Deep Fathom

Jack sat silently. In George’s words, he heard his own argument with the admiral last night. He, too, had been convinced that something powerful lay down there. Something with the strength to knock a plane from the sky. He studied the map. The number of coincidences kept piling up, too high to ignore. “But the bomb in the jade bust, the electronic circuitry…?”

“What if it was staged?” George asked. “A frame-up. Washington had already been implicating the Chinese before the explosion.”

Jack frowned.

Charlie spoke up, his Jamaican accent thick. “I don’t know, mon. I think ol’ George might be on to something.”

“What do you mean?”

“I, too, have heard of this Dragon’s Triangle. I just never made the connection until now.”

“Great, another convert,” Kendall McMillan mumbled from the far side of the table.

Jack ignored the accountant. He turned to the ship’s geologist. “What do you know of the region?”

As answer, Charlie nudged Robert. “Would you please grab the globe from the library?”

“Sure.” Robert took off.

Charlie nodded to the map. “Do any of you know the term ‘agonic lines’?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“It is one of the many theories for explaining the disappearances here. Agonic lines are distinct regions where the Earth’s magnetic field is a bit off kilter. Compass readings are slightly out of sync with the rest of the world. The principal agonic line of the Eastern Hemisphere passes through the center of this Dragon’s Triangle.” Charlie looked around the table. “Do any of you know where the Western Hemisphere’s main agonic line passes through?”

Again a general shaking of heads.

“The Bermuda Triangle,” Charlie answered, letting the fact sink in.

“But what causes these magnetic disturbances in the first place?” Lisa asked. “These agonal lines?”

“Agonic,” Charlie corrected. “No one knows for sure. Some blame it on increased seismic activity in the regions. During earthquakes, strong magnetic fluxes are generated. But in general, magnetism, including the earth’s magnetic field, is still poorly understood. Its properties, energies, and dynamics are still being researched. Most scientists accept that the Earth’s magnetic field is generated by the flow of the planet’s molten core around its solid nickel-iron center. But many irregularities still remain. Like the fluidity of this field.”

“Fluidity?” George interrupted. “What do you mean?”

Charlie realized that in his excitement he’d spoken too fast. “From a geological standpoint,” he went on, speaking more slowly, “man has only been here for a flicker. During such a small scope in time, the Earth’s magnetic field seems fixed. The North Pole is up and the South Pole is down. But even over this short course, the poles have wobbled. The true position of magnetic north constantly bobbles around a bit. But this is only a minor fluctuation. Over the course of Earth’s entire geologic history, not only have these poles shifted dramatically, but they have reversed several times.”

“Reversed?” Lisa asked.

Charlie nodded. “North became south, and south became north. Such events are not fully understood yet.”

Jack scratched his head. “What does this have to do with anything?”

“Hell if I know. Like I said, I find it intriguing. Didn’t you say that Air Force One’s wreckage was magnetized? Doesn’t this fact add to the list of coincidences? And what about your own compass problems down there?”

Jack shook his head. After the passing of a couple days, he was not so sure what he had experienced down there.

“And what about those strange time lapses?” Lisa asked. “I’ve been struggling to find out why the Nautilus’s clock was always messed up when the submersible neared that crystal thing, but I could never find anything wrong afterward.”

George sat up straighter. “Of course! Why didn’t I make that connection, too?” He began sifting through his pile of papers. “Time lapses! Here’s a report from a pilot, Arthur Godfrey. Back in 1962 he flew an old prop plane to Guam. His craft traveled the 340 miles in one hour. Two hundred miles farther than his plane could have traveled in an hour.” George lifted his nose from his papers. “On landing, Mr. Godfrey could not explain his early arrival, nor why his clocks read differently from the airport’s.”

Lisa glanced at Jack. “That sounds damn familiar.”

“I have other examples,” the historian said excitedly. “Modern planes crossing the Pacific but inexplicably arriving hours earlier than their ETAs. I have the details down below.” George stood. “I’m going to go fetch them.”

“This is ludicrous,” Jack said, but he had a hard time mustering much strength behind his words. He recalled his own forty-minute time gap.

“It may not be that strange,” Charlie said as the historian slipped past. “It has been theorized that strong enough electromagnetic fields could possibly affect time, similar to a black hole’s gravity.”

As the historian left the room, he almost collided with Robert. The marine biologist stepped aside for the old professor, then entered. He bore a beachball-sized globe in his hands.

“Ah!” Charlie said. “Now let me show you the really bizarre part. Something I remember reading in a university research paper.”

Robert passed the geologist the blue globe.

Charlie held it up and pointed a finger at the Pacific. “Here is the center of the Dragon’s Triangle. If you drove an arrow from this point through the center of the world and out the other side, do you know where it would come out?”

No one answered.

Charlie flipped the globe around and jabbed a finger on it. “The center of the Bermuda Triangle.”

Lisa gasped.

Charlie continued, “It’s almost as if these two diametrically opposed triangles mark another axis of the Earth, poles never studied or understood before.”

Jack stood up and took the globe from Charlie. He set it on the table. “C’mon. All of this is interesting, but it’s not going to pay the rent, folks.”

“I agree with Mr. Kirkland,” McMillan said sourly. “If I knew this was going to turn into an episode of Unsolved Mysteries, I could’ve been in bed.”

Jack rested his palm on the globe. “I think we need to turn this conversation over to more than theories and ancient myths. Set aside conjecture for now. This is a business I’m trying to run.”