David Golemon - Ancients

"Good question. It's all just best-guess, Mr. President--that's all historical science ever is. But if there's a way in, Jack will find it."

Niles yawned and cleaned his glasses. "What bothers me is the fact that we had a group of citizens in this country and in other free nations who knew about this Juliai Coalition for almost two thousand years and didn't do anything to stop them. As much as they have helped, I can't excuse the arrogance of these ... Ancients."

"What should we do with them?"

"Nothing. They're old and the last of their kind. They just need to go away."

"Niles, you know that if Colonel Collins can't find a way down, those marines are going to have a tough time of it on Crete."

"I know it," Niles answered. He knew that the president was fishing for reassurance that Collins was as good as advertised.

The intercom buzzed and the president quickly picked it up. "Yes, put him on."

Niles heard the change in the president's tone of voice and sat up.

"When and what is the force?"

Compton watched his friend place his free hand on his forehead and then hang up the phone. He looked at Niles and then stood and walked to the window once more.

"The North Koreans have come across the border with a small force. The details are sketchy and they don't know in what strength yet. The original assault is by a three-pronged group of armor we hope is just a probe, or something to elicit a response. Now there are indications that other units of the People's Fifteenth has started massing north of the DMZ."

Niles knew that the worst-case scenario was happening and there wasn't a damn thing the president could do but fight back.

"Come on, Jack," he whispered to himself.

The only difference in the ancient valley since the time of Howard Carter, who discovered of King Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922, was that there was a literal traffic jam of people with permits issued by the Egyptian government seeking the archaeological riches of the valley.

Sarah, Will Mendenhall, and twenty Event Group security men and women were being escorted through the valley by Professor Anis Arturi, the director of information for the city of Luxor. He was not a willing partner in their endeavor to find the gateway to Atlantis. He knew only that the president of Egypt himself had ordered him to watch the Americans and indulge them in their search for a tomb of some significance to the desert government.

They had been on station for four hours, but the coordinates of the Atlantis plate map did not match with what they had hoped to find. Instead of the longitude and latitude being in the valley where the tombs were located, they found themselves on a flat piece of sand-swept desert with not so much as a date tree for a hundred miles.

"Not exactly Times Square here, is it?" Will said as he checked his global positioning link on his laptop. The eight other Land Rovers were idling behind them as he and Sarah got their bearings.

"There isn't one landmark for miles around."

"I can now see why this doorway to the underworld has never been discovered."

The headlights started to pick up the sand as it blew across the desert. The wind was increasing in velocity and the guide and the Egyptian professor started squirming in the backseat.

"We should be heading back; these windstorms can be quite dangerous in the valley."

Sarah turned and looked the man in the eyes. "We haven't found what we came to find and we won't be leaving until that happens." Sarah had a momentary flash of Jack and the rest waiting on the USS Iwo Jima for their report. If they did not find the doorway, Jack would be going on the assault of Crete with the marines. There was no way she would stop looking.

"Will, drive south, very slowly."

"But, madam, there is no road, we are off the track. We cannot go further into the plain!" Professor Arturi said as he looked out into the darkness.

Mendenhall rolled his eyes and then put the large Land Rover into first gear and started forward. The wind picked up in violence as if in warning as the small line of vehicles moved onto the plain of Luxor.

Two hours later, Sarah was biting her lip. They had come across nothing even remotely manmade in this horrid area of Egypt. They had traveled in a zigzag pattern and had even spread the vehicles out in a straight line in case they had overlooked something.

"Stop and let me take another bearing," Sarah said as she placed the laptop on her knees.

The wind was howling at sixty miles per hour, rocking the Land Rover on its springs, and the windows were starting to pit from the abrasive sand. Will felt movement and thought at first it was just the wind. Then it happened again. He felt it in his stomach first, and as it increased he grabbed the steering wheel.

"Did you feel that?" he asked Sarah.

"What," she asked, her face aglow with the brightness of the screen. She did not turn away from the positioning report.

Mendenhall looked around and peered outside. He turned on the spotlight and shone it around, but he still could not see ten feet in front of the vehicle. Then he let go of the wheel and light handle when he felt the truck lurch again. He knew then that somehow it had slipped downward.

"Uh-oh," Will said when he felt it again.

"What in the hell was that?" Sarah said, looking up when the laptop jumped in her lap.

"We must leave this spot. There is quicksand all over this area; I told you it was dangerous to leave the road!" Arturi whined.

"Will, get us moving."

Mendenhall put the Land Rover in gear once more and it started to struggle forward. Suddenly the rear end went down into the sand and the two men in the back screamed. Then the vehicle rolled to the right, then to the left, and then the front went down into the sand. The laptop slid off Sarah's legs as she reached for the radio. Then the Land Rover rolled nearly upside down and then quickly straightened before vanishing into the sand.

The security personnel in the convoy could not believe their eyes as they left the safety of their own transports and ran for the spot where the lead vehicle had vanished.

Sarah and Will Mendenhall had disappeared into the soft sand and there was not so much as a tire track to say they had ever been there.

Jack listened to the final plan for the invasion of Crete. He was impressed with what commanding Marine Corps General Pete Hamilton had devised with the commander of the Joint Chiefs.

"It all boils down to the defenders taking the first piece of bait we throw into the water."

Collins nodded at the logic. "If they take your bait, that will expose all of their batteries before our people begin the assault."

"These are mercenaries--not unlike the terrorists we have tangled with--and I have learned that although it's hard to get inside of their heads, they can be expected to do one thing when the shooting starts, and that's to shoot back. Surprise is key; if we achieve it, we have a fighting chance."

Jack nodded and looked at his watch.

"Worried about your team in Egypt?" the general asked.

"If we have to depend on taking the front door and using that to gain access to their underground center instead of just holding it, we could be in for a long-running and very costly battle."

The marine general nodded in understanding.

Jack walked away from the planning table and cornered Everett.

"Nothing from Sarah and Will?"

"I've got Ryan babysitting communications, but there's one hell of a storm over the search area and they may not be able to get any signal out."

Jack looked at his watch for the hundredth time.