“Weird Shape, don’t you think?â€� Jessica’s voice sounded similar only slightly higher in pitch.
“Yeah - let’s go!â€� Bruce had to agree, excitement now in his voice. Beautifully encrusted with lush corals and adorned with changing schools of colorful fish but the structure vaguely resembled a Pyramid’s top twenty feet.
What Jessica and Bruce could not see, and their boat captain could not detect on his boat’s sonar, was a well-hidden submersible vehicle, its occupant watching the two divers with the greatest of interest. Xerxes waited patiently for this moment. Now was the time he would steal Jessica away from her life as an upper-world archaeologist and allow Bruce Lance to return safely to his. Hammer, his pet hammerhead shark, swam lazily toward the two divers. Xerxes smiled to himself, neither diver would enjoy the encounter they were about to have with his pet; however, neither would come away harmed. Hammer was as docile as a goal fish unless Xerxes needed him to behave otherwise.
Hammer would separate the two and make it possible for the current from the mechanical device they were about to investigate to draw Jessica in. Xerxes controlled the device and would take care to activate it at the right times. He need only be patient a few more moments. Xerxes waited - a predatory smile on his sensuous lips. Tonight he would hold his wife in his arms. He doubted she would be altogether willing. While Xerxes watched and waited, he wondered how Pericles, and Ambassador Barrous’ operation to retrieve the artifacts was proceeding.
Back on shore, and near the dig site, the military begun to move the artifacts Jessica and Bruce had painstakingly excavated and catalogued. Under heavy Marine guard and escort, the convoy proceeded from Okeechobee west on State Road 70 toward Arcadia. Chosen for security because much of this highway is rural, bordered by ranch, and farmland, easily covered by air support. The few smaller roads reduced the risk of someone trying to hijack the priceless objects; these obstacles presented little challenge to Xerxes’ elite forces. Accompanying the convoy, as Captain Curtis and his Marines, their unique Atlantian helicopter appeared no different from any other military chopper.
“This is Thebes,� the regular Lieutenant in the lead truck said into the radio, “we have sighted an oddly-shaped unidentified aircraft approaching from the southwest at a low altitude and low speed.�
“Confirmed your sighting,� Captain Curtis returned in a level voice from his seat in the disguised Atlantian helicopter. Activating specialized devices on board, Pericles began preparations to retrieve the artifacts. “Will intercept and investigate.� His helicopter banked off toward the strange anomaly. Switching his radio frequency over to that of the Alien vessel from Alpha-Centauri, Pericles contacted Ambassador Barrous.
Captain Curtis, Pericles, had been expecting this aircraft to intercept them. A friend Xerxes had sent to help, who was visiting from Alpha-Centauri, known as Ambassador Barrous, would provide a very special cover effect for their “theft.�
Midway between Arcadia and Interstate 75, the Ambassador triggered a high frequency light-wave device that caused a time freeze envelope. Xerxes requested his assistance and he gleefully agreed to assist in this operation upon hearing about it.
Pericles remembered Barrous’ cheerful words. “Oh yes, I would love too, Xerxes. It was such a good time the night of the great storm, a hurricane? Yes? When you rescued Lady Jeezzica. The Air Force, what do you call them, planes? Oh yes, they couldn’t catch us. Oh! I would love to help. Sir Pericles, I will do anything you will need.â€�
Pericles thanked the Ambassador, knowing he could depend on the cheerful emissary. Directed by Pericles, six of his Atlantians quickly moved the artifacts from the semi-trailer into an airlift and were gone before the twenty-minute time warp created by the device expired. After the envelope closed, not one of the Marines in the convoy could explain what happened. Captain Pericles Curtis could call his mission complete. Pericles along with the other four-crew members on board his helicopter and the two in the artifacts trailer caused a great stir when they were reported missing. Missing time events had been commonly reported before, often accompanied similar missing objects. The story planted by the Atlantians of strange flying objects reported just before their lost time created the perfect cover story. Now they could go home to Atlantis. Frantically, several Air Force fighters were scrabbled from MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa to search for the missing objects. The artifacts, Pericles, and his squad of Marines had disappeared. Barrous had secured the disguised Atlantian helicopter, the artifacts, Pericles, and his squad on board his ship, safe in the darkness of outer space. Pericles watched, an amused expression on his lips, as Barrous, sitting comfortably at his helm controls, laughed until his sides hurt. He loved a good practical joke. Xerxes wasn’t present, but was given a good account by Pericles later.
Lieutenant Mathew McNeil was the unfortunate officer who had the displeasure of relating the events to General Grill, informing him that the entire caravan of artifacts was now mysteriously missing.
General Grill was furious, and he yelled a great deal. The Lieutenant stood at attention, face forward. “Where is Captain Curtis?�
“I do not know. Sir!� Lieutenant McNeil said in a loud firm voice.
“You are in a lot of trouble, Marine!� General Grill blustered.
“Yes Sir!� Lieutenant McNeil answered, a mental vision of a ruined career in his mind.
“I want answers. There will be an investigation,� Grill blustered.
“I will answer what ever questions I can. Sir!� McNeil put the emphasis on the sir.
“You are dismissed Lieutenant,� Grill growled.
“Thank you. Sir!â€� Lieutenant McNeil thankfully left his General’s office.
General Grill began trying to get in touch with Jessica Carter and Bruce Lance aboard their dive boat out in the Atlantic Ocean the moment the Lieutenant left. He also ordered his aid to contact Ms. Simon, FBI, in her office in Miami, not that he wanted to, but she was required too.
*
Both Jessica and Bruce studied the growth closely. “No way are we going to destroy all this sea life.â€� Jessica’s distorted voice came through to Bruce and to their other unknown listener.
“True,� Bruce agreed, his voice sounded the same.
With gentle fingers, Jessica explored the shape careful not to touch too much of the living coral knowing it would harm it. She only touched the iron rock areas that the coral would eventually grow attached too.
Up on the surface the waves became swells, and the sky overcast. Their dive boat Skipper was watching the weather but wasn’t concerned, his ninety-foot vessel wasn’t considered a small craft and the NOAA prediction was still for good conditions. His boat’s weather radar didn’t show any inclement weather. Beneath him, his divers, whom he knew personally, were almost halfway through their dive plans and would be back up soon. His radio crackled and squawked his call sign. He answered, but the transmission grabbled and broke up. The caller tried several more times but the transmission only became worse. The Skipper wasn’t concerned, he knew these seas well, and was familiar with these conditions. He would continue to monitor the weather closely.
Jessica’s fingers touched a sensitive panel without realizing it. She and Bruce both heard a low rumble similar to the ones they heard at Okeechobee just before a slide. Through their dive masks, they stared into each other’s eyes meaningfully.
“What was that?� they both asked at the same time.
“What we don’t need is an undersea slide. This area is not known for that.â€� Bruce was becoming uneasy, Jessica knew by the tone of his otherwise calm voice - despite the distortion of the radios.
“And Okeechobee isn’t known for quakes either.â€� Jessica added.
Xerxes had waited for one of them to touch that panel - it was his signal. Now he would start the procedure. A c
urrent, different from the steady south to north flow of the Gulf Stream, began to develop in the water as a doorway opened in the Coral Pyramid. At the same time, a shadow passed overhead and both looked up to see a twenty-foot hammerhead shark lazily swim over them about fifty feet up, silhouetted by the glare of the sunlight through the water, the thermocline acting as a mirrored barrier.
“Great!� Jessica commented. Both divers knew Hammerhead sharks particularly do not like divers. The current became stronger, forcing both to hold on to the now visible opening, their scooters dangling from wrist straps.
Suddenly, Bruce’s hands pulled free of the structure he was desperately trying to hold onto. His wrist strap on his scooter broke and the device fell to the floor of the ocean out of sight, hidden in the reef system. Caught in the abrupt and reversed current Bruce went tumbling toward the shark. Bruce drew the air mixture from the regulator in his facemask in hard breaths, desperately trying to control his dizzying spin and slow his breathing. He knew he was surfacing too fast, when suddenly the current released him. His head still spinning he looked back toward Jessica and tried to get his bearings.
Jessica started her scooter and surged toward him. “Bruce, can you hear me?” she called out to him, her scooter strained hard to work against the current. She reached him just as the current released him. Abruptly, the shark turned toward them. “Bruce,â€� she called frantically, “Bruce!â€� Jessica was concerned about the shark. She knew they would have to stay in the water for a few minutes to decompress and with the shark circling, it could prove to be a serious problem.
“Yeah, Okay.� Bruce was breathing hard, pulling air from his tank heavily.
“Take the scooter.� Jessica instructed him.
“What happened?� Bruce asked, his head still spinning.
Xerxes stopped the current, allowing both divers to get clear of its effects. Now Hammer would take over. He watched from his hidden vantage spot as his pet swam in.
“We can figure that out later. Take the scooter,â€� Jessica pushed the remaining scooter into Bruce’s hands, the Hammerhead made a close pass, “I’ll hold on, get us back to the boat.â€� she put his hands on the controls and they started back toward the boat. Jessica felt a hard bump. The shark had just given her a nudge, hard enough to knock her away from Bruce.
“Bruce!� She yelled into her microphone transmitter of her full-face mask.
“Jessica! I’ll come back for you.â€� Jessica heard him say as the scooter pulled him further away.
“No, get to the boat, decompress - I can come up on my own.� Jessica assured Bruce.
Listening to their communications, Xerxes reactivated the current to pull Jessica back. Now it would only be Jessica caught in the Vortex effect of the mysterious Coral Pyramid. Allowing Bruce another minute to get a closer to their dive boat, he then signaled Hammer to swim a leisurely pattern between Jessica and the dive boat.
Suddenly, the current returned. Jessica, caught unaware, was jerked by a greater current, with greater force, and trapped - just as Xerxes had planned. A hand seemed to take hold of her, and pulled her away from the bright surface of the water. It pulled her down, and back, toward the Coral Pyramid, swimming against it was useless. Never had she heard of such a phenomenon.
“Jessica.â€� Bruce yelled through their communications, “I’ll come back.â€�
Jessica could no longer see Bruce, and could barely hear him. Overhead, she could see the shark no longer attempting to attack either Bruce or her. Against the sparkling light from the surface, the shark’s silhouette was a blur, but something about him reminded Jessica of a loyal guard dog. Looking up was eerily reminiscent of looking into the eye of the hurricane when the Aztecs abducted her, and she wondered if the drug they forced her to swallow was causing a flashback. Her stomach was sick enough.
Caught in the full force of the current now, Jessica struggled to keep from tumbling in it and draining her air supply. If I can catch myself on the door to the Pyramid, she thought, since the current is pulling me that way, and hold on to the edge… She hit the Pyramid hard, but caught it, holding on with all her strength, then took a moment to catch her breath. Her head reeled, her lungs burned from breathing so hard and she was doing her best not to give in to the urge her stomach was driving her to. Jessica knew the current’s strength was growing stronger. She tried to inch herself around the edges of the Coral Pyramid and into the eddy of its strength. Jessica’s head was getting lighter, she tried to focus on her air gauge, but it was blurring. Her air supply depleted, her strength ebbing, Jessica knew she was losing her battle, and she feared for her life. For the second time in less than a week, Jessica thought she might die. She managed to switch on her spare air. Jessica drew a deep breath and some of the blurriness cleared. With a sudden jerk, the current pulled her grip free, ripping her gloves on the razor sharp coral. Desperately, she tried to grab another handhold, but the current pulled her through the dark opening. Bruce made it back to the boat, Jessica was sure, but she knew she wouldn’t. Spinning and tumbling, hopelessly caught in the vortex effect, Jessica fell through the doorway. Her last conscious thoughts were that she was a dust mote caught in the swirling waters going down a drain.
Xerxes knew when Jessica found out how he had taken her she would be extremely angry. He smiled wolfishly, looking forward to that confrontation, but he watched, concerned, as his wife tumbled unconscious through the Coral Pyramid’s opening, and down the dark tunnel. He counted on Jessica wearing a wet suit and he hoped it would protect her from bad bruises and abrasions. This had not been his first choice of abduction methods but the most secure, short of a kidnapping on land, where Atlantis was concerned. When Jessica at last settled at the bottom of the chamber, he activated the controls to first seal then discharged the water and marine life that had been trapped with her.
Entering the chamber at the bottom of the Pyramid, he gently eased her full facemask from her. A worried frown creased his forehead and he smoothed the stray hairs from her face, noticing the marks left from her mask; those would fade. Xerxes examined her to be sure she was in good physical condition, fearful she might have been hurt in the long tumble. Finding her only unconscious, he could not resist kissing her tempting soft lips he remembered so well from the night he rescued her. Xerxes gazed at the woman he had loved for many years, and she was his now. He eased her gently into a comfortable position and unzipped her wet suit so she wouldn’t overheat. He looked forward to their future, hoping sincerely Jessica would come to love him as much as he already loved her. He left her to wake.
Jessica must stay in the chamber that would gradually bring her body up to surface pressure allowing her to decompress. Kept at surface pressure, Atlantis’ people lived at the same surface pressure as much as possible. Even the original rulers of Atlantis knew the day would come when their people would return to the knowledge of the upper-world. During the time Jessica was unconscious, Xerxes towed the chamber to a different location, closer to Atlantis’ real location - not the location on the maps Xerxes gave her. That location had been only to lure her to a safe location where he could snare her. This way Jessica would not know the true location of Atlantis until she had adjusted to her new existence.
Chapter Sixteen
Jessica woke in a water-free chamber. Her facemask was lying next to her, and her hoses still attached to her empty air tanks. She lay still, weak and disorientated staring up into the blackness of the tunnel she had fallen through. Finally, she sat up, then on shaking legs, she stood and gazed around in wonder. If it weren’t strange enough to find herself in such a peculiar situation, even after the stranger event of nearly drowning, a container of ice cold drinking water sat unopened next to her gear. She opened it and drained half, grateful for the consideration of her unknown, but suspected, what? She thought and, who?
“Lord,” she said aloud, “since I found that Pyramid a
t Lake Okeechobee my life has gotten strange - no weird!”
Water surrounded the small glass chamber where she had regained consciousness. Tentatively, Jessica reached out to touch what appeared to be glass walls of the enclosure she found herself a prisoner and hesitantly touched the surface. It felt like glass. If she could believe her reddened and sore eyes, outside was an underwater paradise but she knew immediately this was a different location from where she entered the chamber. Space was limited but she needed to stretch her legs, so she walked around in a tight circle for a minute.
So many questions, she thought. How did I get here? How did I get out of my facemask and hoses? Where did the bottle of cold water come from? Jessica didn’t have a sure idea, but a strange suspicion lurked in her mind? Absently, she wondered how deep she was. Her depth-gauge didn’t register and she couldn’t begin to see the surface. Decompression became a concern.
Jessica gazed around, and despite her smarting eyes, the beauty that surrounded her left her in awe. Schools of fish in numbers she never dreamt of swam so thick, at times she could not see through them. One school swam by to reveal the wreck of an eighteenth century ship with coral outcroppings growing around and over some parts. Huge seashells lay here and there - some intact, some broken, some moving - evidence of the life forms that lived in them. A path on the seabed seemed to lead up to the wreck. Absently, Jessica considered swimming up the path to explore the ship. Despite her peculiar circumstances, she smiled. If a mermaid appeared, Jessica would not have been surprised. She became absorbed in studying the ship, the archaeologist in her trying to discern the ship’s name on the bow.
Several faces with fixed permanent smiles appeared around her - dolphins. They seemed to laugh at her predicament. Jessica agreed with them, it was a laughable situation. They bobbed around her for a few moments, curiously appraising her situation then swam off to explore other oddities. Jessica watched them swim away, wishing she could leave with them. Suddenly the frustration of her situation settled heavily on her mind and strangely on her heart. Jessica drew a ragged breath, she looked out into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, and for the first time in her life, tears of pure frustration sprang into her eyes.
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