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

to Lindsey and Ignatowski on the ground as the helicopter left the helipad. He adjusted the microphone from his headset as he looked down where the island’s landmass quickly changed into the Pacific Ocean’s water.

A loud hiss sounded through the headset. “Hello. I’m Mike,” the pilot said with a heavy Spanish accent. “Our flight to Darwin Island, about one hundred fifty-five miles north, will take us about forty-five minutes. Since we’re not allowed to fly over Santa Cruz Island, we leave the island in the south and fly west until we can fly north in a straight line to Darwin. Just relax and sit back, and we’ll be there in no time. If you want to talk to each other, simply press the green button on the cable running from your headsets.”

De Cremonese clicked the green button. “You know, I always wanted to visit the Galápagos. I can’t tell you how many books I’ve read about the islands, and now we flew in, dropped off our friends, took a helicopter from the airport and immediately are off again.”

“I’m sorry,” Bishop replied. “But it took us over a day to get here, and we don’t know how much time we have.”

“We don’t even know if we’re at the right location, or even what we’re looking for.”

“Not yet.” Bishop patted him on the shoulder. “Have a little faith, Father.”

De Cremonese’s eyes pierced his.

“I’m sorry. I always wanted to say that to a priest. But, seriously, there has to be something out here. Why else would Mulder need to be the sole owner of a deserted island without anything of value?”

“Maybe he wanted to sell it for a profit.”

“Yeah, maybe he needed the money,” Bishop said sarcastically.

“What are we going to look for?” De Cremonese asked.

“I’ve no idea,” Bishop answered. “But don’t worry. Darwin Island is the second smallest of the Galápagos Islands. If there’s something there, it’ll stick out, and we will find it.”

Darwin Island was the most northern island of the Galápagos, formed by the remains of an extinct volcano. Discovered and first visited by helicopter in 1964, the landmass—mainly covered by grasses—not bigger than half a square mile, rose some four hundred feet above sea level, defined by huge white cliffs. Since humans aren’t allowed to visit the island, it has become a massive bird sanctuary. Divers seldom visited the waters surrounding it because of its distance from the main islands and its treacherous currents.

“So, Father, you told me that you’d like to discuss the finer points on evolution with me.”

“I would, but that would probably take a bit longer than our flight today.”

“Sure,” Bishop replied. “But I was wondering about one thing. If evolution is real, it happened. Then, for sure, the bible can’t be. I mean, both can’t be true, can they?”

De Cremonese pressed the button on his microphone and laughed out loud. “The century-old question. I think it’s like Pope John Paul II stated in 1996. He said that ‘new knowledge has led to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than a hypothesis,’ but, referring to previous papal writings, he concluded that, ‘if the human body takes its origin from pre-existent living matter, the spiritual soul is immediately created by God.’”

Bishop gave a tiny smile and nodded. “Okay, all right,” he mumbled.

“You know there are no roads on the island, no man-made structures,” De Cremonese said, changing the subject.

“That’s why we brought....” Bishop waved his arms to the back of the helicopter, where two Kawasaki KLX250SF motorcycles occupied the space where seats opposite Bishop and De Cremonese had been removed.

“Still, no roads.”

“According to?” Bishop asked.

De Cremonese frowned. “The satellite images?”

“The satellite images on the maps owned by Logynous Corporation, you mean?” Bishop asked with a broad smile.

“Maybe,” De Cremonese said reluctantly.

“There’s always the dynamic duo,” Bishop said, referring to Lindsey and Ignatowski. “Who knows what they will come up with at the hotel. How long now?”

De Cremonese looked at his watch. “Little over half an hour. Did you know that some of these islands are only four hundred thousand years old?”

“I know,” Bishop agreed. “Darwin made a good choice when he came here to study evolution.”

“How’s that?” De Cremonese asked.

“Well, time—or, rather, evolution—kind of stood still here. The islands were untainted by humans for a long time, so animals that lived here didn’t adapt to humans’, um, destructive forces. Take, for instance, the cormorant. You know the bird?”

“Sure.”

“Here it’s called the flightless cormorant. Exactly the same bird we see everywhere else in the world, only here, it has tiny wings. More like a penguin. So, it can’t fly. With industrialization everywhere else in the world, the cormorant was forced to flee its habitat time after time. It had to survive, so it developed wings. Here, it didn’t. Here, the birds’ wings are just as short as they were probably thousands of years ago. Without any predators here, it still fishes for its meals like it always has.”

“And that’s proof of evolution?” De Cremonese asked.

“Proof of adaptation, I would say. Although there are about one thousand of those birds left, which makes it the rarest bird in the world.”

“Survival of the strongest,” De Cremonese added.

“That too. If you don’t adapt quickly enough....”

Both men took a deep breath and looked down at the ocean.

***

One hundred fifty-five miles to the south, on Santa Cruz Island, with approximately 381 square miles, the twin crater volcanic Santa Cruz Island was the most popular island of the Galápagos archipelago. The island was first discovered by Father Tomas De Berlanga, Bishop of Panama. In 1535, he was delegated to investigate the accounts of the conquistador’s barbaric actions in Peru. His ship got caught in a dead calm and drifted west and stranded at Santa Cruz Island. They searched in vain for fresh water until they found a cactus and drained it for its liquids. After the winds started blowing again, they left the island and would later send word to King Carlos V of Spain, explaining about their detour, and told