Atlantis Stolen (Sam Reilly Book 3) (27 page)

Sam Reilly
arrived at the entrance to the Bank of America on the corner of Wall Street and
Water. The building by this stage was swarming with police officers. He stepped
out of the car, armed with an M16 machine gun in his hands and a Glock strapped
to his left thigh. Tom followed behind with similar armament. In the foyer, the
night manager of the vault stood arguing with the senior police officer on scene.

“Good evening,
sir.” Sam shook the man’s hand. “My name is Sam Reilly, and this is one of my
associates, Tom Bower. Have you been briefed on the situation?”

“My name is
Mitchel Sawyer. I’m the night manager of the vault, and no one gets in or out
unless they are a current customer of the bank. And I’m afraid none of you are
on the list.’

Sam gritted his
teeth before he spoke. “Mr. Sawyer, in under an hour, you and just about every
other living being on this planet are going to have a really bad fucking ending
to their day, unless we stop a madman from committing the ultimate act of
terrorism.”

“I’m most sorry
to hear that sir, but I’m afraid the vault has very specific rules. In fact, it’s
protected by a number of laws, expressly prohibiting you from barging in here
like this.”

Sam pulled out
his phone and handed it to the man. “I hope this man can talk some semblance of
sanity into you before I have to kill someone.”

The man
straightened up at the threat, and then took the cell phone.

“Who is it?”

“Just pick up the
phone, and you will see.”

The night manager
spoke into the cell. “Hello?”

He nodded his
head.

Then began trying
to explain the system again, before suddenly handing the phone back. Sam took
the cell and said, “Mr. President.”

He grinned.

“Of course, Mr.
President. I’ll do that.”

The bank manager
began to protest again that he really didn’t want to go against the President
of the United States of America, but his first duty was to his customers.

Sam stuffed the
nozzle of his Glock into the man’s throat.

“I’m sorry Mr.
Sawyer. You must have misunderstood me. I said, we need to get into the vault –
right now!”

Within ten
minutes Sam and Tom were descending the elevator into the vault – alone. Both
men removed the safeties from their M16 machine guns.

“From what we
know about this guy, he’ll have the entrance to this thing well-guarded.”

Tom rested his
finger on the trigger.

And the elevator
door opened.

Sam grinned as he
saw the vault, where at least ten people lay dead. Each had been massacred by
heavy machine gun fire. “On second thoughts, we might not be the only ones
interested in this guy.”

“No Sam, it
appears you’re going to have to wait in line.” Tom scanned the room, which was
now covered in blood. “Whoever beat us here came well prepared and heavily
armed. But the question remains, where did they go?”

“That part’s
easy.”

“Really? Where?”

Sam walked up to
the incinerator and said, “Right here.” It was shaped like the head of a giant
crocodile. Like all good storage places of valuable secrets, the vault housed a
large incinerator, which its clients could use to remove the evidence of any
unwanted truths. The red metal of orichalcum shined like the devil.

“How did you
know?” Tom asked.

“Billie once
brought me here. Many years ago. She told me that her grandfather, who was
searching for an ancient civilization, used this vault to store all his
information on it. The image of the incinerator was so unique that although I
didn’t know where to place it, I recognized it inside Poseidon’s temple.”

Tom poked his
head inside the incinerator. It still smelled like burnt residue. “A nice place
to hide the entrance to an ancient city. After all, who would want to willingly
enter an incinerator?”

Billie followed Andrew
as he casually walked across the bridge. It swung gently as they traversed it,
but nowhere near enough for her to get the advantage required to somehow throw
him off. On the other side they crawled through yet another tunnel, which
opened up to the third and final challenge – the test of bravery.

Nearly forty stone
pillars stood precariously above a deep ravine. Below which, one could see
nothing but darkness. At first glance it would be impossible to jump from each
stone to the next all the way across the chasm.

Billie stood
there, watching, but refusing to show the way.

“My dear Dr.
Swan. I’d like to say that we can wait all day, but to tell you the truth…”
Andrew glanced at his watch, “we have just under twenty minutes.”

“All right. See
those three white stone pillars?” she asked.

“I see them.”

“Good, the long
gap between the second and third are merely illusions. The dark ground below is
the best disguise.”

Andrew grinned at
her. “You first, Doctor.”

“Okay, but I need
my hands untied. You have a gun, and you’re at least twice my size, so what are
you worried about?”

He shrugged his
shoulders. “Why do you need your hands to jump across some rocks?”

“Because I need a
run off to do so, and I’ll never make it without the full swing of my hands.”

“I don’t care if
you don’t make it.”

“Sure, suit
yourself. I’ll just wait here and watch you try and jump it.”

Andrew studied
the gap. The optical illusion was nearly perfect. Then he stepped up to her
with a knife in his hand and shoved it inside the handcuff’s locking mechanism.
The cheap lock cracked under the pressure.

Billie lifted her
hands slowly. “Thanks.”

He nodded to her,
pointing his gun. “Now it’s your turn. Go!”

She turned and
ran into the chasm, stepping from one stone to the next until she came to a
complete stop. There she stared down at the dark ravine. She picked up a pile
of white sand and threw it out into the black expanse.

Instantly, a
hidden path, no wider than a person’s foot, could be seen wandering across the
remaining 11 or more feet to the other side. Instead of being a straight beam,
the secret path snaked around the room, so that no one could simply guess it
was there. It was made from an alloy. Unlike the Atlantean’s unique alloy
orichalcum which reflected light majestically, whatever material they had built
the secret path with absorbed all light. She carefully stepped foot in front of
foot until she reached the other side.

“Now your turn,”
she said.

Andrew carefully
stepped from one stone tower to the next. As with everything she’d seen him do,
he appeared confident and surefooted. By the time he’d reached the precipice
just before the secret path, she felt the soft ground below her sink. It was
dark, and despite shining her flashlight directly on it, the ground seemed to
disappear.

She watched as
Andrew took his first couple steps onto the hidden path. And then she reached
down and picked up a handful of the dirt, throwing it directly at him. The dust
blackened the entire secret path, along with the stepping stones leading onto
it, leaving Andrew to remain floating high above the chasm.

“My dear Dr.
Swan, are you not forgetting that only I am carrying the code to Atlantis?”

Billie forced
herself to smile. “I was thinking of a trade. Throw me your bag, and I’ll throw
some more white sand.”

“I have a better
idea. How about I just retrace your steps.” Andrew then slowly stepped forward,
into oblivion.

Billie looked
around the room for anything to use as a weapon, but with the exception of the
Sphere, the place was barren.

Andrew laughed at
her concern. “Did I not mention that I have the good fortune of a photographic
memory?” To prove his point, he then skipped along the wandering secret path.

He then walked
toward the Sphere of Atlantis. It glowed blue in anticipation. Andrew expertly touched
and rearranged several of its ancient symbols, changing them from blue to red.
He worked quickly, and like a man who had been born to work on such a machine.
Unlike Billie and Edward, who had only ever been merely guessing at the purpose
of the ancient and complex machine, Andrew appeared to intrinsically know what
it wanted. As though it were alive, and it was waiting for him.  

Billie approached
slowly. “What are you doing, Andrew?”

“That’s close
enough, Dr. Swan,” he said, raising his handgun toward her. “If you must know,
I’m changing the course of history for humanity.”

Andrew looked
down at the sudden pain in his arm.

He didn’t even
see the ancient knife. He could only guess that she’d picked it up from where
it had been buried inside the mysterious darkening alloy. Taking a deep breath,
the adrenaline sent him into a frenzy of rage. Before he could come to any real
understanding of what had just happened, Dr. Swan had charged at his gun with a
force that did her lithe frame injustice.

The gun went
flying from his hand, landing on the floor. In an instant, he ducked to grab it
and Dr. Swan brought her knee up to his jaw. Dazed, his fingers gripped the
weapon. He pulled it up to shoot her, but before his hand could move, she’d
kicked it so hard that it broke a number of his fingers and sent the weapon
flying.

He turned to race
for it. Already, she had begun pressing several of the symbols on the sphere.
It glowed black with disapproval.

“You fucking
bitch!” Andrew swore. “What have you done?” He then elbowed her hard in her
face. She dropped to the floor, barely conscious.

Edward stepped
into the massive cavern, quickly and with growing confidence he moved in, to pick
up the Glock. Without saying a word, he pulled the trigger.

Andrew heard the
two shots fire.

Then he felt the
burning sensation in his chest. 

Taking a deep
breath, he heard the gurgle of blood in his lungs. He slid to the floor, an
aghast look of despair on his face. His confidence now changed to sorrow and
loss. He wasn’t worried, just disappointed.

Dr. Swan was
quick to retrieve her knife and hold it close on his throat. The thought made
him want to laugh.

Didn’t she
realize he was mortally wounded?

Andrew tried to
speak, but the knife made it difficult. Still, he tried. She had to know the
truth.

Edward started to
enter symbols on the sphere. “Quick Dr. Swan – the code! Tell me you have the
code to Atlantis!”

“Yes. Here.”

Andrew tried to
move, but she withdrew her tablet and tossed it toward Edward.

“It’s all on
there,” Dr. Swan said.

“Good work. I
knew I could trust you!”

Dr. Swan yelled.
“Edward, I can’t believe you’re alive! How did you survive?”

“It’s a long
story, but for now, I need to enter the code.”

The blue sphere
glowed radiantly as Edward began quickly inputting the code. When the final
image was inputted, the sphere began to rotate on its axis. A shining blue
light reaching toward the ceiling.

“What the hell
have you done?” It was the pygmy who spoke with vitriolic rage. “You were
supposed to bury Atlantis properly, not activate it!”

Edward smiled,
pulled the pistol out again and shot the pygmy dead with a bullet straight to
his head. “Sorry little king. I lied.”

“What the fuck
have you done?” Billie cursed.

“Indeed, I am
very sorry,” Edward said. “I neglected to mention that I’m part of the Phoenix
Resistance. All I’m doing is making the world right again. Andrew, you were
supposed to activate it! I knew that your lavish lifestyle would make you weak.
Greedy, you were most likely trying to determine where if you could reprogram
it to destroy parts of Manhattan only – making my investment in high altitude
real estate worth a fortune to you.”

Andrew tried to
reply, but couldn’t.

Billie looked up
at him. “But it was already activated. The code was supposed to deactivate it!”

“Yes, well you
were very gullible, weren’t you? What did you think was happening? That you had
walked in here, touched some things and triggered a cataclysmic event? No, I’ve
tried for nearly fifty years to get my hands on the code to Atlantis, and only
you have been able to give it to me. So thank you. It’s a real shame that we’re
all going to die.”

Sam fired three
short bursts from his M16 and the machine gun sprayed Edward Worthington before
he could finish his next sentence. He and Tom then quickly crossed the secret
path over the dark ravine.

“How much time
have we got?” he asked.

“About five
minutes,” Billie replied.

Letting go of
Andrew, she began examining the sphere again.

Sam looked at the
code and then at the sphere. “Can you deactivate it?”

“I have no idea.
I mean, it must be possible, but I wouldn’t have a clue how.”

Andrew began to
move. His face was white with sweat beads. Blood frothed at his mouth as he
exhaled.

Sam stepped
toward him. “Where do you think you’re going?”

Andrew tried to
speak, but the bubbling blood in his lungs made it difficult to hear what he
was trying to say.

Sam grabbed him
and tried to listen closely. “What is it?”

In barely an
audible whisper, Andrew replied, “I can stop it.”

“Why should we trust
you? You’ve spent the last five weeks trying to get me killed. We know that you
were the leader of the Phoenix Resistance.”

Andrew spoke
again, but no one could hear his words.

Billie stepped
in. “Because I have no idea how to stop this thing, and the timer is now
displaying two minutes!”

They helped him
to stand next to the sphere. It glowed positively with him. As though he’d been
rejuvenated by the ancient sphere, Andrew began rapidly working with his hands
along the myriad of symbols.

Billie looked at
him. The wounds to his chest were now almost entirely gone. “Who are you?”

His disarming
smile returned, and Andrew said, “My name’s Andrew Brandt, and I have waited
nearly two hundred years to infiltrate the Phoenix Resistance and protect the
sphere of Atlantis.”

Sam grabbed his
arm. Previously badly wounded by Billie’s knife, it was now almost entirely
healed. “That’s impossible. No one lives that long.”

“You’re right. It
is impossible,” Andrew replied, like a creature from beyond our reality. “If you
want to live, I suggest you both leave now.”

“What are you
going to do?” Billie asked.

“I’m sending
Atlantis where it will be protected for another thousand years.”

He entered the
code to Atlantis and the Sphere glowed blue. He held on to two specific symbols.
Sam had studied them before, but had never truly worked out what their purpose
was. Literally, one translated to life, while the other, death.

The ground began
to shake and small stress fractures slowly reached up toward the ceiling of the
massive cavern.

Tom looked at the
large crack in the wall. “Sam, Billie. It’s time to go, the roof’s going to
come down soon.”

“We’re right
behind you.”

Sam stopped at
the edge of the chasm and glanced at Andrew once more. His eyes were alive, and
he appeared happy – finally in possession of the greatest power on earth.