"Mass hysteria?" Ronnie asked with a frown. "That's more likely to manifest itself in group suicides, like in Jonestown or that comet cult in California. Not in mass murder. Anyway, if you don't mind my saying so, Matt . . . it sounds almost like you're speaking from personal experience."
He shook his head. "I just know what I've read in the papers and seen on TV," he lied. He had seen how evil could spread like wildfire through a group of people, though he wasn't sure he had encountered it yet on this scale.
"Well, we'll keep digging," Ronnie said. "Maybe we'll turn up some positive evidence of what happened."
He noticed that she was standing a little farther away from him than she had been a few minutes earlier. Great, he thought. Now she thinks I'm a psycho killer. He supposed he had sounded a little crazy.
But she didn't know the things he knew, couldn't see the things he could see. If she could, she would be a lot more worried.
# # # # # #
The work continued at all three digs the next day. Hammond and his group hadn't found anything worth noting, but Dr. Varley's team had dug down far enough to reveal that the four "rocks" at the corners of the rectangle were actually the tops of four pillars. Matt paced around the excavation worriedly.
Varley wasn't doing any of the actual digging himself, due to his advanced age. Scott and Chuck did most of that while April and Sierra sifted through the dirt for artifacts.
"What does this look like to you, Doctor?" Matt asked Varley.
"Those pillars are supports for a roof," Varley said, pointing to them. "The irregularities on the tops indicate that they were broken off at some time, so it's safe to assume that originally they were taller. Not all kivas were underground, you know, nor were they all circular. Many of them were square or rectangular and built partially or completely aboveground. I believe what we have here are the ruins of a large, partially sunken kiva with stone walls and a roof."
"You haven't found any bones here, have you?"
Varley smiled and shook his head. "No, no bones. Those seem to be confined to Dr. Dupre's excavation."
If that was the case, Matt wondered why this place bothered him even more than the one that contained evidence of murder and cannibalism.
Late that afternoon, Scott and Chuck uncovered something else. Matt was hunkered on his heels near the edge of the excavation as the two young men leaned over and brushed dirt away from what took shape as a large, smooth, flat stone surface. This wasn't sandstone. It gleamed black, like obsidian.
"Dr. Varley, look at this!" Scott called.
Varley, April, and Sierra came up to the rim of the pit and gazed down into it, along with Matt.
"What is it?" April asked.
"Keep digging," Varley ordered. "We need to determine the object's dimensions."
Shovels bit into the dirt. Scott and Chuck scraped it away until the stone had been revealed down to a depth of several inches. Its edges were square cut. It was about three feet wide and maybe seven feet long.
"It's an altar," Varley said in a hushed voice.
"Like for religious ceremonies?" Scott asked.
"Or maybe for human sacrifices, like in the movies," Chuck said in his West Texas drawl.
Sierra took him seriously and said, "I didn't know the Anasazi sacrificed people."
"We didn't know they practiced cannibalism until now, either," a new voice said. Matt glanced up and saw Andrew Hammond standing near the excavation, a smile on his disfigured face. "This is exciting, Howard, very exciting."
Varley nodded. "Yes, it is."
Scott was feeling around at one end of the altar. He said, "Dr. Varley, something's carved into the stone down here. I can't tell what it is."
"Uncover it," Varley ordered as he leaned over and rested his hands on his knees so he could peer more closely into the pit. "Dig the dirt away from it before we lose our light."
Scott and Chuck wielded their shovels with even greater enthusiasm. Matt felt coldness growing inside him as they uncovered more and more of the altar at one end.
"What is that?" Varley muttered. "The stone is so dark it's difficult to see the markings."
He straightened and started for the ladder. Matt stood up, too, suddenly even more anxious than he had been.
Varley motioned to April and Sierra. "Girls, come with me. You've been part of this, too. You deserve to see what we've found."
Matt felt something wild growing inside him. He started to reach for the elderly professor's arm, not knowing what he would say but feeling a growing need to stop this.
Hammond got in his way. The man's rotting lips drew back from his teeth in an animal-like snarl as he said, "Leave them alone, Cahill."
Suddenly Matt wished he had gotten his ax out of his duffel bag and split Hammond's head open that first day, like he had thought about doing. He might have been hauled off and arrested for murder, but that would be better than what was about to happen here.
"Get the hell out of my way," he said.
Hammond laughed. "You're too late," he told Matt. "Too late."
It was true. Time was screwy somehow. Varley, April, and Sierra had climbed down into the excavation and were crowded around the altar with Scott and Chuck. Matt stepped around Hammond so he had a good view as Scott knelt and brushed the last of the dirt away from the lines carved into the stone.
In the garish red light of late afternoon, the lines formed an unmistakable image, one that Matt had seen all too many times in the past few months.
It was the face of Mr. Dark, and just above it was another striking, sinister image, a snake eating its own tail.
And as Dr. Howard Varley murmured, "Fascinating," a huge blister formed on his cheek, burst, and oozed bilious green pus that trickled down and dripped off his jaw.
CHAPTER EIGHT
"Get out of there!" Matt yelled. "Get out while you—"
But it was already too late. The four grad students reeled back from the altar, and as they did, sores appeared on their faces as well.
Something slammed down on the back of Matt's neck, driving his face against the ground. Blood spurted from his nose. He twisted to look over his shoulder and saw Hammond looming above him. The professor's hands were clubbed together and lifted to deliver another blow.
Matt shot an elbow back into Hammond's belly. The impact knocked Hammond to the side and gave Matt the chance to roll away from him. As he did so, he lifted a booted foot and caught Hammond under the chin with a kick that sent the man sprawling.
Matt scrambled to his hands and knees. He saw Varley climbing out of the pit. The elderly professor's face was covered with sores now, the red marks standing out in stark contrast to his snow-white hair.
"Doctor, get away from that thing!" Matt yelled as he came to his feet.
Varley roared, "Shut your motherfucking mouth!" He stepped off the ladder onto the ground at the edge of the pit and pointed at Matt. "Get him!"
Scott was right behind Varley on the ladder. With almost superhuman agility, he leapt out of the excavation. He had brought his shovel with him, and he gripped the handle and swung the blade at Matt's head with blinding speed.
Matt ducked under the swinging shovel and stepped in to slam a punch into Scott's midsection. The blow sent Scott staggering back a couple of steps, but he caught his balance quickly.
Chuck was out of the pit by now, also armed with the shovel he had used to help unearth the altar. He raised it high above his head, unleashed what sounded like a rebel yell from his throat, and brought the shovel down. Matt leapt aside from it. The shovel clanged loudly on the ground.