The Hunt For Atlantis

THIRTEEN

Nina hardly dared breathe.

The Indians closed in, treading silently over the moist earth. Ahead, Chase groaned. She could still hear Castille choking.

The nearest Indian was now barely ten feet away, a black-tipped spear held unwaveringly in his hand, poised to strike.

Nina glanced at Kari’s gun… then looked away. Instead, she very slowly slipped her pack off her back, opening the top flap.

“What are you doing?” hissed Philby. “Get the gun! They’re going to kill us!”

She ignored him, her eyes fixed on the man with the spear. Six feet away now. Another couple of steps and he would be able to impale her without the spear even leaving his hand.

Her fingers touched soft cloth wrapped around heavy metal. Still not taking her eyes off the Indian, she slipped the sextant arm out of the pack, letting the cloth fall away. Bowing her head in an unmistakable gesture of submission, she held up the orichalcum bar, offering it to him.

Silence.

She raised her eyes slightly, seeing the man’s feet now barely a yard away. Splayed toes, the analytical part of her mind noted pointlessly. If he was going to kill her, it would be within the next few seconds…

Instead, he excitedly shouted something, the language completely foreign. One of the other Indians replied, sounding puzzled. Languages varied, but emotional tones were a human constant anywhere in the world.

He snatched the bar from Nina’s hands. She flinched as the spear tip entered her field of vision, inches away. The Indians closed in and she was pulled roughly to her feet. At least twelve men now stood in a ragged circle around her. The other members of the group were likewise hauled upright. Kari gasped in pain, her eyes still unfocused, and di Salvo let out a strangled growl of agony as the Indians grabbed his injured arm.

They knew what guns were, Nina realized. Clearly they’d had enough contact with the outside world to recognize modern weapons. The rifles were quickly whisked away, and Chase and Castille were deprived of their sidearms before the bola cords around their heads were unwound.

“Nina! Kari!” Chase called. “Are you okay?” An Indian held the tip of an obsidian knife to his neck. Chase glowered at him, but fell silent.

“Kari’s hurt,” Nina said.

“No, I’m okay,” Kari told her woozily. “What happened?”

“I gave them the artifact.”

That brought Kari’s eyes back into focus, staring in disbelief at Nina. “What?”

“I think it saved our lives. Look.”

Kari followed her nod, seeing one of the Indians holding the sextant arm up to the light, examining it almost with reverence. The others looked on with similar astonishment, occasionally glancing suspiciously at their captives as they exchanged questions.

“Agnaldo,” Nina whispered. “Can you understand them?”

“Some of it,” di Salvo grunted, face tight with pain. “They know what it is, but… I don’t think any of them have ever seen it before.”

“Can you talk to them?”

“I can try.”

“Tell them… tell them we’re bringing it back to them,” Nina said. “Tell them we’ve brought it back to-to the city of the water god.”

Through his pain, di Salvo managed an incredulous look. “That might be hard to translate.”

“Just do it!” she ordered.

Both Kari and Chase gave her glances of mixed surprise and admiration as di Salvo followed her order and began talking haltingly. The Indians listened, still suspicious-and confused whenever the Brazilian lost something in translation-but they apparently got the message. The man holding the artifact said something back to di Salvo.

“What’d he say?” Nina asked.

“I think they’re going to take us to their village. Something about the tribal elders… I couldn’t make it all out.”

“They’re not going to kill us?” said Philby. “Oh thank God!”

“Yeah,” Nina told him grimly. “Too bad about Hamilton.” Philby’s face fell.

“I wouldn’t start celebrating just yet, Prof,” added Chase. “If these tribal elders don’t like us, we’re going to end up as the new ‘keep out’ signs on the river.”

After tying their prisoners’ hands behind their backs, the Indians led them deeper into the jungle.

“Can’t believe we got ambushed like that,” Chase said almost apologetically to Nina and Kari. “No way that would have happened if I’d still been in the SAS. God, I must be going daft.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Nina tried to reassure him. “This is where these people live. They know the terrain. And they’re obviously big on keeping out visitors.”

“That’s not the point! The SAS has never been successfully ambushed on jungle patrol.”

“None of us saw them, Edward,” said Castille, his voice still raspy from being choked.

“Yeah, but…”

“Eddie,” said Nina, “we’re still alive, that’s the main thing. If you’d started shooting, more of us might be dead. Maybe even all of us.”

“The day’s not over yet,” he reminded her.

The trail began to rise, a low hill cautiously peeking above the great flat expanse of the Amazon basin. Nina noticed more signs of human presence, other paths joining the one they were traveling, converging on one location.

The hill became steeper, the path zigzagging towards the top and the trees thinning out.

“My God,” Nina gasped as they reached the summit.

The hill was not tall, but it was high enough to give a spectacular view of what lay below. Greenery dominated the landscape, a branch of the river winding through it, but between the gaps in the trees she could make out the ruins of ancient buildings, the tumbledown remains of what must at one time have been an expansive settlement.

There was one building that was not in ruins, though. And she couldn’t take her eyes off it.

From the air it would be mostly shielded by the overhanging jungle, little more than a broken shadow. But from this angle Nina could see it clearly, a brooding, menacing structure. And huge, around sixty feet high, four hundred feet long and about half as wide.

No, she thought. It’s exactly half as wide.

She remembered a line from Critias: “Here was Poseidon’s own temple, which was a stadium in length and half a stadium in width, and of a proportionate height, having a strange barbaric appearance.” The dark stone structure before her certainly fitted the bill, the ancient Greeks considering “barbaric” just about anything that wasn’t Greek. If anything, to Nina it seemed more like an Incan or Mayan structure, large blocks of carved stone carefully slotted together with almost unnatural precision. Jagged spires rose from its corners, foliage entangled around them, further camouflaging its shape. The lower parts of the walls were stepped like a ziggurat, but the curve of the roof resembled something more modern, like an aircraft hangar.

She was looking at the Temple of Poseidon, god of the sea.

Or rather a replica of it, a copy. The original, according to Plato, had been sheathed in precious metals, whereas this was just raw stone, covered in moss and vines. It was also smaller, well short of the length of a Greek stadium, 607 feet.

Unless she had been right all along-and an Atlantean stadium was smaller than a Greek one. Which would make a profound difference to the search for the island’s location…

Nina didn’t have a chance to think any further on the subject, the Indians driving them down the slope. She could now see that while the city was in ruins, it hadn’t been abandoned. At the nearest end of the temple was a village of wood and stone huts. She counted fifteen of the circular structures. Either the tribe was spread out in more than one location, or their numbers were very small. It didn’t seem likely that there could be many more than a hundred people.

The group was led into the village, the face of the temple looming over everything. Other Indians-young and old men, women, children-emerged from the huts to watch them pass, suspicion clear in their dark eyes. Near the base of the temple wall was a hut larger than any of the others.

“They’re calling for the elders,” said di Salvo, listening to the Indians’ excited chatter. The animal skin covering the hut door was pulled aside, and three men emerged. Ancient, faces wrinkled beneath headbands adorned with feathers, but still strong and vital.

“Amazing,” Kari whispered, more to herself than to Nina. “The genetics… With a population this small and this isolated, inbreeding would normally have caused clear genetic abnormalities by now. But there’s no sign of it in any of these people. A superior genome… I’d love to get a DNA sample for the foundation to analyze.”

“Let’s convince them not to stick us on spikes before we ask if we can drain their blood, eh?” said Chase.

The Indians prodded the group into a ragged line before the elders, who regarded them with cold scorn as they listened to the leader of the hunting party. Their expressions changed as the hunter produced the Atlantean artifact. Awe… mixed with anger.

One of the elders asked a sharp question, the hunter pointing at Nina. The elder advanced on her, scowling as he examined her face closely. She tried not to show the fear racing through her body. After an agonizing moment, he made a slightly dismissive sound and turned his attention to Kari. His stern expression became more like fascination as he stared into her blue eyes, then reached up to touch her blond hair. She raised an eyebrow, but submitted.

Then he turned back to Nina, asking something. She glanced helplessly at di Salvo.

“He’s asking about the artifact,” di Salvo told her. “I think he wants to know where you found it.”

“You think?” Nina said, her voice rising a couple of octaves. “If I say the wrong thing, he might kill me!”

“Just tell him what you know! I’ll do the best I can to translate. The dialect’s similar to those of tribes from much farther north.”

“Similar’s not the same as identical!” Nina pointed out. The elder was still watching her coldly. “Okay, okay! Tell him we took it from a thief in another land, that we followed the map on it to return it to its people.”

Di Salvo began the translation. “You sure it’s from here?” Chase asked quietly.

“It has to be. They know what it is.”

The elder spoke again, di Salvo listening intently before translating. “He says it was stolen by white men in the time of his great-grandfather. They punished some of the white men, but the others escaped.”

“The Nazi expedition,” said Kari. “It must be.”

Chase grimaced. “Sharp stick up the arse-now that’s punishment.”

Di Salvo looked confused. “Now he’s asking about… I don’t understand it. He wants to know if Ms. Frost is one of… the old ones?”

Kari and Nina exchanged glances. “Ask him what he means,” said Nina.

“The old ones who built the temple,” di Salvo translated. “He says they had hair like… white gold.”

“Tell them that’s why we came here,” Kari said, authority returning to her voice. “To find out.”

“You sure that’s a good idea?” Chase muttered. “If they think you’re lying, you’ll be the first one on the pole!”

The elder spoke again, his two companions joining in with additional declarations. Di Salvo struggled to keep up. “They’re saying that the artifact-they call it the ‘pointing finger’-must be returned to its home in the temple. They want you to do it, Ms. Frost.”

“Me?” Kari chewed her lip.

“He says that putting it back will prove if you’re really one of the old ones-no, a child of the old ones.”

“And what happens if she’s not?” Nina asked.

Chase made an aggrieved noise, tipping his head to indicate the sharp weapons still aimed at them. “Come on, Doc. Keep up.”

“Oh…”

Di Salvo continued. “They want you to go into the temple and face… three challenges. The Challenge of Strength, the Challenge of Skill and the Challenge of… of Mind, I think.”

Nina gave him a frozen grin. “Again! Thinking not the same as knowing!”

“If you beat the challenges, you will have proved yourself worthy to enter the temple. If you lose…” Di Salvo pursed his lips. “What Eddie just said. For all of us.”

Chase winced. “Anyone else just pucker?”

Kari took a deep breath. “Tell them I accept the challenge.”

“You do what?” Nina yelped.

“Really?” asked di Salvo, shocked.

“Yes. But tell them that I want my friends to come with me.” She indicated Chase and Nina.

“Oh, bollocks,” said Chase as di Salvo relayed her request.

“Are you insane?” Nina hissed.

“You’ll be safer in there than out here,” Kari said. “At least we have a chance inside the temple. And I can’t read their language-I suspect I’m going to need someone who can, and I don’t think Professor Philby is quite up to the challenges.”

For a moment, offense almost overcame fear on Philby’s face. “Well actually, I think that-”

The elder interrupted him, one of the hunters giving him a warning jab in the back. Di Salvo continued to translate. “He says yes,” he said, surprised. “The challenges are for two people. Because you’re a woman, he’ll let you have more help.”

Kari nodded. “Hmm. I never thought I’d say this, but thank God for sexism.”

“You have until nightfall. If you haven’t returned by then, the others will be…” di Salvo paled, “put to death. And so will you, if you emerge.”

Castille looked up at the sky. “Sunset is only an hour away. Maybe even less.”

“In that case,” said Kari, giving the elder an imperious look, “we’d better get started, hadn’t we? Tell him to cut us free so we can go. And ask him what we can take with us.” She looked over at the team’s packs, which had been dumped in a pile nearby.

“Explosives, ropes, a crowbar or two…” Chase suggested quietly.

The hunters untied their wrists. “He says all you can take in with you are your clothes, and torches,” di Salvo told them. “That’s all you’ll need if you’re worthy of the challenge.”

“I think this is a bad idea,” Nina told Kari, rubbing her stiff arms.

“Then help me make the best of it,” Kari replied.

“How are you staying so damn calm?”

“I’m not. I’m absolutely terrified. But I’m not going to show it in front of these people. And nor should you.” Kari took Nina by the shoulders. “I know you can do this, Nina. Trust me.”

Despite her growing fear, Nina felt oddly buoyed by Kari’s faith. “Okay, I do. But if we get killed-”

“We won’t.”

Nina let out a nervous laugh. “Promise?”

Kari nodded. “Promise.”

“Sunset’s in fifty-eight minutes,” said Chase, checking his watch. “So if you’re done with all the female bonding chick flick stuff, you need to be thinking more Tomb Raider-y.” One of the tribesmen emerged from a hut, carrying several long sticks with their ends dipped in what looked like tar. “Torches, eh? I think we can do better than that.” Raising both hands, Chase looked questioningly at the rucksacks, very slowly sidling towards them. All around him, bowstrings creaked as the hunters took aim. “Okay, just me being harmless, see, big friendly smile…”

Sweating, and not just from the heat, he reached the rucksacks. Acutely aware that one wrong move would bring about a rapid and extremely painful death, he gently slid an LED torch out of his pack. “See? Not a gun. Just a torch. Which is in your rules, right? Agnaldo, remind ’em that it’s in their rules?” He switched on the torch and shone it first at himself to show what it did, then at the hunters around him. Some of them jumped back in surprise, blinking at the bright light-but to his intense relief, none of them released their arrows. One of the men stepped forward and waved his hand back and forth over the lens, amazed that it gave off no heat. He said something to the elders, who considered it before giving di Salvo a reply.

“They’ll let you use it,” di Salvo told Chase.

“Good. Now, about those explosives…”

“We’re running out of time,” Kari said. She strode forward to the elders and held out one hand. Slightly taken aback, he placed the metal bar in her palm. “Okay. Nina, Mr. Chase, let’s go.”

“See you soon,” said Castille as the trio was guided to the entrance. “Please?”

The dark passageway was under six feet high. Nina and Chase could fit in it easily, but the top of Kari’s head barely cleared the ceiling, forcing her to duck under clumps of overhanging moss and creepers. The temperature and humidity dropped rapidly as they progressed.

Nina saw something on one wall as Chase swept his flashlight back and forth. “Eddie, hold it. Give me some light here.”

The beam revealed a long line of symbols carved into the stone. Familiar symbols.

“It’s the same language as on the artifact,” Nina confirmed. “It reads like… I think it’s an account of the building of the temple.” She leaned closer. Among the Glozel and Olmec characters was something new: groups of lines and chevrons. “I think they’re numbers. Could be dates, or maybe-”

“Nina, I’m sorry, but we don’t have time,” Kari reminded her. “They’ll have to wait until we get back.” Disappointed, Nina followed her and Chase down the passage.

About thirty feet in, they reached a left turn. Chase flicked the flashlight beam suspiciously around the walls and ceiling.

“Mr. Chase, what’s wrong?” Kari asked.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m getting a bad vibe from this whole ‘three challenges’ thing,” he said. “I just want to check that we’re not going to walk into any traps.”

“Eddie,” Nina sighed, “I already told you that even if there were any, they would have stopped working centuries ago.”

“Yeah?” Chase directed the beam back towards the entrance. “What if our feathered friends out there’ve been fixing them? Wouldn’t be much of a challenge otherwise, would it?”

“Oh.” Nina’s stomach clenched with the realization that he could well be right. “Then… let’s be careful.”

The passage seemed safe, so they set off again. Another turn soon presented itself.

“Challenge of Strength, you reckon?” Chase asked as they paused at the entrance to a small chamber.

It was only slightly wider than the passageway, about eight feet to a side. Against the right wall was a rectangular stone block running across the chamber at roughly knee height, like a bench. At its foot was another passage, little more than four feet wide. Above the head of the bench, disappearing through a slot in the wall, was a thick branch bound tightly in vines, a smaller branch attached to its end to form a T shape. Apart from that, the chamber was empty.

Chase held up a hand for the two women to stay back as he cautiously advanced. He shone the light down the narrow passage.

“What do you see?” Kari asked.

“Little obstacle course. The passage’s about twenty feet long, but there’s poles coming down from the ceiling, so you have to twist between ’em.” He made a face. “Poles with spikes on. Guess they’re not for dancing.”

“What about the wooden thing?” Nina asked, indicating the bench.

“That? There’s stuff like that at my gym!” Chase nodded for them to come in, then straddled the bench, lying on his back under the bar. “I guess you lift it as if you’re doing a bench press, and if you’re strong enough, it opens an exit.” He realized there was an indentation in the ceiling directly above matching the size and shape of the bench, but couldn’t see any reason for it.

Kari took the flashlight, aiming it down the confined passage. It seemed to be a dead end-but there was something on the far wall, a square hole. “Or one person has to hold the weight up while the other goes down there and triggers the release. The elder said two people were needed to perform the challenges.”

“So why not just go down to the other end before anyone lifts the weight?” Nina suggested.

“’Cause that’d be way too easy.” Chase reached up and experimentally raised the bar. It moved easily for a couple of inches before encountering resistance. “So what do we do? Do I lift this and see what happens, or…”

Kari peered down the passage again. “We have to go down here anyway, so it might be a good idea to get to the other end first… What do you think, Nina?”

“Me?” Nina nervously regarded the two-inch barbs protruding from the maze of metal poles. There was enough room between them for even Chase to fit, but they would all find it tricky to avoid the spikes. She looked up, to see that each pole disappeared into a hole in the ceiling about five inches across. Oddly, the holes in the floor fitted them far more precisely. “I have absolutely no idea.”

“Fifty-three minutes, Doc,” said Chase, holding up his watch arm.

Hating being put on the spot, Nina looked to the end of the passage. The recess in the wall was big enough to reach inside; maybe it contained a lever to open a door. “Okay, well then… we’ll go to the other end. Once we get there, you lift the bar and we’ll see what happens.”

“Right. And Nina?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t get scratched. You neither, boss. Tetanus shots are a right pain.”

“We’ll try,” said Nina, almost smiling.

Kari went first, turning sideways and effortlessly slinking between the poles. Nina followed her more awkwardly. Without exchanging words, they fell into a routine: Kari lit the way and advanced a few steps, then switched the light to her other hand so that Nina could see as she followed.

“Keep talking,” Chase said. “Let me know how far you’ve got.”

“There’s about four meters to go,” Kari called out as she stepped forward. “I still don’t see an exit, but I think the recess-”

Clunk.

Something shifted under her foot.

“What was that?” Nina gulped. Dust trickled down through the gaps between the blocks. “Oh crap.”

“Move!” Kari shouted, grabbing Nina’s wrist and pulling her down the passage between the spiked poles as the entire ceiling started to descend with a horrific grinding sound, the individual blocks lowering in unison.

Even in the dim light, Chase saw the ceiling drop towards him too-as a door slammed shut, sealing the entrance. Now he realized the purpose of the indentation above the stone bench-it allowed the entire ceiling to descend all the way to the floor, leaving nowhere for anybody to hide-

No way to escape being crushed!