Atlantis Gold

Chapter 9

“Atlantis Rent-A-Car, isn’t that appropriate?” Jayden remarked as they walked up to a booth in the Ponta Delgada Airport. Officially part of Portugal but operating as its own autonomous province, the nine-island chain of the Azores are about a four-hour flight from Boston, but closer to twelve from Egypt.

“I guess it’s no secret that the Azores is one of the most commonly suggested final resting places for Atlantis,” Hunt said, stretching his legs after the long flight. “Not to mention the Portuguese government recognizes these islands as ‘the remains of Atlantis’. They say that the Azores are actually the mountain peaks of what used to be Atlantis, all the rest of which was flooded.”

“You rent the car,” Jayden said, “and I’ll get us espressos.”

“Deal.” Neither of them had slept much on the flight over. Both had read up on the Azores and the Atlantis myth, as well as making in-flight phone-calls to Maddy’s friends and associates to make sure they knew she’d been kidnapped and that the local authorities had been alerted, which they had. Still, there had been no sign of the archaeologist since she was forcibly dragged from her research tent. Nor had there been any word from Treasure, Inc., or any news stories about the dig site raid.

A few minutes later, a caffeinated Hunt sat behind the wheel of a rented Jeep Compass SUV, with Jayden in the passenger seat and the duffel containing the bronze head at his feet. “Motor’s so quiet I can barely tell its running,” Hunt quipped as he rolled off the lot onto the street.

“Good, you never know if we might need the element of surprise.” Jayden smiled as he took in the busy airport surroundings. They now drove through the hub of the Azores, but knew from their research that much of the island chain was idyllic and remote. He glanced at his smartphone’s navigation app. “Make a right up here and then we get on a highway for a while.”

“Copy that.” Hunt followed the directions and after he had merged onto the busy highway, lapsed into thought again. He was under no illusions that their mission was an easy one. In fact, it was all he could do to keep from letting on to Jayden that he thought they were likely on a wild goose chase. But at the same time, he could think of no other actionable alternatives.

“So we’re diving right into the heart of it, right?” Jayden said, referencing the most highly associated region of the Azores that their research told them was associated with Atlantis.

Hunt agreed. “Lagoon of the Seven Cities, here we come.” After a long drive during which Jayden made a couple of more unsuccessful attempts to track down information about Maddy’s whereabouts by phone, they turned off onto a smaller, single lane paved road that wound up a mountain. Traffic thinned, and the view grew more impressive with each passing mile.

Far below, two lakes came into view. They were nestled in the crater of a dormant volcano, with verdant mountains forming a high rim around them. One was larger and blue in color, while the other was smaller and greenish. They were connected by a thin river. Hunt parked the SUV and both men got out to have a look at the view.

“So I know this site is supposed to be one of the more popular sites for Atlantis, but there’s a legend associated with it. How does that go?”

Hunt replied while looking out across the lakes. “The story I read has it that in ancient times — don’t ask me exactly how long ago that was — a king lived here with his daughter. He loved her but was way over-protective, you know, like one of those modern-day Dads who answers the door holding a shotgun when he knows it’s his teen daughters’ date.”

Jayden laughed. “Yeah, I’ve met a few of those. Go on…”

“So he lived happily with her until, predictably enough, she became a teenager. Then she started to sneak out of the house…”

“Uh-oh, I see where you’re going with this…” Jayden stared down at the lakes from behind his Oakley sunglasses.

“Yeah, she started taking walks out into the woods surrounding the house, until one day she came across this dude playing the flute. She watched him for a while and before too long, she introduced herself and one thing led to another and before you know it they were dating.”

“Nature takes its course. But something tells me this isn’t a happily-ever-after story.”

“Well, after a while she couldn’t stand being exiled from her home anymore and thought that her father would understand, so she showed up at the front door with her new friend.”

“Uh-oh.”

“As you can probably guess, he wasn’t quite as understanding as she had hoped for, and even though the young man politely asked the king for his daughter’s hand in marriage, his reaction was to turn the boy away and forbid the two from seeing each other again.”

“Saw that coming a mile away.”

‘Right, so the girl snuck out one last time to say a final goodbye to her boyfriend.”

“Awwwww.”

“Yeah, they hugged and cried, and two lakes were formed from their tears.” Hunt pointed down at the two lakes. “One blue, because the princess’ eyes were blue, and one green because her lover’s eyes were green. The green lake is shallower, I guess because he didn’t cry as much as her.”

Jayden shook his head. “Wow. It makes so much sense. But tell me Hunt,” he said, turning to look at his friend. “How does any of that get us any closer to solving the mystery of Atlantis?”

“I’ve been thinking about that.” Hunt stroked the thin layer of black stubble on his face. “It has to do with the statue that our head came from. At least I hope it does.”

Jayden appeared lost in thought for a few moments before speaking. “So the statue was of a horse and rider, correct?”

“Right.”

“But when the Portuguese first got here, they tried to take it back to their king, but screwed up and broke it into a bunch of pieces…”

“Which is how we ended up with the head,” Hunt said.

Jayden looked around at the deep volcanic crater and the lakes below. “So even though the statue isn’t here anymore, where was it?”

“That’s exactly what I was hoping the old story would help us figure out. According to the accounts I read, the statue was on top of a mountain on this very island of San Miguel. Now, if the two lovers cried twin rivers of tears that ran downhill to form those two lakes, then they must have been up high to start out with, right?”

Jayden shrugged. “Makes sense.”

Hunt looked around in a circle. “I don’t see any higher points than where we’re at right now, do you?”

Jayden also had a look around before shaking his head. Hunt continued.

“So this must be it.”

Jayden furrowed his brow. “Where?”

“Right around here, somewhere. Let’s have a look around, shall we?”

“Jayden appeared dumbfounded. “What, you mean randomly just start looking around? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Hunt said, “We’re at the highest point of this crater. It might make sense that a statue — what would have been a prominent landmark for the time — would be placed as high up as possible for maximum visibility and impact. Plus, it goes with the fable.” Hunt could read the disbelief on Jayden’s face, so he added, “I don’t really expect to find anything after so much time has passed. But we’ve got a commanding view up here of the surrounding countryside. If Daedalus brings Maddy here — and we know she knows about this place — we’ll see them coming.”

That seemed to snap Jayden out of his funk. “Let’s get to work, then. You want to start on foot or by driving around real slow?”

“Let’s scour this area right here by foot first and take it from there. Hold on, I picked up something that might make our search go a little easier. It’s in the back of the SUV.” Hunt walked over to the vehicle and opened the tailgate. He pulled out two machines, each consisting of a plastic disc at the end of a metal pole with an electronic box and a handle grip at the other end, along with a pair of headphones attached by a coiled wire.

“Metal detectors, cool!” Jayden said.

“The statue was bronze, so…” Hunt explained. He also took out a couple of folding shovels and tossed one to Jayden. “In case we get a signal. Doesn’t look like there’s a lot of trash up here like bottlecaps and old cans and stuff, so we should have a nice clean search. Let’s make sure they work, though, by testing it on something metal.”

Jayden took out a set of keys but Hunt waved him down. “Actually, we should use something more like the metal we’re trying to find.” He looked to the SUV.

Jayden smiled. “Ah, like the head. Makes sense. I’ll get it.” He got the bronze head from the car and removed it from the bag. Then he set it down on the ground and passed his detector over it. “Yep, nice signal,” he confirmed to Hunt, who also came over with his device.

“So take a mental note of what it sounds like, but keep in mind that buried a couple feet down — that’s about the limit of these detectors — it’ll sound a little different. But we’ll probably dig up any signals we get anyway. Just wanted to take a baseline. Let’s do this.”

The two ex-navy men agreed on how to divide the area up into two sections; Hunt took one and Jayden took the other. They began walking back and forth in a grid pattern. They wore headphones to hear when the detector found a signal, so talk was kept to a minimum. Ten minutes of sweeping the detectors back and forth later and neither of them had received any kind of signal.

“Like I thought,” Hunt said, “it’s a clean area. Let’s keep searching.”

A few minutes later, Hunt paused when he heard the shrill beep in his ears. “Got something,” he said to Jayden, taking off his headphones. He put the business end of the shovel on the spot and began to dig. By the time Jayden walked over to see what he had found, a disappointed Hunt pulled an old Especial beer can out of the ground.

“Guess it’s not all that pristine after all,” Jayden said.

“Much better than when I tried this on Santa Monica Beach, back in the day.”

“I’ve been there. You probably dug up some of my old cans! Hey, maybe we should break for lunch,” Jayden suggested. “I saw a little seafood place down in town that looked pretty decent. Maybe we could—”

“Hold up. Somebody’s coming.” Hunt’s gaze was directed down at the single road which had led them up here. A vehicle of some kind was on its way up.

“Let’s put the gear away.” Hunt moved to the SUV and stashed his detector and shovel inside while Jayden did the same. Then he closed the hatchback and took out a point-and-shoot digital camera and began taking shots of the scenery. Jayden hammed it up, backing up against the view.

“Get a couple of shots for my Mom, would you? I am on vacation, after all.”

Hunt laughed while clicking off a couple shots as the vehicle — they could now see it was a station wagon-SUV hybrid — drove up to them. But as he watched, he saw Jayden’s face transform into a mask of fright.

“What’s wrong? Who are they? Is it Daedalus?”

“No. I mean, I don’t know who it is. But look!” He pointed past Hunt, who turned around and looked. There, lying on the ground, was the bronze head.

“Crap!” Hunt moved to it, but the SUV’s tires were already crunching over loose rock as it drove onto the site. There was no time to pick up the artifact and carry it back to their vehicle without being seen.

“Do something, Carter. They’re here.”

Hunt eyed the bronze head as it sat on the ground, about ten feet from the edge of the crater’s hill. Having a feeling he would regret the action, but not knowing what else to do, Hunt gave the heavy head a hard soccer kick, which sent it rolling toward the edge. It came to rest a couple of feet away.

“Keep going,” Jayden called, “I don’t think whoever it is paying attention yet.”

Hunt walked over to the head with as casual a gait as he could muster in case he was being observed. Then he booted the bronze head one more time, this time sending it rolling down the side of the crater. He did his best to take note of where exactly it had gone over the side, so that they could track it down after they were alone once more. At the same time, he didn’t want to attract suspicion or even interest by appearing overly fixated on one particular spot, so he didn’t linger long. Keeping the camera in front of his face, Hunt turned around and began ambling back over to Jayden.

“It’s a rental,” Jayden said in a low voice.

“Does that mean anything?” Hunt continued to make a show of snapping off touristy pictures.

“Only that it’s probably not a local.”

The vehicle pulled to a stop such that Hunt had his back to it and Jayden was eyes on. “Family of four, two kids in the backseat, I think we’re safe.”

The front doors opened and a tall man with a jovial demeanor got out along with a woman wearing a loud sundress. Both of them were sunburned a rosy pink. The woman told the kids to wait inside, no doubt to make sure these strangers atop the volcanic crater were not bad people.

Hunt put down the camera and he and Jayden walked over and introduced themselves with fake, though American-sounding, names. The couple introduced themselves as the Willinsons, from St. Louis, Missouri, and immediately put Hunt at ease that they were not related to Treasure, Inc. or Maddy’s disappearance. The mother opened the rear doors and soon the kids were running around the site, exploring loudly.

“So this is the highest point of the island, according to my travel guide,” the woman said, taking in the majestic view. Hunt said that’s why he and Jayden had come here, too.

“You can really see the difference between the green and blue lakes from up here,” the husband said. Then he added, “There’s the bridge, honey — see? — dividing the two lakes.”

“Bridge?” Hunt asked, squinting below.

The family man turned to him. “Yeah, there’s a bridge right between the two lakes. We drove across it earlier. Even down there you can see the difference in the water color, green on one side, blue on the other, Pretty striking. Can see clear down to the bottom, lot of big boulders down there, it looks like.”

Hunt and Jayden exchanged glances. “Interesting,” Hunt said, “maybe we’ll check that out.”

“You should,” the wife chimed in. “You’ll get some great pictures. Nice to meet you fellas, I’m going to set up for our little picnic.” She excused herself and went to her rental car. After a little more small talk that centered around the best places to eat what kind of food in town, the husband did the same and then Hunt and Jayden were left standing together, looking down on the legendary lakes.

“Looks like metal detecting is out until these guys leave. Should we check out the bridge?” Jayden asked.

“What for?” Hunt was irritated that their search was cut short, for one thing. And for another, the bronze head now lay somewhere down the mountainside.

“I don’t know, the guy said he could see boulders down there in the water, kind of reminds me of the flooded pyramid chamber we dove.”

Hunt thought about this for a few moments but appeared unmoved. “I think the first thing we should do, as soon as we have the chance,” he said, glancing over to the picnicking family, “is to climb down that hill and get the head back.”

The urge to walk to the edge and look down was difficult for Jayden to suppress, but Hunt convinced him to wait it out while they pretended to take more tourist pictures. The time seemed to pass very slowly, but not half an hour later, the family packed their belongings back into their rental car and said loud goodbyes before driving back down the mountain.

As soon as their vehicle was no longer in sight, Hunt and Jayden walked to the edge of the crater.