They took the steps two at a time, their footfalls reverberating through the stairwell. And then, all sounds were drowned out by a low rumble. Avery felt the vibration in the soles of her feet.
“He must have taken the crystal! He’s trying to lock us in down here!”
Up above, the statue slowly moved back into place. The square of bright light inexorably shrinking. Tam hurtled through the opening, which seemed to be shrinking even faster. Did Avery dare try it? But what if Tyson had taken the crystal? She might be stuck here?
She had an instant to make up her mind. What would Maddock do? With a cry something like terror, she flung herself upward.
She stumbled.
And fell, her legs half in and half out of the stairwell. She scrambled to crawl, but she slipped on the slick, stone surface. Almost there. She felt the statue’s massive pedestal close on her foot.
Suddenly, Tam’s grabbed her wrists and yanked. For an interminable instant, she felt frozen in place, and then she slid forward. Something grabbed her toe and she jerked her leg. Her foot slid free, leaving her shoe behind.
“Could be worse,” she mumbled as she scrambled to her feet. When Avery reached the portico, she saw Tam standing on the bottom step, Makarov at her side. The thickening fog rendered visibility almost nil.
“We lost him.”
“It’s my fault. If I hadn’t fallen, you might have caught him.”
Tam shook her head. “He had too big a lead, and the dude is fast. You saw them long legs. Besides, he’d have killed me if it weren’t for you.”
Avery doubted that, but appreciated the words of reassurance.
Through the fog, they heard the sound of running feet. They both aimed their weapons at the sound, but lowered them again when they recognized their driver.
“I’ve been trying to reach you,” he said, skidding to a halt in front of Tam. “A terrorist group just claimed responsibility for the tsunamis. They’ve got a list of demands, and if they aren’t met, they say a major city will be the next to fall.”
“Does this group have a name?” Tam’s tone of voice was razor sharp.
“The Dominion.”
Chapter 44
Bishop Frederick Hadel read through a report from his agent inside the CIA. The contact was a low-level operative, and seldom had much of use to report but, on occasion, he delivered valuable information. Today, he’d picked up a useful tidbit. Someone within the agency had tried to warn the government about an attack on Savannah. Specifically, a man-made disaster.
“Our first leak,” he said aloud. His mind ran through the list of false trails he’d laid. The Savannah rumor had been planted with the leader of the church in Key West. He’d have to address that situation immediately. A shame, really. Some of his most ardent supporters were members of that particular congregation, and they’d served him well during the tsunami and in Mexico.
Now, he opened a browser window on his desktop computer and navigated to the major news sites. As he expected, the internet was abuzz over the proclamation the Dominion had just released, in which they claimed responsibility for the Tsunamis and demanded the President’s resignation, along with that of the Vice President, a few select Supreme Court justices, and most of congress.
His demands would not be met, of course, but the implicit message would not be missed. One look at the list of representatives and justices whom the Dominion considered acceptable would deliver the message. The nation needed to change, and he would make it over by any means necessary. The next attack would prove the Dominion’s power, and when they obtained the Revelation Machine…
His phone buzzed, interrupting his musings. He tapped the speakerphone button.
“Yes?”
“Mister Robinson to see you, Bishop. He says it’s urgent.”
“Send him in.”
As always, Robinson knocked exactly two times before pushing the door open. It was an idiosyncrasy, or perhaps a compulsive behavior, that Hadel was happy to ignore, given Robinson’s reliability.
“I just received a report from a contact within a friendly organization. A CIA agent named Tamara Broderick sought his help in accessing a vault beneath the Jefferson Memorial — one that, she claimed, contained a Templar archive.”
Hadel sat up straight. “And?”
“It was there. Inside, she found information that pinpoints the location of the capital, if you will, of Atlantis. He failed to obtain the document in question, which he said appeared to be a journal of some sort, but he saw the map and knew exactly where it pointed.”
Hadel laid his hands on his lap to prevent Robinson from seeing them tremble. He couldn’t remember ever being so excited. But, when Robinson told him the location, he found himself puzzled.
“I’ve never heard of such a place. Just a moment.” He returned to his computer and called up the location. When the first images appeared on his screen, he relaxed. “Atlantis,” he whispered, “has been hiding in plain sight all this time.”
“I’m assembling a team as we speak,” Robinson said. “We await your instructions.”
“Activate the failsafe plan.”
“Bishop?” A furrow creased Robinson’s brow. “But the failsafe is…”
“I know what it is, and now is the perfect time to activate it, because I’m going with you.”
Chapter 45
The Range Rover bounced across the barren landscape, jostling its passengers. Dane slowed the vehicle to a halt atop a rise. The sun beat down on the dry, rocky landscape below. It was hard to believe this was their destination.
They all climbed out, stretching tired limbs and knuckling sore backs.
“The Eye of the Sahara,” Sofia whispered. “I never would have thought it possible.”
Located in Mauritania, the Richat Structure, or the Eye of the Sahara, was a thirty kilometer-wide, collapsed volcanic dome. Visible from space, when seen from far overhead, its circular shape and symmetrical rings bore an eerie similarity to elements of Plato’s description of Atlantis. Indeed, when Sofia had shown him satellite photos of the location, he’d been shocked no one had considered it before.
“It looks different from here,” Bones said. “Not like Atlantis at all.”
“That’s because we aren’t looking at it from overhead.” Jade rolled her eyes.
“But how could Atlantis have been here? We’re so far away from the ocean. I don’t see how it could ever have flooded.”
“Researchers have found evidence of salt water fishing in the area ten to twelve thousand years ago,” Jade said. “So it’s possible that the ocean extended farther inland than it does now.”
“Another possibility is that Plato’s flood story referred to the site in Spain, which flooded and was buried beneath mud, just like the story says,” Sofia said. “If the mother city stood here, it might have been so isolated that it could have been lost to memory.”
“Seems like an awfully big place to just get lost,” Bones said.
“Up until a little over ten thousand years ago, settlements in northern Africa were largely restricted to the Nile Valley. By the time the Sahara went through its monsoon period, the Atlanteans were gone. At least, that’s our best guess.” Sofia looked out across the landscape and smiled in disbelief. “I’ve worked at this for so long, and now we’re right on the verge of finding it. I just can’t believe it.”
“Where do we start?” Dane asked.
“There are no explicit directions, but it seems there’s a system of caves somewhere near the center.”