Just a niggling. A voice in my head. The first sign of madness?
How did the Pythians locate the fossil and the tablets so easily?
The absence of an answer worried her. She swallowed more pain killers and joined the team for an early morning round of black coffees. Karin sat nursing Komodo’s injured knee. Kinimaka sat alone, cradling his ribs as Smyth rolled the kinks from his own shoulders.
“Took a few whacks?” Hayden sat opposite the big Hawaiian.
“More than a few. Think I said aloha to my spleen.”
“Those Irish boys take no prisoners.”
“They’ll die the same way.”
Hayden pretended not to have heard that last remark. Instead, she swung her body around, keeping her head as still as possible, to regard Karin.
“Any news from Daccus?”
“No. But I also have the warden from Steel Mountain going through every inch of his records. We have to believe the Americans at one time translated these symbols. Otherwise why would they be in Taiwan?”
“Ya think the translation might be in the archives?”
“Why not? It sure makes sense.”
Kinimaka now turned around. “I never heard of the lost continent of Mu,” he said. “What exactly is it?”
Karin nodded. “Me too. So, I did a little extra research whilst you guys were away. Older than the ancient Greeks, the Babylonians, Persians and Egyptians, the civilization of Mu was far more advanced than any of them. It existed fifty thousand years ago and had inhabitants that migrated to the places I mentioned, taking their expertise and legends with them. The tablets themselves confirm the creation of the earth and then humans, who originated in Mu.”
“So it’s the birthplace of humanity,” Kinimaka said. “If it ever existed. A place quite important then.”
Karin laughed. “To say the least. It was also said to be the location of the Drug of Immortality. Don’t smile, Mano. As we already know most modern day academics don’t go seeking controversy such as lost continents and inexplicable relics for fear of losing credibility among their peers and ultimately their whole careers. But searching through the histories of both China and Taiwan I have read innumerable accounts of sea voyages to discover this lost kingdom. The Ling Wai Tai Ta text tells of a great bank of sand and rocks in the Great Eastern Ocean and states that ‘a great castle of red walls lies somewhere submerged beneath the sea’. Then, in 1981 a diver found the battlements of what appeared to be castle walls in the Straits. This is right below where the USS Queenfish found its notoriety. Coincidence?”
“A strong one,” Hayden admitted.
“Anyway, amazingly this story of castle walls received absolutely no attention in the west, despite a British Channel 4 TV series. The structure he found consists of two colossal walls, running hundreds of meters in length; these ruins lie in a place that would have been above sea level during the last glacial period about ten thousand years ago. Now, both Taiwan and China have ancient flood myths, so which country would claim Mu?”
Hayden swirled her coffee, staring into the black liquid. “They both would.”
At that moment her phone rang. She stared at the screen, still lost in thought, and saw the name of the warden at Steel Mountain flashing up. “Hayden Jaye here.”
“Hi, it’s Carl Preston, the warden. I haven’t discovered anything pertaining to the translation of the tablets yet but I wanted to apprise you of something nasty that we have found.”
Hayden put her cup down. “What is it?”
“If you remember rubbings were made of the tablets. Old rubbings made by William Niven himself and his colleagues. Though some were later found and released to the world at large, most ended up here, one way or another, inside these archives.”
“Out of sight out of mind,” Hayden said. “I get it.”
“Yes, well, all the rubbings are missing. And not taken by these Irishmen of yours. Camera footage shows a blackout about a week ago. We believe that is when they went missing.”
“Any suspects?”
“Yes, a prominent member of our security team who suddenly quit a few days ago. He’s missing too.”
Hayden hung her head. “All right. Send me his details. We’ll start an inquiry at this end.” She ended the call and looked around. “Any ideas?”
“Could still be the Pythians,” Karin said with a shrewd look. “First they went simple — tried the rubbings. When they didn’t pan out they took the tablets themselves. Didn’t someone say the rubbings weren’t accurate?”
“The guard was working for the Pythians?” Kinimaka repeated. “Possibly then he was paid off. Relocated.”
“Or buried,” Komodo growled.
“Don’t forget the Peking Man fossil,” Smyth added. “How is that involved in all this?”
Hayden shook her head. “Shit, my brain hurts. Getting blown up has done nothing for my cognitive process. I’m actually thinking Drake’s got it easy right now, over there in Japan. All he has to do is break Mai out of a compound, right?”
Kinimaka nodded gloomily. “Right.”
“So let’s find Mu,” Karin said. “Obviously it’s critical. Let’s find the Lost Kingdom.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Drake paced the carpet as he waited for Dai Hibiki to join them. Alicia, Dahl and Yorgi sat in various states of repose, clearing their minds. Grace nibbled on snacks she’d taken from the mini-bar. They expected this operation to take the form of a swift, clandestine, well-executed strike of the dagger — in and out before the Yakuza knew it, leaving them reeling and none-the-wiser. The team needed to be prepared.
The knock at the hotel door made them all take offensive positions. Drake put his eye to the peep-hole and waved them down. “Only Hibiki.”
The Japanese cop entered the room, a resigned expression vying with the weariness already engraved into his face. Without smile or greetings he walked to the center of the room. “Mai wasn’t taken to the Yakuza compound. She was taken straight to their headquarters in Kobe. That explains why we’ve been seeing all these arrivals and no guests physically arriving on site. This HQ,” he shook his head, “it is virtually impregnable.”
“If we have to we’ll use sheer firepower to break her out,” Drake vowed. “Headquarters or not.”
Hibiki sighed. “I truly wish it were that simple. I’ve been wracking my brains for a suitable plan ever since I heard. Their HQ is huge, ultra-modern, almost a skyscraper. The very first and least of your problems would be locating her. After that, well, how do you infiltrate a heavily guarded, ultra-secure, modern building? There is no parking garage. No windows or roof that you can access without setting off a hundred sensors. No grounds. No pliable security guards or staff. The place is run purely by hardline Yakuza. It is… a fortress.”
“Calm down, Dai-Dai.” Alicia rose quickly, a sickened look on her face. “What the hell’s wrong with you? I never took you for a bitchin’ pussy. Got your thong on back to front?”
Drake stared at him. “Bitch has a point.”
“Damn right she does.” Dahl rose too.
Alicia glared at them both. “Hey.”
Hibiki stared from one set of hard eyes to the other. “I’m open to any suggestions, my friends.”
Alicia started counting on her fingers.
Drake screwed his face up. “What are you doing, love? Counting Yakuza?”