Inca Gold dp-12 Page 16

  "What the hell else do they have on their want list?" demanded Pitt roughly. "A dive orgy for souvenirs thrown off cruise ships by tourists afraid of Customs inspectors?"

  "Nothing so mundane," Gunn explained patiently. "They also insist that you return to the Pueblo de los Muertos."

  "They must think artifacts sitting in the rain qualify as underwater stolen goods," Giordino said with acidic humor.

  "The Customs people are in dire need of an inventory."

  "Of the artifacts in the temple?" Pitt asked incredulously. "Do they expect an indexed catalogue? There must be close to a thousand items stacked inside whatever is left of the temple after the mercenaries finished blowing it all to hell. They need archaeologists to sort through the hoard, not marine engineers."

  "The Peruvian Investigative Police have investigated and reported that most of the artifacts were removed from the temple soon after you escaped," explained Gunn. "International Customs agents need descriptions so they can identify the artifacts should they begin to show up at antique auctions, or in private collections, galleries, and museums in affluent first world countries. They hope that a return trip to the scene of the crime will jog your memories."

  "Events were moving too fast for a quick tally."

  Gunn nodded in understanding. "But certain objects must have stuck in your mind, especially the outstanding pieces. What about you, Al?"

  "I was busy prowling the ruins for a radio," said Giordino. "I didn't have time to examine the stuff."

  Pitt held his hands to his head and massaged his temples. "I might be able to recall fifteen or twenty items that stood out."

  "Can you sketch them?"

  "I'm a miserable artist, but I think I can draw reasonably accurate pictures. No need to visit the place again. I can just as well illustrate what I remember while lounging by a swimming pool at a resort hotel."

  "Sounds sensible to me," Giordino said cheerfully.

  "No," Gunn said, "it's not sensible. Your job goes much deeper. As much as it turns my stomach, you two middle-aged delinquents are Peruvian national heroes. Not only are you in demand with the Customs Service, the State Department wants a piece of you."

  Giordino stared at Pitt. "One more manifestation of Giordino's list of laws. Any man who volunteers for a rescue mission becomes a victim."

  "What does the State Department have to do with us making a round trip to the temple?" Pitt demanded.

  "Since the South American Free Trade Treaty, the petroleum and mining industries have been denationalized. Several American companies are currently completing negotiations to help Peru better exploit its natural resources. The country desperately needs foreign investment, and the money is ready to pour in. The catch is that labor unions and the opposition parties of the legislature are against foreign involvement in their economy. By saving the lives of sons and daughters of the local VIPs, you and Al indirectly influenced a number of votes."

  "All right, so we give a speech at the local Elks Club and accept a certificate of merit."

  "Fine as far as it goes," said Gunn. "But State Department experts and the Congressional Committee on Latin American Affairs think you both should hang around and make the dirty Yankees look good by helping to halt the looting of Peru's cultural heritage."

  "In other words, our esteemed government wants to milk our benevolent image for all it's worth," said Pitt stonily.

  "Something along those lines."

  "And Sandecker agreed to it."

  "Goes without saying," Gunn assured him. "The admiral never misses a chance to stroke Congress if it can lead to more funding for NUMA's future operations."

  "Who is going in with us?"

  "Dr. Alberto Ortiz from the National Institute of Culture in Chiclayo will supervise the archaeological team. He'll be assisted by Dr. Kelsey."

  "Without reliable protection we'll be asking for trouble."

  "The Peruvians have assured us they will send in a highly trained security force to control the valley."

  "But are they trustworthy? I don't want an encore by an army of rogue mercenaries."

  "Nor me," Giordino agreed firmly.

  Gunn made a helpless gesture. "I can only pass on what I was told."

  "We'll need better equipment than what we took in on our last trip."

  "Give me a list and I'll handle the logistics."

  Pitt turned to Giordino. "Do you get the distinct impression we've been had?"

  "As near as I can tell," said the stocky Italian, "this makes about four hundred and thirty-seven times."

  Pitt did not look forward to a repeat dive in the sinkhole. There was a haunted aura about it, something evil in its depths. The yawning cavity gaped in his mind as though it were the mouth of the devil. The imagery was so irrational that he tried to erase it from his mind, but the vision would not go away. It clung like the vague memory of a repugnant nightmare.

  Two days later, at about eight in the morning, preparations were completed for the dive to retrieve Doc Miller's body from the sacred well. As Pitt stared down at the surface slime of the sinkhole, all his apprehension evaporated. The loathsome cavity still looked as menacing as when he had first encountered it, but he had survived its deadly surge, climbed its sheer walls. Now that he knew its hidden secrets, it no longer held any threat. The first hurried, planned-on-the-spot rescue was quickly forgotten. This was now a state-of-the-art project.

  True to his word, Gunn had chartered two helicopters and scrounged the necessary gear for the job. One whole day was spent ferrying Dr. Kelsey and Miles Rodgers, the dive crew, and their equipment to the site and reestablishing the destroyed camp. Gunn was not known for running sloppy operations. There was no deadline, and he took the time to plan every step with precision. Nothing was left to chance.

  A fifty-man contingent from Peru's elite special security unit was already in place when Gunn's first helicopter landed. To the taller North Americans the South American men seemed small in stature. They had an almost gentle look on their faces, but they were a tough lot, hardened by years of fighting Shining Path guerrillas in the heavily forested mountain country and barren coastal deserts. They quickly set up defenses around the camp and sent patrols into the surrounding jungle.

  "Wish I was going with you," said Shannon from behind Pitt.

  He turned and smiled. "I can't imagine why. Retrieving a human body that's been decomposing in tropically heated soup is not what I call a fun experience."

  "Sorry, I didn't mean to sound cold-hearted." There was little expression of sorrow in her eyes. "I had the deepest admiration for Doc. But the archaeologist in me wants desperately to explore the bottom of the sacred pool."

  "Don't get your hopes up of finding a treasure in antiquities," Pitt consoled her. "You'd be disappointed. All I saw was an acre of silt with an old Spaniard growing out of it."

  "At least allow Miles to dive with you and make a photo record."

  "Why the rush?"

  "During the recovery, you and Al might disturb the bottom and move artifacts from their original positions."

  Pitt gazed at her through disbelieving eyes. "You consider that more important than showing respect for Doc Miller?"

  "Doc is dead," she said matter-of-factly. "Archaeology is an exacting science that deals with dead things. Doc taught that better than anyone. The slightest disturbance could alter significant findings."

  Pitt began to see a side of Shannon that was all business. "After Al and I bring up Miller's remains, you and your Miles can dive and retrieve artifacts to your heart's content. But mind you don't get sucked into the side cavern again."

  "Once is enough," she said with a tight smile. Then her expression turned to one of concern. "Be careful and don't take chances."

  Then she kissed him lightly on the cheek, turned and hurried off toward her tent.

  Dropping into the water went smoothly, thanks to a small crane and a motorized winch operated under the watchful eye of Rudi Gunn. When Pitt was about a mete
r above the water, he released the safety catch holding him on the end of the cable running to the winch. The upper, slime-laden level of the water was as tepid as expected but he did not recall it smelling quite so pungent. He floated lazily on his back, waiting for the cable to return topside before lowering Giordino.

  Pitt's full face mask was connected to a communications and safety line while Giordino dove free and unencumbered, relying on hand signals from Pitt for instructions. As soon as his diving buddy slid into the muck beside him, Pitt motioned downward, and they rolled forward and dove into the depths of the sinkhole. They stayed close to avoid becoming separated and losing sight of one another in the dismal murk before reaching the incredibly clear water 4 meters (13 feet) below the surface of the pool. The grayish brown of the bottom silt and rocks materialized out of the gloom and came up to meet them. They leveled off at 2 meters (6 feet), and Pitt made a motion to stop all movement. Carefully, so he didn't stir up a cloud of silt, he removed a stainless steel shaft that was attached to a reel of nylon cord and shoved it into a pocket of silt.

  "How are you doing?" Gunn's voice came over the earphones inside Pitt's face mask.

  "We've reached bottom and are beginning a circular search for the body," Pitt replied as he began unwinding the line.

  Pitt obtained bearings from his compass and began sweeping around the shaft that protruded from the silt, enlarging the search pattern while unreeling the line, as if following the path of a pinwheel. He slowly swam above the muck, scanning from side to side with Giordino following slightly to the side and rear of Pitt's fins. In the transparent liquid void they soon spotted the saponified remains of Doc Miller.

  In the few days since he had seen the body it had changed for the worse. Tiny pieces were missing from the exposed skin areas. Pitt was at a loss to explain this until he glimpsed a strange brightly speckled fish with luminous scales dart in and begin nibbling one of Doc's eyes. He brushed away the carnivorous fish, the size of a small trout, and wondered how it came to be stranded in a deep pool in the middle of a jungle.

  He gave a hand signal to Giordino who removed a rubberized body bag from a pack that was strapped to his chest above his weight belt. A decomposing body cannot be smelled underwater. That's what they say. Perhaps it was in their minds, but the smell of death seemed to flow through their breathing regulators as if their air tanks were contaminated with it. An impossibility, to be sure, but tell that to rescue teams who have seen the horror of long-immersed dead.

  They wasted no time in examining the body but moved as fast as their hands would let them, pulling the body bag over the corpse while trying not to stir up a cloud of silt. The silt did not cooperate, billowing up in a dense cloud, cutting off all visibility. They worked blind, carefully zipping up the bag, making sure no flesh protruded from the seam. When the grisly job was completed, Pitt reported to Gunn.

  "We have the body contained and are on our way up."

  "Acknowledged," Gunn replied. "We will lower a sling with a stretcher."

  Pitt grabbed Giordino's arm through the silt cloud, signaling for a mutual ascent. They began raising the remains of Doc Miller to the sunlight. After reaching the surface, they gently eased the body onto the stretcher and secured it with buckled straps. Then Pitt advised Gunn.

  "Ready for lift."

  As Pitt watched the stretcher rise toward the rim of the sinkhole, he sadly wished he had known the genuine Steve Miller instead of the imposter. The esteemed anthropologist had been murdered without knowing why. No hint was given by the scum that cut his throat. He never knew that his death was an unnecessary act by a sociopathic killer. He was simply a cast-off pawn in the high-stakes game of stolen art and antiquities.

  There was nothing more to be done. Their part of the body retrieval operation was finished. Pitt and Giordino could only float and wait for the winch to lower the cable again. Giordino looked over at Pitt expectantly and removed the breathing regulator from his mouth.

  We still have plenty of air, he wrote on a communications board. Why not poke around while we're waiting for the next elevator?

  To Pitt the suggestion struck a harmonious chord. Unable to remove his head mask and speak, he replied on his own communications board, Stay close to me and grab hold if struck by surge. Then he gestured downward. Giordino nodded and faithfully swam alongside as they jackknifed and kicked once more toward the floor of the sinkhole.

  The puzzle in Pitt's mind was the lack of artifacts in the silt. Bones, yes, there was an overabundance. But after probing the sinkhole's floor for half an hour, they found no sign of ancient artifacts. Nothing except the armor on the intact skeleton he had discovered on his first dive, and the dive gear Pitt had cast off before his climb out of the well. Two minutes was all it took to relocate the site. The bony hand was still raised, one finger pointing in the direction where Miller had lain.

  Pitt slowly drifted around the armor-encased Spaniard, examining every detail, occasionally glancing up and around the dim reaches of the sinkhole, alert to any disturbance in the silt that signaled the approach of the mysterious surge. He felt his every movement was followed from deep within the empty eye sockets of the skull. The teeth seemed frozen in a mocking grin, taunting and baiting him at the same time. The sunlight from above filtered through the slime and painted the bones a ghostly shade of green.

  Giordino floated nearby, observing Pitt with detached curiosity. He had no clue to what captivated his friend. The old bones held little fascination for Giordino. The remains of a five-hundred-year-old Spaniard conjured up nothing in his imagination, except possibly the eruption that would occur when Shannon Kelsey discovered that her precious archaeological site had been disturbed before she could investigate it.

  No such thoughts ran through Pitt's mind. He was beginning to sense that the skeleton did not belong here. He rubbed a finger lightly over the breastplate. A thin smudge of rust came away, revealing smooth, unpitted, uncorroded metal beneath. The leather straps that held the armor against the chest were incredibly well preserved. And so were the fasteners that joined the straps. They had the appearance of metal buckles on old shoes that had sat inside a trunk in an attic for one or two generations.

  He swam a few meters away from the skeleton and pulled a bone out of the silt, a tibia by the shape of it. He returned and held it against the Spaniard's protruding forearm and hand. The bone from the silt was much rougher and pitted as well as more deeply stained from the minerals in the water. The bony structure of the skeleton was smooth in comparison. Next he studied the teeth, which were in remarkably good condition. Pitt found caps on two molars, not gold but silver. Pitt was no expert on sixteenth-century dentistry, but he knew that Europeans didn't even begin to fill cavities and cap teeth until the late eighteenth century.

  "Rudi?"

  "I'm listening," answered Gunn.

  "Please send down a line. I want to lift something."

  "A line with a small weight attached to the end is on the way."

  "Try to drop it where you see our bubbles."

  "Will do." There was a pause, and then Gunn's voice came back over Pitt's earphones with a slight edge to it. "Your archaeologist lady is raising hell. She says you can't touch anything down there."

  "Pretend she's in Moline, Illinois, and drop the line."

  Gunn replied nervously. "She's making a terrible scene up here."

  Either drop the line or throw her over the edge," Pitt snapped obstinately.

  "Stand by."

  Moments later a small steel hook attached to a nylon line materialized through the green void and landed in the silt two meters away. Giordino effortlessly swam over, snagged the line with one hand, and returned. Then, with the finesse of a pickpocket delicately lifting a wallet, Pitt very carefully wrapped the loose end of the line around a strap holding the breastplate to the skeleton and cinched it with the hook. He stared at Giordino and made the thumbs-up gesture. Giordino nodded and was mildly surprised when Pitt released the line, al
lowing it to slacken and leaving the skeleton where it lay.

  They took turns being lifted out of the sinkhole. As the crane raised him by his safety line, Pitt looked down and vowed he would never again enter that odious slough. At the rim, Gunn was there to help swing him onto firm ground and remove his full face mask.

  "Thank God, you're back," he said. "That madwoman threatened to shoot off my testicles."

  Giordino laughed. "She learned that from Pitt. Just be thankful your name isn't Amaru."

  "What. . . what was that?"

  "Another story," said Pitt, inhaling the humid mountain air and enjoying every second of it.

  He was struggling out of his dive suit when Shannon stormed up to him like a wild grizzly who had her cubs stolen. "I warned you not to disturb any artifacts," she said firmly.

  Pitt looked at her for a long moment, his green eyes strangely soft and understanding. "There is nothing left to touch," he said finally. "Somebody beat you to it. Any artifacts that were in your sacred pool a month ago are gone. Only the bones of animals and sacrificial victims are left scattered on the bottom."

  Her face turned incredulous and the hazel eyes flew very wide. "Are you certain?"

  "Would you like proof?"

  "We have our own equipment. I'll dive into the pool and see for myself."

  "Not necessary," he advised.

  She turned and called to Miles Rodgers. "Let's get suited up."

  "You begin probing around in the silt and you will surely die," Pitt said, with all the emotion of a professor lecturing to a physics class.

  Maybe Shannon wasn't listening to Pitt, but Rodgers was. "I think we had better listen to what Dirk is saying."

  "I don't wish to sound nasty, but he lacks the necessary credentials to make a case."

  "What if he's right?" Rodgers asked innocently.

  "I've waited a long time to explore and survey the bottom of the pool. You and I came within minutes of losing our lives trying to unlock its secrets. I can't believe there isn't a time capsule of valuable antiquities down there."

  Pitt took the line leading down into the water and held it loosely in his hand. "Here is the verification. Pull on this line and I guarantee you'll change your mind."