"So this appears to be some of their laws,” she said. “I wonder what law Jessup and the miners broke?"
"That one seems obvious.” Sanji walked to another carving. “Look here, see these top four rows? All of the picture groups start with a tribesman or animal at the mouth of a cave. And the next picture shows that individual moving into the caves."
Veronica followed the picture groups to the left — each one showed the tribesman or animal being hacked to pieces by the tentacle gods. Her eyes scanned the wall, examining the “punishment” carving groups. Many seemed repetitive; mostly tribesmen, who were perhaps Plains Indians — Utes or Hopis, maybe — moving into the caves before being butchered.
"So it was sacrilege to come into the mountain if you were not part of the tribe,” Sanji said. “Death was the punishment for such a transgression."
"Gives me the willies,” Lashon said. “The mountain is holy ground, and anybody who comes inside is killed. Think about it. Aren't we transgressors, too?"
No one answered.
O'Doyle strode toward them, gun in hand. Lashon straightened up and stood at attention. O'Doyle's voice sounded deep and commanding. “We have to leave immediately, professors."
"What for?” Veronica said. “We're in the middle of something very important."
"We're returning to the elevator as fast as possible,” O'Doyle said politely. “There's danger down here and Connell wants everyone back at the elevator shaft ASAP."
Veronica's hands went to her hips. “Well, I really don't care what Mr. Kirkland said! He can't just boss us around, you know. He can't make us come back."
O'Doyle let out a tired sigh. “Maybe Mr. Kirkland can't order you or make you,” he said, his voice still polite. “But he can order me. And I assure you, professors, I can make you obey."
She was about to say something indignant when Sanji firmly gripped her elbow and pulled her toward the tunnel leading back to the shaft. Veronica cast a quick glance at Sanji, who returned the gaze and simply shook his head “no.” She opened her mouth to speak once more, then looked at O'Doyle's grim demeanor and shut her mouth. She let Sanji lead her out of the Picture Cavern.
The figures danced across the computer screen in front of Katerina and Achmed. Both scientists stared in bewilderment, then shook their heads.
"That's impossible,” Achmed said.
Katerina shook her head in denial of what her eyes told her. She thought for a moment, pondering the results and what it meant if they were accurate. It was mind-boggling — and entirely unacceptable.
"How long did it take us to run that equation?” Katerina asked.
"Thirty-five minutes."
"Can we shorten it up at all?"
"We can't,” Achmed said. “If we think there's a mistake in these results, we have to reenter everything from scratch, assume we made an error in the entry somewhere."
Katerina pondered that option. If the data was accurate, she needed to alert Connell immediately. But it just didn't make sense. There was no way the data could be accurate. It was a mistake. It had to be. “Run it again,” she said. “And let's make sure we do it right this time."
Kayla slid silently through the shadows. A strong breeze blew sand across the camp. The canvas covering the Quonset huts rolled with soft flapping noises.
She knelt next to the miners’ hut, sitting perfectly still, eyes slowly scanning the area. People were moving, but they were all preoccupied with their tasks. They'd been here long enough that no one bothered to look around anymore — the camp had become familiar to their eyes.
Kayla watched the limited camp traffic for five more minutes, then slid to the hut's rear window and peaked in. Six miners inside, every last one of them sleeping so soundly they might as well have been passed out. Kayla smiled, amazed at the ease of it all. Without O'Doyle and Connell around, discipline slacked off considerably. She probably wouldn't have even risked this excursion if O'Doyle wasn't in the tunnels. The miners’ expensive KoolSuits sat in limp piles on the floor or draped over tables.
Kayla watched for a few more minutes. Nothing moved. She slowly opened the hut's back door and slid inside. Six sleeping men. She could kill them all if she wanted to. Kill them all without a noise. But she wasn't there to kill anyone.
She quietly gathered up a KoolSuit and slid out of the hut. They'd certainly miss the suit. This time O'Doyle might even search the hills and find her warren. But she needed only a peek into the tunnels, and that was the last bit of information she needed before selling to the highest bidder. She'd try and penetrate the tunnels in a few hours, perhaps at 3:00 or 4:00 a.m., her last action on this mission. If she could get in, great; if not, she was still in her Land Rover and out of the area by 6:00 a.m.
And a few hours after that, the bids would start rolling in.
Chapter Twenty-one
Achmed and Katerina were bleary-eyed from lack of sleep, and more than a little exhausted, but they knew they hadn't made a mistake. They'd checked the figures twice, and for the second time the equation produced the same results.
"Holy shit,” was all Katerina could say.
"Yes,” Achmed said quietly, eyes wide and fixed on the screen. “Holy shit."
It made no sense. No sense at all. But that wasn't the point right now. Why or how didn't really matter—when was obvious, and it demanded instant action.
Katerina turned and bolted from the lab, Achmed close behind, their fatigue evaporating in a flash of urgency. She screamed to a guard to bring a Jeep around. They jumped in, and sped off toward the adit opening. It would take them at least twenty minutes to reach the adit, including the time spent on foot getting up the slope. At the adit was the shaft phone, the only way to reach Connell.
She grabbed the driver's walkie-talkie and radioed a message ahead to the guard at the adit mouth. Hopefully he could pass on the message in time.
Kayla watched the two scientists burst from the lab, hop in the Jeep and make a beeline for the mine. The expressions on their faces screamed of something seriously wrong. She picked off their message to the guard at the mouth of the adit. Katerina Hayes wanted everyone out of the mine pronto. But why? Cave-in? Underground water? Poison gas? Kayla didn't know. She couldn't pick up any signals from inside the mine, as they were using that direct-line phone. What went on inside that mountain remained a mystery to her.
Things were certainly getting interesting.
Despite Sanji's slow pace, Connell's tired party made it back to the elevator shaft in only forty minutes. Connell stopped dead in his tracks when he saw not only Lybrand, but Mack and Fritz Sherwood as well.
Mack lay exhausted in the powdery dirt, looking like a bomb-blast victim, an H&K resting across his chest. Fritz leaned against the edge of the elevator shaft. His face had a grayish pallor, like that of a sick man.
Lybrand just looked embarrassed.
O'Doyle looked at the two prone men, then at Lybrand. “I told you to send them up,” he said in a quiet, angry voice. “I was very specific."
"They wouldn't go,” Lybrand said. “They insisted on waiting until everyone got back, in case someone found Jansson."
"That's my man that's lost down here,” Mack said. “I'm not leaving him behind."