“No, sir. No trouble at all. How about you?”
“Things are good down below.”
“So,” he asked excitedly, “did they find any treasure?”
Dial smiled at him. “Why don’t you go and look for yourself ?”
“Thank you, sir. I was hoping you’d say that.”
Andropoulos turned to walk away.
“Hold up,” Dial ordered. “Before you go, there’s one other thing I forgot to mention.”
“What’s that, sir?”
“Just so you know, it’s been a pleasure working with you.”
Andropoulos beamed with pride. “I was hoping you’d say that, too.”
With a smile on his face, he ran off to see the treasure.
Dial reached behind him and pulled out the radio they had taken from Petros. During their climb up the mountain, Dial had turned it off, afraid the noise might give away their position. But now that they had safely reached their destination, he felt he needed to update the other guards and let them know they were all right.
Several seconds passed before someone responded.
Without mentioning anything about the treasure, Dial filled them in on some basics. “Sorry I’ve been radio-silent for so long. Every time we turned around, we were under attack.”
“Are you all right?”
Dial paused, thinking about Nicolas. Somehow his death needed to be explained without revealing what had really happened. Dial didn’t want to lie. Yet at the same time, he knew he didn’t want to tell the full truth. “We’re fine. We found a monk, though. He didn’t make it.”
The guard said, “We had some losses, too. But we took some Spartans with us. Right now, we’re still searching the grounds, looking for more of them.”
“What about harbor patrol? Did they figure out how the Spartans got here?”
“Yes, sir. They found a boat anchored on the southern shore.”
“Anyone aboard?”
“No, sir. It was empty. But the boat had a name.” The guard paused as he searched for the information. “It was called the Odyssey. It’s a yacht registered in California.”
“California? The Spartans used a boat from California? Did they steal it?”
“I don’t know, sir. We’re still trying to reach the boat’s owner.”
Dial grimaced. “Wait. You know the owner’s name? Is he Greek?”
“I don’t think so, sir. His name is Richard Byrd.”
Payne, Jones, and Allison walked between the large stacks of crates, still trying to grasp how many items had been rescued from Constantinople. A few of the lids were brittle with age, so they were able to peek inside without risking damage to the precious contents.
And what they saw was amazing.
Gold relics and coins. Marble statues. Silver vases. Bronze weapons. Gemstones and jewelry. Painted vessels. Greek amphoras. And thousands of ancient scrolls.
None of them could be read until they were translated by scholars, but the fountain of knowledge that they might contain was staggering.
“Hey, Allison,” Jones said as they continued to explore, “I just realized something.”
“What’s that?”
“Your thesis is going to have one hell of an ending.”
She laughed with childlike delight. “I was thinking the same thing.”
“Not only that,” he added. “You teamed up with Heinrich Schliemann to find this place.”
“I know! How wild is that?”
“Pretty damn wild.”
“Actually,” she admitted, “only one thing would make this better.”
Jones smiled. “Figuring out how to keep everything for ourselves?”
“No,” she said. “It would have been nice if we had found the Statue of Zeus. I mean, to discover one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World. That would have been, well, wonderful.”
While Jones and Allison continued to talk, Payne roamed to the far side of the cavern. In situations like this, the soldier in him always seemed to surface. Before he could enjoy the treasure, he needed to check the perimeter to make sure there were no possible threats. And if there were, he would eliminate them as quickly as possible.
Only in this case, he found no threats.
But he did find something that he couldn’t believe.
“Guys,” Payne called from his position near the back of the cave. “You have to see this.”
“See what?” Jones yelled back. “We’re busy playing with our gold.”
“Trust me, you need to see this. I can’t do it justice.”
Jones and Allison walked to the back of the cavern, where Payne was waiting for them to arrive. He was shining his light into an antechamber that hadn’t been visible from the entrance. Though not nearly as large as the main cavern, the space was big enough to store the most important treasure that the Ancient Greeks had recovered from Constantinople.