Part 12 (1/2)

They scurried backward, still watching, spellbound. They'd never seen this done before.

Dr. Cooper got the wire undone. He opened the little door on the cage he was carrying, then yanked the door of the big cage open, took a breath ...

And jumped inside.

Slap! Splat! Flop! The carvies descended on him like angry hornets, sliming him, slapping against him, slithering over his back, his arms, his head. Their shrieks sounded like all the rats in the world getting stepped on, their slime burned like fire on his hands, his neck, his face, and he couldn't help but scream and gasp from the pain. One clamped onto his ear like a sticky pancake and started biting him. He thought he would pa.s.s out. He reached up, yanked it loose-it felt like a sticky, slimy, flattened water balloon in his hand-and threw it into the small cage. It flopped and fluttered around, trying to get out. Then he grabbed another from his arm and another from his side and both went into the cage. He stayed hunched over, one hand holding the cage, the other arm around his head to protect his eyes. He needed more of these critters, many more.

His world was reeling. All he could see was cage wire and carvies moving in waves past his eyes. The sight made him dizzy. He stretched out the hand holding the cage and three more carvies slapped against his arm like wet pancakes fired from a slingshot. He peeled them off with his other hand and threw them into the little cage, slamming the door shut.

That should do it. That should be plenty. He got the big cage door open and, with carvies still crawling on his back, shoulders, legs, and head, he took off running.

The Kachaka village looked strangely deserted. Every last person must be hiding.

And with good reason. It was a bizarre sight, this wild green man running through the village with hissing, chirping, yellow slugs stuck all over him. At least a hundred more fluttered above and behind him, chasing him like angry hornets.

Lila ducked around the first corner in the hallway, spotted a piece of stone, and grabbed it to use as a weapon. Then she pressed herself tightly against the wall, clicking off her flashlight. Hiding in the dark, she could hear Toms squeeze through the hole and flop into the hall. She saw no beam from a flashlight. He must be too crazy to think of using one. His footsteps started coming her way. What to do? What to do?

”Seorita!” he hollered like a drunken man, his voice like gravel. ”Seorita, come here! I'm going to get you, muchachita!”

She waited. He got closer, his feet shuffling, dragging along in the dark. His voice sounded like it was inside a huge bell. ”I'll get you ... and I'll ... I'll ...”

She didn't care to hear his plans. The instant his stubbly, sweating, disheveled head appeared around the corner, she smacked it hard with the stone. He fell sideways. She slipped around him and ran back toward the treasure room. Maybe there was time to find the way out. Maybe.

The carvies in the cage were shrieking and bas.h.i.+ng against the sides, trying to get out. The carvies overhead were swooping down and slapping at him. The carvies on his body were hanging on, looking for some bare skin so they could bite him. Dr. Cooper just kept running with powerful strides through the ruins until he spotted the Pyramid of the Sun in the center of Toco-Rey. From there, a left turn would take him to the burial tomb of Kachi-Tochetin.

He wasn't dead. That thought did occur to him. As a matter of fact, he was feeling better. The slime wasn't burning quite as much, and best of all, his mind was clear. He knew who he was, where he was going, and why. Praise G.o.d, his hunch was correct: the poisonous slime of the caracole volante and the toxin from the spores canceled each other out. Lila had recovered because Mara had shot her with a poison dart, just a big enough dose to neutralize the spore toxin.

Which made Dr. Cooper wonder, how much of this slime is enough, and how much is too much? Right now he was getting an abundant dose of slug slime. Would the load of spores he carried in his body be enough to counteract it?

All he could do was hope and keep running.

Lila clambered through the wall into the treasure room and got a terrible scare when Jay-at least it used to be Jay-growled and snapped at her, pulling against the chain with the ferocity of a junkyard dog. If that chain should break loose ...

She was trapped in this place with two mad animals. There had to be a way out! She climbed over the treasure, searching the walls, looking for cracks, for c.h.i.n.ks, for a hidden door, for a hatchway, anything. How did the Corys do it? How did they get in here?

A howl echoed up the hallway outside, and then galloping footsteps. Toms was out there hunting for her. It was only a matter of time before he found her here.

And then it would be too late.

As Dr. Cooper ran toward the burial temple, he was glad to see that the carvies chasing him had finally vented their anger or had gotten tired. They'd given up the chase, and even the ones still clinging to him were losing interest. Two let go of his back and fluttered into the bushes.

Well, he thought. Of course. They were crabby because they were hungry, so let them get something to eat.

He dashed through the jungle, made some quick turns along the trail near the burial temple, and finally reached the pit.

He stopped. His heart sank. The pit was still smoking from the blast that had caved it in. Looking over the wall, he saw nothing but rubble and shreds of dead carvies. Apparently Armond Basehart had succeeded in sealing the tomb.

But Jacob Cooper had been expecting this and was already working on another hunch, another theory. The question was, How did Lila come in contact with the spores in the first place? What did she do? Where did she go that no one else did?

He dashed back the way he'd come. He was pretty sure he knew the answer.

Lila rested her elbows on the stone coffin and clenched her hands together as she prayed, ”Oh Lord, what am I missing? How do I get out of here? How do I save Jay? How did I get better?”

Her leg felt cold, as if in a draft. She reached down near the floor with her hand and felt cold air coming from somewhere.

Somewhere under the coffin? She probed around the stone pedestal the coffin was sitting on. Yes! There was definitely cold air coming into the room through a crack between the coffin and the pedestal. A very tight crack. Maybe the pedestal was hollow. Maybe there was a pa.s.sageway under the coffin!

She put her hands on the coffin's edge and pushed against it sideways. It wiggled only about a sixteenth of an inch. She moaned. The coffin was carved from solid stone! She couldn't push it sideways, and she knew she would never be able to lift it!

The orchids! Where were they?

Dr. Cooper doubled back on the trail and finally found the spot where Lila had left the main trail to smell orchids on their first trip here. He knew it was a desperate guess, but it seemed reasonable: The Corys had orchids in a vase in their camp. Lila had found the same sort of orchids growing in the ruins and gone off the trail to sniff them. If she got spores in her nose from those orchids, it could be because the Corys had already pa.s.sed by that spot and had unknowingly spread the spores from their clothing, their hands, or the artifacts. If there was another way into the tomb, it could be near those orchids.

There they were, over by that old, crumbling wall! Dr. Cooper made a quick dash through the thick growth. This was the place, all right. Now. Was there any sign of a tunnel, a pa.s.sageway? He started moving along the wall. He thought he saw the signs of a trail the Corys might have cut.

He was. .h.i.t from the side! He tumbled through the branches and tangles as the cage of carvies flew from his hand. Growling! Snapping! Not again! Ben Cory, wild as a tiger, green as a gator, teeth bared, went for his throat. Dr. Cooper fought back, twisting, and kicking.

Lila tried to rock the coffin. It didn't move. She tried to lift it and discovered that was out of the question. She tried to push it sideways again, and it wiggled just a little. Maybe that was it: sideways. Maybe it rolled or pivoted or- She heard a growl and spun to see Toms squeezing through the hole, his mouth drooling, his skin turning green, his eyes full of menace.

ELEVEN.

Ben Cory had pinned Dr. Cooper and was trying to bite him, claw him, choke him. Cory was amazingly strong, but Jacob Cooper was still just as green as his opponent and still supercharged with enough toxin-induced strength to throw the wild man off and roll free.

The tunnel! He was stunned. He was on his belly in the brush in the middle of a fight, but he'd found it, dark, deep, and round like a gopher hole.

Ben Cory came at him again, staggering, growling, drooling!

Time to end this. The cage of carvies was close by. Dr. Cooper lunged through the brush, grabbed it, and leaped to his feet. He turned just as Ben Cory came at him-and he smashed the cage down over Ben Cory's head. Cory's head broke through the mesh and into the cage and the carvies pounced. The wild man screamed, spinning around, pus.h.i.+ng and banging against the cage, trying to get free while the venomous slugs clamped onto his head.

Dr. Cooper had no time to waste. He tackled Ben Cory, flipped the cage door open, and plucked a carvy from Cory's head with each hand. ”Come on, guys, I need you below!” They didn't want to go and shrieked and fluttered to get away as they hung from his fists by their tails. He held them firmly and they went with him as he scurried down the tunnel.

He had no light with him and just pushed ahead through the dark, his arm out in front to feel his way along. Jose de Carlon's men did a good job. The walls of the tunnel were smooth and consistent, and there were no hazardous b.u.mps or dips. They could have dug a little more headroom, though. Dr. Cooper had to crouch to get through.

Lila was careful to keep her distance from Jay, who seemed ready to chomp a piece out of her if she got close enough. On the other side of the room, Toms squeezed through the hole in the wall and tumbled to the floor.

She grabbed a tall gold vase from a stone ledge and cradled it in her hands, ready to hit a homer with Toms's head if she had to. ”Toms, you come near me and I'll knock your block off!”

”Get her, Toms!” Jay hollered. ”Get her!”

Toms got to his feet but hesitated when he saw the vase in Lila's hands. Then cunning began to show through those crazed eyes, and he smiled a crooked, wicked smile. ”Oh, you G.o.dda use a weapon? Know me, I G.o.dda weapon too, know that?” He reached into his coat pocket and brought out the explosive charge with the detonator attached. ”Dr. Basehart give me-to kill you!”

Oh no. Could a mad man be reasoned with? ”Toms ... Don't do anything stupid. Give me that bomb.”

He laughed a deep growly laugh and pressed a little b.u.t.ton on the detonator. A red display flashed on: 5:00, 4:59, 4:58, 4:57 ... ”You get away? No you don't!”

He lunged for Lila. She ran around the coffin, slipping in the dust and almost getting grabbed by her brother who was still trying to work himself loose from the chain. Don't lose it, Lila! Don't panic! Toms came the other way around the coffin to head her off. She scrambled over the top of it, dropping the vase on the floor. Toms leaped over the coffin to grab her but she ran around to the other side again, squeezing past her brother who nearly reached her. ”Lord G.o.d ... if you've got a way out of this, I'd be glad to hear it!”