Harold Goodwin - The Golden Skull - A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story

The Sikh came to attention and Rick noted that he was rather small for his race. Most Sikhs were big men. He had kept the light on the bearded face, noting that the beard was neatly tied in the Sikh fashion. Brown eyes stared unblinkingly. A hoarse voice said, "This ees house of Meester Secretary Lazada. Please to enter."

Suddenly the voice changed and Rick nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Go right on up the stairs, meatheads. Scotty must be hungry. He always is."

Rick choked.

"Chahda!"

Scotty reached out for the Hindu boy, but Chahda stepped nimbly aside. "Not time for horseplay now," he said. "Or talk either. Houseboy will hear. It important I stay under cover. You go up and eat. Later, if I can, I will come to Manila Hotel. If I cannot, I will meet you in Baguio."

The boys knew better than to argue. They each punched Chahda affectionately as they passed him, then Rick knocked on the door, which was instantly opened by a Filipino houseboy.

The houseboy led them up a steep flight of stairs into a huge living room, sparsely furnished after the tropical fashion, but with exquisite and expensive Chinese furniture of rosewood and teak. Tony Briotti came to meet them, then introduced them to Dr. Remedios Okola and the Honorable Irineo Lazada.

Dr. Okola, obviously, had a great deal of Spanish blood in his ancestry. He was tall and lean, with a deeply lined face and a magnificent hawklike nose. His hair was iron gray. He wore black dress trousers and an open-neck slipover shirt of a very fine, almost transparent, fabric heavily embroidered down the front. The shirt hung outside his trousers in traditional style. This was the barong Tagalog, the native Filipino costume.

Where the Filipino archaeologist showed his Spanish blood, the Honorable Irineo Lazada's face betrayed his Chinese ancestry. He was round of face, and his eyes had the typical Mongoloid fold. He was dressed in an expensive white sharkskin suit with a white American-style shirt and a black tie. The tie was held in place by the biggest diamond Rick had ever seen. He assumed it was real; no one would wear a phony one that big.

Lazada had a huge Manila cigar in one hand and a fan in the other. By some feat of legerdemain he managed to shake hands with the boys without letting go of either.

"Come in, come in," he said genially. "Welcome to the Philippines. You will have some refreshment? How about a coke?"

That suited the boys fine. Lazada waved a pudgy hand and a slippered houseboy appeared like a genie, carrying two iced glasses of coke. Rick was not in the least surprised. He had had his favorite American beverage in more unexpected places than this.

Tony Briotti explained, "Dr. Okola and I just got here. We had a most interesting day at the university. I was beginning to go into the details of our expedition with Mr. Lazada."

"Please continue," Lazada said expansively.

Rick, who was sensitive to voices, had the impression that Mr. Lazada's voice passed through a bath of highly refined oil before it emerged from his thick lips. It wasn't exactly oily – just sort of overlubricated.

Lazada alternately smoked and fanned. "You were telling me of Spindrift Island. Am I to gather that you are the only Spindrift scientist on this expedition? And that these young men just came for the voyage?"

"By no means." Tony set Lazada straight. "Rick is our pilot and electronics technician. Scotty is mechanic and camp manager."

"Pilot?" Lazada looked surprise.

Dr. Okola hastened to explain. "I neglected to tell Mr. Lazada that you are bringing your own plane. Of course, sir, permission was obtained in advance from the Philippine Aeronautics Authority."

"A helicopter, of course," Lazada said. "Nothing else would be of value in Mountain Province. The only air-field is at Baguio."

"It's a four-place Sky Wagon," Rick said. "We hoped there might be some suitable landing places."

Lazada shrugged. "Perhaps there are, but they are not regular airports. Planes do not fly in that country. Both the mountains and the weather are dangerous."

"Might it not be possible for them to land on the roadway at Bontoc and then go over the mountains to Banaue by truck?" Dr. Okola asked.

"Perhaps." Lazada didn't seem too optimistic. "Exactly where do you expect to find this golden skull?" He added, "I can tell you more about the transportation you will need when I know that."

"We only know that it should be somewhere among the rice terraces," Tony Briotti said. "I realize that they cover entire mountainsides. That is why we came prepared to stay for some time if need be. There is so much territory to cover with our equipment!"

"Many square miles," Lazada agreed. "What is the expression? A needle in a haystack? Surely you must have some kind of clue."

"Just one," Dr. Okola said. "A dragon. Isn't that so, Dr. Briotti?"

Tony nodded. "That's what the translation of the Kwangara Island artifacts said. The dragon is supposed to be guarding a cache of religious objects, including the golden skull and other gold objects."

"You mean a gilt skull, of course," Lazada said.

"No, the description was quite clear. A skull of metallic gold."

"A miniature, probably."

"No, sir. The skull is actually larger than life size."

Lazada stopped slouching in his chair. "Incredible!"

Dr. Okola spoke up. "After all, Mr. Secretary, gold is mined right here in the Philippines. In Mountain Province, in fact. And it is found in many other parts of Asia."

Rick had a strange feeling as he watched Lazada's face. The Assistant Secretary seemed to be licking his lips, although he wasn't actually doing so. It was almost as though Lazada was doing sums in his head… Gold is heavy… It would take a lot of gold to make a life-size skull, even a hollow one… Gold is worth thirty-five dollars an ounce, legally. If smuggled into China, it would bring twice that…

"Tell me more of this dragon," Lazada invited.

Tony was glad to oblige. Next to actually working at his profession he enjoyed talking about it. "The dragon is of the greatest importance throughout the culture of the East. We followed its trail from the great temple of Ankor Vat in Cambodia all the way to the sunken temple of Alta Yuan."

Rick remembered vividly. He had been at the controls of the Submobile, a hundred fathoms under the waters of the Pacific, when the first Alta Yuan dragon came to light.

"The dragon was the incarnation of the chief god of the Alta Yuan people. When an earthquake sank the temple, the people of the island lost their gods. When we hauled the dragon back up and gave it to them, nothing was too good for us." He paused. "By 'we' I mean the Spindrift scientists. I was not among the lucky ones, since I had not yet joined the Spindrift group."

Okola shared Tony's excitement over the Alta Yuan find. "I, too, was very much interested in that expedition. And when I heard that the artifacts brought from the bottom of the sea provided a possible connection between the Philippines and that ancient culture, you can imagine my excitement."

Rick could see that Lazada could not possibly imagine so much excitement over an archaeological find, but was too courteous to say so.

"Then finding a similar dragon among the rice terraces would show a link between our country and the ruins of Ankor Vat?" Lazada asked.

"Exactly," Tony replied.

Lazada rose. "Dinner is ready. Let us continue our discussion at the table."

They went out to a balcony which overlooked a garden at the rear of the house. A table set with the finest Chinese linen and delicate Siamese silverware was waiting for them. Houseboys waited to serve them. Over a dinner of broiled giant prawns, meat-stuffed rolls called lumpia , and whole barbecued suckling pig called lechon , they continued their talk of the expedition.