It was just like Iraq; one minute they were up shit creek, and the next…?
Kismet shook his head. “Let me get this straight. You’ve been ordered to provide a military security escort for us? I think the Posse Comitatus Act makes that illegal.”
“Ordinarily, it would require special circumstances — a declared state of emergency, for example — for regular army troops to be deployed domestically. We, however, are a Georgia National Guard Unit, which means we can also be activated by the governor. There’s a reciprocity agreement that allows us to operate most anywhere in the US. I don’t pretend to completely understand the finer points, but my orders are clear.” He paused a beat, and nodded meaningfully. “Whatever you need.”
Higgins thought again about what Leeds had told him in Central Park.
Prometheus…
Kismet has become their bloodhound, tracking down the world’s mysteries so that Prometheus can hide them away.
Was that what was happening now?
There was no further discussion on the subject of their ultimate destination or purpose. Russell excused himself in order to attend to the responsibilities of command, leaving Kismet and his friends alone as the train began moving again.
Kismet felt a numbing exhaustion settling over him, and was on the verge of nodding off when Higgins voice reached out to him.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about all this, mate.”
Kismet managed to prop his eyelids open and regarded the former Gurkha thoughtfully. He had his own reservations about the situation, and about the unusual offer Russell had made — an offer that was evidently sanctioned by the major’s chain of command. On its surface, there was a certain logic to it. Dr. Leeds was by his own admission, a white supremacist, and while not every racist was a terrorist, Leeds had repeatedly demonstrated a propensity for violence and a disregard for the law, so it made sense that he would be on the radar of law enforcement agencies. It was just dumb luck that they had fallen into Russell’s lap, and he had to believe that the offer of cooperation had nothing at all to do with the object of their search. Homeland Security wanted to take Leeds down, and Major Russell’s Guard unit happened to be in the right place at the right time to accomplish that.
Still…
“I’m with you,” he told Higgins. “Sometimes a coincidence is just a coincidence, but it always pays to stay on your toes.”
“Do you think that all of this—” Higgins gestured to the train car full of lounging soldiers—“could be…maybe your government trying to get its hands on the…” He trailed off, as if afraid to even utter the words “Fountain of Youth.”
Kismet had already considered this, too. “I don’t see how they could even know about it. I didn’t tell them; did you?”
Higgins and Annie both shook their heads negatively.
“It’s still possible that they found out while investigating Leeds; maybe he posted ‘Looking for the secret of eternal life’ as his Facebook status. Regardless, the Fountain, if it even exists, is on American soil, so the government doesn’t need to seize it; it’s already theirs.”
“You know it’s not that simple.”
“Maybe not. But better the government than Dr. Leeds.” He held Higgins’ gaze. “You’re with me on that, right Al?”
“Of course we are,” Annie intoned, sounding almost insulted.
Higgins nodded too, but Kismet felt a sliver of doubt about his old comrade’s motives. He too had a bad feeling about the situation, and it had nothing to do with Major Russell’s offer of military assistance.
The train reached Atlanta the next morning where the cargo was unloaded and turned over the drivers from the receiving military unit. Most of Russell’s men remained there, completing their original mission to guard the shipment, until the transfer was complete, a process that lasted well into the afternoon. The major however, made good on his promise of assistance, offering them lodging at nearby Fort Gillem, a mostly decommissioned army base to the southeast of the city.
“We can put you up there as long as you like,” Russell suggested. “At the very least, you can get a decent night’s sleep.”
Kismet was still undecided about whether to accept the major’s offer to provide security for the ongoing search, but as he couldn’t remember the last time he’d slept in a proper bed, the immediate invitation was one he couldn’t refuse.
The afternoon was spent attending to details such as buying some clothes to replace their tattered, lived-in apparel and arranging for their abandoned vehicle to be released from impound in Charleston and returned to the rental agency. Kismet also took the opportunity to do a little research on their ultimate goal, and that evening, over a meal and few pints of beer at a local brewpub, he told the others what he had learned.
There had been no opportunity earlier for Kismet to share what Joe had revealed to him in Fontaneda’s crypt, and despite his willingness to keep them in the loop, it was with some apprehension that he produced the tattooed map he’d cut from the Spaniard’s corpse.
Annie’s forehead creased in mild revulsion as he recounted the story of how the map had been procured, but he kept the discussion focused on what the map revealed.
“Fontaneda made this for himself,” he explained. “He wanted to be able to find the cavern with the Fountain, and probably didn’t trust his own memory. He didn’t have GPS…hell, there weren’t even any proper maps until a couple centuries later, so he would have had to come up with a way to mark its location using reference points that would be easy to find.
“These round shapes are probably lakes. There are a lot of them in the area west of Saint Augustine and unfortunately they aren’t a very reliable reference because the geography has changed a lot since then. In fact, it changes almost constantly. ”
He tapped the cluster of strange mountain-shapes. “I think this is the key. There aren’t a lot of landmarks in Florida, and certainly nothing that could be confused with a mountain.”
“They look more like pyramids,” Higgins offered.
“That’s what I thought as well. And it just so happens, that there are pyramids in Florida.”
Despite their unfamiliarity with the region and its history, both father and daughter met this statement with raised eyebrows.
“The technical term is actually ‘earthworks,’” he continued. “More than a thousand years before Europeans discovered the New World, several civilizations of mound builders arose in eastern America. The practice of creating earthworks seems to be universal; they are found all across Asia, and the early American cultures probably brought the knowledge with them when they emigrated across the Bering Strait. Most of the American earthworks sites are found in the Mississippi River valley, but there are quite a few in the Deep South as well. They made enormous pyramid-shaped and conical earthworks, as well as some mounds that resembled animals. The most famous of these is the Serpent Mound in Ohio.”
Higgins tapped the snake image on the map. “Is that what this is?”
Kismet shook his head. “Fontaneda was definitely on the Florida peninsula. I think he may have found a different serpent mound, one that hasn’t been discovered yet, or was possibly flooded or destroyed in the centuries since. But I think these other earthworks — the pyramids — might still be around today. There are several mound sites throughout the state, but I think the best candidate is the Lake Jackson Mounds on the panhandle.”