Lost by S. A. Bodeen Page A

there.”
    A few more yards, and Sarah shut off the flashlight and stowed it in the bag. Marco stepped forward and the place suddenly brightened, so much that it seemed like they were outside in the sun.
    Sarah tilted her head back and gasped. The ceiling seemed like it was miles overhead. The sides and straight in front of them were lit only a few yards in, so she couldn’t tell how big the space was.
    Marco took a step forward.
    Snap! Snap! Snap!
    The noises continued as lights flipped on, bank by bank, illuminating the space beyond.
    Sarah took in the sight in front of them. Not believing at first, she shut her eyes, and then opened them again.
    â€œWhoa.”
    They stood in a cavern so humongous she couldn’t even see the end.
    â€œThis thing must be like six or seven soccer fields long,” said Marco. “Longer maybe.”
    â€œWhat are those?” asked Sarah.
    Rows of white modules lined both sides of the cavern. Their fronts made of glass, but too frosty to see inside. She stood in front of the closest one, which only reached as high as her waist. She turned her head and looked down the rows, where the modules gradually grew bigger and wider, some as tall as houses. She focused on the one in front of her and set a hand on the glass. “Ow!” She snatched it back.
    Marco touched it lightly with his fingertips. “Cold,” he said. But he set his hand on the frost, holding it there a moment. When he took it away, a little of the frost had melted. He did it again, until he had a clear patch the size of a dollar bill. He leaned down.
    â€œCareful!” said Sarah.
    â€œI’m just taking a look,” he said. He peered inside, then stood back up. “It’s a goat.”
    â€œIt’s a what?” asked Sarah.
    Marco shrugged. “A goat. A billy goat.”
    â€œLet me see.” Sarah held her face up to the clear patch of glass. A white billy goat, with a great scruff of a beard, stood motionless inside. But as she watched, his chest moved slightly and the tiniest bit of steam came out his nostrils.
    She stood back up. “He’s frozen.”
    Sarah looked on the front of the nodule.
    â€œWhat are you looking for?” asked Marco.
    â€œA handle. Or something to open it.” Sarah ran her hands down the front of the frost-covered nodule and felt some lumps. She blew on the frost, which wasn’t as heavy as that on the glass, and it melted fairly quickly. “Look!”
    A keypad about the size of a cell phone, with symbols, lay about halfway down the side of the nodule. Sarah reached out to touch one, but Marco grabbed her wrist. “Hey! I don’t think you should do that.”
    She shot him a defiant look, but realized he was right. “I won’t.” Her eyes narrowed. “Hey, I’ve seen these letters before. Or symbols, whatever they are.”
    Marco leaned in to see them better. “Yeah. Where have I…” His eyes widened and he turned to meet Sarah’s gaze. “The symbols. They’re the same ones.”
    â€œThe same ones what?” asked Sarah.
    â€œThe same ones that are on the trunk,” said Marco. “The mermaid trunk.”

 
    16
    Marco peered in disbelief at the symbols, the same ones that curved around the top of the trunk that he’d dragged off the ruined HMS Moonflight. He scratched his head. “I don’t get it.” He asked Sarah, “They’re the same, right? I’m not just imagining things?”
    Sarah squinted at the module. “Yeah. I think so.” She frowned. “But how could they be the same as the ones on the trunk Fox brought to the island?”
    Marco thought about it for a moment. “Maybe we assumed that he’d brought it here. But what if he didn’t? What if he found it here when he was marooned, left with the plan of coming back for it, but then Captain Norm came and found it?”
    â€œBut he came from Africa. It