Cretaceous Conspiracy #3 and Ancient Ice Apocalypse #4(on kindle)

A Epoch Industries research helicopter moved slowly over a small island; it was the spring equinox.

Kars was thinking, ‘Today Fianna wanted to celebrate my birthday, but instead here I am, flying to a destination unknown. I’ve lost track of how many times Taylor and I have done this. But this time, Daisy said she had a surprise for me and here we are chasing after one of her energy signatures.’

Kars looked over his shoulder, Daisy Cane and Jon Creighton were comparing tablets. He shook his head; she was definitely obsessing over something. Daisy had tried to explain the strange energy readings she was tracking to them but had given up when even Davin had looked at her blankly. Kars couldn’t help the feeling that she was only explaining half because she didn’t want to upset them. Taylor had told him not to worry, it will be easier to understand once she got an answer, to wait for it.

Taylor, who was flying, spoke over the headsets, “Daisy, we have to go back.”

“No... not yet,” she refused stubbornly.

“We need fuel,” he insisted.

“No, we have plenty for what we need. Veer six degrees east and slow up... over the water next to the largest island,” she instructed.

“Daisy...” Taylor repeated crankily.

“I said east and slow down, we’re almost there,” she demanded.

Below was a small underwater peak that looks like a pyramid. It was definitely a curious shape. An even smaller tower shaped island was just to the north and to the south there appeared to be ruins beneath the water. Either that or the coral reef grew in some pretty weird shaped. Neimad Global had owned this island and access had been restricted for over a century, now the underwater preserve belonged to Epoch Research Industries as Davin, Ezra, and Daisy had decided to call their company. Cretaceous Creatures Inc. was only one branch of the think-tank built around Daisy’s brainpower and the billion-dollar settlement she got for the murder of her family and the death of her husband. It turned out that her divorce was never filed. The papers were found in Dr. Dale Crane’s personal effects. She had turned her windfall into a company with her new friends.

Kars’s skin and intuition tingled. He had the strangest sense that he had been here before, but he was sure that he hadn’t. “Where are we exactly?” He asked to no one in particular.

“Daisy, in 14 minutes we won’t have enough fuel to make it back,” Taylor announced gruffly.

“STOP... stop here... back up a bit.” She sounded really excited which always meant trouble.

“Daisy, are you even listening to me?” Taylor asked grumpily.

Kars turned to look over his shoulder again. She and Jon were looking at his tablet, she was stuffing hers into a waterproof dive bag. She was unstrapped and without headphones. Kars noticed she had put flippers on and dive goggles hanging around her wrist.

“Taylor, I think she is going to jump,” Kars began, then the rear door opened, filling the cabin with wind.

“Oh crap! Don’t Daisy, stop!” Taylor shouted too late as Daisy jumped out and splashed into the turquoise water below. She wrestled the pair of goggles on and dove under the water.

“Find a place to land,” Kars said as he unstrapped himself, “Radio Ezra and Davin to bring you more fuel if you need it.”

“That crazy...” And Taylor swore colorfully.

Jon was leaning out the side, looking down at where Daisy went in the water, and declared confidently, “Do not worry, Daisy knows what she is doing. Well, I think she does, she seems to know, but I don’t know, maybe...”

“Hhmmrph!” Taylor snorted derisively.

“She’s going to get me killed today, isn’t she?” was the last thing Kars asked into the mic before pulled off his headset and stepped out onto runner.

Kars looked over his shoulder and read Taylor’s lips as he nodded, “Probably.”

Kars shrugged his pack on and looked down. He could see her under the crystal waters and jumped from the helicopter. Diving deep underwater, he swam toward her. She was breaking coral blocks with a mattock. A missing piece of coral revealed the top of a door.

Kars wondered, ‘Shouldn’t she be drowning by now?’ He could hold his breath for 300 heartbeats, but humans only lasted about four minutes.

The coral block shattered, and she quickly pried open a panel. The door opened and she plunged through, he followed. On the other side of the door was air, not water. He fell flat onto the floor next to her and gasped in surprise. She was coughing and laughing.

As he took a deep breath of air, he asked, “How did you not drown?”

She held up a small mask, “Re-breather with compressed O2,” she answered.

She looked at the cartridge on it, gave it a shake then shrugged and tossed it aside. Kars guessed it was almost empty. Even in the darkness he could see the excitement in her eyes, he called his warrior magic so his night vision would work in the darkness.

They were at the end of a corridor of some kind. The hall was long and dark, in the dim light from the sun-filled sea, he could see carvings everywhere. She pulled her tablet and some torches from her bag. She was practically vibrating with excitement, as she pulled at him to follow. In the distance, he could hear something moving in the darkness. Daisy was already placing battery torchlights and heading straight toward the noise.

”Come on, Kars,” she whispered excitedly, looking at her tablet. Kars pulled his sword out of his pack and followed quickly, thanking the Light for his intuition telling him to bring his gear. He knew they were in trouble already.

“Why isn’t the water coming in?” he asked.

She was scanning and filming the walls with her tablet, as she answered absently, “Electra-magnetic fields reacting with the metallic ions in the heavily mineralized seawater creates a... “

“Never mind... what is this place?” Sensing a lecture, Kars changed the subject.

She was fiddling with the wall and the dim glow of ancient lampstone began to spread in geometric shapes. It reminded him of his grandfather’s home.

Suddenly, the hall opened into a huge cavern, it appeared to be a perfect dome, made of coral. It started at the top of the carved wall and curved up to height of the ocean’s surface outside. Water dripped in a few places, probably from condensation, but the structure seemed solid and airtight. Whatever was keeping the water our, was keeping the air in. Kars found it curious that the air wasn’t stale. He couldn’t hide his surprise, seeing his expression she winked at him.

Grinning, Daisy put on a strange device that he had seen in Ezra and Davin’s workshop. She fired small, dim circular lights around them and toward the center. The lampstone glowed from the walls but it was not enough to illuminate the vast domed cavern. There seemed to be a larger structure in the center, a pyramid temple. She placed the brighter torch-light directly below painted stone tablets on the wall end began scanning the images. She was mumbling in a strangely familiar dialect, the language of his childhood. Her voice sounded musical as she read the writing, but he wasn’t paying attention to what she was saying or the images, he was too busy watching the creatures moving toward them in the darkness.

”Kars, come here,” she whispered breathlessly. Directly in front of her was an image of people, surrounded by a familiar script.

“Who are they?” he asked absently. “What is this place?”

Over his shoulder he was barely looking at what she was, he was too busy tracking the threats approaching, threats she seemed completely unaware of. Taylor had warned him that she got like this.

“Daisy, we need to go.” He needed her to focus on the enemy not a wall, but her response distracted him from the danger.

“Your home...” Daisy replied in a hushed but confident tone, “and they are your people.”

“What?!?” Kars jerked his head back to stare at her and the image on the wall, the figures looked just like him, ears and all! He knew Daisy would find him some information about his forgotten past but the origin of his people?!?!

Taylor had warned him over half a year ago, ”You’ve got bigger problems than that, son. You’re her new puzzle. She won’t stop until she gets answers.”

Kars forgot all about the monsters in the darkness stalking them as he stared at the image on the wall. The writing was faded almost to the point he couldn’t read it. He leaned forward trying to discern the calligraphy.

”I can’t read it,” he muttered. He can’t shake the creeping sense of deja vu he got when they first burst through the door from the sea.

“Oh, I’ll have to enhance the images, but I found a big piece of your puzzle.” She was already three images down the wall. “Do you think you ever came here? You know before the whole evil twin trying to kill you, war of good and evil thing, before Damien killed your father maybe?”

“Uhhh, I don’t remember a place like this,” Kars is surprised he can’t hear his heartbeat echoing off the walls of whatever this place is. He had never been to an underwater city, he was sure he would remember something like that, but he is still suffering from a screaming sense of deja vu that he wouldn’t be able to ignore if he wanted to. He must have come here as a child.

“Are you sure? It would have been above sea level, maybe a city filled with gardens and channels of water?”

“I… I…” He has a flash of playing in a garden with Damien, they were very young, no more than 50 or 60. Their mother was sitting, nearby with a very, very old man. But that definitely wasn’t underwater. He could only stare at the faded mural. He just didn’t remember.

An arrow hit Daisy in the leg, as she was scanning the wall. “Ouch,” she complained, more annoyed than hurt as she pulled it out, “Can you deal with them...” She waved one hand absently toward a dozen necromanced mildewed zombies.

She continued lighting and scanning the wall murals like she couldn’t feel the arrow in her leg. Taylor had warned him, when Daisy became focused like this nothing else mattered to her, not even the condition of her body.

Kars was already killing the zombies; they felt like dark magic and were dressed in black rags. Kars realized horrified there were a lot more than a dozen, so many more. He was again glad he listened to his intuition and brought his armor and sword. “Daisy gear up and get cover.”

She didn’t seem to notice what he said, so he shouted at her, “Daisy! Your body armor! Put. It. On. Now!” Kars grunted as he fought, barely managing to cut off a skeletal zombie targeting her. He knocked the rotten arrow out of the air then decapitated the rancid undead warrior.

Daisy blinked at him, “But I have you.” Her brain was too focused on her new data, to realize the threat.

He remembered Taylor warning him about this too. If she believed he could protect her, she won’t worry about the need to protecting herself while she gathered data.

“Are you kidding me? You didn’t bring any armor? Or anything?” He demanded, killing two more salt water mummies.

They were about to be overrun. Karstien’s heart was pounding even harder than it was a few moments ago when Daisy revealed she had found something he never even looked for and he knew he must protect her until she could explain it to him.

‘My people! I knew she was looking for answers for me but this?!?!’ he thought in a panic.

He tossed his own Kevlar vest at her. “Put this on NOW!” If he died, he’d revive, she wouldn’t. “Daisy, I need you to call tactical for me like you did the night we took down Damien.” He demanded, if he could make her ‘see the threats’, maybe she would realize they needed to leave.

“You’ve got this, I’m busy,” She shrugged, picked up the vest as she almost tripped over it, and absently donned the body armor. But she never stopped scanning or mumbling in the ancient dialect of his people.

Kars continued killing zombies, but he needed to get her out of here. “Daisy, we need to go, we’ll come back with...”

“NO! No, nooo,” she screamed. It echoed creepily in the emptiness of the coral dome.

He turned expecting her to be dying, but instead there was an arrow through her tablet.

“My tablet,” she cried, “My data!”

He grabbed her arm, “We have to go… NOW!”

“But I’m not done.” She sounded lost, then another arrow hit his armor and she staggered. He dragged her back to the hall before she could resist.

In the corridor, Kars stopped only long enough to shut the door between them and the pursuing mobs, “Are you okay? Daisy, focus! Can you still swim?” He bent and carefully pulls the rotten wooden arrow out of her leg.

Daisy’s lavender eyes looked at him in that lost way she got sometimes when she tried to talk about her sons, and he could see she was shutting down, probably going into shock.

“But I wasn’t done, Kars,” she murmured forlornly.

He remembered something Taylor said about her needing a mission to focus on.

“You need a new computer, we have to get out of here, and go home for one, then we will come back, so you can work. Okay?” His voice sounded so much calmer than he felt as the pounding of the undead are breaking the ancient wooden door.

She nodded rapidly, “As long as we come back... Do you promise?”

“I promise but we need to go now.” Kars assured her as he tucked her tablet in its waterproof bag and sealed it. “We’ll give this to Jon, but we have to get it to him first. Can you swim?”

“Yes.” Re-focused, she limped down the hall with him.

The zombies were breaking through. An arrow knocked her down from behind. If she wasn’t wearing Karstien’s body armor, she’d be dead. Kars grabbed her arm and tossed her out into the ocean as two more arrows hit him. He was glad they were so old and rotten they barely penetrated his denser flesh. He scooped up her re-breather as he fell through the doorway and into the warm water.

She had started to swim up, he closed the door behind them. Daisy was struggling to swim with the arrow wound in her leg. He pushed the breather in her mouth, and she inhaled, coughed and inhaled again. He signaled to her to keep going, grabbing her hand, and dragged her to the surface. The choppy surf just inside the breakwater rolled them and Daisy lost her breather. She sputtered and coughed as they tried to swim. Both were half-drowned when they crawled ashore.

Taylor and Jon came running toward them from the helicopter sitting further up the beach.

“Daisy, what was that place?” Kars coughed, he pulled an arrow he hadn’t noticed out of his lower back. The wound wasn’t deep, just annoying. He was going to be in pain until he healed but he didn’t care about that as he demanded answers.

Daisy was coughing too hard to answer; she had swallowed a lot of seawater. She struggled to take off the heavy, waterlogged Kevlar vest. It had pieces of at least five rotten wood arrows in it.

“Gawd dammit Daisy, I told you there was nothing on this island,” Taylor yelled at her.

“You’re right Taylor, there is nothing ON the island,” she snapped weakly, still coughing, “But the sea level was over 100 feet lower during and before the last ice age than it is now. It’s not on the island, it’s under it. Jon, can you recover it?”

Daisy pleadingly held out waterproof dive bag containing the damaged tablet. Jon pulled out her tablet, shocked that there is an old arrow through it.

“It looks like they missed the memory and processor…” He began mumbling while looking at it, nodding with concentration.

Picking up Kars’ vest, Taylor turned to Kars, “What the heck? You two look like a couple of porcupines. What did you find?”

Kars was still coughing, as he wheezed out, “I don’t know. A city or a giant temple of some kind. There were a lot of zombies, all in black, and something else.”

Jon interrupted excitedly, “You did find it? Oh, please tell me, you found it.”

Daisy coughed and grinned, “Yes, we did! Happy Birthday, Kars,” she sounded happy, as she tried to stand on her wounded leg, but she swayed woozily and announced, “I think I am going to faint now.” And she collapsed on the soft sand.

Taylor swore as he rolled his eyes, “Analyst! What else, Kars?”

Kars shook his head, answering, “I didn’t get a good look, I was too busy fighting to keep us both alive, but there were pictures on the walls, Taylor. Pictures of people who look like me. Daisy said they are my people, and this is my home. I don’t know what it means but I don’t remember an underwater city but that doesn’t mean she’s wrong.”

They looked at the now unconscious Daisy lying in the sand.

Taylor turned to Jon, “Well, Jon? What does it mean?”

“It means Daisy found something very special, but I don’t want to tell you, she will want to tell. No, no, no, I cannot tell you. Oh, my goodness, I am so excited. This is amazing, it is amazing news and she will want to...”

“Spit it out, Jon, or you can swim back!” Taylor snapped.

Jon grinned at them both, “Atlantis.”

Kars and Taylor both gaped at him like he has lost his mind then they looked at Daisy unconscious on the sand.

Taylor groaned, “I’m getting too old for this.”

Kars laughed in disbelief, lying back on the white sand and retorted softly, “I’m older.”