The sharp click of footsteps against marble echoed throughout the spacious hall as Dr. Sullivan walked briskly through the Artium Vigoran Historical Society's main floor. His face was pleasantly emotionless but inside, he was trying desperately to keep his nervous excitement contained.
Thoughts of a final end to a long decade of war occupied his head as he walked. Countless lives could be saved. Countries could finally rebuild. People could simply live their lives without the oppression of constant violence and fear over their heads. But with this kind of discovery, at what cost would peace be achieved? And what could it do in the wrong hands? Sullivan frowned at the thought and picked up his pace, a bolt of urgency propelling him forward. This discovery had the power to make or break, not only the war, but the world.
A pair of librarians passed him as he stepped into the building's elevator at the end of the main floor's grand hall and one of them raised an eyebrow at his obvious flighty behavior. Dr. Sullivan simply grinned back and tipped his bowler as they left, wishing them a cheery good morning as the ornate metal gates closed with a clatter behind the pair.
The historian let out a sigh as he stood alone in the small elevator box, sorting through the emotions whirling inside his chest. He was so nervously excited, in fact, that he'd managed to skip his morning coffee on his way to the Society. Sullivan had never felt so awake in his life and if his knees weren't so terribly troublesome, he'd have sprinted out of his apartment door after receiving the momentous news that morning from his fellow associate, Professor Adolphus Berg.
After a few more routine elevator stops on the way up to his destination, Sullivan finally reached the 17th floor and stepped out of the contraption, absentmindedly whistling a tune he'd heard from a street musician the other day while walking back home from the train station.
A few strides down the quiet hallway, his eager assistant stood dutifully in his usual morning spot next to the historian's meeting room door, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. It seemed Sullivan wasn't the only one who was excited by the news. As the historian approached, his assistant's face broke into a crooked grin and he held up the metal tray he was clutching so tightly his knuckles had turned white.
"Good morning, Doctor!" he chirped and glanced down at the tray's contents," Your cigar, sir?"
Dr. Sullivan ruffled the boy's mop of sandy blonde hair and smiled despite his overwhelming anxiety.
"Not this morning, Fox, my boy! Too much excitement to sit around and smoke, don't you think?" he replied and Fox nodded eagerly.
"Yes, sir. Of course, sir," the assistant answered and moved to open the oak door in front of them," The others are already gathered, Doctor."
Sullivan clutched his lapels and puffed out his chest as he entered the room, greeting each of his associates with a brisk nod as he tried to maintain dignity. Behind him, Fox set the metal cigar tray on a small table next to the entrance and shut the door with a sharp click. Sullivan gave the group a polite smile as Fox offered to take his coat. He knew better than to try to remove the shabby old bowler from atop his employer's head. He was rather attached to the thing.
Two others sat the large round mahogany table in the center of the study. Bookshelves containing all sorts of books and a few other curious items such as rusty old telescopes and a monkey skull lined the walls floor to ceiling and a large globe almost as tall as Fox sat in the far corner of the room next to a table containing a long glass casing. Several old papers and artifacts lay beneath the glass which was glinting in the sunlight let in by four floor to ceiling windows on the opposite wall. Sullivan enjoyed sunlight so he chose a very naturally lit room as the project's home base.
"Is it true, then?" the doctor started, glancing between the two people seated at the table in front of him," Have we found it?"
Professor Berg, the oldest historian still working at the Society as well as one of Sullivan's oldest friends, clutched his cane and stood with effort, gesturing with one hand toward the mess of papers and objects spread haphazardly on the table's surface.
"See for yourself, my friend," he replied, his voice weak with age. Sullivan thought he heard a sign of nervous anticipation in his friend's short sentence but Berg's face was a mask of calm. The doctor stepped forward and there, sitting atop a large stack of research papers and maps, lay an obviously ancient piece of parchment, encased in a protective framed glass plaque. It didn't look like much considering its ripped edges and yellowing state, but to Sullivan and the others in the room, it was pure gold as far as they were concerned.
Dr. Sullivan reached toward the plaque with shaking hands and picked it carefully up off the table.
"I don't believe it," he whispered incredulously. What he held before him was the most valuable, not to mention dangerous, thing he'd ever discovered, much less held in his own two hands. "A page from the lost memoirs of Antony Grimwater, himself."
The person to his left stood as he studied the paper with wide eyes. She reached over, holding a large magnifying glass in her hand. Sullivan looked up at her and she gave him a wan smile.
"This might help," she said. The doctor cleared his throat and removed the eyeglasses from the pocket inside his plaid brown waistcoat, placing them carefully on the bridge of his nose before taking the magnifying glass from his associate's hand.
"Thank you, Ms. Topper, and not only for this," he replied, breathless, holding up the magnifying glass. The woman gave him a curt nod and sat back down, taking out a cigarette and lighting it. Jade Topper wasn't much of a conversationalist but behind her stoic expression was a mind sharper than a soldier's bayonet. She'd been sent from the government to keep an eye on Sullivan and his group of eccentrics and was the brave soul that had actually gone out and recovered the blasted piece of parchment from one of the ancient islands floating out in the skyways. She was a sort of specialist for locating and obtaining important things. The doctor wasn't quite sure exactly what her job in the government was or who she reported to but he couldn't object to her addition to the team. Several government officials had insisted, confirming his theory that they had invested much more into this project than they'd let on.
"This wasn't easy to find, Doctor. I just hope I've gotten it to the right person," she said, one eyebrow arched. Sullivan gave her a small nod, his face grave. The woman didn't seem to trust anyone.
"Let's find out then, shall we?" he questioned, glancing around the solemn but nervous group in front of him. The doctor took out a sheet of paper and a pen and sat down. He proceeded to read and translate the ancient paper in front of him, working quietly as the others sat around the table next to him. They looked on as he focused the magnifying glass on the words scrawled onto the paper in nearly illegible cursive. Sullivan cleared his throat after scratching down almost a paragraph of the journal passage. "This writing seems to be a form of old English, just like the other documents we've recovered. They're all from the same time period," he stated as he read. Jade leaned forward as the magnifying glass moved back and forth across the paper, her hands supporting her chin as she rested her elbows on the surface of the table. Even Berg seemed rather impatient as he asked Fox to refill the cup of tea sitting in front of him on a stack of books. The assistant obliged, hurrying out of the stiflingly silent room. A hot air balloon carrying city sightseers floated lazily past the floor to ceiling windows on the opposite wall but no one looked up for fear of distracting the focused doctor.
Finally, Dr. Sullivan set down his pen and studied his work. It really was less of a translation and more of an interpretation. In reality, the paper had been written in English but it was an ancient form, having slowly changed and formed into the English they spoke at present. The doctor stood and held out his translation paper in front of him. The rest of the room looked on, only breaking silence when Fox gently set Berg's tea in front of him and gave him a subtle wake up nudge, resulting in a loud snort and a sheepish bleary eyed apology by the elderly professor. Jade gave an exasperated sigh and Dr. Sullivan cleared his throat, glancing at each member of his small but suddenly attentive audience. He took a breath.
"March 4, 2153." he started, reading the date at the top of the journal entry. The doctor cleared his throat and continued," 'The weapon worked. It wiped out over half the population, completely decimating enemy forces as well as innocent citizens. I have never been so appalled at my own work, but it had to be done. It was a necessary means to achieve a greater cause. Evil was finally destroyed. At least, this is what I tell myself.
This weapon can never fall into the wrong hands which is why I have decided to hide the prototype here in Atlantis under my own supervision. If eventually it must be used again in the far future, only the right person may be allowed to decide what to do. The decision to kill millions of people is not an easy one and therefore, the weapon cannot be easy to obtain. After much council and consideration, I have decided to leave the key to the weapon vault with my son, who will pass it down his line of descendants, teaching each of them what the weapon is capable of and what could happen if mishandled. A map to our home island has been enclosed in the next page of this journal which is being entrusted to a close friend of mine for safekeeping. Hopefully, we can continue this strange form of peace we have created in our new home in the sky.
Peace must be the answer, always, but the weapon may be used to destroy pure evil if it finds our civilization once more.
To, whomever uses it next: I truly hope you know what you are doing and what the consequences will do to your mind.
Sincerely and Solemnly,
Antony Grimwater'," Sullivan finished the short passage and stared at his own neat translations.
No one moved. Berg sat straight up in his chair, both hands flat on the table in front of him. His tea remained untouched on the stack of books. Jade was leaning back in her chair, her cigarette poking out of the corner of her mouth. Her eyes were half closed and she seemed to be deep in thought. Even Fox hadn't moved a muscle as he stood near the door, the tray of biscuits in his hands forgotten.
All at once everyone burst into speech.
"Great Grimwater, we must destroy it at once!"
"Destroy it? Are you bloody insane? We could end the war with this- this thing!"
"The amount of death-"
"No one's laid eye on Atlantis for hundreds of years-"
"Biscuit, anyone?"
All three of them looked up at Fox who'd moved from the door to the table. He paled as they stared and cleared his throat awkwardly. Sullivan was the first to break the silence.
"Y-yes, yes of course, Fox. Just set them..." Sullivan said, hastily clearing papers from the surface of the table," set them here."
Fox stepped forward and carefully set the tray onto the empty space. He was about to move back towards the door when Sullivan caught his arm.
"Now that you've heard what was on that paper, you'd better sit down. You've suddenly been dragged into this mess along with the rest of us," the doctor said and without another word, Fox moved to the opposite side and took a seat, dropping into the chair with a frown pasted onto his face. Sullivan followed suit and sat back down. He folded his hands on the table in front of him and chewed the inside of his cheek, his glasses sliding forward on the bridge of his nose.
"What are we to do?" Berg said, almost whispering," We couldn't possibly let the government, or any governments for that matter, find out this weapon is real!"
Jade's eyes narrowed across the table.
"They've already found out, professor. I work for the government, if you've quite forgotten," she said, her voice low. Berg swallowed nervously. It seemed as though he had quite forgotten. Sullivan shook his head.
"Whatever we do, we cannot be rash about this. Lives are on the line-"
"Precisely. Our boys fighting out on the battlefields are dying every day! Think of what this could mean for them. They could finally come home," Jade interrupted. Her expression looked uninterested, almost bored in fact, but her eyes were alight with eagerness. Sullivan started to shake his head, but to everyone's surprise, Fox spoke out next.
"None of the other boys will come home," he said quietly. Jade frowned and Berg nodded slowly. Sullivan put his head in his hands and then sat up, looking around at the grim group in front of him.
"We must keep our discovery a secret... for now," he added hastily, glancing at Jade who was puffing on her cigarette moodily. "Does everyone agree?" he said in clipped tones. Berg and Fox nodded wordlessly. Jade gritted her teeth but nodded as well, probably realizing that she would be the one assigned to go find the blasted thing once Lord Troyce, Artium Vigora's leading government official, discovered its existence. "Excellent," Sullivan stated, his voice monotone. He sighed," Any ideas on what to do next?"
Nobody spoke and once again the room was engulfed in silence until Berg looked up suddenly, his eyes widening.
"We find it," he said. The rest of them stared at him in shock. The old man continued," If we do not locate the weapon, someone is bound to eventually. Like Mr. Grimwater stated in his journal entry, it cannot find its way into the wrong sort of hands. If we find it, we can keep it safe and then proceed to figure out what to do with the infernal device, whatever it may be," Berg finished, glancing around at the group for their opinions. Jade took her cigarette out of her mouth and squashed it on an ashtray sitting in front of her. It looked as though the thing hadn't been cleaned in weeks. Sullivan made a note in his head to have someone come tidy the place up a bit.
"I see one problem with your suggestion, old man," she drawled lazily. Berg straightened indignantly in his seat but Sullivan gave him a warning look. "Our infernal device, as you said, is apparently located on Atlantis according to Grimwater and no one's seen hide nor hair of that place for at least eight hundred years, if not more. How are we supposed to find somewhere that's supposedly disappeared out of thin air?" she pointed out. Berg huffed but Sullivan nodded slowly.
"She has a point, my friend," the doctor said, glancing at Berg. Sullivan cleared his throat. "That is why I propose an expedition to find Atlantis and obtain the weapon before anyone else manages to find it!" he announced.
"Here, here!" Berg said heartily, a sudden sparkle in his eye. Jade shook her head, her face a mask of bored exasperation.
"You're all daft," she mumbled and took out another cigarette. Sullivan frowned.
"We have nothing else to lose and if we don't do something with this project, the Society will put an end to it. We haven't had a breakthrough in well over a year. And the last one, mind you, was the clue to the location of Grimwater's journal, which you found!"
Jade let out a sharp sarcastic laugh.
"Don't forget. I didn't find a journal. I found one measly piece of parchment that led us right back to where we started," she said in a discouraging tone. Sullivan began to protest, but Jade held up a hand. "We don't even know where to begin. What's the use? Berg hasn't even left the capital in years, much less the country!"
"I left Lesgood for a breath of fresh air last May," Berg mumbled miserably. Jade gave Sullivan a pointed look.
"I rest my case," she stated. Berg glared at her through his spectacles and Sullivan let out an exasperated groan. At this rate, it would be as if they were searching for a needle in a haystack.
"We find a lead, then," he said, itching to go on an expedition of any sort. The last outing he'd been on was years ago and though he'd rather not admit it, Sullivan had had about as much traveling experience as Berg in the past decade. He missed his adventuring days. Now, the Society wouldn't let him out of their sight. The director kept saying it was because he was much too valuable, but Sullivan suspected they thought he was rather eccentric and didn't want the Society to gain any sort of bad reputation.
Jade shook her head, chuckling at Sullivan's obvious desperation as Berg mumbled some rather alarming statements about the woman's supposedly reputable experience in expeditions. Sullivan bit the inside of his cheek and turned to find Fox for a cup of coffee. It really was never too late for caffeine at this point.
As the doctor turned, however, he found his assistant clutching Grimwater's journal entry with wide eyes. Fox seemed to have snatched the relic up as the others argued and was studying it intensely. The alarming thing about this particular picture was the fact that the piece of old, yellowing paper was out of its protective case and firmly in Fox's slender hands. Sullivan let out a strangled yell.
"What the devil-" he shouted. Jade and Berg both looked up at the noise and gaped in horror at Fox, who had dropped the paper like a hot potato. Sullivan scrambled out of his chair and gently picked up the parchment, returning to its case. He was reaching for the glass covering when Fox interrupted.
"Sir." he said quietly but Sullivan ignored him. He'd never been angry at the boy before but years of research and work had just flashed before his eyes. Steam might as well have been coming out of his ears.
"Sir!" Fox said with a bit more urgency. Sullivan took a steadying breath and whirled on the boy, glass covering in hand.
"What is it?" he snapped. Fox blinked at the harsh tone, but he pointed at the parchment.
"There's something written on the back," he said, his voice suddenly very quiet.
Jade and Berg looked up at Sullivan with serious expressions as he turned to look back at the paper. He took a step toward the table and lifted the paper once more out of its case. He looked up slowly at Fox who was so nervous his hands were visibly trembling. Sullivan turned the paper over and sure enough, there were two or three lines of writing on the back. It was much messier than the neat writing on the front and seemed to have been scrawled on to the parchment in a panic.
"By the angel, how did we not see this before?" Sullivan questioned, his voice barely above a whisper. Jade shrugged and Berg looked on in a curious stupor.
"Dust," Fox stated, but no one was paying him much attention anymore. Sullivan was already sitting back down and lifting his pen to his translation paper once again.
He managed to translate the sentences quite quickly and lifted the paper off the table. Pushing his spectacles up the bridge of his nose, he began to read, his audience looking on nervously. Jade was on her feet, the excitement getting to her nerves.
"It's quite short," Sullivan stated but a flurry of protests propelled him to begin reading. The doctor cleared his throat noisily and started. "'I've been discovered and I pray this message finds its way into trustworthy hands. Sent Arthur off island with the key. Unrest and violence has wormed its way into our fair city as the council continues to keep the truth from citizens. I fear we may all be doomed. Map to the weapon has been hidden amongst trusted friends on four of the seven great sky cities. Torn apart to make things harder for my enemies, which have more than doubled since the incident. I've not much time-'," Sullivan stopped and looked up.
"Well?" Berg said, urging him to finish.
"That's all. He must have been interrupted. The 'e' at the end of 'time' is unfinished," he replied distantly. Jade looked stunned and Fox had sat down again. "This changes everything," Dr. Sullivan stated and the rest of the group nodded in heavy silence.
"We've got to find those map pieces before the enemy does," Jade announced. Sullivan was surprised to hear the sarcasm leave her voice. "I would go myself, but my higher ups would notice if I suddenly disappeared and we can't possibly involve a large group. Too noticeable," she said and took a puff of her cigarette. She glanced at Berg and Sullivan for suggestions.
"My absence would be noted as well and Berg cannot possibly go on his own," he said. Berg frowned, but evidently knew the truth in Sullivan's statement. Fox cleared his throat.
"I could-" he started but Sullivan quickly interrupted.
"Absolutely not. You have no experience in expeditions. Besides, this mission could be rather dangerous. Five of the seven ancient sky cities are behind enemy lines. Fox, my boy, you are no spy..." he replied, but trailed off. The others began to suggest different solutions and broke off into conversation as Sullivan thought. If it was a spy, they needed...
The doctor cleared his throat, cutting off Berg's heated reply to something Jade had said quite rudely about his weight.
"I have just the individual we need in mind," he said, smiling for the first time that morning.
. . .