Atlantis Endgame Read Online Free PDF Page A

laptop, a militant tattoo. "Why all this background chat? Are you building up to some big idea about the Baldies maybe causing that volcano to blow?"
    "Well, we don't know," Ashe said. "The truth is, until yesterday somehow this remarkable incident in Earth's history had seemed a random natural event, albeit extraordinarily spectacular. As a possible site for our investigations, it had been previously overlooked. Probably because as yet there has been so little excavation done, and we know so very little about what happened—and of course there had been no mysterious artifacts found, none of the globe ships or other signs of the Baldies that we've discovered and dealt with in other times and places."
    Eveleen's mind worked rapidly through what she knew of history. "Thera. . . north of Crete. Those were the Minoans, weren't they? The bull worshippers? Weren't they supposed to be this sophisticated, peaceful trading civilization?"
    "They were," Ashe said. "They were probably the most sophisticated culture Earth had produced until the past couple of centuries—and some will argue about that, considering the wars we've managed to wage against ourselves and the environmental damage our industrial developments have caused. The Minoan houses that have been excavated so far had running water, possibly hot and cold. Toilets. Showers, even, in one place. A standard of living, in short, that would not be out of place today. Only they didn't wage war, they traded, all along the Mediterranean, for their distinctive artwork shows up in tombs in Egypt as well as points north and west. Yet right around this time they vanished. Simply disappeared from history."
    Ross nodded. "Right. But you said that no bodies were found, and that they might have evacuated. So how did that civilization vanish?"
    "No one knows," Milliard said, pointing to a sheaf of printouts. "We've pulled up as much research as we can, and most of it is speculation."
    Eveleen looked around. Anomalies—events that could have been caused by outside agency—existed all through the human past, of course. She and the other Time Agents had certainly experienced enough outside interference from the hairless, humanoid aliens they called Baldies to make every incident that did not have clear cause and effect appear suspicious.
    Ross frowned. "What we might be looking at here is some kind of dirty work, then? Someone deliberately setting back the development of our civilization a couple thousand years?"
    Ashe pressed his thumbs into his eye sockets. "It is one hypothesis, isn't it? Marilyn and her team have been up all night running sims on this, and correlating it with what we know. The most accepted hypothesis in my field posits that if the Minoans had survived, we might have had our industrial revolution at least a thousand years ago—if not more. We might be immortal by now. Colonies on other planets. But, though theories are neat, as is usual when dealing with human psychology, it might not be that simple."
    Kelgarries said, "There's apparently even a computer analog in Athens, made some two thousand years ago." And he looked over at the gray-haired woman. "Mrs. Edel? What was that you were telling me about earlier?"
    The woman spoke for the first time. "It's called the Antikythera mechanism. It was pulled off a shipwreck. Layers of interlocking gears, with readouts to calculate and display astronomical positions." As she spoke her eyes widened with just that sort of wonder that sometimes characterized Gordon Ashe when he talked about the mysteries of the past. The eternal curiosity of the scholar, Eveleen thought.
    And Milliard said, "Mrs. Edel is our authority on the time and culture."
    The woman gave them a tentative smile. Eveleen met her dark gaze, with its expression of inquiry, and smiled back.
    Ross also gave the woman a nod and smile, but it was a distracted smile. He was back tapping his pencil again, his scarred fingers tense. "A computer, eh? So, what, we're going