“I do… it’s just going to take a couple of months,” he replied.
Turning to Javier, Jack said, “Ok, remember what we talked about this morning? Let’s get on it. It’ll buy us more time.”
“I hope you’re right,” Javier said, his expression turning hopeful.
“What plan?” Burt asked.
Looking over to Darrien, Javier said, “Thanks for driving… same time tomorrow?”
With a simple nod from Darrien, the three entered the small home and continued their discussion in privacy.
~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~
Jack’s alarm sounded. Snapping to a sitting position in bed, he then quickly donned some clothes and stepped out into the hallway. With the light still on in the living room, he quietly tiptoed out to see if anyone was still awake.
Looking around the room, it was apparent Burt and Javier had stayed up late, pouring over the recent data. Reams of paper, printouts of photos, soil samples, and reference books were roughly spread out everywhere.
Looking at his watch, Jack noted the time: “2am.”
He quietly opened the front door and stepped out onto the moonlit patio. Grabbing a pick ax and shovel, he walked out to the street and headed up the gravel road. Moments later, he spotted headlights heading toward him. As the car neared, Jack stopped and waited.
“Right on time,” he said to himself.
As the beat-up old Range Rover with the missing top pulled up next to him, he smiled at Darrien.
“I really appreciate this,” Jack said in a hushed tone.
“If Mr. Arista knew I was helping you, I’d be in a lot of trouble,” Darrien said, his face expressionless.
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell him… unless I find the pyramid, that is,” Jack replied with a slight grin.
Jack threw his tools in the back and hopped in. As quietly as he could, taking care not to rev the engine, Darrien turned his car around and headed in the opposite direction.
The evening air had cooled to sixty-five degrees and the wind in their faces felt chilled as they drove south toward the coast. With the moon nearly full, the landscape took on a beautiful iridescence that eventually blended into the blackness of the sea.
Within fifteen minutes of picking up Jack, they pulled into the dirt road that led to the mountain. Thirty minutes later, they had gone as far as they could go. The two grabbed their tools and hurried up the familiar path they had hiked down just six hours before. Moving fast, they used the light of the moon to guide them. A half hour later, the two stood at the apex of the mountain and scanned for the point of interest.
“This way… over here,” Jack said.
Following close behind, Darrien kept up with Jack’s harried pace.
In minutes, Jack called out, “Found it.”
“Found what?”
“My coin,” he said, simply.
Reaching down, he picked up the silver coin he’d left earlier in the day and showed it to Darrien.
“Good thinking,” Darrien said, simply.
“Well, let’s get started. I’ll use the ax and chop up the soil and you dig it out. With both of us working together, we should be able to dig down to the five-foot level in almost no time at all,” Jack instructed. “We’ll only use the light when we hit rock.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing. Mr. Arista felt very strongly against digging,” Darrien said, worried.
“That’s why we’re doing it at night. No one will see. We’re only digging up a small spot and we’ll be replacing it all back when we’re done. In a couple of days, no one will ever know we were even here,” Jack theorized.
“Unless we find the pyramid,” Darrien said, with nervous excitement.
“Exactly,” Jack concurred.
With a swing of the pick ax, Jack began their illegal dig. Working quickly, he tore up the ground in a five-foot circle. He dropped his ax, picked up his shovel and began to dig out the loosened soil. Darrien joined in. When they hit the hardened dirt, they dropped their shovels and Jack loosened the soil once more with the ax. Alternating the routine, the hole quickly deepened. Within ten minutes, the pair had dug down nearly the five feet the ECM device had indicated the depth of the large object.
Jack took the pick. Jumping in the hole, he raised it above his head to begin the next round of loosening. Suddenly, as the pick embedded in the soil, it stopped dead, sounding out a loud metallic sound of metal on rock.
“This is it, Darrien,” Jack yelled out excitedly. “Hand me the shovel and the light.”
In minutes, Jack had cleaned away the layer of soil that had clung to the rock below. Switching on his flashlight, he shined it at the exposed rock.
“Well… is the pyramid?” Darrien asked, barely able to contain himself.
Jack didn’t answer. He got on his knees and laid the flashlight on the ground next to him. With both hands, he swept away what little soil was left. Picking up the light, he shined it on the rock.
“Jack, is it the pyramid?”
Jack frantically scratched at the edges of the ditch, trying to expose more of the stone. The more he exposed the more frantic he became.
“JACK! For God’s sake, man. Is it the pyramid or not?” Darrien asked, now shouting.
Jack stood up and climbed out of the hole. For a moment, he stared back into the ditch. Turning back to Darrien, he tried to speak, but the words were hard to find.
“No,” Jack said, finally answering.
“No? It’s not the pyramid?”
“No, it’s not,” he replied.
“Well what the hell is it then?”
“Granite. It’s just a big piece of granite,” Javier replied, disappointed.
“Granite? How do you know that?”
“I’ve been a climber for many years. I know exactly what granite looks and feels like… it’s granite,”
“Couldn’t the pyramid be made of granite?” Darrien asked in desperation.
“You heard Javi. He was pretty confident the pyramid’s made of limestone. It makes sense too. This island is mostly made up of limestone. If the pyramid were made of granite, it would have had to be imported… not impossible, but highly unlikely,” Jack theorized once more.
“Wow, that sucks. All that digging for nothing,” Darrien complained.
“I know… I guess the ole man was right.”
“I guess he was,” Darrien said, sadly.
“We’ll just keep this our secret, right?”
“Javi pays me very well. I’d like to keep it that way, if it’s ok by you,” Darrien replied.
Jack reached into his pocket and pulled out his silver coin. Using his thumb, he flipped it into the air. It flickered in the moonlight momentarily then fell into the ditch, clanking on the rocky surface five feet below.
“What’s that for?” Darrien asked,
“Buried memories,” Jack said with a smile.
Chapter 12
“Jack? Jack?”
The voice called to him in his deep sleep. Lost in a dream, his mind subconsciously ignored the sound.
“Jack? Wake up,” Javier’s voice called from his bedroom doorway.
Jack’s eyes peeled open momentarily, then shut once more as he involuntarily resisted the intrusion.
Javier shook Jack lightly and called his name again.
“Jack? Wake up. We have to go.”
Jack opened his eyes and stared at Javier. With a slight smile, he said in a whining tone, “I don’t wanna go to school.”
“Ha ha, very funny. We need to leave here in a half hour if we’re going to make the boat on time. You have to hurry, Jack.”
“Boat?”
“Yeah, Burt and I thought it might be a good idea to view the island from the tsunami’s perspective. We might be examining areas that don’t need to be searched,” Javier said.
Jack yawned a great yawn, then sat up. Looking down at his watch, his face took on a look of disgust.
“Damn, this morning came fast,” he said.
Just then, car rolled into the driveway. Javier looked out the window and nodded approvingly.
“Boy, the kid sure is enthusiastic,” he said.
“Darrien’s here already? What is he, a machine or something?” Jack responded, shaking his head in surprise. “Guess I better get my lazy butt out of bed.”
“Meet you outside,” Javier said.
Jack showered quickly, dressed, and headed out to the beat-up old Range Rover. He glanced over to Darrien and gave him a secretive nod. Darrien shot Jack a knowing smile, then loaded Javier’s and Burt’s packs into the back.
Looking over to Burt and Javier, Jack said, “So, I’m guessing we came up empty-handed again yesterday.”
“Burt and I analyzed the data and concluded it was mostly limestone,” Javier replied.
“Mostly. So what was the other stuff?” Jack asked, now curious about the fidelity of the data.
“Hard to say, but the reflection at the top of the mountain exhibited signs of a much more dense material. It could be quartz or granite, but without actually digging it up, it’s too hard to tell,” Burt explained.
“It IS very strange that something of that size and of a different composition would be found on top of the mountain. One can only conclude that it was lifted there by the tsunami,” Javier said.
“That must have been one heck of a wave to lift something so heavy,” Darrien said.
“That’s a common misnomer. While water by itself can generate incredible energy, the real power of the tsunami is the destructive debris that can carry away houses, cars and anything else that may be caught in its path,” Javier responded, then added “But, with that said, it sure was one heck of a wave.”
As they loaded into the car, Jack sat quietly in the back and thought about the skill of his colleagues. They did with computer and data what he had done with toil and sweat. He had found a new appreciation for their abilities.
~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~
The charter boat was small, but comfortable. Used mostly for sight-seeing tours, Burt had chartered the twenty-two foot craft for a search of the island by sea. Seated in the far back, Jack closed his eyes and breathed in the fresh sea air. Still exhausted from the two hours of sleep from the previous night’s activities, he took full advantage of the peaceful ride to the eastern side of the island.
As Javier and Burt discussed the collected data, Jack’s mind wandered. His daydreams carried him from one tangent to another and each time his thoughts evolved into dreams of Serena. As his heart tugged, his mind became tormented by her loss. He needed to see her face. Remembering her touch, his heart raced momentarily and smiled at their last memory. Slowly, the happy memory turned dark as he recalled her frightened face the day of her kidnapping. He began to replay the incident in his mind, acting out alternative scenarios; if only he had acted. He chastised himself for his cowardice, then realized any action by him would have ended in his death. Sitting there comfortable and safe, he felt guilty Serena was not enjoying the same. He visualized her sadness, her fear, her hardship and it tore a deeper hole in his heart.
The negativity of her sad memory began to cloud his mind. He knew he’d be of no use to her if he allowed himself to be consumed by his emotions. Realizing his own sadness and despair, he forced himself to focus on her happy smiling face. He thought about her their first kiss and smiled.
“Jack, we're coming around to the bay near Avlemonas. We could use another set of eyes up here,” Javier called out from the front of the boat, as he and Burt observed the rugged countryside.
“Be right there,” Jack replied, springing to his feet.
Moving to bow of the boat, the three men now locked their stare on the coastline. As the boat captain steered the small craft one hundred feet off shore, they began to see things at the slower speed that they hadn’t at the faster speed in the airplane.
“You know, the slope of this valley is much shallower than what I remembered seeing from the plane. What do you think, Jack?” Javier asked.
“Yeah, it does seem somewhat flatter. A tsunami, the size of the one that hit here, could easily have traveled deep inside the island,” Jack replied.
“If there were a pyramid in this vicinity, it would have been covered up by all that debris being dragged off the island,” Burt said.
Pointing to the high peak to the south of Avlemonas, Javier said, “Outside of that obvious peak, are there any other less obvious hills that could be considered a buried pyramid?”
Looking through binoculars, Jack called out, “Look at that rocky peak to the north of the city, about a mile in from the coast. I don’t think we actually picked that up on our flight over the island. Do you see it, Javi?”
“Looking,” Javier said, now lifting his own binoculars to his eyes. “I got it. Damn, how’d we miss that? It’s standing out like a sore thumb,” Javier complained.
“Good call chartering this boat, Burt,” Jack called out, still looking through his glasses.
“It always amazes me what I miss when I view something from different perspectives,” Burt replied.
Pointing on his map, Javier began to call out the various locations to be searched.
“Burt, that peak in the distance is this smaller peak here on the map,” he said, now lifting the map and showing Burt.
“Yes, it has a consistently sloping terrain. A definite possibility,” he replied.
“If you look further back, there are two more mountains that sort of straddle the closer peak. I think those are good candidates, too,” Javier called out.
“I agree with the northern hill, but the southern one has an unusual looking hump extending off from behind it,” Burt replied.
“You don’t think that could have been a partial deposit higher up on that side of the mountain?” Javier asked.
“I don’t think so. It’s just my guess, mind you, but I’m thinking that over time, the wear would be equal on both sides, so anything on the north would be just as susceptible to erosion as the structure on the south,” Burt explained.
“Unless whatever was deposited up there has greater density than the opposite side,” Javier countered.
“True, but if it was really that dense, I’m quite certain it would have had enough destructive force to knock down some of the pyramid during the event,” Burt responded.
“Hmm, good point, but who’s to say that we’ll find the pyramid perfectly intact? It’s quite possible that the upper section could have indeed, been swept away,” Javier replied.
“Right, we’ll keep it on the list,” Burt agreed.
As the three men continued to point out targets both mapped and new, Jack spotted an unusual protrusion extending from the side of a mountain.
“Check out the ridgelines on that larger mountain, just to the left of the valley,” he called out. “What do you make of it?”
“I think that mountain is too high. The tsunami never reached that elevation, Jack. It’s roughly the same height of the first mountain we examined… remember?” Javier recalled.
“Yeah, I remember, but there’s two distinctive ridgelines on this one that look out of place to me,” Jack responded. “They sort of dead-end about halfway up the mountain.”
“I really don’t see it, Jack,” Burt responded. “They appear as part of a much larger system of features that run toward the top of the mountain. It’s clear to me the upper portion has been eroded away over time,” Jack continued.
“Erosion or earthquakes,” Javier added. “We can’t forget this area has seen a lot of seismic activity over the past few thousand years. It’s possible that the upper sections were fractured during earthquakes and simply crumbled away over time.”
Jack thought about his earlier observation regarding the expertise of his colleagues. He knew they knew what they were talking about. Accepting their explanations, he moved his focus to another hill closer toward shore.
“Hey, check out the hill a few hundred yards from shore at the base of the large
r mountain!” Jack said excitedly.
“I saw that too, Jack. It’s a little small, but it has potential,” Javier responded. “We could probably knock that one off pretty quickly if we chose to examine it further. What do you think, Burt?”
“It’s a little close to shore, I think. Although it’s protected somewhat by the larger mountain, I think if the pyramid was located there, the tsunami could really have impacted it in the aftermath, probably washing away most of it,” Burt explained.
“I think we have to keep in mind that this isn’t about where we would like it to be located so we’ll find the pyramid intact. It’s about where the Atlanteans could have located it… plain and simple. I think it’s definitely possible it could have been built at that location,” Javier countered.
“That’s a really good point, Javi. I keep thinking that it still exists intact because the scrolls and crystal say they are, but that was seven thousand years ago. That hill might be all that is left of a much larger pyramid,” Burt said.
“For Serena’s sake, let’s hope not,” Javier said grimly.
For a moment, the boat fell silent as they considered the real reason for their search.
As the boat drifted south, the view of the city of Avlemonas became less visible and now their focus was on the rockier section of the coastline. Immediately, Burt discounted the area.
“No way… no way a wave could have cleared those cliffs and still had enough momentum to travel inland,” he said.
“Agreed. As I was saying to you last night, from here all the way to just east of Kapsali, the coastline and landscape are far too mountainous and rugged to have seen much destruction from the tsunami,” Javier said.
“Furthermore, the city of Atlantis would be a coastal city. I’m certain it wouldn’t have been built up in the mountains where they wouldn’t have much access to it,” Burt added.
“Let’s head to Kapsali,” Javier recommended.
With a simple nod form the others, Javier instructed the captain to bypass their present location and head to the southern coastline. Thirty minutes later, as they rounded the southern tip of the island, the beautiful city of Kapsali came into view.
Curse of Atlantis Page 11