‘How much?!’ she screeched at the co-pilot who was going to take the money off her once they’d loaded up.
‘Ten thousand.’
‘But that’s ridiculous, we can’t pay that,’ Trish said, backing her up.
‘Then you’re going nowhere,’ the man told them bluntly.
‘Fine,’ Sarah said, and handed over the cash, despite Trish’s protests. ‘We’ve come this far, haven’t we? A bit more won’t make any odds.’
‘A bit?’ Trish said, choking on the words. ‘You do realise it’ll be the same coming back …’ She put her mouth to Sarah’s ear and whispered, ‘Or more!’
‘What choice do we have?’ Sarah murmured back.
Trish had no answer to that. How could she? They were all-in; there was no turning back now.
And so, with the extortionate fee paid, they settled in for the flight, which would take them two and a half thousand miles south east across the African continent. To reduce the risk of being caught by the patrols which flew irregular flights up and down the border’s length, the pilot took off at dusk; apparently going out to sea first and coming back in an arc minimised contact with the Jian-10B Chinese-made multi-role fighters employed by the UN Task Force to patrol the skies.
An uneventful flight passed by relatively quickly and they were soon touching down on a disused airfield twenty miles out of Johannesburg. The place was pretty much deserted – as you would expect with a meteor on the way – and it was daylight as they left the plane behind after hiring a rusty old pickup from an equally aged local man who apparently refused to leave, declaring he’d rather die than abandon his home. Some people became dangerously attached to a location; something Sarah had a hard time comprehending.
During the drive Jason had time to forage around in their luggage and he found something which made him over the moon. ‘Oh, my God, this is like Indiana Jones’s hat!’ he said, thrilled, and held up a distressed leather hat that Sarah had bought for him back in Turkey.
‘Indiana who?’ Trish said as he put it on.
He looked at her in amazement. ‘You haven’t seen those classic films with Harrison Ford?’
‘No, should I have?’
‘You haven’t lived. Call yourself an archaeologist, I don’t know. All I need now is a whip.’
‘If you say so,’ Trish said, amused.
‘Philistine!’ He nudged the brim higher, his mood undampened.
With Jason continuing to enthuse about his new headwear, the short road trip to the location he’d pinpointed for them was soon over, satellite navigation having led them to the exact spot they desired. Once there Jason, proudly wearing his new hat, triangulated their position again and narrowed down the area they had to search to a much smaller section of about forty feet square. Cracking on, they set up camp in double quick time and deployed the ground scanner as soon as they were able. Taking shifts over the next day they meticulously scanned the area, which proved frustratingly fruitless.
Jason couldn’t understand why they couldn’t locate anything. Utilising another application he attempted to locate the area depicted on the ancient map once more. The result came back the same.
‘I don’t understand it,’ he said. ‘This should be the place. No, this is the place.’
Sarah wiped sweat from her brow. ‘So where is it, then?’
‘Well, it means one of two things,’ Trish said, as she came over to them both and handed them each a cup of steaming tea. ‘One, the scanner isn’t up to the job. Or much worse, two, the canister and building are no longer here.’
Sarah was crestfallen as she admitted to herself her worst fears.
‘I’m sorry, Saz,’ – Trish touched her arm – ‘but that second option seems the most likely, doesn’t it? If it’s thousands of years since it was here, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of years, then it’s probably long since gone.’
‘We still have the maps, though,’ Jason said, remaining optimistic. ‘They’re proof enough on their own, aren’t they?’
Sarah didn’t reply. All that money, all the risk, for nothing. She took a long draught of her tea, lost in her thoughts. The other canister I found in Turkey must have been there for a similar amount of time, she reasoned. No, it must be here, it must! The scanner wasn’t great, but it was working; she’d tested it out and they’d been able to locate and unearth a tree root at a test horizontal depth of fifty feet.
She looked around at the barren scrubland surrounding them. Hard compacted earth and rock littered the landscape. The escarpment shown in the digital map was barely visible as it cut across the landscape. At least we can see it, she thought, that’s something. It meant the canister would be just in reach, some fifteen feet down; hopefully, anyway, as any further and it became too deep to excavate, even with the SPVU excavation machine, which was primarily a horizontal tunnel boring aide than a vertical excavation device.
She had been concerned that the landscape would be radically different than in the ancient digitised image on the map. Her hope had been that the location they now found themselves at, which she’d researched on her new phone, had been similar for tens of thousands of years or longer. It was a gamble, but one that had paid off; the top of the escarpment was testament to that fact. And then she had it. The answer to why they couldn’t find the canister.
Sarah turned to them, her face lit up with excitement. ‘We’re looking in the wrong place!’
‘We can’t be. I’ve run different software packages multiple times,’ Jason said, looking dejected. ‘This is the place.’
‘Long shore drift, sediment build up,’ Sarah said, ‘coastlines change all the time! Were you using the coastline as a reference point in your triangulations?’
Jason nodded.
‘Then that’s it then,’ she said, ‘run them again using another point and we’ll have the location.’
Jason was already furiously tapping away at his computer, inputting the relevant data. Sarah paced around in agitation, waiting, her impatience tangible.
‘Got it,’ he said at last, and pointed westwards. ‘It’s about a mile in that direction.’
‘We were way out. No wonder we couldn’t find anything,’ Trish said.
‘All right, let’s pack up and get to the new site. We don’t want to be here any longer than need be.’
‘I second that,’ Trish said.
‘Thirded,’ Jason added.
‘There’s no such word!’ Trish protested.
‘There is now,’ he replied impishly, a broad grin on his face again.
The hunt was back on.
They stowed all their gear and equipment in the vehicle and headed off at speed, dust and dirt shooting out from beneath the wheels as they sought to gain traction.
They soon reached the new location; however, it was quickly apparent they had a big problem. The low bluff which had just been visible at the previous site was now nowhere to be seen.
Sarah looked back the way they had come to see the top of the promontory dip below the surface about half a mile away. Over time dirt and rocks had built up beyond thirty feet, that or earthquakes had caused uplift. If they were able to locate the canister with the scanner it would be too deep to retrieve, something Jason had noticed, too.
‘There’s much more sediment build-up here. We can adjust the scanner with some software tweaks to scan more deeply, but if we find anything we won’t be able to get to it.’
‘He’s right, Sarah, this is going to be pointless.’
‘Let’s just find the damn thing first,’ Sarah said. ‘Jas, map out the area, I’ll sort out the scanner and we’ll get imaging. If we find it we’ll have to hope it’s moved nearer to the surface.’
Jason and Trish moved off to unload and Sarah overheard them talking about the futility of what they were doing. Perhaps they’re right, she thought. In fact, she knew they were right. Although even if they couldn’t get to it, it would be some kind of success to locate it. They’d come this far, they might
as well get some closure and finish the job.
She looked at her phone, eight days until impact. Glancing up, she searched the sky for the telltale glint of light that signalled the approaching asteroid. Was that something near the horizon? She squinted, trying to focus on it, but the haze disrupted her vision. It’s probably Venus or a star, you fool, she berated herself. Get your mind on the job in hand.
♦
Another day passed by as they painstakingly scanned the area. The greater the depth of a scan, the slower the scanner could be moved, and it was late in the day, as the sun shimmered on its downward curve against a bright blue sky, that their breakthrough came.
A shout went up from Trish, who had taken on the current scanning shift. ‘I’ve found something!’
Jason popped his head out of the pickup truck’s passenger window and Sarah did likewise from the driver’s side. They both jumped out, the doors slamming shut as they ran over to where Trish bent over the scanner’s display screen.
‘What is it, is it the canister?’ Sarah asked her.
‘I don’t think so. It looks like a hollow space. Have a look.’
Sarah moved to the display and shielded it against the sun’s glare. The screen’s image portrayed its results mainly in bright pinks and black. Dense metallic objects showed up in green, ceramics and bone in yellow, but neither green nor yellow were present. The pink areas in shifting shades indicated ground density and the black areas voids. Approximately thirty-five feet below them, a large black blotch was clearly evident on the screen.
Jason leaned in to have a look. ‘Perhaps it’s just a space created by boulders?’
‘I don’t think so.’ Sarah adjusted a couple of the dials slightly to expand and rotate the image. ‘No, look, it has straight sides. That is definitely not a natural formation.’
‘Could it be that building we saw in that DPD?’ Trish said.
Jason frowned. ‘What was DPD again?’
‘Digital paper display, idiot,’ Trish said impudently. ‘Keep up.’
Jason swore under his breath.
‘What was that?’ Trish asked him.
‘Nothing, just clearing my throat.’
‘Hmm,’ Trish said, sounding unconvinced.
Sarah moved the scanner to one side and took another scan. ‘That is a big void down there. I think you’re right, Trish, it could well be a building, perhaps even the one on the map.’
‘We can’t get to it, though,’ Jason said.
Trish tutted. ‘She knows that, numpty head.’
Jason made a face at her.
‘BOLLOCKS!’ Sarah shouted at the top of her voice. ‘So bloody close, yet so bloody far.’
‘At least we found something,’ Trish said, trying to console her.
‘I’ll search this area for a bit,’ Sarah told them, ‘get a complete picture of the structure.’
Jason and Trish left her to it. They could tell she was not in the mood for company as her face had that determined, taut look to it, the don’t talk to me or be near me face they knew well.
Sarah took scans for the best part of half a day, getting a clear overview of the chamber. At one point the device sent back a weak signal on a deeper pass, alluding to the presence of metal; subsequent scans, however, failed to find it again. This was perhaps the most frustrating time of her life and at the same time, the most exciting. Almost within touching distance, the possibility of an actual building which might be unthinkably old, something that would make Stonehenge seem like a twenty-first century new build.
Once she had finished she transferred the information to her phone and plodded back to the truck, feeling depressed. Trish and Jason were nowhere to be seen. Now that she thought about it, they had shouted something over to her, but she had been so engrossed in the scanner’s display she’d barely heard them, let alone paid attention to what they were saying. She now wondered where they’d got to. The landscape had gradual undulations, so they must have walked off a fair way. Not wanting to wander about aimlessly looking for them, she settled down in the pickup’s passenger seat to rest and wait for their return.
♦
Sarah woke with a start; dusk had crept up on her and she felt groggy and cold. Rubbing her arms warm she looked about; still no sign of them. Odd, she thought. Picking up her phone she dialled Jason’s new number. A buzzing sounded next to her; she looked across to the driver’s door pocket to see a bright screen with the message incoming call on it. Bloody hell, Jason, why did you leave it here? Just as her concern mounted, a loud bang came from the rear of the truck. She jumped in shock. Whirling around, she jumped again and yelped as a face peered in the back window at her, eyes staring wide accompanied by a hideously stupid grin.
‘Jason, you friggin’ twathead, you scared the shit out of me!’ Sarah shouted.
Jason laughed uproariously, waved at her and jumped down onto the ground next to Trish, who was grinning at her through the window.
‘Sorry, Saz, he persuaded me into letting him do it.’
‘That’s two I owe you now,’ Sarah told him, laughing in relief.
‘I thought you were going to crap yourself,’ Jason said gleefully.
‘I nearly did,’ she said, making him laugh again.
‘Forget that,’ Trish told her, ‘we’ve found something that’ll perk you up a bit.’
‘What’s that?’ she asked curiously.
‘Grab a torch and come and see,’ Jason told her, clearly upbeat about something.
Wondering what they were both going on about, she got out, stretched and picked up a large flashlight.
The sun dipped below the horizon as night closed in and the three friends trooped across the hard-packed earth, each with a beam of light bobbing in front of them. Their boots crunched along as they made their way down a slope and around an outcrop of rock.
Sarah followed behind them both when Jason suddenly disappeared into the rock. As she neared the spot, Trish also vanished from view. In fact, they had passed into a cave mouth nigh on impossible to see in daylight, let alone at night. To enter you had to squeeze past a dense bush that broke up the entrance, and Sarah knew the likelihood of anyone knowing it was there was slim to none. She switched her torch to a higher setting with a click and ducked inside.
The ground sloped down a little, enabling her to stand upright. The smooth walls reminded her of the caves at the World Heritage Site not far from their location, where remains had been found of humanity’s earliest ancestors.
A few animal bones lay strewn across the floor as she followed Jason and Trish deeper inside. It wasn’t a system of caves, just one winding, contracting and expanding tunnel. Not like the caves at Sterkfontein which were extensive and went deep into the earth.
At sixty feet in, they came to a dead end.
‘So, what do you think?’ Jason asked her.
‘I think it’s amazing. How did you find it?’
‘We got bored so we went for a walk, we did tell you,’ Trish said, ‘and then faceache here wanted to go to the loo—’
‘And I found this little beauty.’ He held his arms outspread, showing off the cave they now stood in.
‘And you’re thinking what I’m thinking?’ Sarah asked them.
They both grinned. ‘Yep,’ Jason said, ‘if we scan in here we can use the ultrasonic doodah to punch a horizontal hole into Trish’s void.’
‘So why are we still standing around jabbering?’ Sarah said, a smile creeping onto her face. ‘Let’s get to it.”
‘All-nighter!’ they all said in unison, laughing as they picked their way back out of the cave.
Chapter Twelve
It was hard work getting the tools and equipment into the narrow chamber, but they managed to in the end after much grunting and swearing. Night was not the best time to set up a dig, especially when you had minimal lighting.
Once everything was in place Sarah scanned the walls of the cave to try and find the chamber she had mapped so extensively earlier in
the day. It didn’t take her long until she found it again, however she was unable to locate the elusive canister signal she’d momentarily glimpsed from the surface.
Marking a spot on the rock wall some ten feet from the end of the cave, they withdrew the scanner; all three of them then manhandled the ultrasonic unit into position. They each donned goggles, dust masks and ear defenders and Jason started up the machine. A loud roar echoed round the cave and out into the cold night air. Inside, the noise was deafening even with ear defenders on. It wasn’t the ultrasonic waves that made it so loud, but the machine that produced them; to project the sound waves deep into the soft limestone and earth required immense power, hence the machine’s limited usage.
Dust kicked up by the cooling fans swirled around them as vortices spiralled down the tunnel.
‘I’m moving it closer!’ Jason shouted to them. ‘Move back!’
‘What?’ Sarah yelled, putting a hand to an ear indicating she hadn’t heard what he’d said.
‘Move away!’ he said again, motioning them backwards.
Sarah gave him the thumbs up and they moved back a bit as Jason edged the machine nearer to the wall, increasing the resonance and noise even further; small stones torn from the wall ricocheted around them, forcing them to retreat a few more paces. After twenty ear-ringing minutes, Jason powered it down enabling everyone to remove their protective gear. The rock and dirt that had been between them and the void had been turned into a heavy granulated dust. A uniform hole, as straight as a die, had been punched through the earth and into the underground chamber ahead, which itself was buried forty feet below the surface. The newly created tunnel lay half-filled with dusty, pulverised rock and so, replacing their masks, they picked up shovels and began the arduous task of clearing it out.
By morning light they had completely emptied Jason’s creation, depositing the spoil throughout the length of the cave. Sarah was the first to go inside, followed by Trish, with Jason bringing up the rear. Sarah squeezed out of the crawl space and into the void, now able to stand upright. The air smelt dry and stale inside, which was unsurprising as it may have been trapped there for untold millennia. As a precaution they wore their dust masks, but with added filters to help prevent against harmful microbes and any other unseen nasties that might lurk within.
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