The road switchbacked up a steep ridge covered with a dense stand of pon-derosa, and at the top it skirted a cliff. Here the trees opened up to a broad vista across the high mesas, dominated by the great dark outline of Mesa de los Viejos. The road turned back into the forest and soon a chain-link fence loomed up out of the darkness, gleaming new, with a pair of gates across the road. A weather-beaten sign read:
CCC CAMP PERDIZ CREEK
And then, a new sign, hung on the fence:
Private Property No Trespassing
Violators Will Be Prosecuted to the Full Extent of the Law
It was some kind of inholding in the national forest. Tom pulled off the road, shut off the engine. Now that he had a moment he pulled the gun out of the door pocket. It was a well-used J. C. Higgins '88' revolver, .22 caliber, a real piece of shit. He checked the cylinder-nine chambers, all empty.
He pulled a wad of old maps and an empty pint of Jim Beam out of the door pocket and felt around, but there were no rounds. He yanked open the glove compartment and searched it, scattering more maps and empty bottles, and in the bottom found a single beaten-up round, which he inserted into the cylinder and shoved the gun in his belt. He pocketed a Maglite from the glove compartment and searched the rest of the truck, under the seats, in every crevice, looking for more loose rounds. Nothing.
He exited the truck. There was no sound beyond the whispering of a night breeze in the trees and the hooting of an owl. The gate was padlocked. He peered through. The road curved off and disappeared in the trees, and there, in the far distance, he could see the faintest glimmer of light.
A cabin.
Tom climbed the chain-link fence, dropped down the far side, and then headed down the road at a fast, silent run.
12
SALLY CRAWLED DOWN the dark tunnel and, after a moment, stopped to listen. She could hear the man scrabbling about and swearing, evidently looking for his flashlight.
She peered ahead into the darkness. Where did it go? She felt her matches but didn't dare light one, realizing it would only turn her into a silhouetted target. She crawled ahead blind, making as little noise as possible. More shots rang out, but he was firing at random, the shots going wild in the darkness. She crawled as fast as she could, cutting her knees on the rocky floor of the mine, feeling ahead. In a few minutes her hand made contact with something cold-a length of slimy, rotten wood that swayed under her grasp. She could smell a cold exhalation of damp mine air coming from below. She lay on her stomach and felt past the railing, her hand encountering a sharp edge of rock. She inched forward, feeling downward-it was slick and wet, evidently the vertical side of a shaft.
Hoping there might be a way around, she crouched and moved alongside, feeling the railing as she went.
A voice rang out. 'You can't get out, bitch. The grate's locked and I got the key.' A pause, then he spoke again, making an effort to be calmer. 'Look, hey, I'm not going to hurt you. Forget all that. Let's be reasonable. Let's talk.'
Sally reached the tunnel wall. The pit, it seemed, stretched all the way across, blocking her way. She paused, her heart pounding in her chest.
'Look, I'm sorry about all that. I got carried away.'
She could still hear him rummaging around for the flashlight he had dropped-which might still work. She had to find a way down the shaft, and fast.
She felt her way back along the railing until she came to a gap. Was this where
a ladder descended? She lay flat on her stomach again and leaned over the lip of the pit, feeling the wet wall of stone downward-a ladder! The top rung felt soft and spongy from rot.
She had to see it before she began climbing down. She had to risk a match.
'Hey, I know you're there. So be reasonable. I promise I'll let you go.'
She took out the box of matches, slid it open, took out a match. Then she leaned out over the edge and struck it, keeping the flame below the edge of the shaft. The rising air caused it to flicker and blue, but there was enough light for her to see a rotting wooden ladder descending into a black, seemingly bottomless pit. Many of its rungs were broken or muffled with rot and creeping white fungus. It would be suicide to go down that ladder.
Wham! A. shot followed, snipping the rock just to her right and spraying the side of her shoulder with chips of stone.
She dropped the match with an involuntary gasp, and it spiraled into the darkness, flickering for a moment before going out.
'Bitch! I'll kill you!'
She swung herself over the black void and felt downward with her foot, encountering a rotten rung, tested it with her weight, then lowered herself slowly, trying the next rung.
She heard a muffled exclamation of triumph, then a click-and suddenly the beam of a flashlight swung past her head.
She ducked and scrambled down the ladder. Almost immediately one of the rungs snapped and her leg swung out over the pit before she could reestablish her footing. The entire ladder creaked and swayed.
Down she went, rung after rung, slipping and gasping with effort, the ladder shaking, drops of water cascading about her. Another rung snapped under her foot, two in a row, dropping her so she was only holding on by her hands, swinging once again in the darkness. She gasped, laddering down with her hands and feeling ahead with her feet until she could pick up a solid rung again.
The beam of the light suddenly appeared at the lip of the shaft, a bright light fixating her in its glare. She threw herself sideways as the gun went off, the round tearing a hole in the rung, the entire ladder swaying with her violent movement.
A laugh echoed down. 'That was just for practice. Now for the real thing.'
She looked up again, gasping. He was leaning over the lip, twenty feet above her, flashlight in one hand, aiming the gun with the other. It was a no-miss shot. He knew he had her and was taking his time. She struggled down the groaning ladder. Any second he would pull the trigger. She looked up, saw just the outline of his face etched against the light. She stopped descending-it was pointless.
'No,' she gasped. 'Please don't.'
He extended his arm, the steel muzzle of the gun gleaming in the light. She could see the muscles tightening in his hand as he began to depress the trigger. 'Kiss your ass good-bye, bitch.'
Sally did the only thing she could do: she launched herself from the ladder, letting herself fall into the dark pit.
13
CORVUS STARED AT the green LED, paralyzed with fear. How could the man have penetrated the museum's security? What the hell did he want?
The door eased open, casting a widening stripe of yellow light across the floor, which cut through the mounted skeleton of an allosaurus, turning it into a Halloween-like monstrosity. The shadow of his pursuer moved into the bar of light, his outline falling strangely on the dinosaur, and as he took a second step forward Corvus saw he was carrying a long-barreled weapon of some kind.
The sight of it broke the spell and spurred Corvus into action. He turned and fled back toward the dark recesses of the storage room, flying down a narrow corridor lined on both sides with massive steel shelves, past stacks of bones and skulls. He came to a jog and turned right, then ran down another aisle and left into another. He stopped, panting and crouching behind a large centrosaurus skull, looking back to see if the man was pursuing. His heart was pounding so hard he could hear the rhythmic whoosh of blood in his ears. He peered through a hole in the monster's bony frill, and he saw that the man had not moved: he remained a black silhouette in the open door. The man finally raised the weapon, stepped away, and allowed the door to reclose, the security locks latching automatically-and darkness once again descended on the storage room.
Corvus's mind raced. This was insane: he was being hunted in his own museum. It must be connected with the T. Rex in New Mexico. This man wanted his data and was willing to kill for it.
The curator heard someone breathing loudly, realized it was himself, and tried to get himself under control.
