The Secret Continent

A short story about hidden cartographies.

The year is 1978. A small commercial airplane leaves the Long Beach Airport, headed north to Oregon.

Things take an unexpected turn when, shortly after takeoff, a passenger gets up and rushes the pilots’ cabin with a gun. He announces that he is hijacking the plane and gives the pilots a set of coordinates in the middle of the Pacific Ocean as their new destination.

The pilots protest that nothing exists at that longitude and latitude, not even a small island to land at. “We’ll simply run out of fuel in the middle of the ocean — it’s suicide.”

The skyjacker chuckles, “That’s what the maps say, isn’t it? And that’s what you’ve been told. But you’ve all been told a lie — the maps are wrong.”

The pilots eye each other nervously. This skyjacker is clearly insane, they are thinking.

“However, there is more than simply an island there — there is an entire continent. I understand you don’t believe me right now, especially when I’m poking a pistol in your face, but you’ll see soon enough.”

“We can’t do this to these people,” protests a stewardess.

The skyjacker turns to the stewardess. “There is a continent there. I’ve seen pictures of it. I used to work for the US government, and stumbled upon the continent’s existence accidentally, through top-secret satellite surveillance photos.”

“Then why wouldn’t it be on any other maps?” interjects one of the pilots, clearly irritated at this skyjacking nutcase. “Even if our government covered it up, another sovereign nation would have seen it and told the world. Boats and planes criss-cross the Pacific all the time.”

“It’s my belief that it is in the interests of all the world’s governments to keep this place a secret,” the skyjacker explains, in a remarkably reasonable tone of voice. “They don’t want anyone knowing about it.”

“Well, why doesn’t America or some other country just claim this place, then,” says the co-pilot, “and set about civilizing it? Sounds like there’s a lot of untapped natural resources there.”

“Well, there’s the rub,” the skyjacker says, his voice getting quieter. For a second, he seems almost scared, and just above a whisper, he discloses, “See, no one has ever come back from this place. That’s why the world’s governments keep it a secret. They’re scared of it. And we’re going to find out why.”