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sky, and thought very hard about the direction of its rays when I came out of
the forest in the morning. I turned in what I hoped was that direction.
A couple of times I heard vehicles approaching, but with the brush at the
side of the road so close to the pavement, it was relatively easy to step
quickly out of sight.
After about a half hour of walking, I saw a path that veered off to the left,
the direction I thought I should be going, so I followed it. The light was
growing dimmer, but I was afraid to turn on the flashlight lest my captors see
it.
By the time I reached the pyramid, it was almost dusk. I was certain that the
shaft above my position in the cave would lead to the pyramid, perhaps a stone
in the plaza in front of it. But it would take me a while to find it and I was
reasonably sure that I could find the underwater passageway back into the
cave. I was unsure how to protect the flashlight until I recalled the slit in
the rock. If I could locate that, I could push the flashlight through, then
swim in myself.
I lined up the pyramid the way I remembered it, and carefully climbed down to
the water s edge. Holding the flashlight above my head as I swam, I found the
slit, and pushed the light as far as I could through it, then dove down and
found, albeit with some difficulty in the fading light, the underwater route.
I surfaced once again in the cave and listened carefully. I could hear
nothing except the ripple of water. The bats were not yet awake for the night.
I retrieved the flashlight and switched it on.
The box was where I had left it, next to the niche in which I had found it. I
rested the flashlight where it would be most useful and, using two small
stones, one as a little hammer, the other for leverage, worked away at the rim
of the box, which, as Ernesto had predicted, had been sealed in some waxy
substance, the remains of which were still visible in places.
The lid finally loosened, and holding my breath, I lifted it up.
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I guess because of my intense concentration on getting the box open, and the
tapping sounds I was making with my two little stones on the edge of the stone
box, I did not hear them coming until it was too late.
Suddenly there was a very loud scraping sound almost directly over my head,
and the large rock at the top of the shaft above me was moved aside. A dark
figure slid down the shaft, followed closely by another. Both wore black hoods
over their heads. The first one carried a gun and it was pointed at me.
 Thank you so much for leading us to the codex, my dear, the English voice
said.
I could not believe my ears. My immediate reaction was that I had been found
by a friend, but the tone of voice, and the presence of the gun, were at odds
with that thought.
Jonathan pulled the hood off with one hand, the other holding the gun very
steadily in my direction. The figure behind him remained hidden.
 You have certainly caused us a great deal of aggravation, Lara, but I
believe you may also have saved us some time. I m not sure how long it would
have taken us to find this passageway, if we had not been in hot pursuit of
you.
 Who s we?
 I m not sure you need to know that. We ll be taking the box, if you please.
 But this is your dig, Jonathan. Of course you will be given credit for the
find. I m not one of those grave robbers you get so upset about, I said, my
mind not yet grasping the significance of the gun.
 Credit? I prefer cash to credit, my dear, any day. And this should bring a
significant amount of it.
Light was beginning to dawn.  So is this what you do? I asked incredulously.
 Pretend you are on a legitimate archaeological dig, anguishing in public
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about how grave robbers have got there ahead of you, when in fact you ve taken
the stuff yourself?
He merely smiled and gestured toward the box.  Hold it up where we can see
the contents, he ordered. I did so with some difficulty. The box was heavy.
The codex was there all right. For the few moments that I had had it to
myself, I had seen the fragile bark paper, the beautifully rendered drawings
in black and red, and the fluid hieroglyphic text. It was badly damaged, of
course, but what little I could see looked legible. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]