Lost Empire

CHAPTER 46

SOUTHERN SULAWESI

SAM EASED THE IKARUS INTO A GENTLE BANK AND STARTED BLEEDING off altitude in preparation for landing. Below and to the right, the airstrip emerged out of the haze. Sam lined the nose up with it, then dropped through a layer of clouds, made a few final adjustments, and touched down. He taxied toward the trio of Quonset huts at the edge of the tarmac and followed the hand signals of a ground-crew member to the fuel pumping station. Sam powered down the Ikarus and climbed out. As Selma had already done the legwork, Sam had but to sign a form. He did this, then walked around the edge of the hut. He dialed star six-nine.“You’re cutting it close,” said Rivera.

“I’ve only got sixty seconds or so left on this phone. Are you at the spot yet?”

“We’re ten minutes away.”

“Let me talk to my wife.”

“Tell me the location of Chicomoztoc, and I’ll do that.”

“Not until I’m standing in front of her.”

“You’re pushing your luck,” Rivera said.

“And you’ve already tipped your hand. You said it yourself: You’re not going to let us live. You want Chicomoztoc, then these are my terms. Put her on.”

Remi’s voice came on the line. “Sam?”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Where are you?”

“Close. Hang in there.”

Rivera came back on. “We’ll be waiting.”

The line went dead.

TEN MINUTES LATER he was back in the air and heading southeast toward Selayar Island. Another twenty minutes, and he was again dropping through the clouds. Below, the sea was a flat blue. He leveled off at two thousand feet and followed the coastline until the southern tip of the island came into view. He put the Ikarus down a few hundred yards offshore and taxied toward the beach. Sitting on the side of a dirt road was a pair of Isuzu SUVs. As the Ikarus’s skids scraped the sand, the doors to the SUVs opened and out stepped Rivera, Remi, and the three men from Pulau Legundi.Sam shut down the engine, climbed out onto the pontoon, and plodded ashore.

“Check him,” Rivera ordered. One of the men frisked Sam, then stepped back and shook his head. “Search the plane, too.”

Sam said, “I’d like to hug my wife.”

“Go ahead.”

Sam let Remi come forward, hoping Rivera would let her out of earshot. It wasn’t to be. “That’s far enough,” he called.

Sam and Remi embraced. He whispered, “Take the number three seat. Grab the sleeping bag and be ready.”

Despite the cryptic nature of the message, Remi simply replied, “Okay.”

They separated. Sam gave her a reassuring smile, then she stepped back to Rivera’s side. The man Rivera had sent to search the plane waded ashore. “There’s nothing aboard. No weapons. Just some sleeping bags, blankets, and camping gear.” Sam said, “In case we have to stay overnight.”“That’s a relic of a plane,” said Rivera. “Are you sure it will get us where we’re going?”

“Not even remotely,” Sam replied, “but it’s what you get for a twenty-four-hour deadline. We can cancel the trip if you’d like.”

“No, we’re going.”

“I can only carry three of you.”

“Fine. What’s our destination?”

“A bay on the eastern coast. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t even have a name. It’ll take us two and a half hours.”

“If anyone is waiting for us, I’ll shoot you both.”

“And die in the resulting crash,” Sam replied. “I have to admit that has a certain appeal.”

“I can fly a plane as well as you can fly a helicopter. Let’s get moving.”

SAM SHOULD HAVE COMPENSATED for the Ikarus’s edge. It was closer to three hours before the coastline appeared through the windshield. Sam put the plane through an abbreviated checklist and began his descent. He banked gently to the north and pointed the nose at the mouth of the crescent-shaped bay. In the rear seat beside Remi-who, as instructed, had taken the seat behind Sam’s-Rivera leaned forward for a better view.“It’s a small bay,” he remarked.

“A quarter-mile wide at the mouth and three-quarters of a mile at its widest. Six islands.”

“And you’re sure Chicomoztoc is one of them?”

“I never said I was sure. It’s my best guess based on everything we know. You seem to be forgetting that we managed to do in a few weeks what you couldn’t accomplish in almost a decade.”

“Belated congratulations,” said Rivera. “How did you find it?” “Long story, but in a minute you’ll see what put the frosting on the cake. The question is, will you recognize it?”As Sam dropped the Ikarus through a thousand feet, they passed between the headlands and into the bay.

“Where is it?” Rivera asked.

“Patience.”

A minute later Sam turned the nose slightly off center to let the thickly forested island pass beneath the starboard wing. “Out the side window,” he said.

Rivera leaned sideways and looked down. “This is it?” he asked incredulously. “It’s tiny.”

“Three hundred yards across and two hundred feet off the water.”

“It’s not big enough to be an island.”

“An islet, then. Either way, it’s what you’ve been looking for.”

“Why is the center concave?”

“It’s called a caldera. You’re looking at an extinct volcano,” replied Sam. “You still don’t see it, do you?”

“See what?”

“Remi?”

With a nod of approval from Rivera, Remi leaned over his shoulder and looked out the window.

Sam said, “Squint. Think ‘big hollowed-out flower.’”

A beaming smile spread across Remi’s face. “Sam, you found it.”

“We’ll soon find out. Do you see it yet, Rivera?”

“No.”

“You’re familiar with the traditional illustration depicting Chicomoztoc? Imagine that illustration viewed from above. Now imagine the points of the island rounded and more pronounced.”After a few moments Rivera murmured, “I see it. Amazing. Amazing! Take us down!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, damn it, take us down!”

“Whatever you say.”

Passing through two hundred feet, Sam banked the Ikarus one last time, following the bay’s western shoreline until the plane’s nose was again pointed north. Thirty seconds later, the pontoons kissed the surface; the Ikarus’s fuselage shivered and the windows rattled. Sam kept a slightly nose-up attitude, bumping over the surface as his speed bled off.He watched the needle drop to sixty knots, then fifty. When it slid past forty knots, he said, “Remi, how many sleeping bags do we have?”

She leaned forward in her seat, picked up the pile of bags, and placed them in her lap. “I’ve got three.”

“And I’ve got one,” Sam replied, pointing to the bag stuffed between his seat and the passenger seat. “Rivera, how many do you have?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Sam’s eyes flicked to the dashboard. The needle hit thirty-five knots. He turned toward the man in the passenger seat. “How about you?”

The man opened his mouth to reply but the words never came out. In one fluid motion, Sam dropped his right hand diagonally down, punched the man’s seat-belt release, then grabbed the sleeping bag, brought it to his chest, and shoved the stick forward.The Ikarus nosed over and slammed into the water.