“No, and there’s something else you’re not going to like.”
“What?”
“I tracked Rodriguez’s plane as it made a direct route eastward until it was a hundred and fifty miles off the coast…” she then stopped.
“Then what?”
“And then it disappeared.”
“What do you mean it disappeared?”
“I mean, I could hack into the Australian radar towers and track its progress over land, and tracked her transponder, and maintained a visual of her movement via satellite. But once it was out of radar range, it headed towards dense cloud cover. The pilot switched off its transponder, and changed directions. I’m trying to pick its signal up again, but it appears to have disappeared completely.”
“You lost it? The world’s largest commercial jet, and you can find it with all of the data at your fingertips?” Sam said.
“It’s a big ocean. I’ll keep trying, but whoever’s flying this thing’s a professional.”
“Okay, keep trying. You can’t move an A380 without someone noticing it.”
James looked at him, and for the first time in Sam’s life, his father looked uncertain about their next move.
“It’s your show, son. Where do you want to go?”
“Oh my god!” Sam said, “I just worked out where he’s headed.”
Both Tom and James simultaneously said, “Where?”
Sam ignored their question and got Elise back on the line. “I need you to find me the closest and fastest jet.”
“Military or private?”
“I don’t care, whatever’s closest. Rodriguez already has a two-hour head start.”
A moment later, Elise said, “There’s a Citation X — it’s not a lot faster than the A380, but it’s been fitted with long range fuel tanks so at least you won’t have to land and refuel.”
“That’s great — where?”
“One’s currently sitting in a private hangar at Elmore airport, about twenty-minute drive from where you are.”
“That’ll do. Find the owner for me and tell them I’m taking their jet,” Sam then sent Elise a text with the details of his flight, using Tom’s smartphone. “I’ve sent you the details where I want to go, and what I’m bringing into the country — I need you to clear everything with the required government officials.”
There was a momentary pause, as Elise skimmed the text. “I’ll do my best Sam, but their government’s not going to be happy with you bringing machine guns.”
“I know. Just pay their bribes, and make it happen.”
Chapter Twenty Two
Billie looked at the wall along the base of the sarcophagus for what must have been the thousandth time since discovering the looking glass. She could identify a little over half the pictographs, and all but three of the locations seen through it.
Somewhere, on this wall, were the answers to all her questions. The questions her grandfather had instilled in her when she was just six years old. Deep inside the inner psyche of her mind, Billie knew that she was close.
Then she saw it.
Standing above the sarcophagus, she noticed that the pictographs weren’t just maps to direct the lens of the looking glass — they were actual maps to each of the locations.
From where they were in the middle, the images above were in the northern hemisphere, whereas those below, were situated in the southern.
She still couldn’t understand how they knew about them, and even recorded some that weren’t yet built at the time of this pyramid’s creation.
Making a couple calculations, she tried to pinpoint the distance between two places that she knew, starting with the submerged pyramid, where she stood, and the pyramid of Giza. Once she’d worked it out, she found the ratio between actual distance and the map.
Then, she measured the distance between where she stood, and pictograph of Stonehenge, and applied the same ratio. Afterwards, she calculated the known distance between Stonehenge and where she was standing.
They were an exact match, give or take a single mile.
Fuck me — that means I can work out exactly where Atlantis lies!
Billie began to measure, so that she could work out the primitive distance.
And then the alarm went off.
“Billie, come in!”
She jumped down and picked up the radio.
“What is it, Veyron?”
“Two torpedoes, coming in fast, approximately 30 miles away.”
Shit, they found me quicker than I thought!
They were getting smarter, or was she getting slower?
“Copy that…”
“You may still have time to get out!”
“I doubt that,” Billie said and she reached into her duffle bag, retrieving a laser cutter.
It was going to break her heart, but she had to cut the top of the round lens off the looking glass. It was the only lead that she might ever have — that’s if she even survived the next couple minutes.
She attached the mechanical frame to the looking glass and switched on the laser. It might take a few minutes to slice through.
While it was heating up, Billie jumped back down and grabbed her laptop.
There was no time, for anything…
All her work was there.
Everything would have amounted to nothing if she didn’t get it.
She removed the hard drive and slid it into her watertight pocket. Then she climbed back up the sarcophagus, held the laser cutter, and removed the lens to the looking glass. It could have been a beautiful blue diamond, but to her, it was much more valuable.
A sound like thunder striking a hundred times at once, echoed throughout the pyramid.
For a second, she thought that it was going to take the beating as the entire structure shuddered like an earthquake — and then something cracked.
Water began trickling in from the roof.
Slow at first, and then faster, and then water poured in with the pressure of a high powered jet, before rocks started to fall.
She had to get out now if she was going to have any chance of survival, but she was trapped. Leaning with her back against the wall, she watched in horror as the roof above her split in two. Water, along with giant rocks, now decimated the King’s Chamber.
Billie reached for her dive mask, and jumped through the tunnel below. With nothing to stop the pressure of the water below from rising, now that the roof of the pyramid had collapsed, water now filled the chambers below — rising with the force of nearly 500 feet of water above.
Her hand reached for the rope ladder, stopping her before she hit the second chamber, swinging her into the middle.
More blocks and water came down, flooding the entire pyramid with debris.
Until nothing remained.
Aliana looked at the man pointing the gun at her. Where she’d seen an intelligent, confident, and powerful man a week ago, she now saw a child who’d never had any real friends, who was forever trying to supersede his father’s success.
And she saw a man turned delirious with desire.
Men, in the midst of insanity, she knew, were the most dangerous of all. He pointed towards the base of the pyramid. “Start climbing,” he said.
“You want me to climb the Great Pyramid of Giza?”
He pointed the gun towards her and then fired a single shot. It struck the wall behind her, shattering the face of the limestone. “I won’t ask you again.”
She turned and looked at the pyramid above, and tried to remember the height of the only remaining wonder of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
It was irrelevant — with her climbing experience, the trip would probably kill Rodriguez first.
Aliana then started to climb.
Followed by several local men who Rodriguez had bribed to give him access and carry the Ark of Light.