Treasure (Dirk Pitt 9)

Capesterre nodded. With his back to the crowd he slipped the Colt revolver from the belt beneath his robe and held it out of sight under a loose, draped sleeve. His other hand gripped the smoke bomb. "The slightest move by you or anyone hidden inside the tunnel to harm me, and I will blow your spine in two."

"Why would I possibly want to harm you?" Pitt asked with mock innocence.

"Where are the engineers who were working the excavation?"

"Every man who could carry a gun was sent to the defense line at the river."

The lie seemed to satisfy Capesterre. "Raise your shirt and drop your pants below your boots."

"In front of all these people?" Pitt asked, smiling.

"I want to see if you're armed or wired for sound."

Pitt pulled his turtleneck above his shoulders and lowered the denims to his ankles. There was no sign of a bidden mutter or gun on his body or inside his boots. "Satisfied?"

Topiltzm nodded. He waved the gun toward the shaft entrance. "You lead, I'D follow."

"Mind if I carry the dummy inside? The weapons he's holding are real artifacts."

"You can leave them just inside the entrance." Then turned and waved a signal to his advisers that all was safe.

Pitt adjusted his clothing, removed the weapons from the mannequin and entered the shaft.

The roof was slightly less than two meters high, and Pitt had to duck under the support beams as he walked. He deposited the spear and sword, but kept the shield, placing it over his head as if to ward off falling rock.

knowing the shield was as useless as a sheet of cardboard against rounds from a .357-magnum handgun, Topiltzin made no protest.

The shaft sloped sharply down for twelve meters and then leveled off.

The passage was lit by a stnug of lights that hung from the beams. The Army Engineers had cut the walls and floor almost perfectly flat so the going was easy. The only discomfort was the stuffy air and the dust that rose in swirls from their footsteps.

"Are you'receiving sound and picture, Mr. President?"

asked General Chandler

"Yes, General," answered the President. "Their conversation is coming in quite clear, but they walked out of camera range when they entered the tunnel."

"We'll pick them up again in the casket chamber, where we have another concealed camera."

"How is Pitt wired?" asked Martin Brogan.

"The microphone and transmitter are inserted in the front seam of the old shield."

"Is he armed?"

"We don't believe so."

All those in the Situation Room became silent as their eyes moved to a second monitor that was displaying the excavated chamber under Gongora Hill. The camera was focused on a gold coffin raised in the center of the chamber.

But no

t all eyes were on the second monitor. One pair had not left the first.

"Who was that?" Nichols blurted.

Brogan's eyes narrowed. "Who do you mean?"

Nichols pointed at the monitor whose camera was still aimed at the underground entrance of the hill. "A shadow passed in front of the camera and moved into the tunnel."