Celtic Empire (Dirk Pitt 25)

Pitt followed him down the narrow passage, its walls and curved ceiling lined with smooth concrete. The tunnel extended over a hundred feet to the main building, ending at a narrow stairwell. They climbed a level to another door, which they found ajar. Giordino was about to look around it when a phone rang on the opposite side.

“Maguire,” came a weathered voice that answered the phone. “No, there’ve been no unauthorized vehicles approaching the site.” The man listened a moment. “Aye, Richards is in the housing unit. I’ll wake him, along with one of the other guards, then take a look around.” Another pause. “Right,” he said, then hung up.

The man made another phone call, slipped on a jacket, and stepped away. When Pitt and Giordino heard a distant door open and close, they entered from the stairwell.

It was a security station, just inside the building’s front entrance. A row of video monitors above a single desk provided live feeds from hidden cameras around the complex. One focused on the exterior entrance, where the armed security guard was seen moving toward the driveway.

“Something tells me,” Giordino said, “that getting out of here may be more difficult than getting in.” He reached over to a video monitor that showed the main corridor and adjusted the camera so that it pointed at the ceiling.

“I’m sure we can arrange some sort of diversion when the time comes,” Pitt said. “Let’s get moving.”

They entered a wide central corridor that ran the length of the building. The bright white concrete floor, walls, and ceiling gave it a sterile feel. The doors along the hallway had glass inserts, allowing a view inside. Small offices gave way to working laboratories occupied by one or two people in lab coats. They hesitated in front of one door, which opened to a kennel. Cages lined the walls, each containing a beagle or other medium-sized dog.

“Lab-testing on Snoopy,” Giordino said in a low voice. “I dislike these people already.”

They continued down the hall until a door handle clicked behind them. Pitt saw a dark room to his left and rushed in. Giordino followed quickly and closed the door. They froze in the dark, listening as someone continued down the hall. Another door opened and closed, then Pitt flicked on the light switch.

Overhead LED lights revealed a medical operating room. Worktables with computers, microscopes, and chemical solutions lined the rear and side walls. Several X-rays were posted on a corner viewing monitor. In the center, a gurney stood beneath a rack of bright operating lights, sided by a tray table containing an array of scalpels and probes. More disconcerting, a small figure lay on the gurney, covered by a sheet.

Silently, Pitt and Giordino approached the operating table. Pitt stared at the draped figure, then grabbed a corner of the sheet and drew it back. He wasn’t sure what to expect, perhaps one of the test dogs from the kennel.

Instead, he exposed the well-preserved body of a thirty-five-hundred-year-old Egyptian mummy.

49

To Pitt’s untrained eye the size of the ancient linen wrappings around the legs and torso suggested a mummified child of ten or twelve. The shaved skull indicated a male. The head was tilted back, and a small rubber block was wedged inside to keep the mouth open.

“I wasn’t expecting to find King Tut,” Giordino said.

“Whoever he is,” Pitt said, “he’s a long way from home.”

Giordino rubbed his chin. “Didn’t Summer and Dirk just find an Egyptian tomb along the Nile?”

“Yes. And it contained a child’s coffin that was snatched.” He leaned close and studied the skull. “Take a look at his mouth.”

Giordino gazed at the teeth, then the tray of medical tools. “Looks like they extracted one of his lower molars, on the right side.”

“Trying to retrieve his DNA.” Pitt placed the sheet back over the body and studied the room. A closet door at the back with its adjoining electronic panel caught his eye. He opened the door to find a temperature-controlled bay lined with thick shelves and illuminated by dim red lights. On one side lay a half-dozen wooden coffins carved in Egyptian fashion, gilded and painted with the features of their late occupants. Across the aisle were more mummified remains, each housed in a Plexiglas box.

“A collection of coffins and mummies,” Giordino said. “That’s a hobby I’d forgo for golf.”

Pitt motioned toward the mummies. “I don’t see any adults. They’re all very young males.”

Giordino noted gaps in their exposed teeth. “And they all look like they’ve had a recent visit to the dentist.”

“McKee’s interest in ancient Egypt apparently goes beyond her husband’s passion for archeology.”

The men backed out of the storage room and searched the lab for further evidence. Pitt noticed a white lab coat and slipped into it. Finding nothing more of significance, they turned off the lights and stepped back into the corridor. They bypassed a pair of small offices and opted to enter a large conference room. Thick binders lay scattered about a long central table, while the walls were covered with charts, maps, production schedules, and shelves with more binders.

Pitt picked up one of the binders and found a detailed history of various commercial products.

“Dirk, take a look at this.”

Giordino stood before a large global map. Stick-on labels were posted next to various major cities or regions. Each was coded with the prefix BR- or EP- followed by 1, 2, or 3.

Pitt read a few of the labels. “‘Gulf of Mexico, BR-1.’ ‘Mumbai, EP-2.’ ‘Detroit, EP-3.’ Must be the product applied on jobs at those locations.”

“If so, check out where they applied a batch of EP-2.” Giordino pointed to Central America. Pitt followed his finger to a label that read CERRÓN GRANDE, EP-2.