Diablo Mesa(82)

55



STANDING IN FRONT of Rush, Tappan spoke first. To Nora, his voice seemed surprisingly calm. “What is this place?”

Rush looked at him steadily, hatchet-like cheekbones framing his pale eyes. A man in a lieutenant’s uniform entered the room, came over, and bent toward Rush, whispering something in his ear. The colonel nodded and the man quickly left, feet echoing on the concrete floor, closing the heavy door behind him.

Rush turned back to Tappan. Although his uniform resembled that of an officer in the regular army, Nora noticed that—like the captain’s—it bore badges, medals, and service ribbons that looked unusual. It was the same with this room, or for that matter the entire underground base: while in her experience military quarters were never lavish, these surroundings seemed particularly spartan. In fact, other than the table, chairs, and smoked windows—which reminded her of the observation panels in a police interrogation room—there was only one piece of ornamentation: an emblem on the wall behind the colonel, showing an eagle hovering over Earth, its wings spread and talons out as if to protect its young. Beneath was a motto: SERVANDAE VITAE MENDACIUM.

“What is this place?” Tappan repeated.

This time, the colonel answered. “I presume that to be, at least in part, a rhetorical question. I suspect you have an inkling of who we are, why we’re here, and what our mission is.” He spoke in a clipped voice.

At that moment, the door opened again and two more soldiers entered, carrying between them a black box, about two feet on a side. They gingerly placed the box on Rush’s desk. The colonel stood and took a step back.

“Evaluation complete?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” said one of the soldiers.

“And?”

“Full green.”

“Very well.” Rush nodded.

Nora watched as the other soldier unlatched the box and carefully opened the lid. The lid’s interior, and the box itself, seemed to be lined with a thick grayish-black material resembling graphite. She could not see its contents beyond a jade-green glow that reflected off Rush’s face as he stared down—a glow she remembered coming from beneath the sand of the dig site. The colonel appeared stunned, his face tense and his eyes glittering in the otherworldly light. An age seemed to pass before he stepped back again and nodded to the soldier, who shut the box.

“Take it to vault nineteen,” he said tersely.

The soldiers left and he turned back to Tappan. For a moment he was silent, as if collecting himself. Then he spoke. “I suppose I should thank you for finding that. Now, as I said, I have a few questions.”

“Go fuck yourself,” said Tappan.

The soldier standing to Tappan’s right stepped forward, slamming his fist into Tappan’s face. He fell to the ground with a grunt.

“Sergeant!” Rush barked. “Help him up.”

The man pulled Tappan to his feet, gasping and sputtering.

“As you were,” Rush ordered. The soldier once again took up a position to Tappan’s right.

“I don’t wish to hurt you,” said Rush.

“Tell that to our research assistant,” Tappan said, spitting out a mouthful of blood. “The one your boys shot in the head.”

“That’s regrettable. But make no mistake: my troops are not ‘boys.’ And it wasn’t a sandbox you were digging in, up there on the surface. Though you may not know it, you’ve infiltrated a war zone—and any resulting casualties are on your heads as much as they are on mine.”

“What are you talking about?” Nora asked. “What war zone?”

Rush’s eyes slid toward her. “I have two questions that are particularly pressing. I need to know, first, what you’ve found so far; and second, who else knows about it outside your team in the field.”

“What we’ve found?” Nora said. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

But even as she said this, she knew he could mean only one thing. Rush’s lips twitched and she realized that—as he’d implied—he knew this as well as she did.

“Please don’t insult my intelligence,” he told her. “As I said, I don’t desire any more bloodshed than necessary. But you’ve put me in a difficult situation. If you don’t provide me with the information I need, I’ll have no choice but to assume the worst. And respond accordingly.”

Something about the way he said this chilled Nora.

“Where were those men of yours heading in our jeeps?” Tappan asked.

Now it was the colonel’s turn not to answer.

“You said you didn’t want bloodshed,” Tappan continued. “Guarantee the safety of my people—and I’ll answer your questions.”

Nora glanced at Tappan. He didn’t look back.

Rush exhaled slowly.

“Nobody knows anything,” Tappan burst out. “Just the four of us. Three, thanks to your trigger-happy captain. Okay? I don’t know what you’re after, exactly, but we don’t have it. We don’t know anything. But it’s obvious you know who we are—and what we’re doing. You probably even know the answers to these questions you’re asking. Now: Will you guarantee the safety of my people?”

“I’ll do my best,” Rush said after a brief silence. “But as I said, this is a military facility, engaged in a war. That makes guarantees somewhat complicated.”