The Atlantis Cipher

CHAPTER TWO

Heidi Moneymaker flung the federal-issue Chevrolet around a tight corner, allowing the back wheels to squeal slightly. When the road straightened she stepped on the gas again, seeing a gap in traffic and exploiting it. Another quick left and right with the wheel and she was past another car and saw the next corner approach rapidly. The engine protested as she downshifted. The tachometer surged and the gas consumption readout no doubt dipped alarmingly, but time was of the essence.

Seeing her target ahead, she aimed for the single space in the on-street parking, flung the wheel, and ended up parked at an angle, the car’s ass slightly askew and protruding a good meter into the road.

Screw it. The target is more important.

She jumped out, locked the vehicle, and ran into the nearest store.

The man behind the counter shook his head at her. “Made it by the skin of your teeth again.”

Heidi flashed a smile that made her blue eyes light up. “I do believe you should have closed over a minute ago, Georgio.”

The man smiled back. “I heard you coming.”

Heidi grabbed what she called her “lifesavers”—a big cup of strong, black coffee, a bag of Skittles, and, to even it out, a bulging bag of red grapes and a healthy yogurt. This sustenance would keep her going through the long night, which she envisioned would be spent at home sorting through mounds of paperwork.

“Thanks, Georgio.” She paid for her goods. “Same time tomorrow?”

“Maybe a little earlier, eh, Heidi? Just a little.”

She acknowledged the tiny reprimand with a sheepish grin and left the store, climbed back into her car, and drove home. The DC night was chilly; a fine drizzle laced the air. Heidi thought it felt good on her face as she walked up to her apartment block and searched for her keys. On a night like this the loneliness always struck her where it hurt most, but a heart that yearned for two goals at opposite ends of a vast, sliding scale would never be happy, its desire never stilled. Law and order was her calling. The husband and child she left back home remained her passion, despite divorce and the total lack of communication from her daughter. One passion fed the other. Keep the world safe; keep them safe. Her family wouldn’t accept it. Complex emotions made a battle arena of her heart.

Inside, it was clean and warm. Heidi switched on the lights and sipped at the coffee, moving around the main room. She flung her cell onto the low coffee table and was startled as it began to ring.

Heidi stared at it in surprise. They can’t do without me for one night? But then the truth kicked in, that they would only call in an emergency, and she scooped it back up.

“Yeah? I just got home.”

“Sorry. The call just came in.”

“What call?”

“You need to get down here. I can’t say much over the phone, but I wouldn’t call if it wasn’t urgent. Another relic may have surfaced. The sooner you get a look at this, the better.”

Heidi closed her eyes for a long moment, then opened them and drank in the appealing, safe, quiet haven that was her apartment. More than anything right now, it represented what she needed — a good night’s rest. “Now? Is it time sensitive? It won’t wait till morning?”

“If that were the case I wouldn’t be calling you.”

“Watch your tone, Scottie. I’ll be there in an hour.”

She ended the call before he could protest, gulped more coffee, then jumped in the shower. A change of clothes later and she was ready for the second shift of her already long day. With a sigh, she threw the grapes and yogurt in the trash, not knowing if she would be gone a day or a month. She knew the existence she led was draining, debilitating, but remained addicted to its emotional rewards.

Driving back to the office in silence, Heidi kept to the speed limits. When she arrived she saw the lights in every window on her floor blazing. Security had been alerted, and she was entering her office in less than the hour she’d promised.

Scottie looked suitably sheepish, his boyish face strained, and his mop of gelled-back hair hanging limply as if in apology.

“Sorry, boss.”

“Just explain why the hell you’ve ruined a perfectly good night of sifting through paperwork.” It was a poor attempt at a joke and he knew it.

“Ah, yeah, sorry again. They called a half hour after you left. It sounds… interesting.”

Heidi inclined her head, trying not to look too concerned.

“There’s been a significant find in South America.”

Now she shrugged off her coat and poured bad, stewed coffee from the machine. “Go on.”

“I can’t drink that stuff.” Scottie stared at her steaming mug. “Makes my guts squirm.”

“I’ll be sure to order in a supply of half-and-half. Now, go on.”

“All right. Well, I have to assume that where there’s an old myth or an old dig site there’s probably an archaeologist hanging around. A group of underfunded, mostly misled kids just came across something near the eastern Brazilian coast. Then they called a goddamn press conference.” Scottie shook his head sadly.

Heidi couldn’t stop a sharp intake of breath. “That’s not good. Publicity is the last thing they want at a new discovery site.”

“You said it, boss. Full disclosure isn’t always the way to go. So, it appears these young archaeologists were investigating an archaic site believed cleared out years ago. To cut a long story short, they unearthed five statues.”

Heidi set her mug on the table. “I’m guessing they’re not bronze representations of Dwayne Johnson?”

“No, though that would be cool.” Scottie paused, caught her eye, and then blushed. “Right, so the statues are obviously thousands of years old. Many thousands. In fact, they perfectly match four other statues found on the Azores over a decade ago.”

Scottie let it hang. Heidi worked through it in her head.

“The Azores?” she repeated. “Which is…”

“Off the coast of Portugal, near Spain and Morocco.”

“Right.” She nodded. She felt a surge in her chest but held it in. “And you say they match perfectly? How perfectly?”

Scottie sat back. “Perfectly perfectly.”

Heidi ran it through her mind. Perfectly perfectly. From South America to Morocco? How could that be?

“So what we have here are essentially nine statues. Crafted by the same person at the same time. Now found… what? Four thousand miles apart and across the width of the Atlantic Ocean.”

Scottie nodded. “That’s about right.”

Heidi switched off for a moment, preventing the euphoria from carrying her away. While locating ancient wonders wasn’t exactly within the CIA’s purview, stopping global conspiracy was. Chasing down the all-powerful shadow organization that she later discovered was the Illuminati had started her on this path, and now her bosses realized there was more reward than simply arresting criminals inherent in finding anything from an old statue to a lost continent. Oddly, it wasn’t simply the lure of discovering ancient relics that inspired her, it was also the chance to work with Bodie again. And the other guys, she qualified quickly in her mind. In addition, after working for the CIA for over a decade this was fresh, new, and exciting. But they needed a period of calm, rational reasoning right now. She focused on the details. Their office was small, well lit, and functional. She gazed at the walls and at the desk, seeing a noticeboard still bristling with photographs and sticky notes from their last mission — the quest to retrieve the Statue of Zeus and take down the Illuminati. At least half of that mission had been successful — the ancient wonder would now reside in the devastated museum at Athens, bringing much-needed tourist money into the city and the country.

I wonder if there are more ancient wonders out there. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Now that would be a find.

The only desk was black and scarred, its surface the place of many wars with hot liquid, sandwich knives, and broken ceramic. The computer was clean. A photo of her daughter drifted around the screen while it was in power save mode. People sometimes asked her why she used the old photo. Because I don’t have any recent ones. But she always kept that part to herself. Her eyes moved to the water cooler in the corner, which grew enough algae for its own manicured front lawn. That corner was a no-go zone. She kicked a chair from underneath the desk and sat down heavily.

“Okay, I’ll forgive you for summoning me back to the office on one condition.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“After we’re done, you go get a shower. Now, tell me more.”

Scottie looked relieved. “Well,” he said softly, “everyone knows this is a big press release. Clearly, not everyone will make the connection you just did. That the statues were all made by the same person. I even ran it through a computer process. The carvings, markings, color, and detail on the new statues match the Azores statues perfectly. That’s even without any form of dating. They were made by the same man. So… how did that man cross the Atlantic Ocean ten thousand years ago?”

“The Azores statues have already been dated to that time?”

Scottie nodded.

Heidi gulped coffee. “The answer is simple,” she said. “He didn’t.”

“You say everyone knows about this?” Heidi asked after a few moments of reflection.

“Yeah, it’s gone worldwide.”

“Unfortunate. Have we identified any potential aggressors yet?” Heidi assumed other nations would immediately see the significance of the find and try to be aggressively proactive in what may well be the greatest treasure hunt of their time. It would all come down to what they might find and how they might use it. Some ancient knowledge might suddenly put any nation light-years ahead of the competition. And Heidi knew that the US would want it first.

“Well, in the last two hours, chatter has naturally increased. Langley and our NSA contacts report half a dozen potential aggressors. A local gang.” Scottie shrugged. “Small fry. Other unknowns. And, unfortunately, the Chinese.”

Heidi stared. “I’m assuming you don’t mean the Happy Wok on New Hampshire?”

“No, no,” Scottie quickly said to cover his mistake. “A hardcore government faction. Not the government per se,” he said with air quotes. “Not that they would ever admit to.”

“Right.” That was indeed an unfortunate development. The Chinese would hold nothing back in their search for items of value. Within the politburo, she knew, were men of influence who wanted all westerners and their wares out of the country, gone forever, and used hard finance, bottomless influence, and ransom-worthy items of enormous importance to further their agendas, while there was an equal number who thought it could be achieved by doing just the opposite. Keep your enemies close, and all that…

Which made her think of Guy Bodie and his team of social misfits. If ever there was a perfect job for a certain group of rebels, tracking down such an intriguing and mysterious treasure was it.

“Where are the relic hunters?”

“Right now? They’re chasing down that old boss of Bodie’s somewhere in Florida.”

Heidi had known that. She was thinking rapidly while Scottie spoke. “Call them. Tell them the job has changed.”

“They won’t like that, boss.”

“Look at me.” Heidi stood, her face looking more lived-in than usual and her naturally curly hair listing badly to the east. Her scarred hands and holstered gun spoke of intense fieldwork. Her tired eyes spoke of incredible responsibility. “Do I look like their travel agent to you?”

“Umm, no.”

“What do I look like?”

“Their… boss.”

“You got it, Scottie. So, what are you gonna do?”

The younger man reached for the phone. “I’ll call them right away.”

Heidi put out a hand to stop him. The human contact made him flinch just a little. She didn’t move her hand, but held on to his wrist.

“You know the significance of all this, don’t you?”

Scottie couldn’t help but grin. “Sure, I do.”

“The only way those two groups of statues could reasonably have made it two continents apart and four thousand miles across an ocean over ten thousand years ago is if there was no ocean.”

“And no split continents,” Scottie said.

“Just one body of land,” Heidi said.

Scottie took a deep breath. “Atlantis.”