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She shrugged. “Probably a tomb. If the chamber served a ceremonial function, it wouldn’t have been sealed off in antiquity.”

“Whose tomb?”

“How should I know?”

“The ancient inhabitants of the city built one of the largest structures in the world over that tomb. I’d say the person buried there must be pretty important, don’t you think?”

“You’re wasting time. Get to the point.”

“The point, Jade, is that you seem to have forgotten about one of the most important aspects of Mesoamerican culture, something that Dominion is likely to be very interested in. Quetzalcoatl.”

Jade’s frown deepened. “Quetzalcoatl the Aztec god? What’s he got to do with anything? The Aztecs didn’t show up in Teo until almost a thousand years after the pyramid was built.”

“Worship of the feathered serpent deity in Mesoamerica goes back a lot further than the Aztecs. But as I’m sure you’ll remember, in some myths, Quetzalcoatl is often described as a bearded white man who brought great wisdom to the ancient people who once lived here.”

Jade rolled her eyes. “Please. I know what comes next. Quetzalcoatl was actually Jesus Christ, bringing the Gospel to the heathens of the Americas. No one believes those old stories anymore. It was just Spanish propaganda designed to convert the indigenous people.”

“Some people still believe.”

“Like who?”

“The Mormons.”

Jade’s mouth was open to reply, but then she closed it and sat back.

“Not officially,” Professor continued. “Not anymore at least, but for decades it was an article of faith in the LDS Church that the legends surrounding Quetzalcoatl were evidence that Christ once visited the Americas. And I don’t need to remind you that the Dominion has expressed a keen interest in some of those more antiquated bits of LDS folklore.”

Professor knew that Jade had first-hand experience with this subject; a few years earlier, her first encounter with the Dominion had seen the group infiltrate a Mormon sect in order to locate Biblical artifacts concealed in the Seven Golden Cities of Cibola.

“I’m not suggesting that the chamber is going to contain the remains of Quetzalcoatl or Jesus Christ,” he continued. “All I’m saying is, the Dominion might believe that, and if they do, then you can bet they’ll be watching to see what you discover.”

Jade processed this for a moment. “Okay. You said two reasons.”

Professor nodded his head in her direction. “You’re the other reason.”

“Me?”

“You’ve foiled their best laid plans a few times now, Jade. They aren’t likely to forget, and they certainly aren’t going to forgive.”

She laughed mirthlessly. “So that’s how you were able to act on this so quickly; been keeping an eye on me. Well, I appreciate the concern, but you can go back and tell Maddock that I’m a big girl. I don’t need protecting.”

Professor felt a twinge of irritation at her assumption that he was acting as Maddock’s lackey. “I’m not here to protect you,” he replied, speaking slowly to avoid letting any bitterness creep into his tone. “I’m here because if there’s even a chance the Dominion might show up, I want to be ready to crush them.”

She flashed a sardonic smile. “You sure know how to make a girl feel special.”

“Damn it, Jade, make up your mind,” Professor snapped. “Which is it? Do you want someone watching your back, or not? You can’t have it both ways.”

Jade’s lower jaw shifted slowly to the left, as if biting back a scathing retort. When she finally spoke, her voice was low, smoldering with pent up anger, but she didn’t address the subject directly. “What about your friend, Hodges? Is he really a robot expert, or is that just cover?”

“Brian knows what he’s doing,” replied Professor with equal intensity. “He got his training in Naval EOD. He also hates the Dominion more than you and I put together. His wife and baby daughter died at Norfolk.”

Jade blinked. The mere mention of the Dominion attack on Norfolk, in which thousands had died in a catastrophic tsunami wave, triggered by an ancient Atlantean device, seemed to have broken through her tough girl facade. Then she shook her head, dismissively. “Well, it’s probably not going to matter. What I’m really going to need is someone who can drive a robot into that chamber. Like I said, there’s nothing here that’s going to be of interest to the Dominion. It’s just straightforward archaeology.”

Professor raised his glass again. “Well, here’s to straightforward archaeology.”

THREE

Jade stared at the strange looking bundle of metal rods. “That’s a robot? It doesn’t look anything like WALL-E.”

Hodges grinned. “Some of them do, but in order to explore a vertical shaft, we need a unit that can climb walls. That’s why I brought Shelob here.”

“Shelob. Cute.” She took a step back, giving him room to assemble the robot, but Paul Dorion quickly occupied the space she had vacated.

“How does it work?”

Jade had not seen the particle physicist look so excited since the discovery of the hidden tunnel, though in truth, she had not seen much of him or Sanchez in the past few days. They had made themselves scarce while she had been laboring to dig the exploratory shaft, probably afraid that she would put them to work.

Hodges seemed only too happy to share. “Most wall climbing robots use suction cups or magnets, but those won’t work here. The stone isn’t magnetic and it’s too porous for a suction cup to adhere. I designed Shelob to work in chimney shafts and inside wet walls where the surface material would be unpredictable. Like her namesake—”

“I’m sorry, her namesake?” inquired Sanchez.

“Shelob is the giant spider from Lord of the Rings,” supplied Professor.

Hodges nodded. “That’s right. She’s got eight fully articulated legs — two sets of four — which can extend in any direction. One set of legs will extend out to brace her in place between opposing surfaces while the other set reaches up or down, taking a step as it were. When those legs are braced, the other set disengages and takes the next step.

“Watch this.” Hodges slipped on a headset microphone. “Shelob, run diagnostic.”

The metal rods abruptly unfolded from the thorax, which looked sort of like a tool box with a GoPro attached to one end, and began whirring and rotating until they made contact with the stone floor. The movements were mechanical and jerky, but it nevertheless looked very much like a silvery spider, though instead of a silk thread, it trailed a length of black coaxial cable that connected to a spool which was in turn hooked up to Hodges’ laptop. The display screen showed the view from Shelob’s camera. The robot went through a series of maneuvers, scuttling around chamber as if exploring.

“The legs can telescope out like the adjustable legs of a camera tripod,” Hodges said, “for a total reach of just over eight feet, which should be just about perfect for your tunnel.”

As if on cue, the robot’s legs began to lengthen, shooting out to their full length until it more closely resembled a daddy-longlegs than a spider, which in Jade’s opinion did nothing improve its appearance.

“Great,” muttered Jade. “Robot spiders. Nothing freaky about that.”

“You afraid of spiders?” Professor whispered in her ear.

She ignored him. Despite his persuasive arguments in the cantina, she was far from happy about the way he’d hijacked her dig. The only reason she hadn’t blown the whistle and told Acosta about it was that Hodges did happen to have a robot that would let her see the hidden chamber and she didn’t want to wait another week for Acosta to find someone else.