for a moment the President had nothing to say. He was numbed. He couldn't begin to digest the immensity of the astonishing accumulation.
As art, it was priceless. As knowledge, its value was incalculable.
Finally, he asked in a hushed voice, "How long before you'll be finished here?"
"We'll move the scrolls first, then the artwork," replied Lily. "The sculptures will go last. Working around the clock, we hope to have the passage and gallery emptied and the entire collection safely in Maryland by New Year's."
"Almost sixty days," said Sandecker.
"And the translation of the scrolls?" Lily shrugged. "That preservation is the slow part. Depending on budget restrictions, we're looking at anywhere between twenty and fifty years to make all translations and gain a full understanding of what we have."
"Don't worry about funding," said the President excitedly the project will have the highest priority. I'll see to that."
"We can't fool the international community much longer into believing these magnificent treasures were destroyed," warned Schiller. "We've got to make an announcement, and soon."
"True," said Senator Pitt. "The uproar from our own people and those of foreign governments has not slackened since the explosion."
"Tell me about it," the President muttered dryly. "My popularity poll has dropped fifteen points; Congress is chewing my tail, and every one else is..."
"If you gentlemen will forgive me," said Lily shyly, "but if you can hold off for another ten days, I and the project members can produce some film and video tape of the major pieces of the inventory."
Pitt looked at the President. "I think she has just handed us a bombshell. A dramatic disclosure by the White House, backed by a documentary, sounds like a hell of an idea."
He took Lily's hand and patted it. you, Dr. Sharp. You've just saved my life."
"Oh, thank you, Mr. President!" Lily gasped, throwing her arms around him in unabashed enthusiasm.
Admiral Sandecker shook his hand. "Thank you, sir. I think you've just made everyone's day."
Schiller leaned over and spoke softly into Lily's ear. "Just make sure you translate the geological data first. We may keep the artworks but the knowledge should be shared with the world.
Lily only nodded.
After the fever of excitement and the questions eased a bit, Lily led the Presidential group over to a corner of the gallery where Pitt and Giordino were sitting around a folding table with a Latin/Greek slator who was examining a cylinder's tag with a magnifying glass.
The President recognized them and swiftly walked over. "Good to see you alive and healthy, Dirk," he said with a warm smile. "On behalf of a grateful nation I wish to thank you for this astonishing gift."
Pitt came to his feet, leaning heavily on a cane. "I'm only happy it turned out so well. If not for my friend Al here and Colonel Hollis, I'd still be under Gongora Hill."
"Will you please clear up the mystery?" asked Schiller. 'How did you know the Library treasures were beneath this lower hill instead of the higher Gongora?"
"I don't mind admitting," said the President, "you had the hell scared out of us. All we could think of was 'What if you blew the wrong hill."
"I apologize for being vague," answered Pitt. "Unfortunately, there was no time for a lengthy explanation to ease everyone's fears." He paused and gave his father a wide smile. "I'm only glad you all trusted me.
But there was never a real doubt. Junius Venator's description of the location that was inscribed on the stone found by Sam Trinity, said to stand north and look straight south to the river cliff." When I stood north of Gongora Hill and stared on a line due south, I found that the Roma bluff stood almost half a kilometer to the west on my right. So I moved farther west and slightly north to the first hill that fit Venator's directions."
"What's it called?" asked the Senator.
"This hill?" Pitt held up his hands in a blank gesture. "So far as I can tell, it has no name."
"It does now," said the President laughing. "As soon as Dr. Sharp gives me the go-ahead to announce the greatest treasure discovery in the history of man, we'll say it came from No Name Hill."
A dawn mist was lifting from the river and the glow of a new sun rising over the Rio Grande valley when the Presidential party returned to Washington, their minds thoroughly awed by what they had seen.
Pitt and Lily sat on the summit of No Name Hill and smelled the dampness of morning and watched the lights of Roma blink out. it looked like a painting by Grant Wood.
Lily smiled into his eyes. They did not look hard and fierce now, only soft and pensive. The sun shone on his face, but he did not see it, only felt the warmth. She knew his mind was roving in the past.
She had come to learn he was a man no woman could ever completely possess. His love was an unknown challenge somewhere over the horizon, a mystery that beckoned with a siren only-he could hear. He was a man a woman desired for an impassioned affair but never married. She knew their relationship was fleeting; she fully intended to take advantage of every moment that was left to her until she awoke one day and found him gone in search of the enigma waiting beyond the next hill.
Lily sat against him, head on his shoulder. "What did the tag read?"
"Tag?"
"The one on the scroll you and Al seemed so interested in."
"A tantalizing clue to more artifacts," he said quietly, still staring into the distance.
"Where?"
"Under the sea. The scroll was labeled 'Recorded Shipwrecks with Valuable Cargoes." She looked up at him. "A map to underwater treasure."
"There is always treasure somewhere," he said almost distantly "And you're going to find it?"
He turned and smiled. "Never hurts to look. Unfortunately, Uncle Sam rarely gives me the time. I've yet to search the Brazilian jungles for the golden city of El Dorado."
She gave him an intuitive stare and then lay back, gazing at the fading stars. "I wonder where they're buried."
He slowly shook off the vision of sunken treasure and looked down.
"Who?"
"The ancient adventurers who helped Venator save the Lib collection."
He shook his head. "Junius Venator is a hard man to outguess. He could have buried his Byzantine comrades most anywhere between here and the river-"
She placed her hand gently on his head and drew him down to her level.
Their lips met and pressed tightly for several moments. A hawk spiraled above them in the orange sky, but seeing nothing appetizing, it winged south into Mexico. Lily's eyes opened and she pulled back, smiling coyly.
"Do you think they'd mind?"
Pitt looked at her curiously. "Mind what?"
"If we made love over their grave. They might very well be lying beneath us."
He rolled them both over until she was on her back and he was above, looking down into her eyes. Then his lips curled into a sly grin.
"I don't think they'd care. I know I certainly wouldn't."