“I certainly do Mr. Worthington. You’ve paid very well for an exceptional experience. I can assure you that money was well spent, and I will remain to provide those services.”
“Good man.” Edward tapped one of the mercenaries on his shoulder. The man turned the throttle of the outboard and the Zodiac jumped into life, moving toward the bank of the river.
There was no bank to the river on which to drag the two rubber boats. Definitely no visible one anyway. Mark, who’d been his bodyguard for nearly ten years now, and now acting as the team’s official leader, made the decision to tie the boats to the branch of one of the million trees that blurred the line of the river’s bank.
It was difficult to even enter the jungle.
With no documented exploration by Westerners, there were no roads, paths, or maps to suggest what they should expect to find. No way to have known they had entered a giant swampland. A mesh of water and jungle — its vegetation was so dense that each of his team were soon forced to sling their M60 machine guns in exchange for a machete.
Their movement inside the jungle was slow. And no sooner had they entered it, than the thick jungle coverings seemed to swallow them, removing all view of the outside world from which they came. As though the jungle itself had a desire to keep them.
Edward could immediately see why this was one of the most unexplored regions on earth. The impenetrable rainforest canopy made satellite imaging useless, while the watery ground below rendered an armored vehicle useless.
His mind returned to the three ruined T72 Tanks blocking the river. They must have been driven up the river when it was shallow. If this place was still inhabited by the ancient pygmies, he could only imagine what they had done to the previous owners of those battle tanks.
Ahead of him, Dr. Swan jumped from one branch to another with the agility of a gymnast. She alone, he noticed, kept her finger confidently fixed next to the trigger of the M60.
He admired her fondly. She was beautiful in every sense of the word. By far the most intelligent person he’d ever met, and had an attractive smile with an exotic and sporty figure to match. Although he could hardly fail to recognize her physical attributes, he cared little for them. Instead he looked at her with the fond pleasure a father might his daughter.
Billie looked up, her intelligent, almond shaped eyes, actively avoiding his stare, before her smile broke the awkward tension. Edward smiled warmly in response, and wished he’d found her years earlier — before their time had nearly run out completely. That was, unless they found the temple, and the second half of the code to Atlantis.
“Are you still confident it’s here, Dr. Swan?”
“You saw the image as well as I did. The river must have changed unrecognizably over the last 11,000 years, but there was no mistaking it — that was The Congo River. And it was about a thousand miles inland. Obviously the jungle has engulfed more of the river, and the river, in turn, has drowned some of the jungle, but I’m certain we’re heading in the right direction.”
He smiled warmly. She was right — he knew it. He didn’t even know how he knew it. But somehow Edward was certain.
Billie stopped and removed her pendant from her neck. It was made of orichalcum she’d found at Atlantis. When she entered the Atlantean Archive in Tibet, she discovered an interesting fact about orichalcum — the alloy was attracted to itself. Therefore, you could take a piece of orichalcum and place it in water, and like a compass, it would guide you to more orichalcum.
He watched her study her pendant again.
Its needle remained motionless. There was no sign they were on the right track at all.
She tapped it several times, but still the needle remained motionless.
“Any idea what the range of that thing is?”
“How the hell should I know? All I know is that the orichalcum has a high affinity with itself. It was strong enough that it got us this far, but now it doesn’t seem to be showing us much.” Frustrated, Billie replaced the device around her neck like a necklace, for safe keeping.
“Well, I believe you’re heading in the right direction. I don’t know why. I just feel it for some reason that I can’t explain.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Billie said, before jumping to another branch. “Now, it’s my turn to ask some questions.”
“Go ahead. What do you want to know?”
“If we find the symbols that we’re looking for — the code to Atlantis, do you have any idea what we’re going to do with them?”
“I have my ideas.”
“That’s it? We’ve traipsed right around the world to find them, and you’re telling me that you simply have an idea what to do with them once we get them to Atlantis!”
“Yep, that’s it. You’re a pretty bright young lady. If you happen to stumble upon a better idea, be sure to let me know. Until then, let’s first see if we can find them in time.”
“Agreed. Which brings me to the now…” Billie stopped walking, and looked at him.
“Yes?”
“How confident are you that you’ve brought enough people to ensure we don’t end up becoming a warning to others not to trespass? Because frankly, I’d rather not have my head on a spike.”
Edward smiled reassuringly. “These ten men are a team of highly paid mercenaries. Experts in their chosen profession. Strategically recruited from around the world to avoid any concerns about patriotism. I have NAVY Seals from the U.S., Commandos from Australia, SAS from Great Britain, and even a German GSG 9.” He was forced to put his shotgun on his shoulder while he tried to climb across the next swamp. Having made it, he grinned warmly and said, “So, you see Dr. Swan, we are very well equipped to deal with any natives who wish to interfere with our mission.”
“And what about the other person who wants what we know?”
“Andrew Brandt?”
“Yes.”
“Are you kidding me? The man’s a moron. He’ll still be following Sam Reilly to Siberia!”
“And if he already knows that the Russians destroyed everything of value there back in 1908, and comes looking for us instead? Then what?”
“Then I see if the million dollars per head that I’m paying my men to look after us has been well spent.”
He was surprised to see that Billie wasn’t afraid. She was simply finding out more about the men he’d employed to look after them.
She stopped suddenly.
“What is it?”
“My orichalcum compass started to work again.”
She took it off her neck and stood still as she could until the needle stopped again. Taking out his real compass, he noted that her device pointed to the west, on a bearing of 285 degrees.
“So, we’re on the right track,” Edward said. “Okay gentlemen. We have a compass bearing of 285 for our target. We’re on a deadline here, so let’s get a move on.”
The small party of explorers continued on, into the jungle — the pygmies’ jungle. The canopy became thicker if that was possible, and despite the time being 2 p.m. the light disappeared completely, so that each member of the team had to switch on their shoulder lights just to continue.
With the exception of Dr. Swan, all members of the team were grown men, not inclined to be afraid of the dark. And yet, even Edward, who at his age no longer feared death, felt it was a sign of the evil of the jungle itself.
He heard the splash first.
Followed by the loud German words, “Fick mich!”
Chapter Forty
It was the German member of their team and ex-GS9 Officer, who had fallen into the water below. Carrying his heavy equipment, the man sunk so that his head was below the water for a moment until he was able to pull himself back to the surface using a branch.