"What in the hell is going on here?" she blurted out.
She looked closer and could see that the glowing particles were actually ancient writings of some kind; indeed, the whole wall was imbedded with the mineral but only parts of it were carved, creating a relief. Possibly an ancient people had spelled out their history. She wondered if the writings were Incan.
Her eyes caught on a darker object that had been stuck into one wall. As she approached she could see that it was a torch. She felt it and determined that it was made of some kind of metal, a rough iron perhaps. She tried to pull it free of its mounting but it was stuck with hundreds of years of grime. She doubled her efforts. As it finally came loose she almost lost her balance with the sudden change of momentum. Some sort of fuel substance was still embedded in its end. She felt in her pockets and found the lighter she always carried for the one chance, she had always joked, where she might find herself deep in an underground cave with no flashlight. She used her thumb to bring the lighter to life and she raised it to the tip of the old iron torch. It flamed to life. She held the torch away from her and examined her surroundings more fully.
All around her were strange images and hieroglyphs. Drawings of animals lined the walls, and images of small people. She could see the people were in chains as they toiled, bearing heavy loads on their heads and shoulders, while Incan taskmasters stood by with menacing whips and clubs. Far more menacing were the skulls. They lined the entire chamber at about head height. There were at least a thousand that had been inlaid into the solid rock. The torchlight also revealed stone slabs, like bunks, covering the floor. The cavern held room upon room with large seating areas. Around her, ancient chains lined the walls, most broken but a few looking as if they had been used only yesterday. Sarah picked out evidence of fire pits, long dead, in the center of the cavern, lining a deep grotto. The ancient stone flooring was worn smooth by the countless footsteps of slaves long dead.
Sarah moved the torch around, following the long history along the walls of what had to have been the Sincaro Indians and their Peruvian slave masters. Some images depicted load upon load of gold being mined from this site. Others were pictographs of strange green minerals being pulled from the depths of giant pits. She was studying one such rendering when a burst of steam erupted from the wall twenty feet to her right. She leaned down and felt the wet floor, and was amazed at how hot it was. She pulled her hand back and then touched the floor again, this time lightly. She knew then that, indeed, there was underground seismic activity here. That explained the difference in water temperature the deeper into the lagoon one went.
She held the torch up once again to examine the walls. There were depictions of many of the creatures she had seen in the diving bell. They stood like guards before the images of small men and women. These must be the Sincaro, she thought as she lightly touched one of the reliefs.
A clear picture was emerging: The beasts were trained in these lower levels to watch and feed the Sincaro. Whatever was mined here was too dangerous for the Inca to supervise. So they trained these beasts to be the Sincaro's overseers.
Sarah turned her attention to the skulls lining the walls. Not only were they small, presumably of the Sincaro, but there were also larger bones and skulls belonging to the strange creatures. So the fate of the overseers was the same as slave. Death.
Turning from the wall, she shined the torch along the center canal. It, too, was carved from the stone and looked to be twenty or thirty feet deep. Sarah suspected that these canals ran from the top of the pyramid, originating from the river that fed the interior falls, all the way through from level to level, transporting the ore from one level to another. She even saw crumbling block and tackle used to fight the gravity of the canal as ore was shipped up, indicating that she was in the very deepest part of El Dorado. The whole mine must have been inundated with these canals. It was the most ingenious method of moving ore from place to place that she had ever heard of.
Something grunted in the darkness beside the moving water and Sarah held up the torch in that direction. Her eyes widened when she saw the large creature rise from the man-made canal and swim easily into the large grotto that took up the entire center of the huge cave. It came to shallow water and stood, fully eight feet tall. The large, powerful-looking arms were laid easily at its side.
Sarah swallowed and looked up at the creature. She remembered its huge black eyes from the diving bell incident. She winced as she moved her broken wrist and then a memory returned.
"You pulled me out of the boat, didn't you?"
The beast moved its legs as it shifted weight from one leg to the other. Its gills on either side of it jawline moved in and out as its mouth opened and closed, obviously trying to breathe in enough air to have strength on land. She realized that although the creature was amphibious at the very least, its underdeveloped lungs must not be capable of sustaining it for long periods out of the water.
"Wouldn't Ellenshaw love to get a look at you? I think he would crap himself," she muttered.
Viewing the animal close up, without the color-deluding dark waters of the lagoon interfering, she could see that it was really just an enormous mutation of a freshwater cichlid, a mild-mannered species one could buy in any aquarium-supplies store in the States.
Sarah studied the swaying creature as it studied her, more than just intrigued, but that still didn't mean that this magnificent being didn't scare the hell out of her.
The beast barked hoarsely twice and then slowly began to move off toward the deeper water. Trusting it not to attack her, Sarah turned back to the pictures that seemed to glow against the light, and reexamined the ancient drawings. She looked closely at the mineral that the creatures brought from deep in the mine and wondered what it was. Emeralds, maybe? She held the torch closer to the wall and saw the spot that depicted the area where the dead were placed. She saw that both Sincaro and the creatures were buried side by side, as if they were equals in their misery and finally their deaths.
"Bastards," she said under her breath as she thought about the riches the Inca had brought out of here on the labor and pain of others.
Sarah turned away and saw the bubbles of the beast's underwater retreat from the chamber.
"I'm not a slave and you're not going to keep me here," she called as she turned toward the opening with the steps.
She suddenly stopped, as she thought she heard a gasp and then a sigh. She turned to trace the sound to its source. It came from the far wall. She held up the torch and could make out a small opening at the base of the excavated chamber. The light revealed discarded fish bones and rotted things strewn about the floor of the cave. Then she saw what she thought was a flick of fire emanating from one of the larger of the small caves. The light seemed to be coming from behind what looked like fabric of some sort.
Sarah grimaced at the smell coming from the wall of cave openings. She raised her damp shirt up to cover her nose and mouth, and walked toward the largest of the rooms. She slowly and carefully pulled the rotted flap of animal skin aside and leaned in, holding out the torch before her. Her eyes widened. There, lying and sitting around a natural pool of magma boiling in a small caldera that smelled strongly of sulphur, were the tattered remains of the Zachary expedition.
"Oh my god," said Sarah.
* * *
Farbeux stopped the men as the shaft started to spiral at a much steeper angle. He held up his light and shined it along the hot and sweating walls. Then he focused it on Mendez, who stood there breathing heavy. His men were just as sweaty and out of breath. They had been moving for only twenty minutes when they stopped for the first time.
"Tell me, are you tired, senor?" Farbeaux asked, smiling.
"Tired, hot, and beginning to believe that there is nothing more than old statues in this mine," Mendez answered angrily.
"Then maybe you wouldn't be interested in this," he said as he shined his large flashlight toward a three-inch vein of gold that streaked like a light
ning bolt through the wet stone of the shaft.
Mendez's eyes widened as he dropped his small pack and ran toward the vein. He rubbed it with his fingers lovingly. His men, too, immediately totally lost any fatigue they had shown earlier.
Farbeaux lifted his small satchel and quickly noted the reading on the small device he had inside. He smiled and looked up.
"Now, you can be satisfied with this small deposit, or we can go to the place were El Dorado really begins."
Mendez beamed, totally rejuvenated. He reached down, removed his canteen from his belt, and swallowed some water.
"Lead the way, my friend. Where you go, we will follow."
21
EVENT GROUP CENTER NELLIS AFB, NEVADA
Once again Niles was in a clean suit alongside Pete Golding in the clean room where the mainframe for the Cray supercomputer Europa was housed. They had been searching U.S. Army and Corps of Engineer databases for the past hour, hitting dead end after dead end.
"Gold — the army wouldn't have been after gold with World War Two breaking out all over the globe; it just doesn't add up. So what else would send a specialist team down there?" Pete asked, leaning back in his chair and stretching.
"I agree, to expend time and effort, and using the military and OSS to save gold prospectors — I just don't buy it. Not with the way the war was going in 1942; we were still losing, remember?"
"Okay, so let's try to go through the back door. The senator said he had no names for the people the OSS pulled out in 1942, right? But he did say where they were from: Chicago and Princeton. Let's start there."
Niles leaned forward. "Okay, Pete, go ahead." "Europa, query. In the war years 1940 through 1942, was there any American university-sponsored expeditions to Brazil or the Amazon Basin?"
Formulating, said the female voice of Europa, then as quickly, During years 1940 to '42, there was no American scholastic sponsorship of any South American excursions.
"Great start," Pete said.
Niles shook his head but continued the line of questioning. "Europa, query. Were there any missing persons reports on University of Chicago or Princeton filed in those same years? Correction; expand search to 1945."
Formulating, she said as she started to penetrate the security of not only university records but those of police departments and federal agencies throughout the nation.
Twenty-two records of missing persons reported from both universities during target years. Twenty-one were later reported as solved. One remained open, filed at Princeton, June 1945.
"Too late for filing," Niles said.
Both men sat and thought. They were at a brick wall and they didn't know how to penetrate it.
Europa has detected a pattern in your queries. Query: Do your current search parameters include accidental death of university personnel on foreign territory?
Niles looked at Pete. The Cray was designed to interact with its operators and advise if there might have been something overlooked in the search they were conducting.
"It does now, thanks to you, Europa. Continue please," Pete said.
In calendar year 1942, a chartered aircraft leased by the University of Chicago was reported missing in the Brazilian rain forest south of the Amazon River. There were two University of Chicago survivors and one reported survivor from Princeton University.
"Wait a minute; didn't you say there were no university-sponsored expeditions in Brazil during those years?" Pete asked.
The incident upon which the report was filed was not a university-sponsored action.
"Come on, who sponsored it?" Niles asked, losing patience.
Pete looked at Niles as if he had lost his mind. "Name the sponsor, Europa," Pete commanded, still looking at Niles.
The aircraft in question was leased through the United States Army Air Corps and geographical survey sponsored by the U.S. Army and U.S. Army Corp ofEngineers.
"What in the hell is this?" Pete asked.
Europa does not understand the question.
"Not you. Niles?"
"Query. Can Europa identify the departments involved in this charter at the University of Chicago?" Niles asked.
Formulating, she said.
Niles stood as something distant and forgotten started to flirt with his memory.
The University of Chicago Department of Physics and Theoretical Sciences at Princeton University, Europa answered quickly.
Niles realized what picture was starting to form from the puzzle pieces being laid before him. And now the past came flooding back to him as Europa started putting the pieces of that puzzle together — something he did not want to think about. He rubbed his hands across his face in vexation but continued his line of questioning nonetheless.
"Query. Who were the heads of these departments at the two universities from UAO through 1942?"
Chairperson for the University of Chicago's Department of Sciences and Physics for years in question was Professor Enrico Fermi. Director of Theoretical Sciences, Princeton University, and departmental chairperson for years in question was Professor Albert Einstein."
"What have I done?" Niles asked.
"What are you saying here, Niles?" Pete asked while looking incredulously at the printed names.
"I may have killed everyone on that rescue mission, Pete."
On the screen, spelled out in big blue letters, was Europa's answer to the mystery of Padilla's lost expedition: enrico fermi and albert einstein.
PART SEVEN
SPECIES OF GOD
The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking… the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.
— ALBERT EINSTEIN
22
It took thirty minutes to pry Mendenhall and Sanchez out of the engine room. They found the body of Lebowitz pinned underneath the mainmast where it had crashed onto the deck. Professor Ellenshaw had been trapped beneath one of the bunks in section six and it had taken a hacksaw to free him. Heidi Rodriguez had a nasty wound on her forehead and they had thought she wouldn't wake up until she suddenly sat straight up and screamed that she was drowning. She had been found in section seven under an overturned stainless-steel table amid broken beakers and tech equipment. The bright floodlights from what remained of the deck lights lit the opening and surrounding dock and stairs that Teacher sat upon.
There was no sign of Jenks or Virginia. Danielle and Ellenshaw had shown up after they had freed the engineering section, and said they had been separated from the other two. Ellenshaw excitedly explained how Danielle had saved his life and almost killed him at the same time, by making him dive deep beneath the falls to keep from being crushed.
Danielle was now wrapping Heidi's forehead with gauze from sickbay and talking softly to her. Jack took stock of the many bodies they had pulled out of the lounge and science sections, twenty-four in all. Ellenshaw's two young assistants were lined up on the dock along with five of the Group's security people, including Shaw and Jackson. Carl came up behind Jack and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Jack, I checked the holes that were punched into us. Two separate charges, definitely explosive devices. We have scorching on the hull and it was bent inward. I would say a three- or four-pound charge, the same with the engineering section."
The major continued to stare at the covered bodies and didn't answer at first. Carl was about to speak again when they were approached by Danielle.
"I hope Sarah is safe," she said.
Jack turned on her, his gaze demanding to know what she knew.
"Major, the beast took her when our section was flooded. She and I both were grabbed. I struggled free, but Sarah didn't. I'm sorry."
"Why would the animal come into the ship?"
"This may sound strange to you, but I had the distinct feeling it was trying to help Sarah and me; don't ask me why, it's just a intuition." She turned away.
"Jack, are you all right?" Carl asked, rubbi
ng his bruised legs.
"Will," Jack called out, ignoring the question.
"Yes, Major," Mendenhall answered from where he was helping to tend the wounds of Ellenshaw and Stiles.
Jack walked over to one of the glass windows that now had a crazy line of cracks through it. Using a flashlight, he smashed out the remaining glass. He reached in and pulled out two handheld radios from the communications compartment, and quickly checked the settings and charge. He tossed one to Mendenhall.
"I have a job for you, and it's damned well dangerous."
Mendenhall looked from Jack to Carl and smiled. "Yes, sir."
Jack just nodded, never more proud of the man he had sworn to make an officer, then a thought struck him. "Staff Sergeant Mendenhall, you are hereby promoted to the temporary rank of second lieutenant, United States Army, as witnessed this day by—"
"Lieutenant Commander Carl A. Everett, United States Navy," Carl said in all seriousness.
"And based upon pending approval and recommendation of the director of Department Fifty-six fifty-six, Dr. Niles Compton, you are hereby notified of said field promotion. Is that understood, Lieutenant Mendenhall?"
Mendenhall frowned. "Yes, sir, understood. Now, you've given me the sugar, so I guess I'm ready for the medicine."
Jack took Mendenhall by the shoulder and steered him away from the others.
"Look, Will, I need you to go out there and get to high ground. That means finding some way out of the lagoon, and climbing out and up beside the falls. I don't know if the radio will reach me in here but, once in position, you are to watch the lagoon. Dig up a set of night-vision goggles and report on secure channel seventy-eight; you'll be speaking with a mutual friend of ours who's call sign is Night Rider One and your call sign is Conquistador. You are to tell him that Operation Spoiled Sport is on and to fire at will, if and when you see an armed element reach the lagoon, either on land or by boat. We hope it's by boat. You tell Night Rider to execute, execute, execute. Three times, you got that, Will?"
Legend egt-2 Page 38