Inca Gold (Dirk Pitt 12)

"Weird tasting cheese," muttered Giordino, examining the inside of his sandwich with a cynical eye.

Gunn grinned. "Beggars can't be choosers."

Two hours and fifteen minutes later they had traveled the twenty-eight lanes it took to cover kilometers five and six. They definitely had a problem now as they were beyond Yaeger's estimated target site.

None of them believed a tidal wave could carry a 570-ton ship more than 5 kilometers (3 miles) over land from the sea. Certainly not a wave with a crest less than 30 meters (98 feet) high. Their confidence ebbed as they worked farther out of the prime search area.

"Beginning the first lane of the seven-kilometer mark," announced Pitt.

"Too far, way too far," Giordino muttered.

"I agree," said Gunn. "We either missed her, or she lies off the north and south perimeters of our grid.

No sense in wasting time in this area."

"We'll finish kilometer seven," Pitt said, his eyes locked on the navigational instrument displaying his coordinates.

Gunn and Giordino knew better than to debate the matter. They were well aware that when Pitt's mind was set there was no moving him. He stubbornly felt the possibility of finding the old Spanish ship was promising despite the density of the jungle growth and the passage of four centuries. Giordino vigilantly kept the helicopter just high enough for the sensor to skim the tops of the trees while Gunn stared at the recording paper and digital readings. They were beginning to feel they had not been dealt a lucky hand and steeled themselves for a long and arduous search.

Fortunately, the weather held in their favor. The sky remained clear with an occasional cloud drifting far above them, and the wind stayed steady from the west at only five knots. The monotony was as unchanging as the weather. The forest below unfurled as though it were a continuous sea of algae. No human lived down there. Sunless days without end. The constant damp, warm climate caused the flowers to bloom, the leaves to fall, and the fruits to grow and ripen all through the year. Rare was the spot where sun reached through the branches of the trees and plants to touch the ground.

"Mark it!" Gunn burst abruptly.

Pitt responded by copying the navigation coordinates. "Do you have a target?"

"I recorded a slight bump on my instruments. Nothing big, but definitely an anomaly."

"Shall we turn back?" asked Giordino.

Pitt shook his head. "Let's finish the lane and see if we pick up a stronger reading on the next heading."

No one spoke as they completed the lane, made a complete 180-degree turn and headed back on a reverse course 75 meters (246 feet) farther to the east. Pitt and Giordino could not resist stealing a glance downward at the rain forest, hoping to spot a sign of the wreck, but knowing it was next to impossible to see through the thick foliage. It was a wilderness truly terrible in its monotonous beauty.

"Coming opposite the mark," Pitt alerted them. "Now passing."

The sensor, trailing on an arc behind the helicopter lagged slightly before crossing the site of Gunn's anomaly reading. "Here she comes!" he said excitedly. "Looking good. The numbers are climbing. Come on, sweetheart, give with the big gamma readings."

Pitt and Giordino leaned out their windows and stared down, but saw only a dense canopy of tall trees rising in tiered galleries. It required no imagination to see the rain forest was a forbidding and dangerous place. It looked quiet and deadly. They could only guess at what perils lurked in the menacing shadows.

"We have a hard target," said Gunn. "Not a solid mass, but scattered readings, the kind of display I would expect from bits and pieces of iron dispersed around a wrecked ship."

Pitt wore a big smile as he reached over and lightly punched Giordino on the shoulder. "Never a doubt."

Giordino grinned back. "That was one hell of a wave to have carried the ship seven kilometers inland."

"She must have crested close to fifty meters," Pitt calculated.

"Can you bring us around on an east/west course so we can bisect the anomaly?" asked Gunn.

"At your command." Pitt banked the Explorer around to the west in a tight turn that lightened Gunn's stomach. After flying half a kilometer, he sideslipped and set his coordinates to pass over the target from the new direction. This time the readings showed a slight increase and held for a longer duration.

"I think we passed over her from bow to stern," said. Gunn. "This must be the place."

"This must be the place," Giordino repeated happily.

Pitt hovered as Gunn gave bearing commands while they probed for the highest readings from the magnetometer, which would show the Explorer was directly over the wreck site. "Bring her twenty meters to starboard. Now thirty meters astern. Too far. Ten meters ahead. Hold it. That's it. We can drop a rock on her."

Giordino pulled the ring on a small canister and casually tossed it out his side window. It fell through the leaves and disappeared. A few seconds later a cloud of orange smoke began to rise above the trees.