Niki (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
niki_chidon) wrote2008-01-02 01:07 am
niki_chidon) wrote2008-01-02 01:07 am
Entry tags:
Fic: The Age of Fire and Gravel, Part 2 (Riley/OFC, Ben/Ian)
Title: The Age of Fire and Gravel, Part 2
Fandom: National Treasure (movie)
Pairings: Ben Gates/Ian Howe, Riley Poole/OFC
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Disney owns most of the characters, Mina and Anne are mine.
Summary: Riley finally gets the girl. And, you know, some other stuff happens. Like discovering Atlantis.
Notes: My Yuletide story in 2007, written for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
azarsuerte. Never had as much fun (and desperate moments!) on a prompt... Million thanks to jane_elliot who made sure my language was English, my commas weren't unruly, and Mina wasn't too Mary-Sueish. Also thanks to Miranda for her canon-check, and lalaith86 for Anne's name and curses;) Finally, a hug to Mr. Niki for general historical advice.
Chapters I-V
Chapter VI: The Fall of the Clay and Gravel
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The next day found the group working on the search full time. Anne had taken a research leave from the museum, but had had to go back to tie up some loose ends. Patrick had gone with her. Abigail was out getting supplies, and Mina was negotiating with the hotel management concerning their needs for the room, including internet access.
The others were working in the suite. Riley was idly feeding data into the laptop by the table that was supposed to be used for dining, Ian was sitting on one of the sofas, concentrating on the printouts of the disk, and Ben was hovering around the room, trying to find common patterns of symbols on the map and the disk.
Suddenly Ben dropped the photos, and stalked over to kiss Ian.
"What...?"
"You just looked so... distracting, and then it struck me that I didn't need to stop myself from doing that anymore."
"Yes! Yes, you need to stop yourself from doing that," Riley demanded but didn't have high hopes of being heard as Ian was now pulling Ben down and... oh God. He was out of the room before he would see something that would really scar him for life.
He ran into Mina right outside the door.
"Mina! You're back! Umm, we're taking a break. Fancy a bite? Of food. Fancy a bite of food?"
"Sure, I'd love to." She smiled and didn't even ask about the others, which Riley thought was a good sign. As if she really wanted to spend time with *him*. Cool. And he didn't even have his car with him.
They ran into Abigail in the lobby.
"Hi. Lunch break?"
"Yeah, sort of... We thought we'd try whether that little restaurant where we had breakfast can offer something besides gallons of oil on a plate," Riley explained.
Mina slapped him lightly on the arm. "Come on, it wasn't that greasy!"
"Lady, they made the *coffee* in olive oil!"
"Why can't we order in?" Abigail interrupted their banter. "We really need to work on this..."
"No, no, we need a break," Riley said quickly, leading them towards the door.
"Okay, fine. Are the others coming as well?"
"Patrick is still in Anne's office. And Ben and Ian... well, they're taking care of themselves."
"Okay, I'll just drop these off in their room, and come join you," she said, showing them a bag full of office supplements.
"That... might not be a good idea. They're... busy."
"But you said we were taking a break," she frowned, and turned to walk towards the elevator again.
Riley sighed in frustration, and met Mina's glance. She had obviously figured out the reason behind his embarrassment, and was fighting not to laugh.
Subtlety hadn't helped, so Riley didn't know what to do but blurt it out.
"They're having sex."
Abigail stopped as if she had run into a wall, and they could see the back of her neck turn pink but she composed herself before turning to look at them. Her words were reproachful, though.
"I lived with that man for half a year; I did not need that visual."
"Is it my fault I had to draw a diagram?" Riley huffed, and could see Abigail collect steam for a full-blown confrontation when Mina's gasp made them both turn to look at her.
"You and Ben? You mean that was real? After meeting Ian I thought that was... you know, a cover. For the papers."
"No," Abigail said, simply.
"Oh, sorry, I..."
"It's okay. We're better as friends than lovers." She smiled at her kindly. "And I knew I should have suspected something when Patrick saw me and Riley with Ben, and deduced that *Riley* was the only person in his son's life..."
Riley spluttered, much as he'd done back then, and the women laughed.
Oh joy, the way this was going, Mina would fall for Abigail, and he would again end up alone. That thought gave him pause. Why was he suddenly taking it for granted that... was he really falling for...? Oh man, he was.
He was falling for a woman as insanely passionate about her field as Ben and Abby. He was doomed.
- - -
Luckily Patrick and Anne's return coincided with theirs and the work continued without embarrassing moments. It did help that Ian and Ben were decently dressed and the room was aired by the time the others joined them.
Ben had at some point had enough time to come to a conclusion that the only symbol on the disk not used on the map was the wheel shape.
"Does that mean something?" Riley wondered.
"Well, they might not be letters or words at all... Look, all of these strings of symbols can be found copied on the disk, yeah? But not the wheels."
"It *is* incredible... Look here, could it be that these strings of symbols *lead* the way to Atlantis? Or, 'home' what ever it is," Patrick suggested.
"What about the eyes clue? Is there anything about the direction in which the eyes are looking?" Mina asked, and Anne shook her head.
"They are all pretty much aligned to the direction of the text," she explained.
They threw around ideas while Riley made a 3D model of the disk, and started looking for patterns in the placement of the symbols, both on the map and on the disk.
On the following days they also arranged for another computer to constantly search through the star charts and find matches between the symbols charts they were creating. Riley grumbled about the inaccuracy of the data and the guesses they needed to make.
"I mean, quite apart from the monkeys and Shakespeare's work, if you put random numbers into a system and ask it to find a pattern, it damn well *will* find you a pattern. Just look at all the 'Bible codes'. Or, or, the decipherment efforts on the damn disk. Go on, they're all around the 'net, and some very scholarly attempts too, with perfect results and explanations!"
"We do have other sources to check the possible results against," Ben told him.
"We do?"
The older man nodded towards Mina. "We've got an expert, remember?"
"I'm not here just to be pretty," she reminded.
"But no one's ever found any evidence of..."
"Maybe. Maybe not. But we have so much data to go on. I mean, if we get a result that points to, say, middle of Japan, we know we're pretty much off course," Mina explained.
"Well, yeah, duh, but..."
"But what else *can* we do?" she asked, also getting worked up.
"Go home and study the treasure we *know* how to find?" Riley suggested, irritably.
"Come on, where's your sense of adventure?" Ben grinned.
"Left it with my other pants, sorry."
"What would Mr. Poole really suggest we do?" Anne asked from her corner.
He turned to look at her, still a bit wary of her. Even though they were all on first name terms, they still didn't know a lot more about her than her nationality – Dutch – her position, and her almost obsessive interest in the disk and the meaning behind the symbols. The contrast between her and Mina was marked – they found more about the Brit every time she opened her mouth.
"I'm just saying, we can't let ourselves expect a miracle here," Riley explained patiently.
"It is already a miracle finding this map! Can't you see, we have been so overwhelmed with the possibility to find more we have overlooked the fact that this map is in itself a treasure, a wonder, a find of the century. Books should be written about it. Someone obviously knew our Earth better than we thought, before we thought... Even if we find nothing else, this document is enough to keep us busy."
"Yeah, well, why aren't you – we – writing those books? Why are we chasing a non-existent city?" he asked her, pissed off at her 'I'm talking to a retarded kid' tone.
"Because we can?" Mina suggested lightly, getting up to place her hand on Riley's shoulder, getting physically in between the two.
"Because we are going to find the city! The map is a miracle but it is not enough. We will find Atlantis!" Anne declared, also getting up. "Why are you here if you don't believe?"
"Honestly? Because I had nothing better to do. But, come on! What are the odds that these people who thought markings on a piece of clay were the way to go would be able to produce navigational aides of this magnitude? I mean, the double meaning the disk supposedly has, in written down coordinates or instructions doubling as a star map? Who could have done something like that?"
"Oh, I don't know. The people who circumnavigated the globe centuries – if not millennia – before Magellan?" Ben suggested.
Riley shut up, thought it through... "I hate it when you do that."
"I think we all need a break," Ben suggested. "Maybe a night off would be in order. Sights, food, what ever you can think of, and we can continue this tomorrow."
Anne turned her claws on Mina now, snidely suggesting the Brit might want to join the other British tourists in the clubs.
She refused to take the bait. "I know my compatriots have a bad reputation in all the sunny islands but I myself have never seen an inside of a Greek club, and am planning to keep it that way. I've always had better things to do in here than getting drunk and breaking places, and I refuse to take blame for my countrymen's actions. I don't know what your problem is, Dr. van den Heuvel, but I suggest you get over it."
"I'm... sorry. Ben is right. We can all do with a break. My apologies, Riley. I... tend to get a little intense about these things," she smiled disarmingly, though Riley noticed that her apology didn't cover Mina. "Can I interest you people in some beautiful ruins?"
- - - -
Things went on unchanged for a week, then one night, when everyone was asleep, Riley's program hit a match. Ben and Ian had woken up to the warning sound, and had spent the rest of the night verifying the find, and apparently getting cautiously optimistic because the sight that greeted Riley when he appeared the next morning was of two dishevelled, red-eyed but beaming men.
"Do I need to come back later?" he pointedly asked Ben, who had opened the door unshaven and clad only in his jeans.
"No! Wait, yes, get the others. We've got it," he beamed.
"Really?"
"Your program hit gold."
"Where?"
"Nuh-uh, you'll hear when you get the others."
Muttering something rude, Riley went to drag the others from their breakfasts. By the time they entered the suite, Ben and Ian had shaved and pulled more clothes on.
"Okay," Ben started with his best lecture tone. "If this model is accurate, and the markings on the map really navigational aides... Ladies, gentlemen, we have located Atlantis."
"Well?"
His dramatic pause rivalled that of the museum director's whose name Riley still hadn't bothered to remember.
"The Antarctic continent."
"No, why is it always the cold places? Ice. Snow. Dog sledges. Hypothermia," Riley listed, then shut up, realising no one was paying the least attention to him. They were looking at the screen and at the printouts filled with calculations and markings, smiling and beaming and laughing.
He could understand the enthusiasm up to a point, yeah, but still couldn't let his analytical mind stop, well, analysing. The odds of them finding the map *and* the disk were ridiculous, the guess work and theorising that went to the model, and the out-of-your-ass result of placing the spur of the moment diagrams on the map... No, he did not really believe they would find anything. It all sounded like a bad adventure movie.
He didn't doubt they'd go check it, though. It's not as if they'd have trouble getting backing for *this* venture. Not that he'd suggest going public with this just yet.
It seemed Patrick was thinking along the same lines.
"We can't let this get out. With Ben's reputation, if a word gets out the whole place will be littered with treasure hunters and archaeologists and wannabe Indiana Joneses..."
"We have all the people we need, surely," Ben concluded. "Ian can get us a reliable crew, and we can re-use a lot of the gear we used when looking for the Charlotte. All we need now is a ship, and, well, maybe some permits, I'm not sure of the legalities of exploring the place. But we need to keep it quiet; my name shouldn't come out."
"Trust me," Ian said grinning widely. "Anonymous operations are my speciality."
"Don't ask," Riley told Anne, who looked at the grinning men questioningly.
- - -
Chapter VII: Legends of the Cave-Life
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
It took months of preparation to get to the final stage of their search, though Riley preferred to call it 'the first wild goose', being sure they'd end up reworking the model and dashing around the globe looking for the elusive lost city for countless more times, and that their grandchildren's grandchildren would still be at it.
Months that, incidentally, had seen no change in his relationship with Mina. They still did their routine that was part banter, part flirting, and got to know each other even better but for some reason Riley hadn't even tried to kiss her yet. He wondered how much of it was not wanting to rush into things like Ben and Abby had, and how much pure lack of confidence about Mina's reciprocation.
As for Anne... They still didn't know much about her. She was quiet about her family, told them little about her career choices, and only seemed interested in talking about the project. Her truce with Mina had developed into a friendship but even the Brit got tired of listening to her go on and on about the Quest.
They were all glad that the need for secrecy forced Anne to keep quiet on the ship that took them to Antarctica – most of the crew didn't know the true nature of their expedition. They had geologists, photographers, doctors – people they could use as a cover for the true purpose, and who they would need should they actually find something. Most of the crew was to stay at the base camp they were going to establish at Ross Island, out of the way of the permanent science stations.
After setting up base camp, the skeleton crew of the conspirators plus a few of Ian's men took planes to the coordinates Riley's program had spat out, which would, incidentally, take them to a foot of one of the mountains.
It was January 25th, six months after that Monday morning Riley had been told about the mad quest. The coat he wore was the same he had worn in the Charlotte excursion, scorch marks and all, and he had to admit he was still a bit wary about Ian's 'merry men'. He knew they still carried guns, though he couldn't understand who they were protecting them against in this desolate waste.
And he so very much hated flying in a small plane. Mina and Anne were excitedly pointing out sights to each other. All Riley could see was snow, snow, snow.
He felt someone pat him on his shoulder, and turned to meet Abigail's understanding gaze.
"Poor boy, are your girlfriends ignoring you?"
"They're not..."
"They're fighting so hard for your attention that even I can see it."
He couldn't see it, but the idea made him feel better.
"Look!" Mina turned her head back to look at Riley. "We're nearly there!"
- - -
They established a camp a little distance from the planes.
"What are we looking for, exactly?" MacGregor, one of Ian's men, asked.
"I'm not quite sure. If there was a cave, someone would have spotted it by now, but as this is supposed to be an entrance of sorts we shouldn't have to go through solid rock, and... and it can't be that high, either, or they couldn't have reached it," Mina explained.
"Remember that this place would have looked very different back when the map was made. Maybe even uncovered by snow, we don't know. The explorers returning home with the help of the Star Disk would have had a clearer line of vision," Ben reminded.
"And, let's not forget that the hard weather conditions have changed the looks of this place," Patrick chipped in.
"Okay, let's go," Ian ordered, pushing his sunglasses up on his nose with a decisive gesture.
- - -
The first hours felt eternal in the violent wind, and Riley didn't feel very hopeful. The rock wall was... a rock wall, solid and hard. Going through every visible inch of it was just frustrating.
But then...
"Look, isn't that... a flower?" Mina yanked Riley's arm excitedly.
"Huh?" he looked at her as if she'd lost her mind.
"A carving, silly," she giggled, pointing at something on the wall at about the height of her knees, then gestured for the others.
"It looks like..." Ben started but Anne finished for him: "Like the symbol in the middle of the Phaistos Disk."
"No. No, no, no. X marks the spot?" Riley was incredulous.
Mina beamed at him, "Evidently."
They debated about what the marking meant – had there been an entrance near it that was now blocked? Should they dig, or try to get through the stone, or try climbing?
After thoroughly checking through the surrounding area and the mountain wall for any markings, they were still undecided.
"It all depends on what we think we're looking for," Ben summed up. "Do we think the city is inside the mountain? Or underground... I mean snow? Or... wiped out completely by the elements?"
"Well, if we think that the culture pre-dates the ice, shouldn't we be searching 1.6 kilometres in that direction?" Anne asked, pointing downwards.
"That's one mile for you Americans," Mina clarified.
"Look who's talking," the Dutch woman grinned at her.
"Hey, we succumbed," the Briton countered.
"Oh, and you use metric in your everyday life?" Anne was sceptical.
"Hey, ladies... Atlantis?" Ben reminded.
"Why would the flower be up here if the city was down there?" Riley asked, pointing down as well.
"Good point," Ben said, and the others looked at Riley as if surprised by his contribution.
"What? I can have ideas."
"Could the flower just be a modern... doodle?" Patrick suggested, studying the carving.
"What are the odds?" Ben asked.
"Well... what are the odds for it originating from Atlantis?" Riley countered.
"Would it have survived in here, in this weather, if it really was that old?" Ian wondered.
"How old is 'that old'?" Anne asked, shrugging, "All we know is it's older than thousand years because the map is at least that old."
"Good questions, both," Ben ceded, "but we still don't know what to do about it."
"People... isn't that another flower?" Ian asked, pointing up a little higher than their heads.
Mina climbed on Riley's shoulders to see better and Ben elevated Abigail. Anne declined, stating she could see well enough from where she stood.
"It is! We need to... get higher, and lower, to see if we can find more!"
- - -
They had the equipment for both, and finally Ian's men, who had so far just been hovering around unnerving Riley, had something to do in the form of physical labor. They had time to discover flowers in both directions before having to retire for the night.
"Well... I don't think it's a doodle," Ben concluded when they were eating inside the tent.
"No. But what it means, I can't comprehend," Anne admitted.
"But it is something. It is a find. In itself it doesn't prove the existence of Atlantis but the suggestion of human presence in here alone..." Mina let her voice die out, leaving everyone to ponder on the consequences of that.
"Well... it might be enough to get us permission to dig as deep as we want to, even if it requires heavier machinery," Patrick stated.
- - -
The next day they concentrated on the digging part, deciding to keep going as far as they could safely go – or as deep as they could get – with the equipment they had, and then start going up.
After four hours of work they found... something.
"It is... an anomaly, at least. A different kind of rock," Ian told the others.
They were so deep that only a few could work on the deepest bit – the others were widening and strengthening their excavation.
"Could it be... a caved-in entrance?" Mina was hopeful.
"We're going to stop going deeper and work on the widening bit to get more leverage."
- - -
It took another four hours to get through the material blocking what now obviously looked like an opening. They were all holding their breaths when the got their first glimpse in.
"Space," Ben breathed.
"We definitely found... something," Mina concluded.
They cleared a hole big enough to get everyone through, and left MacGregor and Paul outside to guard the entrance. Should it be blocked for any reason... well, Riley didn't want to think about the consequences.
As he was standing on an even stone floor, looking at the endless corridor in front of him – or at least as much as he could see in the light they could produce – he finally started to believe. They were there. It was real. It existed. They had found it. At-frigging-lantis. In the flesh. Well, rock.
"Oh my God..." seemed to be the general reaction, and even if not a linguist, Riley could translate its Dutch variant from Anne's lips.
They could see the enforced and decorated entrance from the inside, and the rubble seemed to be the broken remains of a thick stone door. The corridor to left and right of the door seemed endless, with doorways and side tunnels and stair as far as eye could see.
All the walls appeared to be covered in mural carvings and paintings, and the now-familiar symbols decorated every available space.
"Wow..."
They pointed their electric lights of different size on the wall and the art. It was descriptive but the technique very different from any other they'd ever seen. It reminded Riley of the Egyptian tombs he'd seen in the way the images and text seemed to work fluidly together. There were pictures of animals – elephants, giraffes, big cats – and plants, so precise that they could almost recognise the species. And there were human figures, in clothing for hot weather.
"Moving poles?" Mina whispered.
"Or pre-ice age?" Anne asked, with wonder in her tone.
"Think they left a calendar behind?" Riley asked, regaining his composure. It's not like this was the first miraculous thing he'd ever seen.
They chose a direction and moved ahead, soon realising the place was huge. Every crossing had corridors to all directions, and the presence of stairs hinted at multi-story structure. They stopped in different rooms, some connected to other rooms, some to new corridors, some seemed to be arranged together like apartments... The biggest lights were connected to a generator outside so they didn't need to mark their way as long as they stuck together – which wasn't as easy as one would think because there were things to see all around them, and everyone wanted to follow their own pattern.
At one point they found a room filled with paintings of maps, and the roof... the roof was a detailed working of the night sky, with every star meticulously marked, and the planets clearly visible.
"There's your calendar," Ian said quietly.
- - -
"*Is* this Atlantis? It's not an island, it's not where Plato said it was, it doesn't fit his description at all," Mina asked, when they sat down in the map room for a break. They had removed their coats because it was surprisingly warm inside, and were munching on energy bars.
"Well, according to my calculations, there is a circular shape to this place... the first corridor we found seems to go around all of this, whatever it is, judging from the curve," Riley said, looking at the figures on his palmtop.
"And does it matter?" Anne exclaimed. "We found a lost city, a lost culture no one knew about. I doubt they called themselves Atlanteans, even if they *are* the people Plato wrote about. The Medieval scholars who led us here believed they were searching for Atlantis. Why? Just because they had discovered Plato's work in Greece? We might never know. But we have *this*, and whatever it is, it is a treasure."
"All new language..." Mina whispered, tracing the carvings on the wall.
Soon they were back at walking through the endless labyrinth of similar rooms, determined to go as far as the cables would let them, and then start going through the place in a more scientific manner.
One thing that struck them was the lack of any kind of artifacts. There were niches in the walls that had obviously housed statues or some other items, but they were all empty. What was really eerie was the fact that in many places they could see the differently coloured surface on the spots that had had items.
"Not one piece of orichalcum anywhere," Riley complained wistfully.
"Now who's played too much Fate of Atlantis?" Ben asked, then came to a standstill.
"Guys... Someone has been here before us."
"Well, supposedly the people who lived here?" Riley suggested lightly, not really wanting to ponder the horror-movie possibility that they were not alone.
"Recently," Ben clarified, crouching to inspect the markings on the floor.
"Footprints," Ian verified. "Old... but not *this* old."
After a few more steps they saw the remains of a lamp on the floor. "Who ever was here, was here *recently*," Ian pointed out, drawing their attention to the evidence. "That can't be more than fifty years old."
"Oh... my... god..." Anne was staring at an item a little further away on the floor.
It was a button.
A bronze-coloured button depicting an eagle with spread wings perching on... a swastika.
"Oh my God," Mina echoed her.
"The Nazis!?" Riley exclaimed, incredulously.
Anne had turned white, and was muttering something in her native language. She kept repeating one word, "opa".
"What about your grandfather?" Mina frowned.
"He was here," she whispered, "they were here, they found it, and he told me, and I never believed him... They... he said they had discovered... Atlantis..."
- - -
Chapter VIII: Ragnarok
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
With Anne obviously in shock, they decided it was wisest to return to the camp. They informed base camp of their presence but not of what they had found.
Over food, they discussed the evidence of Nazi presence.
"I, for one, don't get it," Riley complained.
"The Nazis were interested in strengthening their ideological background with archaeological proof of the superiority of the Aryan race. Their quest to find items like the Ark, the Grail or the Holy Lance is not an invention of popular culture. The SS had an 'ancestral heritage branch' dedicated primarily to archaeological research," Anne explained tonelessly.
"Your grandfather was with the Nazis? But you're Dutch!"
Even under the circumstances Mina and Anne shared a glance that screamed 'Americans!'.
"The Nazis admitted that some of the Dutch were also descendants of the Aryans and accepted them into their army," Mina explained.
"Forced them! My grandfather was forced to join the SS but he only ever worked in an office, pushing paper, so that they wouldn't send him in the field."
"That's what they all said," Mina interjected dryly.
"It's true! My grandfather wouldn't have..."
"He was bloody SS. What did you think the 'paperwork' entailed, office supplies?"
"He was a scholar!"
"Ahnenerbe – your precious scholars – were also responsible for the human experiments in Dachau!"
"Hey! This is not Nuremberg, we're not trying to assign blame here," Ian interrupted the women forcefully.
"Sorry," Mina said immediately but Anne kept shooting angry glances at her.
Then she took a deep breath, obviously trying to calm herself.
"I don't know what they found – I've never seen any records of this. But my grandfather was part of an excavation somewhere cold. And they discovered something big, so big he said no one would have believed them anyway. He said they'd discovered Atlantis. I admit, I never believed his stories. I loved listening to them. I wanted to believe. That's why I studied in his university, his field... His stories made me want to... but I did not believe him. Especially in the end when he was... Well, he was old. I'm sorry, opa," she whispered, with a sob. "None of us believed. About the big find he never told anyone before... before the end. He was never sure what exactly they had found but he said they carted boxes full of stuff away from there. What happened to those artifacts he never knew, but he was almost shot for trying to keep a souvenir."
"So... what happened to those boxes? Why didn't they surface after war?" Ben asked, fascinated.
"Many Nazi treasures were lost during the last days of war, and after. The fleeing officers took some with them, and there is a prevailing myth that mysterious boxes were dumped into the lake Toplitz, and never found afterwards. Maybe... just maybe they are still there. Maybe the secrets of Atlantis are, indeed, underwater."
"This is all a bit much. 'Dear diary, today we discovered Atlantis, only to find out the Nazis got here before us.'" Riley was trying to lighten the mood by playing up his confusion. "And it's late, and we're tired and cranky, can we, you know, sleep on it, and decide the course of action tomorrow?"
"Why, Riley, that is a wonderful idea," Ben also played up his surprise at the wisdom of his suggestion, to draw attention away from the tension.
"Guys... I have a suggestion, too," Mina grinned impishly. "Why would we huddle in our cold tents when there are nicely insulated rooms right next to us?"
";Go sleep in Atlantis?" Riley asked then blinked, "I can't believe that sentence just left my mouth."
"I think that is a *wonderful* idea!" Anne exclaimed enthusiastically, and the others stared at her sudden mood swing suspiciously.
"Well, I see no reason not to," Ben concluded, and they collected their things in preparation for the move.
Ian's men stayed outside in the base, working out a rotating guard duty so that there was always someone by the entrance. They others chose a room a little further away from the entrance, and hooked up the generator for warmth, just in case, even though it was still almost a t-shirt weather inside despite the recently re-opened way out. They left the lights on low, and snuggled into their individual sleeping bags.
Mina moved her bag next to Riley's.
"I find the thought of those endless corridors a little creepy," she admitted in a low voice.
"Yeah, me too. Maybe if it wasn't so dark..."
"There has had to be some lighting system, I can't believe these people would have lived underground with just torches for illumination," Ben said. The man never stopped thinking.
"Well, we saw those blocked window-like structures... Maybe this place looked different when there was no snow," Abigail suggested.
"And maybe these are just the cellars, maybe the actual city is higher up or... maybe there were bits above ground and they have all been destroyed by the snow and wind," Anne speculated.
"And maybe," Riley said pointedly, "we should try that sleeping thing."
He hadn't even realised he had fallen asleep when he woke up to a loud sound, the echo still ringing in his ears as he got up.
"Gunshots!" Ian deduced and Riley couldn't help but look at him, halfway expecting him to pull a gun on them. Again.
They were all out of their bags in seconds, and as Ben adjusted the lamp to make it brighter they noticed that Anne was missing.
Ian nodded wordlessly to Ben, and they moved cautiously towards the corridor.
The others followed, clutching flashlights, and Riley could feel Mina's hand find his. He squeezed it tightly.
"I knew we couldn't go through an adventure without getting shot at," he muttered to Ben, who shot him a tight grin.
"Well, this time it isn't me," Ian whispered.
They made their way towards the entrance but before reaching the surface ran into Anne who was walking towards them with the big generator-powered light.
"What happened?" Ian demanded, as she came to a halt in front of them.
"Viktor. He just... took his gun out and tried to shoot me!" Anne exclaimed.
"No, he didn't," Ian said, narrowing his eyes.
Then, before anyone had time to react, she had a gun trained at them, and the lamp was on the floor, also aimed at them.
"Yes, he did," she smiled, "I just tried to kill him first."
"What? Why?" Ben demanded but the woman ignored her.
"You. You are German," she pointed the gun at Abigail who, having some experience in being shot at, looked merely defiant.
"American, actually," she pointed out, but Anne paid no attention to it, raising the pistol higher, aiming at her chest.
"Close enough," she whispered, closed her eyes, and fired.
Everyone had had time to realise what she was about to do, and move. Patrick had moved to cover Abigail, and she tried to push him away – he caught the first bullet in his back and fell to the ground, saying 'Oh dear' before losing consciousness.
Ian had pushed Ben out of the way and tried to make it to the woman, using her obvious confusion to disarm her. He caught the next bullet in his arm, fell, and hit his head on the wall.
Riley saw all this as if in slow motion. He had pulled Mina into his arms, and was trying to protect her with his body. If he'd had any doubts about his feelings, they were gone. Not Abigail, not Anne, not Ben – Mina was the first thought he'd had, his first priority.
Shouting, cursing, moans of pain... and one loud clear voice saying "Stand back!"
They did as they were told, after a fashion. Abigail was on her knees next to Patrick, trying to put pressure on the wound, and Mina moved to check his pulse. Ben was checking Ian's vital signs, removing his shirt to dress the scratch on his arm – he was only unconscious because he'd hit his head. Everyone seemed to have dropped their lights but Anne's big light still illuminated the scene with the aid of the fallen flashlights pointing at every direction.
"Why?" Mina asked again, looking at the woman they'd all called their friend.
"Why? You don't belong here. I wanted to get rid of you quietly, in your sleep, but that fool," she said, obviously referring to Viktor, "stopped me. Now... it will be harder."
The knuckles in the hand holding the gun were white from the pressure.
"So you're going to kill us to get your hands on the treasure 'beneath the waves'?"
"I don't need to. Oh, I mean, yes, I will kill you, a tragic accident. I wanted a cave in but now I have to shoot you and make the bodies disappear. But I won't need to go searching further. I have a treasure – this place. It's mine. My grandfather found it. You had your treasure already, greedy of you to want more. I won't share the credit of this one. I will publish this find, in the memory of my grandpa."
"You can have the credit, like you said, we don't need it. You don't need to kill us," Riley said, everyone else busy trying to nurse someone.
"Good try. As if I'd fall for that."
"No, listen," Riley went on, "Ian was working against us when we were looking for the Templar treasure. And Ben..."
"I stole the Declaration of Independence," Ben said, from where he was kneeling by Ian.
"I don't believe it!"
"I did. End justifies the means," Ben lied.
"And he got away with it. Ian broke the law, too, and he got away with it. We covered for him." Well, Riley thought, not a complete lie. Ben had gotten him a lighter sentence due to feeling guilty, even before he'd decided to get him out completely.
"You let us walk out of here, that's what we'll do – walk out of here. The find of the century, hell, millennium, all yours. All Ben wants is to take Ian home, all Abigail wants is to go back to her musty manuscripts, and all I want is... is to get Mina alone for a second and proposi... I mean propose to her..."
"Really?" Mina looked up at him.
He smiled at the joy in her voice, despite the situation.
"Yeah. I think I kinda sorta, you know, love you," he confessed, looking her in the eye.
"Riley..."
"Shut. Up. So very sweet it makes me want to hurl. I'm still not falling for that one. And I'm not sharing my one shot of making history."
She moved the gun so that she was aiming straight at Ian, who was showing signs of returning consciousness. Ben was still kneeling by him, and now positioned himself in between the gun and his lover, meeting Anne's eyes.
Suddenly Riley realised what he was doing. The woman was aiming at the easiest target, someone already unconscious. She had closed her eyes when trying to shoot Abigail, after looking for an excuse to justify her death for herself. She couldn't be so confident in her ability to kill in cold blood. There was definite hesitation in her stance even now.
Ben continued to meet her gaze steadily, and Riley looked at Mina. Meeting her gaze (She was looking at *him*, not the scene. Wow.) he nodded quickly towards the obviously insane woman, so slightly she wouldn't attract her attention. Mina's answering nod was equally subtle, and in a heartbeat they were up, and attacking.
Two targets, a few feet apart as they were, confused the untrained woman, as he had calculated, and the only shot she got out was way off, then they were on her, and Ben joined in on the fun, getting hold of the gun while Riley restrained her wrists, and Mina unceremoniously sat on her legs. He could never fully explain to anyone afterwards where he had found the resolution and courage to do such an insane thing. He usually claimed to have been possessed by an ancient Atlantean spirit.
But right at the moment he had other issues in his mind, "How's Ian?" he got out, eyes on the writhing prisoner.
"He'll live," answered a quiet British voice from the ground, and Ben got up to check on him, offering the pistol to Mina.
Abigail was still holding the shirt against Patrick's wound.
"Anne seems to have a back bag and some rope over there," she said, quietly.
Ben tied Anne with the rope with Riley and Mina still holding on to her. They were starting to get giddy over their heroics.
"Jij bent een pestpokkepleurislijer!" Anne spat at Riley, who smiled.
"Wow, am I happy I don't know what that meant. Sounds contagious."
Mina snickered. "It is. And no, you don't want to know what it means."
"Is dad okay?" Ben asked from Abigail, reminding them that the situation was still serious.
"His pulse is there but weak and he's still unconscious, we need to get him to a hospital ASAP."
"I'll go contact the base," Riley offered, and got up from the wriggling Dutchwoman.
"I'll come with you. Here," Mina offered the gun to Ben. "If she even blinks meanly, I'm willing to testify she was shot in self-defence. Better yet, that she was lost in a storm."
"Bet on it," Ben replied, equally seriously.
- - -
They had only taken a few steps around a corner when they ran into Paul and McGregor, cautiously approaching with their guns drawn.
"You missed all the fun, boys," Riley quipped.
"Is Viktor... all right?" Mina asked.
"He'll live," one of the men answered before asking, "what happened?"
"Dr. van den Heuvel went bonkers. Dr. Gates and Mr. Howe are injured – we need to contact the base camp to arrange for evac," Mina explained, and seemingly without consulting with each other Paul retreated back to the surface to use the radio and McGregor moved forward to go check up on his boss.
Their mission suddenly taken care of, and the corridor all to themselves, Mina used the opportunity to turn to Riley and ask: "Did you mean what you said?"
He shot a look at her from the corner of his eyes.
"Yeah, I... yeah," he admitted, quietly.
Was she smiling? She was smiling. That was a good sign, right?
"So... are you going to proposi... propose to me now?"
He answered to her light tone by grabbing her, and pushing her against the wall.
"I'm going to kiss you," he warned, and did just that.
Wow, oh wow. She was kissing back. That was a good sign, right? She dropped her flashlight again, and he seemed to have lost his as well, and they were kissing passionately in the semi-darkness.
"I love you," he whispered, raising his head just enough to look her in the eyes the best he could in the faint light of the flashlights on to floor.
"I love you too," she replied, smiling.
"You sure? It's not just the heat of the moment, part of the adventure rush thing?"
"I fell for you the moment I realised you shared my love for G.I. Joe. Kinda long moment, don't you think?"
"Wow. Me? With Ben there?"
"You. Your adorable puppy dog eyes and sarcastic side notes, your wicked sense of humor, and your killer smile. Your absurd little beard, and... and your reading glasses."
"And you haven't even seen my car yet," he reminded her.
"Nor your comic collection," she said.
At that point, he kissed her again.
"So... will you tell me your name *now*? Or do I need to wait for the priest's question?"
"Riley Poole, is that... a proposal?" She seemed to be blinking back tears.
He shrugged. "Only to find out your name, of course."
"Naturally," she conceded, smiling widely, then drew a deep breath before whispering, "Helmina Pauline."
It was Riley's turn to blink. Somehow, that finally drove it home that she really did love him. He swallowed.
"Helmina Pauline Goode, will you marry me?"
Her smile turned even wider, and wordlessly she pulled him closer for another kiss.
A laughing "Get a room" from Ian finally pulled them apart, and sheepishly they joined the rest of the crew in the clean up process.
- - -
Chapter IX: The After-Word
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
So. As if the others didn't have their work cut out to them for the rest of their lives in the *first* treasure, they now had the next one to obsess about. Less gold, to be sure, but enough texts to keep them going for the next thousand years or so. At least until they discovered the *next* clue to the *next* treasure – although Riley didn't really know where they could go from here.
Abby had accompanied Patrick back to the States, and would go back to working on the *first* treasure just as he'd predicted. And the last he'd heard from Ben and Ian, they had been muttering something about "Nazis, huh. You think there's something to those stories about the Lake Toplitz? They never did find those crates."
"Fancy some diving, babe?"
That was the point where Ben had been distracted by Ian's grin, it seemed. All talk of treasure had been forgotten so Riley had left them at it and gone in search of some kisses himself.
Of course, he did end up falling for a woman who was just as obsessed about the damn find as Ben had been about the Templar treasure. He could foresee years and years of living in the damn frozen wasteland, and working on cataloguing the new find, symbol by symbol, painting by painting, bit of gravel after another. As much as the world had come to pieces, this new world order felt much like the old.
Then again... over the screen of his laptop he met Mina's laughing gaze and watched the laughter turn to fire as she leaned in to kiss him.
Well, with some changes. Not bad for a treasure, this.
The End
- - -
Sources:
Wikipedia
Ignatius Donnelly: Atlantis, The Antediluvian World
Ibid: Ragnarok, The Age of Fire and Gravel (My title and chapter titles from this work)
Rand Flem-Ath and Colin Wilson: The Atlantis Blueprint
Gavin Menzies: 1421: The Year China Discovered the World
Lewis Spence: The History of Atlantis
Two Atlantis documentaries on the National Geographic Channel, and one on the History Channel. (No, don't remember names, and no, they weren't very good. The last one had spirit guides.)
Fandom: National Treasure (movie)
Pairings: Ben Gates/Ian Howe, Riley Poole/OFC
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Disney owns most of the characters, Mina and Anne are mine.
Summary: Riley finally gets the girl. And, you know, some other stuff happens. Like discovering Atlantis.
Notes: My Yuletide story in 2007, written for
azarsuerte. Never had as much fun (and desperate moments!) on a prompt... Million thanks to jane_elliot who made sure my language was English, my commas weren't unruly, and Mina wasn't too Mary-Sueish. Also thanks to Miranda for her canon-check, and lalaith86 for Anne's name and curses;) Finally, a hug to Mr. Niki for general historical advice.Chapters I-V
Chapter VI: The Fall of the Clay and Gravel
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The next day found the group working on the search full time. Anne had taken a research leave from the museum, but had had to go back to tie up some loose ends. Patrick had gone with her. Abigail was out getting supplies, and Mina was negotiating with the hotel management concerning their needs for the room, including internet access.
The others were working in the suite. Riley was idly feeding data into the laptop by the table that was supposed to be used for dining, Ian was sitting on one of the sofas, concentrating on the printouts of the disk, and Ben was hovering around the room, trying to find common patterns of symbols on the map and the disk.
Suddenly Ben dropped the photos, and stalked over to kiss Ian.
"What...?"
"You just looked so... distracting, and then it struck me that I didn't need to stop myself from doing that anymore."
"Yes! Yes, you need to stop yourself from doing that," Riley demanded but didn't have high hopes of being heard as Ian was now pulling Ben down and... oh God. He was out of the room before he would see something that would really scar him for life.
He ran into Mina right outside the door.
"Mina! You're back! Umm, we're taking a break. Fancy a bite? Of food. Fancy a bite of food?"
"Sure, I'd love to." She smiled and didn't even ask about the others, which Riley thought was a good sign. As if she really wanted to spend time with *him*. Cool. And he didn't even have his car with him.
They ran into Abigail in the lobby.
"Hi. Lunch break?"
"Yeah, sort of... We thought we'd try whether that little restaurant where we had breakfast can offer something besides gallons of oil on a plate," Riley explained.
Mina slapped him lightly on the arm. "Come on, it wasn't that greasy!"
"Lady, they made the *coffee* in olive oil!"
"Why can't we order in?" Abigail interrupted their banter. "We really need to work on this..."
"No, no, we need a break," Riley said quickly, leading them towards the door.
"Okay, fine. Are the others coming as well?"
"Patrick is still in Anne's office. And Ben and Ian... well, they're taking care of themselves."
"Okay, I'll just drop these off in their room, and come join you," she said, showing them a bag full of office supplements.
"That... might not be a good idea. They're... busy."
"But you said we were taking a break," she frowned, and turned to walk towards the elevator again.
Riley sighed in frustration, and met Mina's glance. She had obviously figured out the reason behind his embarrassment, and was fighting not to laugh.
Subtlety hadn't helped, so Riley didn't know what to do but blurt it out.
"They're having sex."
Abigail stopped as if she had run into a wall, and they could see the back of her neck turn pink but she composed herself before turning to look at them. Her words were reproachful, though.
"I lived with that man for half a year; I did not need that visual."
"Is it my fault I had to draw a diagram?" Riley huffed, and could see Abigail collect steam for a full-blown confrontation when Mina's gasp made them both turn to look at her.
"You and Ben? You mean that was real? After meeting Ian I thought that was... you know, a cover. For the papers."
"No," Abigail said, simply.
"Oh, sorry, I..."
"It's okay. We're better as friends than lovers." She smiled at her kindly. "And I knew I should have suspected something when Patrick saw me and Riley with Ben, and deduced that *Riley* was the only person in his son's life..."
Riley spluttered, much as he'd done back then, and the women laughed.
Oh joy, the way this was going, Mina would fall for Abigail, and he would again end up alone. That thought gave him pause. Why was he suddenly taking it for granted that... was he really falling for...? Oh man, he was.
He was falling for a woman as insanely passionate about her field as Ben and Abby. He was doomed.
- - -
Luckily Patrick and Anne's return coincided with theirs and the work continued without embarrassing moments. It did help that Ian and Ben were decently dressed and the room was aired by the time the others joined them.
Ben had at some point had enough time to come to a conclusion that the only symbol on the disk not used on the map was the wheel shape.
"Does that mean something?" Riley wondered.
"Well, they might not be letters or words at all... Look, all of these strings of symbols can be found copied on the disk, yeah? But not the wheels."
"It *is* incredible... Look here, could it be that these strings of symbols *lead* the way to Atlantis? Or, 'home' what ever it is," Patrick suggested.
"What about the eyes clue? Is there anything about the direction in which the eyes are looking?" Mina asked, and Anne shook her head.
"They are all pretty much aligned to the direction of the text," she explained.
They threw around ideas while Riley made a 3D model of the disk, and started looking for patterns in the placement of the symbols, both on the map and on the disk.
On the following days they also arranged for another computer to constantly search through the star charts and find matches between the symbols charts they were creating. Riley grumbled about the inaccuracy of the data and the guesses they needed to make.
"I mean, quite apart from the monkeys and Shakespeare's work, if you put random numbers into a system and ask it to find a pattern, it damn well *will* find you a pattern. Just look at all the 'Bible codes'. Or, or, the decipherment efforts on the damn disk. Go on, they're all around the 'net, and some very scholarly attempts too, with perfect results and explanations!"
"We do have other sources to check the possible results against," Ben told him.
"We do?"
The older man nodded towards Mina. "We've got an expert, remember?"
"I'm not here just to be pretty," she reminded.
"But no one's ever found any evidence of..."
"Maybe. Maybe not. But we have so much data to go on. I mean, if we get a result that points to, say, middle of Japan, we know we're pretty much off course," Mina explained.
"Well, yeah, duh, but..."
"But what else *can* we do?" she asked, also getting worked up.
"Go home and study the treasure we *know* how to find?" Riley suggested, irritably.
"Come on, where's your sense of adventure?" Ben grinned.
"Left it with my other pants, sorry."
"What would Mr. Poole really suggest we do?" Anne asked from her corner.
He turned to look at her, still a bit wary of her. Even though they were all on first name terms, they still didn't know a lot more about her than her nationality – Dutch – her position, and her almost obsessive interest in the disk and the meaning behind the symbols. The contrast between her and Mina was marked – they found more about the Brit every time she opened her mouth.
"I'm just saying, we can't let ourselves expect a miracle here," Riley explained patiently.
"It is already a miracle finding this map! Can't you see, we have been so overwhelmed with the possibility to find more we have overlooked the fact that this map is in itself a treasure, a wonder, a find of the century. Books should be written about it. Someone obviously knew our Earth better than we thought, before we thought... Even if we find nothing else, this document is enough to keep us busy."
"Yeah, well, why aren't you – we – writing those books? Why are we chasing a non-existent city?" he asked her, pissed off at her 'I'm talking to a retarded kid' tone.
"Because we can?" Mina suggested lightly, getting up to place her hand on Riley's shoulder, getting physically in between the two.
"Because we are going to find the city! The map is a miracle but it is not enough. We will find Atlantis!" Anne declared, also getting up. "Why are you here if you don't believe?"
"Honestly? Because I had nothing better to do. But, come on! What are the odds that these people who thought markings on a piece of clay were the way to go would be able to produce navigational aides of this magnitude? I mean, the double meaning the disk supposedly has, in written down coordinates or instructions doubling as a star map? Who could have done something like that?"
"Oh, I don't know. The people who circumnavigated the globe centuries – if not millennia – before Magellan?" Ben suggested.
Riley shut up, thought it through... "I hate it when you do that."
"I think we all need a break," Ben suggested. "Maybe a night off would be in order. Sights, food, what ever you can think of, and we can continue this tomorrow."
Anne turned her claws on Mina now, snidely suggesting the Brit might want to join the other British tourists in the clubs.
She refused to take the bait. "I know my compatriots have a bad reputation in all the sunny islands but I myself have never seen an inside of a Greek club, and am planning to keep it that way. I've always had better things to do in here than getting drunk and breaking places, and I refuse to take blame for my countrymen's actions. I don't know what your problem is, Dr. van den Heuvel, but I suggest you get over it."
"I'm... sorry. Ben is right. We can all do with a break. My apologies, Riley. I... tend to get a little intense about these things," she smiled disarmingly, though Riley noticed that her apology didn't cover Mina. "Can I interest you people in some beautiful ruins?"
- - - -
Things went on unchanged for a week, then one night, when everyone was asleep, Riley's program hit a match. Ben and Ian had woken up to the warning sound, and had spent the rest of the night verifying the find, and apparently getting cautiously optimistic because the sight that greeted Riley when he appeared the next morning was of two dishevelled, red-eyed but beaming men.
"Do I need to come back later?" he pointedly asked Ben, who had opened the door unshaven and clad only in his jeans.
"No! Wait, yes, get the others. We've got it," he beamed.
"Really?"
"Your program hit gold."
"Where?"
"Nuh-uh, you'll hear when you get the others."
Muttering something rude, Riley went to drag the others from their breakfasts. By the time they entered the suite, Ben and Ian had shaved and pulled more clothes on.
"Okay," Ben started with his best lecture tone. "If this model is accurate, and the markings on the map really navigational aides... Ladies, gentlemen, we have located Atlantis."
"Well?"
His dramatic pause rivalled that of the museum director's whose name Riley still hadn't bothered to remember.
"The Antarctic continent."
"No, why is it always the cold places? Ice. Snow. Dog sledges. Hypothermia," Riley listed, then shut up, realising no one was paying the least attention to him. They were looking at the screen and at the printouts filled with calculations and markings, smiling and beaming and laughing.
He could understand the enthusiasm up to a point, yeah, but still couldn't let his analytical mind stop, well, analysing. The odds of them finding the map *and* the disk were ridiculous, the guess work and theorising that went to the model, and the out-of-your-ass result of placing the spur of the moment diagrams on the map... No, he did not really believe they would find anything. It all sounded like a bad adventure movie.
He didn't doubt they'd go check it, though. It's not as if they'd have trouble getting backing for *this* venture. Not that he'd suggest going public with this just yet.
It seemed Patrick was thinking along the same lines.
"We can't let this get out. With Ben's reputation, if a word gets out the whole place will be littered with treasure hunters and archaeologists and wannabe Indiana Joneses..."
"We have all the people we need, surely," Ben concluded. "Ian can get us a reliable crew, and we can re-use a lot of the gear we used when looking for the Charlotte. All we need now is a ship, and, well, maybe some permits, I'm not sure of the legalities of exploring the place. But we need to keep it quiet; my name shouldn't come out."
"Trust me," Ian said grinning widely. "Anonymous operations are my speciality."
"Don't ask," Riley told Anne, who looked at the grinning men questioningly.
- - -
Chapter VII: Legends of the Cave-Life
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
It took months of preparation to get to the final stage of their search, though Riley preferred to call it 'the first wild goose', being sure they'd end up reworking the model and dashing around the globe looking for the elusive lost city for countless more times, and that their grandchildren's grandchildren would still be at it.
Months that, incidentally, had seen no change in his relationship with Mina. They still did their routine that was part banter, part flirting, and got to know each other even better but for some reason Riley hadn't even tried to kiss her yet. He wondered how much of it was not wanting to rush into things like Ben and Abby had, and how much pure lack of confidence about Mina's reciprocation.
As for Anne... They still didn't know much about her. She was quiet about her family, told them little about her career choices, and only seemed interested in talking about the project. Her truce with Mina had developed into a friendship but even the Brit got tired of listening to her go on and on about the Quest.
They were all glad that the need for secrecy forced Anne to keep quiet on the ship that took them to Antarctica – most of the crew didn't know the true nature of their expedition. They had geologists, photographers, doctors – people they could use as a cover for the true purpose, and who they would need should they actually find something. Most of the crew was to stay at the base camp they were going to establish at Ross Island, out of the way of the permanent science stations.
After setting up base camp, the skeleton crew of the conspirators plus a few of Ian's men took planes to the coordinates Riley's program had spat out, which would, incidentally, take them to a foot of one of the mountains.
It was January 25th, six months after that Monday morning Riley had been told about the mad quest. The coat he wore was the same he had worn in the Charlotte excursion, scorch marks and all, and he had to admit he was still a bit wary about Ian's 'merry men'. He knew they still carried guns, though he couldn't understand who they were protecting them against in this desolate waste.
And he so very much hated flying in a small plane. Mina and Anne were excitedly pointing out sights to each other. All Riley could see was snow, snow, snow.
He felt someone pat him on his shoulder, and turned to meet Abigail's understanding gaze.
"Poor boy, are your girlfriends ignoring you?"
"They're not..."
"They're fighting so hard for your attention that even I can see it."
He couldn't see it, but the idea made him feel better.
"Look!" Mina turned her head back to look at Riley. "We're nearly there!"
- - -
They established a camp a little distance from the planes.
"What are we looking for, exactly?" MacGregor, one of Ian's men, asked.
"I'm not quite sure. If there was a cave, someone would have spotted it by now, but as this is supposed to be an entrance of sorts we shouldn't have to go through solid rock, and... and it can't be that high, either, or they couldn't have reached it," Mina explained.
"Remember that this place would have looked very different back when the map was made. Maybe even uncovered by snow, we don't know. The explorers returning home with the help of the Star Disk would have had a clearer line of vision," Ben reminded.
"And, let's not forget that the hard weather conditions have changed the looks of this place," Patrick chipped in.
"Okay, let's go," Ian ordered, pushing his sunglasses up on his nose with a decisive gesture.
- - -
The first hours felt eternal in the violent wind, and Riley didn't feel very hopeful. The rock wall was... a rock wall, solid and hard. Going through every visible inch of it was just frustrating.
But then...
"Look, isn't that... a flower?" Mina yanked Riley's arm excitedly.
"Huh?" he looked at her as if she'd lost her mind.
"A carving, silly," she giggled, pointing at something on the wall at about the height of her knees, then gestured for the others.
"It looks like..." Ben started but Anne finished for him: "Like the symbol in the middle of the Phaistos Disk."
"No. No, no, no. X marks the spot?" Riley was incredulous.
Mina beamed at him, "Evidently."
They debated about what the marking meant – had there been an entrance near it that was now blocked? Should they dig, or try to get through the stone, or try climbing?
After thoroughly checking through the surrounding area and the mountain wall for any markings, they were still undecided.
"It all depends on what we think we're looking for," Ben summed up. "Do we think the city is inside the mountain? Or underground... I mean snow? Or... wiped out completely by the elements?"
"Well, if we think that the culture pre-dates the ice, shouldn't we be searching 1.6 kilometres in that direction?" Anne asked, pointing downwards.
"That's one mile for you Americans," Mina clarified.
"Look who's talking," the Dutch woman grinned at her.
"Hey, we succumbed," the Briton countered.
"Oh, and you use metric in your everyday life?" Anne was sceptical.
"Hey, ladies... Atlantis?" Ben reminded.
"Why would the flower be up here if the city was down there?" Riley asked, pointing down as well.
"Good point," Ben said, and the others looked at Riley as if surprised by his contribution.
"What? I can have ideas."
"Could the flower just be a modern... doodle?" Patrick suggested, studying the carving.
"What are the odds?" Ben asked.
"Well... what are the odds for it originating from Atlantis?" Riley countered.
"Would it have survived in here, in this weather, if it really was that old?" Ian wondered.
"How old is 'that old'?" Anne asked, shrugging, "All we know is it's older than thousand years because the map is at least that old."
"Good questions, both," Ben ceded, "but we still don't know what to do about it."
"People... isn't that another flower?" Ian asked, pointing up a little higher than their heads.
Mina climbed on Riley's shoulders to see better and Ben elevated Abigail. Anne declined, stating she could see well enough from where she stood.
"It is! We need to... get higher, and lower, to see if we can find more!"
- - -
They had the equipment for both, and finally Ian's men, who had so far just been hovering around unnerving Riley, had something to do in the form of physical labor. They had time to discover flowers in both directions before having to retire for the night.
"Well... I don't think it's a doodle," Ben concluded when they were eating inside the tent.
"No. But what it means, I can't comprehend," Anne admitted.
"But it is something. It is a find. In itself it doesn't prove the existence of Atlantis but the suggestion of human presence in here alone..." Mina let her voice die out, leaving everyone to ponder on the consequences of that.
"Well... it might be enough to get us permission to dig as deep as we want to, even if it requires heavier machinery," Patrick stated.
- - -
The next day they concentrated on the digging part, deciding to keep going as far as they could safely go – or as deep as they could get – with the equipment they had, and then start going up.
After four hours of work they found... something.
"It is... an anomaly, at least. A different kind of rock," Ian told the others.
They were so deep that only a few could work on the deepest bit – the others were widening and strengthening their excavation.
"Could it be... a caved-in entrance?" Mina was hopeful.
"We're going to stop going deeper and work on the widening bit to get more leverage."
- - -
It took another four hours to get through the material blocking what now obviously looked like an opening. They were all holding their breaths when the got their first glimpse in.
"Space," Ben breathed.
"We definitely found... something," Mina concluded.
They cleared a hole big enough to get everyone through, and left MacGregor and Paul outside to guard the entrance. Should it be blocked for any reason... well, Riley didn't want to think about the consequences.
As he was standing on an even stone floor, looking at the endless corridor in front of him – or at least as much as he could see in the light they could produce – he finally started to believe. They were there. It was real. It existed. They had found it. At-frigging-lantis. In the flesh. Well, rock.
"Oh my God..." seemed to be the general reaction, and even if not a linguist, Riley could translate its Dutch variant from Anne's lips.
They could see the enforced and decorated entrance from the inside, and the rubble seemed to be the broken remains of a thick stone door. The corridor to left and right of the door seemed endless, with doorways and side tunnels and stair as far as eye could see.
All the walls appeared to be covered in mural carvings and paintings, and the now-familiar symbols decorated every available space.
"Wow..."
They pointed their electric lights of different size on the wall and the art. It was descriptive but the technique very different from any other they'd ever seen. It reminded Riley of the Egyptian tombs he'd seen in the way the images and text seemed to work fluidly together. There were pictures of animals – elephants, giraffes, big cats – and plants, so precise that they could almost recognise the species. And there were human figures, in clothing for hot weather.
"Moving poles?" Mina whispered.
"Or pre-ice age?" Anne asked, with wonder in her tone.
"Think they left a calendar behind?" Riley asked, regaining his composure. It's not like this was the first miraculous thing he'd ever seen.
They chose a direction and moved ahead, soon realising the place was huge. Every crossing had corridors to all directions, and the presence of stairs hinted at multi-story structure. They stopped in different rooms, some connected to other rooms, some to new corridors, some seemed to be arranged together like apartments... The biggest lights were connected to a generator outside so they didn't need to mark their way as long as they stuck together – which wasn't as easy as one would think because there were things to see all around them, and everyone wanted to follow their own pattern.
At one point they found a room filled with paintings of maps, and the roof... the roof was a detailed working of the night sky, with every star meticulously marked, and the planets clearly visible.
"There's your calendar," Ian said quietly.
- - -
"*Is* this Atlantis? It's not an island, it's not where Plato said it was, it doesn't fit his description at all," Mina asked, when they sat down in the map room for a break. They had removed their coats because it was surprisingly warm inside, and were munching on energy bars.
"Well, according to my calculations, there is a circular shape to this place... the first corridor we found seems to go around all of this, whatever it is, judging from the curve," Riley said, looking at the figures on his palmtop.
"And does it matter?" Anne exclaimed. "We found a lost city, a lost culture no one knew about. I doubt they called themselves Atlanteans, even if they *are* the people Plato wrote about. The Medieval scholars who led us here believed they were searching for Atlantis. Why? Just because they had discovered Plato's work in Greece? We might never know. But we have *this*, and whatever it is, it is a treasure."
"All new language..." Mina whispered, tracing the carvings on the wall.
Soon they were back at walking through the endless labyrinth of similar rooms, determined to go as far as the cables would let them, and then start going through the place in a more scientific manner.
One thing that struck them was the lack of any kind of artifacts. There were niches in the walls that had obviously housed statues or some other items, but they were all empty. What was really eerie was the fact that in many places they could see the differently coloured surface on the spots that had had items.
"Not one piece of orichalcum anywhere," Riley complained wistfully.
"Now who's played too much Fate of Atlantis?" Ben asked, then came to a standstill.
"Guys... Someone has been here before us."
"Well, supposedly the people who lived here?" Riley suggested lightly, not really wanting to ponder the horror-movie possibility that they were not alone.
"Recently," Ben clarified, crouching to inspect the markings on the floor.
"Footprints," Ian verified. "Old... but not *this* old."
After a few more steps they saw the remains of a lamp on the floor. "Who ever was here, was here *recently*," Ian pointed out, drawing their attention to the evidence. "That can't be more than fifty years old."
"Oh... my... god..." Anne was staring at an item a little further away on the floor.
It was a button.
A bronze-coloured button depicting an eagle with spread wings perching on... a swastika.
"Oh my God," Mina echoed her.
"The Nazis!?" Riley exclaimed, incredulously.
Anne had turned white, and was muttering something in her native language. She kept repeating one word, "opa".
"What about your grandfather?" Mina frowned.
"He was here," she whispered, "they were here, they found it, and he told me, and I never believed him... They... he said they had discovered... Atlantis..."
- - -
Chapter VIII: Ragnarok
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
With Anne obviously in shock, they decided it was wisest to return to the camp. They informed base camp of their presence but not of what they had found.
Over food, they discussed the evidence of Nazi presence.
"I, for one, don't get it," Riley complained.
"The Nazis were interested in strengthening their ideological background with archaeological proof of the superiority of the Aryan race. Their quest to find items like the Ark, the Grail or the Holy Lance is not an invention of popular culture. The SS had an 'ancestral heritage branch' dedicated primarily to archaeological research," Anne explained tonelessly.
"Your grandfather was with the Nazis? But you're Dutch!"
Even under the circumstances Mina and Anne shared a glance that screamed 'Americans!'.
"The Nazis admitted that some of the Dutch were also descendants of the Aryans and accepted them into their army," Mina explained.
"Forced them! My grandfather was forced to join the SS but he only ever worked in an office, pushing paper, so that they wouldn't send him in the field."
"That's what they all said," Mina interjected dryly.
"It's true! My grandfather wouldn't have..."
"He was bloody SS. What did you think the 'paperwork' entailed, office supplies?"
"He was a scholar!"
"Ahnenerbe – your precious scholars – were also responsible for the human experiments in Dachau!"
"Hey! This is not Nuremberg, we're not trying to assign blame here," Ian interrupted the women forcefully.
"Sorry," Mina said immediately but Anne kept shooting angry glances at her.
Then she took a deep breath, obviously trying to calm herself.
"I don't know what they found – I've never seen any records of this. But my grandfather was part of an excavation somewhere cold. And they discovered something big, so big he said no one would have believed them anyway. He said they'd discovered Atlantis. I admit, I never believed his stories. I loved listening to them. I wanted to believe. That's why I studied in his university, his field... His stories made me want to... but I did not believe him. Especially in the end when he was... Well, he was old. I'm sorry, opa," she whispered, with a sob. "None of us believed. About the big find he never told anyone before... before the end. He was never sure what exactly they had found but he said they carted boxes full of stuff away from there. What happened to those artifacts he never knew, but he was almost shot for trying to keep a souvenir."
"So... what happened to those boxes? Why didn't they surface after war?" Ben asked, fascinated.
"Many Nazi treasures were lost during the last days of war, and after. The fleeing officers took some with them, and there is a prevailing myth that mysterious boxes were dumped into the lake Toplitz, and never found afterwards. Maybe... just maybe they are still there. Maybe the secrets of Atlantis are, indeed, underwater."
"This is all a bit much. 'Dear diary, today we discovered Atlantis, only to find out the Nazis got here before us.'" Riley was trying to lighten the mood by playing up his confusion. "And it's late, and we're tired and cranky, can we, you know, sleep on it, and decide the course of action tomorrow?"
"Why, Riley, that is a wonderful idea," Ben also played up his surprise at the wisdom of his suggestion, to draw attention away from the tension.
"Guys... I have a suggestion, too," Mina grinned impishly. "Why would we huddle in our cold tents when there are nicely insulated rooms right next to us?"
";Go sleep in Atlantis?" Riley asked then blinked, "I can't believe that sentence just left my mouth."
"I think that is a *wonderful* idea!" Anne exclaimed enthusiastically, and the others stared at her sudden mood swing suspiciously.
"Well, I see no reason not to," Ben concluded, and they collected their things in preparation for the move.
Ian's men stayed outside in the base, working out a rotating guard duty so that there was always someone by the entrance. They others chose a room a little further away from the entrance, and hooked up the generator for warmth, just in case, even though it was still almost a t-shirt weather inside despite the recently re-opened way out. They left the lights on low, and snuggled into their individual sleeping bags.
Mina moved her bag next to Riley's.
"I find the thought of those endless corridors a little creepy," she admitted in a low voice.
"Yeah, me too. Maybe if it wasn't so dark..."
"There has had to be some lighting system, I can't believe these people would have lived underground with just torches for illumination," Ben said. The man never stopped thinking.
"Well, we saw those blocked window-like structures... Maybe this place looked different when there was no snow," Abigail suggested.
"And maybe these are just the cellars, maybe the actual city is higher up or... maybe there were bits above ground and they have all been destroyed by the snow and wind," Anne speculated.
"And maybe," Riley said pointedly, "we should try that sleeping thing."
He hadn't even realised he had fallen asleep when he woke up to a loud sound, the echo still ringing in his ears as he got up.
"Gunshots!" Ian deduced and Riley couldn't help but look at him, halfway expecting him to pull a gun on them. Again.
They were all out of their bags in seconds, and as Ben adjusted the lamp to make it brighter they noticed that Anne was missing.
Ian nodded wordlessly to Ben, and they moved cautiously towards the corridor.
The others followed, clutching flashlights, and Riley could feel Mina's hand find his. He squeezed it tightly.
"I knew we couldn't go through an adventure without getting shot at," he muttered to Ben, who shot him a tight grin.
"Well, this time it isn't me," Ian whispered.
They made their way towards the entrance but before reaching the surface ran into Anne who was walking towards them with the big generator-powered light.
"What happened?" Ian demanded, as she came to a halt in front of them.
"Viktor. He just... took his gun out and tried to shoot me!" Anne exclaimed.
"No, he didn't," Ian said, narrowing his eyes.
Then, before anyone had time to react, she had a gun trained at them, and the lamp was on the floor, also aimed at them.
"Yes, he did," she smiled, "I just tried to kill him first."
"What? Why?" Ben demanded but the woman ignored her.
"You. You are German," she pointed the gun at Abigail who, having some experience in being shot at, looked merely defiant.
"American, actually," she pointed out, but Anne paid no attention to it, raising the pistol higher, aiming at her chest.
"Close enough," she whispered, closed her eyes, and fired.
Everyone had had time to realise what she was about to do, and move. Patrick had moved to cover Abigail, and she tried to push him away – he caught the first bullet in his back and fell to the ground, saying 'Oh dear' before losing consciousness.
Ian had pushed Ben out of the way and tried to make it to the woman, using her obvious confusion to disarm her. He caught the next bullet in his arm, fell, and hit his head on the wall.
Riley saw all this as if in slow motion. He had pulled Mina into his arms, and was trying to protect her with his body. If he'd had any doubts about his feelings, they were gone. Not Abigail, not Anne, not Ben – Mina was the first thought he'd had, his first priority.
Shouting, cursing, moans of pain... and one loud clear voice saying "Stand back!"
They did as they were told, after a fashion. Abigail was on her knees next to Patrick, trying to put pressure on the wound, and Mina moved to check his pulse. Ben was checking Ian's vital signs, removing his shirt to dress the scratch on his arm – he was only unconscious because he'd hit his head. Everyone seemed to have dropped their lights but Anne's big light still illuminated the scene with the aid of the fallen flashlights pointing at every direction.
"Why?" Mina asked again, looking at the woman they'd all called their friend.
"Why? You don't belong here. I wanted to get rid of you quietly, in your sleep, but that fool," she said, obviously referring to Viktor, "stopped me. Now... it will be harder."
The knuckles in the hand holding the gun were white from the pressure.
"So you're going to kill us to get your hands on the treasure 'beneath the waves'?"
"I don't need to. Oh, I mean, yes, I will kill you, a tragic accident. I wanted a cave in but now I have to shoot you and make the bodies disappear. But I won't need to go searching further. I have a treasure – this place. It's mine. My grandfather found it. You had your treasure already, greedy of you to want more. I won't share the credit of this one. I will publish this find, in the memory of my grandpa."
"You can have the credit, like you said, we don't need it. You don't need to kill us," Riley said, everyone else busy trying to nurse someone.
"Good try. As if I'd fall for that."
"No, listen," Riley went on, "Ian was working against us when we were looking for the Templar treasure. And Ben..."
"I stole the Declaration of Independence," Ben said, from where he was kneeling by Ian.
"I don't believe it!"
"I did. End justifies the means," Ben lied.
"And he got away with it. Ian broke the law, too, and he got away with it. We covered for him." Well, Riley thought, not a complete lie. Ben had gotten him a lighter sentence due to feeling guilty, even before he'd decided to get him out completely.
"You let us walk out of here, that's what we'll do – walk out of here. The find of the century, hell, millennium, all yours. All Ben wants is to take Ian home, all Abigail wants is to go back to her musty manuscripts, and all I want is... is to get Mina alone for a second and proposi... I mean propose to her..."
"Really?" Mina looked up at him.
He smiled at the joy in her voice, despite the situation.
"Yeah. I think I kinda sorta, you know, love you," he confessed, looking her in the eye.
"Riley..."
"Shut. Up. So very sweet it makes me want to hurl. I'm still not falling for that one. And I'm not sharing my one shot of making history."
She moved the gun so that she was aiming straight at Ian, who was showing signs of returning consciousness. Ben was still kneeling by him, and now positioned himself in between the gun and his lover, meeting Anne's eyes.
Suddenly Riley realised what he was doing. The woman was aiming at the easiest target, someone already unconscious. She had closed her eyes when trying to shoot Abigail, after looking for an excuse to justify her death for herself. She couldn't be so confident in her ability to kill in cold blood. There was definite hesitation in her stance even now.
Ben continued to meet her gaze steadily, and Riley looked at Mina. Meeting her gaze (She was looking at *him*, not the scene. Wow.) he nodded quickly towards the obviously insane woman, so slightly she wouldn't attract her attention. Mina's answering nod was equally subtle, and in a heartbeat they were up, and attacking.
Two targets, a few feet apart as they were, confused the untrained woman, as he had calculated, and the only shot she got out was way off, then they were on her, and Ben joined in on the fun, getting hold of the gun while Riley restrained her wrists, and Mina unceremoniously sat on her legs. He could never fully explain to anyone afterwards where he had found the resolution and courage to do such an insane thing. He usually claimed to have been possessed by an ancient Atlantean spirit.
But right at the moment he had other issues in his mind, "How's Ian?" he got out, eyes on the writhing prisoner.
"He'll live," answered a quiet British voice from the ground, and Ben got up to check on him, offering the pistol to Mina.
Abigail was still holding the shirt against Patrick's wound.
"Anne seems to have a back bag and some rope over there," she said, quietly.
Ben tied Anne with the rope with Riley and Mina still holding on to her. They were starting to get giddy over their heroics.
"Jij bent een pestpokkepleurislijer!" Anne spat at Riley, who smiled.
"Wow, am I happy I don't know what that meant. Sounds contagious."
Mina snickered. "It is. And no, you don't want to know what it means."
"Is dad okay?" Ben asked from Abigail, reminding them that the situation was still serious.
"His pulse is there but weak and he's still unconscious, we need to get him to a hospital ASAP."
"I'll go contact the base," Riley offered, and got up from the wriggling Dutchwoman.
"I'll come with you. Here," Mina offered the gun to Ben. "If she even blinks meanly, I'm willing to testify she was shot in self-defence. Better yet, that she was lost in a storm."
"Bet on it," Ben replied, equally seriously.
- - -
They had only taken a few steps around a corner when they ran into Paul and McGregor, cautiously approaching with their guns drawn.
"You missed all the fun, boys," Riley quipped.
"Is Viktor... all right?" Mina asked.
"He'll live," one of the men answered before asking, "what happened?"
"Dr. van den Heuvel went bonkers. Dr. Gates and Mr. Howe are injured – we need to contact the base camp to arrange for evac," Mina explained, and seemingly without consulting with each other Paul retreated back to the surface to use the radio and McGregor moved forward to go check up on his boss.
Their mission suddenly taken care of, and the corridor all to themselves, Mina used the opportunity to turn to Riley and ask: "Did you mean what you said?"
He shot a look at her from the corner of his eyes.
"Yeah, I... yeah," he admitted, quietly.
Was she smiling? She was smiling. That was a good sign, right?
"So... are you going to proposi... propose to me now?"
He answered to her light tone by grabbing her, and pushing her against the wall.
"I'm going to kiss you," he warned, and did just that.
Wow, oh wow. She was kissing back. That was a good sign, right? She dropped her flashlight again, and he seemed to have lost his as well, and they were kissing passionately in the semi-darkness.
"I love you," he whispered, raising his head just enough to look her in the eyes the best he could in the faint light of the flashlights on to floor.
"I love you too," she replied, smiling.
"You sure? It's not just the heat of the moment, part of the adventure rush thing?"
"I fell for you the moment I realised you shared my love for G.I. Joe. Kinda long moment, don't you think?"
"Wow. Me? With Ben there?"
"You. Your adorable puppy dog eyes and sarcastic side notes, your wicked sense of humor, and your killer smile. Your absurd little beard, and... and your reading glasses."
"And you haven't even seen my car yet," he reminded her.
"Nor your comic collection," she said.
At that point, he kissed her again.
"So... will you tell me your name *now*? Or do I need to wait for the priest's question?"
"Riley Poole, is that... a proposal?" She seemed to be blinking back tears.
He shrugged. "Only to find out your name, of course."
"Naturally," she conceded, smiling widely, then drew a deep breath before whispering, "Helmina Pauline."
It was Riley's turn to blink. Somehow, that finally drove it home that she really did love him. He swallowed.
"Helmina Pauline Goode, will you marry me?"
Her smile turned even wider, and wordlessly she pulled him closer for another kiss.
A laughing "Get a room" from Ian finally pulled them apart, and sheepishly they joined the rest of the crew in the clean up process.
- - -
Chapter IX: The After-Word
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
So. As if the others didn't have their work cut out to them for the rest of their lives in the *first* treasure, they now had the next one to obsess about. Less gold, to be sure, but enough texts to keep them going for the next thousand years or so. At least until they discovered the *next* clue to the *next* treasure – although Riley didn't really know where they could go from here.
Abby had accompanied Patrick back to the States, and would go back to working on the *first* treasure just as he'd predicted. And the last he'd heard from Ben and Ian, they had been muttering something about "Nazis, huh. You think there's something to those stories about the Lake Toplitz? They never did find those crates."
"Fancy some diving, babe?"
That was the point where Ben had been distracted by Ian's grin, it seemed. All talk of treasure had been forgotten so Riley had left them at it and gone in search of some kisses himself.
Of course, he did end up falling for a woman who was just as obsessed about the damn find as Ben had been about the Templar treasure. He could foresee years and years of living in the damn frozen wasteland, and working on cataloguing the new find, symbol by symbol, painting by painting, bit of gravel after another. As much as the world had come to pieces, this new world order felt much like the old.
Then again... over the screen of his laptop he met Mina's laughing gaze and watched the laughter turn to fire as she leaned in to kiss him.
Well, with some changes. Not bad for a treasure, this.
The End
- - -
Sources:
Wikipedia
Ignatius Donnelly: Atlantis, The Antediluvian World
Ibid: Ragnarok, The Age of Fire and Gravel (My title and chapter titles from this work)
Rand Flem-Ath and Colin Wilson: The Atlantis Blueprint
Gavin Menzies: 1421: The Year China Discovered the World
Lewis Spence: The History of Atlantis
Two Atlantis documentaries on the National Geographic Channel, and one on the History Channel. (No, don't remember names, and no, they weren't very good. The last one had spirit guides.)