mountains.'
Gunn pointed through the windshield. 'There, on your left. It doesn't look as bad as I thought.'
From Giordino's angle, the only level site to be found against the mountain looked no larger than the bed of a pickup truck. His feet finessed the rudder pedals as his hands stroked the wheel on the control column, correcting his angle and rate of descent with the elevators and ailerons. He thanked heaven that he had a head wind, even if it was only four knots. He could see the rocks scattered across his tiny landing site, but none looked large enough to cause damage to the aircraft's undercarriage. One hand came off the column and began manipulating the levers operating the prop rotors, tilting them from horizontal to vertical until the aircraft was hovering like a helicopter. The large-diameter propellers began sending small stones and dust swirling in damp clouds below the landing wheels.
Giordino was flying by feel now, head turned downward, one eye on the approaching ground, the other on the sheer side of the mountain not more than ten feet beyond the starboard wingtip. And then there was a slight bump as the tires struck the loose rock, and the tilt-rotor settled like a fat goose over her unhatched eggs. He let out a great sigh and pulled back on the throttles before shutting down the engines.
'We're home,' he said thankfully.
Gunn's owlish face crinkled into a smile. 'Was there ever a doubt?'
'I've got the mountain on my side. What's on yours?'
During the landing, Gunn's attention had been focused on the side of the mountain, and only now did he look out the starboard window. Not more than four feet from his exit door, the ledge dropped off at a steep angle for nearly eight hundred feet. The wingtip hung far out over empty air. The smile was gone and his face pale when he turned back to Giordino.
'It wasn't as expansive as I thought,' he murmured sheepishly.
Giordino threw off his safety harness. 'Do you have a route to the chamber figured out?'
Gunn held up the aerial photo and pointed to a small canyon leading up from the shore. 'This is the only way a hunting party could have penetrated the island and made their way up the mountain. Pitt said that according to the ship's log, the colonel and his party climbed halfway up the mountain. We're about at that level now.'
'What direction is the ravine?'
'South. And to answer your next question, we're on the west side of the mountain. With a little luck, we won't have to hike more than three-quarters of a mile, provided we can stumble onto the ancient walkway the colonel mentioned.'
'Thank God for small islands,' Giordino murmured. 'Can you detect the old road on your photo?'
'No, I can't see any sign of it.'
They proceeded to untie the straps containing the survival gear and donned their backpacks. The rain returned in sheets, so they slipped foul-weather gear on over their clothes and boots. When ready, they threw open the passenger door and stepped to the rocky ground. Beyond the ledge was the sheer drop, and beyond the drop, nothing but the Indian Ocean and gray pewter waves. As a safety precaution, they tied down the aircraft to several huge boulders.
The threatening sky made the island seem all the more drab and desolate. Gunn squinted through the rain and motioned for Giordino to lead, pointing in the direction he wanted to follow. They set off diagonally across the slope of the mountain, staying inside the larger rocks where the ground was flatter and firm beneath their feet.
They struggled across small ledges and narrow crevices, trying to walk upright without resorting to mountain-climbing gear, a skill in which neither was proficient. Giordino seemed impervious to fatigue. His thick, powerful body took the climb over the rocks in stride. Gunn had no problems, either. He was wiry and far tougher than he looked. He began to fall back from the unyielding Giordino, not from weariness but because he had to stop every twenty yards to wipe the moisture from his glasses.
About midway across the west side of the mountain, Giordino came to a halt. 'If your reckoning is right, the stone walkway should be a short distance above or below us.'
Gunn sat down with his back to a smooth lava rock and peered at his photo, which had become dog-eared and soggy from the damp. 'Assuming the colonel took the path of least resistance from the ravine, he should have worked his way across the mountain about a hundred feet below us.'
Giordino crouched, placed his hands on slightly bent knees, and stared down the slope. He seemed entranced for several moments before he turned back and looked Gunn full in the face. 'I swear to God, I don't know how you do it.'
'What do you mean?'
'Not thirty feet below where we sit is a narrow road paved with smooth rocks.'
Gunn peered over the edge. Almost within spitting distance, he saw a road, a path really, four feet wide, laid with stones long aged by the weather. The path traveled in both directions, but landslides had carried much of it down the slope. In the cracks between the stones, a strange looking plant was sprouting. It had lettuce-like heads and grew close to the ground. '
'It must be the road described by the British colonel,' said Gunn.
'What's that weird stuff growing in it?' asked Giordino.
'Kerguelen cabbage. It produces a pungent oil and can be eaten as a cooked vegetable.'
'Now you know why the road was indistinguishable on the photo. It was hidden by cabbages.'
'Yes, I can see that now,' said Gunn.
'How did it get established on such a godforsaken island?'
'Probably by its pollen that was carried across the water by the wind.'
'Which direction do you want to follow the road?'
Gunn's eyes scanned the flat-laid stones as far as he could in both directions until they were lost to view. 'The colonel must have stumbled onto the road down to our right. Below that point it must have been destroyed by erosion and slides. Since it makes no sense to start at the top of the mountain and work down, the chamber must be hidden farther up the slope. So we go to the left and climb.'
Stepping cautiously on the loose lava rock, they quickly reached the neatly laid stones and began ascending the road. The flat passage was a welcome relief, but landslides were another matter. They had to cross two of them, each nearly thirty or more yards wide. It was slow going. The lava rock was jagged and knifelike. One slip and their bodies would tumble down the slope, gathering momentum until they bounced over the cliffs far below into the sea.
After negotiating the last hurdle, they sat and rested. Giordino idly picked a cabbage and flipped it down the hill, watching it bounce and shred on its erratic journey. He lost sight of it and did not see the splash as it shot into the water like a cannonball. Instead of lessening, the atmosphere chilled and thickened. The wind gusts strengthened and whipped the rain against their faces. Though they were protected by foul-weather gear, the water found ways of seeping in and around their collars, soaking their inner clothing.
Gunn passed him a thermos of coffee that had gone from steaming hot to lukewarm. Their lunch consisted of four granola bars. They weren't quite in the realm of miserable just yet, but they would soon enter it.
'We must be close,' said Gunn, gazing through binoculars. 'There is no hint of a long scar continuing across the mountain beyond that big rock just ahead.'
Giordino stared at the massive boulder that protruded from the side of the slope. 'The chamber better be on the other side,' he grunted. 'I'm not keen to be caught up here when it gets dark.'
'Not to worry. We've got almost twelve hours of daylight left in this hemisphere.'
'I just thought of something.'
'What's that?' asked Gunn.
'We're the only two humans within two thousand miles.'
'That's a cheery thought.'
'What if we have an accident and injure ourselves and can't fly out of here? Even if we wanted to, I wouldn't dare take off in this wind.'
'Sandecker will mount a rescue mission as soon as we notify him of our status.' Gunn reached into his pocket and pulled out a Globalstar satellite phone. 'He's as close as a dial tone.'
'In the meantime, we'd have to subsist on these stupid cabbages. No, thank you.'
Gunn shook his head in resignation. Giordino was a chronic complainer, and yet there was no better man to
