Atlantis Gold

Chapter 6

Madison’s laughter echoed around the research tent. “Atlantis? How many beers have you had?”

Jayden shrugged. “It fits the myth. That’s all I’m saying.”

Hunt held up a finger. “Let’s forget about Atlantis for a second, and look at what we know.” He pointed to the bronze head. “That piece, recovered from a flooded chamber that was recently discovered in this pyramid, is about eleven thousand years old.”

Maddy nodded, picking up the thread. She pointed to the laptop screen. “And, it’s possible that this is the missing head from a full body statue of rider and horse that was in the Azores, pointing west, when the Portuguese first discovered it.”

“With an inscription reading ‘go that way’,” Jayden added.

Maddy thought about this before replying. “Let’s see what’s west of the Azores…” She brought up a world map on laptop’s web browser. “Across the Atlantic Ocean from the Azores, the next major island group we come to is the Bahamas.”

“So,” Hunt said, sipping from his beer, “pretending for a second that one believed in the Atlantis myth — a myth that was started by Plato in ancient Greece, does the inscription suppose that the Portuguese, or whoever was to get there first, was looking for the lost city?”

“I’d say it does,” Madison said, and Jayden nodded his agreement.

“So if we visited the Azores,” Hunt continued, we could try to find the site of the statue and see if we come across additional clues there. Or, we follow the pointing statue directly to the Bahamas, where—”

The sound of nearby gunfire drowned out the rest of Hunt’s words. Instantly, he and Jayden dropped to the ground, and Hunt swept an arm out to grab Maddy’s ankle, reminding her to get low also. They heard shouts coming from not too far away, although the words were indistinguishable over the gunfire. Hunt turned his face sideways to the ground and looked over at Maddy. Her eyes were wide with fear.

“Does this mean anything to you? Local police, maybe?”

“No. I’ve been on dozens of digs here over the years, and I’ve never had gunfire.”

“Then we better get ready.” Hunt moved to the tent entrance and zipped it shut. He looked at Jayden. Neither of them carried firearms. He addressed Maddy. “Do you have any guns?”

She laughed and shook her head. “Guns on an archaeology expedition?”

Hunt shrugged. “You’re a female working in some remote locations. They’d come in handy now, that’s for sure.”

“It would make the permitting that much more difficult…” While she elaborated, Jayden moved to the bronze head they’d already risked their lives for. He placed a hand on it where it rested on the table.

“What if they’re coming for this?”

Maddy stopped talking and eyed the artifact.

“Hide it,” Hunt suggested.

“Where?” Jayden looked around the research tent as the sound of gunfire and shouting drew nearer. Maddy pointed to a small wheeled cart used for hauling dig equipment. “We can hide it in there, I guess. Help me clear it out.” She and Jayden ran to the cart while Hunt roved rapidly around the tent.

“Where are your tools? Hammers, prybars, anything like that?”

Maddy pointed through the walls of the tent. “That stuff is in a different tent, or just outside laying around if it’s being used.”

“I guess we’ll just have to improvise.” Hunt stopped at a pile of computer cables and picked through some of them. He quickly unraveled a few of them and selected one. By the time Maddy and Jayden had emptied out the cart, Hunt had wrapped one end of the cable around a support pole at the tent’s entrance. By the time the statue head had been placed in the cart, Hunt had the other end of the cable tied to a pole on the opposite side of the doorway, about a foot off the ground, just inside the flap.

More gunfire erupted and a wall of sand sprayed against the wall of the tent. Hunt backed up and waved Jayden and Maddy to the middle of the space where they knelt among stacks of gear crates. As they hid, Hunt picked up a battery backup unit used to temporarily power the computers in the event the generator lost power. Wordlessly, he hefted it and practiced the motion he would used to throw it as a deadly missile should it come to that. Jayden also rooted through a crate and came up with another unit with which to do the same.

But then the gun blasts ceased and they heard a voice, in English, speaking through a megaphone. “Everyone outside lay down on the ground. Now! Anyone inside the tents: come out now with your hands up. Anyone found inside a tent will be shot on sight.” To prove the statement was not an empty threat, a burst of automatic weapons fire shredded through the upper part of the research tent, opening it to the dry air and bright blue sky.

The megaphone voice boomed again. “You there, slowly get up and begin piling all recovered artifacts on the ground right here. Go! Go now!”

A sharp exhalation escaped Maddy’s mouth as she made eye contact with Hunt, who made a placating gesture with his hands. Stay put. But inwardly, Hunt was worried. He’d seen plenty of artifact theft, especially in Iraq during his service for Operation Bulldog Mammoth, but that was more like looting unattended valuables, not an armed robbery like this. It bothered him because it reminded him of something.

Outside, the amplified voice came again. “This cannot be everything. If you are lying to us you will pay the ultimate price!”

All eyes in the research tent went to the wheeled cart that now contained the bronze head. “That’s what they really want,” Hunt said.

“How do you know?” Maddy whispered back.

“They had divers in the flooded room. They somehow knew there was a flooded chamber there. They’ve done their homework on this site enough to know to bring dive gear. It stands to reason they also looked into whatever it is that might be down there.” Hunt glanced to the cart concealing the bronze head.

Suddenly they heard footsteps approach the tent. Two voice began talking just outside, not through a megaphone but in private conversation. “They say that is everything, yet it is not there.”

Another voice, this one lower and gruffer than the first, responded. “Then we must search the tents.”

A pause, and then: “There are many, it will take time.”

“We have waited eleven thousand years already. What is a few more hours? Tell the men to turn each tent inside out. Orders are to kill anyone hiding inside.”

“Yes, sir!”

The sound of booted feet tromping across the sand away from the research tent indicated that the conversation was over.

Hunt turned to Maddy and whispered. “I suppose there’s no trap door in this tent that leads into the pyramid, is there?” She smiled but shook her head. “Sorry, it’s just a tent over the sand.”

Jayden’s eyes lit up. “Over the sand. Quick, find me something to dig with.” Although not like fine beach sand, the ground beneath their feet was soft and crumbly, essentially hard-packed sand.

Maddy’s reply was urgent. “Like I said, all the digging tools are in another tent. This one just has computers and electronics.”

“We’ll have to improvise.” Hunt began looking around. Seeing nothing obvious from which to fashion a digging implement, he then turned to the crates they hid amongst and began opening the lids, rummaging around inside each one, tossing out items that were of no use. After a few more seconds he withdrew his hands from a crate. In each he held an electrical power strip, an elongated plastic strip with power outlets at the end of a long cord. He took one and began wedging one end of it into the ground, testing its feasibility as a digging implement.

“Poor man’s shovel,” he whispered after wedging out a hole a foot deep without too much effort. He tossed one strip to Jayden, the other to Maddy, before pulling out a third for himself. Then all three of them set to enlarging the hole he had started. He cautioned them to dig quietly, as the sounds of occasional megaphone-shouted commands punctuated with gunshots rent the air outside the tent.

After a few minutes Hunt threw down his power strip. “I think that should do it.” He went to the wheeled cart and removed the bronze head. Carrying it to the hole they had dug, he gently rolled it to the bottom.

“Now we cover it back up.” The three of them used their hands to fill back in the hole, covering the artifact. Then they smoothed out the sandy dirt, making sure it was even with the rest of the ground, and finally walked around on top of the patch of dirt so that it didn’t look too obviously smoothed over.

No sooner had they finished than they heard footsteps walking rapidly towards their tent. Hunt pointed to the entrance. Jayden moved silently to one side of it while Hunt told Maddy to lay on the ground. He found a tarp and covered her with it. Then he ran to the opposite side of the door as Jayden and waited, catching his breath, willing himself to be silent as the footsteps approached the research tent.

Hunt hand-signaled to Jayden to wait for whoever entered next to trip over the wire before making a move.

A voice said, “You get that one, I’ll check this one, here.” Then a set of footfalls receded in the opposite direction while another continued toward the research tent entrance. Hunt braced, preparing to spring. The footsteps stopped just outside the tent and Hunt saw the shadow of a pair of hands reach for the tent zipper. Jayden tensed as the unknown individual unzipped the entrance flap. When it had been opened, the first part of the intruder to enter the tent was the muzzle of an assault rifle.

Hunt made eye contact with Jayden and held a hand out. Wait.

But the intruder was being cautious, too. No one immediately rushed into the tent. Hunt watched the muzzle of the weapon swing left to right and back again, no doubt a tell as to the wielder’s gaze. Hunt could only hope he didn’t look down. But the intruder’s next steps gave him his answer.

The gunman walked straight into the tent at a brisk pace, tripping over the cord Hunt had tied at shin-height. He and Jayden sprung on their foe instantly, with Hunt grabbing the barrel of the rifle with both hands and swinging it away from them while Jayden actually fought the would-be treasure looter.

Jayden landed a right cross to the criminal’s left cheekbone, knocking him into a daze that rendered him all but harmless. But as Hunt wrestled the gun away from him, the assailant’s finger curled around the trigger, squeezing off a short burst. It shot harmlessly through the roof of the tent, but Hunt knew it would likely draw reinforcements.

He wondered how many thugs they were up against. He got low to the ground and peeked out through the tent entrance. He counted four looters — enemy combatants, as he thought of them — moving about the dig site. But he knew there were more. Some had to be inside the tents, or out of his field of vision. He checked the weapon’s magazine — it was loaded, but he preferred to have more ammo — a lot more — if he was going to go up against at least four armed criminals. So he moved to the fallen robber and searched his body while Jayden held his arms back even though he appeared to be unconscious. It could be an act.

Hunt felt the shape of ammo clips on a belt beneath the man’s shirt. He removed the belt and put it around his own waist. Now he felt better, more prepared, but still — he knew they would have to be extremely careful. These men clearly had no scruples. The penalties for artifact theft in Egypt were severe. They were risking death or life in prison in order to steal these artifacts.

His subconscious shouted the question yet again: what could be so important to make them want to do that, to give them that kind of motivation?

Hunt had no idea, but he intended to find out. But first, he and his friends had a little jam to get out of. He almost walked away from the looter after grabbing his ammo, but on second thought, decided to search the rest of his body. He was rewarded with a 9mm pistol worn on an ankle holster beneath the man’s black pants. Hunt removed that, too, and handed it to Jayden.

“How come you get the automatic?”

Hunt frowned in his direction. “Seriously?”

“Ro-sham-bo you for it.”

Hunt knew his friend was prone to moments of levity in the midst of a tense situation to break up the tension. His humor had served them well during their time in the navy, both in and out of combat zones, particularly on long transport runs to break up the monotony. But Hunt wasn’t in the mood to laugh, there was no time for that. He racked his brain for a solution to the pickle they were in. He believed the man who had said they would be shot if found inside a tent. These looters would not be prone to reason, but would be highly reactionary, far more likely to pull a trigger than to reason things out.

He considered taking the incapacitated adversary as a hostage. They could walk him at gunpoint outside of the tent and into the open, then demand their release. But Hunt couldn’t be sure they wouldn’t kill them anyway. Not every criminal organization placed a high value on the lives of their own when backed into a corner. No, it was too risky. But it was also too much of a risk to stay in the research tent. When this man didn’t come out, more would be sent to investigate, and they would be wary.

Hunt was still deliberating over these options when the amplified voice roared once again, this time from what sounded like the middle of the dig site. Hunt guessed it was about fifty feet in front of their tent entrance.

“We will give you one final warning. Step out of the tents. Anyone found inside a tent will be shot on sight. Your life is not worth protecting some old objects. Give them to us and go home to your families. Do the sensible thing.”

Hunt froze as he heard the last phrase. Do the sensible thing. Not only the words themselves, but the exact phrase in combination with that voice. He was certain he’d heard it before.

“Daedalus, is that you?” Hunt’s shouting startled Jayden, whose facial expression quickly transformed from one of shocked alarm to surprised recognition.

“Who speaks? Come forth!” Came the voice from the megaphone.

To Jayden, Hunt said in a low voice, “Looks like our old friend is back up to his old tricks.”