Atlantis Lost Read online

  Atlantis Lost

  A James Acton Thriller

  by

  J. Robert Kennedy

  From the Back Cover

  FROM USA TODAY & MILLION COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR J. ROBERT KENNEDY

  Will the most important discovery in history be lost once again?

  After an earthquake strikes the Azores, a discovery of unimaginable importance is made just off the coast, sending Archaeology Professor James Acton and his wife racing across the Atlantic to confirm the find—the lost city of Atlantis.

  But they aren’t the first there, and those who arrived before them will stop at nothing to prevent anyone from discovering their true purpose, and it has nothing to do with the preservation of the past, but everything to do with the destruction of our future.

  From USA Today and million copy bestselling author J. Robert Kennedy comes Atlantis Lost, the latest installment in the action-packed globe-spanning James Acton Thrillers series, certain to have you on the edge of your seat from page one. If you enjoy fast-paced adventures in the style of Dan Brown, Clive Cussler, and James Rollins, then you’ll love this thrilling tale of archaeological intrigue.

  Get Atlantis Lost today, and discover what wiped the fabled island city, and its inhabitants, from history!

  About the James Acton Thrillers

  "James Acton: A little bit of Jack Bauer and Indiana Jones!"

  Though this book is part of the James Acton Thrillers series, it is written as a standalone novel and can be enjoyed without reading the other installments.

  What Readers Say About the James Acton Thrillers Series:

  “Non-stop action that is impossible to put down.”

  “A great blend of history and current headlines.”

  “You stop breathing from the first page.”

  “If you like Indiana Jones then you will love these stories.”

  “The Acton series is one of the most entertaining and enjoyable series I have read.”

  “One of the best thrillers I've read in a long time.”

  “I haven't read books this good in quite a few years. I didn't want to put it down until I'd finished it, yet didn't want it to come to an end.”

  “You can't go wrong purchasing the books in this series!”

  “These books are lively, fast paced and filled with great dialogue. Read one, you will be hooked on the series.”

  “This is one of the most interesting and action packed series I have ever read.”

  About J. Robert Kennedy

  With over one million books sold, USA Today bestselling author J. Robert Kennedy has been ranked by Amazon as the #1 Bestselling Action Adventure novelist based upon combined sales. He is the author of over forty international bestsellers including the smash hit James Acton Thrillers. He lives with his wife and daughter, and writes full-time.

  What Readers Say About J. Robert Kennedy:

  “Kennedy rules the genre!”

  “A master storyteller.”

  “Kennedy kicks ass in this genre.”

  “A writer who tells what we are thinking but sometimes afraid to say.”

  “If you want fast and furious, if you can cope with a high body count, most of all if you like to be hugely entertained, then you can't do much better than J. Robert Kennedy.”

  “One of the best writers today.”

  “Cussler move over. Kennedy is here to stay.”

  “I'm hooked on Paterson, Connelly, Child, Flynn and this book got me hooked on this writer."

  “J. Robert Kennedy is one of my favorite authors. His books are easy to read and I feel like the characters are family.”

  Get 5 Free eBooks!

  Get the J. Robert Kennedy Starter Library by joining The Insider’s Club and be notified when new books are released!

  Find out more at www.jrobertkennedy.com.

  Follow me on Facebook, BookBub, GoodReads and Twitter.

  Books by J. Robert Kennedy

  The Templar Detective Thrillers

  The Templar Detective

  The Templar Detective and the Parisian Adulteress

  The Templar Detective and the Sergeant's Secret

  The James Acton Thrillers

  The Protocol

  Brass Monkey

  Broken Dove

  The Templar’s Relic

  Flags of Sin

  The Arab Fall

  The Circle of Eight

  The Venice Code

  Pompeii’s Ghosts

  Amazon Burning

  The Riddle

  Blood Relics

  Sins of the Titanic

  Saint Peter’s Soldiers

  The Thirteenth Legion

  Raging Sun

  Wages of Sin

  Wrath of the Gods

  The Templar’s Revenge

  The Nazi’s Engineer

  Atlantis Lost

  The Cylon Curse

  The Special Agent Dylan Kane Thrillers

  Rogue Operator

  Containment Failure

  Cold Warriors

  Death to America

  Black Widow

  The Agenda

  Retribution

  The Delta Force Unleashed Thrillers

  Payback

  Infidels

  The Lazarus Moment

  Kill Chain

  Forgotten

  The Detective Shakespeare Mysteries

  Depraved Difference

  Tick Tock

  The Redeemer

  Zander Varga, Vampire Detective Series

  The Turned

  Table of Contents

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  Table of Contents

  Beginning

  Author's Note

  Preface

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

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  34

  35

  36

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  38

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  49

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  59

  60

  61

  62

  63

  64

  65

  66

  67

  68

  69

  70

  71

  72

  73

  Acknowledgments

  Sample of Next Book

  Don't Miss Out!

  Thank You!

  About the Author

  Also by the Author

  For Stephen Hawking, who revealed more of our world from the confines of a wheelchair, than most throughout history could ever dream.

  “But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea.”

  Plato, Timaeus
, circa 360 BC

  “It’s a social-validation feedback loop…exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with, because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology…The inventors, creators—it’s me, it’s Mark [Zuckerberg], it’s Kevin Systrom on Instagram, it’s all of these people—understood this consciously. And we did it anyway.”

  Sean Parker, founding president of Facebook

  Axios interview, Nov. 9th, 2017

  Author's Note

  Please note that this novel, while published the same month the Facebook scandal of March 2018 broke, was written before those events began.

  Preface

  In 2015, 99% of all international data traffic was transmitted over undersea cables, representing an unfathomable amount of information. By 2017, over two billion people had a Facebook account, with the average person having 338 “friends.” According to Pew, the average person had actually not even met almost ten percent of those people. Among teenagers, the numbers are even more disturbing, with Pew reporting 57% had made friends online, and less than 20% had met any of those friends in person.

  In 2017, Sean Parker, the founding president of Facebook, admitted publicly that social media platforms were intentionally designed to consume the user’s time, and one of the methods was to trigger a validation response, designed to reward the user as they spent more of their day on the site. These likes, shares, friend requests, views, messages about a photo or post getting more responses than usual, and other positive reinforcement indicators, were specifically designed to addict the user, forcing them to crave these acknowledgements from people they barely knew, and keep them glued to the platform so the company could make money off them.

  This has been admitted publicly.

  But will the story be lost in the carefully curated newsfeeds designed to make the users of social media platforms happy?

  And what would it take to get a generation that has known nothing but life behind the screen, to wake up, and notice the world around them?

  1

  Senate Chambers

  Atlantis

  Before the fall

  “We’ve heard the stories, yet we still do not heed the warnings. Entire cities wiped out by exploding mountains. Our own scouts have brought back the tales from other civilizations over the centuries, and now that we witness with our own eyes the very same thing happening on our island, we sit and do nothing, denying what is plain to see.”

  Professor Ampheres strode around the perimeter of the Senate chamber, making eye contact with each and every one of the men and women elected to lead their people. “If we don’t start evacuating our people now, we could lose everything our ancestors struggled so hard to build.”

  The President shook his head, waving his hand. “We will never abandon our city. It is all that we are.”

  Ampheres stared at him as he strode closer to the man who would lead them all to their doom. “The city can be rebuilt, our way of life cannot. If we lose the population, then all that we have built over the centuries will be lost. Our ancestors came here to build a better way of life, and their descendants have succeeded tremendously. Look around you. We live in peace, our population can read and write, our children are educated in math, history, and philosophy, and our architecture is beyond anything imagined elsewhere. Our aqueducts provide us with fresh water, our farms provide us with plentiful food, and our isolation protects us from those who would take it.

  “But you’ve felt the earthquakes, you’ve seen the steam itself rising from the top of the mountain that dominates our southern sky. What we only recently suspected has now been proven. Our city is built on the side of something that is awakening. If we do not take action now, it could kill us all.”

  The President leaned forward, staring down at him from his elevated position of honor. “Let us focus on some things you just said. You mentioned our isolation, and how it protects us from our enemies who would take what we have created. It is for this very reason that we can never leave this place. It is the very reason why unapproved travel is strictly prohibited. Our ancestors fled war and constant need, and found this place by accident. It was so isolated, it allowed us to thrive, and by living in peace, and sharing what they had, they built this great civilization, unrivaled in any of the known lands. We tossed off the naiveté of a belief in multiple deities, and that trident, right there”—he leaned to the side, pointing at the artifact that dominated the center of the chamber—“that has sat untouched for centuries, is a constant reminder to us that it is science and knowledge, not superstition, that should guide us.

  “Our scientists have said that these earthquakes are nothing to worry about, that they will pass, and that this exploding mountain story you refer to is just that, a story, and that the steam is nothing but water vapor caused by the friction of rocks rubbing together during the quakes. Only you seem to think that a calamity is imminent, and that we should ignore all the evidence to the contrary and abandon our civilization. We know from the reports our scouts bring back to us that the lands we abandoned ages ago are still filled with violent primitives. If we were to show up on their shores, what do you think would happen? Do you think they would welcome us with open arms? Or would they treat us as invaders, and slaughter every last one of us? Or would you have us turn into the conquerors of old, and take what we need from those primitives?” The President waved his hand, dismissing everything that had been said. “Professor, your allotted time is up, and I will kindly ask you to leave so the next person can be heard.”

  Ampheres struggled to control his anger and disbelief at the ignorance and arrogance on display here today. He had little respect for politicians, always having felt they were too often out for themselves rather than the people, but the Senate was the greatest democratic institution known to man, elected every five years by the people in a one person, one vote fashion, and it had proven extremely successful for centuries. That these people would ignore his warnings, and threaten the lives of everyone they had sworn to serve, was infuriating. He jabbed a finger at their so-called leader. “Mr. President, yes indeed, my time is up, but so is all of yours. You, through your ignorance and inaction, have condemned us all to death, and Atlantis to the depths of the ocean that has protected us for so long!”

  He spun on his heel and marched toward the doors to the massive chamber, the one hundred men and women elected to rule the island remaining in shocked silence. If any had been swayed by his words, it would appear none were brave enough to let their change of heart be known.

  All they care about is reelection.

  And his cynicism might be correct. Elections were only six months away, the campaigns had already begun, and with things going so well, nobody wanted to be seen as risking the status quo. He sometimes wondered if their logic was telling them that if he were right, and the island were to be destroyed, then it was better to lose one’s life, rather than lose the election if he were wrong.

  Disgusting.

  While he respected the institutions founded by his ancestors, they had become tired and staid. There were no challenges left. There was no war, no disease, no famine. Their isolation protected them from conflict or the arrival of new diseases, and they wisely stored large amounts of foodstuffs should a harvest fail, or the weather be uncooperative, a rare occurrence in these parts. The population was happy, and any change in their leadership might disrupt that, exploding mountain be damned.

  He stared at the trident as he passed it, when an irrational anger swept over him. He strode toward it and grabbed it, the hushed silence surrounding him erupting in a collective gasp as he pulled the surprisingly heavy object from its sacred receptacle. He spun back toward the President, the man’s mouth agape, his eyes wide. “You say this is a reminder of the times of old when we worshipped the gods, and how foolish we were. But I say this! You have become the new gods, infallible only in your minds, and it is this arrogant belief that you can do no wrong, that will destroy us as surely as an
y god might have!”

  He turned, storming toward the entrance, the trident gripped tightly in his hand, the senators erupting behind him in outrage. And as he cleared the doors, the shocked guards staring at him, not sure what to do, his heart hammered as he realized that no matter what happened over the coming days, eruption or not, he would likely be spending them in a prison cell, forced to watch all that he had known and loved destroyed, powerless to save even his own family.

  2

  Off the coast of Pico Island, Azores

  Present Day

  Sergeant Carl “Niner” Sung pointed toward the seabed, and his diving partner and best friend, Sergeant Jerry “Jimmy Olsen” Hudson gave him a thumbs up then tilted forward as he kicked with his fins, slowly heading for the coral deposits Niner had spotted. They were at almost two hundred feet and approaching the limit with regular tanks. The return to the surface would have to be slow, but the sharp drop off surrounding Pico Island, part of the Azores, an archipelago a thousand miles due west of Portugal, necessitated it if you wanted to see anything truly interesting. Niner was secretly hoping for a shipwreck, or something else manmade, but according to the dive master they had rented the gear from, there wasn’t much beyond small personal craft.

  No Nazi U-Boats filled with gold here.

  But just getting in the water was worth it. If he were forced to describe the sensation, he’d have to say solitary. Despite his friend being only a few yards away, they had no way to communicate beyond hand signals, the water was murky enough to reduce their visibility to a few dozen feet, there was nothing to smell beyond the rubber of his mask, and any sounds were muffled.