Atlantis

DALE DASSEL
her blouse to reveal the relic that Indy hadn’t seen in nearly a
decade: the necklace from the Jastro expedition. Somehow he
wasn’t surprised that she still had it.
Cast in tarnished bronze, the thick, wedge-shaped pendant bore
an eerie resemblance to the idol Kerner had stolen. The horned
chevron’s narrow, triangular eyes were bisected by a flat vertical
nosepiece adorned with a raised concentric spiral. Along with its
diamond-shaped mouth, the features combined to give the ancient
icon a disturbingly pig-like appearance. The two relics were
definitely related, Indy concluded with archaeological certainty.
But he wasn’t convinced that they came from the lost city of
Atlantis. Moreover, he couldn’t understand how Sophia had been
so enchanted by the ugly thing.
“Interesting. But what makes it so special?”
“Follow me and I’ll show you.”
Sophia went back into the living room and retrieved a blood-red
metallic bead from her purse. She held it up to the light for Indy to
see. The tiny gem burned like a drop of solid lava between her
fingers, a miniscule sun reflecting the chandelier’s ambience
tenfold. “This is orichalcum, the mystery metal first mentioned by
Plato. Now, watch this.” She placed the bead into the medallion’s
mouth, and waited.
The lights in the room suddenly grew dim, flickering in the
surge of a power flux. An ethereal green mist began to sparkle
around the stone-faced pendant. Indy took a step back, uncertain
whether or not the phenomenon was dangerous. The redhead
closed her eyes and tilted her face upward in concentration. The
emerald glow intensified, disseminating into filaments of slithering
light that encircled the woman’s lithe body like a snake,
enveloping her limbs. Indy squeezed his eyes closed reflexively,
shutting out the sight as he recalled the Ark of the Covenant. The
golden chest had eradicated an entire platoon of Nazi soldiers in a
fiery blaze of destruction which was preceded by a creeping mist.
Although Indy and Marion Ravenwood were spared, he wasn’t
taking any chances now.
“Watch,” Sophia urged. Indy looked up to see the mist disperse,
forming a shape in the air not unlike the malevolent image on her
pendant. Sophia opened her eyes, and a pair of glittering ruby spots
simultaneously materialized in the ghostly face, startling Indy so
badly that he stumbled backwards and almost tripped over the
chair lying on the floor. The apparition had vanished by the time he
regained his balance.
Sophia crossed her arms in satisfaction. “What do you think?”
Indy couldn’t explain what he’d just witnessed, but hoped that it
was another one of her parlor tricks. “It’s a hell of a lot more
convincing than your flying kite. How did you do that?”
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