Curse of Atlantis (14 page)

“Well, before we haul it around with us, why don’t you switch it on and see if it
does work
,”
Javier suggested.

Jack looked down at the radar device. Picking it up by the handle, he flicked a switch and instantly,
a
green light flashed.

“Yup, it works,” he said, switching it off and laying it back on the ground.

“Jack, I did the same thing you just did. Sure, the green light comes on, but when I placed the sensors in the ground and plugged it into my laptop, there were no readouts on my display,”
Javier explained.

“Hmm, that’s really odd. It worked great in the shop when I picked it up. Must have gotten banged up on the flight over here,”
he said in desperate tone.

“Yeah, probably,”
Javier concurred.

“Well, too late now. If no one minds, I
think I’ll just carry it anyway.
”

“Why don’t you just leave it in the car? It’s too much dead weight to be carrying around all day,”
Javier suggested.

“There’s some really expensive components inside this thing. I don’t feel comfortable leaving it here. Don’t
worry, it won’t get in the way.
”

Javier shrugged his shoulders and replied, “If you don’t mind, I don’t mind.”

Jack reached down and grabbed the radar device by the handle. Handing it to Darrien, he said with a smile, “Why should I mind? It’s Darrien who’ll be carrying it.”

Javier looked over at an
empty-
handed Darrien and shrugged his shoulders once more.

“My pack is very light,
sir
. It would be my pleasure to carry that for you,” Darrien said in an accommodating tone.

“Ok then. So what’s the plan for today? Same as yesterday… we test the soil and run the radar?” Jack asked, now becoming more serious.

“Sort of… I only want you to collect a couple of samples, basically high and low. I have the
locations
marked on the map. I’m hoping to see a fairly consistent reading between the higher and lower elevations.”

“Unlike yesterday’s mountain where the upper region was diff
erent than the lower elevations?
”
Jack asked.

“Correct. I think the tsunami only reached two-thirds of the way up that mountain. This mountain here is basically at that two-thirds elevation, so the wave easily could have washed over the top of it.
”

“Burying the pyramid?” Darrien asked.

“Exactly. I’m hoping the radar finds a large mass under the ground,”
Javier said, encouragingly.

“What then?” Darrien asked.

“The radar is sophisticated but still not enough to identify the pyramid positively. We’ll have to take many reading
s
from around the mountain. Once we have all the data, we’ll load it into a program on my computer
.
T
hen, we’ll
generate a three
-
dimensional image from it. Hopefully, the image will show the shape of a pyramid,”
Javier explained.

“What then?” Darrien asked again.

“We dig,” Jack cut in.

“We wait,” Javier corrected.

“WAIT? Javi, I know there’re big consequences for digging illegally, but I’m sure we can do some things ‘slightly’ outside t
he law to confirm our findings,” Jack protested.

“Burt’s talking to the head of Culture and Tourism as we speak. Let’s hope after tomorrow we won’t have to think about doing anything illegal,”
Javier replied, his tone ominous.

“He’s been saying that for months now. We can’t keep waiting. You heard those guys this morning. We’ve got a month,”
Jack replied, feeling exasperated.

“I know, Jack. I know. You don’t have to remind me. I just can’t take that kind of risk with Serena’s life. If any of
those
guys at the Department of Culture and Tourism knew what we were up to, they’d
lock this place down forever,”
Javier
shot back.
“No Jack, we have to play it safe
…
for now.”

“And what happens if the deadline comes and we still don’t have approval?”

“I think we need to look at the bigger picture. Even if I do find the pyramid and the Greeks do approve our permits, will the Russians have the patience to sit through a long
,
protracted excavation? You heard them, ‘The Boss’ loses patience quickly. Excavating something the size of a pyramid could take years. Do you really think he’s going to wait that long?”

“So what are we going to do?”

“I don’t know Jack. More than anything else, that’s the piece of the puzzle that’s been worrying me the most,”
Javier said, anxiously.
“I guess we’ll climb that mountain when we get there.”

“That’s not acce
ptable to me,
”
he said, now frustrated.

“Jack, there’s nothing we can do. Excavations take time and the R
ussians have no patience for it.
”

Maybe so, but I’ve think I know of a way to keep the wolf interested as long as we need to,”
Jack said, slyly.

“You have a plan?”

“I have a ploy,” he
said with a wily grin.

~~~~~  ~~~~~  ~~~~~

Hours later:

Jack and Darrien hiked back up to the mountain top as Javier set up his equipment for another test. Having tested the soil in various locations lower on the mountain, they now headed back up to discuss their findings.

“Javi, good news,” Jack announced excitedly.

“Do the soil samples match?” he asked with anticipation.

“Not an exact match, but they’re really close,”
Jack
said
, his voice sounding encouraging.
“Here’s the data.”

Javier examined the card with the information, then opened the Munsell Color Test notebook and compared the findings.

Nodding his head approvingly, he said, “Good work,
you guys
. It’s not conclusive evidence
,
mind you, but it sure looks like data supports the claim that a tsunami could h
ave reached these heights.
”

“Awesome,” Jack replied simply.

Handing the info back to Jack, he bent over and attached a final wheel to the three-wheeled platform that supported the Ground Penetrating Radar. With a nervous grin, he switched on the device.

“Ok gu
ys, let’s see what lies beneath.
”

“Sounds like a horror movie,” Darrien joked.

“It is,” Javier replied grimly.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it,” Darrien responded apologetically.

Javier nodded simply.

“So how’s this test work
?
” Jack cut in, now watching the readout on the radar device.

“It’s a pretty simple test, really. I’ll be pushing this across the mountain in a rectangular pattern. As the device travels back and forth, the transmitter will send a signal into the ground. When the signal finds an object, it’ll be reflected back to the sensors, which then in turn, are processed and converted to data on the radargram,”
Javier explained.

“What’s a radargram?
” Darrien asked.

“It’s basically the readout on the unit. It shows you exactly what you’re seeing beneath the ground,” Jack
cut in,
answer
ing for Javier
.

“Sorry, Jack. I guess I sort of forgotten you made a GPR unit
yourself
. I didn’t mean to bore you,” Javi said.

“I was the one who asked... Remember, engineering’s my forte. I live for this kind of stuff,” he said, now examining the readout. “How deep does this one penetrate?”

“Most of the mountains in this region are made up of limestone, so we can see pretty deep… almost three hundred feet below the surface,”

“Wow, that much
,
huh?”

“Yeah, if we can get a good signal, we should be able to detect nearly the entire height of the pyramid,”
Javier replied.

“I can see why you wouldn’t want to waste your time with mine. I’m not sure if it could read deeper than twenty feet,”
Jack said.

“On the mountain I surveyed yesterday, the entire structure was a nearly solid block of limestone, covered with a layer of soil. As I passed from one side of the mountain top to the other, very little changed in the readout. There were some minor anomalies at various depths, and the soil depths did change periodically, but for the most part, there was nothing that suggested it was anything other than a large bed of limestone.
”

Javier stared off at the distant mountain, then turned back to Jack and continued:

“
On this mountain, I’ll be doing the same thing. I’ll be making sweeping passes along grid lines I’ve established, looking for reflections that could indicate stacks of blocks at the higher elevations or simply a consistent down-sloping grade that shapes
the pyramid at lower elevations.”

“I suppose you can tell pretty quickly if it’s a pyramid or a lump of limestone, right?”
Jack said.

“Here’s where it gets a bit more challenging. If the readout shows a structure under the ground with constant-sloping walls, I’m fairly sure we’ll have our pyramid. But, there’s going to be a lot of material covering the pyramid that might make it hard to
detect. It may appear just as
yesterday’s mountain appeared… like a large mound of limestone with variations in its structure at various depths,”
Javier said.

“I’m confused… if we can’t determine what’s under the ground, are you saying that the GPR unit is useless
?”
Jack asked, now somewhat confused.

“Not at all. It’s just one component of the analysis we use to solve the puzzle. We’ll need to take readings at various positions and elevations. After that, I’ll use the other devices like the Electromagnetic Conductivity Meter and Electrical Resistance meter, as well as the Magnetometer to refine my findings
further
. Eventually, I’ll have enough data at different depths and at different angles to understand what I’m looking at.”

“You know, maybe you should show me how to use the other equipment and we both can run tests at the same time. We can get done twice as fast,”
Jack suggested.

“You’re whistling my tune,” Javier said with a smile. “Why don’t you and Darrien follow alongside of me and watch how I take the readings. Next, I’ll have you set up the ECM device at specific points I obtain
ed
from the readout on this GPR unit. I use the other two devices from time to time, but the main two I depend on are the GPR and ECM units. If you can run those two, we’ll have this mountain mapped and analyzed in no time.”

“Well, let’s get this party started,” Jack joked once more.

Javier looked at the rows of parallel grid lines he had marked in the soil with spray paint. With the device sitting at the first row, he began to push the GPR unit
a
long its path. Halfway along its course, as he watched the display, he began to frown.

“Hmm, nothing’s ever easy,” he said out loud.

“What’s the matter, Javi
?
” Darrien asked.

“
We’re
not seeing any real definition… just a lot of noise,”
Jack said.

“I don’t hear any noise
.
” Darrien said, now somewhat confused.

“Not audible noise, Darrien. Jack is talking about generalized deflections in the readout caused by the varying densities of the substructure that create minor waves in the readout. The objects that cause the minor distortions are called background noise,”
Javier explained.

“Ahh, I get it. No pyramid, right?”
Darrien guessed.

“Not exactly. There could be one down there, but we’ll need to run many more tests to make a clear distinction. Like he said… nothing’s ever easy,”
Jack replied.

As Darrien nodded in understanding, Javier kept moving forward. Reaching the end of the first pass, he turned and moved to the next row several feet away. Like before, he lined up the device with the new path and began to push the unit once more, paralleling his first course in the opposite direction. As they moved along, Javier pointed out the larger deflections on the readout. Using a can of spray paint, he marked the location of the anomaly in the grass and dirt.

“We’ll come back to this point later and use the ECM to see if we can better define what’s down there,” Javier said.

As the two nodded simply, he continued to push the radar unit along the ground. Minutes later, he reversed his course and continued in the opposite direction, marking any points of interest as he followed his new line.