Tomb of Zeus (Atlantis) (29 page)

Moments later, the copilots of each aircraft motioned for the teams to proceed. Ron and Adam
gave signal for them to follow.

“Good luck, Sir. We’re all really excited,” Ro
n said, as he began closing the door.

“Thanks Ron. Have a bottle of champagne iced up and ready when we come back,” Jack shouted in joking tone.

Ron laughed and shouted back, “Ice, we can handle.”

He locked the
door and stepped back with Adam out of range of the rotor blades.

Seconds later, the two helicopters lifted off. Now, for the first time, instead of heading east toward the upper ice sheet, they headed south along the shoreline. Their new search grid would now be concentrated on the regions along the coast, an area that measured thirty miles long and two miles wide. With such a small range to investigate, they knew it would take them less than a week to cover it all.

Flying the two miles from the shoreline to the upper ice sheet took less than ten minutes. As they finished the grid line in the pattern, they turned south for two hundred feet, then entered the next grid line in series, working their way down the beach.

Helena’s pulse raced as she watched her computer screen. Although she shared the same thrill as the other three in the team, her reward would be far greater than the others could ever imagine. For a moment, she allowed her mind to drift as she thought about her future. As her imagination moved between reality and delusion, she envisioned a life of great power and
esteem. She smiled in satisfaction. Then, slowly, her disposition changed. She grew agitated, then angry. She tried to force the unpleasant vision from her mind, but it was no use: Karl Sita, high priest of Arae, suddenly seemed imprinted on her every thought. For as long as she could remember, he had belittled her, publically humiliated and insulted her. She no longer considered him her father. He was now only her tormentor… but that would soon change.

She smiled in satisfaction.

“I know, pretty exciting, huh?” Jack shouted into his mic.

“Huh?” she said simply, snapping out of her daydream.

“You look excited. You’re grinning ear to ear,” he elaborated, then added, “I think we’re all feeling it.”

“Yeah, can’t wait,” she shot back quickly. “It’ll be
a long time coming,” she added cryptically.

Jack stared a moment, confused by her last statement, then became distracted.

“Hey, I’m picking something up,” he said excitedly.

Helena check
ed her own screen.

“Yeah, I’m seeing it too. It’s small, though. Could be another ore deposit,” she responded.

He watched for a short time, then nodded.

“Dammit, I ha
te those things,” he said jokingly.

Helena only smiled.

As the team made their passes back and forth along the shoreline, their excited chatter quieted as they fell into a routine. Six hours later, they had searched nearly two miles of land with little more than a blip on the radar screen.

Jack looked out his window at the ground as the helicopter made its turn onto the new grid line, heading toward shore. Like the land around Camp Zeus, it too sloped down from the upper ice sheet to a flat plateau. The level land continued for more than a mile, then slope
d again till it reached the sea. Covering all but a few hundred yards from the shoreline, was a layer of ice twenty feet thick.

Bringing his attention back into the aircraft, he studied his monitor once more.

“
HOLY SHIT!
” he blurted loudly.

Helena’s eyes darted from her computer screen to Jack’s. She studied it for less than a second, then scanned hers once more.

“I got it!” she shouted, excitedly.

On the very edge of the computer’s window, a long thin dark line appeared. Contrasted by the varying shades of whites and grays, the new object’s color was unmistakably solid and consistent.

“That’s got to be it,” Jack yelled again.

“Wow, it’s huge. I’m seeing at least two hundred feet of it and there’s still no end in sight,” Helena added.

Jack immediately called to the pilots, “Slow down guys. I think we’ve found our pyramid.”

“No kidding?” the copilot called back over their headsets.

“No kidding… there’s a solid mass down there that’s now measuring three hundred feet across and counting,” Jack replied.

“Slowing to ten knots,” the pilot announced.

“Can you go a little lower too?” Jack requested.

“We’re at fifty feet now. How low do you want to go?” the pilot asked.

“As close to the ground as possible,” Jack instructed.

Within seconds, the aircraft slowed to ten knots and flew just five feet above the surface. As Jack and Helena watched their computers, the images instantly sharpened.

“Man, that’s perfect,” Jack shouted. “We’re getting some great detail now.”

“Jack, that’s it… that’s the end of the pyramid. Amazing!” Helena pointed, barely able to contain herself. “I’m calculating about four hundred feet long.”

“Wow, just imagine, if we assume it has a perfectly square base, and the sides incline by the same fifty-one degree angle as the Atlantic pyramid, we should see the depth of the pyramid to be somewhere around two hundred and fifty feet deep,” he speculated.

“It boggles the mind,” Helena retorted. “Just below that ice, is an inverse pyramid, covered in gold. Who would’ve ever guessed?”

“It’s got to be why it’s stayed hidden all these years. Once if filled in with debris, it became completely undetectable. Honestly, if it wasn’t for flipping that crystal globe upside down, in a million years, I never would’ve guessed the Atlanteans built the pyramid facing downward. Who does stuff like that?” he joked.

“Araeans,” Helena blurted, proudly.

Jack heard the word but ask, “What?”

“Araeans, Jack. Not Atlanteans,” she corrected.

He only nodded, then called to the pilot.

“Can you move two hundred feet south of our current position, then fly back east along the grid?”

“Yes Sir, stand by,” the pilot radioed.

A minute later, they traveled along the path Jack requested.

“Would you look at that display?” he shouted excitedly. “If I’m reading this right, the depth of that pyramid
is
two hundred and fifty feet.”

As the two stared at the data on their computers, for a moment, both were speechless. Unable to contain her joy any longer, Helena turned and kiss Jack’s cheek.

“Thank you, Jack,” she said cheerfully.

“For what?” he asked
in typical modest tone.

“My life is about to change
for the better,” she responded cryptically.

----- ----- ----- -----

Two hours later…

“Once again, Jack, you’ve outdone yourself,” Javi complimented.

Having marked off the perimeter of the pyramid, the four now stood at the center of its location. All around them, the flat featureless ice secretly hid the golden structure that lay below. As the two helicopters sat quietly parked a short distance away, they pondered the magnitude of their discovery.

“I can’t believe it. Somewhere below us, Zeus is buried,” Duni said, his voice quivering with excitement.

“It really does stagger the mind, doesn’t it?” Javi responded.

“I wonder what he looks like,” Jack asked, rhetorically.

“What’s the likelihood he’s buried with his scepter?” Helena asked, exposing her interest.

“You sure love that thing, don’t you?” Jack teased. “If you were a guy, I’d accuse you of penis envy.”

“Hey, that scepter is way more important than the shriveled bones of a seven thousand your old man,” she shot back angrily.

“Whoa, slow down there Helena. I was just joking. No need to chew my head off,” he responded in surprise.

Duni elbowed Javi and laughed.

“Lovers quarrel,” he joked.

Javi merely smirked.

Jack stared at Helena with confusion. This wasn’t this first time she responded irrationally in defense of the scepter. He tried to shake it off, but this new display disturbed him.

“Helena, I’m not discounting the importance of the scepter
. It may turn out to be the most important aspect of the find. I was merely teasing you about your love for it, trying to have fun with our discovery. If I somehow insulted or offended you, I apologize, but let’s not turn this into an ugly affair. If you take all the fun out of it, it just becomes work. I think we all would like something more than that, don’t you?”

Helena realized her position. Quickly, she recovered. She stepped closer to him and smiled seductively.

“Sorry Jack, maybe I
am
suffering from some kind of penis envy… or desire,” she said softly.

Javi and Duni, smiled to each other, then took a step back.

“Hmm, do you two need to be alone a minute?” Duni teased.

“Guys, relax, she’s just joking,” Jack responded, now feeling a bit self-conscious.

Javi laughed at Jack’s bashful demeanor. Pulling their focus back on topic, he said, “I guess we should get things started. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.”

Jack composed himself, relieved for the new direction.

“I’ll say,” he quickly responded. “Finding the pyramid was the easy part. Excavation is really going to suck,” he joked.

“How that heck are we going to do that?” Duni asked. “Wi
th picks and shovels?” he asked humorously.

Javi smiled, then replied, “This is where things get very complicated. We’ll be needing all kinds of excavating equipment: backhoes; cranes
; probably even dump trucks to haul away the debris that’s filled up the pyramid. With such a remote location, I’m not even sure we can get the equipment here, and certainly not before the summers over,” he explained. “I’m guessing the excavation won’t take place till next year… or possibly the year after,” he warned.

“
NO!
” Helena blurted angrily. She instantly realized her behavior, softened and said, “What I mean to say is, it would be a real shame to have to wait that long. With my connections at the Department of Tourism, I’m betting someone might be able to help us out with the excavation.”

“That’s a wonderful idea, Helena, and we all appreciate the effort, but I’m afraid this part of the task is much more monumental than you think. The planning alone will take months. Then, if we can somehow secure the funding, the coordination efforts could take another year. Once that happens or should I say
if
that happens, the excavation itself could take years due to all the soil and debris we’ll need to delicately remove,” Javi explained.

Undaunted by the gravity of his words, Helena smiled knowingly. She looked down at her feet and envisioned
her clutching Zeus’ scepter. Nothing else mattered… for her or for the Society of Arae. Whatever they needed to do to accomplish their task, she knew they, and more importantly, her father, Karl Sita, would stop at nothing to obtain the mighty weapon.

She smiled to Javi and responded, “I think you underestimate the desire of these men. The Atlantis pyramid was the greatest find of this century, but it pales in relation to Zeus’s pyramid. I’m certain once these men learn of what we have here and understand the delays, they’ll insist on taking action. Trust me, they
will
make it happen this year,” she said resolutely.

“That would be nothing
short of a miracle,” Javi said in uncertain tone.

----- ----- ----- -----

Three days later…

Javi, Jack, Duni and Helena stood out on the ice and watched as the teams of men assembled around an industrial auger. Flown in from lower Greenland, the drill was normally use for boring large diameter holes in the frozen ground for construction purposes. With a few quick phone calls, Helena was able to locate one and have it flown to their location. Now, with the machinery in place and the men at the controls, all that was left to do was to turn it on and begin drilling.

“We’re ready, Sir,” the foreman leading the team
, shouted.

“Ok, let ‘r rip,” Jack shouted back, then added, “Remember, fifteen feet, then only an inch at a time.”

“Got it,” he shouted back.

The foreman nodded to the man at the controls. Sitting high up on the tractor, the man switched on the engine and engaged the three f
oot in diameter auger. He slowly lowered it to the ice and allowed the rotating blades to bite into the material. Instantly, shavings of ice began to eject from the drill. Seconds later, loud sounds of chatter and chafing erupted from the three foot diameter hole. As the ice shavings built up around the hole, several men shoveled away the debris.

Standing and watching with great anticipation, excitement grew with every foot the drill bit
penetrated the ice. An hour later, the man at the controls shouted over to Jack.