out of the slip, eased it into forward, and slowly maneuvered the levy canal up to the locks to await the locks’ operator to open the gates, and clear her through to the lake.
While she waited, she remembered all the history she could on the area. A hurricane had wiped out the town in 1928, and prompted the Army Corp of Engineers to construct the levy, as well as the flood system to protect the communities around the lake from floods. Jessica was surprised the Pyramid wasn’t found then. As the locks opened, and she idled into them, a strange notion entered her mind.
“If this was a Step Pyramid it would impact archaeology strongly enough,â€� she theorized aloud - no one could hear her over the sound of the airboat, “but what if,â€� she fell silent. The possibility of this being an Egyptian Pyramid was so ridiculous she wouldn’t even give it voice. She laughed at herself and gave the engine enough gas to leave the lock as the outer side opened to the lake. She turned the craft west, toward where she had spotted the mound of mud.
Thrilling is the word, Jessica thought, to describe an airboat ride. The feel of air rushed by her face, the saw grass was a brown green blur beneath the boat as she flew by on a thin sheet of water. She looked out over the lake and saw two anglers well out in the channel. She wished them luck. In this drought, she knew the fish weren’t biting. Over on her left, she saw an alligator that probably measured fifteen feet, basking in the sun on a dry piece of mud among the cattails. His head moved to watch her, but otherwise, he remained on his comfortable mound of dry mud.
Jessica laughed and yelled, “Lazy!� at him.
Ahead loomed the lump of mud and from this angle it looked more like a Pyramid than it had from the top of the levy. She slowed the airboat and edged the boat up gently to the object. She had the few tools gathered from her jeep. A carpenter’s hammer, and a screwdriver for a chisel, but before she started, she drew out her digital camera, and took a series of still pictures. Then, using her video camera did a short scan of the area. Documentation was important. If her theory was correct, and Jessica was almost positive it was, she had to be ready to prove she had found it first. She also had to provide evidence of the condition of the find. The documentation completed, her hands began to shake with the next step she was about to take. Jessica took up the hammer with the screwdriver/chisel, and began to remove the grime of the centuries, careful not to damage the structure beneath the grime. Within a half an hour, she was drenched in sweat and no longer skeptical. She became almost terrified at what she had found. It was a Pyramid.
Jessica had assisted on digs from Egypt, to Central America, and knew what she had just found was an important find, possibly the most important find in many years. She gently wiped away more of the loose mud with her bare hands, but revealed little more than her previous efforts. With an empty water bottle, she filled it with what little water from the lake she could and poured it on the area she had just cleared. With the loose grime washed away, the markings became clear. Jessica sat and stared for a long time. With shaking hands, she picked up the digital camera to take another set of precious pictures. Jessica made sure the date and time were accurate, and then repeated the same actions with the video camera. Her dismissed thoughts of “What if� came back to haunt her. Before her were the unmistakable markings of an Egyptian Pyramid. This would shake the foundations of not only archaeology but of history.
Archaeologists are secretive with their discoveries, they don’t like to share credit and fear others stealing what they have found. Now Jessica understood why. She was young, unknown, and fresh out college. Who would believe she had found this? Whom could she tell? Whom should she tell? Jessica thought about Bruce, her best friend, finishing his thesis and still at college, he would be finished in a couple of days.
She remembered her family friend Anthony Sutherland. He works for the State of Florida in the Governor’s office in the Department of the Interior and deals with this exact type of thing. She also remembered Mel Fisher’s find of the shipwreck Atochia and the court battle he had to fight with the State just to keep a portion of his find. The glinting of the noonday sun caught her eye; she needed better tools to do proper work and she needed security to be sure no one jumped her claim.
“What to do?â€� she asked herself. Either way—Central American or Egyptian - what she had found was important, and she didn’t want to lose the credit for it. Tomorrow she would call her friend at school, but for now, she would call in a favor or two. She picked up her cell phone and called Anthony Sutherland. His secretary answered his phone.
“Hi, this is Jessica Carter, is Skip, ah Anthony, in?â€� Skip was Anthony’s nickname, one only a few of his closest friends and family knew him well enough to use.
“Yes he is,� the secretary answered, “Who is calling, please?�
“This is Jessica Carter, may I speak with him? It is an important matter.�
“Hold please,â€� His secretary was pleasant enough, but Jessica could tell by her tone she was annoyed by Jessica’s familiarity with her boss.
“Jessica,â€� Anthony’s voice tipped with a pleasured greeting, “How are you and your parents?â€�
“Hi Skip, they’re good, last time I heard. They’re in Hawaii on vacation,â€� Jessica told him; she knew her voice sounded tense.
“Jessica, is there something wrong?� Anthony asked, concerned.
“No, Skip, I wouldn’t say anything was wrong, something may be very right. I was biking around the levy on Okeechobee and I’ve found, well I don’t really want to talk about it on the phone, but this is an archaeological matter, and as the head of that department for the state I thought you would want to know first. Since I know you, I didn’t want to go through all the red tape. Skip, this is important for us both. I don’t want to lose credit for the find and believe me; the state doesn’t want to lose what I’ve found.â€�
“Gee Jessica, sounds real mysterious. What do you suggest we do?� Anthony asked. Had it been a
nyone but Jessica, Anthony would not have taken it seriously, but he knew her to be a straightforward person.
“First of all, no one else knows about this and they won’t until we announce it. Right now, it looks like a big lump of mud except the part I’ve unearthed. For today, and probably the next day or so, it will be okay if the sheriff just keeps a close eye on it, but I think you’ll want to come down here within the week. I’m going to call Bruce in on it tomorrow.â€�
“Will you tell me what ‘it’ is?â€� Anthony asked.
“Not over the phone, but ‘it’ is worth the effort,â€� Jessica laughed.
“Ok Jessica, I’ll call the Glades County Sheriff’s Department, and the Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Department, tell them to expect a call from you and to give you their cooperation. You know where you are, on the county line,â€� Anthony laughed. He knew if Jessica was being secretive, there had to be a good reason.
“Thanks Skip. I’ll call you tomorrow.â€� She closed her cell phone.
Jessica started the airboat up, turned it around, and at full speed, flew back to the marina. She docked the boat and checked in with the clerk.
“I’ll be back, I need to go and pick up some things at the store. Just fuel up the boat and put it on my charge card. I will also need to retain the airboat for the rest of the week please,â€� Jessica explained.
“Okay,â€� he drawled, “but what you doin’ out there Miss?â€�
“I’m a biologist from the University of Florida and I’m studying the effects this drought has on the snail population,â€� Jessica said with a little laugh. She didn’t like to lie, but under the circumstances, she wasn’t about to tell him what she was doing.
Jessica drove into the City of Okeechobee and grabbed a quick lunch on the way, stopped at a Hardware Store and bought several tools more suited to her purpose and returned to the marina. Her airboat was fueled and ready. The clerk had filled her cooler with ice and put in a couple of bottles of water to boot.
“Thanks for the extra stuff.� Jessica told the man sweetly.
“This drought’s been hard on us here and if you’re here to help well…â€� he smiled and cast off her line. She started the airboat and headed out. If this Pyramid was what she thought it to be, Okeechobee was in for a business boom that had nothing to do with the sport fishing industry.
*
From a comfortable distance out on the lake, the two fishermen sat in an expensive bass boat appearing to do what all tourists did on Lake Okeechobee, fish. In their fish wells were two legal size bass, still alive. Their poles, for now, were inside and they appeared to be having a late lunch. Instead, they were there to observe. When Jessica returned, they weren’t concerned with just her looking at the structure, because she didn’t appear to pose a threat. If they had suspected whom Jessica was, what she was doing, and that she had caught them on film, they would have been aghast. As instructed, they had taken her picture, and would take it again as they observed her.
Jessica eased the airboat up to the Pyramid and secured the boat to the structure. She shrugged off an uneasy notion of eyes on her, who’d be out here? She thought and nervously glanced around. She saw the same fishermen earlier and dismissed them. They had their poles in the water. Tourists, she concluded, and began the slow painstaking work of removing more of the caked on mud/concrete of centuries.
“Wow!� Jessica said to the cattails, alligators, and blue herons that were her only companions. She stopped and stared at what her work had uncovered, then drank down half a bottle of water and looked at the cleared area again. In shock at what she could now see, she poured the rest of the water in the bottle on the structure to reveal part of an Egyptian Cartouche. What her tedious work had revealed would have earth-shaking implications. The now-exposed artifact mesmerized her and she went through the documentation procedures with greater care.
From an early age, Jessica had learned to decipher ancient Egyptian, feeling drawn to the artistic symbols as if they spoke to her. “Oh my God!� she exclaimed, “It says,� she read aloud as she filmed,
“By the grace and wisdom of the god Osiris, in the morning of the day when Ra is reborn, behold the entrance to the Underworld of the West. Enter here all who would visit the City that was once the Capital of the vast now sunken continent.�
A breeze stirred and Jessica brushed a strand of her long dark red hair from her face. Further capturing the moment, she scanned the video camera from the Pyramid to the surrounding area and back to document the location accurately, and unknowingly, caught the fishermen further out on the lake again.
Because she needed both hands to push the indicated symbols to open the Pyramid, Jessica set the camera on its tripod with it focused to record the event, but she continued to speak so her actions would be recorded.
“I am now going to push the symbols indicated on the cartouche to open what I believe is a hidden door,� Jessica said simply and distinctly so the camera would record her actions. With shaking fingers, she pushed the symbols indicated to open the door and quickly drew back a distance.
A low, base rumble began to build and grew to a loud thunder, loud and strong enough to shake the lakebed and the surrounding levy like a minor earthquake. Since the lake was in such a dry condition, little water poured into the chamber, and the wall of stone slowly slid back as it scraped away eons of grime. Jessica heard the air equalize as the fresh air of the twenty-first century combined with the escaping air of antiquity, from how long ago Jessica could not yet venture a guess. Jessica looked toward the levy to see two sheriffs’ cars parked on top and they both watched her with binoculars. She waved to them and picked up her cell phone to call the Sheriff’s Department. As Anthony had promised, he had spoken with both Departments and they were there for security.
Her attention returned to the Pyramid, and she dared to peer down into the mist-filled chamber that had cleared somewhat. A sudden whiff of the stale air struck her. A flash of the recent persistent dream overtook Jessica, and a faint sensation possessed her.
She was no longer on the lake, but under the warm water of the Atlantic Ocean and ascending from the dive with her parents. Jessica could sense danger, and the fallen debris was proof their boat was destroyed. They surfaced and she saw the barge that had broken free and drifted away, after hitting their boat. There was another boat and a handsome young man with aquamarine eyes. Those eyes! He had saved them. He helped her mother onto his yacht, then her father. Dad was hurt and his blood billowed like red clouds in the warm blue waters that turned to surrealistic colors of purple, as she remembered the drama.
After he helped her father onboard, the mysterious young man immediately came to her next. However, why had he put a hat on and sunglasses over his beautiful aquamarine eyes? She asked herself. Jessica found herself compelled, wanting to look into them again. His hand reached out to help her board. Their hands touched and his glasses fell off. Instantly their eyes joined. For the first time Jessica realized their meeting had gone deeper, their souls became linked. He quickly put the glasses back on, but the psychic connection between them was unbreakable. Jessica’s head was dizzy. The sun was in her face, she could not focus, and for a moment, the lump of mud was before her. Suddenly, she was back on the ocean again, seventeen years old, in the hands of her rescuer. He helped her out of her dive gear, his touch, but a wisp, as he unsnapped the clasp across her breasts. Her breath caught in her throat and her breasts tingled and peaked. His long, strong fingers, their touch gentle and warm on her stomach, unsnapped the closure at her waist. Jessica finally exhaled when he slid the tank and dive vest from her. His hands caressed her shoulders, and lingered for a moment. She had never felt such a breathtaking touch before. For the last time, he looked into her eyes - he had taken the sunglasses off - and helped her to sit next to her mother. Bright sunlight was in her face again and the vision-drea
m was gone. This time she was not asleep but she had slumped in the seat of the airboat.
Jessica drew a sharp breath of air and weakly grabbed another bottle of water to pour some on her face and drink the rest. “What happened?â€� She stammered to herself. Always careful after a new chamber was opened to allow it to air out was an unwritten law and she thought she had given it enough time, or had she? She looked toward the levy; the sheriff’s officers were clearly concerned. She waved to them and they seemed relieved.
She decided to call Bruce tonight. Holding a deep breath, she looked one more time into the chamber. Somehow, she saw her future in the mists of the past. A shiver raced down her spine; she knew she had remembered more of the haunting dream than ever before. Jessica stopped the camera, started the airboat and turned toward the Marina. She was shaken and weak. Deciding she had experienced enough excitement for today, Jessica turned toward home. Tonight she would call Bruce and get a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow she would make proper arrangements for the dig.
*
Out on the lake, the fishermen kept a close record of Jessica’s actions. Documentation was important in their work also. Through the lenses of their high-powered camera, they had taken detailed pictures of her actions. Their superior, the Ruler of the largest underworld area in this sphere of the planet, Lord Xerxes, had assigned them this mission. He was aware of the possibility of the discovery of the ancient entrance by an inquisitive upper-world person who might see the “lump of mud” for what it was, a Pyramid, and become curious. Both observers noted she was an inquisitive woman and she quickly found a way to open the first chamber. They also made note in their report, she suffered some type of minor fainting spell after opening the chamber, but had recovered quickly and left soon afterwards. A special mention of the sheriffs’ appearance on the levy was also included.
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