Free Atlantis: Devil's Sea by Robert Doherty Page B

asked.
    “You’ll have to ask Nagoya that,” Foreman said. “We aren’t even certain it will work. But it’s a good sign that we can track it. Pack your gear; we’re heading to Japan. By the time we get there Nagoya should have been able to analyze the data the probe is sending.”
    Ariana had been on her laptop while all this was occurring. “I’ve located someone who claims to be an expert on crystal skulls in New York City. Also, the Museum of Natural History has one in its collection. I’ve arranged to meet with a museum representative and the expert this evening.
    Dane stood. “Keep in touch.”
    “I will.” She spun the globe once more. “We’re missing something.”
    Dane paused. “What do you mean?” Foreman was already out of the room, heading for the elevator.
    “Nagoya is coming up with theories, Foreman has been studying these gates almost all of his life, and yet we still know almost nothing about them or the Shadow, or the Ones Before.” She spread her long fingers, covering several of the gates marked on the globe. “I don’t’ know what it is, but we’re missing something very important.”
    “I know we are,” Dane agreed. He smiled. “If you find out what it is, let me know, OK?”
    “Be careful,” Ariana warned.
    “I will.”
    “Don’t trust Foreman.”
    “That’s a given.”
    CHAPTER SEVEN
    T HE P AST
    79 A.D.
    Emperor Vespasian had been dead for one day short of two months. There had been the obligatory month of mourning. Then the month-long games celebrating the new emperor, Titus, had begun. They would end on the next day. The games had been such a success that Titus had already begun plans for a bigger arena, to be called the Coliseum, which would be built so that larger and more elaborate games could be held with more spectators than the current arena could hold. It had long been said that as long as the emperor provided bread and games, he would stay in power.
    In the Imperial Palace on the Palatine hill, Titus walked through empty rooms that had been cleared of his father Vespasian’s things and awaited his. He had watched his father’s ascent to power from the son of a tax collector to emperor, and he had learned much in the process. One key lesson was to look for plots everywhere and stop them before they had a chance to gain momentum. It is with this in mind that Titus went down a long corridor toward where two Praetorian Guards waited. As he approached, they saluted and opened the tall doors.
    Titus entered his audience chamber and went directly to the chair set on a dais. His senior advisers were all in place, waiting. Titus leaned back, head against the high back of the chair. Only two months and already he felt the weight of the empire on his shoulders. He raised a finger to Thyestes, the Greek who had also been Vespasian’s adviser. Thyestes had the pulse of Rome, it was said, and thus knew the health of the empire and, more importantly, the health of the emperor.
    Thyestes bowed, then stepped onto the dais, leaning close so only Titus could hear. “Yes, Emperor.”
“Tell me about General Cassius.”
    Thyestes was a tall, thin man. He had thick, white hair and the long, bushy beard that so many of the Greeks favored. His face was pinched, and he always looked like he was experiencing a bad bowel movement. He had a long staff in his right hand, a symbol of power as the emperor’s voice. His old fingers curled over the end of the staff as he composed his answer.
    “Cassius retired to his country estate with his Jewess. She died last year of the fever, and he did not take it well. Since then, he has been occupying himself taking long walks and planting a garden.”
“ Cassius a gardener?” Titus was surprised. He couldn’t envision the old warrior as such. “and his loyalty?”
“Is to Rome.”
    Titus knew what that short answer meant. Cassius, despite his retirement, held great sway with the legions. And the legions were the seat of power.
    “And