Chapter 5

GATEWAY

It was 2:00 am. Patrick Maple was still awake, standing in the great lawn, central park, Manhattan. Many may wonder what he was doing there, but he had permission from the mayor himself. Patrick was conducting an experiment. He had got the required documents signed in a couple of hours. Who would deny a Nobel prize winning geologist? Actually quite a few people, but Patrick preferred not to think so. His arrogance would prove to be his downfall.

His digital watch that his brother Alex had gifted him beeped. It meant that it was time to head back to his home. Half an hour, that’s all he needed, but that would mean being late. He cursed under his breath and hoisted the seismic sensor out of the ground.

He would take a cab to his bungalow on Lexington Avenue. He walked onto the main road. A familiar yellow New York cab drove towards him. Patrick outstretched his right hand and yelled, “Taxi.”

A brown BMW was driving three VIPs from the LaGuardia airport. Their flight had been grounded for several hours in Chicago due to hazardous weather conditions and powerful wind shears. It was almost 1:30am when they reached New York.

Alan Sawner was one of them. The billionaire’s expedition to the mysterious Tenebris Chorés islands had made the front page of every newspaper in the world. It was due in four days. The world’s news channels were already discussing the outcomes of the expedition. The world’s attention was focused on them.

The other passengers of the car were Mr Andrew Briston and Dr Delton Kraig.

Mr Briston too was a businessman. He was Alan’s close friend and part of the island expedition crew.

Dr Delton Kraig was the most famous astrophysicist in the world and had been the chief scientist of the Bermuda Triangle expedition. Who better than Dr Kraig to be the third member of the Tenebris Chorés expedition?

The East river shined below them in the moonlight as they drove over the Robert F. Kennedy bridge towards Manhattan.

Alan felt that ‘the city that never sleeps’ was an apt title for New York. Even at that late hour there was quite some traffic.

Patrick had just gotten out of the cab and paid the driver when his phone rang, “Hello?”

“Mr Maple please be ready to leave in ten minutes.”

“Mr Sawner?”

“Yes it’s me.”

“Is Dr Kraig with you?”

“Yes and Andrew too. Please hurry up.”

“Goodbye.”

“See you in a while.”

Andrew and Patrick got along well, but Delton. He couldn’t stand the sight of him. An overgrown baby. Yes that’s what Kraig looked like. Or at least, that was what Patrick liked to think.

The main door had a mat which said ‘welcome’. The was a triangular covering jutting out from above the main door. It was held up by two Greek style columns.

The main hall had maple wood flooring (Patrick Maple’s way of humor). There was a white sofa in the corner. There was a showcase against the wall. It was lined with several trophies. The other walls were lined with photographs of Patrick receiving various awards. His most prized possession was the picture of himself receiving the Nobel prize.

Patrick decided to take the Nobel prize photograph with him. He took it off the wall and went upstairs to his room.

The bedroom had a queen sized bed. There were two lamps placed on shelves on either side of the bed. Patrick had already packed his clothes for the trip to save time.

Patrick opened his wardrobe and took out a briefcase. It had his clothes, a few documents and also some geological records. He placed the photograph in the briefcase and closed the wardrobe. He looked at himself in the mirror and smiled. A handsome man stared back. His life would be perfect, if it wasn’t for Delton. His idea would lead to the colonisation of a planet. Yet Delton’s stupid expedition had overshadowed him.

A couple of years ago Patrick was the most popular scientist in the world. Until Delton had popped up from nowhere with his idea to send an expedition to the Bermuda triangle.

Patrick had started the process of colonizing Mars and the world had forgotten him. Patrick had lost his title of the most popular scientist in the world to some second rate astrophysicist. He was still extremely popular as a geologist, but it didn’t matter to Patrick, someone had beaten him and he would beat that person back. Alan’s expedition had gotten him fired up. If he discovered the cause of the disappearances before Delton, that would be the ultimate insult.

Patrick saw a car pull up in front of his house. The geologist knew exactly who it was. The car honked as Patrick switched off the lights.

He typed in a four digit security code and slammed the door shut behind him. The door was a self-locking version, so Patrick didn’t have to bother locking it with his key. He ran to the car and got in.

The car drove away, back towards the airport. No one could have possibly predicted that the owner of that house would never walk through those doors again.

They took the same route back to the airport. Though it was almost winter, it had started raining on the way. Visibility was very low and it took them quite a while to reach the airport.

The rain had worsened, several flights including their private plane had not gotten clearance to take off. They would have to wait till the rain died down. They were escorted to a private waiting room and told to make themselves feel at home.

“Well, what do we do now?” asked Alan. “The only thing we can do is wait.” Delton had a question at the back of his mind and by the looks of thing, they would have to stay here for quite a while. So he decided to ask, “Alan, the events of the past two days. The obstacles that we’re facing…they seem like a warning.”

Patrick didn’t want to let slip even the slightest opportunity to argue with Delton and win. “Dr Kraig, are you suggesting that there is something supernatural in the islands that doesn’t want us going there? I feel that the stress and pressure of our upcoming expedition has gotten to you. Maybe you should rest and prepare yourself for the next expedition and leave this one to us.” Patrick’s voice was layered with concern, concealing the venom within.

Delton didn’t know what Mr Maple had against him. They weren’t even of the same profession, he was an astrophysicist and Patrick was a geologist. “I am not suggesting supernatural causes for the disappearances. I am merely saying that sometimes, bad things form a chain reaction. Sometimes there are warnings that we must understand.”

Andrew’s mind was even more confused after hearing what the two scientists were saying. Maybe Delton was right and there was a reason behind the setbacks, but he felt different. They would find the dragon in the Chorés islands if they were worthy. “Maybe this is a test.” he said out loud and almost clasped his mouth shut with his hands when he finished.

Everyone stared at him. Luckily Alan came to his rescue, “Do you mean fate is testing us? You aren’t going into philosophy, are you?” Andrew didn’t mind making himself look stupid to shield the truth from the others and said, “It was just a thought.”

That was a close one. Alan looked at Andrew and his expression said, ‘Its okay.’ He was grateful to Alan for the save.

“Let’s watch some television. To get our minds off things.” They turned to BBC and their jaws fell open in awe at the video being played. It showed a flare erupting from the central island. A column of flame extended into the sky.

“Yes!” exclaimed Patrick. None of the other occupants of the room could comprehend how an inferno erupting from the island which they were to visit could possibly be good.

“Yes?” asked Delton. Patrick was pleased that the question had come from Delton. He had eagerly waited for something to happened, a disappearance, anything at all. A lose of one life was a necessary sacrifice but this had been incredible. No one had died, but he had got his event.

Patrick began a well rehearsed explanation, “My friends, I have planted several seismographs on the outer islands of the Tenebris Chorés. They have been recording the seismic activity of the islands for a few weeks now. I also recorded the seismic activity of Central Park, a location with the regular seismic activity of any other place in the world. If the reason behind the happenings on that island is geological, there will be a change in seismic activity during any event. This will be recorded by my equipment. My friend’s lab in Brooklyn has the data of both places. If we compare it, we may unravel the secrets of the Chorés right here from New York.”

Delton ran to the entrance of the room and said, “What are we waiting for? Let’s go.” Alan and Andrew got up and followed. Patrick was the last to leave the room. Delton’s excitement had been genuine, but Patrick was sure that he was doing it just to mock him.

They told the manager that they would be back soon and got into the car. Alan decided to drive. Andrew sat next to him in front. Patrick was forced to sit next to Delton. He would have protested on any other occasion but he was too engrossed in making some calculations. He often yeller random things like, “Five hundred and eighty multiplied by nine hundred and thirty-five.” They sped over Brooklyn bridge towards Marcus Shaw’s lab on Atlantic avenue.

Patrick told Alan to park in front a pale grey building that could have been anything, a movie theatre, apartments or even a factory. The truth was that it belonged to a geologist named Marcus Shaw. It was a state of the art laboratory which had the best of technology.

The four of them got our of the car though it was still raining. They entered a white corridor through reinforced steel doors. They reached a pair of beige doors like the ones found in hospitals. As they entered, they saw a man, probably in his late sixties with grey hair leaning on a steel table. He was staring into a number monitors.

Marcus Shaw barely noticed the four people who had walked into his lab. “Marcus, show me the reading.” said Patrick, without even sparing a second for a ‘hello’. Marcus didn’t seem to mind. He turned the monitor towards Patrick with slim fingers.

Patrick turned a keyboard towards him and typed in some commands. Immediately the window which played the video of the flare minimized and several graphs and charts popped up. The other expedition crew members stood aside and watched. “Marcus, don’t just stand there, help me.” Dr Shaw shrugged and walked over to a different computer.

Patrick’s lips curled and his joy became more obvious. He pressed ‘enter’ and waited eagerly. A processing bar appeared on the screen. Two words were now displayed on the screen, ‘Match Found’. Patrick’s hands shot up in the air, almost punching Marcus.

Alan and the group were completely clueless. Andrew began, “What happened?” Patrick was too excited to answer. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down and said, “I had a theory that the central island could be a sort of gateway.”

A gateway? What was Patrick talking about? “Mr Maple, are you suggesting that the island could be a gateway in the sense, a bridge between dimensions. A wormhole maybe?” If only he was in possession of a gun, Patrick would have shot Delton then and there. “No Doctor, I am saying that it could be a geological gateway. That is, a gateway to a network of tunnels throughout the world. The central island and its surround areas may be the weak spots, where the land or ocean floor is thin enough to cave in. Dragging boats and people down into the tunnels. Now one may point out that this theory does not explain the missing planes but they may not take into consideration that where the land is thin, though it has not been proved, the magnetism emanating from the metallic core of the earth may be stronger, causing navigational equipment to malfunction, resulting in plane crashes. It is true that not a single geologist has agreed with me, but I have my reasons which I will reveal later.”

Alan nodded, though it didn’t explain the dragon, nothing did, but it made sense to some extent. Delton decided that it was about time he stopped taking Patrick’s irritating retorts. Dr Kraig was not a geologist, but he knew something about the subject. So he asked, “Still, there is one thing that puzzles me. How could the earth’s magnetism be amplified to such an extent?”

Patrick had been waiting for someone to ask that question. He was almost happy that Delton had posed the question though Patrick disliked him. On second thought, maybe someone else should have asked him that. He said, “I recreated these conditions on a smaller scale in my lab and it works out. If scaled up, they would be just enough to cause the equipment onboard the plane to malfunction. Though this sounds crazy, I assure you, it’s true.”

Patrick Maple started again in a matter-if-fact like voice, “Also what many people don’t know is that these flares are regular under the earth’s crust. These tunnels could lead far below the earth, allowing these flares to escape. My theory is that it formed somewhere else in a different tunnel and traveled to the weak spots under the central island finally breaking through.” Delton was starting to dislike Patrick for his mannerism but he had to appreciate the theory.

Mr Maple wasn’t done yet, “I ran some simulations earlier. The data that the seismographs picked up during the flare matched with my simulations. Thus adding more matter to my theory. Alas these seismographs were not on the main island. I have to be on sight to confirm it.”

Delton ignored Patrick for a while and looked at the screen. For a fraction of a second he saw something in the flare. He walked closer to the monitor and played the video. Again he saw it and pressed the pause button.

Dr Delton Kraig was baffled. “There’s a dragon in the flare.” he said. When Delton’s words reached his ear, Patrick was sure that the astrophysicist had lost it. True that he had mocked him of going mad but this was crazy. “Dr Kraig have you…” Patrick wanted to speak but his mouth wouldn’t obey. There was an actual dragon like being in the flare.

Alan and Andrew were the first to react to Delton’s statement. “Rocks.” said Andrew. “What?” asked Delton. Alan grasped what Andrew meant and added to it, “Patrick, if that flare came from underground, it is possible that there could have been rocks in it?” Patrick recovered from the shock and thought for a second before speaking, “Well any rock should have melted but if the flare had broken through a layer of rock instead of a preformed opening…it is possible.” “It’s settled then. The only way we’re going to discover the truth is by going to the island in person.” Andrew concluded.

The rain had subsided and their jet could now take off. Alan got a call from the airport manager, giving them the good news. They said their goodbyes to Marcus and exited the building. Patrick was last to leave. Just before stepping onto the pavement, he whispered something in Marcus’s ear. The old man nodded and Mr Maple boarded the car.

As they drove back to LaGuardia airport, Alan and Andrew thought back to the dragon they saw in the flare. Everyone was now convinced that it was a large rock, except Alan and Andrew who knew the truth. They knew exactly what it was…more or less.

Once they reached, they were taken directly to the plane where they were welcomed by Colin. He shook hands with Alan and told him that he would see them the day after in Hong Kong. Their luggage had been brought from the waiting lounge in which they had been earlier.

The jet took off again. Taking yet another expedition member towards a different destination. Alan said as they flew over the Atlantic, “Paris, here we come.”