And then she was flying, soaring out into thin air. As they launched themselves out over the majestic gorge, the sublime beauty of this natural wonder worked its magic and calmed her nerves. She relaxed her hold on his broad chest, loosened her legs from his, then gasped as they made a turn around the temple and angled down toward Cheops' Pyramid.
She thought she heard gunshots behind her, along with a cry of frustration, but then they were descending, weaving slowly left and right, swooping through the rainbow of geologic strata along the canyon walls. Past promontories and spurs, peaks and plateaus she had only dreamed of climbing one day.
"Where are we going?" Her voice carried, echoing off the sandstone towers.
"Marble Canyon," Xavier said, turning his head. Somehow, his hat remained in place. "You were duped, Diana. The map was a fake."
"How could you possibly know that? Oh wait — right, you're psychic."
The glider caught an updraft that took them past another towering mesa dotted with sycamore brush and rebellious pines. "I knew it was a fake because I've seen the actual entrance. I saw Kincaid, just as he found it."
Diana laughed. "Really? What are you going to tell me now, that you're over a hundred years old?"
"Don't be silly. I said I saw it, not that I was there." They rounded the mesa, coming close enough to reach out and almost touch its crumbling shale façade. "I'm what you would call a 'Remote Viewer'. I've always been able to see things, glimpses of other times and places. Mostly in the future, but sometimes, if I focus enough on the objective, I can see into the past as well."
"Okay, so you believe you can whatever — remote-view things. Why all this? Why'd you send me that package?"
"Because I knew you'd come, but not for anything so trivial as recognition or fame."
Diana's lips, already cracked, opened and the dry canyon air rushed in.
"You're here, Diana Montgomery, because of your father."
How the hell could he possibly know about that?
"You got your love of climbing from him," Xavier said. "But after your mother died, you drifted away. Hadn't seen your father in years until you found out he was here, giving climbing tours. Two years ago, right after he emailed you that he had something important to show you, something you of all people would appreciate, he died from a fall."
Diana was speechless. She still recalled the day after the funeral, the day she had come out to the area north of the Phantom Ranch, to a slope where they had found his body. She'd searched, but no one claimed to have been along with him on the ascent, and no one saw a thing.
It was a mystery still gnawing at her two years later when that package arrived, hinting at a find in the same area where her father had died. It didn't take a genius to put the pieces together. Her father had been after the same thing. Only now, it was starting to look like he was murdered because of it.
Still reeling from their landing along the banks of the raging Colorado River as much as from Xavier's incendiary revelations, Diana somehow wasn't surprised to see a sturdy raft ahead, laden with supplies.
Xavier untied himself from the harness and quickly discarded the glider into the river. "I've been practicing out here all summer." He gave her a wink and tipped his hat. "Waiting for you."
She put her hands on her hips. "All right, spill it. So you're going to tell me that what Kincaid supposedly found out here is the real deal, and that the Smithsonian is covering it up — and killing anyone who stumbles on the secret? What is it, that we had seafaring Egyptians who made it across North America thousands of years ago, found this canyon and stashed some goodies in the caves?"
Xavier adjusted his backpack and headed toward the boat. "Not at all. I'm going to tell you something far more controversial."
"What the hell could be more controversial?" Her words echoed like pinballs between the narrow canyon walls.
The brim of the hat lowered as he turned toward her. "The truth, Ms. Montgomery."
They navigated the rough rapids and finally arrived at the fabled Redwall Cavern. Diana studied the yawning, shadow-rimmed entrance. It would fit Kincaid's description — of a cavernous interior that could potentially hold thousands of people. "This is it?"
"No. An entrance was here. But not anymore. Your boss's predecessors made sure that the tunnels accessed by Kincaid near the back of Redwall Cavern were demolished. Sealed up forever."
"Then where…?"
Xavier steered them around a bend, leaving the cavern behind. They sailed into slanting shadows as the dizzying rock walls turned a shade of purple, as if welcoming royalty. "Do you know the native Ute myth about the origin of the Grand Canyon?"
Diana thought for a moment, recalling it. "Yes, of course. A wise chief was so overwhelmed by the death of his wife that he couldn't be consoled until a god named Tavwoats offered to prove to him that she had gone on to a happier land. But the stipulation was that the chief had to promise to never again seek that magical trail to the land of the dead. The chief agreed, and Tavwoats rolled a great ball of fire across the desert, and as it spun, it parted the earth and mountains and made a path to the land beyond death. He guided the chief through this massive canyon until they came to the Spirit Land where the chief saw his wife was happy, and he saw no more reason to mourn."
Xavier pulled the boat up to a jutting formation of red sandstone marked with deeper hues of purple. He dropped the anchor, then uncovered a tarp in the boat, revealing scuba gear and two air tanks. "And then what did that pesky Tavwoats do?"
Blinking at the tanks, Diana struggled to answer. "Not trusting the chief to honor his vow, he caused a massive river to flood over the trail, obscuring the path forever."
Nodding, Xavier pointed to the gear. "Forever's just about up."
After swimming carefully through a descending passageway, completely dark except for the murky light from Xavier's underwater flashlight, they emerged through a curiously circular aperture into a small cave.
"How did you find this place?" she asked after spitting out her regulator. She wore just her shorts and a tight tank top, and Xavier was now shirtless, wearing only the boxer trunks he had on under his khakis. He again slung his waterproof backpack over his shoulders.
"Told you, I'm a—"
"Remote-viewer, right." Diana stepped gingerly onto the cold rock as Xavier's flashlight beam bounced around over the cavern's narrowing walls, illuminating a tunnel stretching into the darkness.
"Come on. They've probably found our boat by now."
"What?"
"Hurry, we're almost there."
For a moment, Diana just stood there shivering, terrified suddenly to take another step. But then his hand found hers, their wet fingers closed, entwining, and he gently pulled her alongside him.
The next few minutes might have been hours. She couldn't be sure of anything. She imagined they were descending, step by step, toward the ruins of some ancient subterranean city, and at one turn she had the sudden conviction that they stood at the edge of a vast, yawning cavern. Xavier's light speared out, stabbing into the impenetrable gloom. She felt a breeze wafting up from below, carrying the scent of something nostalgically sweet, and she thought she heard a sound like waves thrusting against a glassy shore.
She desperately wanted to find a trail, make her way down there and dive into that sea. She heard whispers, contented and pure, and could have sworn one of them sounded familiar.