The vast underwater city of Atlantis was almost more breathtaking and beautiful from inside the strange bubble-shaped buildings that lined the walls of the deep ocean mountain range. They were so far beneath the surface of the water that the ocean outside the bubble was nothing but a wall of black. No light existed this deep, and so the other bubble buildings around them glowed in the darkness like giant stars in a night sky.
The resemblance made Cordelia and Adie both feel homesick.
“I’m sure you must be tired; you both should get some rest,” Democritus said behind them.
“That’d be wonderful,” Cordelia said with a smile.
Adie nodded in agreement.
“This way to your rooms,” Democritus said, motioning down a long, narrow hallway leading into another bubble on the underwater mountainside.
As the three of them trekked down the empty hallway, Cordelia tried to find a way to bring up the Worldkeeper without giving away their intent to steal it.
“Have you ever heard of the Eternal Abyss?” Cordelia asked casually.
It was a question that changed the mood in an instant. Democritus’s glaring eyes bore down on her as they stopped outside another of the glowing blue bubbles. All the niceties and smiles were suddenly gone.
“We do not speak of such things,” Democritus said tersely. “Have a pleasant rest.”
She hit a switch on the wall and a door to the adjacent bubble slid open. Democritus walked back down the hallway without another word, leaving Cordelia and Adie standing there at the entryway to their room alone. They entered, and the door slid shut behind them automatically.
The room itself was modest with clear walls, like seemingly every room and hallway in the city. It had two circular beds in the center. The bedding was deep blue and lustrous and soft, yet it was unlike any material either of them had ever felt before. Which made sense to Cordelia once she thought about it. . . . They likely had no access to cotton or silk or any of the usual textiles her clothes were made from. Instead, Atlantisan clothes and bedding were probably made of a combination of seaweed and various underwater organisms.
In between the beds were two tables covered with sleek pitchers of water and trays filled with food. Adie and Cordelia glanced at each other and huge smiles spread across their faces. They rushed forward at the same time and dug in.
The water was cold, clear, and maybe the best drink of anything they’d ever had. It was so pure it almost felt lighter than normal water. The food consisted, unsurprisingly, of seafood. There were huge crab legs, some as long as Cordelia’s whole arm, a lobster nearly the size of a golden retriever, squid, fresh fish, clams, oysters, and a full array of sea greens that reminded Cordelia of sushi nori wrapping and seaweed salads, except they were much sweeter, saltier, fresher, and way better. The food was very lightly seasoned; it was essentially a feast of the freshest, sweetest seafood she’d ever had. Adie struggled at first, since it was clearly her first foray into seafood. But ten minutes in, she was cracking and devouring massive crab legs as if it were an eating competition.
After gorging for nearly an hour, they both crawled into their separate beds, feeling more content than they’d ever expected they would be when they set out on the high seas in a small makeshift sailboat just a few hours before.
As soon as their heads hit the strange, yet insanely comfortable pillows on their beds, they were both deep asleep. Cordelia was plunged instantly into an intense and vivid dream.
She was swimming deep in the ocean—zooming through it effortlessly without needing to breathe or even really swim at all. It was as if she were flying through the water. Deeper and deeper she descended, until there was only blackness. And then, gradually, a faint light formed beneath her. The pale lights from an ancient underwater city. And even before the lights became fully recognizable, Cordelia knew what was happening.
It was the Wind Witch. She had come for them. And even in the “dream,” Cordelia could feel the old wretch’s purpose. She was there to destroy them, to stop the mission, and she would leave the whole city in ruins if that’s what it took.
Back in the fictional version of Aswan, Egypt, circa 1955, a tall and lanky well-dressed Englishman stood in a dusty alley with two small children, grinning ear to ear as if he’d just won the lottery. Brendan was still staring at him in shock after finding out that his copy of the Nazi treasure map was apparently not one of a kind.
“We’re clearly pursuing the same thing,” Sir Ed said, putting his own copy of the Nazi treasure map back into his satchel. “How can that be possible?”
Brendan didn’t really know how to respond, so he shook his head. How could it be possible? But then the obvious dawned on him: Both maps were fictional. They were just mutual parts of two separate books written by the same author. And so it was completely possible, likely even, that there was crossover stuff within Denver’s books. Authors and movie directors did that kind of stuff all the time. There was even a name for it: Easter eggs. Like when Brendan saw a bunch of aliens from the movie E.T. in one of the prequel Star Wars movies.
“Are you listening to me, boy?” Sir Ed said, snapping Brendan from his thoughts. “If you could explain to me how you came by this map, it could be helpful to all of us.”
“I got the map from . . .” Brendan hesitated.
He had been just about ready to tell the truth. That he’d gotten the map from a Nazi tank driven by a cyborg. But somehow Brendan didn’t think that’d be such a good idea. Sir Ed from the 1950s probably didn’t even know what a cyborg was.
“My dad is a professor of history at Stanford University in California,” Brendan eventually said. “And he had it in his collection. . . .”
“Stanford, you say?” Sir Ed said. “I have many colleagues there. What’s your father’s name?”
“Um . . . well, it’s, uh, Dr. Walker?” Brendan ventured.
Sir Ed studied him for a moment and then looked up at the bright blue sky. His blue eyes shone in the light.
“Ah yes!” he said suddenly. “I seem to remember meeting him once. A portly fellow, right? Walks with a limp and blinks quite a bit.”
“Uh, yeah, that’s him all right,” Brendan said. “I stole his map and some money and bought myself a one-way ticket here to find the treasure.”
“Well, nevertheless, this could potentially be very advantageous to both of us,” Sir Ed said.
“How so?” Brendan asked.
“We can work together to find the Nazi treasure,” Sir Ed said with a grin. “Two heads are superior to one, as you Americans say. There should be ample enough treasure to go around. No need to be greedy, right?”
Brendan realized, after several seconds, that it wasn’t a rhetorical question. And so he nodded his head in agreement. After all, Brendan really didn’t care about the Nazi treasure. Well, he did, sort of, because what kid didn’t love the idea of finding lost treasure? But the reality of the situation was that he cared only about finding one item among the stolen treasure: the Worldkeeper. The most powerful Worldkeeper of them all, no less.
“Right,” Brendan said, still nodding. “I can definitely share. I’m mostly here for the adventure, not the treasure.”
“Splendid!” Sir Ed exclaimed with a smile. “So, the map’s appearance is deceptive, as you’ve clearly figured out.” Of course, Brendan hadn’t figured that out yet, but he just nodded again. “It looks as though it’s directing us to Italy. However, when held up to the sunlight . . .”
Sir Ed held up the map so it was between Brendan and the bright sun. Through the now-translucent paper, Brendan saw a second set of lines.
A hidden map.
“The outer map is a very clever decoy,” Sir Ed explained. “But when held up to the sun, the true map becomes visible.”
Brendan examined the real map closely, following hidden lines that were clearly navigating their way through a labyrinth of pyramid passages as opposed to roads in Europe.
“And if you look closely,” Sir E
d went on. “You can see where the treasure is located.”
Brendan’s eyes followed the map’s trail to its end.
“The lost pyramid of Wazner’s tomb,” Brendan breathed.
“Yes,” Sir Ed said. “As far as we know, nobody has entered it since the Nazis . . . just over a decade ago.”
“Are you sure we want to bring him along?” Jumbo asked.
“Why shouldn’t we?” Sir Ed asked his assistant. “Better to include him and work together than compete with each other, right?”
“He couldn’t even jump out of the way of our jeep,” Jumbo said. “If things get tough, he might choke. Could cost us our lives.”
“I’m not going to choke,” Brendan said. “I’m a lot smarter and tougher than you think.”
“Oh yeah?” Jumbo asked, eyeing Brendan’s hands suspiciously. “You ever been on a real adventure? Sure doesn’t look like it. . . . It looks like you’ve been spending your life at some country club sipping lemonade and playing croquet with your grandma’s friends.”
“Believe me, I’ve been on more real adventures than you could imagine,” Brendan said defensively.
“I don’t believe you,” Jumbo challenged. “So far you’ve only proven yourself to be a coward and a thief. If you’re so tough . . . show me. . . .”
“How?” Brendan asked.
“Fight me,” Jumbo said, raising his fists.
“Fight you?” Brendan asked, laughing nervously. “You’re just a scrawny little kid. I’m not gonna fight—”
Brendan’s sentence was rudely interrupted by Jumbo’s small but powerful fist colliding squarely with his nose. Brendan stumbled back onto his butt, his nose burning and his eyes watering. He glared at Jumbo, who was now standing over him, fists upright.
“Come on,” Jumbo snarled. “Get up! Show me what you got!”
Sir Ed just stepped back, crossed his arms, and smiled.
Furious, his nose on fire, Brendan leaped to his feet and started swinging wildly. The fight lasted a good five minutes with both boys missing more punches than they ultimately landed. But they connected just enough to be bruised, sore, and covered in dust and grime by the end. Panting and tired, both boys refused to back down.
Jumbo snarled at Brendan and lunged for one final attack. Brendan sidestepped him and threw out his leg, tripping the small boy and sending him sprawling to the ground. Jumbo was motionless for a few moments, but then stood up on shaky feet and glared at Brendan. Brendan tensed for another round, not sure if he had the stamina.
But that’s when Jumbo did something completely unexpected. He smiled. It was warm and perhaps even reflected a little admiration.
“I’ve never, ever been knocked down before,” Jumbo said. “Guys three times my size haven’t been able to beat me. Except for you.”
Brendan was brimming with pride, but tried not to let it show. This was, technically, his first fistfight. But he didn’t want them to know that.
“Right then,” Sir Ed said. “Now that you boys have solved your differences . . . are you ready to go find the treasure?”
Brendan and Jumbo looked at each other and gave a nod.
“Follow me then,” Sir Ed said, handing Brendan’s copy of the map back to him.
As they made their way down several deserted streets in the small Egyptian city, Jumbo walked right beside Brendan, barely looking away from him.
“Where’d you learn how to fight like that?” Jumbo asked.
“That’s just how I roll,” Brendan said, trying unsuccessfully to sound modest.
Jumbo laughed.
“You’re as tough as I’ve met,” Jumbo said. “I’ll bet you’re a real hero where you come from.”
Brendan looked away, embarrassed, even though he suspected Jumbo was only kidding around. The hairs on his neck stood up. Something about Jumbo made Brendan uncomfortable, now that it was readily apparent that he had gone from distrusting him to admiring him like an idol in a matter of minutes.
“Believe it or not,” Brendan said, not being able to help himself, “I’ve done the ‘hero’ thing a couple of times before . . . but now, it’s about more than that. I just want to help people. You know, I just want to do the right thing when the right thing counts.”
“Sounds admirable,” Jumbo said. “Me, I just want to find some treasure!”
Miles and miles away, on a craggy black wasteland of an island, Eleanor was still coming to terms with the fact that Gilbert was being hunted.
“You have seen him, haven’t you?” Zoe asked.
Eleanor realized that her face must have given her away.
“Yeah, I saw him,” Eleanor said cagily.
“Where?”
“First you have to answer a question for me,” Eleanor said.
“Go on,” Zoe said with a sly grin.
“Why is his heart so valuable?” Eleanor asked. “What could possibly make it worth cutting out?”
Deke and Zoe exchanged a look. But Rodney must have completely missed the moment, or maybe his programming didn’t allow him to pick up on subtle human social cues. Because he dove right into an answer before either of the sibling space explorers could stop him.
“The heart of the alien we seek is said to have powers than can disrupt the laws of nature, that can alter the space-time continuum,” Rodney said. “It is said that whoever possesses the alien’s heart can go backward in time and get one opportunity to fix their greatest mistake.”
Eleanor stared at him with wide eyes. Something inside her brain clicked. She looked down again at the sheets of paper Brendan had given her before he left. She quickly reread the description of the Worldkeeper from Denver’s Journal, her eyes stopping on several key phrases that supported her newly formed theory. But by now, she knew it wasn’t a theory at all. It was the truth. The Worldkeeper she had stayed there to find was, in fact, Gilbert’s heart! It was already with Brendan—which meant there was no longer any need for her to stay on this awful planet.
“I saw the alien,” Eleanor finally said, realizing that these people might be her only way out of this terrible place. “And I can tell you exactly where to find him.”
“Go on,” Zoe said gently.
Zoe’s smile was so caring that for a moment she reminded Eleanor of someone she knew. Was it her mother?
“He left with my brother,” she said, hoping that by telling them the truth, she could get off this island soon and be reunited with her siblings. “They left this world . . . planet, I mean. They’re gone.”
“What kind of brother would leave you on this terrible planet all alone?” Deke asked, horrified.
“I wasn’t all alone,” Eleanor said quickly. “He left me with a friend, Lefty Payne.”
“And where is this friend now?” Zoe asked.
“He died,” Eleanor said, tears stinging at her eyes. Not just for Lefty, but for the fresh reminder that she had been abandoned here. Deke was right, what kind of brother would do that?
“I’d never abandon my sister in a place like this,” Deke said. “I don’t care who was with her!”
Eleanor wanted to protest again. To assure them that Brendan wasn’t as horrible as he sounded. She wanted to tell them about all the times he stayed up late watching Cartoon Network with her, about when he played lame board games with her for hours even though she could tell he didn’t want to. She wanted to tell them how important their mission was and why they’d had to split up, but something stopped her. Perhaps they were right? How could her older siblings simply leave her in a book world called The Terror on Planet 5X? Did they somehow want to be rid of her?
“What was that?” Zoe asked suddenly as a screeching noise pierced through the hull.
“More UWOs approaching,” Rodney said. “Seven detected, closing in from all sides.”
“Can we fly?” Zoe asked.
“Negative,” Rodney replied calmly in his flat computer voice. “Thruster power cells are still recharging and are only at fourteen percent.”
“Take me with you,” Eleanor said.
“It’s too dangerous,” Zoe said. “You’ll be safer here. No sense in putting us both at risk.”
“Please?” Eleanor begged; the desperation in her voice strained the word so it hung in the air. “I don’t want to be left behind again.”
Eleanor knew Zoe was the bait, that pretty soon all seven of the approaching UWOs would be chasing her through the alien wastelands. But she didn’t care; for some reason she would still feel safer with her. There was something about Zoe that Eleanor connected with, something that comforted her beyond all reasonable logic.
“Okay, let’s go,” Zoe said. “Deke, pick us up on the beach as soon as you get this tin can airborne.”
Eleanor followed her through a doorway and into a small hangar at the rear of the spaceship. The rover was a little vehicle that looked like a normal four-wheeler except that it had six wheels and an enclosed cabin that seated two people. And it also looked a lot more expensive than a normal four-wheeler.
“Climb aboard,” Zoe said.
Eleanor clambered inside and took a seat next to Zoe. She strapped herself in with the shoulder-harness seat belt. A ramp lowered in front of them, and before Eleanor could even take her next breath, they were flying out of the hangar at close to sixty miles an hour. Her stomach dipped and churned as they zoomed down the ramp and out onto the black alien desert, bouncing on rocks and jumping over craters.
“It’s okay, Eleanor, it’s okay,” Zoe said as she steered the incredibly fast little vehicle. “Calm down.”
It was only then that Eleanor realized she had been screaming. She forced herself to stop, and watched as Zoe steered the rover right toward an approaching UWO. Green melting flames were already spewing from its right hand. But Zoe piloted around the flames easily and then zagged right back underneath the massive robot’s legs.
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