Douglas Preston - Two Graves

The mayor rose and extended a small, fat hand. “Looking for the Queen Beatrice butterfly, I understand!” he said genially. He, too, spoke perfect English. “I hope you find it.”

The paperwork was time consuming, yet it was taken care of with great efficiency. Pendergast was given an official document, stamped and embossed, which he was told to keep on his person at all times. As they were concluding the arrangements, a thin man stepped into the office. He was about thirty-five, with a narrow head, a high-domed forehead that seemed to loom over his watery blue eyes, and a thick lower lip that also extended beyond the upper, giving his face a queer, caved-in look.

“And here is your escort,” said the mayor. “His name is Egon.”

“You are free to go anywhere you like, except out on the lake or to its island.” The captain paused significantly. “You did not expect to go to the island, I trust?”

“Oh, no,” said Pendergast. “The last QB was found on the mainland, along the shores of the lake. No need for water trips—I’ve had enough of that coming up the river!”

This little joke elicited a chuckle from the mayor. “Good. Egon will also show you to your evening’s quarters. Egon, please see that the Herr Doktor receives every courtesy.”

Egon nodded.

Pendergast bowed. “Thank you. Most kind, most kind indeed. But I shall not be needing evening quarters: the Queen Beatrice, you see, is best hunted at night.”

They emerged back onto the streets as the sun finally broke free of the clouds, flooding the town with a weak light. Slowly the veil over the lake was drawn back, revealing the central island—a naked cinder cone topped by a grim fortress of ancient lava rock, black in color, its towers partly in ruins, battlements and crenellations broken and crumbling. A single ray of light pierced the gloom and illuminated the structure, and Pendergast could see, briefly—as the fugitive light passed over the old fort—the flash of something metallic hidden behind the massive walls.

The appearance of the sun had an unusual effect on the town. Suddenly, as if summoned, the streets filled with men and women going about their business with a remarkable fixity of purpose. It was almost like a movie set, many of the townsfolk dressed in vintage clothing from the late 1940s, the women with rolled bangs and tailored jackets or dresses, wide shoulders and hips, the men in dark baggy suits and hats, some smoking pipes. Others were dressed in more working-class outfits, jumpsuits and overalls, flat caps and straw boaters. All were handsome, and most sported classic Nordic looks—tall, blond, and blue-eyed, with chiseled cheekbones. They went about their business by bicycle, on foot, some with wheelbarrows and carts. But, Pendergast noted, no cars. The only vehicles were World War II–era jeeps driven by men in olive drab, always with an important-looking personage seated in the back, dressed in a gray uniform. These were the only people who seemed to have guns, and they were well armed indeed, packing high-caliber sidearms and, frequently, an assault rifle with an oversize magazine.

Many inhabitants stopped and stared at him, some gaping in surprise and some eyeing him with evident hostility. For the fact was, Pendergast, aka Dr. Percival Fawcett, stood out like a sore thumb. Which was precisely his intention.

Pendergast set off at a breakneck pace toward the quay, explaining loudly that the Queen Beatrice preferred the littoral zones and that its favored time of day was dawn, not sunset, but that one never knew. Egon seemed not to hear, following him with dogged persistence, never tiring, always keeping up.

The boats along the quay were beautifully maintained, and some were much larger than would normally be necessary for lake fishing. They included two big motorized barges, on which sat heavy machinery and exotic equipment of unknown function—again, far heavier than seemed necessary for a remote farming community. How such large vessels had been transported to this isolated lake could not even be guessed at. It was getting on toward evening, and the quay was a bustle of activity as fishermen began unloading the day’s catch, which was then packed in ice and loaded into heavy handcarts. All was a picture of industry, hard work, and evident self-sufficiency—seemingly, a model society. Pendergast noted that the town did not appear to contain even a single bar or café.

“Egon, tell me: is this a dry town? Is alcohol consumption allowed?”

This question, Pendergast’s first, received no answer from Egon, no acknowledgment that it had been heard.

“Well, then. Let us keep going.”

Pendergast walked briskly along the quays. The poor weather finally lifted completely, giving way to a beautiful, even spectacular sunset, with the great orange globe of the sun dropping through vermilion layers of cloud on the far side of the lake, turning the water to fire, silhouetting the grim ruined fortress on its lonely island out in the middle of the lake.

Just beyond the far end of the quay was an unusual rock formation: three large stones, boulders actually, remarkably identical in size and shape, that rose up several feet above the surface of the water and were arranged in a roughly triangular pattern about ten yards apart. Here, Pendergast stopped and took a moment to look back at the town, sloping gently upward along the flanks of the old volcano. It was the very picture of orderliness, cleanliness, efficiency, and regulation. The buildings were beautifully maintained, freshly stuccoed in white, the shutters gaily painted in green and blue. Many of the buildings sported window boxes bursting with flowers. There was no trash, not even a gum wrapper, to be seen; no graffiti; no stray dogs—or, in fact, any dogs at all: no derelicts, drunks, or loafers; no street arguments, shouting, or excessive noise.

There were other things besides dogs and trash that seemed to be missing. While there were plenty of middle-aged and older people, there were no people infirm with age, no fat people, no one with physical defects. And, to his great interest, no twins.

It was, in short, a perfect little utopia, hidden in the depths of the Brazilian forest.

As night fell, lights came on in the island fortress, bright klieg lights that bathed the stone ramparts a brilliant white. In the quietness of twilight, as he stood on the quay, Pendergast could begin to hear sounds from across the water: the hum of generators, the clanking of machinery, the crackle of electricity, and, very faint, drifting across the dark lake, what might have been the screech of a bird—or, perhaps, a scream of agony.

60

BEYOND THE QUAY LAY A CURVE OF SHORE AND A PEBBLED beach. A quarter mile farther on, the forest began, a dark, spiky, seemingly impenetrable wall. The sky deepened as the sun dipped through the last layer of clouds and winked off in a swirl of light at the horizon.

Pendergast reached into his pack and removed a red light, turning to the imperturbable Egon and speaking in a hushed voice full of suppressed excitement. “My dear fellow, now we are coming to the time of the Queen Beatrice.”

He set off down the beach, Egon following. Some small skiffs had been pulled up on the shingle, their nets draped out to dry. Farther along, the beach gave way to lava rock, and minutes later they arrived at the forest edge. The last of the light was dying against the island fortress, accentuating the brilliant illumination. Another distant cry—bird or human?—drifted over the water.

“Egon, you see that ruin over there?” Pendergast asked, pointing toward the fort. “Why is it all lit up? What’s going on over there?”