The Atlantis Prophecy

27

ACROSS THE POTOMAC at Jones Point near Alexandria, Max Seavers looked over schematics at his makeshift command post inside the old lighthouse while the special warfare dive team searched the sea wall below for the original foundation stone.

According to the crippled vet they broke under torture, the Masons had moved Washington's globe from the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol to an even more auspicious location "back in time": the very first boundary stone that Washington laid for the Federal District itself.

Seavers's own research confirmed that it was Daniel Carroll, the man who sold Washington Capitol Hill, who laid the stone here with Washington and an old black astronomer named Benjamin Banneker.

Today Jones Point is a big municipal park under the shadow of a giant bridge. For several years the bridge had proved to be a security headache for the feds, but it also proved to be a perfect cover for Seavers and his special ops team of Marines.

They were part of an elite 86-man unit known as Detachment One, oriented toward amphibious raids, at night, under limited visibility. "Extreme circumstances" were their theater of war, and they were trained and equipped to carry out special missions including embassy evacuations, airfield seizures, underwater demolitions, and down-pilot rescues within six hours of notice.

Normally, they fell under Naval Special Warfare Squadron One, which operated out of the U.S. Special Operations Command.

Now they were under his command.

The lighthouse door opened and a Marine stepped inside from the rain, which was picking up now.

"The dive team found the foundation stone, sir. It's embedded in the seawall."

"Bring it up," Seavers ordered.