The Atlantis Cipher

CHAPTER FORTY

“The history of Atlantis,” Zeus said. “What do you know?”

Gunn stammered a reply, but nothing intelligible came out. Bodie guessed Zeus was asking the question of the team nerd because he might have carried out internet research, which would have as much fantasy wound through it as fact. That left Lucie next, of course, who would know the investigated background to everything. Bodie determined that he could not let them get to Lucie. It would be worse for her.

Zeus started with a box cutter, waving the tiny blade before Gunn’s terrified eyes. “What do you know?”

“Destroyed by… by an earthquake or tsunami. Maybe by… by the Great Flood. Huge, a continent that joined Europe to the Americas. An active volcanic area still runs between the Canaries and Ireland, which would intersect Atlantis perfectly. Deep soundings were made by the US, the UK, and Germany separately, which mapped the bottom of the Atlantic and showed a large elevation reaching from Britain to South America and then to Africa. It rises nine thousand feet above the immense sea depths around it and reaches the surface around the Azores. And, taking the recent proof found in the Nebraska badlands that the horse originated in America, how… how did this wild animal cross to Europe and Asia in this predomesticated state? Answer: he walked.” Gunn gulped. “Or trotted, or something.”

The computer expert had gotten carried away, rambling because he was nervous. But then he saw Zeus’s blade and clammed up in fear.

“Go on.” Zeus nodded with approval. “Everything you say is a matter of record, free on the web, but I need to hear the conclusions a man like you would draw.”

Bodie had hoped Gunn would drag it out, and, purposely or not, he did. “The animal thing is not reserved just for horses. Camel fossils were found as far apart as Kansas and Africa. Norway elks are identical to the American moose. And so forth. The same species of plants exist in America and Asia. And, of course, there is the banana. A seedless plant. It can’t survive a voyage through a temperate zone, and yet traveled from tropical Asia and Africa to America…” He paused as Heidi shifted in the corner, turning and resting on her knees. For now, Bodie saw her head did not come up, but he guessed she was ready.

Zeus was pleased with Gunn. “Go on, lad.”

“There’s the question of the Aryan race, which we haven’t come to yet. I examined the information in advance. According to Genesis, all the races that escaped the flood with Noah, the Thracians, the Cyprians, the Ionians, and more, are all now recognized as Aryans. The center of the Aryan migrations is Armenia, in which lies Mount Ararat where the Ark rested. The Mediterranean Aryans are known to have been a sea people some four thousand years ago. Their faces are painted on Egyptian monuments. The Greeks trace their descendants back to the Aryans, and everyone — Persians, Celts, Germans, and Romans — shares the same traditions. Of course, all this is relevant because the Aryans are long thought to have been a superior race — more intelligent, stronger, better. The Atlanteans who survived would be identified as better. It was Hitler and Himmler who searched for a decade for any remnants of the Aryan race, using an SS unit by the name of Ahnenerbe, which only came to light in 1945 when soldiers discovered many thousands of documents in a cave in Germany.”

“But no real trace of the Aryans?” Zeus asked.

“They found nothing, but Hitler was beyond crazy. He thought measuring the circumference of a man’s skull would determine his race.”

“Fascinating. Now… how high can you scream?”

Zeus buried the tiny blade into Gunn’s thigh. Screaming, Gunn threw his head back. Zeus withdrew and buried it again. Two small but vicious cuts welled with blood.

Gunn squealed, kicking furiously. Zeus avoided the reflexive strikes and gave an evil leer. Blood leaked through Gunn’s jeans in small beads. Bodie could wait no more. He eyed the man in front, then nodded at Cassidy.

“See you on the other side.”

“Yeah, wherever that is.”

Together, they both knew that they had no choice but to risk their lives for their friends.