Unstoppable: Breakaway Part 10

"Dad's in Atlantis."

Dan had never heard a silence as complete or as awkward as the one that followed Atticus's p.r.o.nouncement. Everyone just sort of froze in place.

"Um . . . buddy," Dan said as delicately as possible, "I know we've all been under a little stress lately, but Atlantis doesn't, you know, um . . ."

"Exist," Jake said.

Atticus pushed his gla.s.ses up and turned to look at Amy. "Back in the medina, when you asked the man to let my father go, he acted like he didn't know what you were talking about, right?"

"These guys are well trained," she said. "They know how to lie when they need to."

"I know that," Atticus said. "But did you believe him?"

Amy stared down at the table, her brow wrinkling in concentration. "Yeah," she said. "I did."

"Me too," Atticus said. "In actuality, that's when it became clear."

"That your father is in Atlantis," Dan said. "Doing what, Att? Hanging out with the mermaids?"

Atticus ignored Dan and held up Olivia's notebook. "This is the page my dad was looking at before he left."

"Names and gibberish," Jake said. "We've been over this."

Atticus held up a finger. "But what if they're not gibberish? Look at the last sentence, the one that doesn't seem to make any sense. The twentieth Hafsid claims to keep the testament of the failed strategoi."

Atticus opened a ma.s.sive leather book marked Caliphs of Ifriqiya. Dan could almost see the wheels turning in his friend's head.

"The Hafsid was a dynasty that controlled Tunis, called Ifriqiya back then, from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries. The twentieth Hafsid should mean the twentieth Caliph, or ruler. That was a man named Abu Umar Uthman ben Abul Hasan Muhammad. Uthman for short."

"Okay," Amy said. "So who's the failed strategoi?"

"That was a little harder," Atticus admitted. "A strategoi was a kind of general. The failed one could mean any number of them. But then I looked into those names from Plato's dialogues and found out that he based his character Hermocrates on a real guy."

"A general," Dan said, suddenly feeling the excitement that always built up inside of him when he saw Atticus at work.

"Exactly," Atticus said. "And apparently not a very good one. He was made a general but then had the t.i.tle taken away because he didn't win enough battles."

"So . . ."

"So what Olivia is saying is that the twentieth Hafsid, Uthman, claimed to have the testament of the failed strategoi, Hermocrates. That testament must mean Plato's third dialogue, which was supposed to be named after him."

"Which you said doesn't exist," Jake said.

"It isn't supposed to exist." Atticus's eyes gleamed. "But what if it does?"

"So wait," Dan said. "What's this even have to do with Atlantis?"

"Nothing," Amy said. "Atticus, Dan is right, Atlantis is a myth."

"Everybody was pretty sure Troy was a myth," Jake said. "Until Calvert and Schliemann found it."

"But that's different!"

"How?" Atticus said, and then held up another book. "This is Plato's Critias, okay? It's the second of the three dialogues and the first time anyone in history mentions a place called Atlantis. It's just like how everyone thought Troy was something Homer made up in the Iliad until they actually found it."

"I don't know . . ." Amy said.

Atticus practically bounced in his chair. "Okay," he said. "Was there once an island-based world power with, like, super technology and mermaids that completely vanished? Duh, of course not! But could there have been some powerful kingdom thousands of years ago that was destroyed in a natural disaster? And then, over thousands of years, the myth of it grew until Plato wrote about it and called it Atlantis? Why not?"

"But we found Troy," Amy said. "With all the technology we have today, how could we have missed an entire island?"

"Who knows?" Atticus said. "If it's really, really, really old, maybe there's not a lot left to find. Or maybe we're looking in the wrong places. I mean, it's not like Plato left us a map in Critias or anything."

"But maybe he did in Hermocrates," Dan said.

"Exactly," Atticus said. "Look, all I know is that Atlantis theories have always been a kind of hobby for our dad. And the second he saw this stuff in Olivia's notebook, stuff that seemed to reference a way to find the actual Atlantis, he ran like his life depended on it."

Jake frowned. "You're saying he wasn't kidnapped at all."

"Exactly! He just saw one of the biggest discoveries in history and went after it. That's why his house was such a wreck. It wasn't ransacked. You know how Dad is! He was probably so excited to get after it that he tore the place apart grabbing what he needed and ran without even closing the door."

"Ran where, though?" Amy asked.

"To research Uthman, I'm guessing. If he can find where Uthman was keeping the Hermocrates, then maybe he can find Atlantis."

Amy considered a moment and then shook her head. "Atticus, you and Jake should go check on your dad, but Dan and I have to go back to searching for the silphium."

"Fine," Jake said. "Come on, Atticus. We can start at his house and go from there."

"Wait!" Atticus said as his brother reached for the door. "There's one more thing."

"What?"

Atticus sat back in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest and a broad smile on his face. He looked unusually pleased with himself.

"The note Olivia made about Leonardo's joke. Remember? When she asked him where she could find the silphium, he said she should look -"

"On the Island of the Athenian," Dan said. "But . . ."

The words had barely left Dan's mouth when it hit him like an avalanche.

"Plato," Dan said. "He was totally from Athens, wasn't he?"

"A born-and-raised Athenian," Atticus said, and waved his hands like he had just performed a magic trick. "Making Atlantis his island and where we'll find silphium."

Another astounded silence descended on the room. Dan felt as if his head was buzzing. Jake turned to Amy with a smirk.

"So," he said. "Looks like we're headed to the same place."

Amy was on a ladder high above the library floor when her cell phone hummed. She set aside the book she was looking through and pulled it out.

Carthage Museum, read the text message.

Atticus and Jake had gone back to their father's to look for clues, while she and Dan stayed behind and researched Uthman and his reign. Looked like the others had hit on something first. Amy packed up the notes she had been taking and then slid down the ladder.

She went to the study room Dan had been in all morning, but her brother wasn't there. The table was covered with a clutter of books, papers, and candy wrappers. Dan, she thought. She could remember a time when his messiness drove her crazy but now . . . .

Amy neatened the books and threw the wrappers away. She was about to put Dan's notes in his backpack when she saw a sheaf of brightly colored papers sticking out from it. Curious, Amy pulled one out.

It was a brochure advertising something called Bartleby's World-Famous Clown Academy. There was another for a baseball camp, and another for an astronaut camp. An application for the American School in Rome sat at the bottom. Each page was printed in bright jewel colors and covered with pictures of boys Dan's age. Boys running through parks or juggling torches. Boys sliding into home base.

Amy felt a dark hole open up inside her.

He's already making plans to leave.

She leafed through the brochures again. How long had Dan been hiding these? She'd tried to convince herself that his talk of leaving was a pa.s.sing thing, but now . . . her last family member, the person she trusted most of all, had one foot out the door.

"Amy?"

Amy stuffed the brochures back into his pack and turned around.

"Everything okay?" Dan asked.

"Y-yeah," she stuttered, unable to meet his eyes. "Jake texted. They're at the Carthage Museum."

Amy pushed past Dan before he could say a word, nearly running into the hall outside. It was like the sheaf of papers stuffed inside his pack was a bomb, and she had to get away before it went off.

Amy stepped out of the gloom of the library, shielding her eyes from the Tunisian morning light. The buzzing sound of the call to prayer seemed to come from every direction at once. Everything seemed overloud and overbright. Dan appeared behind her and raised a hand out over the traffic until a cab skidded to a stop at the curb. Dan told the driver where they were going and the car pulled away from the library and joined the Tunisian traffic.

"Amy?" Dan asked. "You find anything helpful?"

She shook her head, eyes fixed out the window. "I just took some notes. Whatever seemed worthwhile."

They left the city traffic and moved onto a highway that spanned Lake Tunis. The glare of the sun on the steely water hit Amy's eyes like spikes and she had to look away.

Dan was sitting across from her with his arms wrapped around his backpack, holding it close to his chest as he looked out the window. A corner of bright blue paper stuck out the top of the pack. She wanted to say something to Dan, but what? Don't go? How could you? For the first time, there was something between them too immense for words. He's really going to do it. He's really going to leave. Amy couldn't breathe.

The rest of the trip pa.s.sed in a blur. The cab lurched to a stop and Dan piled out and headed up the sidewalk to the museum, his backpack bouncing on his shoulder. Jake and Atticus were waiting. Everything suddenly snapped back into focus. They had work to do. Amy shook herself and paid the driver.

"What have you got?" she asked when she joined them at the museum's entrance.

"We found this in Dad's living room," Atticus said, handing over a sc.r.a.p of paper. "When we thought he had been kidnapped, we figured all the mess was just Pierce's goons ransacking the place, so we missed this."

Amy unfolded the piece of paper. "Dr. Abdallah, two P.M."

"He's a researcher here," Jake said. "We called and told him we were coming."

Jake pulled open the gla.s.s door to the museum and they were met by an elegant Tunisian man in the lobby.

"Jake! Atticus! I've heard so much about you both. Everyone here was terribly worried to hear you don't know your father's whereabouts."

"Thank you, Dr. Abdallah," Jake said. "We think you were our father's last appointment before we lost track of him."

Dr. Abdallah signaled the receptionist, who buzzed them through into a long hallway lined with offices.

"Of course," the doctor said as he led them down the hall. "But we didn't talk for more than a few moments. Your father seemed . . . agitated. Excited! More excited than I've ever seen him, in fact."

"What did he say?"

"We will soon be exhibiting a large collection of fifteenth-century artifacts," Dr. Abdallah said as he unlocked a heavy door at the end of the hall. "He wanted an early look at the collection."

"Can we see it as well?" Atticus asked. "We'll be very careful."

Dr. Abdallah showed them into a large room full of tables covered in artifacts and stacks of old books.

"Does anything relate to Uthman?" Jake asked.

"Ah, like father like son!" Dr. Abdallah smiled. "Dr. Rosenbloom asked the same thing. Right over here."

Dr. Abdallah showed them to a back corner of the room, to a table displaying clay vases and gleaming metalwork. Atticus went immediately to a small stack of books and opened the first one.

"There are English translations to the side," Dr. Abdallah said. "I will be in my office if you need me."

As the doctor left the room, Atticus leaned into one of the translations like he was trying to dive in.

"What's it say, Att?" Dan asked.

Atticus ignored him and read, flipping pages, his face getting closer and closer to the book. "Aw, man!"

"What is it?" Jake asked.

Atticus turned another page and shook his head. "This doesn't make sense!"

"What?" Jake asked.

"Well, it's sort of a diary," Atticus said. "Uthman's talking about meeting a traveling merchant who claimed to possess a copy of Hermocrates. It sounds like Uthman wasn't a hundred percent sure the guy was legit, but he says the book went into more detail about Atlantis. All about its history and culture, but nothing about where it actually was. All he says is that in older times, it was called by another name."

"What other name?"

Atticus turned the page and found a footnote pa.s.sage. "Tartessos."

"Tartessos?" Dan said. "Never heard of it."

"Me either." Jake frowned.

Dan sighed, frustrated. "Okay, I guess we'll look at old maps and try to find an island called Tartessos."

"Wait!" Amy tore through her notebook, running her finger along each page.