He immediately saw the cause for the excitement. The massive pyramid in the midst of the Cydonia ruins was opening. The four sides were separating, like a flower blossoming for the sun. A dark center appeared in the center as the sides slowly split.
Kincaid knew the dimensions of that pyramid and the sheer magnitude of the engineering required to do that staggered him. He leaned forward, waiting. After five minutes of slow movement the sides reached vertical, revealing a perfect black square. Kincaid’s eyes, and those of people all over the world whose TV shows were interrupted with the live feed, were straining to see what was inside.
Suddenly there was a sharp glistening of light all around the upper edge. The light grew stronger as the sides started over toward the planet’s surface, the inner sides reflecting the distant sun. After fifteen minutes, and twelve rotations of the IMS, the four panels finally reached the ground. The bright light they reflected was almost blinding the IMS’s image.
“What the hell is that?” One of the flight engineers asked the question people all over the planet glued to their TVs were asking.
Kincaid knew what it was, but the sheer size was unbelievable. “Solar panels,” he said. Solar panels were used on most of the probes and orbiters to supply power, so Kincaid had more than a passing knowledge on the subject. He pulled a calculator out of his pocket and began punching in numbers.
“Jesus,” he muttered when the last figure came up on his screen. Human solar panels that big would produce enough power to run New York City, and Kincaid suspected that the Airlia probably had better-engineered panels. “What the hell is going to need that much power?” he asked out loud, but no one in the control room had an answer.
He looked up at the four large, shiny triangles that now lay where the pyramid they had formed once stood. Squinting he could just make out something in the center, underneath where the apex of the pyramid would formerly have been.
“Is this the best resolution the IMS can get?” he asked.
“Yes,” one of the technicians answered him.
“Any idea what’s that dark thing in the center of the panels?” Kincaid asked. “Not yet. It’s hard to make out, given the light contrast from the panels and Surveyor’s distance. We should know when Viking goes over.”
Duncan held a piece of paper she’d just received from a runner from the Navy communications center on the island. “We’ve got authorization to go into China and find out what Che Lu is uncovering in the tomb.”
“From who?” Turcotte asked.
She read the paper. “The National Command Authority under an ST-8 security clearance.”
“I’ve never heard of that clearance,” Turcotte said.
“We are instructed to get in and out without causing any international incident,” Duncan noted.
“Easier said than done,” Turcotte said.
The others were all gathered around the small TV, taking in the spectacle of the Airlia solar panels.
Duncan was thinking about the problem. “We know that China is not going to let us come in. We aren’t even going to bother to ask. We’re going to have to go in on the sly and get out without being noticed.” She looked at Turcotte. “And that, Mike, I believe, is your department. According to this we’ll be met at Osan Air Force Base in South Korea by a CIA liaison who can help us get to the tomb and link up with Che Lu.”
Turcotte stood. “Let’s get moving.”
“No,” Kelly Reynolds said, standing in their way, her feet planted wide apart. “I don’t think we should do this.”
“Kelly—” Nabinger began, but she cut him off.
“It will only cause trouble. Aspasia will be here soon. Why can’t we wait? If this tomb holds Airlia artifacts, then they belong to him. If it’s where the rebels are, then we shouldn’t disturb it. Again, that’s his problem.”
“Like the fight between the rebels and Aspasia wasn’t the problem of the people of Atlantis?” Nabinger asked.
“Peter’s right,” Turcotte said. “We can’t sit around and be spectators. We’re involved.”
“Don’t you see?” Kelly asked, grabbing the front of Turcotte’s camouflage shirt. “Don’t you see that you’re doing the same thing you did in Germany? People are going to get hurt for no reason.”
Turcotte’s face went hard. He grabbed her hands and held them inside his. “This is different.”
“Stay here with me and wait,” Kelly pleaded, looking from Turcotte to Nabinger to Duncan.
“We can’t,” Lisa Duncan said. “We have to do our jobs just like you have to do yours.”
“If I had done mine after we got Johnny out of Dulce,” Reynolds said, “he wouldn’t be dead. Instead I went along with you while you did your jobs, as you put it. I’m not doing that again.”
“We’re not asking you to,” Duncan said. “This will be a classified military operation. All I ask is that you not report anything about it.”
“I can’t do that,” Reynolds said.
“Kelly”—Turcotte slowly removed her hands from his shirt and let go of them— “if you report this, the Chinese will know we’re coming and people will die. Namely us.”
“If it’s the only way to stop you, I will report it,” Reynolds threatened. “You’re not going to stop us,” Turcotte said. “We’re going in no matter what you do.”
“Damn it!” Reynolds exclaimed. “Why? Why does it have to be the U.S. against China? The Russians and the ship they hid? The South African corporation and what they hid? Why do we fight and lie among ourselves? We won’t be ready, like Aspasia thinks we are, if we keep doing this. Human against human.”
“It isn’t about human against human,” Turcotte said. He stepped around her. “It’s about finding out the truth on our own.” He walked out of the tent, the others following, leaving Kelly Reynolds alone and listening to the sound of the storm batter the tent.
Inside Qian-Ling, Che Lu and the remaining students had backtracked their way to the doors they had come in. In the dim glow of the flashlight she could see that the doors were indeed shut, and even with everyone pushing they couldn’t budge the metal.
A quick check of the meager supplies they had brought in revealed they had enough water to last perhaps four or five days at best if they were very conservative.
Light was perhaps the biggest problem. Among the seven of them they had eight flashlights. Che Lu estimated even using only one at a time, they had less than sixty hours of light left.
“All right,” she said to the frightened students who were huddled together around the one lit flashlight like moths around a fire. “We cannot get back out this way. Perhaps Lo Fa will come back, but I do not think so. We are on our own.”
“Who would do this to us?” one of the young girls, Funing, wailed.
Che Lu had considered that and accepted the obvious answer. “The army.” “But why?” Funing asked.
“Because someone ordered them to,” Che Lu said. “Someone in Beijing must have realized that they shouldn’t have issued us the permission to go in, and this is the easiest solution.” She kept to herself the disturbing news Lo Fa had passed to her.
“We’re going to die!” Funing cried out.
“We’re not dead yet,” Che Lu snapped, “so quit your crying. I’ve been in worse situations than this.” She pointed down the main tunnel. “There were two side tunnels. They have to go somewhere. From the ancient records there are supposed to be miles of tunnels in this tomb. We can find another way out.”
“But what about what happened to Taizho?” Funing cried. “We could walk into the same thing!”
“We will be careful.” Che Lu took a bamboo pole that one of the students used as a walking stick. “Tie a cloth to this. Then we hold the pole out in front of the first person like this,” she demonstrated, “with the cloth hanging down. That will trip any beam like that which killed Taizho.”