Edward looked back up at the hundreds of white pygmies who guarded the entrance, as though he were judging if his chances would be better if he tried to escape now. One look, and he turned and ran to catch up with her.
“Sweet Jesus, Billie, didn’t you listen to the little pygmy?”
She turned and smiled at him. “Every word. We’ve got three hours. We probably shouldn’t waste too much time with chit-chat.”
The door behind them closed, leaving them silent in the dark. “The three challenges of the temple of Poseidon involve strength, intellect and an act of bravery. Now, I’m not doubting the thoughts of the blessed savior of Atlantis, but wouldn’t Mark have been the better choice for strength?”
“Relax, I’ve already been through these challenges.”
Edward’s face visibly relaxed. “You have? How?”
“When I entered Atlantis. It too had three challenges: strength, intellect, and bravery. I bested all three, and I’m betting my life that if this is an identical recreation of Atlantis, the challenges will be the same.’
“You better hope you’re right.”
The tunnel reached an opening. A quick scan of the room revealed it to be a large square, perhaps fifty or more feet wide. At the far end, the tunnel continued deeper into the temple. Only the tunnel didn’t continue forever. Instead, its ceiling, hinged on large hidden bolts, dipped in height in a gradual downward direction until it touched the floor. The roof space was covered in wooden spikes that gave Billie a clear indication of what the roof would do to a person who failed the challenge.
At the center of the room a steel bar hung from the ceiling above a stone chair and table in which a person could lock his legs. The mechanism had obviously been maintained and updated to more current materials, but there was no doubt in Billie’s mind – the purpose of this device was the same as in Atlantis.
Billie looked up and said, “The first room is the test of strength. See that steel bar?”
A large crease formed at the center of Edward’s sweat-covered forehead. His evident fear of being drowned in the cavern had now been replaced by the more immediate likelihood of death by crushing spears. “I see it, Dr. Swan.”
“It’s basically a cantilever that runs through a series of mechanisms hidden in the ceiling in order to balance the weight of the hinged ceiling that’s blocking our progress through to the next room.”
“How do we do that?” Edward interrupted.
“At the other end of that tunnel a lever needs to be pulled from an upwards to a downward position and then held there, long enough for the pulleys to fully open a secret part of the wall, thus letting us through to the next level.”
“And I take it the strongest person needs to pull down on the cantilever long enough to allow that person to reach the lever?”
“Yes, but it’s not that simple. You see, for every ten seconds you hold the cantilever, the fulcrum moves an inch closer, thus increasing the strength required to lift the opposite ceiling.”
“Okay, so we move quickly?”
“It’s not about running to the other side of the tunnel. Once you’re there it takes nearly two minutes to bring open the secret door.”
Edward looked frustrated. “Dr. Swan! May I remind you that in less than three hours this entire place is going to be flooded again, and you and I are going to have a pretty shitty day, if we don’t work this out! So, how about you just tell me what I have to do!”
“There’s another lever. It’s about halfway down the tunnel and almost undetectable unless you know where to look. If I turn that lever, every time you lift the cantilever in the main room, the fulcrum moves an inch away from you. By the time you’ve done that enough, the weight of the bar along with one of our backpacks should be enough to hold the ceiling upright.”
“Okay, you know where the secret lever is, so I’ll pull on the main cantilever,” Edward said.
“Sounds like a plan.”
Edward took grip of the steel bar and pulled using his body weight predominantly to lower his side of the cantilever. She watched him relax as the pulleys began moving and the ceiling started to lift. Slowly he lowered himself to the stone chair. “Go. I can hold this for a while. You do what has to be done.”
“Okay, let me know if you can’t hold it anymore, because we both know what happens if you let go.”
“I know… I know… Just go!”
Billie didn’t wait any longer. Instead, she moved quickly along the tunnel until she reached the same place where she found the lever that moved the fulcrum in the same challenge in Atlantis.
Only it wasn’t there.
She went back and forth until she conceded it was missing. She shouted back, “How are you holding up there, Edward?”
“I’m up to the third increase in weight, but I think I can still hold it for a while longer.”
“Good, I just want to a look at something and then I’ll be back.” Billie didn’t wait for his response. Instead she ran to the very end of the tunnel and pulled on the lever – but nothing happened. She watched the wall for another thirty seconds, and then returned to the main room in case Edward should lose the ability to hold the bar.
The instant she was inside the room and clear of the ceiling covered in spikes Edward slowly released the bar, as a weightlifter would in an attempt to avoid jarring the equipment. A series of sounds rang through the walls and roof. It was like one of those old coin donation machines in which the donator received the pleasure of watching the coin roll down each section, triggering a reaction. In this case, those reactions were slight movements of the fulcrum and pulleys being returned to their resting state, with the hinged ceiling flat on the surface of the tunnel.
The tunnel they needed to pass.
She swore loudly.
“You okay Billie?”
“I’m all right, but I think we have a problem.”
“Don’t tell me. It’s not the same challenge?”
“It would appear not. It’s actually very similar to the one I overcame in Atlantis, but there’s no secret lever which changes the position of the fulcrum. It appears this really is a test of strength.”
“So you should have chosen Mark, not me!”
“Christ, I didn’t bloody know that they would change the challenge! I assumed when I heard the challenges involved a test of strength, intelligence, and braveness that they were identical!”
“But they weren’t!”
“No, and now we’re going to have to pay!”
“Now what?” Edward still looked to her for solutions.
“We try again. Only this time, we look at it as a simple test of strength. See how far we get. I’m quite small. Perhaps I can slide into the opening in the wall before the weight becomes too much for you?”
“Oh that’s great!” Edward complained. “Even if I’m successful and you do get through, then I remain trapped and likely to be killed?”
“No. The challenges were designed to be beaten by two people. Normally, once reaching the other side, there is a master lever. The purpose of this one is to set the entire system to neutral and allow the contestants to simply walk through.”
They tried again and failed once more. Then twice, but on the third attempt, Billie grinned at Edward.
“What is it?”
“What if we’re looking in all the wrong places?”
Chapter Fifty-Two
Billie laughed at its simplicity.
“It’s nothing more than deception and sleight of hand!”
Edward stared at her. As though certain she was insane. “I’m afraid those spikes are very sharp, and the roof remains too heavy for me to hold for any length of time.”
“That’s okay, because we don’t have to hold it very long at all.” She sat down on the stone, and casually reached up to take hold of the pulley. Gently taking it off its first hinge, she said, “Look what happens to the roof behind us.”
And there it was. While the lever was being pulled, the ce
iling behind them lowered, leaving a section to climb out of. The most obvious of solutions, except painfully hidden to those who were focusing so much on the area in front because their lives depended on it.
Edward smiled. “You’re a genius Dr. Swan!”
“I was wrong, this was a test of strength of mind, not body.”
Edward then held the bar while Billie climbed through the exit and into the second room. There she quickly found the reset lever and the entire ceiling from the first challenge rose.
A moment later, Edward quickly emerged.
“Okay, so this must be the second challenge – the test of intellect.”
Billie stared at the room. It was a similar size with a large canyon in the middle. A gap of nearly ten feet blocked their progression. Below it, the stone floor appeared lethal at nearly thirty feet below. There was no way to climb down. A brass pedestal stood at the precipice to the chasm. At its base, a large pile of gold ingots were stacked half a foot high, their luster unaffected by the thousands of years they’d spent inside the ancient cavern.
Both of them resisted the inkling to take any – some riches are only valuable if you live long enough to spend them.
In the middle of the room, a single plaque made of orichalcum glowed red. Billie approached it quickly. The inscription was written in an Atlantean script, which was almost indistinguishable from that which the Master Builders used. It explained that to pass this challenge the contestant needed to calculate the weight of the tiny gold ingots to balance the exact weight of the bridge. Too much and the bridge would fall to the ground below. Not enough, and the bridge would be pulled higher.
“This is almost identical to the one that I overcame in the other Atlantis. Only this one involves counting piles of gold instead of orichalcum.”
“Did you work out how much orichalcum was needed to open the drawbridge?”
“Yes, but it will be completely different using gold ingots!”
“Pity.” Edward walked to the edge of the chasm, and looked at its unforgiving and vacant expanse. “Where’s the bridge?”
“In Atlantis, the bridge was hidden, and swung toward the middle when I worked out the riddle.”
“Riddle? I haven’t seen anything to at least guide us with our task.”
Billie looked worried. “I’m not sure. Last time, it was left nearby the chasm.”
“Like that?” Edward suggested.
In the corner of the room a single set of brass scales stood lonely. At its base, another plaque was inscribed with the Atlantean ancient text.
Billie walked to it and began reading out loud…
“Place precisely 10 stadia on the pedestal. If you place more or less weight on the pedestal, the bridge will automatically collapse.”
“What the hell is a stadia?”
“Plato’s Critias Dialogue describes the length of Poseidon’s temple by the unit of measure of stadia. Of course, no one has ever been able to work out exactly how much length that was. Some have suggested it was equivalent to a Greek stadium, but I think that’s merely Plato playing on the superiority of Athens. Now, here it appears to be a measure of weight. Perhaps a length of it correlates to a certain weight. Either way, there’s no other explanation than it being a measurement of weight used by the people of Atlantis.”
Edward sighed. “I’ve studied in many fields through the course of my life, but math was never my strong point!”
“Come on Edward, we can beat this.” Billie continued to read the puzzle left by the Atlanteans. In front of her, a single balancing scale stood threateningly at the edge of the room. Four heavy iron weights stood at its base.
“Using only these four weights – 2, 6, 18, and 27 stadia respectively, the challenger must determine how many gold ingots to place on the opposite side of the scales to achieve precisely 10 stadia.”
“Damn it! I said I didn’t like math!” Edward then studied it carefully.
Billie began scribbling the numbers and potential solutions on her tablet.
Edward was the first to see the answer. “I’ve got it!”
“What’s the answer?” Billie asked in surprise.
“It’s easy,” Edward said. “We need to place the 6-stadia weight and the 2-stadia weight on the opposite side to the 18-stadia weight and then add the gold ingots until the two sides balance. When the two groups weigh the same, then the weight of the gold ingots is equal to 10 stadia!”
Billie nodded her head.
The math appeared quite simple – too simple! She grabbed her tablet and quickly began searching for something. The slightest of crests formed on her forehead, the only sign of her stress. Quickly, she scrolled through and read the information she was after. Something was wrong, but she needed proof.
Edward started to optimistically load the scales until he balanced the same amount of gold ingots on the same side as the one with 8 stadia worth of weight. Once the scales were balanced, he took the gold ingots and said to Billie, “I guess that’s how much 10 stadia is. About twenty-five pounds!”
He was ready to place it inside the brass cup that formed the pedestal, when Billie stopped him.
“Wait!” she said.
“What is it?”
“I think we just got the entire equation wrong! I think we just overcomplicated a very simple math problem.”
“What do you mean? The math was simple. I’m sure we covered it in grade school or something. We placed the 18- stadia object on one side of the scales, followed by a 6-stadia and 2-stadia weight on the other side and then increased the weight with gold ingots until the scales balanced – leaving precisely 10 stadia worth of gold ingots! Now I’m going to take those 10 stadia worth of gold ingots and release our bridge.”
“That would be correct,” Billie said, with a tone of reassurance that clearly said that it wasn’t. “That is to say, if we were using the correct type of math, as we use today. But what if the Atlanteans used something different?”
“What do you mean? Math is the one universal constant, the language that defies borders!”
“The answers may be the same, but the method of reaching those answers vary greatly throughout history and society.”
“You’re losing me, Dr. Swan. In plain English, what have I missed?”
“We work on base ten! What’s to say that the people of Atlantis worked on the same system as we do?”
Edward looked hurt. “What’s to say that they didn’t?”
She shoved her tablet into his hands and said, “This!”
His eyes scrolled over the page, while his eyes stared in blank confusion. Math, she realized, really wasn’t his forte.
“According to this, the early inhabitants of the Congo Basin used duodecimal systems, as well as the most ancient tribal communities in the Himalayan Mountains of Nepal.” Billie held her notepad in her hand and then looked up and said, “Who else do we know lived in both those places?”
“The survivors of Atlantis!”
“Exactly. Why else would they evolve to use such a unique base system?”
“Christ! The people of Atlantis worked in base twelve!”
Billie nodded her head. “Therefore, we need to calculate this using base twelve.”
“Base twelve?” Edward looked confused having just agreed with her argument. “Just because my grandfather stole most of the orichalcum left in Atlantis doesn’t mean I actually know much about the place. What do you mean by base twelve?”
Billie began explaining it to him in simple terms. “Mathematics is standard. The universal language. It doesn’t matter where you come from – math is math.”
“Right,” he agreed.
“Only that assumption’s wrong. We work on base ten. Most likely because that’s how many fingers we have. Meaning we count to ten, then hundreds, which are just tens of tens, followed by thousands which is tens of hundreds, and so on.”
“All right. Now I’m following you. I’m sure we learned about this stuff somewhere. The ancient
Atlanteans didn’t use this method?”
“No. They worked out of base twelve. That means they counted to twelve and then moved to sets of twelve, followed by sets of sets of twelve.”
“Okay, so now what have we got?” Edward said, frustrated.
“Using this unique system…” Billie thought about it and then scribbled on her tablet several times until she reached an answer. “The numbers 2, 6, 18, and 26 in the game now become – 2, 6, 20, and 30 in base 10. The number 18 actually means 12 plus 8, which we all know equals 20 in base 10. And the number, 26 actually means, 2 x 12 plus 6, which equals 30.”
“Okay, that makes sense,” Edward said, although it didn’t. “So that being the case, we can work out how many gold ingots equal 20 stadia and then halve it to reach the goal of 10 stadia worth of gold?” Edward suggested.
“No, because we’re no longer looking for 10 stadia in weight.”
“But the puzzle said…”
“10 in base 12 is 12!”
Realization struck Edward!
“Which means the problem becomes very simple – we take 18 on one side and place the 2 and the 6 weight on the other to make 10, which is really 12 stadia!”
“Exactly!”
Billie and Edward carefully balanced the scale until they were confident they had reached 12 stadia of gold.
Edward looked at her and said, “You’re certain this will work, Dr. Swan?”
Beneath a smile filled with sweat, Billie replied, “Certain enough that I’m willing to bet my life on it!”
“That’s good enough for me.”
Edward, keen to discover the truth, then carefully placed the gold ingots on the pedestal.
Nothing happened.
Then the ground began to shake with the force of an earthquake. Above them, stone rubble fell from a ceiling that had lost its strength. The two quickly retreated toward the entrance of the room, which was covered by stone arches.
Chapter Fifty-Three
By the time the rubble had subsided, the chasm was replaced by a single bridge of fallen stone no more than a few feet wide, but easily able to be traversed. Billie looked at the almost perfectly formed passage.
Atlantis Stolen (Sam Reilly Book 3) Page 16
