determine at points. Manipulating the image on the screen, she was eventually able to fix their location in relation to that of the lake. She rolled the image around to look at it from the reverse angle, then increased the magnification and zoomed in on their current location. It indicated nothing out of the ordinary, just water, open space like the room they were in and more stone. There were other chambers to the cave, both beyond the wall and behind them, but they were irregular, jagged and natural in shape. She didn’t think they would find anything there.
She scanned the room once again. It was expansive, despite the caved-in portion, but it was utterly empty except for the body they had found. It almost seemed to have been looted. Not looted, that was a messy job; more like purposefully cleared—cleaned out and sanitized, just as she would have done, given the chance. She wondered if someone had beaten them to the site, but then discounted that possibility. The body would not have been left behind.
She searched the four corners of the room, going from one to the other, checking her instruments. She walked back into the narrow tunnel and examined the other room they’d passed. Nothing there, just cavernous, vacant space, half a warehouse in size, but completely empty, exactly like the room they were in.
She raised her head, desperately hoping for a sign that there might be machinery or equipment or conduits of some type, but not even the remnants of anything like that could be seen. There was nothing around her but the smooth, polished stone. She put her hand out, touched the wall. There was nothing to bring home, no victory left to be won.
With a deep breath she folded the screen down, closing the laptop with a click.
She stood up slowly. The group was watching her. She turned to them. “We have to think about getting out of here,” she said, softly. “The sooner, the better.”
CHAPTER 37
One by one they stood, gathering themselves and beginning the long walk down the hallway through which they’d come.
McCarter lingered, his attention held by the body they’d found. For a moment he contemplated taking it, or at least part of it. He’d removed bones and artifacts from sites all around the world, but this felt different, as if he’d seen something never meant for his eyes. In a moment of unscientific emotion, he decided against it. He stood slowly and joined the group.
Thirty minutes later they had reached the top of the zigzagging tunnel. Once they had crawled across the narrow planks, Hawker knocked the brace from beneath the stone and the massive block of granite came down like a hammer, crushing the wooden planks and sending their splintered remains plummeting into the well down below.
They hoped that would keep whatever animals were still living in the cave trapped down there, but one look into the well told them that more needed to be done. It seemed likely that the acidic lake in the cave flowed into the acidic water at the bottom of the well, and having seen how the animals could climb, no one doubted that they could make their way up the chimney of stone. They made plans to put a motion sensor over the pit and to set up a trip wire with explosives as well. Whether it would be enough to secure the structure they didn’t know, but they didn’t want anything coming out unannounced.
A moment later they were out in the pungent jungle air, breathing freely and squinting against the blinding midday light. Brazos waited for them, guarding the prisoners with a rifle.
“Can we go now?” he asked.
Danielle looked at Hawker, then nodded. “We’re leaving.”
Devers and Eric stood up, but Kaufman remained on the ground, apparently uninterested in moving.
“We’re not going to carry you,” Hawker said. “So unless you want to get shot and left behind, get on your damn feet.”
Kaufman didn’t move. “If you walk out into that jungle, you’ll never see the other side; in fact, you’ll probably never see tomorrow. The animals from last night, they’ll hunt us in the forest. They’re already out there. You know that. The natives are as well. And in that place they have all the advantages.”
“Do you have a better option?” Danielle asked.
“I have help coming,” Kaufman replied, proudly.
“Of course,” Danielle said. “Your helicopter.”
“I was wondering when I’d see that bastard again,” Hawker said.
“Yes, the bastard who shot you down.” Kaufman said, smugly.
Hawker smiled at the veiled insult. “Wasn’t really a fair fight. But if we can fly out of here instead of walk, I’ll kiss the son of a bitch.”
“I’ll bring him in,” Kaufman said, “but I want something in return.”
“You’ll get your life in return,” Danielle responded. “That ought to be enough.”
Hawker smiled. “She’s the boss.”
Kaufman pursed his lips. He was in no position to bargain.
Hawker pointed to the shortwave radio. “Let’s get out of here before nightfall.”
“Yes,” Kaufman said, strangely. “That would be preferable. I only wish we could.”
“And why can’t we?”
“Try the radio,” the CEO said. “See what you get.”
Hawker switched the radio on and received a sharp squeal and then a painful burst of static. He switched frequencies, to no avail, and then shut it off. “What’s wrong with it?”
“Almost every electronic device we’ve brought in has malfunctioned,” Kaufman said. “Or is on the verge of doing so. Both shortwaves are down—ours and yours.”
“From what?” Hawker asked.
“The radiation in this area has an electromagnetic component to it,” Kaufman explained, “one that destroys transistors and other micro-electric circuitry. It’s similar to what the military calls EMP—Electro-Magnetic Pulse. The more compact the device is, or the more power that runs through it, the quicker it fails. That’s why the shortwaves went first. If we had an old-fashioned radio with vacuum tubes in it, it might still be working. But printed circuit boards die quickly out here.”
Danielle spoke up. “He’s right. Things were going down before they came. Including the satlink.”
“Well, some of the equipment is working,” Hawker said. “The defense grid, the walkie-talkies.”
Kaufman nodded. “Those items have a military pedigree. They’re hardened against this type of thing, because you find a giant electro-magnetic burst in any atomic explosion, and the military doesn’t want everything going down when the big war begins. But all the equipment will fail eventually, it’s just a matter of time. So, if you want me to make a call, you need to find a milspec radio, and soon.”
“Can we use this one?” McCarter asked, holding up the ELF radio.
“Sure,” Kaufman said, sarcastically. “If you want to be rescued by a submarine.”
“Normal radios won’t pick it up,” Hawker explained to McCarter, then turned back to Kaufman. “You have some type of contingency, I assume.”
“I do,” he said. “Since I’ve been here, my people have been operating silently, just like you. No calls in, no calls out. Without an early request to expedite the process, my pilot will return with supplies at a pre-arranged time, approximately seventy-two hours from now. He’ll fly into the area and wait for a signal. He’ll be expecting a specific flare pattern. Once he gets it, he’ll make a final approach and land. Then we can fly out of here, avoiding what I can only characterize as a most unpleasant walk.”
“What do you think?” Danielle asked Hawker. “Can it carry all of us?”
“Maybe,” Hawker said. “Weight might be a problem, but we should be able to off-load some fuel.” He turned back to Kaufman. “How far is your staging area?”
“I have a barge in the river about a hundred miles from here.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Brazos said.
“I agree,” McCarter added. “I was too quick to judge the merits of helicopter travel before, I should like to try it again.”
Hawker watched them grasping at the hope that the helicopter represented. It seemed a rational choice, far
