“We’re only going to dinner.”
“Uh-huh.”
“We’re both professionals, colleagues in this matter.”
“Uh-huh.”
“He’s only going to be here for a couple more days.”
“Uh-huh.”
Karen grew frustrated and stormed away. “It’s only dinner!” she called back to Miyuki.
As she exited, Miyuki’s answer followed her. “Uh-huh.”
10:02 P.M., Ryukyu University, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan
As they walked back from the Lucky Thai Restaurant, Jack bellowed out a laugh that had the smaller Japanese pedestrians glancing in his direction. Embarrassed, he leaned closer to Karen. “You’ve got to be kidding! You told the president of the British Anthropology Society to pull his head out of his ass?”
Karen shrugged. “He ticked me off. Him and his stick-in-the-mud ideas. What does he know about the South Pacific? My great-grandfather had traveled South Pacific islands for decades before that man was in diapers. What right did that pompous ass have in claiming my ancestor was a crackpot?”
“Oh, and I’ll bet your response set him straight. He must think your entire family is nuts. No wonder you had to come all the way to Japan to teach.”
Karen glared up at him, but Jack could tell her anger was feigned. “I wasn’t exactly expelled from Canada’s shores. I chose to come here for my own research. Colonel Churchward, my mother’s grandfather, may have jumped to some ridiculous conclusions about a lost continent in the middle of the Pacific, but I came out here to prove that much of the accepted historical dogma of this region is wrong. And with what we both have been uncovering here, I’m beginning to think my ancestor’s claims may not have been so off base.”
“A lost continent?” he scoffed.
“C’mon, Jack, think about it. Off the coast of Chatan an ancient city rises from the sea. And if Gabriel’s translation of the star chamber’s calendar is correct, it dates the construction around twelve thousand years ago. During that era, the seas were about three hundred feet lower than they are now. Who knows how many other landmasses and cities might be hidden in these waters? And what of your own pillar? Are you saying this lost race could dive to the ocean bottom and carve letters on a crystal pyramid?”
“I don’t know what I’m saying. But after all you’ve shown me today, I’m learning to see things with a more open mind.”
Karen nodded, as if satisfied. “You really should see the ancient city and pyramids. That would help convince you.”
“To be honest, I wouldn’t mind a trip out there.”
“If we have time, I’ll take you. It’s only a couple hours by boat.”
“I…I’d like that. It’s a date.”
A long awkward moment arose between them. They continued in silence through the university’s grounds. The scent of lavender and hibiscus colored the garden paths, but all Jack could smell was Karen’s jasmine perfume. What was so captivating about this woman? Back on the Deep Fathom, Lisa had twice the physical attributes. Still, there was something exciting about Karen’s passion and boldness.
During dinner, Jack discovered Karen was also her own woman. Her wit was as sharp as a knife blade, while her eyes shone with constant mischief. Her crooked smile both mocked and enchanted. Over dessert he had stopped seeing Jennifer and saw only Karen…and he wasn’t disappointed.
“We’re almost to the computer building,” Karen said quietly, breaking the silence.
Was there a trace of regret in her voice? Jack knew he felt it in his own heart. He longed to spend more than a few snatched hours with her in private. He found his steps inadvertently slowing.
She matched his pace. At the bottom of the stairs to the building, she stopped and turned to him. “Thanks for dinner. I had a nice time.”
“It’s the least I could do for your putting me up for the night.”
They stood too close together, but neither moved.
“We should see if Miyuki has discovered anything new,” Karen said, half raising an arm to point toward the building. She climbed the first step.
Her face was now even with his. Their eyes met and held each other for a heartbeat longer than necessary. Jack leaned closer to her. It was foolish, inappropriate, juvenile…but he could not stop. He was not sure if she shared any of his feelings, so he moved slowly. If she pulled away, he would have his answer.
But she maintained his gaze. Only her lids lowered imperceptibly.
He began to reach his arms around her when a voice barked from the doorway. The pair were speared by a flashlight’s beam.
Karen coughed in surprise and backed up a step, retreating.
The man called out to them in Japanese.
Half turning into the flashlight’s glare, Karen answered in the same language.
As the light was turned aside, Jack saw it was one of the security men from the building. “What did he want?” he asked as the guard swung away.
Karen turned to him. “Miyuki warned him to watch out for us. She has news.” Karen led the way up the steps. Her voice grew excited, drowning away the passion from a moment ago. “Let’s go!”
Jack followed, both disappointed and relieved. It was ridiculous to start anything with this woman, especially since he was leaving in two days. Not that he had any rule against one-night stands. Though his heart was guarded, he had physical needs like any other man, and seldom had problems finding a willing partner during port calls. But in this case he knew any brief dalliance with Karen would hardly satisfy him. In fact, it would make matters worse.
He climbed the steps and passed through the doorway. Maybe for all concerned, he thought, it was best to leave their passions at the bottom of the stairs.
Across the lobby, Karen waved to him from beside the elevator bay. He stretched his stride to reach her just as the doors opened. With the guard escorting them, neither one spoke. Each stood in a cocoon of privacy.
When the doors whooshed open, they hurried down the hall. As they neared the door to the lab, it cracked open and Miyuki gestured them to hurry, saying, “It worked! Come see! I have all the glyphs catalogued.”
“All of them?” Karen said.
Jack understood her surprise. It had taken them hours to reach number forty in a list of discrepancies that numbered over three hundred. How had the computer scientist accomplished so much in so little time?
Miyuki didn’t respond. Instead, when they had accompanied her into the lab and to her computer station, she pointed to the screen. Symbols were flashing past. “Gabriel is rechecking his data,” Miyuki said. “It will take another hour to double-check everything for accuracy, then he’ll try decoding the various inscriptions.”
Karen just stood there shaking her head. “How? How did you do it?”
“As I mentioned before, Gabriel is an artificial intelligence program. He can learn from experience. While you were at dinner I had him study the first forty pairs of glyphs and incorporate why the three of us rejected or accepted various symbols as unique or not, then apply those parameters to the remaining couple hundred.” Grinning, Miyuki said, “He was able to do it! He learned from our examples!”
“But he’s a computer,” Karen said. Jack noticed how she whispered these words as if somehow afraid of hurting Gabriel’s feelings. “How can we trust that his decisions were correct?”
Instead of her words dampening Miyuki’s glee, she grew more excited. “Because after completing this exercise, he’s been able to expand his rudimentary understanding of these people’s lunar calendar and dating system.”
“What do you mean?” Karen asked, still skeptical. “What has he learned?”
“Buried in the text are hidden references to a specific site in the Pacific.”
“What site? I don’t understand.”
“I’ll let Gabriel explain, because frankly even I have trouble understanding it.” Miyuki glanced to the side, speaking to their invisible partner. “Gabriel, please explain your calculations.”
“Yes, Professor Nakano. From the celestial map and my understanding of their lunar calendar, I discovered a reference to a specific location, triangulated by the position of the moon, the sun, and the north star in the text.”
Jack was stunned by this revelation. “And you’re able to do this even though you can’t translate the language yet?”
“It’s all astronomy and mathematics,” Miyuki explained. “Numbers and the movement of the stars are really a cosmic language. Such information is the easiest to translate since it is a relative constant across cultures. In fact, when archaeologists first attempted to decipher the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt, the first thing they understood were the Egyptians’ mathematics and celestial designations.” Miyuki pointed to the scrolling glyphs. “The same is true here.”
“So what did you find?” Karen asked, impatient.
“In the pyramid’s inscription,” Miyuki said, “there are two references. Each mentions the same site in the Pacific. Gabriel, bring up the map on the second monitor, and highlight the location for us.”
A map of the Pacific appeared on the small screen. Jack had a flash of déjà vu. It reminded him of a similar discussion aboard his own ship, when George had related the mysteries of the Dragon’s Triangle. Jack assumed the mysterious site from the inscription was going to be the location of the crystal pillar—but instead a small red blinking dot bloomed farther south on the map, just north of the equator.
“Gabriel, zoom in on the location. Three hundred times normal.”
The map swelled, sweeping deep into the South Pacific. Islands, once so tiny they could not be seen, grew in size until names could be read: Satawal, Chuuk, Pulusuk, Mortlock. They were all islands of Micronesia. The red dot was positioned at the southeastern tip of one of them.
It was Pohnpei, the capital of the Federated States of Micronesia.