Atlantis: Bermuda Triangle

EPILOGUE

Dane stood on the platform that ringed the top of the derrick, looking out past the Glomar to the open sea. There was a slight breeze and the water was calm. The sun was coming up in the east, a glowing orange ball on the horizon, foretelling good weather for the day.

He heard someone coming up the metal stairs, but he didn’t turn. He had sensed Ariana’s presence coming up the stairs long before he heard her arrival. A new crew had been flown in by the navy the previous day and pulled up Deeplab and the docked Deepflight. There was no sign of the original crew of the Glomar except for numerous blood trails, mainly centered around the well-pool. More casualties to add to a list that was approaching a half-million, Dane thought. Iceland was now only a dozen or so active volcanoes poking above the surface of the North Atlantic. Puerto Rico was still trying to clean up the damage from the tsunamis. The sub pens at Groton were hot and a large evacuation had taken place for miles all around. The Seawolf was gone, with no trace of the wreckage although the navy was still looking for both it and the remains of the Wyoming.

“Foreman wants us back in Washington,” Ariana said. “He says Nagoya has some interesting hypotheses about the nature of the gates he wants us to look at.”

“Can he keep them closed forever?” Dane asked.

“I don’t know. From what Foreman said- and he was being very guarded- Nagoya has an idea how the gates work.”

Dane didn’t turn. “Where are all the people?”

“What people?”

“From the ships and planes we saw in the graveyard? From Deeplab?”

“On the other side,” Ariana said.

“And what does that mean?” Dane asked.

“We’ll have to go to Washington to see what Nagoya and Foreman have come up with,” Ariana said.

Dane shook his head. “The answer isn’t in Washington. And this isn’t over. All we did was repeat history. We shut the gates but they’ll open up again. Next time, maybe we need to open the gates and take the war to the other side.”

Ariana placed a hand on Dane’s shoulder. They stayed like that for a minute before she turned to go. “I’ll meet you at the helipad with Chelsea.”

Dane heard her go down the stairs. He stared out over the ocean, but what he was really seeing was the tall Viking warrior standing in the prow of his ship, a large ax in his hand. He remembered the message etched into the side of the Scorpion.

“You will be revenged,” Dane whispered, before following Ariana.