Part 5 (2/2)

Tashman was setting up the drill on a tripod so that he could inch it forward rather than relying on his weight and the ma.s.s of the drill to do the work: Benny and Lannic were pus.h.i.+ng at the mud to determine the point where the wall was thickest. Gilmanuk was silent, his hand to his mouth. Klasvik offered the two women unsought advice which they mainly ignored. But he kept offering it so as not to have to admit that he knew they were ignoring him.

Eventually Lannic and Bernice agreed on a point about chest*high on the wall and Tashman manhandled the drill into position. The water which cooled the drill*head splashed into the muddy slurry around their feet as Tashman slowly pushed the drill forward in its mountings. It bit into the damp mud, dark tapeworms spiralling from the hole and tearing under their own weight.

Tashman lurched forward suddenly, managing to regain his balance just before the drill*head disappeared completely into the wall. 'We're through,' he said unnecessarily. Everyone crowded in closer as he reversed the spin of the drill and eased it out of the wall. It came free, leaving a perfectly round hole just too small to squeeze a hand through. There was a glimmer of light visible through it.

At once Lannic was squatting before the wall, her eye to the opening, She did not say anything.

Klasvik knelt beside her. 'Can you see anything?'

'Yes, yes,' she replied. 'It is wonderful.' Then she stood aside and Klasvik peered through after her. They all heard his intake of breath.

Benny exchanged looks with Gilmanuk, raising an eyebrow, He nodded, and gestured for her to go next. Eventually Klasvik moved aside, his face giving little away, and Benny bent down and put her eye to the hole.

She was looking out into the huge auditorium of the amphitheatre. It seemed almost as if she was on the stage, the curved rows of steps where the seats had been stretching away and up from her. In fact they were offset from the centre of the theatre, the stage area was below and to the left, out of Benny's line of vision. But what she could see took her breath away. Their vantage point was quite high above the theatre floor, there was a drop, she estimated, of about twenty feet from the wall of mud. Mud seemed to have pushed out into the theatre, probably covering the stage area, but had not filled it. The excavation from this point would be comparatively easy.

And it was light good enough for Benny to make out the view once her eyes had become used to the muddy illumination, but no brighter. It took Benny a moment to realize that the amphitheatre was covered over. An enormous sheet of transparent plastic was stretched across the whole area, supported at intervals by metal posts stuck up through it, from which ropes held the sheeting in place. Lannic's previous expedition must have roofed over the structure to keep the elements out, and against all the odds the makes.h.i.+ft cover had held. Benny could see a thin layer of mud across the top, rain splas.h.i.+ng onto it and running down from the raised centre and off the sides. Where the mud was thinnest the light of the suns shone in, grimy and broken.

Benny was beginning to feel a tightness in her chest and could hear a rus.h.i.+ng in her ears. She realized with a start that she had been holding her breath, and let it out in a low whistle. Then reluctantly she stepped back from the aperture and allowed Gilmanuk to take her place.

They all took a turn at peering through the small hole. Even Tashman seemed moved, managing a grunt as his eyes adjusted to the dim light on the other side of the wall. Fortalexa and Bannahilk were more impressed with the fact that they had bought a day from the time allocated to tunnelling into the theatre and excavating it, but they were also staggered by the size of the structure.

Only Lannic seemed unmoved. She had after all seen it all before. And in contrast to the others, she was annoyed that they had wasted time tunnelling through the mud when it now appeared they could have walked round and cut a hole in the plastic sheeting. The only reason s was not blaming the others for this oversight seemed to be that it had never occurred to her either that the flimsy covering could have withstood the battering from the rain and the wind.

Bannahilk went back to get ropes and grappling hooks so they could get down to the theatre floor, Fortalexa went with him to check on Cambri and the com*net. Tashman drilled a patchwork of holes through the thin wall, and Krayn knocked the mud from between them with a sledge*hammer. Before long the opening was wide enough to squeeze through. The only obstacle remaining was the drop into the theatre.

'Once we're down there we can rig something up,' Tashman offered with uncharacteristic enthusiasm. 'Maybe use some of the mud from the stage and build steps up to the tunnel.'

'Not a bad idea,' Lannic leant out, holding on to the edge of the wall to balance herself. 'It looks pretty solid. We can probably cut out chunks with a low*intensity burst from a disruptor.'

'How did the mud get there?' Benny was concerned at once with the archaeological practicalities. 'I mean, why just the stage area?'

'There's probably a skene,' Gilmanuk was thinking aloud.

'There is.' Lannic of course had seen it. 'The central opening is fairly large.'

'Then the mud must have seeped in through there. More mud kept pus.h.i.+ng through as your previous diggings filled in but the mud at the front dried out a bit and set, blocking the doorway.'

Benny nodded. It was a plausible explanation. The similar theatres she had studied on the Braxiatel disk had a flat wall across the back of the stage area a skene (p.r.o.nounced skaynay, apparently) with doors in it. Typically there were three doors. They were used in production as entrances and exits. She knew Gilmanuk had a theory that the design of the skene in any particular theatre often influenced the drama written for it. The ancient Pranchens of Golrargos had concerned themselves with plays centred round different households; each door in the skene, Gilmanuk was certain, representing one of the houses. Benny could well imagine the dust, drifting through the uncovered doorways, then turning to slurry and mud as the rain started; drying under the heat of the sun as the plastic covers kept the interior of the theatre dry. Slowly silting up like the mouth of a river.

Gilmanuk and Klasvik were pressing Lannic for information about the skene, despite having seen the simularities shot on the previous expedition. There was no subst.i.tute for actual, physical experience and first impressions.

Bannahilk was soon back. He had ropes wound over his shoulder and was carrying two toughened plastic grappling hooks. He and Krayn quickly attached the ropes to the hooks and dug the hooks into the floor of the tunnel, far enough back from the edge to prevent it crumbling under the weight. Krayn hammered them into the packed mud and threw the ropes out of the tunnel mouth. Benny peered over and watched them snake down, jolting as they reached the end of their play and jumping back upwards slightly before slapping slowly against the uneven walls of the mud bank.

Almost as soon as the ropes were still, Lannic wiped her hands down the front of her coverall, grasped the nearest rope and swung herself out and down. She abseiled easily the twenty feet to the muddy floor, slipping slightly as she landed. She did not look back, but headed off to inspect the stage area.

Tashman shrugged and pushed his way through the others to the tunnel mouth. He grabbed the same rope as Lannic had used and lowered himself after her.

Benny chose the other one and leapt out into the auditorium. She reached the bottom with no applause, her hands a little sore from her over*enthusiastic speed down the rope.

Lannic was examining the base of the huge pile of mud covering the stage. It reached up almost to the plastic ceiling, like a damp mountain. Tashman was nowhere to be seen. Benny wandered over to join Lannic.

'Is there any damage?'

'Can't really tell yet. There doesn't seem to be. With luck the seepage was relatively slow and the weight was applied over a period of time.' Lannic stood and moved round to examine another area. 'If this lot came through too quickly, then at the very least the floor will have cracked.'

Krayn had joined them. He ran his hand down the side of the mud closest to the tunnel, then glanced back up the tunnel opening. Benny followed his gaze, just in time to see Klasvik make his way nervously down the rope. Gilmanuk was just picking himself up from a slippery arrival at floor level. She turned back to Krayn. 'What do you reckon?'

He shrugged. 'Tashman's the engineer. But I think we could take slices out of the side, cutting the base of each slice higher than the previous one. They'd make steps when they fell. Not ideal several short climbs rather than one big one. The real problem will be getting the equipment down here to being with.' He was looking into the depths of the dim theatre, trying to locate Tashman. His eyes swept across the tiers of the auditorium in front of them.

'Equipment?' Benny was confused. 'Surely a hand disiuptor will cut through this like b.u.t.ter.'

'Like what?'

'Well, quite easily.'

'Yes, but that's no good. The beam's so tight that the mud will just stay in position with a thin slice through it. Like an upright pillar. We need to loosen the base so it will fall. I think the water cannon would do a good job. We can direct it reasonably accurately and wash away the foundations of each ”pillar”. We could cut chunks out with a disruptor, but we'd have to be sure the angle was right or the whole thing could fall in the wrong place.'

Benny agreed. 'That could screw things up good and proper.'

Krayn nodded, still looking for Tashman. 'Where the h.e.l.l is he?'

Benny looked too, but she could hardly see to the back of the theatre where she had last seen him heading. She was about to suggest they go and look when they heard him call out.

Fortalexa left Cambri in the hold. He guessed she was still coming to terms with her hallucination; with the fact that the crazy curse had got to her. She failed to respond to a couple of quips, so he was happy to leave her to it. Especially as he was in a hurry. He had to find Bannahilk, His mind was still on what it had found in the com*net when he reached the end of the tunnel without having seen any of the others. He lowered himself down one of the ropes almost on instinct.

Fortalexa looked round. Everyone was running, making then way hurriedly up the steps of the area facing the stage, where the audience had sat. It occurred to him that it was not the landing at the base of the rope that had jolted him out of his reverie, but a sound. A man's voice calling out urgently. He followed the others.

When he caught up with them in fact he overtook Gilmanuk and Klasvik on the way they were gathered round Tashman. Tashman's eyes were wider than usual, and not just from the dim light. He was pointing at an area of the stone wall at the back of the theatre.

'Well, there's nothing there now.' Fortalexa noticed that Professor Summerfield seemed less out of breath even than he was. She must be very fit, especially without the military background as an excuse. She noticed him as she turned back to Tashman. 'I see the army got here at last, she offered sarcastically. 'Were you waiting for an invitation?'

'We aim to please.' He could see from her eyes that the pun was not lost on her. But she ignored it and addressed Tashman instead: 'Tell us again.' Gilmanuk and Klasvik had joined them now and they all listened attentively.

Tashman sighed and looked round them. 'Look, I didn't believe her any more than you lot did.'

'Who?' asked Lannic.

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