David Golemon - Ancients

One of the Tomlinson's engineers approached them after hearing his comments.

"Sir, we have started placing the Wave equipment in the remains of what must have been a huge lake near the center of the city. It seems to be the most stable area. Professor Engvall has started connecting the last of the Wave cables."

"Excellent. I want everything up and running within three hours."

"The cables?" Lilith asked.

"The Black Sea connection has been made." Tomlinson looked at her and then at the others. "Did you doubt that we would accomplish our goal?"

He turned and started walking to where a hundred workers were gathering to break into what the ancient scrolls had described as the Empirium Chamber.

Sarah felt herself being shaken by Mendenhall, who was calling her name. Their plunge through the darkness had ended with a sudden, bone-crunching impact into the pile of sand that had fallen beneath them from the desert floor. Then the Land Rover had rolled off the pile and hit a hard-packed surface, and that was when Sarah had hit her head.

Sarah rubbed her neck and opened her eyes. She thought she was blind for a moment until she heard Will speaking.

Mendenhall finally managed to find a flashlight and click it on. "The Rover's battery must have been torn loose from the fall." He shone the light first on Sarah and then on the two in the back. They were shaken but still alive. "At least we have air. Hot air, but breathable, I think."

Sarah tried to open her door. She pushed until it opened with a creak. She slowly climbed out and bent at the waist until she felt better. She rubbed her neck and then looked around in the darkness. She turned and felt around in the interior until she, too, found a flashlight. She turned it on and threw the beam around. Her mouth fell open in wonder.

"Jesus," was all she could say.

The light picked up a smooth surface beyond the massive pile of sand from above. The light bounced back from millions of tiles--small, colored ceramic pieces that described a life long dead, an ancient people seen at work and play. Scenes depicted the building of great monuments that, Sarah was sure, must now lie in ruins somewhere below. She looked around and saw a cobbled road that sloped downward. Then she knew that they had found the door that led under the sea and exited into the bowels of the city described by the plate map.

As the two Egyptians finally stumbled out of the backseat, a tremendous cracking sounded above them. Sarah and Will shone their lights up and saw to their horror that the giant statue of Apollo had lodged against one of the broken beams of petrified wood. Mendenhall ran and tackled the two shocked men as they were brushing themselves off, clearing them from the Land Rover just as ten tons of Apollo crushed the vehicle flat.

"Hey, is anyone alive down there?"

Sarah jumped at the sound of the bullhorn. She shone her light up at the spot that they had fallen through. The sand had drained away from the giant shaft, leaving a gaping hole in the ground above. What looked like a million tons of sand had fallen through with them when the unstable ground let loose. The effect was what Sarah imagined being caught in an hourglass would have been, with the beams stopping the sands from pouring in.

Above them, the Event Group security detail stood in the windstorm, shining their flashlights onto the very strange scene far below.

"Radio Colonel Collins, inform him in code we have found the road to Atlantis!"

"Yeah, and watch out where you step!" Mendenhall added.

Ten V-22 Ospreys, the tilt-rotor aircraft used by the U.S. Marine Corps, set down the last of the one hundred U.S. Marines and U.S. Navy SEALs who had been assigned to Jack. The president of Egypt, believing in the sincerity of the American president, had volunteered the forty vehicles that the Operation Backdoor assault element would use.

In the three hours since they had discovered the ancient gateway, Sarah and Will had been busy. With the help of her team and some very expensive equipment borrowed from the archaeological sites in and around the Valley of the Kings, they had widened the gate and actually improvised a ramp they could use to get into the wide avenue of the tunnel.

As the V-22s lifted off to return to the Nassau and the Iwo Jima for the main part of the operation, Sarah met Jack, Carl, and the major commanding the marines with a crisp but tired salute.

"Lieutenant McIntire, this is Major Gary Easterbrook; he's in command of the marine element."

Sarah saluted the major as he examined her work, then he returned her salute as he looked into the wide opening that led away into darkness.

"Any idea how far it goes?" the major asked.

"Well, according to the plate map, about two hundred miles," Sarah said, looking at Collins.

Carl looked at his watch and grimaced. "That's going to be cutting it close, Jack. We have only five and half hours until daybreak."

"Morning Thunder begins at exactly 0630 and we don't even know if this place leads anywhere any more important than a Starbucks," Jason Ryan said, adjusting his pack over his black Nomex BDU.

"We won't find out until we get our asses in the snake hole," Jack answered. "Major, your men will follow my team and we'll follow the captain here and his SEALs. They'll be traveling far faster in their jeeps than us in the two-ton trucks. Captain Everett and his team will be in advance and clear any obstacles they may come across. I need a clear roadway, Captain."

"Got it. We'll clear what we can and try not to cave the entire thing in on top of us," Carl answered as he raised his hand and signaled his team of forty SEALs and four specialists to come over.

"I can't help but think this is a wild goose chase, Colonel Collins. I mean, why not concentrate our efforts with the rest of the assault on Crete? We may end up missing the whole thing going through this way."

Jack looked at the young major and then removed his Mylar helmet. "Listen, our forces are getting ready to get their asses kicked all over the known world, and this operation could be the one wild card that the Coalition does not think we have. According to some very smart people, if they start the Wave again, it may not stop at just their target--it could continue until it starts the whole tectonic-plate system moving. So unless you want Gary, Indiana, to wind up where the Arctic is now, we'd best get through, no matter what lays in wait."

He turned to Carl and stuck out his hand. "Good luck, swabby."

Carl took the hand and then smiled. "This is probably no worse than some of the bars I'm known to frequent, Jack." He smiled at Sarah and then at Ryan. "Now don't you guys stop off at Denny's or anything, we may need you before too long."

They watched as Carl led his team over to the five jeeps.

The four officers saluted Collins and started for their vehicles as the first of the SEALs entered the darkened passageway to the oldest city in the planet's history. Whistles sounded in the dying wind as the main assault element climbed aboard their transports.

Like thousands of years before, western man was once again attacking the civilization of Atlantis. Sarah McIntire looked one last time at Jack and then prayed for a different outcome this time around.

After a personal phone call from the president of the United States and an hour and a half of arguing, the Italian government finally granted permission for the most important aspect of Operation Morning Thunder to over-fly Italian airspace. The president dropped certain names of people connected with the Juliai Coalition who happened to be members of the Italian parliament--names supplied by Martha and Carmichael. Fearing a repeat of what had happened in Germany and Japan, Italy became very cooperative.