Lemuria by Burt Clinchandhill (most popular novels of all time .txt) 📗

The suitcase usually meant that he wanted him to join on a quest, or that he had just returned from one and needed his help. “Coming or going?” he asked.

“What? Oh, uh, coming,” Bishop answered, looking at the suitcase.

“Our plane just landed, and I slept most of the flight from Jakarta and the ride up here, so I’m still waking up, I guess. How are you?”

“I’m great, but... Jakarta, Indonesia? I thought you were on your way to Peru with, uh....”

“Lindsey Wilson and Ralph Ignatowski,” Bishop said slowly.

“That bad?” Monroe asked.

Bishop grinned. “No, but... well, I would rather travel with someone like you.”

“Because....” Monroe stretched the word.

“Familiarity, I guess. You know I’m not much of a people person.”

“All right, tell me. What have you done?”

“Okay, so you remember the missing tribes and Jennifer, who was lost and possibly somehow involved.”

“I do. She was missing for three months or so?”

“She was, and I’m afraid still is. We still didn’t find her, but back to the beginning.”

Bishop spent the next hour telling his friend about his travels to South America and Asia.

“...so we left the Arca Domas, when I knew for sure that it was Jennifer who left the message on the statue.” Bishop took out his phone and scrolled through some pictures. “Here.” He handed Monroe the phone.

Monroe scrolled back and forth a few times. “Well, you’re absolutely right about the Flying Spaghetti Monster.” He snickered. “Sorry, I still can’t say it without laughing. I know I probably should be crying, that this is apparently what the world has come to. But, hey, who am I to decide?”

“So, what do you think about the other image?”

“Don’t know.” He enlarged the image between two fingers. “I figure you ran it through Google image?” He took a laptop from a drawer in the desk and opened it. “Can you please mail it to me?”

Bishop took back the phone. “Done,” he confirmed after a few swift movements on the phone. “I did run it through Google, but it only came up with images of crosses or something like that.”

“I’ve got it.” Monroe opened the mail and uploaded the image to Google. “Indeed, ‘possible related search: cross,’ it says.”

“And the visually similar image search results are just as helpful.” He turned the screen to Bishop. “Somehow, your image gets translated to mathematical images.”

“I knew there was a reason I came to you.” Bishop grinned.

“I’m always glad when you need me. So, a few curvy lines across, and five smaller crosses slanted in the image. Good one. Any idea why Google thinks it’s mathematical?”

“Not a clue.” Bishop rubbed his chin. “I’ve thought about it but can’t make a single connection with Jennifer, being mathematical about something.”

“All right, let’s skip that theory.”

“Could it be some ancient pictograph or writing?” Bishop asked.

“That’s part of the problem,” Monroe answered. “We don’t know if it’s writing, a drawing, a pictograph or symbol. Could be modern or ancient.”

“Let me try something.” Monroe pulled the laptop toward him and typed, “www.symbols.com.” “It’s a database for symbols from all around the world.”

“Never heard of it.”

“That’s why you have me.” Monroe smiled. “Now, let’s see. How would you describe this symbol?”

“Uh... six crosses?” Bishop answered, and Monroe typed it into the search field. ‘Found 90 symbols matching six crosses,’ the screen read.

Monroe and Bishop looked at the first page of results, starting with the Tuareg Cross and ending with the Philadelphia Flyers logo. One look over the pages was enough to see that none of the images barely resembled the curved lines and six crosses they were looking for.

Monroe clicked through the three other pages with illustrations. “So, that’s not it,” he concluded. “What other keywords can we come up with?”

“A cross and four curved lines?” Bishop suggested.

Monroe typed it in. This time there were 394 results. The results varied from the Fantastic Four logo to the symbol of the Water tribes from the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender. For the next few minutes, sixteen pages of football club logos, flags, coats of arms and even coins appeared on the screen.

“This could take some time,” Bishop said as the last page of results showed nothing promising.

“What other keywords can we use?” Monroe asked, shaking his head.

“Are you sure this is the way to go?

Monroe thought for a long moment. “Well, I can think of two other ways. First, let’s try this one.” On the laptop, he typed “www.shapecather.com.” Using the touchpad, Monroe drew the symbol into the draw box.

“I cannot express how impressed I am,” Bishop commented, smiling.

“Hey, I’d like to see you do better. Shapecather is a Unicode recognition program, but who knows,” Monroe explained.

Bishop frowned while shaking his head.

“Sorry. A Unicode is the world standard for text, graphics and emojis, a set of standardized images that have all been given a unique code.”

“All right. And...?”

“Revolving hearts, domino tile horizontal-03-05, a tetragram for greatness, a blue heart and a pig. Does any of these mean anything to you?”

Bishop stayed silent, looked at Monroe’s drawing again, cocked his head and frowned.

“What is it?” Monroe asked, but Bishop stayed zoned out for a long moment.

“What if we are going about this the wrong way?” Bishop asked.

“What do you mean?” Monroe asked.

“I mean, maybe we are interpreting the carvings the wrong way. I was looking at your drawing on the screen. What if those five smaller crosses aren’t crosses at all. What if they are...?”

“Stars,” Monroe interrupted him before he could finish. “I see what you mean. Stars.”

Bishop tilted his head. “Yes, stars, but where does that take us?”

“Not sure. But I have an idea. Let’s use the power of social media.” Monroe opened Facebook and typed, “Urgent, need help. Who recognizes the logo or pictogram in the picture below? Please make contact ASAP.” With a few clicks, he added the photo.

“You think that will work?” Bishop asked.

“Never underestimate the power of social media. The request is automatically reposted on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, so tens of thousands of people will