The Atlantis Stone

by Alex Lukeman

  A polite Japanese man escorted her back to the private room. Hood was already seated. He rose when she came in. He wore a lightweight tailored gray suit and a blue and white tie.

  "You're looking nice this evening, Elizabeth."

  She was wearing her usual black and white outfit, nothing Hood hadn't seen before. She took the complement for what it was.

  "Thanks. This is a wonderful idea. I'm glad you called."

  They sat across from each other.

  A waiter appeared and Hood ordered sake for both of them. There was no need to order food. The menu was Omakase. Everything would be brought one course at a time, without any say in what would be served.

  When the waiter had gone, Hood took a small electronic device from his pocket, set it on the table and turned it on. It made it impossible for anyone to listen in on their conversation.

  "Just a precaution," he said.

  "It's a habit," Elizabeth said. "I do the same thing in public."

  Hood filled her cup and then his own. "We have a lot in common, don't we?"

  Elizabeth sipped. It was good sake, cloudy, unfiltered.

  "Our jobs overlap quite a bit."

  Hood toyed with his cup. "I was thinking of more than our work. We enjoy similar things. Take Japanese food, for example. Not everyone appreciates sushi."

  Elizabeth raised her cup, enjoying herself.

  "Or sake."

  "Or sake," Hood said. He lifted his cup and emptied it.

  When they came out of the restaurant two hours later they were both high on the rice wine.

  Hood's driver held the door open for him.

  "That was fun," she said. "I really enjoyed myself."

  "So did I." Hood stood next to her. "Elizabeth..."

  "Yes?"

  Hood reached down and touched her face. Then he leaned close and kissed her.

  Elizabeth was shocked. She hadn't expected him to do that. It put her at a loss for words. Instead of speaking, she kissed him back.

  Hood stepped away. "Sorry, I shouldn't have done that."

  "Oh, Clarence, don't be so old-fashioned. You don't have to apologize."

  "I could blame it on the sake, but that's got nothing to do with it. I find you very attractive. I thought that kind of thing was over for me. I guess I was wrong."

  "That kind of thing?"

  "Being attracted to someone. As I am to you."

  Standing in the warm Washington evening and listening to Hood's soft, Southern accent, Elizabeth felt something shift inside. It had been a long time since someone wanted to get close. The kiss had cracked open a door she'd closed long ago.

  She looked at him with a new eye. Hood wasn't a bad looking man. He was in his 60s but he'd held up pretty well. He was taller than she was, but then almost everyone was. His hair had turned full gray and was perfectly cut. He wasn't wearing any jewelry except a gold watch, not even a class ring. She liked that in a man.

  "I like you too, Clarence."

  "I can settle for that." He smiled at her. "Let's do this again."

  "Call me."

  She touched him on the arm and got into her car. Hood watched her drive away.

  Down the street a man with a camera got into his car.

  CHAPTER 22

  Valentina called General Vysotsky from Marsá Matruh. The connection over the satellite link was faint but clear.

  "Two FSB agents?" Alexei said.

  "I recognized one of them. She's a real bitch. Her name is Katerina Rostov."

  "I know who she is. She's one of Volkov's favorites. What's Harker's team up to?"

  "I don't know. They left their hotel and Rostov followed them. They headed out on the coast highway toward Libya. It's wide open along there and there's no traffic because of the threat from ISIS. There was too much chance of being spotted if I followed, so I waited near their hotel for them. It was hours before the Americans came back. Their car looked like somebody attacked it with sandpaper. Rostov and her partner were nowhere in sight. I don't know what happened to them."

  "Where did they go?"

  "The only thing between here and Libya is some old ruins on the coast highway. Maybe they were going sightseeing. It's a tourist attraction, there can't be anything important about it."

  "I'll be the judge of that."

  Valentina wanted to tell him to go to hell. Instead she said, "What do you want me to do?"

  "What you have been doing. Observe. Watch Harker's team and watch Rostov."

  "I can't watch them both all the time."

  "You don't have to. Rostov will be watching to see what the Americans are doing, like you. You just have to be in the right place to see them both."

  Easy for you to say, Valentina thought.

  "Your sister and her comrades are looking for something. Volkov wants it, whatever it is. He will have instructed Rostov to get it anyway she can. Under no circumstances must she succeed."

  "Do you want me to take her out?"

  "Not unless it becomes necessary."

  "It would simplify things."

  "No, Valentina. You heard what I said. Only if necessary. Keep me informed."

  Vysotsky ended the call.

  Only if necessary.

  Valentina was pretty sure it would become necessary. She knew Rostov by reputation. Sooner or later the woman would make a mistake that required stepping in.

  Like threatening her sister.

  Thinking of Selena was complicated. Where did her loyalties lie? On the face of it, it was simple enough. Selena was a spy for the main enemy. But she was also the only family Valentina had in the world.

  Valentina remembered countless lonely nights when she'd wished for a family, for someone to hold her and care for her. Her mother had been an active KGB agent and was almost never home. Valentina had been brought up by KGB and SVR instructors. The curriculum didn't include family dynamics. The ideal operative had no family except the state. Until recently, that had been Valentina's norm.

  Valentina was proud of her role, her uniform. She had respect. She knew people thought her cold but she didn't care what they thought. She'd found her place in the world as an instrument of Russian state policy.

  Then her world had turned upside down. She'd learned she had a sister and that her father had been an American spy.

  Valentina hadn't been prepared for the emotional shock that followed from the discovery. Emotions made her uncomfortable. She'd succeeded in suppressing almost everything that felt upsetting but when she discovered Selena, the brittle walls she'd built up to contain her feelings began to crumble. She'd been shocked by the sensations that surged through her when she first saw her sister in person.

  Not long after that she'd kept Selena from being horribly murdered. She hadn't been prepared for how protective she'd felt, or how angry she'd been at the same time.

  It was all very confusing.

  Now here she was again, keeping an eye on her sister from a distance. Like before, there was a threat to the only family she had. Rostov and her companion meant no good. If the FSB wanted something, they were skilled at getting it. Valentina was under no illusions about what would happen if Rostov managed to isolate Selena and question her. Katerina Rostov was a sadist. The interrogation would be brutal. It would be easy to make the body disappear afterward.

  It wasn't going to happen, not if Valentina had anything to say about it.

  CHAPTER 23

  "I need a shower," Selena said.

  "You and me both. You go first," Nick said.

  Selena didn't argue. After she finished she dried off and put on a robe provided by the hotel. Still drying her hair, she went to her laptop and turned it on. She loaded the pictures she'd taken on her phone and chose a close-up shot of the fallen slab inscribed with Linear D. She'd begun thinking of it as the language of Atlantis.

  Someone had carved the inscription more than five thousand years ago. In her imagination she pictured a man in sandals and a short, white tunic, holding a hammer and
chisel as he chipped away.

  Who was he, the man who put these characters here? What did he look like? Was he Egyptian? Someone from a land that's supposed to be a myth?

  She brought up the notes she'd made on the tablet in the French museum. The writing in the photograph was similar, but there were characters she hadn't seen before. She copied down the new symbols, adding them to the list she'd created before. When she was sure she'd noted everything new, she looked at the result.

  She now had a list of thirty-six symbols and characters, each representing a concept or thought. She'd succeeded in assigning an initial meaning to most of the characters. The problem was that a symbol that meant "water" had multiple interpretations, depending on the context.

  Slowly she began to piece together a sense of what was written. She lost track of time. She started when Nick came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. It jolted her back to the present.

  "How's it going?"

  "Look at this." Selena pointed at the picture on the monitor. "What does that look like to you?"

  "Like an arrow pointing away from a squiggly line, with a hat under it. And three concentric circles."

  "What about that round circle with the lines coming off it?"

  "I suppose it could be the sun. I've seen pictures of primitive carvings that look like that."

  "That's what I think. I think this is a map."

  "A map of what?"

  "A map that shows where Atlantis was." She traced her finger across the screen. "The squiggly line could represent a coastline. It looks a little like the coast of North Africa."

  She pointed at the concentric circles.

  "That character under the circles means home. The one next to it means water, like ocean. You see how the symbol for the sun is off to the side of the symbol for home?"

  "Yes," Nick said, "but I don't see what it means."

  "By checking your position against the sun and this map, you'd know where you were."

  Nick thought about it. "If that's the case, the sun always has to be in the same position for the map to mean anything."

  "Yes. It must represent a time of day. The most logical time would be noon."

  "You think these people navigated using the sun?"

  "Why not? Lots of ancient cultures figured out how to sail over the ocean without getting lost."

  "Where's the starting point? You need someplace to start from or the map doesn't make any sense."

  "I think this symbol that looks like a hat is the temple where we found the inscription. See the arrow pointing toward the circles? If the hat represents the temple, you would follow the line of the arrow toward the circles, using the sun as your reference point. That would put you way out in the Atlantic, if I'm reading this correctly."

  "You know how crazy this sounds?" Nick asked. "You're telling me you just found a map pointing to Atlantis."

  "It's no more crazy than us being here in the first place," she said. "If the Russians weren't taking it seriously, we wouldn't be here."

  "Was there anything on that piece of rock to tell us where the archive is?"

  "No."

  "Then we're back to square one."

  "Not exactly. If this is a map showing where Atlantis was, we might be able to find it. The archive could be there."

  "If it is, it's under a hell of a lot of water. You want to go looking for underwater ruins?"

  "Those three circles could be the symbol of the capital city. It's logical that the archive would be there." Her face glowed with excitement. "Think about it, Nick. We're talking about Atlantis. We'd be the first people to see it in thousands of years. This map is the key to finding it. We have to try."

  "How do you intend to get down there? I can't see Harker going to the Pentagon and asking them if she could please borrow a ship to go look for Atlantis."

  "We don't need the Navy," Selena said. "I know someone who has everything we need for deep-sea exploration. I can hire him. The Pentagon doesn't need to get involved."

  Every time Nick managed to forget how wealthy Selena was, something happened to remind him. The kind of expedition she was talking about would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Maybe more. Selena's uncle had been a billionaire. His murder had brought her to the Project and left her with a fortune. She'd given a lot of it away to charity but there was still plenty left over.

  All that money hadn't turned her into someone who thought she was better than everyone else. It was one of the reasons Nick loved her.

  "We'd have to clear that with Harker."

  "We should go home. We're at a dead end unless there's something out there in the ocean. If the Russians come here they aren't going to find out any more than we have."

  "The Russians will find that temple, like we did," Nick said. "They'll come to the same conclusion. They'll go look for Atlantis."

  "Then we'd better get there before they do," Selena said.

  CHAPTER 24

  Katerina Rostov was angry. First they'd missed the turn into the desert. Then the storm forced them to the side of the road. Then the car wouldn't start. By the time it did, it was too late to go after the Americans. There was nothing to do but go back to the hotel.

  "I hate this country," Katerina Rostov said. "I'm still trying to get sand out of my hair."

  She looked out the window at the street below.

  "If it wasn't for the pyramids, no one would give a shit about Egypt," Dimitri said.

  "I'm tired of playing games."

  "What do you want to do?"

  "We have to make the woman tell us what she knows. If they found what they were looking for out there, they'll go home soon. We're running out of time."

  Dimitri waited. He knew better than to interrupt her while she was thinking

  "If we try to take her when she's with the others it's going to go bad. We have to get her alone. In the hotel would be best, less can go wrong."

  "She's always with the others."

  "She'll be less alert inside the hotel. All we need to do is get her out of the room by herself."

  "How about having her called down to the lobby?" Dimitri asked. "Like for a package."

  "A package would be suspicious. A message might work. Something she has to pick up at the desk."

  "She'll tell them to bring it up."

  "There'll be a reason why they can't. Money buys anything here. It shouldn't take much to get the clerk to do what we want."

  "When do we move?"

  "Now."

  They were headed for the door when Katerina's phone vibrated in her pocket. She looked at the ID.

  "Volkov." She made the connection. "Yes, General."

  "What is your status? I am waiting for your report."

  "We are about to engage with the woman. I expect to have more later today."

  "You are usually more efficient, Major. Make sure that you do."

  Volkov hung up.

  Zhopa, Katerina thought.

  "What did he want?"

  "To be a pain in the ass, as usual. Let's go."

  The hotel where the Americans were staying was only a few blocks away. Outside the entrance, Katerina turned to Dimitri.

  "You go in before me. Meet me at the elevators in back, away from the desk."

  Dimitri went in. Katerina followed him in a minute later. She went up to the desk, where a clerk waited behind the counter.

  "Can you help me?" Katerina said in Arabic.

  The clerk looked at her. She couldn't hide her foreignness but she'd covered her hair with a plain scarf. It seemed to show respect for Islamic custom but it was only camouflage. Katerina had no respect for Islam or any other religion.

  "How may I be of assistance?" the clerk said.

  "A friend of mine is staying here. I want to leave a message for her."

  "There is a house phone over there." He pointed. "You can use it to call her or leave a message."

  "She may be with the people she's traveling with. I don't want them to know
I'm here. I want to leave her a note. Could you call up to her room and tell her there's a message waiting down here?"

  Katerina had an American twenty dollar bill barely visible under her fingers. She slid it across the counter toward the clerk.

  With a casual movement the clerk made the bill disappear.

  "What is her name, your friend?"

  "Connor. Or she may have registered under her married name as Carter. She is a blonde foreigner. I don't know her room number."

  "She's in 514. I know who she is. Where is your note?"

  "Do you have a piece of paper I can write on?"

  The clerk reached under the counter and brought out a piece of paper and an envelope with the hotel logo.

  "Compliments of the hotel."

  "Shukran."

  Katerina wrote. She folded the paper and sealed it in the envelope. She wrote Selena's name on the outside and handed it to the clerk.

  "Shukran," Katerina said again. Thank you.

  The clerk watched her walk away.

  Her skirt is too short, he thought. At least she put on a scarf. Her Arabic wasn't bad.

  He picked up the house phone and dialed Selena's room.

  CHAPTER 25

  Elizabeth was heading back to her desk with her first morning cup of coffee when Stephanie came into the office holding a newspaper under her arm. She looked grim.

  "I think you'd better see this."

  "What's the matter, Steph?"

  Stephanie handed her the folded paper.

  "Take a look."

  Elizabeth opened the paper, a Washington tabloid that thrived on Beltway scandal. On the front page was a picture of Elizabeth and Hood locked in what looked like a passionate embrace.

  CIA DIRECTOR IN LOVE TRYST

  CIA director Clarence Hood was caught last night fondling an unknown female companion outside an expensive Washington restaurant. Seems that Hood has been spending his taxpayer dollars on wine, women and song. That's okay, Director. We won't tell anyone. Let's hope the lady isn't a Russian spy.