Page 77

Chapter 45
While Kurt met with their host, Joe stood in the main part of the cavern, rocking back and forth on his heels and toes. He wasn’t particularly worried. Having recognized Priya, he figured they were going to be okay, though he was slightly offended that she chose to speak with Kurt while leaving him in the role of hostage. “Probably just saving the best for last.”
To pass the time, he tried to count the number of people in the tribe—if that’s what this was. He found it impossible to get an accurate tally, as they were dressed alike, coming and going from various parts of the cavern, and in many cases identical siblings.
Near as he could figure, they numbered around thirty. Based on subtle differences, he guessed the group contained members from five or six groups of clones. All of them men. Aside from Priya he’d seen no women.
The two men assigned to guard him were identical. But they wore neck wraps to cover the tattoos. Joe had always heard that the mothers and fathers of twins could tell their kids apart, even when the twins tried to trick them. He figured that enough time in a group like this and they wouldn’t seem so identical after all, but he hoped he and Kurt wouldn’t be in the cave that long.
“So…” he said, grinning and addressing his guards. “You guys enjoying the evening?”
No response. But at least he had their attention.
“Got to love this steam,” he continued, sweat running down his face. “Good for the complexion. Really opens up the pores.”
All of them gleamed with perspiration. Joe could feel it trickling through his hair and down the back of his neck. It felt like an ant crawling on his skin.
Tilting his head from side to side, he tried brushing his neck against the edge of his collar to scratch the itch, but it was no use.
Changing tactics, he stretched his still-entwined hands toward the cargo pocket on the front of his pants. Reaching it, he pulled out the five-dollar back scratcher. Using his fingers, he extended it one telescoping section at a time until it was opened to its full length. Raising his hands together, he flipped it around to get at the offending itch.
“Ahhh,” he said, scratching vigorously. “That’s the spot.”
The tiny metal hand amused the guards. They watched it with great interest, breaking into laughter when Joe exhaled with satisfaction.
“You try,” Joe said, offering up the device.
The nearest man took it, closed and extended it several times, and then used it to scratch a spot on his head. He handed it to his partner, who did something similar.
Joe held out his hands. “Any chance one of you can get these off me? We’re on the same side.”
The two guards looked at each other. But he remained as he was.
“Mind if I look around?”
“Why?” one of them asked.
“You have a lot of interesting machinery in here,” Joe said. “I’m an engineer. I’m a fan of this stuff.”
“ ‘Fan’?”
Joe tried to think of a different way to say it. “I like working on this kind of equipment. I could probably fix some of it for you.”
They didn’t react one way or another and Joe chose to move slowly toward the central heat shaft. Avoiding the edge and the precipitous drop, he studied the pumping equipment arranged around the edge. A bundle of eight-inch pipes ran down into the well and back up. A pair of large pumps connected to them sat nearby. From the warning lights, Joe could see that one of the pumps had overheated and shut down.
A quick study told him there wasn’t anything else wrong with it, so he switched the pump off, reset the breaker, and turned it back on.
Green lights replaced the red and it kicked to life with a soft thud. It was soon whirring smoothly, adding its hum to the background noise of the other pumps in distant parts of the cave.
Joe could almost hear the oohs and aahs.
“You know what this does?” Joe asked. “It pumps cold water down into the hot areas underneath the island. High-pressure, heated water comes back up. That turns those generators, and they make the lights work.”
“Power from the earth,” the first man said.
“So you know about this stuff.”
“The Gray Witch taught us.”