“I don’t suppose we need these anymore.” Griffin switched off his flashlight.
Cassie realized her own was still on. She flicked it off absently.
“We’ll have to cover this up,” Erik observed.
“What?” Cassie didn’t think she’d heard him right. “We just spent hours carving out a hole in this dome, and now you want to cover it up?”
“We don’t know if our buddy the cowboy is going to circle back here,” the security coordinator cautioned. “If he thinks we got out, he’s going to try to track us down.”
It hadn’t occurred to Cassie that Leroy might come back to make sure the job was finished.
“Let him think we’re still inside.”
“That makes sense.” Griffin looked around for something to camouflage the hole in the dome. “Luckily, the gap is just at ground level, so it shouldn’t be too hard to disguise.”
“We can pile some rocks against the spot,” Erik suggested. “Unless he’s looking pretty close, he won’t notice.”
Cassie sighed at the thought of moving more boulders. But, as she sternly reminded herself, she had no reason to complain. It was a miracle that they were alive at all.
The trio gathered stones and brush. In a short time, they had effectively camouflaged the gap in the dome.
Cassie gazed at their handiwork. “I think that hole in the roof is going to collapse eventually.”
“Eventually won’t matter,” Erik countered. “If Hunt circles back here it’s going to be in the next few days.”
“Are we ready to quit this dismal spot?” Griffin asked.
“Fine by me,” Erik agreed.
“No,” Cassie blurted out, a troubling thought beginning to form.
“Huh?” the security coordinator gave her a surprised look.
“Guys, we have to go back to the entrance of the tomb.”
“What?” Griffin sounded shocked.
“I think we’re missing something. I think you two dragged me out of my vision too soon.”
Erik rolled his eyes. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“No, I’m not kidding.” Cassie’s tone was serious. “I feel like there was something more I was supposed to see.”
The security coordinator hoisted his pack onto his back and started down the trail. “I’m not hanging around here just because you’ve got a hunch. For all we know, the cowboy and his buddy could be on their way back here right now.”
Cassie ran down the slope after him and grabbed him by the arm. She spun him around to face her. “Don’t you dare brush me off! This is important, damn it! All my life I’ve been moved around like a pawn on somebody else’s chessboard. First by my parents and then by my sister. Just a dumb kid who needs to be protected. A little girl who doesn’t know anything and shouldn’t know anything.”
“You’re right so far,” Erik concurred.
Griffin hurried down the hill after them, ready to separate the two if necessary.
“Maybe I’m not a walking search engine like Griffin or James Bond Junior like you, but I’m a part of this team for a reason. I’m the pythia, and my hunches matter! Right now, they’re screaming in my head that we need to go back to that boulder, and you need to let me finish doing my damn job!” She glared at him defiantly.
Griffin glanced worriedly from one to the other.
Erik stared at Cassie for a long moment, as if he were seeing her for the first time. Then a slight smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. “OK, toots. Go for it!”
“My name’s not toots,” she muttered. Turning in the opposite direction, she marched back to the top of the dromos where the boulder stood. She looked down briefly at the trench. As Griffin had surmised, it was buried under a pile of rock. The retaining wall had collapsed completely. They would never have gotten out through the stomion. The sight made her shudder.
Transferring her attention to the boulder, she could see it more easily in the gathering light. The two men caught up with her by this time. She sat down in front of the rock and looked up at them.
“You both should stand back. Don’t touch me until I come out of it on my own, OK?” Her tone didn’t brook argument.
The men traded a look. Griffin nodded slowly.
Erik shrugged. “Fine.”
Cassie took off her jacket and folded it up like a pillow. Placing it behind her neck, she leaned her head back against the smooth face of the boulder and closed her eyes.
Once again, she felt the strange sensation of the sky shifting from dawn to noon. The same spot but a different time of day. She was still the stone carver with the sinewy arms, but she was working on a different section of the boulder. Much farther down than before. She gazed up and saw the lily freshly carved at the top. She saw the two lines of symbols which Griffin had easily translated. She saw the deep groove in the middle of the boulder and the half symbols carved below it. But the stone cutter wasn’t working on any of that.
Her eyes flew open, and she sat bolt upright.
“What?” both men asked simultaneously.
Cassie smiled broadly. “I was right. There was something else. There’s another line of code.”
“Where?” the security coordinator challenged. “I don’t see anything.”
Cassie was on her hands and knees in front of the boulder. “That’s because it’s under this.” She started clawing at a heavy flat rock that had been placed precisely at the base of the boulder and in front of it. It seemed to have been cut evenly on one end so that it fitted flush up against the larger stone.
She turned to face her companions. “You guys up to some more digging? We need to move this flat rock out of the way.”
Erik wordlessly removed his jacket and rolled up his shirt sleeves. Griffin followed suit.
It took several minutes to dig out enough of the dirt around the base of the rock to allow it to move.
They strained and pushed and pulled and eventually were able to drag
