Curse of Atlantis (10 page)

Now turning on his northerly heading, Jack increase
d
power and raised the nose of the plane, ascending to
a thousand
feet,
flying
an uncomfortable two hundred feet of clearance between them and the ground. While he flew, the charter pilot continued to monitor their progress, insuring the safety of the flight.

Javier now continued his routine as they
headed
in the opposite direction: videoing, recording data
,
and snapping photos. With data recorded from both directions, Javier was certain they would be able to compare the footages and to spot any significant anomalies in the contours of the land that would suggest the location of the buried pyramid.

Within two minutes of flying past Kalamos, they were back to their original starting point at Alvemonas, at the top of the bay. Jack turned back toward the sea and began to lose altitude. As they crossed back over the coastline, he dropped down to three hundred feet above the water.

“That’s great Jack. Keep it right there. I’m getting some great shots at this shallow angle,” Javier called out.

“No
problemo
,” Jack replied once again.

Feeling more comfortable with the plane and routine, Jack began to search the landscape for pyramid-shaped structures. Taking in the features of the land, he noticed the terraced farmlands nestled in amongst the hilly terrain near Avlemonas. There were long beaches broken up by small hills of rock and he noticed rows of umbrellas dotting the beach as vacationers enjoyed the sun and sea. Moments later
,
as he flew toward Kalamos, the landscape turned rough and desolate, and the coast seemed nearly devoid of beaches, replaced instead by rocky cliffs.

“Ok
,
Javi, that’s it. We’ve reached the end?” Jack called out.

“This sure is a tiny island, isn’t it? Ok, now onto the hard part. Let’s start
crisscrossing
back and forth across the land. Call out if you see anything suspicious,” Javier said, in a businesslike tone.

With a simple nod, Jack increased power and pulled back on the control yoke as he climb
ed
to
a thousand
feet once more. Now flying east to west and west to east, the two were no longer recording data. They were now searching. Flying slowly, they scanned the terrain yard by yard.

Jack now handed the controls back the charter pilot.

“Just keeping doing the same pattern, back and forth up the coast,” he instructed loudly.

“Will do. When I reach Alvemonas, do you want me to turn around and head back toward Kalamos?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

“Absolutely,” Jack replied, never taking his eyes off the landscape.

“How many patterns do you want to make?” he asked, again, knowing the answer.

Glancing back to the pilot, Jack replied with a smile, “til we run out of gas.”

“Gotcha,” the pilot replied simply.

Now concentrating on the terrain below, Javier and Jack looked for small hills, bumps in the land, peaks on larger mountains, and anything else that raised suspicion. When they saw something that piqued their interest, they circled that position, snapped some photos
,
and
noted
the location for further investigation.

After a while, the newness of the scenic island's landscape wore off and Jack no longer viewed it as a tourist. He began to see
it
through the eyes of an investigator. Flying along the coastline, he started to take notice of the rocky cliffs and mountainous peaks.

"Javier, take a look
at those sea cliffs. How high d
o you think they are?"

"
A few hundred feet I'd say, at least.
"

"Yeah, that's what I thought too,"
Jack replied.

"Why? You onto something?
”

"Well, they're way higher than I imagined when we researched it months ago," Jack began. "If we're looking inland for the pyramid, that tsunami must have been massive in order to clear those cliffs."

"Probably a few hundred feet
,
I'm guessing,"
Javier said, matter-of-factly.

"Five
hundred feet
?
Doesn't that seem unusually high?"

"Yeah, it does, but that's about how high it would have to be in order to clear those cliffs and still have enough momentum to carry it to the center of the island,"
Burt speculated.

"What if it wasn't that high?"

"What do you mean?"
Javier said, now turning his attention directly to Jack.

"Well,
what if it was only a hundred feet high?"

"Then Atlantis would probably still exist today,"
Javier responded.
"I suspect if it were only that high, the cliffs would have acted as a barrier, protecting the higher elevations from destruction."

"So, what's an average tsunami height?"

"It's really hard say... they can be a few inches or hundreds of feet. There was even a fluke event in
Alaska
where one reached a height of over seventeen hundred feet."

"Yeah, I saw that one on the Discovery Channel," Jack joked. "But what would you say the majority of the wave heights were?"

"If I had to guess... probably around fifty feet,"
Javier replied, giving an average.
"Jack,
where
are you going with this?"

"When you look at the crystal globe, we know that Kythira is the home of Atlantis because of the pitch fork symbol they embedded in the center of island. We all just assumed that that was the actual location of the city and the pyramid, but what if it wasn't? What I mean to say is, that symbol lays across the island, south to north... or visa versa. We're guessing that the center of the pitch fork is the exact location of the city,"
Jack explained.

"And y
ou're suggesting that it's not?"

"I'm not sure... If they made the symbol small enough to pinpoint the exact location of the pyramid, wouldn't it be so small, you'd lose it in the detail of the globe?"

"Possibly," Javier replied, still skeptical.

"Well, I'm thinking they made it large enough to be seen with the naked eye and just assumed anyone who examined the globe would already know where the city existed
. After
all, it was the most opulent and well known city in the world at that time, was
n’t
it?"

"According to the scrolls... yes,"
Javier agreed, simply.

"Well, if the city laid somewhere along the length of the symbol at its farthest points, the city could be located along the north or the southern coast, couldn't it?

"Yes... actually it could,"
Javier replied, now listening closely to Jack
'
s words.

"And if the ancient city was built somewhere along the coast, all it would take is an 'average' tsunami to wipe it out, would
n’t
you say?" Jack said rhetorically. "Once we take that long shot of the five hundred foot tsunami out of the equation and replace it with a more believable scenario, it only leaves two locations on the island to search."

"
Kapsali
and Avlemonas!
” Javier said, enthusiastically. “
That
’
s great detective work, Jack. Let's
concentrate on those two areas.
"

"Will do," Jack replied, feeling proud of his contribution to the search.

Concentrating their search now around the two cities, Jack flew grid patterns while Javier snapped more photos and video. After nearly four hours of flying, Jack began to feel frustrated. Looking back to Javier, he said, “So how big do you think this pyramid is
,
anyway?”

“I’m guessing no larger than five hundred feet, but it could be a lot smaller. There’s no way of telling, though. Pyramids from around the world were built in various shapes and sizes. What makes this even more difficult is the fact that this is the first time anyone knew one from Atlantis even existed. There’s just no telling what we’ll find… or if we’ll even find it,” Javier said, quickly turning his head and looking out the window once more.

Jack could hear the subtle sounds of desperation in his voice. For the previous four hours, Jack had watched Javier’s demeanor slowly change and now, as they were about to head back to the airport, worry and doubt crept into the corner of his eyes. With his head turned away, Jack watched as Javier wiped his face.

“Javi, I know we’ll find that pyramid. Look at how small this island is. I could throw a dime out the window right now and find it tomorrow. Let’s head back to the hotel and review the data. Once we study all the films, I’m sure we’ll find something,” Jack said, optimistically.

Javier turned toward Jack, his eyes red and teary.

“You’re right, Jack. This island is too small to lose a pyramid. It’s out there somewhere, buried under one of those mountains,” Javier said, pointing south toward Kalamos. “Let’s get back and review the data. It might just be staring us in the face and we simply don’t see it because we’ve been at this too long,” he added, now feeling encouraged.

Jack gave Javier an approving nod, then signaled the pilot to head back home. Ten minutes later, they descended past the mountainous terrain that seemed to cradle the airport, touching down on the dust
-
covered runway. Moments later, as they taxied to general parking, Jack watched as Javier stared out the window and contemplated their next move, his sadness now replaced by determination.

~~~~~  ~~~~~  ~~~~~

The home was small, but comfortable. With the help from Burt Samuelson, Javier and Jack
had
made prior arrangements to stay a local resident’s vacation home on Kythira while they were away. Nestled in the center of the tiny island, the dry desert-like landscape near the house took on the feel of parts of southern
California
that Jack had visited while in college years before.

Seated outside around an old patio table and chairs, the balmy eighty
-
degree air felt good as the two studied the videos and pictures from the day. After nearly three hours of work, the exhaustion from lack of sleep and stress began to take its toll. The harder they worked, the less effective they became, until Jack had had enough.

“Jack, look at this photo. Do you see anything unusual about this area
?”
Javier asked while pointing.

Jack looked at the image of a broken ridgeline. He compared it to other features in the surrounding area. Back and forth
,
his eyes scanned and soon, his mind became confused.

“Javi, I hate to say this, but I think I need some sleep. All the data is starting to look the same to me,” Jack said, with obvious guilt in the tone of his voice. “I must have looked at that photo a hundred times and still don’t see anything out of place.”

“It’s ok
,
Jack, I’m exhausted too. Maybe we better get some sleep and start fresh tomorrow. I’ll be in shortly. I just need to look at this video one more time,” Javier said, motioning for Jack to go inside.

“Javi, you realize you look almost as bad as I do, right?” Jack said, humorously.

“I understand your inference
,
Jack, but it’s hard for me to give up when I think of Serena in the hands of those thugs,” Javier responded.

Sitting back down, Jack said with a smile, “Well, if you’re staying, so am I.”

“Thanks Jack, I really appreciate the help,” he replied sincerely.

Two hours later, both men yawned routinely as they struggled to stay away. Leaning back in his chair, Javier closed his eyes momentarily. In an instant, he began to snore.

“Javi… Javi,” Jack said, loudly.

“I’m awake,” Javier said, his eyes springing open as he snapped back to attention.

“I think that’s the point… you shouldn’t be awake. We’ve been going at this for nearly eighteen hours and that’s after we’ve had only a few hours of sleep in three days. I think it’s time to sleep. What do you say?” Jack said, sounding determined.

“I’d answer you, but I think it would only come out sounding like a snore,” Javier joked
mildly
, the first time since Serena’s kidnapping.

Closing his laptop, Javier stood and stretched. Within minutes of stumbling into bed, he was snoring once more. Jack listened to the rattle that roared through the wall of his bedroom, momentarily distracting him from his
own
sleep. With his mind shutting down, the noise seemed to drift far away and suddenly, he too fell into a deep sleep.

~~~~~  ~~~~~  ~~~~~

Jack eyes popped open. All was eerily quiet inside the small rustic home. Checking his watch, he noticed the time:
4:12am
. He listened for a moment, then sat up. Outside his bedroom, he saw a faint light that seeped in through his bedroom doorway. Quietly, he slipped out of bed and made his way to the door. Peering through the opening, the light grew in intensity.