the reason why the vehicle had sunk beneath the sand. The weight of the Land Rover on the ground had broken support timbers lining the top of a cave or excavation. The sand had started filtering through until enough had vanished beneath them to take the vehicle down. They were no longer sinking because they had been stopped by the remaining timbers that now crisscrossed the back window.
As she shone her light on the rocklike timbers, she saw the cracks not only in the window but in the ancient wood itself. The weight of the Land Rover was starting to crack the remaining petrified wood.
'If this is the spot, it must mean that that timber is--'
'Fifteen thousand years old,' Sarah answered Will as the age-hardened wood snapped and the Land Rover, with the great statue of Apollo in escort, started a free fall into the blackened underworld of Egypt.
The large tram system built by Coalition engineers saved hours upon hours of travel time into the bowels of Crete, but it still took close to two hours to reach the bottom. Tomlinson and the other Coalition members were tired and their nerves were on edge as they had received word that a naval task force was headed their way.
Tomlinson seemed not to care about the developing situation as he stood at the door, looking out at the amazing sight before him. Large banks of floodlights illuminated the most amazing scene in human knowledge.
'Oh, my God,' Dame Lilith said in wonder as she stood next to Tomlinson and saw what he was looking at.
The Coalition Council watched as workers labored to clear a passage through the crumbled world of Atlantis. Columns the size of which none of them had ever seen before were lying on their sides. Giant statuary of the ancient Greek gods, most without limbs, heads, and bases, were prevalent throughout the city. Buildings lay where they had crumbled and giant mold spores covered most of the marble ruins.
Three great pyramids dominated the distant skyline next to the far side of the great Crystal Dome. A once- great aqueduct system at least four hundred feet high ran through the dome and ended abruptly where it had crumbled not far from the middle and highest pyramid. The magma of the original eruption had sealed the hole that the waterway ran through.
Tomlinson took the first step onto the soil of the world's most ancient roadway. He felt the thick cobblestones beneath his feet and knew the power of the place. The floodlights could show only swatches of what must have been a grand view. Giant lakes of seawater had formed when the great city went under.
'Now, that makes me quite nervous,' Dame Lilith said, looking up.
Tomlinson followed her gaze to the darkened sky of the great underground ruin. The lights from below barely illuminated the Great Crystal Dome. Buried under two hundred feet of Mediterranean seabed, the water still cascaded through large cracks in the crystal and its protecting covering of rock and sand.
'After close to fifteen thousand years, why hasn't the water completely flooded the domed area?' Caretaker asked as he studied the geodesic structure.
'Look,' Tomlinson said as he pointed to steam rising from a thousand different areas. 'The water is boiling off from the magma activity beneath the city. The pressure inside the dome must be considerable, and it assists the structure in supporting the tremendous forces arrayed against it.'
'That would explain the horrible humidity and pressure my ears are feeling. But just how stable is the city?' Lilith asked.
'Strong enough to support the weight of the world. What amazing ancestors we had!' he said as he stepped farther into the great city.
A smaller dome, which had once been lined with the largest pillars of all, took up the furthermost portion of the city. The building beneath that dome had been crushed during the final cataclysm that had claimed Atlantis. Tomlinson smiled when he saw the structure through the lights.
'Have the excavation start there, but only after the Wave equipment has been installed completely. That is the priority.'
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.
