Rachel and Tavak exchanged glances.
"You never answered my question," Emily said. "Why does this matter to you?"
Rachel turned back toward her. "We think Nemop may have had an association with someone else we're studying. Peseshet."
"The lady doctor? It's possible. Timing would be about right."
"But there were no inscriptions on those temple walls that mentioned her?" Tavak asked.
"No. And my mother photographed everything. If you hunt around, I think you can find the pictures online."
"Yes, I've found quite a few of them," Tavak said.
Rachel stood up. "Thank you for your help, Dr. Hutton."
"You're welcome." Emily stood, steadying herself by gripping the back of her chair. "Do something for me, will you? When you find what you're looking for, let me know. My mom carried the memory of Nemop around with her most of her life, and she would have been happy that people are still talking about the guy."
HEARST CASTLE
SAN SIMEON, CALIFORNIA
"For heaven's sake, why use a boat?" Rachel asked as she helped Tavak pull the blue-and-white motorboat onto the narrow strip of white sand below the castle. "It would have been quicker to drive here."
"But not as serene or beautiful." He drew a deep breath. "Sea air, golden sunlight… It's good for the soul." He took her arm. "Come on, it's a little hike to the main gate."
Before long they were within the gates and had taken the tram from the visitor center to the main house. They stood next to the Neptune pool facing the remnants of the zoo over a quarter mile away. Rachel handed Tavak the binoculars. "The cages are to the right."
Tavak peered through the lenses. "All I can see is concrete. Our inlaid walkway must be in front of the cages, hidden by those trees."
"That's what I think." Rachel stepped back and took in the estate's massive, Spanish-style structures, clay tennis courts, and the long, winding road that led down to the Pacific Coast Highway. They had just seen the exotic gardens on the other side of the main house, and their odors blended with the ocean air in a combination she could only describe as intoxicating.
Tavak smiled. "It's easy to imagine Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant, and Carole Lombard going for a midnight swim here, isn't it? Or maybe playing tennis with some foreign head of state?"
"Or going for a stroll on a priceless four-thousand-year-old temple wall?"
"That, too."
She motioned toward the long-abandoned zoo cages. "So how are we going to get over there?"
"I'm working on it."
"I guess it would be too much to suggest that we go through official channels. You know, write a few letters, contact an administrator… "
Tavak shook his head. "That's a good way to drown in red tape. Dawson isn't waiting for anyone. He won't be writing letters."
"So what's your master plan?"
"We hitch a ride. Tonight."
HEARST CASTLE
9:20 P.M.
"You okay back there?" Tavak called back to Rachel over his shoulder. He was in the passenger seat of a white-paneled van, sitting next to Paul Deakins, a stocky fifteen-year veteran of Marsh Food Supply. Deakins was making his nightly delivery to the Hearst Castle food-service kitchen, and he'd been persuaded to risk his job for a generous cash bribe from Tavak.
Rachel clung to the metal racks in the back of the van. The vehicle lurched on a steep incline as it neared the visitors' center. "Oh, I'm just great. Tell me again, why aren't you back here instead?"
"This company has never had a female delivery person. You'd stick out."
"That sounds as flimsy now as it did the first time."
Deakins laughed. "Hang on, we're almost there."
Within a minute, they were at a small loading dock at the visitors' center, a building that contained the ticket windows, souvenir shops, and restaurants. It was a waiting area between the parking lots and trams that took guests to the main houses and gardens of the estate.
Deakins backed the van into place and cut the engine. He sat in silence for a moment.
"What is it?" Tavak asked.
Deakins glanced at them. "I'm just—You guys aren't terrorists or anything, are you?"
Tavak smiled. "It's a little late for a guilty conscience, isn't it?"
"You said you just want to look around."
"It's the truth. We're not going to take or harm anything."
Deakins glanced back at Rachel, who gave him a reassuring nod. "Okay. If you got caught, remember your promise. You snuck in over the fence somewhere. Let 'em wonder why their sensors didn't pick it up." He grimaced. "And be careful. These grounds have as many security alarms as Fort Knox. Anyone thinks there's something funny going on, and that hill will be lit up like a Christmas tree."
Tavak handed him a thick envelope of cash. "We'll be careful. Thanks."
He nodded. "Okay. Each of you grab a case of hot dog buns and follow me."
Rachel and Tavak each picked up a white carton, climbed out of the van, and followed Deakins to a door on the other side of the loading dock. Deakins glanced around, but there didn't appear to be anyone around. He whispered, "There's a Lakers game on, so the guards will probably be pretty scarce for the next hour or so." He motioned for them to put down the boxes. "If you walk through that path, the trees will give you some good cover."
"Right." Tavak and Rachel sprinted toward the path and moved through the dense foliage.
In less than ten minutes they found themselves standing among the curved white structures that once housed Hearst's collection of monkeys, cougars, and even grizzly bears.
Tavak shined his flashlight toward the walkway in front of the cages. "Check it out."
Even from a distance of thirty yards, Rachel could see the ornamental carvings that reminded her of other Babylonian artifacts she'd seen. They ran toward the cages and stepped onto the walk made from the former temple of Nemop.
Rachel felt a twinge of guilt. Oh, what the hell. She wasn't the first and wouldn't be the last to violate this ancient Babylonian treasure.
Tavak reached into his knapsack and produced a metal box attached to a silver sensor wand.
"What's that?" Rachel asked.
"It's a sonar reader. Short of X-raying these slabs, it's the best way of seeing if there's anything else hidden inside."
Tavak waved the sensor over each section of walkway. After he reached the end, he switched off the device and shook his head. "Nope. These slabs are solid. Nothing hidden inside."
Rachel stared at the inlaid walls. "You told me that Kontar's tomb in Egypt said that the message was written in fire in this temple."
"I took that to mean the passion and conviction of the person passing the message along."
"That's what I thought, too." She studied it for a moment longer. "Which of these stones was the floor of the tomb?"
Tavak aimed the flashlight down the walkway. "That large one over there."
She and Tavak stood over it. "Notice how all the carvings are etched in varying depths. They're carved almost an inch deep in some places, maybe less than an eighth of an inch in other spots. Even sometimes within the same figures."
Tavak studied them. "You're right. That's not something we could see in the photos."