The Atlantis Stone

CHAPTER 2

"Ouch."

Nick Carter set his razor down on the edge of the sink and dabbed at the cut with a shred of toilet paper. He gave himself a once over in the mirror. The nightmares had started again. He wasn't sleeping well. Dark shadows under his eyes brought out their gray color and the flecks of gold hidden in them.

A fresh shave, and he could already see the next beard ready to spring out. Sometimes he wondered why he bothered. His face was still pretty much the way it had been yesterday, barring the cut making a red spot in the bit of white paper he'd laid on it. It was a strong face, not particularly handsome, but not ugly either. He thought he could see some new signs of aging. Or was he imagining it?

He needed a good workout in the Project gym, something to relieve the tension he'd been feeling for the last few weeks. He wasn't sure where it was coming from.

It was early morning on what promised to be a beautiful spring day in Washington. Nick dressed in comfortable slacks and a light gray cotton shirt. He walked into the kitchen, took a cup from the cabinet and filled it with black coffee from a pot brewing on the counter. He took the cup over to a table littered with mail delivered the day before, sat down and started sorting through it.

Selena came into the kitchen. She poured a cup and joined him.

Selena was a woman people noticed. She had intense eyes that changed color from violet to deep blue and back again, depending on the light. Either way, they were a perfect match for her red-blond hair. Two inches shorter than Nick's six feet, she was sixty pounds light of his two hundred. The amount of body fat on her didn't amount to much but it was there in the places where it mattered.

"You have a letter from Amsterdam." Nick passed it over. "Your agent sent it over. It's addressed to Selena Connor."

There was nothing unusual about getting letters using her maiden name. Selena still corresponded with some of her former academic acquaintances. Sometimes she got invitations for appearances and guest lectures, though there were fewer of those these days. She usually had to turn them down. It had been some time since she'd last given a formal lecture, but her international reputation as an expert in ancient languages still brought requests. They came by way of an agent who handled professional correspondence for her.

"Amsterdam? I don't think I know anyone there. It's probably someone who wants me to give a talk."

"There's no return address."

"That's unusual. Let me see it."

The only writing on the envelope was a spidery scrawl with her name and the address of her agent. She used a table knife to slit open the envelope.

"It's an old photograph and a map. And a letter."

"A map of where?"

She unfolded the map. It was creased and worn, as if it had been carried in someone's pocket for many years.

"Egypt, when it was still a British protectorate. That would be the first part of the last century."

She set the map aside and picked up the photograph. It was yellowed and torn on one corner.

"What does the letter say?"

"I'll read it out loud."

"A Russian?" Nick said.

"You're interrupting."

"Sorry."

Selena continued reading.

Selena picked up a magnifying glass and studied the picture.

"Interesting," she said.

"What's interesting?"

"It's a picture of a stone pillar, lying in sand, inscribed with hieroglyphics and what looks like Linear A. I've never seen those two languages combined before. It has to be very old."

She turned back to the letter.

"He sounds like an idealist," Selena said.

"That's it?" Nick asked.

"That's all there is."

"What kind of military implications?"

"He doesn't say."

"Can you read the script in the photograph?"

"Let me take a look."

Selena got a pen and paper and began studying the picture through her magnifying glass. Nick watched her making notes. Her expression was intense, focused.

She said, "If this says what I think it does, you're not going to believe me"

"Try me."

"I think the inscription is about Atlantis."

"You have got to be kidding."

"See? I told you that you wouldn't believe me."

"Atlantis is a legend."

"If it turns out that it isn't, a lot of people are going to get upset. Egyptologists, for example."

"Are you sure it's about Atlantis?"

"I'm not certain, but it's a good bet." She pointed at the photograph with her pencil. "These characters form a phrase that means homeland. It's described as a plain and mountain surrounded by water."

"That could be about Crete. The Minoans used Linear A and Crete isn't that far from Egypt. What else does it say?"

"It's an account boasting about the power of the homeland. It says the priests lifted heavy blocks of stone into the air using an object given to them by the gods, an artifact of some kind. "

"A force that could lift heavy stones? Thousands of years ago?"

"That's what it says."

"That must be what Sokolov meant about military implications. If the Russians think there's anything to this, they wouldn't want him telling anyone about it."

"I wonder if he's in Paris?"

"I doubt it. It must've taken days for that letter to get here. Then it had to go through your agent to you. If he'd followed through on his plan he'd be here by now. He would have contacted you."

"You think they caught up with him?" Selena asked.

"If they did, it wouldn't be good news for him."

"If he's a senior researcher with a prestigious Russian Institute, he'll be in the database. Steph can look him up."

Stephanie Willits was Director Elizabeth Harker's deputy, in charge of the Project computers. If what you wanted was in a database somewhere, Stephanie could find it.

"We'll ask her when we go in."

Selena's voice was enthusiastic. "We should look for that pillar. There's more written on the back where I can't see it. It might tell us more."

"Does the map show where it was photographed?"

"Not exactly. Marsá Matruh is on the Mediterranean coast west of Cairo. The spot on the map is farther on, toward Libya. "

"I don't think foreigners are popular in that part of the world right now. It won't be easy to get to it."

"If it led to discovering the force mentioned in that inscription, any effort would be worth it."

Nick reached up to scratch his ear but thought better of it.

"I suppose so," he said.