Matthew Reilly - Temple

‘Right.’

‘But whoever did this left us a single tungsten cored bullet to point us toward the Freedom Fighters. If the Texans really did do this, don’t you think it would make sense for them to throw us off the scent by framing their enemies— the Oklahoma Freedom Fighters?’

‘Yeah…’

‘What really scares me, though,’ Demonaco said, ‘is what they were after. Because if the Texans really have acquired doomsday tendencies, then this Supernova of yours is exactly the kind of thing they’d go for.’

‘The other thing we have to think about,’ Demonaco went on, ‘is how they got in. They had someone on the inside, someone who knew the codes to, and who could get card keys for, all the security locks. Do you have a record of the names of everyone working on the project?’

Mitchell pulled a sheet of computer paper from his breast pocket and handed it to Demonaco. ‘That’s a list of all the people working on the Supernova project, Navy and DARPA.’ Demonaco looked at the list.

PROJECT NAME: N23657K2 (SUPERNOVA) CLASSIFICATION: RED (ABSOLUTE SECRET) RELEVANT AGENCIES: NAVY ‘ DARPA PERSONNEL INVOLVED: NAME POSITION HELD AGENCY SECURITY NO. ROMANO, Julius M. Nuclear physicist, NAVY N’1005A2 PROJECT LEADER FISK, Howard K. Theoretical physicist, DARPA D’154677A DARPA PROJECT LEADER BOYLE, Jessica D. Nuclear physicist DARPA D’1788o82B LABOWSKI, John A. Delivery system NAVY N’7659C7 engineer MAHER, Karen B. Secondary systems DARPA D’620122C NORTON, Henry J. Technical support NAVY N’7632Cl RACE, Martin E. Ignition system DARPA DI327997A design engineer SMITH, Martin W. Weapons electronics DARPA D’590035B ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL: KAYSON, Simon F. Project security NAVY N’1009A2 DEVEREUX, Edward G. Language specialist HARVARD N’A

Mitchell said, ‘We’ve checked them all out. They’re all clean, even Henry Norton, the guy whose security card and PIN codes were used to get in.’

‘Where was he on the night of the breakin?’ Demonaco asked.

‘In the Arlington morgue,’ Mitchell said simply. ‘Paramedic records confirm that at 5:36 am on the night of the breakin exactly fifteen minutes before the thieves stormed this building—Henry Norton and his wife, Sarah, were found shot to death at their home in Arlington.’

‘5:36 Demonaco said. ‘They got here quickly after they killed him. They knew his name would be flagged at the hospital.’

As both Demonaco and Mitchell knew, it was common for high-level government employees to have electronic flags attached to their names in the event that they unexpectedly arrived at a hospital. As soon as the important person’s name was entered into the hospital’s records, a flag screen would come up telling the doctor involved to call the relevant government agency.

‘Did Norton have any links to militia groups?” Demonaco asked.

‘Not a one. Been in the Navy all his life. Technical support systems expert—computers, communications systems, navigation computers. He has an exemplary record. Hell, the man’s a goddamn boy scout. The man least likely to betray his country.’

‘What about the others?’

‘Nothing. None of them has any links to any paramilitary organisations. Every member of the team had to go through a comprehensive security check before they were cleared to work on the project. They’re clean. Not a single one of them is believed to even know a member of a militia group.’

‘Well, someone does,’ Demonaco said. ‘Find out who worked with Norton the most, anyone who could have watched him enter his PIN codes every day. I’ll make some calls to my people and see what Earl Bittiker and the Texans have been up to lately.’

The Goose kicked up a shower of spray as it touched down on the surface of the Alto Purus River, not far from the base of the waterfall that cascaded out over the table land. Night had fallen and, mindful of the presence of the rapas in the village, Race and the others had decided that they would moor the seaplane down by the waterfall and reenter Vilcafor via the quenko.

After Doogie had parked the Goose on the riverbank underneath a dense canopy of trees, the four of them disembarked. They left Uli in the plane, unconscious and dosed up on some methadone they’d found in a first-aid kit in the back of the plane. Before they made for the path behind the waterfall, however, Race made them do something quite unusual. Using a couple of wooden boxes they had found inside the Goose and a few energy bars that Van Lewen and Doogie had had on their persons, they set some primitive traps— traps that were designed to catch the monkeys rustling about in the trees above them.

Ten minutes later, they had a pair of furious primates trapped inside the two wooden boxes. The two monkeys screamed and shrieked as Van Lewen and Doogie carried them along the path behind the rushing waterfall and into the yawning stone doorway of the quenko.

Ten minutes later, Race climbed up into the citadel of Vilcafor. Nash, Lauren, Copeland, Gaby Lopez and Johann Krauss were all gathered in a corner of the citadel watching Lauren as she tried to make radio contact with either Van Lewen or Doogie. They all turned as one when they saw Race emerge from the quenko with the fake idol in his hands. Renée, Van Lewen and Doogie came up into the citadel after him. They were all completely covered in mud and grime. Race still had dried droplets of Heinrich Anistaze’s blood on his face. Nash saw the idol in his hands immediately.

‘You got it!’ he exclaimed, rushing over to Race, snatching the idol from him. He gazed at it adoringly. Race just watched Nash coldly, and in that instant he decided that he wouldn’t tell Nash what he knew about him. Rather he would just wait and see what Nash did from here. They might still get the idol—indeed, maybe even with Race’s help—but Race was determined to ensure that Nash wouldn’t end up with it.

‘It’s beautiful,’ Nash said wondrously.

‘It’s a fake,’ Race said flatly.

‘What?’

‘It’s a fake. It’s not made of thyrium. If you turn on your nucleotide resonance imager again, you’ll find that there is still a source of thyrium is this area. But this idol isn’t it.’

‘But… how?’

‘During his escape from Cuzco, Renco Capac got the criminal Bassario to craft an exact replica of the Spirit of the People. Renco planned to surrender to Hernando and hand over the fake idol to him. He knew Hernando would kill him, but he also knew that so long as Hernando got an idol, he would never suspect that it might be the wrong idol.

‘As it happened, however, Renco and Alberto Santiago killed Hernando and his men, and Renco—so the manuscript says—proceeded to hide both idols inside the temple.’

Nash turned the idol over in his hands and sawfor the first time the hollowed out cylindrical section in its base.

He looked up at Race. ‘So the real idol is still somewhere inside the temple?’

‘That’s what Santiago says in the manuscript,’ Race said.

‘But… ?”

‘But I don’t believe him.’

‘You don’t believe him? Why not?’

‘Does your NRI machine still work?’ Race asked Lauren.

‘Yes.’

‘Set it up and I’ll show you what I mean.’

They all moved to the open topped roof of the citadel, where Lauren began setting up the nucleotide resonance imager. While she went about setting up the machine, Race looked out over the village. It was dark, still raining lightly. He caught a glimpse of a large feline shadow peering up at him from behind one of the smaller buildings of the town. After a few moments, Lauren had the NRI machine ready. She flicked a switch and the silver rod mounted on top of the console began to rotate slowly. Thirty seconds later, there came a shrill beep! and the rod stopped abruptly. It was not, however, pointing at the idol in Nash’s hands. Rather, it was pointing away from Nash, up at the mountains.