Chapter Thirty – Three: The Underground City

We arrived in Saguaro City, Arizona around midday. We dropped off our luggage in a local hotel and then headed to the clinic to see Sweet.

"Hi I'm Milo Thatch, we're here to see Dr. Sweet." I introduced myself to the blonde woman at the front desk.

"Annabeth." She nodded in acknowledgement, "It's good to see you again, Mr. Thatch. Joshua's in the patient's ward, but I don't think he'd mind if you all headed in. We've been expecting you. Just go down the hallway and make a right."

As we headed down to Sweet's office, I couldn't shake off the wave of shock that had washed over me. Annabeth Corey, the sole heiress of the Corey fortune, was working front desk at a rural clinic in Arizona. What had been the story there? I suppressed my curiosity and focused on the task at hand. It hadn't been my business anyway, I only knew her through Tia.

When Sweet saw us, he happily greeted and embraced each of us. We then went into the topic at hand: the reason why we were called out there.

"Sam's a long time field agent of Mr. Whitmore's; he's best at digging up hard to find objects." Sweet told us, "Only this time I think something found him."

"And you say he mentioned killer coyotes in a sandstorm?" I asked for clarification based on the information we were given when we were briefed before headed out here.

"No, not exactly." He replied, and then corrected, "More like a sandstorm made up of killer coyotes who were made up of sand."

"And this is unusual in your world?" Kida asked.

"Oh yeah," Sweet nodded, "More than a little bit."

Kida shook her head in confusion, "I do not understand why you wanted me here." Wordlessly, Sweet pulled out an amulet and handed it to her. She gasped in surprise, showing it to me, "Milo, it is Atlantean."

I picked it up from her hand and asked Sweet, "Where did you find this?"

"That you'll have to ask Sam." He gestured the elderly sleeping gentleman behind us.

When Sam woke up, we reassured him that we were with Mr. Whitmore and tended to his briefly needs before getting his statement on what happened. After he was finished, a nurse came out with his dinner, mentioning that he'll be moved to Scottsdale soon so that they can treat his injuries. With that in mind, I moved to questioning him about the amulet. He had found it in a pot in a crate in his shack. We got the address of the shack and went to investigate.

Sam's shack was not too far from the clinic, roughly twenty minutes down the road. When we went inside, it had been covered in sand and the crate Sam had mentioned was missing from the shack. We called to Sam to let him know, who in turn gave us the name of Ashton Carnaby. He gave the phone back to Anna, who had initially answered the phone, and she gave us the address of Carnaby's Ranch and trading post. We headed down to the trading post to get more information.

When we got to the trading post, we walked around the shop a bit, looking at the merchandise, before we were greeted by Carnaby. He approached us after Kida had taken an interest in a figure that had looked similar to an Atlantean guardian.

"How much is it?" Kida asked him as he headed behind the sales counter.

"Well that's a museum class piece." Carnaby responded.

"I bet there's a museum class price to go with it too." Sweet commented bitterly.

"It is rare and I've had offers..." Carnaby started to maul over the price.

"Is this enough?" Kida held up the wad of cash Tia had given us so we could eat and pay hotel fees. I had tried to stop her, but Carnaby finished the sale before I could get out the words. I made a mental note to call Tia and ask her or Mr. Whitmore to wire us more money so that we could get home when we needed to before asking Carnaby where he found the artifact that he happened to sell in his shop. He couldn't give us a straight answer other than assuring us that the older pieces were authentic. We tried to question him about the crate and Sam McCean, but he denied knowing anything about it. We were kicked out shortly after due to Mole licking one of the bowls.

As we drove away, we all agreed Carnaby was suspicious. That had been a short conversation when we started passing the same person multiple times while heading back to the clinic, almost running into him the third time. We offered him a ride, it was the least we could do since we had almost run into him. His name had been Chakashi and he was very familiar with the crystal guardian and with our lava dog, Obby. It wasn't too long after he started telling us about his people that we had been chased by a sandstorm. His eyes glowed red as the sand coyotes attacked the vehicle, and then he disappeared. When we were able to take in our surroundings, we noticed we were back at the trading post.

As Audrey started to work on the engine, we tried to shake down Carnaby for answers. He had still been denying he knew anything about what we were talking about until we mentioned the name Chakashi, which had actually been the name of a Nashoni wind spirit. While Carnaby was distracted by our questions, Mole took the opportunity to search his truck, finding the crate with the missing pottery. Carnaby had stolen it from Sam's shack while he had been in the hospital. To save his own skin, he suggested we return the pot to wherever it was from. Mole inspected the pot and informed us of the location it had been found in.

With Mole as our guide, we headed the fifteen miles to return the pot. When we reached the cave, the sandstorm of coyotes appeared. A tree fell in front of the entrance into the cave. Mole dug us a new one, which landed us in an underground city that had a blending of every culture from Idaho to Peru. Nashoni, Aztec, Mayan, and many others had been represented in the architecture. Even the crystal guardian had been a prominent feature.

"A little bit of Atlantis goes a long way." I reminded Kida, embracing her as she leaned into me. Carnaby, though, had plans for the city. He was going use the city to make himself rich, which he proudly declared as he knocked us out with sleeping gas.

We awoke to find we had been tied up. He had planned to leave us here as he destroyed the cave. He lit a bundle of dynamite and set it near the entrance of the cave. With some convincing of Obby, I was able to get myself untied. I tried to go after the dynamite, but Carnaby caught me before I got a chance. Luckily, Mole was able to get them out. Chakashi appeared shortly after turning Carnaby into one of his coyotes and transporting us out of the cave. He disappeared leaving us several stories off the ground.

"Any idea how to get down?" I asked the others.

"We climb and hope we don't die." Audrey responded.

"I don't think we have to worry too much about that." Sweet commented. We all gave him a confused look, to which he gestured down. There was a truck with someone standing outside of it. "I told Anna to give us an hour close up shop and then head out to this area to come and find us. Mole, do you think you can find a way to get down there to get the supplies and bring them back up so we can rappel down?" He nodded and started to make his way down.