Read Echoes of the Fourth Magic for Free Online

shrugged. “There must be some type of preservative in the water, or a lack of bacteria. I remember a story of some bodies found at great depths in one of the western lakes—Nevada, I think. The people and their covered wagons had fallen in a century before, but they looked as if they had recently drowned.”
    Reinheiser’s nod was one of politeness and not agreement.
    “But assuming that things were normal,” Brady wenton, “assuming that we had found the body in the local pond, I’d say that he was in the water about a day.” The other men knew that the body was in good condition, but the confirmation from Brady shocked them nonetheless.
    “Could you be more specific?” Reinheiser pressed, his excitement revealing that Brady’s estimation somehow figured into the framework of his escape plans.
    “Twenty-two to twenty-five hours,” Brady replied.
    Reinheiser merely petted his goatee again and absently eyed the sonic printout. “Interesting,” he muttered.
    Del almost chuckled out loud as he imagined switches clicking on and off behind the physicist’s eyes. He managed to cough as a cover, but a second later Reinheiser looked straight at him with his information-devouring eyes, and Del felt sure that his mind had been read. “Mr. DelGiudice, do you have anything to tell us?”
    Del cleared his throat to compose himself. “If that ship on the screen was really the
Wasp
, she’s over a hundred eighty years old. She was lost without a trace early in 1814, commanded by Johnston Blakely.”
    “That matches the JB initials on the belt buckle,” Billy observed.
    “Could you find anything else about the schooner off our tail, where Thompson found the corpse?” Reinheiser pressed.
    Del looked down at the notes Thompson had given him, naming the various wrecks around them. “The
Bella,”
he replied. “Lost in 1854.”
    “Unfrigging real,” Doc Brady muttered, shaking his head.
    Reinheiser nodded his accord and smiled smugly.
    “There’s more,” Del continued. He held up an old book, one of the many written in the late 1970s concerning the almost-magical mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle. “All of the ships Thompson saw out there are listed in here. Lost at sea twenty, fifty, even two hundred years ago.” Del paused to let it sink in, knowing that his next revelation would stun the others even more.
    “And the planes—” he began.
    “Planes?” Corbin echoed.
    “World War Two fighters,” Del explained. “Or trainers, actually. Five of them and a larger rescue craft.”
    “Flight Nineteen,” Doc Brady said with a groan.
    Del nodded. “Flew out of Florida on a training mission and simply disappeared,” he said, though the legendary tragedy needed no explanation to the group at the table.
    “So we’ve solved the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle,” Corbin said grimly. “Or at least we know where everything went.”
    “Not to see the surface again,” Billy found himself saying. He fell silent and slumped back.
    Mitchell slammed his hands down on the edge of the table and leaped up from his chair, leaning ominously over them to give them a closer look at his scowl. “You keep your minds on your work! Got it?” He turned impatiently on Reinheiser. “Are you ready to talk yet? You’ve got something clicking around that brain of yours.”
    Martin Reinheiser stared intently at the men around the table, trying to determine the best way to present his theories. He fixed his gaze on Doc Brady.
    “First of all, let me assure you that conditions here are normal and within the framework of our laws and calculations. There are no preservatives in the water, no special oxygen or chemical balance to keep a cadaver fresh, and my own examination of a water sample shows it teeming with the expected bacteria.” Brady shook his head insistently and Reinheiser held up his hand to block any interruptions. “I understand your doubts, Doctor, but there is another explanation. I believe the key to this riddle