Andy McDermott - The Hunt For Atlantis

“All our gear’s aboard,” Chase said. “Just got to load Nina’s trunk full of new clothes from Paris.”

“It’s only a suitcase , and it’s already in my cabin,” Nina said, pouting playfully at him.

Kari glanced down at the dock, satisfying herself that everything had been brought aboard. “If we’re ready, then there’s no reason to wait. The sooner we start, the sooner we’ll be there. I’ll get Julio to untie us.” She headed back into the cabin.

“A trip up the Amazon,” said Chase, going to the other side of the boat and looking out across the wide river. “Haven’t done that for a while.”

“Well, up the Tefé, technically,” Nina corrected. The town of Tefé was built on the bank of the river from which it took its name just before it joined the Amazon proper, at the eastern end of a broad lake over thirty miles long.

“All right, Dr. Smart-Arse. Either way, so long as I don’t have to wrestle any bloody crocodiles this time, I’ll be happy.” He picked up one of the crates and followed Kari inside the boat.

Nina chuckled. “Yeah, right. Wrestling with crocodiles? As if!”

“You’re right,” said Castille as he picked up the second crate and started after Chase. “They were caimans.”

“Caimans?” Nina said. “But aren’t they basically the same… hey!” She chased after Castille.

The Nereid reached the southwestern end of the lake in just over an hour, giving its engines a workout without really taxing them before dropping to a speed more suitable for navigating the river feeding the great body of water. From here, the Tefé became a constant series of long undulating curves, never flowing in a straight line for more than a few hundred yards at a time. In places the river was over two hundred feet wide, while in others the banks were less than a quarter of that distance apart. With a slim twenty-foot beam the Nereid was in no danger of getting stuck, but the trees along the sides of the river were sometimes so large and overhanging that they formed a tunnel of foliage above the boat.

Dusk came, and Nina wandered onto the foredeck to watch the sun set through the trees. At the equator, day became night with an almost startling swiftness. She found Kari already there, leaning over the railing at the Nereid’s prow. “Hi.”

“Hi!” said Kari, pleased to see her. “Where have you been? I’ve hardly seen you since we set off.”

“I was going over the satellite photos again.”

“Did you find anything?”

Nina shook her head, sitting on one of the loungers built into the deck. “If there’s anything there, it’s completely hidden by the tree canopy. We’d need a radar survey of the ground to see through it. I don’t suppose your dad could whistle one up?”

“He did suggest it, actually. But it would have taken longer to get a satellite into the proper orbit than it would for us to go and look for ourselves, so…” She sat down next to Nina, indicating the passing jungle. “Have you seen this? I mean, really looked at it? It’s extraordinary. So much variety, so many unique kinds of life. And all people want to do is cut it down and grub it up so they can consume it.”

“I know. Hamilton might be kind of annoying, but he does have a point.” Nina leaned back, staring up at the twilight sky. “I was thinking about what you said in Paris, about there being too many people in the world. It’s true, isn’t it? All of them fighting over the same resources, all of them believing they have a greater right to exist than anyone else.” She sighed. “Shame there’s not a lot we can do.”

Kari gave her a half-smile. “Who knows? Maybe in the future we’ll be able to change things for the better.”

“I don’t know. Human nature being what it is, it’s hard to see how. And I don’t think I’m really the world-changing type.”

“You will be,” Kari assured her, putting a hand on her arm. “When you discover Atlantis,” she clarified at Nina’s confused look. “That will change the world. Not many people get to rewrite human history at a stroke.”

“It’s not just me! You’re as big a part of this as I am. More so. I wouldn’t even be here without you. It’s you and your father’s resources that made this possible.”

Kari shook her head. “No, no. Money is worthless without a purpose. My father and I, we believe in the goals we are using our money to achieve. And so do you. I think…” She paused, considering her words. “I think we have a lot in common.”

“Well, apart from the billions of dollars…”

“I don’t know-I think discovering Atlantis will be worth quite a lot!”

The throbbing note of the engines dropped to idle. The Nereid’s steady progress upriver slowed, the relentless churning of water under the bow falling to a gentle slap of waves against the hull. “Why are we stopping?” Nina asked. “Is something wrong?”

“On the contrary,” said Kari. “Navigating a river like this in the dark, especially in a boat this big, can be risky. Captain Perez is being safe.” At that, there was a loud rattle from below the deck, followed by a splash as the anchor plunged into the water. “And also, I think dinner is ready. You’re in for a treat. Julio is an outstanding cook.”

Kari wasn’t kidding, Nina decided. She’d expected the provisions for the journey to be on the level of sandwiches and canned beans, but Julio had somehow managed to use the Nereid’s little galley to whip up a meal of fresh vegetable soup, roast pork au gratin in a port sauce and even a dessert of freshly made chocolate mousse. The whole meal was, if anything, better than anything she had eaten at the extremely expensive restaurants in Paris.

Now, feeling completely sated and a little buzzed from the wine, she wandered onto the rear deck-as much to escape the increasingly politicized debate going on between Hamilton, di Salvo and Philby as to get some fresh air. The boat’s lights provided just enough illumination for her to pick out individual trees on the Tefé’s banks, but the silhouette of the jungle canopy above was easy to make out against the brilliance of the night sky.

She sipped her wine and looked up at the stars. Whatever discomforts there might be from being out in the field, far from civilization, being able to appreciate the full beauty and majesty of the heavens was-

“Bloody hell, I’m stuffed,” said Chase, clomping up behind her. Castille followed, nibbling a guava. “What’re you up to, Doc? Come out here to let one off in private?”

“No,” she said. “I wanted to look at the stars.”

Chase looked up. “Oh, yeah. Pretty good.”

“Is that all you’ve got to say?” Nina tutted. “You’re in the middle of the Amazon jungle, with the most incredible sky overhead, and the best you can come up with is ‘pretty good’?”

“What do you expect?” said Castille. “He is English, he thinks poetry”-he exaggeratedly pronounced it poe-ee-tree -“is a kind of tree, something you chop down to make toilet seats!” Nina laughed.

“Actually , I said it was pretty good because I’ve seen better,” Chase told her, for once seeming a little offended himself. “In Algeria. Out in the desert in the Grand Erg. Not a single light for fifty miles, and the air was so clear I could see every single star in the sky. Even went out from the camp and lay on a rock for half an hour just staring up at it all. Amazing.”

“Really?” Chase had never struck Nina as the type for stargazing.