The lights lowered and Pete attached the two electrical leads to the sides of the large plate. 'What we are doing is supplying electricity to the conduit of the device--in this case, bronze, highly conductive and efficient, more so than our small battery. By doing this, I believe, we are exciting something that was placed on what we thought were small scratches or flaws on each of the crystal plates that are meshed together. Now we will place the laser and shine it through the aperture of the centerline crystal, or what the Ancients used as a lens.'
Pete turned on the electrical power and then maneuvered the laser head close to the plate and centered it on the lens. On the other side, a very blurry light appeared on the screen. Pete first pulled the laser back from the hole and the projection worsened. Then he adjusted again, this time bringing the laser head up until it almost touched the crystal protrusion. Suddenly the image cleared and about twenty schematic drawings appeared. Map locations and what looked like numbers and more symbols. However, as the images solidified, they could clearly see that the center of the picture was an exact duplicate of the ancient map recovered from Westchester, New York. The Mediterranean was there, and located in its exact center were the ringed islands of Atlantis.
'Can we bring up the electrical power, please, by say, oh, five thousand volts?'
Suddenly they heard a low swishing sound and the lens turned in its plate, swirling outward and simultaneously becoming more concave. Then the green and blue images rounded and the pictures seemed to leave the projector screen altogether and form a three-dimensional hologram. The gathered scientists were stunned as locations in Africa, Spain, and then Atlantis itself floated in front of their eyes. They could even make out a huge aqueduct that rose a thousand feet above the sands of the Nile Delta and stretched across the Mediterranean to the island.
'The billions of microscopic scratches inside the sandwiched crystals--when put together, they form these holographic images. When separate, they are flat and meaningless. The lens must be layered in differing thicknesses to create the hologram. The mathematics involved in that alone are purely in the realm of Einstein. Their crafting of crystals is one of the keys to their civilization.'
One of the four mathematicians clapped once and actually stepped inside the huge hologram.
'What do you see, Professor Stein?' Virginia asked.
'When Pete mentioned Einstein, it struck me. These symbols at the bottom of the hologram--I believe it is a key to their mathematics system. It's very close to the system we have today. You won't believe this, but I think these here ...' He pointed to the symbols in the center of the floating hologram and then suddenly pulled back as he felt foolish thinking that he could touch the image. 'Anyway, I will swear on my PhD that these symbols are their prime numbers. The same as ours as demonstrated by Euclid in 300 BCE--two, three, five, seven, eleven, thirteen, seventeen, nineteen, twenty-three, twenty-nine, and so on.'
'And these numbers dead center of the map in the Med, and these two sets, one in Egypt, one in Ethiopia, and one other on the outermost eastern ring of Atlantis ... this is where Crete would be today?' Pete asked.
'I don't know yet, but I think we can figure this out rather quickly. These were brilliant and advanced people, but now that we know they used the same prime numbers as us, we can crack this thing rather quickly.'
Virginia walked up to the hologram and ran her hand through the green and blue images. Then she focused on two areas of the Atlantis map.
'This area looks like it could be the only remaining part of Atlantis above water; you're right, it could only be Crete.' Then she moved her hand and indicated the area that Stein had indicated in Egypt. 'I'm sure--no, positive that these are coordinates. Moreover, Professor, you are right, they do use the same prime-numbers system as our own. These are longitude and latitude.'
'You're right, young Virginia. If I read this right, it's 25.44 north and 32.40 south. Europa, can you verify location of coordinates, please.'
'The Valley of the Kings,' Martha said from her chair, cutting short Europa's lengthy answer.
With so many images emanating from the ancient disk, the one that took up the largest space was the giant depiction of the ringed continent. The great center of it was the capital, and far below it--miles down, it looked to be--were great caverns with a multitude of tunnels and passages.
Sarah saw something that caught her attention.
She put her hand through the projected image of Egypt, then stepped to her left and looked at the symbols surrounding modern-day Crete and the Valley of the Kings. Another image showed what looked like giant stairways spiraling down into the earth, and at the bottom of these, one in Crete, one in Egypt, were great tunnels running to the centermost island of Atlantis.
'What in the hell are we looking at here, Sarah?' Pete asked.
'From the scrolls that we've deciphered thus far, we have learned that slaves were abducted in many countries, mysteriously disappearing from time to time. Now look at this, the Valley of the Kings, where the pharaohs were laid to rest before their trip to the underworld. Now, I think we may have found the front and back door to that underworld--doors to a city and civilization that sank almost fifteen thousand years ago.'
Virginia was not listening. She once more ran her hand through the floating hologram, this time through the terrain of Africa.
'For the moment, everything outside of the scrolls must be placed on hold. I need the exact coordinates for this location here. My guess is it's Ethiopia,' Virginia said as she turned to face the others. 'Pete, thank you for leading us through this. You can poke your nose in anywhere you want from now on.'
Pete reddened as he nodded his thanks.
'I will now alert the president and Director Compton in Washington that I am officially calling an Event alert.' She turned to Pete once again. 'You will have to do without Sarah for the time being. Get with the Cartography Department and Europa and get me those exact coordinates in Ethiopia ASAP, I mean right now!'
Men and women started to move and Pete shot through the door as Virginia picked up the phone and pushed the Intercom button.
'Attention to all departments: an Event alert has just been called. I need Colonel Collins and his discovery team to report for briefing in ten minutes. This is no drill.'
The Event Group went into action on all levels of the complex. Alice would get the official guidelines for the discovery team to Europa, and then orders would be sent out to be displayed on departmental computers for whatever actions their divisions had to take.
Most of the people left the room, but Sarah stayed where she was, looking at a strange pattern of lines that were grouped into fours. One of them was shaped roughly like the North American continent, while the other groupings were unfamiliar. For some reason, that same flickering thought entered and then left her memory just as fast. She decided that it was nothing of value at the moment and moved off.
Down in security, Jack heard the announcement of the alert and looked at Carl from over his desk.
'Only sixteen hours; not bad,' Jack said.
'So, you expect to meet our blond-haired friend in Ethiopia, huh?'
Jack had stood and started for the door, but he stopped at Carl's words and turned, and his look was intense.
'I'm banking on it, swabby.'
Five minutes later, Collins and his discovery team were in logistics, drawing supplies for the dig in Ethiopia, when the next announcement went out.
'Attention, Event Order has been canceled; Discovery Team Phoenix security element is to stand down. Dig team will continue to prep. Colonel Collins and Captain Everett, report to the main conference room.'
Everett looked at Jack. 'What kind of happy horseshit is this?'
Virginia was pacing in front of the large monitor on the far left side of the conference table as Jack and Carl entered the room. Alice was jotting down notes and looked small as the only one sitting at the large table.
'Niles, Jack and Carl are here. You explain this to them.'
Collins looked at Virginia as he took up position in front of the high-definition screen.
'Niles, what's going on? We have to be on a plane in about twenty minutes,' Jack said, looking at Niles's tired face.
'Jack, you and your team have been ordered to stand down by the president. He feels that the importance of
