The Atlantis Cipher (The Relic Hunters Book 2)

by David Leadbeater

  Bodie disagreed. “Five men? Five oligarchs deciding the world’s future. How do you know we wouldn’t benefit from new innovations?”

  “Because of terrorism, and why it happens. Because of oil. Because of nuclear weapons and the greed of politicians. Because of global warming. Because of the world water crisis. And because of a small group of fighters called ISIS who, from a standing start, overran the sovereignty of nation-states.”

  “You’re saying we could self-destruct at any moment.” Bodie understood the man.

  “Yes, and if the secrets of Atlantis added fuel to that already raging fire . . .” Zeus let it hang because he didn’t need to go on.

  Artemis lit a torch and placed it firmly inside a hole in the wall. Then he crossed to the other sides of the cave and repeated the act, illuminating their surroundings and their faces in an eerie, flickering orange light. Bodie half expected him to pull on a mask, but then remembered this was no Illuminati ritual. This wasn’t a cult. Just a privileged few, selected by an odd birthright to join the world’s most secret private club.

  Zeus rattled the yellow box in Jemma’s face. “Defib,” he said. “We can tune it up to five hundred volts, but we’ll start lower just to give you a taste. We don’t want your heart giving out too soon.”

  Jemma’s eyes went wide, a tear forced out of one. Zeus saw it and smiled. “Good, good. We have an understanding. And yes, I’m aware the cave doesn’t have electricity, but my toy is fully charged and will last through three of you, maybe four. After that we’ll have to improvise.”

  Jemma opened her mouth, but no words came out. Bodie spoke for her. “You don’t have to hurt her. We’ll talk.”

  “Of course you will. But how can I be sure it’s the truth. Pain will reveal the truth. Pain is the great leveler. Now, put your feet here. Hermes, shoot her if she does not comply.”

  Jemma complied, placing her feet in the bowl. Zeus turned on the defib, placed it carefully on the ground, and unwound the paddles.

  “Start talking.” He held the paddles apart threateningly.

  Bodie couldn’t help himself, and rose to her aid. A gunshot rang out, the bullet skidding off the rock floor to his side, making him pause. There was a chance, then; these men wanted answers first, not to kill them outright. If they rushed in, some of them might live. But several would die.

  Better some than all.

  The same dilemma he’d faced during the hunt for the Statue of Zeus.

  Jemma spoke rapidly, telling everything she knew. By the time she was finished, she was breathing heavily, mostly from stress, but it was then that Zeus hit her with the first electrical charge. Jemma screamed, stiffened, and whipped her head to the side. Zeus held the paddles to her chest for a few seconds and then pulled them away. Jemma went limp. Bodie felt pain in his own heart.

  She looked up, her face twisted. Zeus smiled as he hit her again, this time for longer. Jemma thrashed and grunted in agony. Zeus signaled Artemis to ready the next person.

  “Her.” He pointed at Heidi.

  “She told you everything,” Bodie said. “Please.”

  Zeus didn’t let Jemma rest, just jammed the paddle over her chest for a third time. Once that was done, he leaned in close to her right ear.

  “Anything else you want to tell me?”

  Jemma could barely move, let alone talk. Spittle flew from her mouth. Artemis hooked his arms under her shoulders and dragged her off the rocky perch, throwing her untidily in a corner of the cave. Zeus gave her a cursory glance.

  “Weak.”

  Something occurred to Bodie right then. They were so far out of their depth here that he couldn’t even see the surface anymore. They were thieves, used to clandestine planning and furtive operations. Human contact was generally considered bad form, and remained at a minimum. Even so, he knew what he should be doing to salvage their situation: Gauging the distance to the corner where Artemis had stashed their weapons. Slowing this whole session down. Attempting to galvanize the others into a concerted effort. And much more.

  “So, what do you do exactly?” he tried.

  Zeus loved to talk. He switched off the defib to save the battery and watched Artemis pluck Heidi out of the lineup. “The Evzones,” he said, “are tasked with using any and all methods to keep outsiders at bay. We will totally eradicate any line of enquiry that may lead to the truth about Atlantis.” He shrugged. “In any way. The options are endless.”

  Bodie saw the glee on his face and knew these men were more than guardians. They enjoyed every second of what they did to safeguard Atlantis. He saw Heidi struggling against Artemis and tried in vain to quell a sudden upwelling of fear for her safety. He didn’t like to think where it was coming from.

  Heidi fought, hampered by the ropes that bound her. The suited man dragged her to the center of the room and removed a cattle prod from Zeus’s bag. Heidi focused on the tip and moved away. Artemis waved the prod in the direction of the stone plinth.

  “And what is the truth?” Bodie prolonged it.

  “Atlantis,” Zeus said simply. “And all its varied wonders. That is the only truth that matters.”

  Heidi sat heavily. Artemis knelt to take her boots off and received a full-on kick to the face. The man reeled, holding his nose. Zeus darted in, picking up the cattle prod before Heidi could lever herself off the perch. The remaining two men didn’t move, never once letting their aim waver. Bodie cursed inwardly, knowing their lives depended on distracting them.

  Zeus jammed the prod into Heidi’s stomach. The CIA agent folded, wailed. He kept it there until Artemis returned and wrenched off her boots as she tried to recover.

  “Tell us what you know,” Zeus said.

  “What she said.” Heidi nodded at the still face-down Jemma. “We’ve been together the whole time.”

  “Who at the CIA knows what you know?”

  Heidi grimaced. So, Bodie thought, they know exactly who the team is, not just faces. He watched as Heidi bit her lip before he looked over at the rest of the crew.

  “Just my boss, I guess,” she said. “But I haven’t spoken to him since the Swiss Alps. Not properly.”

  “The compass came from the Swiss Alps,” Zeus confirmed. “He knows about the compass?”

  Without warning, he pushed the paddles against Heidi and watched her suffer. Three times more he did it, and then dragged her away. They picked Cross next, and the older thief hung his head, dejected, preferring to remain in a world that was all his own.

  Bodie silently implored Cross to get it together. He could be such a huge asset, and had been Bodie’s rock for so long. The loss of Cross’s input since Yasmine appeared on the scene had become a physical pain for Bodie.

  The torches flickered in response to a slight breeze. Long shadows were thrown over the scene, and Bodie saw denizens of hell standing over his team, death in their hands. The ropes weren’t too tight and he loosened his wrists as best he could. Through simple deduction he’d narrowed his attack to one man—the member of the Evzones he could reach most easily, the one standing three meters in front of him. That long-barreled pistol surely weighed a little more by now, that tensed arm surely ready to drop. Cassidy, beside him in the line, had already whispered she would cover his attack and distract the man watching their backs.

  Distract?

  She meant get shot, for that was what they both knew would happen. If there was any other way out of this, Bodie couldn’t see it.

  Cross ignored Zeus, looking instead to the exit of the cave and toward Jemma and Heidi, huddled together. The defibrillator buzzed and the charge went through his body. Cross writhed as much as the women had, pain etched into every contour of his face, but he spoke not once, didn’t even favor Zeus with a single glance. He couldn’t stop himself from hyperventilating, though, and then clutching his chest as he went rigid with agony. Bodie clenched his fists and teeth, terrified his friend was having a heart attack, brow suddenly wet with anxious sweat, a stark desperation filling his brain. />
  Cross relaxed a moment later, falling back onto the slab and breathing easily. His limbs moved weakly and he managed to open his eyes. “Just a twinge,” he said in a defiant voice.

  “Good.” Zeus nodded, indicating that Artemis should throw him away. “The little bag of tricks will open him up a bit more later.”

  Gunn was next, and the young nerd looked so scared that even Cassidy spoke up for him.

  “There’s nothing else,” she said. “Take a goddamn break, asshole.”

  The defib whirred to life but died, battery depleted. Zeus looked disappointed and then smiled with a deep malevolence.

  “It appears we’re on to the manual tools.”

  CHAPTER FORTY

  “The history of Atlantis,” Zeus said. “What do you know?”

  Gunn stammered a reply, but nothing intelligible came out. Bodie guessed Zeus was asking the question of the team nerd because he might have carried out internet research, which would have as much fantasy wound through it as fact. That left Lucie next, of course, who would know the investigated background to everything. Bodie determined that he could not let them get to Lucie. It would be worse for her.

  Zeus started with a box cutter, waving the tiny blade before Gunn’s terrified eyes. “What do you know?”

  “Destroyed by . . . by an earthquake or tsunami. Maybe by . . . by the Great Flood. Huge, a continent that joined Europe to the Americas. An active volcanic area still runs between the Canaries and Ireland, which would intersect Atlantis perfectly. Deep soundings were made by the US, the UK, and Germany separately, which mapped the bottom of the Atlantic and showed a large elevation reaching from Britain to South America and then to Africa. It rises nine thousand feet above the immense sea depths around it and reaches the surface around the Azores. And, taking the recent proof found in the Nebraska badlands that the horse originated in America, how . . . how did this wild animal cross to Europe and Asia in this predomesticated state? Answer: he walked.” Gunn gulped. “Or trotted, or something.”

  The computer expert had gotten carried away, rambling because he was nervous. But then he saw Zeus’s blade and clammed up in fear.

  “Go on.” Zeus nodded with approval. “Everything you say is a matter of record, free on the web, but I need to hear the conclusions a man like you would draw.”

  Bodie had hoped Gunn would drag it out, and, purposely or not, he did. “The animal thing is not reserved just for horses. Camel fossils were found as far apart as Kansas and Africa. Norway elks are identical to the American moose. And so forth. The same species of plants exist in America and Asia. And, of course, there is the banana. A seedless plant. It can’t survive a voyage through a temperate zone, and yet traveled from tropical Asia and Africa to America . . .” He paused as Heidi shifted in the corner, turning and resting on her knees. For now, Bodie saw her head did not come up, but he guessed she was ready.

  Zeus was pleased with Gunn. “Go on, lad.”

  “There’s the question of the Aryan race, which we haven’t come to yet. I examined the information in advance. According to Genesis, all the races that escaped the flood with Noah, the Thracians, the Cyprians, the Ionians, and more, are all now recognized as Aryans. The center of the Aryan migrations is Armenia, in which lies Mount Ararat where the Ark rested. The Mediterranean Aryans are known to have been a sea people some four thousand years ago. Their faces are painted on Egyptian monuments. The Greeks trace their descendants back to the Aryans, and everyone—Persians, Celts, Germans, and Romans—shares the same traditions. Of course, all this is relevant because the Aryans are long thought to have been a superior race—more intelligent, stronger, better. The Atlanteans who survived would be identified as better. It was Hitler and Himmler who searched for a decade for any remnants of the Aryan race, using an SS unit by the name of Ahnenerbe, which only came to light in 1945 when soldiers discovered many thousands of documents in a cave in Germany.”

  “But no real trace of the Aryans?” Zeus asked.

  “They found nothing, but Hitler was beyond crazy. He thought measuring the circumference of a man’s skull would determine his race.”

  “Fascinating. Now . . . how high can you scream?”

  Zeus buried the tiny blade into Gunn’s thigh. Screaming, Gunn threw his head back. Zeus withdrew and buried it again. Two small but vicious cuts welled with blood.

  Gunn squealed, kicking furiously. Zeus avoided the reflexive strikes and gave an evil leer. Blood leaked through Gunn’s jeans in small beads. Bodie could wait no more. He eyed the man in front, then nodded at Cassidy.

  “See you on the other side.”

  “Yeah, wherever that is.”

  Together, they both knew that they had no choice but to risk their lives for their friends.

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  Bodie had been stretching his legs in anticipation, feigning a cramp a few minutes earlier, so when he lunged, his limbs responded instantly. The guard in front of him—Hermes—was watching Gunn striking out at their revered leader; his gun was dipping, and Bodie covered half the distance without being noticed. When Hermes saw the resolute blur streaking toward him and started to react, Bodie flung the grit and gravel and dust he’d scooped up right into the other man’s eyes. It wasn’t much but it did the trick.

  Hermes flinched away from the cloud, stumbling backward. Bodie tackled him at the waist, bearing him to the ground. Both men struck with a crunch of flesh and bone, winded.

  Cassidy used both Gunn’s and Bodie’s actions to cover her leap at Ares. She jumped and then dropped and kicked out, leading leg striking Ares’s shins. The tall man cried out in pain, dropping to his knees, but it wasn’t that simple for Cassidy.

  Falling, he leveled the gun at her head and fired.

  Lucie pushed her aside, seeing what was about to happen. The bullet passed millimeters above them, but there was no coming back from the tangled mass they ended up in on the floor. Ares staggered up, with the gun still aimed.

  On the floor, Bodie gasped for air. To his left, Gunn kicked out at Zeus from his position on the slab of stone. Heidi, close to Bodie, was trying to gain her feet, her equilibrium at odds. Jemma still sat in the corner, out of it, while Cross crawled toward Zeus, a look of grim determination on his face. Despite what he had been through, he was not about to give up.

  Bodie rolled toward Hermes, who battered him with the butt of his gun. Bodie took a blow on the bridge of the nose and saw stars. When his sight cleared, the first thing that came into focus was the metal barrel, the evil face behind it.

  “I do believe I’ll enjoy this.”

  “Wait, wait, you haven’t tortured me yet.”

  “By your smart mouth I’m guessing you were dragged up rather than properly educated. We’ll see how the class system works in the next few seconds.”

  “So this is all about class system? You believe you’re better than everyone else on the planet because you were chosen to protect a myth?”

  Hermes frowned as if listening to the inconceivable. “Of course we’re better.”

  The moment was over. Bodie knew that their attempted coup had been doomed from the start. He looked around the room. Cassidy was on her knees, hands on her head, as one of the Evzones trained his weapon on her. Gunn was on his back, having been taken out by another. And Cross could barely stand. The Evzones remained confident. Bodie wondered if this was it: the end for him and his relic hunters.

  There was movement, a scuffle at the mouth of the cave. Bodie saw several bodies entering, which ruled out it being Apollo. From his position crouched on the floor he suddenly felt shock and awe, and fear, as the bald Bratva man, Yasmine, and several other figures dashed inside. Their guns were drawn.

  “Get down!”

  It was Yasmine’s voice. Bodie echoed her words for the benefit of the rest of the team. Then he flattened himself as fast as he could.

  Gunfire resounded from wall to wall, deafening reports that scrambled their thoughts. Bodie saw muzzle flashes, figures
falling, leaking blood. He scrambled over the fallen Hermes, making sure the suited man had taken his last breath. As he did so, Bodie shook his head at the idea that he and the Bratva were now working toward a common goal. Two of the Bratva were down. Bodie twisted Hermes’s gun free of the dead man’s grip, and checked on Zeus, Ares, and Artemis.

  Artemis was dead, blood flowing from a head wound. Heidi sheltered behind his body with Jemma and Cross, but they were dangerously exposed. Zeus had ducked behind the stone plinth, pulling Gunn down too. Ares had initially stood his ground—the superior entity—but a bullet to the shoulder had convinced him to take the low road. When he ducked he didn’t reckon on Cassidy’s boot in his face, or his nose exploding all over her sole.

  His shout filled the cave. Cassidy descended like an avenging angel, battering him into unconsciousness and taking his weapon.

  Which left just one of the Evzones standing—Zeus.

  Bodie saw Yasmine and the bald Bratva soldier converging on the plinth from both sides. He saw Cassidy creeping up too and lent his own weight to the endeavor. Gunn was the major concern; they could see his legs sticking out from behind the plinth. They couldn’t see Zeus.

  “Give it up,” Bodie shouted. “Your cronies are all dead, pal.”

  In a flurry of movement, Zeus shot to his feet, dragging a protesting Gunn with him. The weapon was leveled at the young man’s head, and Zeus was dripping blood from a shallow arm wound. His expression was feral, at the very edge of sanity. Fingers paused on a hair trigger all around the cave.

  “I go free. He lives,” Zeus growled. “That is the deal. And I’ll never let you near Atlantis. You’ll die first.”

  Bodie didn’t ask anyone’s approval. “Run then, piggy. We’ll catch you later.”

  But Zeus dragged Gunn to the back of the cave. Gunn grimaced in pain, right leg limp, the wounds already clotted, but still clearly painful. For the first time since her ordeal, Jemma regained her composure and tried to stand.