924 AD. On the rocky shore lay the body of a dead woman. A young boy of 14 years of age found her body. Looking off into waters, the boy could not see any ship about. A wailing noise rose from the ground several yards away. The boy found a female baby crying in a small basket. After deciding to leave the body to nature itself, he took the basket with the baby back home. 15 years passed and the young woman that he had helped raise with his parents was of age and he decided that this beautiful creature should be his bride. He proposed and she assented to be his wife. He and his parents were happy and had given her the name, Aquilinas. Over a year later, she had given birth to their son, Montealagre. She would bear two daughters after Montealagre. And before her thirtieth birthday she would succumb to disease. Montealagre would grow up to ba a leader of men. At the age of 19 Montealagre would lead his first battle and won decisively. Soon he and his followers would begin a war of conquest. Upon the fourth year of war and conquest, Montealagre had conquered a vast territory of over 1,000 square miles. Montealagre ruled his empire well but showed he would not tolerate any dissension. In his sixth year of rule, a mystery ship had come to the same shore his grandmother's body had perished on. The men of that ship soon began a brutal swing through his empire, burning and pillaging villages. Montealagre decided he had to confront this enemy of the state. When he and his men confronted the force of the enemy on a plain, he sent a messenger to inquire as to their aims. When the messenger came back, he had a tale of a woman who had been lost at sea when the ship had previously sailed these waters during a storm. Having been raised on the story about his grandmother, Montealagre sent the messenger back to let the opposing force that he was the grandson of the woman who had drifted ashore dead. When the leader of the opposing army learned he was facing the grandson of the long lost woman, he had to decide quickly, whether to go into battle or not. After nearly five minutes of thought, the leader decided that the line of the family must end here on this plain and sent his men into battle. Many hours later after a fierce and brutal war was fought, Montealagre and his opposing leader were both dead. The remnants of the enemy of Montealagre's army decided to leave these shores forever. The remaining army of Montealagre would head back to their homes. A power vacuum occured for several months after the battle until one of the soldiers stepped forward and decided to take power for himself and refashioned the country into a more stable government and naming the country after their preceding leader, Montealagre.

1000 AD. Montealagre was losing parts of it''s empire inch by inch as other empires arose around it. Soon, little was left but 450 square miles as the other European countries became well established. Savarone Montini-Cristi was the leader of Montealagre in 1000 AD. With his rule, the fine arts of the empire would begin their growth in sophistication and would have an effect on the surrounding empire states of Europe. His son, Salvatore Montini-Cristi was the grand-nephew of Montealagre and would begin a dynasty of the family ruled country. Under his leadership, a fine Navy of both commercial and military ships would begin sailing the oceans. One ship, the Montalbano would head off on explorations and would disappear in it's fifth year of explorations.

Dirk Pitt stared at the Iceberg through the binoculars, dumbfounded as to the existence of an old ship contained inside, reminding him of the Kristi/Kristjan Fyrie-Lax fiasco that brought back hard memories. Al Giordino stood beside Dirk, also remembering that incident of several years back. Now they find themselves looking at another ship imbedded in an Iceberg. Matter of fact, was that it was the same Coast Guard personnel who discovered this mysterious but old ship, too. It felt like deja' vu.

Aboard the submarine nearby, Rafe' Montalcito, a direct descendant of Savarone Montini-Cristi, was watching nervously as the NUMA Ship neared the iceberg. "Radio headquarters in Montalcino, Deidrich and apprise them of the situation, please" Rafe' ordered. The Montalbano belonged to his family and Rafe was determined to keep anyone from getting near the ship. Rafe' watched as the NUMA Ship got closer and closer to the iceberg and finally decided time was up and ordered torpedo numbers 1 and 2 to sink the ship. Dirk was enjoying a nice hot bath when both torpedoes hit the ship abeam. Two big holes appeared and water spewed into the engine room and a storage area. The impact jarred the bathtub Dirk was in and knocked him unconscious. When he came to he found the bathtub floating in the cold Atlantic ocean. Dirk looked around to see if there were other survivors and saw several NUMA personnel and Al coming towards him in a gunwale boat.

After destroying an Airplane in flight to prevent an assassination attempt the Oregon sailed into the waters of the northern Atlantic ocean. Eric Stone, the head of the control room was stunned when he noticed an emergency beacon on his frequency scanner and notified Juan to come down to the control room. Without hesitation, Juan decided to help whomever was in trouble and ordered full steam ahead towards the distress call. Less than an hour later the Oregon neared the NUMA crew in their boat and rescued them from the cold of the north Atlantic ocean. Everyone had coffee or Hot Chocolate to warm them up and a hot bowl of soup to follow. Dirk was thankful but in his mind he could not wait to get back to the Iceberg.

When Dirk arrived back in the same general location that the Iceberg with the mysterious ship locked inside it three weeks later, Dirk was dumbfounded to find the Iceberg had split into several pieces and no mysterious ship to find. Aboard the NUMA Ship Nipper, Dirk had the area combed with radar but could not find it. Dirk was stunned that it had not sunk but hopping mad and all he had to show for it was two bathtubs in the hangar alongside his classic car collection.

Rafe' Montalcito was happy as he watched his family's ancient ship being towed behind the submarine, attached by a steel cordon to the sub. He was less than three hours away from Crete when his radioman popped up the ladder to the conning tower informing him of a message from Montalcino. He followed the Radioman down the ladder and strode over to the radio where the message was written down on paper for him. The note was from the Board of Directors of the family company, Montalvo Industries. Rafe' was happy that his brothers, Andrew and Adrian were on the board of directors as he was not comfortable sitting behind a desk himself and preferred a more active role in operations. The note was informing him of a general meeting soon at corporate headquartes in Montalcino. Rafe' ordered full ahead for the docks on the island of Crete.

A general meeting was being held at corporate headquarters in Montalcino where Montalvo Industries was located as Rafe' Montalcito rushed to Montalcino. Andrew and Adrian Montalcito were already in the meeting room when Niccolo Cristiano aka Nick Castle, stepped in and ordered the meeting to begin. Several centuries before, during the 16th century, the descendants of Salvatore' Montini-Cristi had split into two families; the Montalcito and Cristiani. Salvatore' Montini-Cristi was the ruler of Montealagre' back in 1026 AD. He was the grandnephew of the founder, Montealagre', a great warrior and leader.

The Montalbano had set sail to the English coast and after a mysrterious meeting with agents of the Troutwine family and the syndicate they had formed for explorations of far off lands, they had also given the crew some ceramic jars of foodstuffs and one mysterious jar with explicit instructions not to open until certain circumstances were right. The Montalbano would then head west and upon finding a mysterious coastline began exploring what was the gulf coast and had even sailed up one of the rivers. An exploration party set off to find a certain group of individuals that were supposed to be in the area. When they came upon some local Indians who began firing arrows at them and they fled. One of the members of the exploratory team was struck in the back by an arrow and fell dead, dropping the mysterious jar and it's unknown contents. The men returned to the Montalbano and fled down the river and fled what would later be known as the American continent. The Montalbano made a northwestern route on it's way back to Europe but would sail just a bit too far north into the Northern Atlantic ocean and disappeared among some floating Icebergs.

Nick Castle addressed his cousins, Andrew, Adrian and Rafe' about his plans to use a certain U.S. Government agency that his younger brother Aiden was an employee of to find the ceramic jar that had been lost in the southern part of the United States during an exploration by the family ship, the Montalbano, back in the eleventh century. The contents of the jar were reported to be the seeds of the tree of knowledge and were vitally important. Nick laid his plan step by step and described in detail the machinations to take place in Washington, D.C. that would end sometime in the next year with the NUMA agency searching an ancient riverbed in Alabama. "With that ceramic jar back in the hands of the family, we will be most powerful technologically and possibly financially. "

One year later at the board meeting, as each item on the agenda was discussed and acted upon and was drawing to a close, the cellphone in Nick's pocket vibrated. Nick pulled out his cellphone and listened. After putting his cellphone back in the pocket, he announced that a guest will be addressing the board. A tall, statuesque woman with long flowing red hair stepped through the doors of the boardroom and every man inside sucked in their breath at the sight of the beautiful woman who commanded such presence. "Gentlemen, I have news of the discovery by agents of NUMA of the ceramic jar that holds the seeds of the tree of knowledge that was thought lost ages ago by our english agents back in the tenth century. It is of utmost urgency that this jar is recovered immediately before they learn of the contents of the jar. I urge you or someone hired by you to recover that jar. The company I work for will be most grateful and will pay handsomely for that jar. Good day, gentlemen." With that, Toni Pierson stepped out of the boardroom leaving the gentlemen with their mouths open at the beauty that had just graced their boardroom.