Part 7 (1/2)
”What's that supposed to mean?”
”I dunno. It just popped into my head.”
”Look, my people may be mistakenly following a sleaze bag but I still don't like them being insulted by an outsider . . .”
”Okay, okay. I didn't mean anything by it. Come on, let's see the rest.”
”There's more?” Krisuk held the light up head high, advanced a step inside the new opening, and emitted a low whistle. ”There sure is.”
Even in the weak light of the lamp they could see that a good-sized tunnel had been cleared through the cave-in.
The floor still was mainly stone overlain with dust, but the walls and ceiling had an odd white sheen. Krisuk ran his fingers over it and sniffed. ”No smell.”
Diego leaned in closer and dragged his fingernails down the wall, leaving not so much as a scratch in their wake. ”No, there wouldn't be. It's bonded with Petraseal.”
”What's that?”
”It's what they use in mines these days to prevent cave-ins. They bond the rock surfaces to each other with this stuff. It's very strong. Nothing gets through. I wonder where Satok got it in this quant.i.ty.”
”You think he did this?”
”Who else?”
The other boy gave a quavering groan. ”Oh, no. I can't believe he did this.'
”What?” Diego asked, peering in the direction Krisuk was looking with a transfixed stare. Then he saw the outlines of skulls, large and small, and all sizes and lengths of bones, jumbled in with the rock, like so many fossils.
”b.a.s.t.a.r.d! He could have brought them out for a decent burial!” Krisuk said.
”Looks like they're still half-crushed by the rocks,”
Diego said fairly. ”Maybe he couldn't get them out without bringing down another cave-in. So he just sealed them up.”
”Without even a proper song?”
”You did say there was a memorial service for them in the cave.”
”Yes, but. . .”
”Look, I'm not trying to defend the guy, but the bonding wasn't put on until they were already skeletons. My guess is that it took him a while to dig this out and seal it up. Would have had to. Come on, let's see how far this goes.
”I was only a tad, mind you,” Krisuk said, swallowing convulsively, ”but it seems to me like the cave was really long. The floor sloped down because it was a hard walk up when we came back out: Mum used to have to carry me. I also remember that the cave used to have little teeth farther on.” Krisuk pointed to the darkness ahead, beyond the reach of the light.
'You mean stalact.i.tes and stalagmites?” Diego asked. ”Pointy things dripping down from the ceiling or sticking up from the floor like anthills?”
”Yeah. I never saw an anthill like them, but you got the idea.”
They walked back farther, their footsteps at first scuffing on the grit across the floor, then sounding with a ringing echo as the floor, too, became coated with the Petraseal and metal grates had been placed along the corridor. For a time the floor sloped down, as Krisuk had remembered, but then another corridor, of fresh, jagged rock, still sharp through the sealant, branched off and twisted upward.
”That wasn't there before!” Krisuk said and turned into the new pa.s.sage.
Diego followed him up for a few feet, enough to see that the Petraseal covered the floor and from the ceiling dangled the roots of trees and bushes, preserved for all time in death-glossy bones.
Diego shuddered, in spite of himself. ”This probably leads to Satok's place, if he lives above the cave, like you said ”
”He did all this stuff ?” Krisuk asked. ”How could he?”
Diego shrugged. ”It's not that hard with the right tools. I just wonder where he got them. Come on. I'll bet if we look further we'll find out why he's doing all this.”
They didn't find out why, but they did find out what it was he was doing when they took the descending path into the lower cavern Krisuk remembered.
Lower, farther from the entrance, everything was not covered with the stone bonder. But where the stalact.i.tes and stalagmites had been were only round craters, and sometimes small tunnels, like the holes of giant snakes, burrowed deep into the rock walls.
When she was finally able to retire from the elaborate welcoming dinner Torkel Fiske had arranged, Marmion asked Faber to arrange transport for her the next morning to see Kilcoole from ground level.
”Ask Sally and Millard to see what they can hear round and about, too, would you, dear Faber?” she added, allowing herself the luxury of a yawn she didn't have to stifle.
”Shall I pull rank if I run into obstruction? Faber asked. He was a bird colonel, currently detached to her service on a long loan basis.
”Hmmm, I'd rather you saved that for later, if at all possible. Torkel did mention somewhere in the gabble at dinner that we could make use of any facilities we needed in our investigations. So we will.”
She was up and out at what would have been considered by many of her peers an obscenely early hour. She wasn't as surprised to see Whittaker Fiske as he was to see her emerging from her apartment.
”Why, Whit, what on earth are you doing up at this hour?”
He chortled. ”The question applies more to you than me, Marmie.” He bowed gracefully over her hand with a real skin-touching kiss. ”Early birding?”
She smiled, and the arrival of Faber driving the antiquated rattletrap 4x4 vehicle spared her the necessity of replying to the obvious.
”Can we give you a lift?” she asked.
”Depends on where you're bound.”
”Kilcoole. Didn't see very much from the air yesterday, and it seems the best place to start.”
Whit c.o.c.ked his head at her, laugh lines crinkling at the comers of his amused eyes.
”It's safe today,” he said, handing her up the first high step to the pa.s.senger seat.
”Oh, your leg!” Marmion said, starting to get down.
”Don't mind me.” Opening the rear door, he agilely swung himself into the back.
”What'd you mean by 'it's safe today,' Whit, dear?” Marmion asked as she snapped on her seat belt and Faber pulled the vehicle away.
The ride was going to be b.u.mpy over the mangled plascrete, but later she would have exchanged that for the slip and slide of the mud-track to Kilcoole.
”Ah, well, Matt had his boys up before breakfast, scurrying about the place, accessing all kinds of records and reports so he'd 'have the overall picture and the demographic levels' and stuff like that.” Whittaker snorted. ”No chance of your running into him today out at Kilcoole.”
Marmion smiled. She had hoped to do her research first without stumbling over those physically fit types. As the vehicle hit a particularly large b.u.mp, she clung to the handle above her head. She could feel Whittaker taking a firm grip on the back of her seat.