“So we’re diving right into the heart of it, right?” Jayden said, referencing the most highly associated region of the Azores that their research told them was associated with Atlantis.
Hunt agreed. “Lagoon of the Seven Cities, here we come.” After a long drive during which Jayden made a couple of more unsuccessful attempts to track down information about Maddy’s whereabouts by phone, they turned off onto a smaller, single lane paved road that wound up a mountain. Traffic thinned, and the view grew more impressive with each passing mile.
Far below, two lakes came into view. They were nestled in the crater of a dormant volcano, with verdant mountains forming a high rim around them. One was larger and blue in color, while the other was smaller and greenish. They were connected by a thin river. Hunt parked the SUV and both men got out to have a look at the view.
“So I know this site is supposed to be one of the more popular sites for Atlantis, but there’s a legend associated with it. How does that go?”
Hunt replied while looking out across the lakes. “The story I read has it that in ancient times — don’t ask me exactly how long ago that was — a king lived here with his daughter. He loved her but was way over-protective, you know, like one of those modern-day Dads who answers the door holding a shotgun when he knows it’s his teen daughters’ date.”
Jayden laughed. “Yeah, I’ve met a few of those. Go on…”
“So he lived happily with her until, predictably enough, she became a teenager. Then she started to sneak out of the house…”
“Uh-oh, I see where you’re going with this…” Jayden stared down at the lakes from behind his Oakley sunglasses.
“Yeah, she started taking walks out into the woods surrounding the house, until one day she came across this dude playing the flute. She watched him for a while and before too long, she introduced herself and one thing led to another and before you know it they were dating.”
“Nature takes its course. But something tells me this isn’t a happily-ever-after story.”
“Well, after a while she couldn’t stand being exiled from her home anymore and thought that her father would understand, so she showed up at the front door with her new friend.”
“Uh-oh.”
“As you can probably guess, he wasn’t quite as understanding as she had hoped for, and even though the young man politely asked the king for his daughter’s hand in marriage, his reaction was to turn the boy away and forbid the two from seeing each other again.”
“Saw that coming a mile away.”
‘Right, so the girl snuck out one last time to say a final goodbye to her boyfriend.”
“Awwwww.”
“Yeah, they hugged and cried, and two lakes were formed from their tears.” Hunt pointed down at the two lakes. “One blue, because the princess’ eyes were blue, and one green because her lover’s eyes were green. The green lake is shallower, I guess because he didn’t cry as much as her.”
Jayden shook his head. “Wow. It makes so much sense. But tell me Hunt,” he said, turning to look at his friend. “How does any of that get us any closer to solving the mystery of Atlantis?”
“I’ve been thinking about that.” Hunt stroked the thin layer of black stubble on his face. “It has to do with the statue that our head came from. At least I hope it does.”
Jayden appeared lost in thought for a few moments before speaking. “So the statue was of a horse and rider, correct?”
“Right.”
“But when the Portuguese first got here, they tried to take it back to their king, but screwed up and broke it into a bunch of pieces…”
“Which is how we ended up with the head,” Hunt said.
Jayden looked around at the deep volcanic crater and the lakes below. “So even though the statue isn’t here anymore, where was it?”
“That’s exactly what I was hoping the old story would help us figure out. According to the accounts I read, the statue was on top of a mountain on this very island of San Miguel. Now, if the two lovers cried twin rivers of tears that ran downhill to form those two lakes, then they must have been up high to start out with, right?”
Jayden shrugged. “Makes sense.”
Hunt looked around in a circle. “I don’t see any higher points than where we’re at right now, do you?”
Jayden also had a look around before shaking his head. Hunt continued.
“So this must be it.”
Jayden furrowed his brow. “Where?”
“Right around here, somewhere. Let’s have a look around, shall we?”
“Jayden appeared dumbfounded. “What, you mean randomly just start looking around? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Hunt said, “We’re at the highest point of this crater. It might make sense that a statue — what would have been a prominent landmark for the time — would be placed as high up as possible for maximum visibility and impact. Plus, it goes with the fable.” Hunt could read the disbelief on Jayden’s face, so he added, “I don’t really expect to find anything after so much time has passed. But we’ve got a commanding view up here of the surrounding countryside. If Daedalus brings Maddy here — and we know she knows about this place — we’ll see them coming.”
That seemed to snap Jayden out of his funk. “Let’s get to work, then. You want to start on foot or by driving around real slow?”
“Let’s scour this area right here by foot first and take it from there. Hold on, I picked up something that might make our search go a little easier. It’s in the back of the SUV.” Hunt walked over to the vehicle and opened the tailgate. He pulled out two machines, each consisting of a plastic disc at the end of a metal pole with an electronic box and a handle grip at the other end, along with a pair of headphones attached by a coiled wire.
“Metal detectors, cool!” Jayden said.
“The statue was bronze, so…” Hunt explained. He also took out a couple of folding shovels and tossed one to Jayden. “In case we get a signal. Doesn’t look like there’s a lot of trash up here like bottlecaps and old cans and stuff, so we should have a nice clean search. Let’s make sure they work, though, by testing it on something metal.”
Jayden took out a set of keys but Hunt waved him down. “Actually, we should use something more like the metal we’re trying to find.” He looked to the SUV.
Jayden smiled. “Ah, like the head. Makes sense. I’ll get it.” He got the bronze head from the car and removed it from the bag. Then he set it down on the ground and passed his detector over it. “Yep, nice signal,” he confirmed to Hunt, who also came over with his device.
“So take a mental note of what it sounds like, but keep in mind that buried a couple feet down — that’s about the limit of these detectors — it’ll sound a little different. But we’ll probably dig up any signals we get anyway. Just wanted to take a baseline. Let’s do this.”
The two ex-navy men agreed on how to divide the area up into two sections; Hunt took one and Jayden took the other. They began walking back and forth in a grid pattern. They wore headphones to hear when the detector found a signal, so talk was kept to a minimum. Ten minutes of sweeping the detectors back and forth later and neither of them had received any kind of signal.
“Like I thought,” Hunt said, “it’s a clean area. Let’s keep searching.”
A few minutes later, Hunt paused when he heard the shrill beep in his ears. “Got something,” he said to Jayden, taking off his headphones. He put the business end of the shovel on the spot and began to dig. By the time Jayden walked over to see what he had found, a disappointed Hunt pulled an old Especial beer can out of the ground.