“Its location needs to be kept secret to protect it. Barriers and vacuum-locked doors prevent its contents from being stolen.”
“So even if I knew where to find this thing, I couldn’t get in.”
“Those in authority know where it is and how to unseal the doors.”
“Suppose they’re killed in the disaster they’re afraid of.”
“You’d better hope they aren’t. Without the Doomsday Vault, a global catastrophe would force humans to regress ten thousand years to the dawn of agriculture and begin the process of selectively breeding seeds all over again. That’s why it’s a time capsule. Preserved in the cold sleep of the Arctic, it sends ten thousand years to an uncertain future.”
“Cold sleep?” Balenger frowned. “If global warming’s a fact, the Arctic Circle will melt, the temperature in the vault will rise, and the seeds won’t be preserved.”
“If global warming’s a fact? Nothing’s a fact.”
“This game is a fact. The dog bite on my knee is a fact. Amanda’s cut hands are a fact.” Balenger looked at her. “Where’s the rock you took from whatever that thing is in the reservoir? Where did you throw it?”
“Over here.” Amanda picked it up. Caked with dried mud, the rock was the size of a fist, its surface uneven.
Balenger felt its heaviness. He returned to the stream and rinsed it. The rock was gray.
“There’s another color,” Amanda said.
“Worldly desires, worldly vanities.” Balenger’s voice was hushed.
“My God, is that…” Ray took the rock from him and turned it over. “Gold! Holy… A vein of gold straight through it.”
The gold’s yellow was pale and dirty. But it had a primordial allure, all the same. Balenger’s gaze lingered on it. Then he looked across the valley, in the direction that Ray’s GPS needle had pointed, toward the mountains to the north.
“The mine,” Ray said.
Amanda indicated the object buried in the reservoir’s mud. “Finally I think I know what that thing is. It’s a mining car.”
“With ore in it,” Balenger added.
Ray murmured. “The Hall of Records.”
“What?” Balenger was troubled by the sudden change of topic.
“The Game Master gave us the clue, but we didn’t recognize what it was. Mount Rushmore. The Hall of Records.”
“I still don’t get it.”
Amanda explained, “The Game Master told us that when they started to carve the presidents on Mount Rushmore, the Great Depression was at its worst. The monument’s designers got so worried that riots would destroy the country, they built a chamber under the monument. The idea was that crucial documents such as the Declaration of Independence would be protected there. But then the Depression ended, the risk of social chaos disappeared, and the only documents eventually sealed there described the history of the monument.”
“Under the mountain.” Ray’s voice strengthened. “Damn it, he gave us the answer, but we didn’t know it. The Sepulcher’s in one of those mountains! In the mine!” Ray looked frantically at his watch. “It’s almost three-thirty.” He studied the needle on his GPS receiver, splashed across the stream, and hurried through the scrub grass toward the mountains.
Balenger waited until Ray was out of earshot. Then he took off his cap, wiped his brow, and removed the headset. He took off Amanda’s headset as well and tapped the microphones against his leg so Ray wouldn’t hear their conversation.
“What didn’t you want to tell me?”
“That pile of boards,” Amanda answered.
“What about it?”
“There’s a body underneath.”
“I smelled it.”
“I mentioned a man named Derrick. Ray beat him to death.”
“Beat him to…?” Balenger felt choked by the unstated word.
The BlackBerry vibrated in his pocket. Emotions swirling, he answered it.
“Put the headsets back on, or I’ll set off the detonator,” the voice ordered.
Balenger directed his answer toward the sky. “Jonathan, did you enjoy that part of the game?”
“Don’t call me ‘Jonathan.” I’m the Game Master.“
Amanda looked amazed that Balenger knew the Game Master’s name.
“Did you enjoy watching someone get beaten to death?” Balenger asked.
“Nothing in the game is planned. No one could have predicted that the beating would occur.”
Balenger pressed the BlackBerry to his ear. “But did you enjoy watching it happen?”
Silence lengthened.
“Yes,” the Game Master said. “I enjoyed it. Put on the headsets.”
“I’m standing so close to Amanda, you’ll kill both of us if you detonate the explosives. You’re cheering for me, remember. I’m your avatar. It’d be like killing yourself.”
“Killing myself? Are you an analyst now? Because you went to all those psychiatrists, do you think that qualifies you as one?”
“You have an interesting concept of human character. I wonder if you ever went to an analyst.”
“One last time. Put on the headsets.” The voice was tight with anger.
Balenger quit tapping the microphones against his pants. He gave Amanda her headset, then put on his own.
Ray’s voice instantly intruded. “What were you talking about that you didn’t want me to hear?” He stood a hundred yards away in the grassland, staring at them.
“We were just discussing some finer points of the game,” Balenger said.
“Like what?”
“Actually, it was private, some guy-girl stuff we didn’t want to embarrass you with.”
“Bull. She told you what was under that stack of boards.”
“Hey, we’re all in this together. There’s no point in keeping secrets,” Balenger said.
Ray didn’t reply. Even from a distance, his anger was obvious. He turned and continued to the west in the direction that the needle on his GPS receiver indicated.
8
As they followed Ray, Amanda ate another energy bar. She told Balenger what had happened since she’d wakened in the bedroom. The concern Balenger felt was matched by hers when he described what had happened since he’d wakened in the ruins of the Paragon Hotel. Throughout, he kept glancing to his right, where the two dogs, having returned, moved parallel to him about fifty yards away. He raised his rifle. They scurried off.
Ahead, Ray peered down at something in the grass. Whatever he found excited him enough to make him walk faster toward the mountains. When Balenger reached that area, he stepped into the deep furrows of an old wagon road.
“For the mine,” Amanda said.
They started along it, noting how the furrows stretched toward the mountains. Balenger could almost hear the rattle of wheels and plod of hooves from the countless wagons that came and went, bringing supplies to the mine and carrying away gold. The road seemed to lead toward a middle mountain. After an hour’s walking, the peak loomed. The dogs came back but kept a wary distance.
Ray stopped and waited for them. He pulled his lighter from his jumpsuit, clicking it open and shut. “Why are you staying back? Does your knee hurt?”
“Nothing I can’t deal with.”
“If it’s giving you trouble, I need to know. I can’t waste time waiting for you to catch up.”
“I can manage.”
“I mean if you can’t keep pace with me, maybe I should take the rifle so it doesn’t weigh you down.”
“The rifle’s not heavy.”
“I could use more water.”
Balenger gave him a bottle. “Only five left.”
“Not enough.”
“We can make it last till midnight. The main thing is, keep a positive attitude.”