Curse of Atlantis by Christopher David Petersen Page A

home. Checking his watch, he noticed the time: 4:12am . He listened for a moment, then sat up. Outside his bedroom, he saw a faint light that seeped in through his bedroom doorway. Quietly, he slipped out of bed and made his way to the door. Peering through the opening, the light grew in intensity.
    He opened the door and tiptoed out into the hallway. A few steps later, he stopped at the entrance to the living room. To his surprise, there seated on the couch, was Javier. With his laptop in hand, Jack watched as he clicked on one photo after another.
    Suddenly, Jack noticed Javier’s shoulders rocking slightly. Jack craned his ear in Javier’s direction. Softly, sadly, he could hear the unmistakable sounds of weeping. He wanted to offer some consoling words, but knew they would only come out sounding hollow and contrived. Backing away slowly, he left Javier to grieve alone.
    As slipped quietly back to his room, he heard the sound of a cell phone ringing. He craned his head and listened to Javier’s broken voice.
    “Hi Honey… no, nothing yet,” he heard Javier say to Berta through his tears.
     

Chapter 9
     
    Jack woke feeling tired. The five hours of sleep barely compensated for the lack of sleep he’d had in the previous night, let alone the exhaustion he felt from stress and jet lag. As he stumbled out of bed and into the main room of the house, he stopped short. There in the same position as the night before was Javi, still clutching his laptop.
    Jack looked up at the clock on the wall. It read 7:08am . Mentally calculating the time Javier could have slept, Jack realized Javier couldn’t have gotten more than three hours of sleep.
    “My God, Javi. Please tell me you got some sleep last night,” Jack protested mildly.
    “I got enough,” he replied blandly.
    “I saw you up late last night . Did you sleep on the couch all night?”
    “Yeah, it was fairly comfortable,” Javier replied, ignoring Jack’s inquiry.
    Jack considered pressing the issue further but then reconsidered. He knew Javier was suffering and knew any discussion over his lack of sleep wouldn’t change his position. He was a desperate man and as such, he would put himself through whatever he needed to, in order to overcome the obstacles.
    Seeing the worry spread across Javier’s face so early in the morning, Jack felt deep sympathy. Javier was in trouble and he knew the best he could do to help his friend would be to help lighten the load, whatever that load may be.
    “So, what are we looking at today? Are we searching by air again today or are we footing it ? ” Jack asked.
    “After looking at the video clip and photos, I saw some sites around the Kapsali region that looked promising, so that’s where we’ll be spending the next couple of days… on foot.”
    “Are you sure you’re up for this? That’s some really rugged terrain out there and you’ve barely had any sleep in days . ”
    “My daughter’s life’s on the line, Jack… I’ll manage,” he said, solemnly.
    Jack could see the determination in his tired eyes. There would be no stopping him. He shot Javier a reassuring smile and said, “Ok, Javi, but if you get tired out there or need some help with lugging something, don’t be too proud to ask .” He paused a moment, then continued, “I’ll get our packs together and then call around for the driver to get us in close.”
    “After reviewing the photos, it looks like there’s some jeep trails out there that might be able to get us within a couple miles of our targets,” Javier said.
    “And how many targets are we talking about here?” Jack asked, now growing concerned.
    “Well, if I’m figuring this right, I’m ruling out any land less than six hundred feet in elevation. So, that leaves nine targets on the lower half of the island just north of Kapsali and seven targets on the upper half of the island near the Avlemonas,” Javier said.
    “Ok, so we have roughly sixteen targets to search. How long do you