Elvis sat by his side, leaning against Jack’s leg. Lisa could not help but smile at the loyalty and affection in the simple gesture. One of Jack’s hands lightly ruffled the fur behind the dog’s ear.
Lisa crossed to him, compelled by the need to get something off her chest. “Jack…”
He turned toward her and winced, fingering the Ace bandage wrap around his chest. “What?”
She moved to his side, put her hands on the rail. The solitary moment gone, Elvis loped to a sunny spot on the deck and sprawled out.
Lisa stared out at sea, silent for a moment, then spoke. “Jack, why are we doing this?”
“What do you mean?”
She turned to him, leaning a hip against the rail. “We’ve got the crystal. Miyuki says she’s close to a translation. Why don’t we just keep a low profile until we have answers, then send the entire story out to the New York Times?”
Jack gripped the rail with fists. “If we did that, Jennifer would be dead before the first paper hit the stands.”
Silently, Lisa stared at him, searching his face to see if he recognized his slip of the tongue. He just kept staring off to sea. “Jennifer?”
“What?”
“You just said Jennifer would be as good as dead.”
Jack finally looked at her, his face a mask of hurt and confusion. “You know what I meant,” he mumbled, waving off any significance.
Lisa grabbed his hand. “She’s not Jennifer.”
“I know that,” Jack snapped.
Lisa kept him from turning away. “Talk to me, Jack.”
He sighed, but his shoulders remained tight. “Karen’s in this danger because of me. I…I ran off, leaving her with that madman.”
“And you explained why. Karen was right. Staying would have only gotten you both killed. If she’s as strong as you say she is, she’ll survive.”
“Only as long as she’s useful to that bastard.” He twisted away. “I have to try to rescue her. I can’t just keep running away.”
Lisa touched his shoulder lightly. “Jack, for as long as I’ve known you, you’ve been running away. From Jennifer, the shuttle accident, your past. What’s stopping you now? What does this woman mean to you?”
“I…I don’t know.” Jack sagged, head hanging over the rail, studying the waves. Finally, he looked at Lisa again. “But I’d like the chance to find out.”
She slipped an arm around his waist. “That’s all I wanted to hear.” She leaned her head on his shoulder, swallowed back the twinge of sadness and the ache in her heart. Jack had finally opened himself, if only a crack, to a woman…and it wasn’t her.
He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, seeming to sense her sorrow. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m not, Jack. But Christ, you’ve picked a hell of a time to fall in love.”
He returned her smile and kissed her forehead. They stood in each other’s arms until Mwahu called from an open doorway. “Miyuki says come!”
Jack slipped from beside her. “She’s translated the language?”
Mwahu nodded vigorously. “Come!”
Lisa followed Jack as he strode after the dark-skinned islander. Belowdecks, Miyuki had set up a computer station atop Robert’s long worktable. The work space was crowded with printouts, scribbled notes, and coffee mugs.
Miyuki looked up from a sheaf of papers with a worried expression.
“You’ve succeeded?” Jack asked.
She nodded, straightening her papers. “Gabriel succeeded. But Mwahu’s help was critical. With his ability to apply context to a score of symbols, Gabriel was able to compile the entire vocabulary. He’s translated everything—the crypt’s book, the pillar’s inscription, even the writing in the Chatan pyramids.”
“Great! What have you learned?”
She frowned. “The obelisk inscription appears to be mostly prayers, asking the gods for a good harvest, fertility, that sort of thing.” She teased out one page and read. “ ‘May the sun shine on the empty fields and make them fertile…may the bellies of our women grow heavy with children as plentiful as the fish of the sea.’ ”
“Not much use,” Jack concurred.
“But the other writings are more interesting. They both describe the same thing—an ancient cataclysm.”
Jack picked up the book from the table. “Karen suggested something like that. A lost continent sunk during a great disaster.”
“She was right.”
He raised the platinum book. “What does this say?”
Miyuki looked grim. “It appears to be the diary of Horon-ko.”
“Our most ancient teacher,” Mwahu interjected.
Miyuki nodded. “It recounts how his people, a seafaring tribe, once fished and traveled throughout the Pacific, some ten to twelve thousand years ago. Though they were fairly nomadic, their homeland was a large continent in the middle of the Pacific. They lived in small coastal villages and seaside towns. Then one day a hunter returned from a journey to the inner continent with ‘a piece of the sun’s magic.’ A magical stone that shone and glowed. Horon-ko spoke at length of how the gift granted his people the ability to make stones fly.”
“The crystal!” Jack said.
“Exactly. They excavated other crystals…all at the same location deep in the interior of their continent. They carved tools and worship fetishes.”
“What does it say about the crystal’s properties?”
Lisa interrupted. “Maybe Charlie ought to listen to this.”
Jack nodded. “Gather everyone. They all should hear this.”
It took less than five minutes to reconvene in Robert’s lab. Once everyone was settled, Lisa motioned to Miyuki. “Go on.”
With a nod, Miyuki quickly repeated the story, then continued anew. “These crystals changed Horon-ko’s people. They were able to build great cities and temples throughout many lands. As they spread, their society constructed elaborate mines, searching for more crystals. Then, one day, they found a rich vein of crystal buried in the heart of a hilltop. Over the course of fifteen years, they excavated the entire hill away, exposing the crystal spire.”
“The pillar!” Jack exclaimed.
“So it would appear. They worshiped the spire, believing it a blessing from their gods. It became a great pilgrimage spot. In fact, Horon-ko was one of the priests of the pillar.”
“And this great cataclysm?”
“That’s the strange part,” Miyuki replied, turning to her computer system. “Gabriel, could you read the translation starting from section twenty?”
“Certainly, Professor Nakano,” the computer responded from the tiny speakers. “ ‘There came a time of bad omens. Strange lights were seen in the north. Ribbons of light, like waves of the sea, rode the night skies. The grounds trembled. The people came to the god pillar to pray for help. Sacrifices were made. But on that last day, the moon came and ate the sun. The goddess of night walked the land.’ ”
“An eclipse,” Charlie mumbled.
Gabriel continued, “ ‘The god pillar, angry at the moon, blazed brightly. The ground shook. Mountains fell, seas rose. Fires opened in the ground, swallowing villages. But the gods did not forsake us. A god of light stepped from the pillar and ordered us to build great ships. To gather our flocks and people. The god spoke of a terrible time of darkness, when the seas would rise up and swallow our land. In our great ships, we must travel the drowning seas. So we gathered our seeds and our animals. We built a great ship.’ ”
“Like Noah’s ark and the flood,” Lisa whispered.
Gabriel continued his recitation, “ ‘The god spoke true. A great darkness filled the skies. For many moons the sun was gone. Fiery pits blazed, openings to the lower world. Killing smoke filled the air. It grew hot. The seas rose and took our lands. In great boats we traveled to the Land of Big Ice, far to the south. And once there—’ ”
Miyuki cut him off. “Thank you, Gabriel. That’s enough.” She stood. “The remainder of the book relates how the survivors kept their civilization’s history alive. They traveled all around the world, finding other races of man to whom to pass on their stories and teachings, until eventually they were spread so thin that their civilization ceased to exist. Only Horon-ko and a handful of others returned to the grave of their homeland to die. He warned those that remained to beware the old places and avoid trespassing lest the angry gods reawaken.” Miyuki sighed. “It is there the tale ends.”
Jack glanced around the room. “So what do you all think?”
No one spoke.
Jack eyed George. “Does this help with your research into the Dragon’s Triangle?”
“I’m not sure.” The old historian had remained quiet during the discourse, smoking a pipe. He cleared his throat. “Earlier today I came up with intriguing statistics concerning the lost ships of the region. But I’m not sure what they mean.”
“What did you find out?”
“Let me show you.” He rifled through his pockets, searching one then another. Finally, he yanked out a folded computer printout. “I plotted the number of recorded disappearances for each year, going back a hundred years.” He unfolded the paper.
“As you can see, there’s a pattern.” He tapped the paper. “The number of incidences peak and trough very regularly. The numbers grow to a certain peak then taper back off. The size of the peak varies, but not the frequency. There’s a distinct clustering every eleven years.”
Bent over the sheet, Charlie let out a murmur of surprise.
Heads turned in the geologist’s direction.
“Is this significant?” Lisa asked.
“I’m not sure. I need to follow up on a few things.” Charlie turned to George. “Can I borrow this?”
George shrugged. “It’s all in my computer.”