"Metallogenic?"
"Various minerals in a given area can reveal probable locations of undiscovered deposits,” Angus said. “We've found absolutely no elements commonly associated with a platinum deposit. In addition, we've seen no surface discolorations in fly-overs. There are no surface traces of any kind, either for platinum itself or for metallogenic indicators."
"So you're saying that aside from the dust Mr. McGuiness found, there's no indication of a platinum deposit?"
"Not using traditional techniques,” Angus said. “But we have some more information, mostly due to advanced tomographic techniques I've developed."
"Do you mean topographic?” O'Doyle asked.
Angus glared at the man with a look of contempt. “No, Mr. O'Doyle, I mean tom-o-graphic. Topography is mapping the surface. Tomography is mapping the ground itself, the shape and the contours of various substances and densities."
Connell longed to wipe that sneer from Angus's face. “Angus here is an expert on tomography. You're standing in the presence of greatness, Mr. O'Doyle."
"Gee, it's my lucky day,” O'Doyle said flatly.
Angus ignored the remark. “Ground-penetrating radar, known simply as GPR, can map the contours of solid ground by sending radar waves into the earth and charting the time of their echo, much like you might use standard radar to locate a plane in the sky. Current GPR techniques only allow a maximum of a thousand-foot penetration below the surface. My new method, however, allows you to penetrate up to sixteen thousand feet — over three miles. That's eight times better than anyone else in the world, I'd like to note."
"Stick to the matter at hand, Dr. Kool,” Connell said.
Angus turned to a computer terminal and called up a graphic of tightly packed vertical lines of varying height.
"This peak here is our anomalous dense area,” Angus said, pointing to the longest line on the graphic. “Notice how much higher it is than everything else? That's because it's dense. Really dense, much more so than the surrounding rock, which indicates that if it's metal ore it's very high-grade."
"What do you mean ‘if’ it's ore?” Connell asked.
"Part of the problem is that we had a lot of noise in the signal, like very weak, very soft areas throughout the mountain. To bolster our data, we took geophone readings. We detonated high explosives throughout the area and took readings based on echoes. It's just like taking a CAT scan except we measure the travel time of the seismic waves resulting from the explosions rather than X rays sent through the patient. I combined this with the GPR readings to map the whole area."
Angus tapped the mouse and a three-dimensional picture appeared on the screen. The picture showed a solid green mass at the center, broken up in many places, but clearly oblong in shape. A bright yellow envelope surrounded the green mass. Faded yellow vein-like branches extended in all directions, but mostly up and away from the mass. Only one straight, thick yellow vein pointed down, protruding from the center of the green mass, until it fuzzed and faded to nothing. The picture gave the overall impression of a neon-green sea anemone in search of food, waving hundreds of thin yellow tendrils through the water.
Connell was used to seeing similar pictures, courtesy of Angus's cutting-edge talents, but normally a plethora of colors and shapes representing myriad rocks and minerals dotted the screen. Even the most concentrated deposit images showed at least a dozen significant changes in color. In addition to the map's apparent simplicity, he didn't recognize the sprawling yellow lines.
"This isn't what I'm used to seeing,” Connell said. “Explain it."
"Well, the green is our baby,” Angus said.
"But where are the other minerals?"
"There aren't any. That's what's so strange about all this. That mountain is a big, solid, worthless chunk of limestone. There's some low-grade iron ore, but that's it. I filtered it out of the map so we could really see what's there. All we have in there is limestone and the Dense Mass, which we think is all platinum ore."
"How big is this Dense Mass?"
"About four miles long, a bit over one mile wide.
Connell's eyebrows rose in amazement. “Just in one big chunk?"
"Just in one big chunk,” Angus said. “I know it's weird, but it gets better. The yellow lines — the soft stuff I told you about — we know why it appears to be too soft to be rock. It's not rock, it's not anything. As near as I can tell, those are caves."
Connell stared at the map. The green area, which represented the four-mile-long Dense Mass, looked very small in comparison with the horde of yellow lines snaking across the screen. The map showed a depth of over three miles, and many of the yellow lines hovered near the bottom edge. Some of the yellow lines appeared to be very tiny, while others were thick and solid. Solid yellow blobs dotted the map, including the one that surrounded the long green shape.
"Just how deep is the Dense Mass?"
"The magic number is 16,000 feet,” Angus said. “Just a hair under three miles.
"Is there anything else like this in the surrounding area?"
"Nothing that we've seen,” Angus said.
"Does that strike you as strange?"
"The whole damn thing strikes me as strange. We've got a potential platinum deposit with no standard indicators that one should exist, and we've got what appears to be a world-record cave system."
"World record?” Connell said. “Just how big is it?"
"The caves near and surrounding the Dense Mass are unusually huge. To date, the largest individual cavern ever found, located in Nevada's Carlsbad Caverns, covers 14.67 square miles with a ceiling as high as 250 feet.
"These Dense Mass caverns are much bigger than that. There's one kidney-shaped cavern at the GPR's bottom-edge range that may be as big as twenty-five square miles, with a ceiling as high as a thousand feet or more. On top of that, the Dense Mass cavern itself is roughly another ten square miles. I've never seen anything like it — no one has. We've made one hell of a discovery here. So far, the longest known system is the Flint-Mammoth Caves in Kentucky with over three hundred miles of known tunnels. I estimate the Dense Mass cave system covers six hundred fifty miles of tunnels and about three hundred fifteen total square miles of cavern."
O'Doyle let out a long, low whistle of amazement. Angus merely nodded.
Connell looked away from the map. The large cave complex was interesting, but it wasn't the important thing. “I assume you've ordered a diamond-drill core sample?” A core sample was the only way to tell if the “Dense Mass,” as Angus called it, was the real deal.
"It's on its way there now,” Angus said.
"Excellent.” Connell disliked Angus, but he had to admit the man was damn good at what he did. “Excellent work, Mr. Kool. Now I know why we pay you so goddamned much. Prepare to set up shop on-site. I've already sent a great deal of equipment there, including that experimental ruby-laser drill head of yours."
"You realize that no one has ever drilled a mine shaft that deep before,” Angus said. “It's going to be one hell of an engineering project. The current world's record is just over two miles. That was engineered by Mack Hendricks for Euromine. He's the best there is. You want to go deeper than that, and you're going to need someone at the top of his game."
"I've got just the person in mind,” Connell said. “You've got other things to worry about. Prepare a list of necessary equipment. I want you and whoever you need ready to do your thing in three days."
"Three days?” Angus said. “You want a functioning lab at the drill site in three days?"
"That's what I said, Dr. Kool. I want that core sample analyzed on-site. Can you do it?"