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

am I,” Bishop agreed. “Do you mind if I bring in my friends and colleagues?”

“What do you mean? Now?”

“A video conference call.”

“Why not?” De Cremonese agreed.

Bishop worked the screen. “That’s it,” he called out after a minute.

“All done?” De Cremonese asked.

“I’ve sent an invite for a video conference call on Teams in about ten minutes. That should give them enough time to set things up and look at the pictures of the deeds I sent with it. In the meantime, we can choose from the menu.” Bishop picked up the menu. “What’ll you have?”

De Cremonese smiled. “Let’s see what they have.”

The two men inspected the menus, and when they put them down, the young woman appeared again, setting their drinks down in front of them. “Did you find something you like?” she asked.

“I’ll have the Haus smoked pastrami sandwich,” Bishop said.

“And I’ll have the mixed green salad with ranch dressing.”

She took the menus. “I’ll be back soon.”

“Vegetarian?” Bishop asked.

“Not really. More of a flexitarian. I like meat, but I also recognize all the trouble with meat consumption, so I try to moderate. You should try it.”

“Maybe someday.” Bishop grinned. “I must admit, I’m a real meat lover.”

A loud ping sounded from the tablet.

Bishop looked at the screen. ‘You have an incoming video call from JohnnyWalker1962.’ Bishop accepted the call, and Walker Monroe’s face displayed on the screen with the Beinecke library in the background.

“Catching some afternoon sun, I see,” Bishop said.

Monroe raised a wineglass to the camera. “Enjoy it while you can.”

“You only live once,” Bishop added. “How are you doing, my friend?”

“I’m great. How are you? Any closer to the truth?”

“Not really. Except for the papers I just sent you. Did you get them?”

“The deeds, yes. I took a quick look at them. How did you get them?”

“I’ll explain later, if you don’t mind. I’m waiting for Lindsey and Ignatowski to join the call.” At that moment, pictures of their faces appeared on the screen. “Speak of the devil.” Bishop glanced at De Cremonese. “Sorry,” he said as he accepted their calls. The screen was now divided into three vertical columns, with Monroe on the left and Lindsey and Ignatowski on the right. “Hi there,” Bishop welcomed them. “Good of you to join us. Can everyone see everyone?”

“Yes.”

”Hello.”

“Good afternoon.”

“Great,” Bishop said. “Let me first introduce you to Father Lamberto De Cremonese, director of the Vatican Observatory.”

“Father,” the three said almost simultaneously.

De Cremonese smiled. “Please call me Lamberto, or Father Lamberto, if you must.”

“Great. Now that we’re introduced, let’s start and see if we can figure this out,” Bishop said. “Let me get you up to speed. I updated you on how the father met Jennifer and his connection to Eldin Mulder. I also told you we found an address at Mulder’s office. Instead of finding Jennifer at that location, we found Eldin’s Logynous former founding partner, who knew nothing about anything. What he did tell us was that Amie Coleman, Mulder’s assistant, used to visit him, but those visits were taken over by Mulder himself in the past weeks. Supposedly because Amie was on leave to visit her sick mother. This looked like another dead end, until the partner said that Mulder told him that he was suddenly leaving the country, and wasn’t coming back anytime soon. Also, he needed the partner to sign some papers.”

“The papers you mailed us,” Ignatowski suggested.

“Indeed,” Bishop confirmed.

“Before we continue, there’s something you must know,” Lindsey said.

“What’s that?” Bishop asked.

“The NRO and NSA have terminated our collaboration on this project,” Ignatowski stated. “As a matter of fact, the entire investigation at the NRO has been put on hold.”

“Same here,” Lindsey added.

“Did they say why?” Bishop asked.

“Officially, because there were no more occurrences over the past month,” Ignatowski answered.

“And unofficially?” Monroe asked.

“Not sure,” Ignatowski replied. “Usually, when a project is terminated in the middle of an investigation, there are political reasons. Anyway, it’s awfully quiet on the subject, even at the watercooler.”

“Same here, and we were only on board at the request of the NRO. So....”

Bishop frowned. “So?”

“So....” Lindsey grinned. “Officially, we can’t help you, but what we can do is help you figure out your next step, if you’d like us to.”

“That would be great,” Bishop agreed. “Any ideas where to start?”

“One thing caught my eye as I glanced through the deeds,” Lindsey said. “The Madagascar and Galápagos locations were described without a zoning or development plan, and the Sri Lanka location was sublet to a third party, the Sithulpawwa Mining Company. I ran a quick background check, but they seem legit, exploiting underground mineral mining throughout the property.”

“So, there isn’t room for another business at that location?” Bishop asked.

“I don’t think so,” Lindsey answered.

“Also,” Ignatowski added, “I don’t see a link to Sri Lanka, given everything else we know. They don’t have any indigenous, secluded tribes, and they don’t have a link to Ernst Haeckel or any of his findings—”

“But they do have the Balangoda man,” Monroe interrupted. “Some say Sri Lanka played a key role in human evolution.” Monroe held a book in front of the camera. “In here it says that in the Batadombaleva Caves in Ratnapura Key, they found a pre-historic human skull. It’s been proven the skull belonged to our ancestor who lived over forty thousand years ago. That looks great, by the way.”

In front of the camera, the pastrami sandwich and mixed green salad were served.

“Late lunch?” Lindsey asked.

“I’m getting hungry too,” Ignatowski added, licking his lips.

“Thanks.” De Cremonese showed his cutlery in front of the camera. “So, basically, taking Mulder’s evolutionary fascination, Sri Lanka could be of interest. But, on the other hand, there’s no room for exploring and no leads otherwise,” he summed up before taking a bite of his salad.

“What about Madagascar?” Bishop asked. “Madagascar was considered one of the corners of Lemuria by zoologist Philip Sclater.”

“But, again, literally no wiggle room,” Ignatowski said. “Satellite images of the location mentioned on the deed only show a coffee plantation.”

“Mulder grows coffee?” Lindsey asked.

“I don’t think