“But it says that they came down to the village each night to hunt for food?'
“Yes.'
Nash's eyes narrowed. 'Can we assume, then, that they leave the crater to forage for food every night?'
'Judging from the manuscript, that would appear to be a safe assumption.'
'Good,' Nash said, turning.
'Why?'
“Because,' he said, 'when those cats come out tonight, we're going to go inside the temple and get that idol.'
The day grew darker by the minute.
Black storm clouds rolled in overhead, and with the cool air of the late afternoon, a thick grey fog settled over the village.
A light rain fell.
Race sat next to Lauren as she packed some equipment to take over to the citadel in anticipation of their nighttime activities.
“So how has married life been to you?' he asked as casually as he could.
Lauren smiled wryly to herself. 'Depends which one you're talking about.'
'There's more than one?'
'My first marriage didn't exactly work out. Turned out he didn't share my career ambitions. We got divorced about five years ago.'
'Oh.'
'But I've recently remarried,' Lauren said. 'And it's been great. Real nice guy. Just like you, in fact. Lot of potential, too.'
'How long?”
'About eighteen months now.'
'That's great,' Race said politely. In truth, he was thinking about the incident he had witnessed earlier— Lauren and Troy Copeland kissing passionately in the back of the Huey.
He recalled how Copeland hadn't been wearing a wedding ring. Was Lauren having an affair with him? Or maybe Copeland just didn't wear his ring…
'Did you ever get married, Will?' Lauren asked, yanking him from his thoughts.
'No,' Race said softly. 'No, I didn't.'
'SAT-SN report is coming through,“ Van Lewen said from a computer terminal on the wall of the ATV.
He, Cochrane, Reichart, Nash and Race were now standing with the two German BKA agents—Schroeder and the blonde woman, Renee Becker—inside the eight-wheeled all-terrain vehicle. It was parked close to the river, not far from the western log-bridge and the muddy path that led up to the fissure, in anticipation of their night-time assault on the temple.
Lauren had already left the ATV for the citadel, with Johann Krauss in tow behind her.
Just then, Buzz Cochrane returned to the ATV with a handful of sloppy light-brown mush. The smell of it in the confined space of the vehicle was putrid.
'There ain't a single monkey out there that I could catch to get its piss,' Cochrane said. 'Guess they get out of here before nightfall.' He held up the brown mush in his hand. 'I was able to get this, though. Monkey shit. I figured it'd be just as good.'
Race winced at the smell of it.
Cochrane saw him. 'What? Don't want to smear yourself in shit, Professor?' He looked over at Renee and smiled.
“Guess we're lucky it ain't the professor who's going in there, then, ain't we?'
Cochrane began to apply the monkey excrement to the exterior of his fatigues. Reichart and Van Lewen did the same.
They also applied it to the rims of the narrow slit-like windows of the ATV.
While Race had been reading the manuscript earlier, Nash had got the other civilians to set up a base of operations inside the citadel. While they had been doing that, the four remaining Green Berets had been hard at work trying to fix the surviving Huey. Unfortunately, they'd only managed to repair the chopper's ignition ports. Repairing its damaged tail rotor had been more difficult than Cochrane had at first anticipated. Complications had arisen and it still wouldn't turn over and the Huey couldn't fly without it.
Then, with the onset of dusk, Nash decided that the retrieval of the idol had to take priority. The Rangers had been taken away from the chopper and brought over to the ATV, where Race had briefed them on the wet idol incident in the manuscript.
As Race did exactly that, Nash ordered Gaby, Copeland, Doogie and the young German private, Molke, to remain in the citadel.
He had said that it was a necessary part of his plan for seizing the idol to have most of the team stationed inside the citadel when the cats arrived in the village-while he and a few of the Green Berets remained in the ATV, closer to the riverside path that led up to the temple.
Race—who had only just finished briefing the Green Berets on the wet idol incident—was to join them in the
