Sacred Stone

“Can you find out what’s going on?”

“I’ll try to link onto a DOD satellite and figure out who it is, but it might take fifteen to twenty minutes.”

“I’d like to know who’s crashing my party,” Cabrillo said.

“One thing we found out is that there’s an unma

“You find out for me,” Cabrillo said as he twisted the key and started the engine. “I think I’m almost at the cave.”

“Will do,” Hanley said.

USING A SLED to pack down the snow and a dozen packets of Kool-Aid, Ackerman had managed to create a nice landing spot marked with an X on a small mesa only seventy yards from the lower opening of the cave. He stared at the spot with pride. The helicopter should be able to land without the rotor blade striking the mountain. It was precarious, but it was the best he could do on the side of a mountain.

He retreated back into the mouth of the cave and waited as the helicopter approached the landing pad then hovered and set down. The rotor blade slowed, then stopped, and a man climbed from the passenger side.

CABRILLO HEARD THE helicopter land through his open window, but through the snow and darkness he had not been able to see it touch down. He was close—he could sense that. He attached nylon gaiters around his down-filled pants and removed a pair of snowshoes from the rear bed. Sliding his boots into the bindings, he fastened them tight. Then he reached in back and removed the cardboard box holding the decoy that Nixon had made.

Now all he had to do was slip into the cave undetected and make the switch.

“THE BOSS SENT me,” Hughes said to Ackerman after climbing up the hill to the mouth of the cave, “to check out your find.”

Ackerman smiled proudly. “She’s a peach,” he said, “possibly the most important archaeological find of this century.”

“So I hear,” Hughes said, edging farther into the cave. “And he sent me to make sure you get what you deserve.”

Ackerman grabbed an already lit lantern and started to lead Hughes down the passage.

“So you’re in public relations?”

“That and other duties,” Hughes said, stopping at the opening in the ceiling. A few days ago Ackerman had brought a wooden ladder from inside the upper cave and dropped it down the hole. It made going between the two shafts a lot easier.

“We’ll climb up and I’ll give you the grand tour,” Ackerman said.

The two men climbed the ladder into the upper cave.

Hughes played along as Ackerman rattled off what he had found, but truly there was only one thing he’d come for. And as soon as he had that, he was leaving.

CABRILLO TRAIPSED AROUND the side of the mountain until he came upon a spot of melted snow. Bending over, he could see that there was a small opening in the mountainside marked by rocks lying in the snow, as if they had been tossed out from inside the mountain. Warm air from inside the mountain was filtering out, melting the snow around the opening. Clearing away enough of the debris so that he could climb inside, he slid through the opening into the upper cave, then dragged the cardboard box inside.

Once he was through the opening, he found he could stand.

He walked down the shaft to see where it went.

EVEN WITH A heart of stone, Hughes was finding the cave and its i

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Ackerman gushed.

Hughes nodded then removed a portable Geiger counter from his pocket. Flicking it on, he sca

“You spent much time close to this?” Hughes asked Ackerman.

“I’ve examined it from every angle,” Ackerman told him.

“Have you been feeling poorly? Noticed any physical changes in yourself lately?”

“I’ve been having nosebleeds,” Ackerman said. “I figured it was just the dry air.”

“I think you have radiation sickness,” Hughes said. “I’m going to need to go back to the helicopter and get something to shield this.”

CABRILLO HURRIED DOWN the shaft toward the sound of the voices. Hiding behind a rock, he listened to the two men.

“I’m going to need to go back to the helicopter and get something to shield this,” one said. He listened as the two men walked off and the cavern grew dark. He waited to see what would happen next.

“WAIT HERE,” HUGHES said when they reached the mouth of the lower cave.

Ackerman watched as Hughes walked down the hill, approached the helicopter, and opened the rear door.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” he said to Neilsen as he removed a box from the rear, “then we can go.”

“Sounds good,” Neilsen said, staring out at the weather.

Hughes started back up the hill with the box. When he entered the cave he looked at Ackerman. “I brought something that will ease your suffering,” he said. “I’ll give it to you in a few minutes.”

CABRILLO WAITED A minute until he was sure he was alone, then reached into his pocket and removed a plastic bag and ripped off the top. Removing the chemical light bar inside, he bent it in half like he was trying to break a bread stick and the tube started glowing green. Using the light to illuminate his way, he started to walk toward the meteorite. He was just approaching the altar when he heard a shot ring out.

Quickly reaching into his pocket, he removed a foil packet, tore off the top with his teeth and sprinkled the contents onto the meteorite. Then, with the sounds of footsteps quickly approaching, he slid off to the side behind some rocks and placed the green light in his pocket.

A tall man carrying a lantern walked over to the altar, scooped up the meteorite and placed it in a box. Cabrillo had left the rifle in the Thiokol, so there was little he could do right now. Cabrillo would need to intercept the meteorite farther down into the cave.

Gripping the metal hoop from the lantern in his mouth, the man carried the box out.

Cabrillo waited until the light from the lantern petered out, then slowly walked down the cave with his chemical light held in front. He figured the men would be examining the meteorite somewhere else, and when he found them he’d make his move.

Then he bumped into the ladder and nearly fell down the hole.

Listening carefully to see if they’d heard the noise, Cabrillo waited and, when nothing happened, climbed down the ladder. At the bottom he stepped on Ackerman’s body.

16

AS SOON ASHanley received confirmation that no Icelandic civilian or military helicopters had been in the air at the time of the emir’s abduction, it was child’s play to coordinate this information with the port records to see what ships had come and gone close to the time.

It didn’t take him long to settle on the Akbaras their primary target.

Accessing satellite records, he determined that the Akbarwas steaming up the Denmark Strait between Iceland and Greenland. Immediately leaving port, he ordered the magnetohydrodynamic drives engaged as soon as they were clear of land. The Oregonwas cruising at thirty knots and weaved through the icebergs like a slalom skier down an icy slope. He tried Cabrillo’s telephone again but there was no answer.