A moment later, Copeland finished typing. He turned to Nash. 'NRI's ready.'
'Do it,' Nash said.
Copeland hit a key on the keyboard and immediately the silver rod mounted on top of the machine began to rotate. It moved slowly, in a steady, measured circle.
As it did so, Race looked about himself and noticed that Lopez and Chambers had returned from their exploring.
Now they were staring intently at the machine. Race looked at the rest of the team around him—-everyone was staring intently at the nucleotide resonance imager.
And then suddenly it dawned on him.
This was what everything depended on.
If the imager didn't detect the idol somewhere in the immediate vicinity, then they had all wasted their time com ing here—
The rod on top of the imager stopped turning.
'We have a reading,' Lauren said suddenly, her eyes locked on the console's screen.
Race saw Nash let out the breath he'd been holding.
'Where?'
'One second…' Lauren typed something on the keyboard.
The rod on the imager was now pointing upriver— toward the mountains—toward the area where the trees of the rainforest met the sheer face of the nearest rocky plateau.
Lauren said, 'The signal's weak because the angle's not
right. But I'm picking up something. Let me see if I can adjust • the vector some…'
She hit some more keys and the rod on top of the unit slowly began to tilt upwards. It had reached an angle of about thirty degrees when suddenly Lauren's eyes lit up.
'All right,' she said. 'Strong signal. Very high frequency resonance. Bearing 270 degrees—due west. Vertical angle is 29 degrees, 58 minutes. Range… 793 metres.'
Lauren looked up at the dark rocky mountain face that rose above the trees to the west. It looked like a plateau of some sort. Slanting sheets of rain whipped across its face.
'It's somewhere in there,' she said. 'Somewhere up in the mountains.
Nash turned to Scott. 'Get on the radio to Panama. Tell
them that the preliminary team has verified the existence of the substance. But also say that we have intel on hostile forces en route to our location as we speak. Tell them to send in a full protective force for extraction as soon as they can.'
Nash spun to face the rest of the assembled group. 'All right, folks, saddle up. Let's go get that idol.'
Everyone started getting ready.
The Green Berets readied their M-16s. The DARPA scientists grabbed compasses and various computer equipment to take with them.
Race saw Lauren and Troy Copeland head inside one of the Hueys, presumably to grab some gear of their own. He hurried after them to see if he could help—and while he was at it, maybe also to ask Lauren what Nash had meant when he'd said that hostile forces were on their way to Vilcafor.
'Hey—' Race said as he arrived in the doorway of the chopper. 'Oh…'
He'd caught the two of them in a clinch—kissing like a pair of teenagers—hands through each other's hair, tongues in each other's mouths. Hot to trot.
Upon Race's unexpected arrival, the two scientists separated instantly. Lauren blushed. Copeland scowled.
'I'm… really sorry,.' Race said. 'I didn't mean to'
'It's okay,' Lauren said, pushing her hair back into place.
'This is just a very exciting moment for us.'
Race nodded, turned away, headed back into the village.
Obviously.
What he couldn't help thinking about, however, as he walked back to join the others in the village, was the image of Lauren running her fingers through Copeland's hair as she kissed him. He had seen her wedding ring clearly.
Copeland, on the other hand, hadn't been wearing one.
The group walked along the remains of a muddy path that ran along the edge of the riverbank. They were heading toward the base of the rocky mountain-plateau, the sounds of the night-time forest loud in their ears. The sea of leaves around them rippled under the weight of the steady rain.
It was dark now and the beams of their flashlights played across the forest. As he walked, Race noticed some gaps in the dark storm clouds above them—gaps which allowed the odd shaft of brilliant blue moonlight to illuminate the river beside them. Occasionally in the distance he would see the strobe-like flash of lightning. A storm was coming.
Lauren and Copeland led the way. Lauren held a digital compass out in front of her. Walking alongside her, his
