ATLANTIS

What's more important? The plane and it's data or the people?

Atlantis is the first book in a 6 book series by West Point Graduate, former Green Beret and NY Times Bestselling Author Bob Mayer. The entire series can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks and Kobo.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN 

“Move!” Ariana yelled, grabbing Hudson’s arm and pulling him across the tangled vegetation. She glanced over her shoulder at the plane. The tail was lost in the fog but she could see the rotodome and the golden beam shooting from it into the sky. 

Carpenter grabbed Hudson’s other arm. Together they hauled him across a large splintered tree trunk and then they were on the ground. Ariana turned and looked back over the wood. The plane had almost disappeared in the mist, about fifty meters away. 

“Duck,” Carpenter said. 

Ariana tucked her head down behind the cover of the tree trunk. There was the sharp crack of an explosion, followed by a thunderous secondary explosion. Ariana could hear shrapnel fly by overhead and slash into the vegetation. With a loud thump, a twenty foot section of fuselage landed less than forty feet away. Ariana stood and looked. The plane was gone. She checked her map and pointed into the mist shrouded jungle. 

“That way.” 

* * *

Dane paused as he heard the sound of an explosion. The mist muffled the sound as if it were occurring underwater, followed by a second, deeper explosion a second later. 

“What was that?” Beasley demanded. 

Freed and the Canadians were also turned in the direction the sound had come from. 

“The plane’s gone,” Dane said. 

“What!” Freed stepped in front of Dane. “How do you know?” 

“I just know,” Dane said. 

“But--” 

“There are some survivors.” 

“How do you know?” 

Dane didn’t bother answering. 

“But the equipment,” Freed said. “The images they caught.” 

Dane pushed Freed out of the way. “We have to keep moving. We can’t stand still.” 

“Why?” 

Dane just shook his head. He reached out with his mind for Sin Fen, but there was no answer. He felt her absence, like a blank spot in his mind. 

Dane moved into the jungle. The sound of the stream behind them faded. The mist was thick, but Dane could sense lighter areas, and using that sense he picked his path. He knew Flaherty was ahead of them somewhere, in the vicinity of the area they had been directed to. He couldn’t ‘hear’ Flaherty like he had been able to contact Sin Fen, but he could feel the presence of his old friend, like a distant torch on the edge of his consciousness. And the way that torch was flickering told Dane that the explosion had been the Lady Gayle being destroyed and that the people who had survived the crash were heading in the same direction. He also sensed that if he stayed to the lighter areas they would be safe, that the creatures of the mist would not find them. Somehow Flaherty was helping them, keeping them safe from the dangers inside the Gate. For a little while at least. 

Dane paused, hearing the breathing and muted sound of weapons and equipment jangling behind him. He peered ahead. He felt the fear, just as he had the first time he had been in the Angkor Gate, but he could control it, just like he had been able to on cross-border missions before that last one. He didn’t know what was behind the threat he faced, but he knew there was a threat and he had a good idea of the nature of it from his previous experience. And Flaherty was out there.