Lyman Scott nodded to himself. “I came into office committed to peace at any cost. That much hasn’t changed. What you say makes sense, Mr. McCracken. Something like Atragon, well, I’m not sure we could allow the Soviets to possess it either. If I agree to carry out your request, you’ll agree to sit on everything you’ve got, correct?”
“Absolutely. So long as you get what I need to Miami within twenty-four hours.”
“Twenty-four hours? Impossi—”
“I’m feeling generous today. Make it twenty-five.”
The navy ship docked in Biscayne Bay at the Port of Miami at noon the next day. Blaine had spent most of the morning watching a few cruise liners come in and out, overcome by their size but equally impressed by the small tugs which nudged and maneuvered their vast bulks at will. He leaned over the railing to support his battered frame. The pain was bad today, and he did his best to hide his many bandages from passersby, just wanting to be left alone.
He looked up to find Natalya by his side, looking solemn and somber.
“They tell you what this was about?” Blaine asked her.
“They told me. And they must have told you about Zurich.”
“Yup.”
“Then you must believe in the myth when it comes to the origin of those crystals. How else can you account for what happened in Raskowski’s command vault?”
“I leave the accounting to the scientists.”
“And let them explain things for which there is no explanation? No, with what you’ve convinced your government to do, you must believe!”
“In Atlantis you mean? Haven’t really thought about it much. I only know that those crystals Vasquez discovered and Raskowski almost blew up the world with are better buried forever.”
“The same lesson the Lost Continent — and Raskowski — learned. Both too late.”
“Maybe so,” Blaine conceded. “And I’ve learned a few things lately as well, like how to see the truth. I’ve been at this for fifteen years, and all I’ve seen are the lies. They’re everywhere around me and for all that time I mistook plenty of them for the truth. I haven’t helped the world out of its hopeless lot; I’ve just added to it by accepting other people’s truths, their myths, so maybe I’m the wrong person to speak with on the subject.”
Natalya shrugged. “I think we have fooled ourselves more than we have allowed ourselves to be fooled. So full are we with ideals and beliefs that helped us accomplish the impossible. Our governments turned to us because we were more than good; we were willing. And when we aren’t willing anymore, they have come to know us so well that it is not hard for them to make us willing again. My father, your romantic nature — if not these, there would be others.”
There was a pause when both of them turned their attention to the speedboats splashing through Biscayne Bay.
“What will you do now?” Blaine asked finally.
“Finally I have enough on them to get my father out,” she replied. “Only I will have to accept the fact that I too will never be able to return.”
“Does that bother you?”
“All my work these long years would be futile if it didn’t.” The pain was evident in her voice. “And what about you, Blaine McCracken?”
“I’m thinking about finding an island where no one else has ever been and staking a claim for a while.”
“Could be dangerous,” Natalya told him. “Much safer to explore in pairs.”
“That sounds like the truth to me,” Blaine smiled.
Epilogue
The bomb was small enough to be easily maneuverable underwater. The only problem arose when the navy ship proved too large to tempt the reefs, and the cylindrical device had to be loaded onto a motorboat and transported the last half mile to the coast of the nameless Bimini island. Another boat was required to get all the necessary equipment and personnel to the site. A third went along just in case either of these failed at some point during the journey.
The placing of the nuclear charge was totally according to McCracken’s specifications. He had drawn them a detailed map of the ocean floor and was careful to include all the wrecks he could recall from his dive. They had made good time from Miami, and the weather had cooperated brilliantly.
Blaine stood by Natalya on the deck, both of them watching the motorboats negotiate the reefs and reach their destination safely. It was up to the divers now, who surfaced forty minutes later flashing the thumbs-up sign. They returned to the ship at top speed, the weather still good and nothing to impede their dash for safety. The timing device had been set for six hours — more man enough time to be far out of range of the blast’s effects. The coming nuclear explosion would be extremely minor, but the consequences to immediate and surrounding waters nonetheless promised to be severe.
As it turned out, six hours later their ship was too far away from what Blaine had termed “Water Zero” to feel anything at all. No one, in fact, would know if they had been successful until divers returned to check the area several months later, when the radioactivity had dissipated entirely.
They could not see, then, the huge swell of water which blasted into the air and totally drenched the lost island of the Biminis, submerging a great portion of it. Some of this water was superheated and a steam cloud rose into the air, looking like a fog bank in search of a ship to strand on the now-ruptured reef.
It was near the ocean floor itself, though, where the greatest effects were felt. The explosion created a fissure in the very top layer of the Earth, which opened to swallow the graveyard of ships above it and seal the secrets of the sea forever.
A Biography of Jon Land
Since his first book was published in 1983, Jon Land has written twenty-eight novels, seventeen of which have appeared on national bestseller lists. He wrote techno thrillers before Tom Clancy put them in vogue, and his strong prose, easy characterization, and commitment to technical accuracy have made him a pillar of the genre.
Land spent his college years at Brown University, where he convinced the faculty to let him attempt writing a thriller as his senior honors thesis. Four years later, his first novel, The Doomsday Spiral, appeared in print. In the last years of the Cold War, he found a place writing chilling portrayals of threats to the United States, and of the men and women who operated undercover and outside the law to maintain our security. His most successful of those novels were the nine starring Blaine McCracken, a rogue CIA agent and former Green Beret with the skills of James Bond but none of the Englishman’s tact.
In 1998 Land published the first novel in his Ben and Danielle series, comprised of fast-paced thrillers whose heroes, a Detroit cop and an Israeli detective, work together to protect the Holy Land, falling in love in the process. He has written seven of these so far. The most recent, The Last Prophecy, was released in 2004.
Recently, RT Book Reviews gave Land a special prize for pioneering genre fiction, and his short story “Killing Time” was shortlisted for the 2010 Dagger Award for best short fiction. Land is currently writing his fourth novel to feature Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong — a female hero in a genre which, Land has said, has too few of them. The first three books in the series—Strong Enough to Die (2009), Strong Justice (2010), and Strong at the Break (2011) — have all garnered critical praise with Strong Justice being named a Top Thriller of the Year by Library Journal and runner-up for Best Novel of the Year by the New England Book Festival. His first nonfiction book, Betrayal, tells the story of a deputy FBI chief attempting to bring down Boston crime lord Whitey Bulger, and will be released in 2011.