“Why not find out?” asked Laura. “His pack’s right there; it’s probably got all his notebooks inside. Take a look.”
“Wait, you want me to do that?”
“Well, obviously! I’m not touching a dead Nazi!”
“Jack?”
Jack shook his head. “These bodies are rather more recent than I’m used to dealing with.”
“Wuss,” Henry chided with a grin. He reached around the corpse, trying to disturb it as little as possible as he opened its backpack.
The contents were prosaic at first: a flashlight with bubbles of corrosion from the long-decayed batteries, crumpled pieces of greaseproof paper containing the expedition’s last scraps of food. But beneath these remnants, things became more interesting. Folded maps, leather-bound notebooks, sheets of paper bearing rubbings of more carved Glozel characters, a scoured sheet of copper with what looked like a map or chart scored into its surface… and something carefully wrapped in layers of what he was surprised to discover was dark velvet.
Laura took the copper piece. “Sand-worn… do you think they might have found this in Morocco?”
“It’s possible.” The notebooks should have been the first items Henry examined, but he was intrigued enough by the mystery object-flat, just under a foot long and surprisingly heavy-that he placed it carefully on the ground next to the lantern and peeled back the velvet.
“What’s that?” asked Laura.
“No idea. I think it’s metal, though.” The velvet, stiffened by time and cold, reluctantly gave up its contents as Henry pulled away the last layer.
“Wow,” Laura gasped. Jack’s eyes widened in amazement.
Inside the velvet wrapping was a metal bar some two inches wide, one end rounded off and marked with an arrowhead stamped into the surface. Even under the cold blue light of the lantern, the object had a radiance, sparkling with a reddish-golden glow unlike anything else found in nature.
Henry, transfixed, bent down for a better look. In contrast to the piece Laura was holding, the bar showed no signs of age or weathering, seeming freshly polished. The metal wasn’t gold or bronze, but…
Laura leaned closer as well, her breath briefly condensing on the cold surface. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Looks like it. My God. I can’t believe it. The Nazis actually found an artifact made of orichalcum, just like Plato described. A real, honest-to-God Atlantean artifact! And they had it fifty years ago!”
“You owe Nina an apology when we get home,” quipped Laura. “She always thought that piece she found in Morocco was orichalcum.”
“I guess I do,” said Henry, carefully picking up the bar. “There’s no way this is just off-color bronze.” The underside, he noticed, was not flat-there was a circular protrusion at the squared-off end. In the same position on the top side was a small slot at a forty-five-degree angle. “I think this was part of something larger,” he observed. “Like it was meant to hang from something.”
“Or swing from it,” Laura suggested. “Like a pendulum arm.”
Henry ran a fingertip along the inscribed arrowhead. “A pointer?”
“What are those marks?” asked Jack. Running along the length of the artifact was a thin line, equally faint symbols scribed into the metal on each side. A series of tiny dots, arranged in groups of up to eight. Also visible were…
“More Glozel characters,” said Henry. “But not quite the same as the ones in the tomb-look, some of these are more like hieroglyphics.” He compared them to the ones on the rubbings. They were the same style. “Curiouser and curiouser.”
Jack looked more closely. “They look a lot like Olmec, or something related. Bizarre mix…”
“What do they say?” asked Laura.
“No idea. It’s not exactly a language I’m fluent in. Well, not yet.” He coughed modestly.
“They look like they were added after it was made,” Henry noted. “The inscribing’s much cruder than the arrowhead.” He returned the mysterious object to the velvet. “This justifies us coming here all on its own!” He jumped to his feet and let out a triumphant whoop, then hugged Laura. “We did it! We actually found proof that Atlantis wasn’t just a myth!”
She kissed him. “Now all we need to do is find Atlantis itself, huh?”
“Well, one step at a time.”
A shout from deeper inside the cave caught their attention. “Something down here, Professor!” called Sonam.
Leaving the artifact on the floor, Henry and Laura hurried to the Tibetan. “Look at this,” Sonam said, holding up his light to the tomb wall. “I thought it was just a crack in the rock, but then I realized something.” Pulling off one glove, he stuck the tip of his little finger into the vertical crack and slowly ran it up the wall. “It’s exactly the same width all the way up. And there’s another one just like it over there.” He pointed at a spot on the wall about nine feet away.
“A door?” asked Laura.
Henry followed the path of the crack upwards, using his flashlight to pick out a barely discernible line running horizontally some eight feet above. “Big door. Jack’s got to see this.” He raised his voice. “Jack? Jack!” Nothing but echoes came back to him. “Where is he?”
Laura shook her head. “Hell of a time to take a leak. The most important archaeological find of the century and-”
“Professor Wilde!” One of the other Tibetans. “Some thing outside! Listen!”
The group fell silent, barely breathing. A low thudding noise became audible, rapid beats underscored by a rumbling whine.
“A helicopter?” Laura exclaimed in disbelief. “Here?”
“Come on,” snapped Henry, running for the entrance. The sky outside had darkened considerably. He used the rope to pull himself up the pile of rubble, Laura behind him.
“Chinese military?” Laura asked.
“How did they know where we were? Even we didn’t know exactly where we were going until we got to Xulaodang.” Henry squeezed through the entrance and stepped out onto the broad ledge. The weather was definitely deteriorating; the wind had picked up considerably.
But that wasn’t his main concern right now. He looked for the helicopter; the noise grew louder, but it was nowhere in sight.
And neither was Jack.
Laura emerged behind him. “Where is it?”
Her question was answered a moment later as the helicopter swept into view.
Not Chinese, Henry saw immediately. No red star markings. No markings at all, not even a tail number. Just an ominous dark gray paint scheme that immediately made him think Special Forces. But whose?
He didn’t know enough about aircraft to recognize the type, but it was large enough to carry several people in its passenger compartment. He could see the pilots behind the cockpit glass, their heads turning from side to side as if looking for something.
Looking for someone.
For them.
“Get back in the cave!” he shouted to Laura. With a worried look, she disappeared into the darkness.
The helicopter moved closer. A blizzard whipped up from the ground, snow caught in its downwash. Henry backed up to the cave entrance.
One of the pilots pointed down at the ground. At him.
The aircraft swung around like some giant alien insect, the cockpit windows huge eyes taking a better look at him, then turned away again. A door slid open in its flank. A moment later two coils of rope fell out and whipped snakelike to the ground.
A pair of dark figures dropped from the bobbing helicopter, rappelling down.