The two swam on.
Like its surface siblings, the subterranean river meandered side to side as it searched for the easiest means of travelling towards the ocean hundreds of miles away.
By the third corner, nothing was visible below with his naked eyes, but the sonar monitor displayed something.
It was the outline of a staff, about six feet long. And next to it, a sheet of metal, no larger than a piece of A4 writing paper.
“I think we found it, Dad.”
James looked at the monitor.
“Either that, or we found its twin.”
The two swam another twenty feet below the water, where the Ark of Light lay entirely buried by two centuries of river silt.
Chapter Twenty
Sam withdrew four inflatable bags from his duffle bag and carefully attached them to the Ark of Light, still mostly buried.
His father, impatient as always, tried vainly to lift the scepter by hand so that he could better examine it. But in the soft river bed, his feet were unable to obtain enough perch to lift it.
Sam slowly filled each bag with the air from his dive regulator. “We’ve waited a lifetime to see this, Dad. Surely it won’t kill you to wait until we get it back to the cave before we examine it.”
“I suppose you’re right,” James said; his hand stabilizing the now buoyant Ark of Light, and attaching the cable to the end of it.
Sam studied the monitor of his sonar again to make certain he hadn’t missed anything. “What about this?”
His dad looked over his shoulder, and said, “Looks like a really old piece of paper, to me. What do you think, the instructions for the weapon?”
“I doubt it. But if Jack Robertson thought it was important enough to go to the trouble of taking it with him, there must be something to it.”
“You’re right, go see if you can find it below all that silt, and I’ll start bringing this to the surface.
Sam fished his hands through the soft silt until he found what he was looking for. It was made of brass, and despite the filth of being submerged for so many years, Sam could clearly see the writings painstakingly chiseled into it.
And they were written in the ancient text of the Master Builders.
He couldn’t make out every word. He would need Billie’s help for that, but he could make out enough of them to understand the purpose of the message.
The Ark of Light must be returned to its rightful place, on top of the great pyramid of Giza, by Midday of… Winter…S…. in the year 2020 before the end of this cycle. To be activated, it must be joined with its other siblings, or it will not work.
It then listed four locations.
The first three he couldn’t quite make out, but the last one, he’d certainly heard of.
Atlantis.
Sam put the brass tablet in his duffle bag and quickly swam to catch up with his father.
By the time he reached the cave, his father was already trying to drag the heavy Ark of Light on to the beach of the cave.
Sam helped him lift it onto the beach, and then explained to his father what the note Barloc had left, said.
“Well, that’s just great, isn’t it?” James stood up, ready to leave the cave. “It’s taken me sixty eight years to locate this device, only to discover that it needs to be armed with four other relics before it will show me the way — and the only one we’ve even heard of has been thought to be nothing more than a legend by the world’s best archeologists.”
“All right dad, let’s get this thing up top, and see what Aliana’s doing. Then we can work out what our next move is.”
It took all their strength to drag it to the top of the cave and out into the open.
At the edge of the tree line, Aliana appeared still as a rock.
“Aliana,” Sam called out. “We did it!”
It was then that she turned around and mouthed something to him. He couldn’t quite see what she was trying to say, until it was too late, but he could see the sickening expression on her face.
“Oh shit!” James said, realization hitting him faster, and throwing himself on Sam.
A moment later, the powerful staccato of the UZIs raked the ground they were standing on.
The two fell, head first, down the cave.
Sam, rolled as he landed and quickly looked around the room to see how he could arm himself. He surprised by the speed his father had reacted.
“You all right, son?”
“Fine, but they’ve got Aliana!”
“We’ll get her back,” James reassured him.
They heard the sound of the machine gun raking the entrance of the cave, and the two quickly dived into the water.
Above, they heard the sound of someone entering the cave and shooting over the top of the water. Bullets, slowed by the drag of water, fell harmlessly above them.
After a couple minutes, Sam heard a loud bang, as a grenade destroyed the roof of the cave, leaving them in complete darkness.
Aliana watched in horror as the man she loved was buried alive for the second time in a week. And she wondered if he could possibly be lucky enough to survive it twice. That was, if the blast hadn’t killed him already. Her thoughts then turned to the man who’d betrayed him, Michael Rodriguez. Her anger rose as she considered the sinister, power hungry man, behind the friendly façade.
“Aliana, how lovely it is to see you again.” She recognized the voice instantly.
“Rodriguez. You surprise me. I thought a man of your caliber wouldn’t stoop to get your hands dirty? When I saw your lackeys, I guessed, they were under your orders, but hadn’t expected to see you here, too.”
Michael dipped his hat, and said, “Your words compliment me, greatly. I’ve always prided myself on being willing to get involved in every aspect of my work — even when that involves, getting them dirty, as you say. Besides, as a mining magnate, it’s my duty to return an area of destruction to its normal view after it has been mined. My men just removed that ugly eyesore from the ground, where a hole once was.”
“You can call it what you will — you just murdered Sam Reilly and his father. Although you may not have considered it, I’m sure that sort of thing comes with some serious repercussions.”
“It is, as you say, frowned upon in civilized society to kill a billionaire and his brat son, but hey, out here, they’re just a couple of guys in the middle of the woods, am I right?” Rodriguez laughed, as though he were having a casual conversation with a neighbor. “If you must know. I never had any intention to murder Sam. He’s a bright man. I would have gladly let him continue to think he’d discovered the Mahogany Ship, while his old man and I conducted our business. But the kid just couldn’t let it go, could he? He was too smart, and had to figure it all out. Heck, I still can’t work out how he escaped last time.”
Aliana looked at Rodriguez — he was talking to himself more than her — and wondered if she could kill him before either of his two goons with AK 47s noticed.
But how?
“Have you said your good byes to your dear Sam Reilly?”
“No, his father taught me that Sam’s not an easy man to get rid of. I think you’ll find that they’re both far more resilient than you give them credit for.”
“Confidence. I like to see that in a woman!” Rodriguez said. “Good for you. I wonder how long it will last, after I keep you to see firsthand the power revealed by the Ark of Light. After all, I’m soon to bring a new global order. Like it or not, you may as well start obeying me now.”
It was Aliana’s turn to laugh. “New global order. I thought you were a common thief and murderer, but I see that you’re just crazy.”
“Laugh now, but you may as well accept your boyfriend’s dead, and I’m about to change the course of history.” Rodriguez, seeing that his story wasn’t entertaining anyone but himself, turned to his men, and said, “Stay here, cover it properly, make sure no one’s ever going to mistake it for the entrance to something. I want it buried properly. And then I’ll be waiting for you with the plane in Sydney.”