“Yes. The equation could be aligned precisely with his Century predictions.”
Sam asked, “Find the equation and you can see precisely when these events are going to occur?”
She said, “Exactly.”
“But you can’t change them?”
“Nostradamus believes they’re almost impossible to change. But when he follows the strings of time, he sees one continue. And that one is me. After I find the book of Nostradamus and apply the equation to it.”
“Right. But you have no idea where the Nostradamus Equation is?”
“Not a clue,” she confirmed.
“Yet, Nostradamus was certain you had already found it?” Sam said. “Or at least knew where it could be located?”
“Yes. He wrote it as though it were fact.”
“You said before that your father had told you about this prophecy since you were a little girl. Did he tell you anything else? Anything that could be used to find the equation?”
“No.”
Sam asked, “Nothing at all.”
“No.” She then smiled and remained silent for a moment. “I was given this stupid medallion.”
Sam looked at it. His fingers tracing the delicate inscriptions. “Could this be a map?”
“That’s ridiculous. You think Nostradamus left my great, great, I don’t know how many grandfathers a map so that I could one day work out the equation needed to complete his book of the future?”
“No. You're right — it’s ridiculous. Then again, it’s no more ridiculous than the fact that four hundred years ago he wrote you a letter and signed it with the date you found it?”
“My father thought it was a map.”
Sam examined the brass medallion under his blue light. On one side were ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. He turned it over. On the obverse side was the image of an island. It made the shape of a figure eight on its side. In mathematics, the shape meant infinity.
“Have you been to this island?”
“No.”
Sam asked, “Why not?”
Zara breathed in and then sighed. “Because it doesn’t exist. At least not on any map I can get my hands on.”
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Sam handed the medallion back to Zara after staring at it for a number of minutes. If the island existed, he had people on board the Maria Helena who would find it. At least that was one lead. Not much, but better than nothing. And until recently, they had nothing.
Tom approached. He carried one of the bags made from gazelle hides that contained the rough diamonds used to purchase weapons by the United Sovereign of Kongo. The bag had been opened since Sam had left it with the other two on the island. He smiled. “You’re not going to believe what I just found.”
Sam grinned. “I think the people we’re working for are going to want those diamonds back?”
“Not the diamonds. We both know those are intrinsically worthless. What I have will change something.”
“What did you find?”
Tom removed a small piece of paper. Nothing fancy. Just a piece of scrap paper, with the hastily written scrawl of a person unaccustomed to handwriting. “A note. Addressed to Mikhail.”
At the mention of Mikhail, Zara eyes widened, but she remained silent.
Sam took the piece of paper. “It’s important?”
“Just read it,” Tom said.
Sam nodded and started reading.
Dear Mikhail,
It was never about diamonds. General Ngige has discovered the largest lithium stores in the world. It’s being mined by an army of prisoners. Our estimates suggest at least five thousand prisoners are currently being forced to work deep inside. We are happy with the weapons, but won’t fight until our brothers are freed from the lithium mine. They have set it up so they can drown all of them if there’s a rebellion. Instead of acting as an incendiary, it has had the opposite effect. The news has spread amongst our supporters, many of whom have loved ones inside the mine, and now they want to calm the rebellion until the prisoners are freed.
I wish there was another way. Our movement doesn’t have anything more to trade. Even so, we ask for your assistance. The mine is below Lake Tumba. Now that you understand what this is all about, I hope you can see the extreme ramifications. General Ngige is being well funded by someone in Europe. Lithium is about to be the most valuable element on earth — and that means the Democratic Republic of Congo is about to become the most valuable piece of land. If you do nothing, you must understand that the world will be drawn into an everlasting land battle that will make oil appear inconsequential.
We need to find a way to free them before we can rebel.
Do that and the USK will take care of everything. Isolate us now, and the entire world will share our pain.
Sam stopped reading the note. It was left unsigned.
“That’s where they’re getting their funding from!” Sam said, looking up. “And that’s why General Ngige is winning. He’s being backed financially by someone else. The money is going to weapons and men. The free people of the DRC could never compete.”
Tom said, “The question is who’s funding them?”
Sam shrugged. “Who indeed?”
Zara said, “It could be the Saudis. You can’t build an electric car without lithium batteries. They would certainly have the motive and the means to fund the rebellion.”
“Alternatively, it could be any number of countries currently looking at building their own electric cars,” Sam said. “While we’re looking that way, there’s no reason you shouldn’t discuss the possibility companies already building electric cars are involved,” Tom said.
Zara asked, “Such as?”
“Tesla’s the first to come to mind. But Mercedes, BMW, Lexus all have their own electric and hybrid versions. They all have investments into the billions of dollars in electric cars.”
“And all of those investments are worthless if they can’t find enough lithium to power them.”
“Did you know there’s only one lithium mine in North America?
“That’s a hell of a motive to sponsor a warlord.”
“Someone needs to know. This changes everything. If the intelligence analysts back at home were able to process this information, I think the U.S. Department of Defense would be interested in doing a lot more than selling the USK ten million dollars worth of military hardware.”
Zara looked at him. “You think this could be precisely the watershed moment Nostradamus was predicting?”
Sam nodded. He still hadn’t bought everything she’d said about Nostradamus, but neither was he keen to overlook the greatest prediction the master seer had ever made concerning the future of the human race — especially when it coincided with their present circumstances. “Okay, I agree with you, but to do that we’re going to need to find a way out.”
“We might not have much time,” Tom said. “And I can’t see us finding another way out of here.”
Sam said, “I think I’ve made a decision about that.”
“What?” Tom and Zara asked in unison.
Sam powered down his DARPA suit to conserve energy. “We rest tonight and tomorrow morning we climb back up the well.”
“We’d never survive. It’s too soon. There will still be hundreds of Ngige’s mercenaries searching for us.”
“Sure,” Sam agreed. “But maybe we don’t need to kill all of them. Maybe we kill a few and take their satellite phone?”
“We could take them, one at a time by the well. Once we have a phone we’ll contact the Maria Helena and get retrieved.”