After discovering Atlantis,Andrew Fox, wisecracker and newly made treasure hunter is taking fire from the media due to the circumstances of the find while trying to live life as a college student.
Everything changes when drew's childhood best friend...
The golden compass layed on the glass coffee table in front of them. They all knew that it held a secret that would lead them to Ponce de Leon's most monumental and controversial find.
Drew pulled open the top of the compass and saw the cloth with blood that revealed the symbol. "I still don't know what the symbol means." He said as he stared at the red unique star symbol. It looked like Suns with an Aztec design were piled onto one another.
"Wait a minute." Ethan might have had something. "The big red dot! Of course!"
"What?" Drew and trace both looked at him in anticipation.
"This is the symbol that appears on the Cantino planisphere!" Ethan said.
"Plani...what?" Drew asked.
"It's a world map that showed Portuguese geographic discoveries. It was made eleven years before de Leon discovered la Florida in 1513. The map was named after Alberto Cantino, one of the agents of the one and only Duke Ferrara. This agent smuggled the map from Portugal to Italy in 1502." Ethan explained.
"Okay so what significance does it have with de Leon? I'm guessing he's the one that had the compass placed in his resting place." Trace wondered.
"Maybe it was the map that inspired Ponce de Leon to search for the fountain. If it was made eleven years before he discovered what we call Florida today, he might have used it to find Florida and that's probably what led him to the fountain." Ethan cleared up.
"If he found it." Trace added.
"Well the compass points Northwest and dosen't change direction. That has to mean something right?" Drew asked.
"Yeah but it's hard to say what." Ethan squinted at the compass. "Unless..." He began to think again.
"I really hate it when you do that. It's like you start to get somewhere good and then go on commercial break."
Ethan laughed at drew's comment. "Aaaaand now we're back folks!" Ethan decided to join in with drew on the humor.
"Anyway." Ethan finished chuckling. "The symbol on that cloth is basically a compass. It appears pretty close to the equator. In fact, the Cantino planisphere is the first map to show the equator."
"Jesus. Where did you learn all this stuff?" Trace asked.
"Books." Ethan said.
"Lots and lots of books. We spent alot of time together reading and studying." Drew added.
"So what about the equator?" Drew asked.
"Maybe the compass on the map would tell us where we need to go."
"Well it is 2016. This place has wifi and..." Trace pulled out his smartphone. It was the newest galaxy. "Let me turn on my data."
He scrolled and swiped until he finally got to his browser, which was Google chrome. He typed the subject at hand in the search bar 'Cantino planisphere'.
He tapped on Google images to see a map of the Cantino planisphere. The compass was on the continent of Africa and within inches the equator.
"Is this what you're talking about?" Trace showed Ethan his phone screen.
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"Yes exactly! That's it." Ethan zoomed in on the photo. "So what is Northwest of the compass?" Ethan asked himself. He then traced his finger Northwest from the compass.
"Well that can't be right." Ethan said after leaning back on the sofa.
"What now?" Drew asked.
"Following the northwest direction on the Cantino planisphere, would lead you to what is now Canada." He said. "But it wouldn't make sense that de Leon would go there. The fountain wasn't suspected to be there."
"Maybe we're looking at the clue all wrong. Let me see the compass." Drew grabbed it.
He popped open the glass cover that was closed over the needle and the directions. He put his index finger and thumb over the needle to grab it and tried to turn it. While doing so, he heard clicking.
"Hold on. There are gears in this thing." Drew started to fiddle with it some more.
"Wait maybe..." he turned the needle so it was facing North. After the click, he turned it to the West. Another click. This time the click was deeper like he had done something.
The whole top half of the compass popped so it could be opened.
Drew pulled the top half open like a lid. "Well that was strangely simple." Drew said as he saw something round that was hidden inside of the compass.
He grabbed the item from the compass. "A silver ring." He examined it in the light. It had the appearance of a wedding band but it clearly wasn't.
"A useless ring. How in the hell is that supposed to help us?" Drew looked at the interior the ring. One letter was inscribed 'A'
"Huh." Drew said in wonder. He tried to spin the interior with his finger and now his suspicions were confirmed. "The inside of the ring moves. It's on another letter." Drew pulled out his pocket notebook that he always carried on him in his back pocket.
'P' The next letter baffled him. 'a' then 'r' then 'c' he turned it again 'a' 'r'
"It spells a word. Aparcar."
"Whats that?" Ethan asked.
"Wait. I know a Spanish word when I see it. Aparcar is the Spanish word meaning to park or just the word park depending on how it's used."
"Ok so why park? Why would Leon have the Spanish word park inscribed in a ring and then hide it in a compass."
"Because he's Spanish maybe." Trace said.
"Smartass." Ethan directed it towards Trace.
Drew ignored the comments as he was busy copying the word down. He started writing down words that he could make out aparcar. "It might be an anagram. Hang on." Drew kept thinking but could only make out one sensible word.
He threw his pen on the table. "Caparra." He said.
"As in the settlement, Caparra?" Trace asked.
"Yeah! That makes sense. He made the settlement for his family to stay while he made the Tainos tribe work to mine gold." Ethan answered.
"But where would we even start there?" Trace asked.
"Where anyone would would leave important belongings." Drew said.
"His house." Ethan said.
"I'll make arrangements. He must have buried something there. We just need to find the ruins. Should be easy. Good job, guys." Trace stood up and walked to the bedroom with his phone to his ear.
Drew and Ethan stared at eachother. "We're 'this' close Andrew!" He gestured a measurement with his hand.
"Yeah maybe. But I still have a bad feeling about all of this. Drew looked at the closed bedroom door where the man that they were supposed to trust was behind on the phone.
