9 |

Off the coast of Pico Island, Azores

 

Acton was giddy and impatient as they slowly descended toward what could be the greatest discovery not only of his career, but in the history of modern man. This would likely rival, if not put to shame, Carter’s discovery of King Tut’s tomb nearly a century ago.

And for that reason, he had to control himself. While he now had no doubt Niner and Jimmy had indeed found something—there was no way this was a practical joke—it was likely just an ancient city, long lost to the sea, and not the fabled city of Atlantis. He had to not get his hopes up, and he also had to remain calm, controlling his breathing as well as rate of descent, scuba diving something he had done on several occasions, but was in no way expert at.

Fortunately, Laura’s travel agent had arranged state of the art equipment for them, and Niner and Dawson were sporting the gear that awaited Reading and his son’s arrival. All four of them had masks that allowed them to talk to one another, though that left Jimmy and Atlas out of the conversation, much to Niner’s delight.

“We should be getting close.” Niner pointed ahead. “I’m pretty sure this is where the landslide happened.”

Dawson glanced at him. “Pretty sure?”

“Hey, it’s not like I had a GPS down here, but after we found the fork, we went straight up, and you guys were directly ahead of us onshore, so we couldn’t have drifted that far either way.”

Atlas turned, waving at them, then pointed ahead, a blue shark swimming by, paying them no mind.

“I think the big guy just spotted something to eat,” said Niner. “We should have brought the fork.”

Acton peered into the murkiness, in the direction Atlas was pointing, when he gasped. “Forget the king-size Filet-O-Fish, I think he’s pointing at that.” He leaned forward, kicking hard toward what appeared to be a set of columns sticking up from the seabed, the others following, their lights all directed toward what Atlas had spotted.

“My word!” gasped Laura. “Part of me still thought you were pulling our leg, Niner, but…” Her voice trailed off in awe, and Acton for a moment was lost in the excitement as his pulse pounded in his ears. He finally remembered he was a scientist, and grabbed the camera floating around his neck, activating it.

“Let’s remember, this whole area could be unstable, so stay off the seabed if you can, and try not to touch anything.”

“Yeah, especially you, meatball,” added Niner. “Ah, shit, he can’t hear me. Somebody remind me to insult him when we go topside.”

Acton turned to face Atlas and Jimmy, pointing at the seabed and waving his hands and shaking his head, then doing the same with the ruins around them. Both gave him a thumbs up, and they proceeded deeper into the revealed portion of what was clearly an ancient city, the architecture suggesting Ancient Greek, though with significant differences. There was also the fact that the Greeks had never traveled this far, at least according to currently understood history.

But there was no denying that an ancient, advanced civilization had once thrived here, the size of the exposed city significant, and suggesting the center of a metropolis, as opposed to a few scattered homes. Small villages didn’t build large buildings supported by towering columns. And island based indigenous cultures didn’t either. This was clearly built by some ancient European based culture, either previously unknown, or previously unknown to have traveled this far into the Atlantic.

“So, Docs, is it Atlantis?”

Acton glanced over at Niner, about ten feet to his left. “Too soon to tell, but it definitely appears to be from the right era, with the proper influences you’d expect from a culture that would have developed from a Mediterranean one.” He glanced over at Laura. “Let’s place the geolocators so we can easily find it again.”

“Okay.” Laura retrieved two devices from her bag, activating one and dropping it to the seabed, then swimming a short distance and releasing the backup device.

“It’s getting pretty late, so I think we should head to the surface. We’ll come back tomorrow and make a real go of it.”

Niner groaned like a child. “Awww, do we have to?”

Acton chuckled. “We’ll have all day tomorrow, and we’ll come back with more equipment so we can take a proper survey. Trust me, tomorrow is when the fun begins.”

They began their slow ascent, Acton reviewing the footage on the camera’s display, barely seeing anything, but too excited to patiently wait for later. When he finally broke the surface, their guide waved to him, and he swam over to the rented boat.

“Did you find anything good?”

Acton climbed in and shook his head, giving the others a look as they joined him. “No, nothing. We’ll come back tomorrow and keep looking, it’s all good fun just the same.”

“It is that.” Their guide fired up the engine, slowly taking them back to shore, everyone remaining silent as they stripped from their gear. Acton wasn’t a fan of lying, but he couldn’t risk having their guide know they had found something of significance, then tell his friends. There’d be dozens of boats and scores of divers by dawn. In fact, tomorrow, he’d pay extra to take the boat out themselves, and leave the guide behind.

Dawson’s phone vibrated and he took the call, stepping toward the back of the boat as it pulled up to the dock. They disembarked and he rejoined them. “I’m afraid you’ll be on your own tomorrow.”

Laura looked at him. “Why’s that?”

“We’ve been put on standby.”

Acton frowned. “That’s too bad, but I guess duty calls. We’ll keep you posted on what we find.”

Niner jabbed a finger at him as they climbed into their SUV. “You better. I want my cut.”

Acton laughed. “Buddy, the only way you’re making any money off this is if you sell the film rights.”

Niner stared at the roof of the SUV wistfully. “And then maybe I can star in it too!”

Atlas groaned. “Oh, man, let’s not have that discussion again. Soldiers shouldn’t play themselves in movies.”

Dawson glanced in the rearview mirror as they pulled away, Niner holding his hands in front of him, mimicking a camera lens. Dawson gave Acton a look. “Why oh why did you plant that idea in his head?”

“All right Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up!”

Acton shook his head at Niner. “I think maybe it’s a good thing you guys are leaving. He’s going to be unbearable, and at least you guys are armed.”