A three-step infiltration was planned. First, a Chinook off the Stennis would fly the two men and a F-470 zodiac to a position five miles outside the shield wall. The chopper would drop them near the island where they would use the boat to get as close as possible to the wall. They would then deflate the F-470, and take it with them as they dove down to the hole in the shield wall. Once through, they would reinflate the zodiac and continue with their mission. To exfiltrate, they would leave the zodiac behind and swim out and signal for the chopper to come pick them up.
The two men knew the location of the guardian underneath Rapa Kara and had maps of the tunnels UNAOC had drilled to get to that chamber. Beyond that, what was going on inside the black shield was an unknown.
Their priority, given to them directly by Captain Robinette, was to first find out what was going on, particularly with regard to the Washington and the Springfield, then rescue Kelly Reynolds. With these orders firmly in mind, Olivetti and McGraw boarded the Chinook and took off, heading toward the southern horizon.
The earth was scorched for miles surrounding the black shield that stretched for over three miles in circumference at the base and a mile and a half in height. The dragon paused fifty meters from the shield. Inside, Lexina had a small black sphere in her lap, the surface covered with hexagons. Each glowed slightly, highlighting High Rune markings etched on the surface. Lexina tapped four in order. The shield suddenly disappeared, revealing the bulk of Qian-Ling, the mountain tomb. Over three thousand feet high, it was obvious the hill was not a natural formation as the sides rose uniformly to the rounded top.
Elek pushed forward on the controls, edging the dragon toward the hill. Lexina ran her hands over the black sphere once more, and a large circular opening appeared three quarters of the way up the hill, allowing the dragon access to its millennia-old lair.
Lexina turned the shield back on as they entered the tunnel that angled down to the main storage area inside Qian-Ling. The dragon came to rest on the floor of the large chamber. The back ramp dropped and Lexina led the way off, the case holding the Spear of Destiny in her hand. Elek, Coridan, and Gergor silently followed.
The chamber was huge, with arching beams of black metal supporting the roof. Inside were containers of various sizes, one of which had held the dragon, another of which was open, revealing a large spinning cylinder that propagated the shield wall.
Moving past these, she headed to a doorway which opened onto a wide tunnel, the other Ones Who Wait following. She followed that to a three-way intersection, where she made a right turn and began descending, the others still behind.
She stopped abruptly when a dim red glow lit the main tunnel about twenty meters ahead of her. The glow began to take form, elongating until a ghostlike apparition appeared before her. Lexina knelt, the others following suit, their eyes on the strange image. The legs and arms were longer than a human’s, the body shorter, the head covered with bright red hair. The skin was flawless and white, the ears with long lobes that almost reached the shoulders. The eyes were red in red, just like Lexina’s.
The figure’s right hand came up, palm open, six fingers spread. It began speaking, the voice deep, but the language almost musical. It went on for a minute, then slowly faded.
Lexina put the case in front of her and opened it. She lifted the Spear of Destiny out, holding it by the short haft behind the lance-head. She stood, spear pointing forward, and took a tentative step down the tunnel. Then another step. She froze as a flash of light momentarily blinded her.
Blinking, her catlike eyes adjusted. A steady red beam went from one side of the wall to the other just below the spear point. Carefully she lowered the point until it intersected the beam. Like a multifaceted mirror, the blade reflected the beam in a circle around the tunnel for several seconds, then suddenly the beam disappeared.
With several more tentative steps, Lexina passed the guardian beam and continued down the tunnel, the others following. She kept the spear out in front, not knowing what to expect now that they were past the first trap. Like soldiers walking through a minefield with the point man holding a detector, they moved down the main tunnel toward the bottom level of Qian-Ling.
“Silbury Hill is the largest man-made mound in Europe.” Quinn put a photograph on the conference room table for the others to see. “One hundred and thirty feet high covering five acres.”
“Reminds you of someplace, doesn’t it?” Turcotte asked Che Lu. Upon receipt of the intelligence, Turcotte had called a meeting in the conference room to plan their next step.
“Qian-Ling,” she said. “The Airlia had a penchant for putting their bases underground.”
Quinn nodded. “No one knows who built Silbury or why. According to legend it was always there. It’s always been avoided by the locals, though, even today.”
“The Watchers took over some old Airlia outposts,” Mualama said. “Just as The Guides and The Ones Who Wait did. I’m sure Silbury is a smaller version of Qian-Ling.”
“All right,” Turcotte said. “That’s where we’re going.”
“My friend—” Yakov’s voice held a note of something mat Turcotte couldn’t quite place.
“What?”
“What are you proposing we do?”
“Get a Watcher ring so we can then go rescue Doctor Duncan,” Turcotte said.
Yakov raised his bushy eyebrows. “Why?”
“Why?” Turcotte wasn’t sure he had heard correctly. Then his face turned red and his hands balled into fists. “We’re not abandoning her. We’re a team here and—”
“My friend—” Yakov held up his hands, as if surrendering. “Listen to me for a second. In Moscow I acted from here,” he tapped his chest, “and look what happened. I trusted Katyenka and she betrayed us.” Turcotte remembered the incident deep beneath Moscow where Yakov’s former lover had turned her gun on them.
“Are you saying—” Turcotte spit the words out, but Yakov spoke over them, quieting him.
“I am not telling you anything about Doctor Duncan. What I am concerned with is the larger picture. Both sides of this alien civil war have tried to destroy us. That is the overriding concern. What does Giza have to do with Easter Island? Or Qian-Ling? Or The Mission? Are threats growing there? We have no clue where The Mission disappeared to, and we know how dangerous it can be.”
Turcotte blinked, confused. His mind had been so focused on the mission of rescuing Duncan that he couldn’t quite fit Yakov’s words. The Russian must have sensed that because he sat down, shoving out a chair for Turcotte next to him.
“We have made many mistakes. I have made many mistakes. Trusting Katyenka was just one of them. There have been others. Let us try not to make any more. Are you with me on that?”
Turcotte forced the anger in his chest to hold, a dike of resolve that was thoroughly saturated. “Yes.” The word was torn from his lips.
Yakov nodded. “We are slowly learning some of the truth from Burton’s manuscript. Information that would have helped us greatly had we been aware before. We would have known of the Watchers. The Mission. The Ones Who Wait. The Guides. All before they showed themselves to us in ways that took us by surprise. That cost the lives of all those people in South America. That cost your country two space shuttles. That cost me my comrades at Section IV.”
Yakov pointed past Turcotte at the computers and Professor Mualama, who was now working on the manuscript, the clicking of keys a constant backdrop in the room. “Burton’s manuscript. You see it as giving us the intelligence to find Doctor Duncan. But what is it really about?”