The Sam Reilly Collection

by Christopher Cartwright

  Edward attempted to step forward, but a number of spears stopped him.

  “That’s not entirely true. You have come to collect it, haven’t you? As was prophesied all those years ago. You have come to collect the code to Atlantis.”

  She almost cried out in surprise.

  How could this little pygmy know about the code to Atlantis?

  Uncertain what he expected of her, Billie answered as best she could. “Yes, I have come to collect the code to Atlantis.”

  The little pygmy bowed his head, holding it there for a full minute and then standing up at his proud four feet, with a grinning white smile. “Then you should have it.”

  They’re just going to give it to me? It all seemed too easy, after all they had been through. She noted that none of his warriors had lowered their spears, despite his friendliness.

  “Thank you,” Billie said, looking back to the dome of Poseidon.

  The tribal leader smiled maliciously at her. “But first, you must prove that you are one of the ancient Gods.”

  Billie paused. Uncertain what path to take next, she replied, “Of course. How would you like me to prove it to you?”

  “The temple was built by your people. Only if you truly are one of them would you be equally wise, strong, and brave enough to enter.”

  She took a deep breath in. “You want me to perform a challenge?”

  “Of course. But for you, it is merely a formality. As a God, it is simple. Do you dispute that you are indeed an Atlantean God?”

  Billie had no idea what she was going to do, but judging by the spears pointing right at her friends and her, there was no doubt about the alternative. “Yes, of course I know how to retrieve it. I will go in and retrieve the code to Atlantis, and then I will tell you what you will do for me. Do I have your word that your people will obey me once I return?”

  “Of course. My name is Zanzibe, and I am the leader of the Makan tribe. We have lived here for thousands of years, only to serve you.”

  Billie looked at the other two men in her party. “Can I bring my companions?”

  “You may take only one of them. Choose wisely, for once you’re inside the temple, there is only one way out, and that is through the other side. We hope that you are the true chosen one, and that you don’t fail where the many others have. Once you’re inside, even if we wanted to, we cannot allow you to leave the way you entered. Do you understand?”

  Billie nodded her head. She understood perfectly well. She was playing Russian roulette with her life, and with the lives of Mark and Edward. One of the two men left may have the ability to save all three of their lives. The only question was, which one? Edward was the only person on the planet who knew as much as she did about Atlantis. But then, Mark was a career soldier – a mercenary who had trained every day of his life. He would be by far a better choice for overcoming the strength obstacle.

  “You will have three tests. One to prove your strength, another your wisdom, and finally that you are brave.”

  She smiled honestly for the first time since meeting the pygmies – because she’d been to Atlantis, and had already overcome all three tests.

  Chapter Fifty-One

  After careful consideration Billie made her choice.

  The chief seemed pleased. “Very good Dr. Swan. So you’ve chosen the older man. I wonder how you plan to overcome the strength obstacle.”

  “We will see.” Billie said, immediately wishing she had chosen the soldier. “And what about Mark. What happens to him?”

  “Nothing. He will wait here, and he will be treated like the god that he is. But if you fail to exit the temple of Poseidon by nightfall, we will kill him.”

  She nodded her head.

  Billie watched as the water that surrounded the dome of what she predicted to be Poseidon’s Temple, like a moat, disappeared. One of the chief’s men must have removed the plug. The entire swamp-like moat was gone in a matter of minutes, leaving several large crocodiles and one small door.

  An army of pygmy men, eager to prove their worth, ran down the stairs and forced the ancient beasts into a corner. Billie and Edward slowly followed Zanzibe down the hundred plus stairs until they reached the door.

  “Are you going to follow us inside?” she asked.

  The chief spoke with sincerity but not unkindly. “No, we are but caretakers. It is forbidden for us to follow you. I do wish you good luck. I know that the time is coming near when the true Gods must return if any of us are going to survive. So I pray that it is you.”

  My God, he knows the truth!

  Billie examined the door for a moment. It was made of papyrus reeds bound together, but had obviously been maintained or installed recently.

  The chief walked down to that door, and in a mixture of wicked laughter and turmoil, he kindly offered the suggestion, “I would make a start. The sun sets in three hours! And the entire place becomes automatically flooded at sundown.”

  Billie shivered at the reminder. “Thanks for the advice. Tell your people that we will need to leave immediately after we have the code to Atlantis. We have a ship waiting for us on the edge of the Congo River. We need a path cleared so that we can reach it without any delay.”

  “If you live, you have my word it will be done.”

  Billie attached the second lithium battery to her dwindling shoulder light and Edward did the same. Then she stepped into the tunnel – to begin her challenge.

  She walked confidently into the tunnel, which was still wet from being drained only minutes earlier. She felt as though she’d just entered an underground pipeline, which wasn’t far from the truth. It was dark, but their shoulder-mounted LED flashlights lit up the place adequately.

  Edward looked back up at the hundreds of white pygmies who guarded the entrance, as though he were judging if his chances would be better if he tried to escape now. One look, and he turned and ran to catch up with her.

  “Sweet Jesus, Billie, didn’t you listen to the little pygmy?”

  She turned and smiled at him. “Every word. We’ve got three hours. We probably shouldn’t waste too much time with chit-chat.”

  The door behind them closed, leaving them silent in the dark. “The three challenges of the temple of Poseidon involve strength, intellect and an act of bravery. Now, I’m not doubting the thoughts of the blessed savior of Atlantis, but wouldn’t Mark have been the better choice for strength?”

  “Relax, I’ve already been through these challenges.”

  Edward’s face visibly relaxed. “You have? How?”

  “When I entered Atlantis. It too had three challenges: strength, intellect, and bravery. I bested all three, and I’m betting my life that if this is an identical recreation of Atlantis, the challenges will be the same.”

  “You better hope you’re right.”

  The tunnel reached an opening. A quick scan of the room revealed it to be a large square, perhaps fifty or more feet wide. At the far end, the tunnel continued deeper into the temple. Only the tunnel didn’t continue forever. Instead, its ceiling, hinged on large hidden bolts, dipped in height in a gradual downward direction until it touched the floor. The roof space was covered in wooden spikes that gave Billie a clear indication of what the roof would do to a person who failed the challenge.

  At the center of the room a steel bar hung from the ceiling above a stone chair and table in which a person could lock his legs. The mechanism had obviously been maintained and updated to more current materials, but there was no doubt in Billie’s mind – the purpose of this device was the same as in Atlantis.

  Billie looked up and said, “The first room is the test of strength. See that steel bar?”

  A large crease formed at the center of Edward’s sweat-covered forehead. His evident fear of being drowned in the cavern had now been replaced by the more immediate likelihood of death by crushing spears. “I see it, Dr. Swan.”

  “It’s basically a cantilever that runs through a series of mechanisms hidden in the ceiling in or
der to balance the weight of the hinged ceiling that’s blocking our progress through to the next room.”

  “How do we do that?” Edward interrupted.

  “At the other end of that tunnel a lever needs to be pulled from an upwards to a downward position and then held there, long enough for the pulleys to fully open a secret part of the wall, thus letting us through to the next level.”

  “And I take it the strongest person needs to pull down on the cantilever long enough to allow that person to reach the lever?”

  “Yes, but it’s not that simple. You see, for every ten seconds you hold the cantilever, the fulcrum moves an inch closer, thus increasing the strength required to lift the opposite ceiling.”

  “Okay, so we move quickly?”

  “It’s not about running to the other side of the tunnel. Once you’re there it takes nearly two minutes to bring open the secret door.”

  Edward looked frustrated. “Dr. Swan! May I remind you that in less than three hours this entire place is going to be flooded again, and you and I are going to have a pretty shitty day, if we don’t work this out! So, how about you just tell me what I have to do!”

  “There’s another lever. It’s about halfway down the tunnel and almost undetectable unless you know where to look. If I turn that lever, every time you lift the cantilever in the main room, the fulcrum moves an inch away from you. By the time you’ve done that enough, the weight of the bar along with one of our backpacks should be enough to hold the ceiling upright.”

  “Okay, you know where the secret lever is, so I’ll pull on the main cantilever,” Edward said.

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  Edward took grip of the steel bar and pulled using his body weight predominantly to lower his side of the cantilever. She watched him relax as the pulleys began moving and the ceiling started to lift. Slowly he lowered himself to the stone chair. “Go. I can hold this for a while. You do what has to be done.”

  “Okay, let me know if you can’t hold it anymore, because we both know what happens if you let go.”

  “I know… I know… Just go!”

  Billie didn’t wait any longer. Instead, she moved quickly along the tunnel until she reached the same place where she found the lever that moved the fulcrum in the same challenge in Atlantis.

  Only it wasn’t there.

  She went back and forth until she conceded it was missing. She shouted back, “How are you holding up there, Edward?”

  “I’m up to the third increase in weight, but I think I can still hold it for a while longer.”

  “Good, I just want to look at something and then I’ll be back.” Billie didn’t wait for his response. Instead she ran to the very end of the tunnel and pulled on the lever – but nothing happened. She watched the wall for another thirty seconds, and then returned to the main room in case Edward should lose the ability to hold the bar.

  The instant she was inside the room and clear of the ceiling covered in spikes Edward slowly released the bar, as a weightlifter would in an attempt to avoid jarring the equipment. A series of sounds rang through the walls and roof. It was like one of those old coin donation machines in which the donator received the pleasure of watching the coin roll down each section, triggering a reaction. In this case, those reactions were slight movements of the fulcrum and pulleys being returned to their resting state, with the hinged ceiling flat on the surface of the tunnel.

  The tunnel they needed to pass.

  She swore loudly.

  “You okay Billie?”

  “I’m all right, but I think we have a problem.”

  “Don’t tell me. It’s not the same challenge?”

  “It would appear not. It’s actually very similar to the one I overcame in Atlantis, but there’s no secret lever which changes the position of the fulcrum. It appears this really is a test of strength.”

  “So you should have chosen Mark, not me!”

  “Christ, I didn’t bloody know that they would change the challenge! I assumed when I heard the challenges involved a test of strength, intelligence, and braveness that they were identical!”

  “But they weren’t!”

  “No, and now we’re going to have to pay!”

  “Now what?” Edward still looked to her for solutions.

  “We try again. Only this time, we look at it as a simple test of strength. See how far we get. I’m quite small. Perhaps I can slide into the opening in the wall before the weight becomes too much for you?”

  “Oh that’s great!” Edward complained. “Even if I’m successful and you do get through, then I remain trapped and likely to be killed?”

  “No. The challenges were designed to be beaten by two people. Normally, once reaching the other side, there is a master lever. The purpose of this one is to set the entire system to neutral and allow the contestants to simply walk through.”

  They tried again and failed once more. Then twice, but on the third attempt, Billie grinned at Edward.

  “What is it?”

  “What if we’re looking in all the wrong places?”

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Billie laughed at its simplicity.

  “It’s nothing more than deception and sleight of hand!”

  Edward stared at her. As though certain she was insane. “I’m afraid those spikes are very sharp, and the roof remains too heavy for me to hold for any length of time.”

  “That’s okay, because we don’t have to hold it very long at all.” She sat down on the stone, and casually reached up to take hold of the pulley. Gently taking it off its first hinge, she said, “Look what happens to the roof behind us.”

  And there it was. While the lever was being pulled, the ceiling behind them lowered, leaving a section to climb out of. The most obvious of solutions, except painfully hidden to those who were focusing so much on the area in front because their lives depended on it.

  Edward smiled. “You’re a genius Dr. Swan!”

  “I was wrong, this was a test of strength of mind, not body.”

  Edward then held the bar while Billie climbed through the exit and into the second room. There she quickly found the reset lever and the entire ceiling from the first challenge rose.

  A moment later, Edward quickly emerged.

  “Okay, so this must be the second challenge – the test of intellect.”

  Billie stared at the room. It was a similar size with a large canyon in the middle. A gap of nearly ten feet blocked their progression. Below it, the stone floor appeared lethal at nearly thirty feet below. There was no way to climb down. A brass pedestal stood at the precipice to the chasm. At its base, a large pile of gold ingots were stacked half a foot high, their luster unaffected by the thousands of years they’d spent inside the ancient cavern.

  Both of them resisted the inkling to take any – some riches are only valuable if you live long enough to spend them.

  In the middle of the room, a single plaque made of orichalcum glowed red. Billie approached it quickly. The inscription was written in an Atlantean script, which was almost indistinguishable from that which the Master Builders used. It explained that to pass this challenge the contestant needed to calculate the weight of the tiny gold ingots to balance the exact weight of the bridge. Too much and the bridge would fall to the ground below. Not enough, and the bridge would be pulled higher.

  “This is almost identical to the one that I overcame in the other Atlantis. Only this one involves counting piles of gold instead of orichalcum.”

  “Did you work out how much orichalcum was needed to open the drawbridge?”

  “Yes, but it will be completely different using gold ingots!”

  “Pity.” Edward walked to the edge of the chasm, and looked at its unforgiving and vacant expanse. “Where’s the bridge?”

  “In Atlantis, the bridge was hidden, and swung toward the middle when I worked out the riddle.”

  “Riddle? I haven’t seen anything to at least guide us with our task.”

  Billie lo
oked worried. “I’m not sure. Last time, it was left nearby the chasm.”

  “Like that?” Edward suggested.

  In the corner of the room a single set of brass scales stood lonely. At its base, another plaque was inscribed with the Atlantean ancient text.

  Billie walked to it and began reading out loud…

  “Place precisely 10 stadia on the pedestal. If you place more or less weight on the pedestal, the bridge will automatically collapse.”

  “What the hell is a stadia?”

  “Plato’s Critias Dialogue describes the length of Poseidon’s temple by the unit of measure of stadia. Of course, no one has ever been able to work out exactly how much length that was. Some have suggested it was equivalent to a Greek stadium, but I think that’s merely Plato playing on the superiority of Athens. Now, here it appears to be a measure of weight. Perhaps a length of it correlates to a certain weight. Either way, there’s no other explanation than it being a measurement of weight used by the people of Atlantis.”

  Edward sighed. “I’ve studied in many fields through the course of my life, but math was never my strong point!”

  “Come on Edward, we can beat this.” Billie continued to read the puzzle left by the Atlanteans. In front of her, a single balancing scale stood threateningly at the edge of the room. Four heavy iron weights stood at its base.

  “Using only these four weights – 2, 6, 18, and 27 stadia respectively, the challenger must determine how many gold ingots to place on the opposite side of the scales to achieve precisely 10 stadia.”

  “Damn it! I said I didn’t like math!” Edward then studied it carefully.

  Billie began scribbling the numbers and potential solutions on her tablet.

  Edward was the first to see the answer. “I’ve got it!”

  “What’s the answer?” Billie asked in surprise.

  “It’s easy,” Edward said. “We need to place the 6-stadia weight and the 2-stadia weight on the opposite side to the 18-stadia weight and then add the gold ingots until the two sides balance. When the two groups weigh the same, then the weight of the gold ingots is equal to 10 stadia!”