"Is the cargo fastened down securely?" asked Zolar.
The pilot nodded. "Not the neatest job I've seen. But considering we're not using cargo containers, it should hold until we land at Nador in Morocco, providing we don't hit extreme turbulence."
"Do you expect any?"
"No, sir. The weather pattern indicates calm skies all the way."
"Good. We can enjoy a smooth flight," said Zolar, pleased. "Remember, at no time are we to cross over the border into the United States."
"I've laid a course that takes us safely south of Laredo and Brownsville into the Gulf of Mexico below Key West before heading out over the Atlantic."
"How soon before we touch down in Morocco?" Oxley asked the pilot.
"Our flight plan calls for ten hours and fifty-five minutes. Loaded to the maximum, and then some, with several hundred extra pounds of cargo and a full fuel load, plus the detour south of Texas and Florida, we've added slightly over an hour to our flight time, which I hope to pick up with a tail wind."
Zolar looked at the last rays of the sun. "With time changes that should put us in Nador during early afternoon tomorrow."
The pilot nodded. "As soon as you are seated aboard, we will get in the air." He returned to the aircraft and climbed a boarding ladder propped against the forward entry door.
Zolar gestured toward the ladder. "Unless you've taken a fancy to this sand pit, I see no reason to stand around here any longer."
Oxley bowed jovially. "After you." As they passed through the entry door, he paused and took one last look to the southwest. "I still don't feel right not waiting."
"If our positions were reversed, Cyrus wouldn't hesitate to depart. Too much is at stake to delay any longer. Our brother is a survivor. Stop worrying."
They gave a wave to the Mexican army engineers who stood back from the plane and cheered their benefactors. Then the flight engineer closed and secured the door.
A few minutes later the turbines screamed and the big 747-400 rose above the rolling sand dunes, dipped its starboard wing and banked slightly south of east. Zolar and Oxley sat in a small passenger compartment on the upper deck just behind the cockpit.
"I wonder what happened to the Moores," mused Oxley, peering through a window at the Sea of Cortez as it receded in the distance. "The last I saw of them was in the cavern as the last of the treasure was being loaded on a sled."
"I'll wager Cyrus handled that little problem in concert with Congresswoman Smith and Rudi Gunn,"
said Zolar, relaxing for the first time in days. He looked up and smiled at his personal serving lady as she offered two glasses of wine on a tray.
"I know it sounds strange, but I had an uneasy feeling they wouldn't be easy to get rid of."
"I have to tell you. The same thing crossed Cyrus's mind too. In fact, he thought they were a pair of killers."
Oxley turned to him. "The wife too? You're joking."
"No, I do believe he was serious." Zolar took a sip of the wine and made an expression of approval and nodded. "Excellent. A California cabernet from Chateau Montelena. You must try it."
Oxley took the glass and stared at it. "I won't feel like celebrating until the treasure is safely stored in Morocco and we learn that Cyrus has left Mexico."
Shortly after the aircraft had reached what the brothers believed was cruising altitude, they released their seat belts and stepped into the cargo bay where they began closely examining the incredible golden collection of antiquities. Hardly an hour had passed when Zolar stiffened and looked at his brother queerly.
"Does it feel to you like we're descending?"
Oxley was admiring a golden butterfly that was attached to a golden flower. "I don't feel anything."
Zolar was not satisfied. He leaned down and stared through a window at the ground less than 1000
meters (less than 3300 feet) below.
"We're too low!" he said sharply. "Something is wrong."
Oxley's eyes narrowed. He looked through an adjoining window. "You're right. The flaps are down. It looks like we're coming in for a landing. The pilot must have an emergency."
"Why didn't he alert us?"
At that moment they heard the landing gear drop. The ground was rising to meet them faster now.
They flashed past houses and railroad tracks, and then the aircraft was over the end of the runway. The wheels thumped onto concrete and the engines howled in reverse thrust. The pilot stood on the brakes and soon eased off on the throttles as he turned the huge craft onto a taxiway.
A sign on the terminal read Welcome to El Paso.
Oxley stared speechless as Zolar blurted, "My God, we've come down in the United States!"
He ran forward and began beating frantically on the cockpit door. There was no reply until the huge plane came to a halt outside an Air National Guard hangar at the opposite end of the field. Only then did the cockpit door slowly crack open.
"What in hell are you doing? I'm ordering you to get back in the air immediately--" Zolar's words froze in his throat as he found himself staring down the muzzle of a gun pointed between his eyes.
The pilot was still seated in his seat, as were the copilot and flight engineer. Henry Moore stood in the doorway gripping a strange nine-millimeter automatic of his own design, while inside the cockpit Micki Moore was talking over the aircraft radio as she calmly aimed a Lilliputian .25-caliber automatic at the pilot's neck.
"Forgive the unscheduled stop, my former friends," said Moore in a commanding voice neither Zolar nor Oxley had heard before, "but as you can see there's been a change of plan."
Zolar squinted down the gun barrel, and his face twisted from shock to menacing anger. "You idiot, you blind idiot, do you have any idea what you've done?"
"Why, yes," Moore answered matter-of-factly. "Micki and I have hijacked your aircraft and its cargo of golden artifacts. I believe you're aware of the old maxim: There is no honor among thieves."
"If you don't get this plane in the air quickly," Oxley pleaded, "Customs agents will be swarming all over it."
"Now that you mention it, Micki and I did entertain the idea of turning the artifacts over to the authorities."
"You can't know what you're saying."
"Oh, I most certainly do, Charley, old pal. As it turns out, federal agents are more interested in you and your brother than Huascar's treasure."
"Where did you come from?" Zolar demanded.
"We merely caught a ride in one of the helicopters transporting the gold. The army engineers were used to our presence and paid no attention as we climbed aboard the plane. We hid out in one of the restrooms until the pilot left to confer with you and Charles on the airstrip. Then we seized the cockpit."
"Why would federal agents take your word for anything?" asked Oxley."
"In a manner of speaking, Micki and I were once agents ourselves," Moore briefly explained. "After we took over the cockpit, Micki radioed some old friends in Washington who arranged your reception."
Zolar looked as if he were about to tear Moore's lungs out whether he got shot in the attempt or not.
"You and your lying wife made a deal for a share of the antiquities. Am I right?" He waited for a reply, but when Moore remained silent he went on. "What percentage did they offer you? Ten, twenty, maybe as high as fifty percent?"
"We made no deals with the government," Moore said slowly. "We knew you had no intention of honoring our agreement, and that you planned to kill us. We had planned to steal the treasure for ourselves, but as you can see, we had a change of heart."
"The way they act familiar with guns," said Oxley, "Cyrus was right. They are a pair of killers."
Moore nodded in agreement. "Your brother has an inner eye. It takes an assassin to know one."
A pounding came from outside the forward passenger door on the deck below. Moore gestured down the stairwell with his gun. "Go down and open it," he ordered Zolar and Oxley.
Sullenly, they did as they were told.
When the pressurized door was swung open, two men entered from a stairway that had been pushed up against the aircraft. Both wore business suits. One was a huge black man who looked as if he might have played professional football. The other was a nattily dressed white man. Zolar immediately sensed they were federal agents.
"Joseph Zolar and Charles Oxley, I am Agent David Gaskill with the Customs Service and this is Agent Francis Ragsdale of the FBI. You gentlemen are under arrest for smuggling illegal artifacts into the United States and for the theft of countless art objects from private and public museums, not excluding the unlawful forgery and sale of antiquities."
"What are you talking about?" Zolar demanded.
Gaskill ignored him and looked at Ragsdale with a big toothy smile. "Would you like to do the honors?"
Ragsdale nodded like a kid who had just been given a new disk player. "Yes, indeed, thank you."
As Gaskill cuffed Zolar and Oxley, Ragsdale read them their rights.
"You made good time," said Moore. "We were told you were in Calexico."
"We were on our way aboard a military jet fifteen minutes after word came down from FBI headquarters in Washington," replied Ragsdale.
Oxley looked at Gaskill, a look for the first time empty of fear and shock, a sudden look of shrewdness. "You'll never find enough evidence to convict us in a hundred years."
Ragsdale tilted his head toward the golden cargo. "What do you call that?"
"We're merely passengers," said Zolar, regaining his composure. "We were invited along for the ride by Professor Moore and his wife."
"I see. And suppose you tell me where all the stolen art and antiquities in your facility in Galveston came from?"
Oxley sneered. "Our Galveston warehouse is perfectly legitimate. You've raided it before and never found a thing."
If that's the case," said Ragsdale craftily, "how do you explain the tunnel leading from the Logan Storage Company to Zolar International's subterranean warehouse of stolen goods?"
The brothers stared at each other, their faces abruptly gray. "You're making this up," said Zolar fearfully.
"Am I? Would you like me to describe your tunnel in detail and provide a brief rundown on the stolen masterworks we found?"
"The tunnel-- you couldn't have found the tunnel."
"As of thirty-six hours ago," said Gaskill, "Zolar International and your clandestine operation known as Solpemachaco are permanently out of business."
Ragsdale added. "A pity your dad, Mansfield Zolar, aka the Specter, isn't still alive or we could bust him too."
Zolar looked as if he were in the throes of cardiac arrest. Oxley appeared too paralyzed to move.
"By the time you two and the rest of your family, partners, associates, and buyers get out of prison, you'll be as old as the artifacts you stole."
Federal agents began filling the aircraft. The FBI took charge of the air crew and Zolar's serving lady while the Customs people unbuckled the tiedown straps securing the golden artifacts. Ragsdale nodded to his team.
"Take them downtown to the U.S. Attorney's Office." As soon as the shattered art thieves were led into two different cars, the agents turned to the Moores.
"I can't tell you how grateful we are for your cooperation," said Gaskill. "Nailing the Zolar family will put a huge dent in the art theft and artifact smuggling trade."
"We're not entirely benevolent," said Micki, happily relieved. "Henry feels certain the Peruvian government will post a reward."
Gaskill nodded. "I think you've got a sure bet."
"The prestige of being the first to catalogue and photograph the treasure will go a long way toward enhancing our scientific reputations," Henry Moore explained as he holstered his gun.
"Customs would also like a detailed report on the objects, if you don't mind?" asked Gaskill.
Moore nodded vigorously. "Micki and I will be happy to work with you. We've already inventoried the treasure. We'll have a report for you before it's formally returned to Peru."
"Where will you store it all until then?" asked Micki.
"In a government warehouse whose location we can't reveal," answered Gaskill.
"Is there any news on Congresswoman Smith and the little man with NUMA?"
Gaskill nodded. "Minutes before you landed we received word they were rescued by a local tribe of Indians and are on their way to a local hospital."
Micki sank down into a passenger seat and sighed. "Then it's over."
Henry sat on an armrest and took her hand in his. "It is for us," he said gently. "From now on we'll live the rest of our lives together as a pair of old teachers in a university with vine-covered walls."
She looked up at him. "Is that so terrible?"
"No," he said, kissing her lightly on the forehead, "I think we can handle it."
Slowly climbing from the depths of a dead stupor, Pitt felt as if he were struggling up a mud-slick slope, only to slip back every time he reached out and touched consciousness. He tried to retain a grip on these brief moments of awareness, only to fall back into a void. If he could open his eyes, he thought vaguely, he might return to reality. Finally, with a mighty effort, he forced open his eyelids.
Seeing only grave-cold blackness, he shook his head in despair, thinking he had fallen back into the void. And then the pain came rushing back like a burst of fire, and he came fully awake. Rolling sideways and then forward into a sitting position, he swung his head from side to side, trying to shake off the fog that clung to the alcoves of his mind. He renewed his fight with the pounding ache in his shoulder, the stiff hurt in his chest, and the sting from his wrist. Tenderly he felt the gash on his forehead.
"A hell of a fine specimen of manhood you are," he muttered.
Pitt was surprised to find that he didn't feel overly weak from loss of blood. He unclipped from his forearm the flashlight that Giordino had given him after their drop over the falls, switched it on, and propped it in the sand so the beam was aimed at his upper torso. He unzipped his wet suit jacket and tenderly probed the wound in his shoulder. The bullet had passed through the flesh and out his back without striking the scapula or the clavicle. The neoprene rubber on his shredded but still nearly skintight wet suit had helped seal the opening and restrict the flow of blood. Relieved that he did not feel as drained as he thought he would, he relaxed and took stock of his situation. His chances of survival were somewhere beyond impossible. With 100 kilometers (62 miles) of unknown rapids, sharp cascades, and extensive river passages that passed through caverns completely immersed with water, he did not need a palmist to tell him that the life line running across his hand would halt long before he reached senior citizenship. Even if he had air passages the entire way, there was still the distance from the opening of the subterranean channel to the surface of the Gulf.
Most other men who found themselves in a Hades of darkness deep within the earth with no hope of escape would have panicked and died tearing their fingers to the bone in a vain attempt to claw their way to the surface. But Pitt was not afraid. He was curiously content and at peace with himself.
If he was going to die, he thought, he might as well get comfortable. With his good hand he dug indentations in the sand to accommodate his body contour. He was surprised when the flashlight beam reflected from a thousand golden specks in the black sand. He held up a handful under the light.
"This place is loaded with placer gold," he said to himself.
He shone the light around the cavern. The walls were cut with ledges of white quartz streaked with tiny veins of gold. Pitt began laughing as he saw humor in the implausibility of it all.
"A gold mine," he proclaimed to the silent cave. "I've made a fabulously rich gold strike and nobody will ever know it."
He sat back and contemplated his discovery. Someone must be telling him something, he thought. Just because he wasn't afraid of the old man with the scythe didn't mean he had to give up and wait for him. A stubborn resolve sparked within him.
Better to ent
er the great beyond after an audacious attempt at staying alive than to throw in the towel and go out like a dishrag, he concluded. Perhaps other adventurous explorers would give up everything they owned for the honor of entering this mineralogical sanctum sanctorum, but all Pitt wanted now was to get out. He rose to his feet, inflated the buoyancy compensator with his breath and walked into the water until he was adrift in the current that carried him along.
Just take it one cavern at a time, he told himself, flashing the light on the water ahead. There was no relying on eternal vigilance. He was too weak to fight rapids and fend off rocks. He could only be calm and go wherever the current took him. He soon felt as if he had been cruising from one gallery to another for a lifetime.
The roof of the caverns and galleries rose and fell with monotonous regularity for the next 10
kilometers (6.2 miles). Then he heard the dreaded rumble of approaching rapids. Thankfully, the first chute Pitt encountered was of medium roughness. The water crashed against his face and he went under churning froth several times before reaching placid water again.
He was granted a comfortable reprieve as the river turned smooth and ran through one long canyon in an immense gallery. When he reached the end nearly an hour later, the roof gradually sloped down until it touched the water. He filled his lungs to the last crowded millimeter and dived. Able to use only one arm and missing his swim fins, the going was slow. He aimed the flashlight at the jagged rock roof and swam on his back. His lungs began to protest the lack of oxygen, but he swam on. At last the light revealed an air pocket. He shot to the surface and mightily inhaled the pure, unpolluted air that had been trapped deep beneath the earth millions of years ago.
The small cave widened into a large cavern whose ceiling arched beyond the beam of the flashlight.
The river made a sweeping turn where it had formed a reef of polished gravel. Pitt crawled painfully onto the dry area to rest. He turned off the light to prolong the life of the batteries.
Abruptly, he flicked the flash on again. Something had caught his eye in the shadows before the light blinked out. Something was there, not 5 meters (16 feet) away, a black form that revealed a straight line aberrant to natural geometrics.