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Chapter -12- El Dorado

Thursday July 21, 2049 - 1:30pm local time 'Parker Island' Pacific Ocean ...

James Parker drew a soft cloth towel off a vertical metal post and rubbed his face. He leaned backwards, stretching his back, then forward, doubling over. Jaye stood up, wiping the sweat from his face again. He draped the towel his shoulder and sighed.

His simple white UnderArmor shirt was form-fitting to his torso. However, his black track pants were drenched all the way to his ankles. The fabric was poufy over his left leg but clung to his right from the knee down.

Jaye glanced back at the training room, which doubled as an obstacle course. A clock on the wall made him frown. "Damn. Still thirty minutes before lunch." He headed out of the room, picking up three empty plastic bottles on his way to the main hall.

The corridor was brightly illuminated. He admired the gorgeous, ornate room filled with worldly trinkets and ancient obsessions, which decorated various shelves and trophy cases. Jay shifted the bottles in his hand to get a better grasp then stepped into a room of further surpassing majesty, decorated with beautiful artifacts.

At a table in the corner, Dawn and Conner sat across from one another with several books and aged maps laid out. Some of the books were used as weights to keep one of the maps open, which curled at the top and bottom. Another map, smaller than the rest, was inside of a glass case, propped up by a stack of objects - presumably more books.

Jaye used the towel to dry his hair then draped it over his shoulders evenly. "Hey guys, what's going on here?"

Dawn looked up at her betrothed with a smile. "How was it?"

"Brutal. So, you guys look about shoulder-deep in something interesting." James picked up a book near the center of the table, which was open to a page depicting several fancy logos. "What's the 'Thule Society'?"

Conner looked up then nodded to Dawn. "You wanna tell him? I need to focus on trying to find this one word. God I wish these were on eReaders."

Dawn grinned then looked up at Jaye and pointed to a chair across the room. "Bring that over here and have a seat." She continued to speak while James retrieved the chair. "Well, hon, the Thule Society was basically a German book club that got out of control. They were looking for a homeland for their master race. Atlantis-like beliefs. They mixed science and occult to try and explain their own belief system, some of which was based on Madam Blavatsky's work, penned decades earlier."

"Yeah?" Jaye settled the chair next to her and slid down into it. "Sorry if I stink. I'll get a shower in a minute. I just wanted to see what you guys are up to." He picked up the book he'd looked at a moment ago and glanced at the cover. He arched his brows then put it back on the table. "What's with the creature cover-art?"

Dawn reached for the book and used her thumb to keep the page. She turned it over and used her other hand to point out the character on the front. "This is Moloch." She paused and asked Conner, "This one is Moloch right?"

Conner glanced up then back down at the page he was scanning. "Mmhmm."

Dawn turned her gaze back to James. She pointed to the other picture. "And on the back cover, this is Hyperborea. A mythical land at the North Pole where the sun shines all the time during most of the year. Some of this stuff is worthless, but a lot of it is based in truth. But there's no landmass at the North Pole. It's just ice in the Arctic Ocean. And I think the creature is some sort of deity from the upper African continent. I don't know much about him or why Thule would care."

James reached for the book and rubbed his fingers over the cover binding. "Weird leather finish."

Conner glanced back up, briefly, and said, "Human flesh, man. Pretty dark, huh?" He looked back down at the book in his hands, scanning his index along the words again.

James frowned. "What's the book about?"

Dawn shrugged. "A bunch of topics."

"Like?"

She used a fancy golden string to save her place, then flipped through a few pages and pulled out a section at random. "Okay so ... let's see here - these guys were called the Cathars. They disappeared. Who really knows how or why - everything about them is conjecture and speculation, you know?" She flipped through some more pages. "And this chapter is interesting. Apparently, the son of Jesus and Mary Magdalene was said to be a candidate as an Aryan leader. Not sure how that makes sense, since he wouldn't have blond hair or blue eyes. But it suggests that Jesus might have been Loki, which is a deity worshiped by fair-haired people to the north of Germany. If so, that would mean Loki was the ultimate trickster, starting his own religion successfully."

"Jesus."

Dawn looked up at her beau. "Pun not intended, huh?"

"Pardon? OH, right. Yeah, sorry. So Mary Magdalene, huh?"

"Yup. Her descendants are supposed to rise up and become the Whore of Babylon, but then later become..."

"Okay, I've heard enough," James said with a chuckle. "I think the statement of the day, here, is 'crock of shit.'"

"It is," Dawn replied with a grin. "Everything is propaganda about why people should allow a New World Order to happen. But every one of these ancient prophecies has a few things in common."

James shifted his weight in the chair. "Like what, for example?"

"They all tell of a time in the future that will be a time of great turmoil followed by a thousand years of peace and prosperity. It's always darkness, followed by a thousand years of light. Norse mythology, the Book of Revelations, the Thule Society. I mean, literally, dozens of belief systems, many of whom never heard of the other, always come to that same conclusion. Darkness, then a thousand years of light. Figurative light, but still ... light."

James frowned. "Y'know, the old world had this quaint notion that Religion and Government should always be married, because leaders liked to use belief systems to keep their subjects loyal. But the modern world likes to marry Government with big business because worldly wealth - or at least the illusion of a promise to world wealth - is what drives societies now. It's a stupid notion, because if everyone in the world was rich, money would lose its worth. Then every world economy would collapse. They'd have to trade in new ways to keep the classes satisfied. Vitamins, knowledge, medicine. But minted currency is always made, and always the favorite. You have controlling people who have their buddies mint coins, and control the banks, so the whole lot of them can have the real control. Then they get into bed with churches to control the population."

Conner looked up with a smile. "Very good, Uncle Jaye. You hit the nail on the head, man. So, do you know why money has always been the longest surviving version of currency?"

"Because the poor and foolish squander it, and eventually return to poverty. The rich like to find people whose frame of mind and type of thinking are going to make them wealthier. Then they teach those people how to manage their money and join their social ranks."

Conner looked pleased by his uncle's display of imagination and intelligence. "Go on."

Jaye shrugged, not really having a point to make. "I mean, some of these groups get their start in political fields, and sometimes people get a little eccentric about it. It starts as hanging out, or having a book club like the Thule people Dawn mentioned. But sometimes these people take it to the next level and create ridiculous apprenticeships in occult gatherings."

The boy's expression brightened a bit. "Keep going."

"Oh. Well, uh, these kind of groups probably stem weird beliefs in stuff like 'Esoteric' society, the illuminati, The Skulls group; dumb stuff like that. It's just goofy crap that people take too seriously. After a few generations, the members begin taking themselves way too seriously. Next thing you know, they have their own fringe science and belief system."

Conner nodded, somewhat impressed. "Decent assumptions. You have a good imagination. And you're not far off the mark."

"I'm a comic book writer. Imagination comes natural. So what's the belief here? That all of the world's biggest and most mysterious societies all came from the same place of origin?"

"Off the top of your head, what are the top four mysterious super societies?" asked Conner.

Jaye rubbed his chin. "The Greeks, the Romans..."

"No, think older. Like, way older."

James leaned back in the chair and looked up at the ceiling. After a moment, he said, "The ancient Greeks, the Egyptians, the cultures of Mexico - you know, like, Aztecs and Mayans and stuff, and..." he paused to think of a fourth and final one.

"Just spit something out."

"Asian stuff?"

Conner grinned. "Close enough. There is a lot of history in China that goes back to the ancient world. India has its own ancient history. But when I say super society, I mean the stuff of legend. The Chinese were great about writing down everything. So there is a lot less mystery. Plus, they didn't have societies that would up and disappear overnight."

"Like Pompeii?" James shifted his weight. "That was after Christ, though, right?"

"Yes. I'm talking about really old stuff. Like Knossos. Some say Crete was what Atlantis was based on. The volcano blew up and turned the island into a huge atoll."

"What was so mysterious about the place you just mentioned?"

Conner glanced down to make sure his finger hadn't roamed. "They had bathrooms in their houses. They had pipes and sewage drains. They had hot running water, heated by the volcano underneath. Hot water means less germs, and longer living. These people had a lot of wild stuff. And after the place was leveled by an eruption, survivors went to Egypt for help. Egyptians wrote it all down."

Jaye nodded. "Egyptians never really had a catastrophe that makes them a super mystery."

"Yeah," Conner agreed with a nod. "But they did stuff that we can't understand to this very day. I think their culture was covered by thee, uh, you know ... sands of time, as it were, because their society changed and the people started to ignore the past."

"They grew ignorant."

"Exactly. But anyway, we now know the ancient Egyptians told a Greek man, called Solon, about the distant past. That guy went back to Greece and talked about it. Socrates picked up on the story and talked about it at dinner parties. Plato picked it up next, and started to pen it, but never finished. Like, he stopped mid-sentence or something."

"And he called it Atlantis?"

"So it's said." Conner glanced down at his book making sure his finger hadn't lost its spot, then he gazed back up at his uncle. "But I think Plato's sources went beyond stories based on the Egyptian recordings with Crete and the so-called Minoans. After all, that society wasn't old enough to fit the bill for Plato's overly-accurate depictions."

"He was a writer, Conner. He took artistic license and made it up."

"People thought that about Troy. It took a non-scholar to believe things exactly for it to be unearthed."

Dawn cleared her throat. "The same could be said for the bible. Some people think it has to be read literally."

Conner shrugged. "The bible had a different writer for almost every story. Troy's story was passed down by one famous and respected author. Homer. Atlantis was passed down by one famous and respected author. Plato. More writers means more error and confusion of details. That means everyone had to agree with Homer and Plato's story. That's why the details didn't fragment, and why they're accurate."

"Conner, I mean that people still debate where some of the gospels got their sources. Scholars call it a 'Q' source."

"Oh, right," said Conner, adding, "Exactly my point." He turned to James and nodded firmly. "Two of the gospels share information from an unknown source. Both people are sharing the same information but nobody knows where it came from. People have been searching for the mysterious 'Q' source for some time, now. These guys didn't live at the same time, so where did the source come from? That illustrates my point - there is stuff Plato got that can be traced back to Egypt. Some he made up. Some of it comes from a traceable source beyond Egypt."

"Okay," said James, playing devil's advocate, "Let's say you're right. Let's say there's a city that's, like, nine thousand years old. A city of power and technology and prestige, which was around when humans were just learning how to make pots and store grain in them for the first time. Okay, fine. But where's the proof?"

Conner held his finger up. "Nine thousand years older than Critias. We're talking about an ancient and long-lasting society that ended over eleven thousand years before today. And the calendar has changed quite a few times during those eleven thousand years. So it might even be further back than that. The city's technology spans back a thousand years earlier, if not longer. Like I said, Plato says it was destroyed nine thousand years before his time. So it's quite a bit older than eleven thousand years."

"Again. Where's the proof? Didn't Atlantis fight the Greeks in the story? Greeks weren't around back then. Didn't the Atlanteans pray to a Greek God? Those weren't around back then."

Conner nodded firmly. "You've just figured out the 'artistic license' you mentioned. The Greeks couldn't imagine a time without their gods. To them, the gods are older than time. But whoever Poseidon was based off of might have been the God worshipped at the heart of Atlantis. That would be realistic."

"Realistic," James repeated with a chuckle. "You're killing me, here."

"Yeah. There was a metal substance mentioned by Hesiod and, later, by Plato."

"Go on, Conner."

"Atlantis is said to have a type of metal that the Greeks called 'Mountain Copper.' The term was 'Orichalcum.' Plato said that by the time of his story, it was only a name, as it was gone from the world. But in truth even the true name had been forgotten. Even the real name of Atlantis was forgotten. The Egyptians didn't call it Atlantis, after all. They told this guy named Solon that the name of the place was Hallas and it stretched all the way to this nation called Colchis."

"Cole-cheese?"

"Just listen." Conner sighed with a frown then said, "Some say it's in the Sea of Azov, on the other side of the Black Sea. But disinformation is always invited when it comes to guarding the secrets of Atlantis."

James frowned thoughtfully. "With all due respect, you're a fourteen year old boy."

"Fifteen."

"Please, just hear me out, Conner. You have a huge imagination. You have less information readily available than the archeologists who have traveled the world and brushed away pumice and ash and mud. You're too young to know how to use radiocarbon dating equipment."

The boy gestured towards the rest of the room. "Have you seen this place?" Conner said with a wan grin.

James arched his brows. "You are picking up your favorite bits of the tale from different stories and making your own theories. Instead of pure science and research, and exploration, you're filling in the gaps with your imagination. Now, having said that ... by all means, go ahead and prove me wrong."

Dawn grinned at the boys. "Hold on to your ass, Jaye. This is the part where he made me a believer."

Conner grinned at her. His eyes cut to his uncle. He stood up from the table and passed his book to Dawn. "Keep your finger right there so I don't lose my spot, please." He waved for James. "Uncle Jaye, follow me."

They walked out of the room together, leaving Dawn to relax. Across the hall was another room laid out like a decadent study.

Conner turned on the lights then pivoted, facing the wall adjacent to the doorframe. He pointed up to a large grid-like mural with glass cases in each block. "This is the periodic table of elements. Inside those little blocks of clear glass is one example of every element man has on it. The painting inside each block, behind the glass-encased example, is a picture depicting its use. See AU? That's gold. Right there, number seventy-nine. Platinum and mercury flank it. But, oh, what's that little added box between Platinum and Gold you might ask?"

James approached the wall and leaned in close. "The box is kind of higher than the rest."

"Yeah. It's between Platinum, Gold, Palladium and Silver. It's just a spot between all four of these guys on the element table. Who knows where this new thing should go. It's really light, so I think it should be up by Titanium."

"Why not have it tested by a scientist?"

Conner shook his head and shrugged. "Can't. There's not enough of it to give out for study. Any scientist whose word would mean anything to the scientific community would be backed by a Government. And they would demand everything we have. We don't have enough for that game. It's the world's rarest metal."

Jaye frowned thoughtfully. He wanted to give the boy the benefit of the doubt, but so far, he wasn't sold. "And, uh, mainstream science hasn't technically discovered it yet?"

"Nope. So, this special metal is not on the periodic table of elements. No other traces have been found by modern scientists yet." Conner had a straight face and calm eyes.

"You're serious, aren't you?"

"Yes. Atlantis was real, even if that wasn't what Atlanteans called it."

"Go on," Jaye said, using Conner's tactic from earlier, to try and goad the boy to continue with his explanation. Even if it wasn't real, Jaye decided it might make an interesting subplot in his comic. "I'm curious."

"It's not Tartessos, or Santorini, or on Crete. It wasn't in the Mediterranean at all. It's not in the Bermuda Triangle. It's not near Russia, it's not Troy, and it's not in Antarctica. I don't care what the Thule scholars believed - it wasn't at the North Pole. It's not _beneath_the North Pole, either. To find it, you'd have to find out where orichalcum came from, and that's rare."

"Yeah? How rare is rare? You already said no one else has found it."

"Uncle Jaye, orichalcum is mythological. When I say rare, I mean really rare. There's only one mine - one place on Earth."

"Okay, I see you have faith in this whole thing, Conner. And that's great. But I need proof." James ran a hand through his hair with a frown. "There are too many liars in the world, and too many things that are misinterpreted. Believing blindly is how the Bible ends. We're told to put our faith in the written word, completely and totally. But then it warns that our blind faith will be our end in the Book of Revelations. We all get duped by false prophecies, and by the Anti-Christ."

"You want proof huh?" Conner offered a sly smile.

James nodded. "Yes, exactly. For example, we haven't found a real Egyptian army at the bottom of the Red Sea. So it's either the wrong spot or it's a story. Or we're really blind."

Conner eyed his uncle for a moment then grinned. "The Bible is not the word of God. It's the story of Almighty God told by the word of man."

"You're religious?"

"I've seen some stuff that makes me question how people translate things, but not the message. I've seen some stuff that makes me wonder how much of it is true. The more I've seen, the more I believe all of it could be true to a degree."

"Conner. C'mon now. So why did God only work miracles solely in the ancient Middle East?"

"Maybe the ancient Middle East was just better about keeping their records. Maybe the rest of the world didn't attribute their miracles to God the same way everyone else does. All I know is ... God has changed."

"Excuse me?"

Conner changed tone, as if changing the direction of the conversation. "Your step-father, Gregory Watson; how was he when you were little?"

"Pretty strict. Why?"

"And is he still strict with you?"

"He's mellowed out in his old age."

Conner smiled. "You're proving my point. God was a wrathful Father in the Old Testament. He spanked us pretty hard when we were naughty children. At the Meridian of Time, God started to mellow out. Just like any father does as they become comfortable with watching his children grow up, He's relaxed a bit."

"God is love. God is wrath and vengeance. God is forgiveness. God is the Great Judge. It's too conflicting. Sorry, man. And if Jesus came in the meridian of time, then the world is pretty old, because we're not going anywhere for a while. Hardcore Bible-thumpers say the world is a few thousand years old. We know humanity has been believing in deities since, at the very least, Göbekli Tepe. Now, there is a place that's as old as the Atlantis myth, and those people were hunters and gatherers, who prayed to deities, and sacrificed animals in worship. No wheel. No pottery. No modern tools, Conner."

"But they had people in tribes that were smart enough to show others how to build places like that, Uncle Jaye. And thank you for bringing up Göbekli Tepe. The United States is technologically advanced, though for how much longer who knows..."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Conner shrugged. "The mid-west is sitting on a stratovolcano in Yellowstone. The quake that happened before I was born caused it to swell up out of the ground. If that thing blows its top, America is shit out of luck."

Jaye folded his arms. "Alright, back to your point. The US is technologically advanced. And ... go."

"Right. The US is modern. Yet there are towns in Africa, South America, Central America, and ... even slums in huge cities like Detroit, where there's no running water. No windows or doors. Just a shell with a roof over head. And they block the windows in the wintertime with whatever they have. Göbekli Tepe was just the poor area."

Jaye eyed his nephew for a moment. "Still, based on what we know about things to come and things in the past, if Jesus was the middle of time, then we have plenty of stuff ahead of us. And that proves the world is much older than a few thousand years. At least it does to me."

"Okay," Conner countered. "You did this to me earlier. My turn. Why do you think we're going to be around longer than, say, tomorrow? Where is your proof?"

"Playing Devil's advocate huh? Okay, let's use the Bible, since you've brought it up, already." James looked away from his nephew and traced his fingers over the mural on the wall. After a moment, he turned back to Conner again. "Book of Revelations says after a future cataclysm, we'll have a thousand years of peace, which implies that drama will make a return around that time. So already, the Bible is promising that the world isn't ending any time soon. Sure, people will die, but it's not the end of humanity, and time isn't stopping anytime soon."

"I agree with you. And that, to me, is proof there were civilizations further back than some people realize."

James smiled slightly. The boy was agreeing with him? Well how about that. "Who knows, maybe the quake of 2025 was the rapture. Probably not, but it killed thousands on both sides of the Atlantic."

Conner shrugged. "Maybe but I doubt it. There can't be a thousand years of peace until after we go to war with Aris Falcon."

Jaye rubbed his face. "Okay, so the quake wasn't the end of the New Testament."

"Right. Anyhow, the fact Jesus came at the middle of time, and the Bible promises us clear world peace and a future that is quite extensive ... well, to me that is huge. It proves there is a lasting future, and a distant past older than the Fertile Crescent or the Garden of Eden. Maybe the opening of Genesis was the story of a terraforming project on a worldly scale. Who knows?"

"Conner, slow down. You're getting all excited over us agreeing that the world isn't going to end soon."

"No, man, I'm excited that you're opening up your mind. I have physical proof that people could think and build and live a _modern_way back in the Stone Age."

"Wouldn't be much of a Stone Age if we'd already advanced beyond stone, now would it?"

"C'mon Uncle Jaye. I need you to be open-minded. You're going to see a lot of weird stuff in the days ahead. I need you to live in a world where science and religion are the same. I've met a deity. She told me she has faith in a One-True-Creator."

"And she couldn't stop the quake, twenty-four years ago, huh?"

"No. She said that deities are not allowed to practice divine intervention on a massive scale. Only the 'One-True-Creator' has that right. And she said her kind are afraid of punishment should they break that law."

James grimaced. "The girl from the mirror?"

"That's her."

"She never showed up when you called her, Conner. Your proof isn't exactly selling me here."

"You'll see her eventually. She confirmed my artifacts are real. She said it's completely reflective material that her kind cannot pass through. Just keep an open mind. You won't regret it."

Jaye cut his gaze back at Conner and folded his arms. "Okay, let's see your super-secret shiny shit."

Conner walked away from the wall mural and approached a large safe, seven feet tall, five feet wide. He opened up the door and stepped inside. "C'mon."

James followed him in. Conner pulled on a string, causing a light bulb to turn on.

"How deep does this go?" asked Jaye.

"Not too far. Once upon a time, this whole island vault was designed with mirrors and carefully placed openings so that light could get in, but storm water wouldn't flood the place. But now we have hydroelectricity. It's enough to power the place and meet the needs of a group of people if necessary. Follow me."

"How old is this place? I saw some subterranean sections this morning that looked like upgrades. A closer look made me wonder how old the original parts are."

"What if I told you it was built at the beginning of the Near East Bronze Age?"

"This place is five thousand years old?"

Conner grinned. "It was made by a community of families. You and I are the last known living members. All this belongs to us. That's why I had to convince everyone to let me bring you here."

"There's a lot of gold coins here, Conner. Enough you could retire. Enough I could publish my comic without needing a publishing house." James paused in the hallway to look at a charcoal sketching on the safe wall. The lifelike representation of a person's face was beautifully rendered beneath the light bulb. "Wow." He looked back towards his nephew. "What I'm trying to say is there's more money here than..."

"You haven't seen it all. There's enough money here to cripple the world's economy. We have to be responsible with it. It's been suggested that 175 thousand tonnes of gold has been mined from Earth throughout human history. What if I told you that a large fraction of it is here? Maybe as much as a third. There's no way to ever weigh it. All we can do is guess."

"Again, I'll need proof."

"I won't let you down. But one thing at a time. May I present to you: all the Atlantean orichalcum in known existence at this time." Conner guided James further into the safe. The hum of air ventilation kicked on. A brightly colored piece of string danced in front of an air register.

The safe was akin to a hallway and continued back to a boxy room, about eight feet tall, fifteen feet wide, and fairly deep. At least twenty feet, James thought. He walked along the walls, looking at various trinkets on the shelves. "They're all metallic. They look really interesting. Are they all stained red like this?"

Conner shook his head. "Nothing here is stained. It has a natural red luster because it's mined that way. It's rare. Almost as dense as platinum, but oddly light. Its melting point is actually the thing that gets me. Thirty-five hundred degrees Fahrenheit. That's higher than platinum. It's also less reactive than platinum. It must have been hard to work with. You'd basically need thermite to melt it."

"Or a welder's torch. I'm not sure how smelting works, but I'm pretty sure metal workers have no problem getting metal hot."

"Fair enough. But it's all real. And it's not mountain copper like the Greeks thought. It's technologically advanced metal work."

"This is all tested?" James picked up a red ring and held it up to the light. "This is gorgeous. It's like gold but ... well, red and even more reflective than normally polished gold."

"Yeah. It's a shame gold needs to be polished so often. We're sitting on a mountain of brownish metal. It goes to the bottom of the Pacific, I guess."

James secretly rolled his eyes so as not to offend his nephew. "No white gold, huh?"

"Some. But white gold isn't natural. It's plated with rhodium. I think that's what it's called. It's also mixed with other alloys to make it appear white."

"Oh." James continued to analyze the ring. He could literally see himself in the reflective metal, which looked like red chrome.

Conner continued. "And just like you can have white gold, you can also have yellow orichalcum. Plus there's a processed version of orichalcum used in tools and weapons, which raises the melting point to about four thousand degrees Fahrenheit. Unreasonably hot."

"Hot enough to withstand your theory of using Thermite to shape it? Incidentally, how much is this stuff worth?"

The teenaged boy replied with a casual shrug. "You need to learn your metal, Uncle Jaye. Thermite will get to temperatures over forty-five hundred degrees." Conner gestured with his hand, motioning to the trinkets on the shelves. "This is the rarest metal in the world. It isn't known to exist, so it's worthless to the rest of the world."

James set the ring back down and picked up a metal cylinder with faint grooves. "Drill bit, huh? Makes sense for a dense metal to be used as a drill bit."

Conner smiled brightly. "Dawn couldn't figure that one out. Good eye. It's dense, it doesn't flake apart, and it's very strong. But it's not a heavy sort of density like platinum. It doesn't corrode very easily, even under the acids that will work on platinum. This stuff is tough. Yet it is light enough you can work with concentrated amounts without breaking your back."

"Breaking your back, huh? How heavy is 'heavy,' Conner?"

"A solid platinum bowling ball would probably weigh, like, eight hundred pounds."

"I'll look that up when I get the chance."

"By all means, Uncle Jaye."

"I mean no disrespect, but how can you prove this stuff is as amazing, or rare, or strong as you claim?"

Conner picked up a pole by the wall with a fancy hook at one end and a rounded semi-hook at the other end. He twirled the pole, creating a low wooshing sound. The teenaged boy lifted it, twirled it again through his fingers, finally grasping it in his palm. All at once, Conner slammed it on the ground as hard as he could.

James blinked, shocked.

Conner dragged the end from left to right on the floor, then put his foot on the shaft and continued to drag it. He lifted the end then showed James that it was covered with a fine dust. He blew across it then smiled. The metal was perfectly polished and shiny without so much as a scratch mark.

James stared at the metallic rounded cane then looked back at his nephew.

"See? You can't even scuff it. It never needs to be polished once it's finished being casted. And if you tried to file it down or polish it with another material, it would wear down that material first. I have an orichalcum brush over on this other shelf that is dated a little over fourteen thousand years old."

"Bear with me, Conner. How do you know this stuff about this metal? It's impressive. You put a crack in the floor. There's not a scratch on that cane's hook. But how do you know so much about it?"

"There's a book on everything here."

"Everything in this room, or everything, everything?"

Conner picked at a piece of lint on his plain black v-neck t-shirt then brushed his hands on his denim jeans. "The book catalogues everything on-and-beneath this entire island. Not every family member had abilities. Some of us became historians and metallurgists and scholars. When you're in a family this rich, you can't help but want to be a part of it somehow. Besides, you'll never want for anything ever again."

"But how do you know about this metal that the rest of the world has never seen?"

Conner shrugged. "It's all catalogued. The writing is by some guy calling himself Methos. You can't even hurt this stuff with a blowtorch. It's so smooth that you could eat off of it. You'd technically never have to really wash it. Just wipe it off. It doesn't retain germs very easy. Like silverware but better. It's antimicrobial."

"Neat. Clean metal."

The boy continued to toy with the cane, twirling it about with a satisfied look on his face. "I'm a bit weird about germs, so I'd wash it. But I'm just telling you what the book says. I see the look on your face, Uncle Jaye. Listen, my mom believes this stuff is real, and that's good enough for me."

"Well, I've met Topaz enough times to respect her. But she's not a scientist."

"This guy calling himself Methos is a scientist. He says there was only one mine of this stuff where it formed, and there was a very intricate process to make it into the metal you see here. Else, naturally, it was red, white and black speckled. And without the refining process, it had a different feel to it. It was used to make floors, walls, and pillars. Just like marble only way harder. It doesn't crack. It doesn't become brittle."

"Where'd it come from, bud?"

"Bud?"

"I need to feel out a good nickname for you. I'm still trying out a few things. Obviously 'bud' isn't a very good one."

Conner lifted the cane and balanced it on the back of his hand, between his knuckles. The top brushed the ceiling. He idly brought it back down then twirled again, performing various tricks with it. "Orichalcum came from a mine at the bottom of the Atlantic. It is assumed that it came from an asteroid full of the stuff and that's why it can't be found anywhere else naturally occurring on Earth. That we know of. Who knows what's in the lower section of the crust, huh?"

"So who is this Methos guy?"

"I don't know but he has a few books here. The guy is smart. You can tell by his writings that he likes his math and science."

"And your ... our family took everything from that ancient city and stockpiled it?"

Conner nodded firmly. "Yup. Plato wrote that Atlantis called this stuff 'second only to gold.' They used it more as tools first, and jewelry second. Gold was used as a type of jewelry and currency first and foremost. But in the modern world, being more rare and stronger than platinum ... it's basically the ultra-compressed 'diamond' of the metal world. I don't know how to explain it better."

"I'd sure like to know more about it from a real scientist."

"I was told I'm not allowed to take these out of the safe. But watch this." He twirled the cane about then used the hooked end and thrust it into Jaye's pocket. With a mere flick of his wrist he withdrew a wallet. "Did you feel that?"

James reached for his front pocket, patted it and blinked. "What the hell? I didn't even feel you take it, and my wallet is lumpy."

"It's the metal, man. It's smooth and light." Conner lifted the staff then brought it back down on his uncle's other side, and used the cane to push the wallet back into Jaye's other pocket. "See?"

"I felt that, but barely. If I wasn't paying attention, I wouldn't have noticed. How'd you do that?"

"I got the idea from a video game I played as a kid. For a little while I was obsessed with it. Then I taught myself how to do it. It's not easy; it takes a while to get the hang of it. But I got really good at it. It's my thing."

"Be honest with me. Is there really a mountain of gold beneath our feet?"

"Let's go. Time to show you El Dorado." Conner waved his uncle to follow. He headed back into the hallway leading to the safe door.

"Aren't you going to leave the cane in here like you were told?"

"I won't take it off the island. Obviously it's left the safe before. How do you think I've practiced with it?" He grinned back at his uncle then made his way up to the door leading into the study. "C'mon. Hit the lights on the way out."

James pulled the string; the safe went dark. As he made his way to the entrance door, he heard the air vent grow quiet. He stepped into the study while Conner sealed the safe. "Those vents looked really small. But it's not impenetrable with today's technology. You could get robotic remote control vehicles in there. Dawn's hobby is building RC stuff. She's made some pretty wild things."

"I have no idea where the vent leads to," Conner replied. "But if you want to steal from yourself, be my guest. It'll be a fun challenge."

"So. Just us huh? All this stuff, just the two of us?"

Conner turned to his uncle and put the cane on the floor. "I came to terms with my parents' hair-brained idea to go after that asshat piece of shit, Aris Falcon. Don't tell Dawn I cussed."

"She cusses too, Conner."

"I'm fifteen. Mom flips shit when I cuss around women. She raised me better than that. So I won't do it in front of Dawn. Mom isn't here to lecture me anymore, so I've got to behave without her. I have to be my own man, now."

"Okay, okay. Let's see the gold pile. How deep in this place?"

"We're on a micro-continent, which sunk about twenty million years ago. This was the highest section. It's pretty shallow and there was some sort of harbor a long time ago. That's under water, now. And if you go out further, on the underwater plateau, the whole section of land was covered by a really dense conifer forest."

"Oh yeah?"

Conner nodded firmly. "Yup. Sometime in the mid-Cretaceous. All that stuff is about a mile below sea level, now. When my family and the others first came here, it was considered the most remote section of the known world that wasn't under ice."

"Is it always tropical here? Eighty-and-change degrees or whatever it is right now?"

"To a degree. Whenever the whole 'El Nino Southern Oscillation' phase happens, it gets really hot, here. It was a hundred degrees for a whole week here, once. Usually it stays between seventy-two and eighty. It's only been cold here once that I know of. There's a climate chart in one of the studies. I was just looking at it recently. In the spring of 1931, it got down to, like, the low teens. Late April, I think."

"You read a lot?"

Conner smirked. "You can't be a know-it-all if you don't read everything you can. And I know you think I'm a know-it-all. But I'd rather know a bunch of facts than make up a bunch of fiction."

"That wasn't a dig at me being a comic writer, was it?"

Conner shook his head. "No, no. I didn't even think about that. I just know you think I'm making up half the stuff I've told you. Heh. I would too if I'd never been here before. Fox was in charge of my lessons and acted as my history teacher. From him, I learned a lot about the world, past and present. The world is a rich place. Knowing what things are worth is important. It makes your family stay the richest group of Master Thieves in the world."

"Conner. I'm not a thief."

"You don't steal from society. Good. That's lesson one. You've already got an 'A plus,' man. Follow me." Conner walked out of the study, but left the desk lamp on.

Jaye followed the boy down the hall, away from where Dawn was still waiting. "You know she'll have her finger on that silly word you left off at."

"Maybe. But there are other ways to mark something so you can put the book down. She's a real smart girl. I like her. When you guys getting married?"

"Excited to have an aunt?"

"Sure. If it's her. We get along. I couldn't show her the mountain of gold without knowing if she was cool. The family had a strict policy about outsiders but whatever. They're all dead. It's just you and me, now. We need to get the numbers back up, huh? Good thing we're two handsome, strapping lads. We'll need to have an army of kids. I hope Dawn is okay with having several."

Amused, Jaye smiled with a half-shake of his head but didn't say a word. He followed Conner to another room with a grand circular staircase. They descended down to the lower room.

Decadence. Art. Culture. The enormous room was further than James could see, and filled with gorgeous paintings, sculptures, and much more. Most of everything was cloaked in a clear tarp.

They walked through a section of the room and came to a hallway on the far wall. Conner turned on the light and walked into the hall first then opened a door, which led to an oddly plain, non-descript square room. At the center sat an elevator.

Jaye eyed the old lift. "Is that thing safe?"

"Yeah. C'mon."

James stepped onto the platform and leaned against a railing. Conner operated the controls then the platform lowered. Motion-activated lighting came to life, bathing the area in the soft white glow of hundreds of LED lights. It was even more amazing than James imagined it - a literal mountain of unpolished gold clumps. The lift came to a rest against a large catwalk.

Conner grinned. "See?"

James stood on the lift, his jaw agape. "How high does it go down? Is that coin or...?"

"No, not really. Maybe some of it. The family melted it down into chunks and, over the past few thousand year, they dumped it here."

Jaye rubbed his eyes. "It's just chunks? Not bars or coins?"

"Nah, it's just clumps of gold. Thousands upon thousands of tonnes. It goes down deeper than I stand. God knows how far. Most of it is beneath the water. Freshwater. There are several aquifers here. I have no idea how old the water is or how deep it goes."

"This place was built on fresh water?"

Conner stretched, seeming relaxed again. "Yeah There are a few, actually. We pull off of one for drinking water. It's like having the freshest water you can ever imagine. Growing up, I liked to bottle it and take it home with me. Once I tried it, I didn't want to drink anything else water-wise."

James thought back to the plastic bottles he had. "You have regular spring water up top. Why?"

"Mom. She brought it with her. She says she doesn't know what's in the unfiltered water. She's weirder about germs than I am. We have an artesian well that I'll show you later. It goes to the section we use to drink from. You wouldn't want to drink the water that gold is sitting in. Yuck. Talk about having heavy metals in your drinking water. I don't even think King Midas would want to drink it."

James' eyes zeroed in on something out on the gold pile. "What is that thing down there?"

"It's a bathysphere. No kidding, there's a tunnel in the gold. We can go down into this big-ass hole one of the families drilled. It goes beneath a layer of rock, sandstone, deeper rock ... I have no idea how deep it goes. The gold is pretty deep, though. There's silver in that pit, too."

"Jesus. If that really is all gold and silver, we're richer than the Rothschild family."

"Yeah. They're bums. They just like to live more extravagantly than we do. We keep a low profile."

"That's really a bathysphere?"

A smile tugged at the corner of Conner's face, amused by his uncle's excitement. "Yup. There's a lot of lights on that bathysphere, by the way. Just in case you want to ... I don't know ... count the strata lines or something. It's deep."

"You know a lot of terms for things, considering your age."

"I roll hard."

James sighed, shaking his head. "Christ." He stared at the bathysphere for a moment then asked, "How do we get down to the gold pile? I want to see the gold ore."

"It's not ore. It's gold. There's no rock in that gold. It's just large chunks that have been melted, cooled, and tossed into this pile without shape. Some of it can be pretty treacherous to walk on. I don't have the right footgear; some of those pieces would slice right through the soles of my shoes. Safety first, man. Some of the pieces can be pretty sharp."

James grinned at the boy. "I want to see it close up."

"Okay, but let's not go dancing around out there." Conner walked by him and along the catwalk. He put his shiny staff over his right shoulder then stopped in the middle of the catwalk.

"Well?"

Conner grinned. "You sure you want to do this?"

"I wanna see that much gold up close. I came all this way. Let's see the real thing."

"Okay. Don't get yourself killed. I can't be the father of this family by myself."

"Conner..."

"I'm serious." The boy grinned and continued walking up the catwalk. Clear across the large subterranean room, they came to a tunnel against the wall. It appeared to disappear into the darkness.

"What's going on?"

Conner pointed to a small tunnel down at the level of the gold. "That's where this tunnel comes out. It's a twisty-turny naturally occurring tunnel. Filled with stalactites and stalagmites. Most of the stalagmites have flat tips now from being jumped on for so many generations. I'm told I've got it easy." Conner suddenly trailed off. He frowned.

"What's wrong?"

"I was just thinking about the first time I saw my mom and Fox run down these things. They practically ran across them."

"You miss your mother, huh?"

Conner shrugged. "She was dumb to have gone out there, knowing she'd wind up killed. She's too old to fight some guy that can steal powers."

"Powers?"

"I didn't believe it at first either. I just thought we were naturally graceful."

"Like my comic character?"

Conner sighed. "Never mind. I'll explain it later. Look those things in there are reinforced. The family does this as a rite of passage. The drop from the bottom section of the tunnel is fairly significant. The tunnel is like a horseshoe. You make your way down to the bottom, and then you come to the mouth of the tunnel, level with the gold. Only it's not exactly level. It's about fifteen feet above the surface of the gold."

"How in the hell do you get back out?"

"It's hard to run across the gold, because you don't get very good footing. Then you're expected to run up the wall and pull yourself back up, into the tunnel. I don't think you're ready for it yet. I needed harnesses to do it until the beginning of this year. It's hard."

"So get some harnesses, just in case. At least let me try."

"Yeah, sure."

"You okay?"

Conner shrugged again and sighed with a frown. "I'm always okay."

"Conner, seriously. Are you alright?"

He looked away from the tunnel and faced away from his uncle. "Can we do it later? It's just ... I've mentioned her several times already today. And I remember her zipping through this tunnel like you or I would run down an escalator."

"Okay, Conner. I understand. It can wait."

"Sorry, Uncle James. It's starting to get to me. Don't tell anyone you saw me like this. I like putting off the façade of being badass."

James sighed softly. He reached out and pulled the boy into his arms. "We'll get her back. We'll go together if that's what it takes. And if it doesn't work out that way, we'll avenge her together. But first and foremost, you've got family. Me. And I'm not going anywhere."

Conner simply stood still. His uncle didn't release the hug. After another moment, he snuck his arms around his uncle's waist and returned the embrace.

"Thanks," said James with a grin. "I was starting to feel like a tool, standing here hugging you."

"You are a tool ... for making me hug you back."

James laughed, withdrew his arms then ruffled Conner's hair. "You're one of those guys that needs manly nicknames like 'douchebag,' and 'butthead,' huh?"

"I need to ask you something. Did you know that my father and my step-father..."

"Yup." James shrugged. "I knew Topaz was with both of them. And I knew that they were with each other. I'm perceptive. I don't judge." James froze then folded his arms. "Is that what you think? You think you have to act macho because someone might judge you over your dad and Vincent?"

"Ugh. Don't even mention them like that."

Jaye shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Are you homophobic?"

"Not in the least. But it's freaking weird that my dad and step-dad were banging. And that they lied about who was my father. And that I called my biological father 'uncle' for my whole life. And ... they're brothers-in-law. They shouldn't be banging. That's so messed up. And yet it seems somehow normal for them, considering the fact that I now know my mother and biological father were together. That's not 'sex.' That's weird. That's not what sex is to me."

"Well, you were raised by pop culture that depicts sex as a thing that a couple does in secret - behind closed doors. But you're the one that researched all those archaic cultures, Conner. What do you know about Pompeii?"

"They had freaky orgies everywhere, on every street corner. Makes you wonder if God struck them down for acting like that. Sodom and..."

"Conner, stop. What about the Minoan culture?"

"They were really ... oh. I see what you're saying. They were wiped out like tons of other cities in the Bible that weren't sexually deviant."

James nodded. "Bingo. I mean think about it, man: why did Sodom and Gomorrah get wiped out, but Las Vegas is flourishing? Ever been there?"

"Yup."

"There you go. Sin City is proud of its nickname. A long time ago, before we were born, there were biblical-sized floods in New Orleans. And one that was way worse in Indonesia a year prior. A quarter million people were killed. Their way of life was wiped out in several areas. You're talking about biblical numbers. And if you live back in the days of the Bible, when that happened, it would be even worse. The survivors would have died from sickness. All the local drinking water was dirty. And those people didn't do anything deserving. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Conner rubbed his face. "I remember watching a documentary about the Indonesian tsunami recently, when Jan Egeland passed away from old age. He worked for the UN or something. I don't know. He's just a name that stuck out. On the TV. I don't remember when. A few years ago."

"I guess. You seem fairly cultured. I have no idea who that is, Conner."

"He's some guy that did humanitarian stuff for the UN. I only know the name because he apparently went to Berkley. I lived in San Francisco. When he passed away, it made the news in San Fran. They played some documentaries like the one about the tsunami. Anyway, the point is I saw the documentary about all those people that died. They actually said the same thing you did - it was devastation on a scale of biblical proportions."

"It was a bad tsunami created by a strong earthquake. Not the biggest, anymore. That record goes to the United States in 2025."

Conner frowned. "Yeah. That's biblical proportions."

James looked back out over the gold. "That, right there, is 'biblical proportions.' Money would be worthless until someone snagged it all and hoarded it away or built a city out of it."

"Like I said earlier, it would ruin the global economy. So we have to be responsible with it. Although if we did build a city out of it, that would be pretty wild. I want to see Atlantis, though."

James suddenly found himself laughing. He held a hand up, waving at Conner to keep him from getting upset. After a moment, he took a deep breath then sighed. "Sorry. Your timing was something else. Okay, since you know everything about it, where is it?"

"Beneath the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, apparently. Falcon found it. And we've got to find Falcon. So. We'll be seeing it soon enough. Gut feeling."

James smiled again and shook his head. "Okay, okay. If you say so."

"I told you about orichalcum. Then I showed it to you. I told you about the mountain of gold. Then I showed you. I've told you about Atlantis. Trust me, man. You'll see it soon. Can we go now? This place reminds me of mom."

James gestured back across the cat walk. "Let's go up top then. But I'll take you up on your challenge to get down there before I leave this place. I mean it. I need to know I can do that."

"You need years of training."

"Now, yesterday, you said I was a natural. A prodigy. Without any major training, I could do almost everything you can do. So let me try."

Conner frowned then nodded. "Okay. Just don't ... you know, don't die."

"I'll take my time."

"Okay, good." Conner stepped onto the lift and waved for his uncle to follow. "Let's go, then. I'm sorry I rambled all afternoon about all this stuff. It was nice to be able to share it with someone. Thanks for letting me vent, so to speak. I have all this money and all this information, and I can't tell anybody. It sucks."

"I learned a hell of a lot about my heritage. I still say Atlantis was based on a bunch of stories that Plato put together. Who knows, maybe he was talking about his homeland, trying to explain what it once was, and what it could become again."

Conner frowned. "Maybe. He was pretty upset that Socrates was just put to death. I imagine that would give anyone reason to write a story about an ideal land to make a point. But I'm telling you. Falcon is down there for a reason. He's obsessed with something. And this." He lifted the cane again. "This is scratch resistant and tougher than platinum, but light like titanium."

"Resistant? I thought it was scratch proof?"

"Not against another object made of orichalcum. Not against diamond" The lift rose up into the subfloor of the island vault. "But you've gotta hit pretty hard to nick it. And, let's face it, if you hit any object hard enough, you're eventually going to mess it up. But there is one downside to using this," he twirled the staff again, carefully, due to their proximity on the lift, "as a weapon."

"Yeah? What's that?"

Conner finished the twirl then brought it straight down and used it like a cane, leaning on it. "It puts all the shock right into your wrist. If you go around using it like a bat, you'll have carpel tunnel syndrome in a very short time. I do a lot of stretches when handling it. You know, tendons and stuff."

"Yeah?"

Leaning the staff against the railing around the lift platform, Conner pushed his fingers together, cracking his knuckles. "I stretch my fingers a lot. Else my wrist aches after handling it for an afternoon."

"Let me ask you something, Conner. What are you two doing in the study?"

"Pardon?"

"You guys are rifling through all those occult books. God knows why the family even has'em. But what are you guys doing? Are you trying to look for Atlantis or something?"

"No, no. Atlantis, or whatever it's really called, is icing on the cake. It's a place I want to visit after we kick Aris Falcon's ass. We're tracking that guy. The occult books are going to lead me to where I can find certain artifacts that were hidden away by fanatical groups. Some of the books that are here are first edition tomes that were only handed out to a few nutters around the globe. People with money that were into these weird occult groups. I have no idea why they were in these groups to begin with - maybe for kicks."

"God knows."

"God knows," Conner repeated. "Dawn was right. Some of the stuff I say does sound like stuff you say."

"Does that genetically make me a nerd, like you?"

"Hey, screw you. I'm a modern day Indiana Jones."

"Who?"

"It's a classic movie about..."

James gave his nephew a shove. "I'm kidding. I know who Indiana Jones is, man. Geeze. Okay, so you think these groups that got into esoteric mysticism were holding onto artifacts that were really special for one reason or another?"

"Maybe." Conner offered his uncle a sly grin. "But Falcon thinks their artifacts were important. And if Falcon wants them, so do I. And then, we're going to track down this guy named Methos."

"Conner, the date on that book, in the orichalcum safe, was dated in the mid-1900's. The guy is obviously dead by now."

"Have you met Kalen Kincade? Or Rufus Darken?"

"Nope."

"Apparently being over a hundred years old is the in-thing for these people. Have you met Karla Loupe?"

"No, but I've heard the name from my sister. She's a friend of the family."

"Was. Mom and Karla had a huge falling out. Apparently Karla is over a hundred years old, too. And she looks my age."

The lift came to the top of the shaft. They eyed one another.

"I'm serious. You'll meet her soon enough. She's a little, uh, eccentric. Worse than me, but in a hyperactive sort of way. She's the most childish immortal around. Maybe ever."

"If you say so. I read, once, that the human body breaks down on the genetic level after two hundred years."

"Tell that to Li Ching-Yuen," said Conner with a smirk. "Look him up."

"If you say so." James followed his nephew through the storage room full of beautiful artistic collective pieces, up the staircase, and back to the first floor. "How long are we going to stay here?"

"Would you be upset if we went on an adventure while everyone thinks we're staying here?"

James frowned. "You're going to get me into trouble with Sinopa. I don't want to meet an angry woman. She's your grandmother right?"

"Yeah. She looks young. Your age. It's a little weird. Trust me, though. They'll never find out. It's what this family does for a living - we avoid getting caught."

"If you say so. What's the adventure?"

"Finding stuff. Getting it before Falcon. Tracking down a few leads to various things. You had a nice break? You should get back to training. Just do the stuff I showed you. Once you can do it under a certain time limit, we'll be ready to go off together."

"Yeah, I'm ready to get back to it. So how do you know you're right about all these assumptions you've made?"

"How did that crazy Russian lady, back in the late 1800's, Madame Blavatsky, know that the atom was divisible? Everyone criticized her book, in 1888, because they said the atom can't be split. She said it could. Turns out the crazy old woman was right. The human race split it in the 1940s, and blew up everything they could find. Sure, the woman was a goofball, but she got some stuff right. Stuff that was ahead of her time."

"Your point?"

Conner smiled. "Thanks to the internet, I have a lot more knowledge at my fingertips. Way more than she ever had. And she was right about the atom, and she was obsessed with Atlantis in her own way. Sure, she got a lot of stuff wrong, but I'm thinking she got a few things right, too."

"I see."

"Sure, I'll be wrong about some stuff, but I'll be right about a few things, too. After all, at my disposal are books and writings that can only be found here in this island vault."

"You_honestly_ think this Falcon guy found the real Atlantis?"

"Edgar Cayce said Atlantis would rise again in '68. What if he was talking about 2068? Falcon's found it. If Falcon spends the next fifteen-to-twenty years studying it, then he decides to make use of it, that'd line up with..."

"Conner. C'mon, man. I need proof. We've already been over this. Show me something. The more you show me things, the more I believe you. But the more you ramble on about stuff, the less I believe you."

"Awesome metal, check."

"Unverified."

"Mountain of gold, check."

James grinned. "I was, like, fifty feet above it. Unverified."

"Dammit."

Jaye held his hands up. "Just show me proof. Then I'll believe it all. I'll tell everyone my nephew really does know it all."

"Fine." Conner continued walking. He asked, "Do you know how plate tectonics works? Continental Drift?"

"It's basic school-learned knowledge."

"Consider this, Uncle Jaye. Why, then, did a chunk of America rip off the continent and go backwards? And why did it suddenly stop over the Mid-Atlantic Ridge? That coast hasn't been that far in the Atlantic for over a hundred-and-fifty million years. Maybe two hundred million. Why suddenly go backwards? We have proof that it should be going west. It was on the same plate as the rest of America. What the hell happened?"

"Nobody knows yet. There's scientists down there trying to figure it out and they don't see any underwater domes. They think that tectonic plates might be able to split, now. Anything is possible at this point."

"Exactly. There's only one thing more powerful than the force of nature. Theoretical technology. And that kind of technology has the power to really mess things up. We just messed up the way the ocean currents work. Now, with Greenland dumping so much fresh melt-water into the New Atlantic between America and the District Coast, it's messing up everything."

"Yeah, I heard that 'future ice-age' theory. Temperatures are dropping rapidly in Europe. New ice is forming as far as the Alps. They're calling it the NLIA, the Neo-Little Ice Age. Like the one we had in the 1300s."

"What if the cause behind this was somehow technology based?"

"Yeah? What about it, Conner?"

"It's obvious we can't reverse the coastal separation without causing another quake and wave that would kill millions. But what if we could stop Falcon from doing it again in the future?"

James inadvertently scoffed "Oh, so now it's Aris Falcon that did it?"

"That's been my point all along. He messed up the whole global climate system. That enormous chunk of ice that stretches from Greenland down to the western beaches of Old New York makes for some really cold winters. Global Cooling has been a pain. Crops don't grow in the summer anymore. At least, nothing north of Tennessee will grow in the summer. It's too cold. I don't know how you can stand living in Chicago during the winter, man."

"You get used to it." James paused then said, "I've got one last question."

"Sure."

"Why is there a submarine encased in glass down on the beach?"

Conner shrugged. "That's the one thing here that has me scratching my head. And I've seen a lot of wild stuff here. But that one takes the cake."

"That makes two of us. Now get back to the library room. I know Dawn. She didn't lose your spot, trust me." James gave his nephew a playful shove. "Butthead." Recognizing where he was at on the main floor, he turned back towards the training room, leaving Conner to go back towards the small library where Dawn was waiting.

---

Next Chapter: https://www.sofurry.com/view/685586