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Sam nodded. “Probably best. So now there’s just the empty chamber?”
“Yes. Of course, the chamber itself is historically significant, as are the carvings, but they’re not portable. We can arrange to have a locked gate installed over the next few days. That’s what many of the other areas have and it seems to work.”
“What about security at night?” Lazlo asked.
“We’ll have a small contingent of soldiers, but there’s nothing left to steal, so it’s purely for show. I’ll arrange for a construction crew to erect the gate tomorrow and we’ll only need the site security after that.”
“Which is what, exactly?” Remi asked. “The security, I mean?”
“A few cars, golf carts, and six men at night. Teotihuacan is a big area to patrol and they mainly spend their time making sure there’s no vandalism. Their presence is more a deterrent than anything else.”
“They didn’t discover the dead soldiers?”
“No, they’d been told by the Army to stay out of their way so they wouldn’t get shot by accident. The site was under military control. Not that it did a lot of good.”
“Any leads on who did this?” Lazlo asked.
“None they’re sharing. I’m just an academic who roots around in dirt for a living. Nobody tells me anything,” Antonio complained.
“Well, that’s about to change. But let’s wait until everyone leaves, shall we?” Remi said.
Maribela and Antonio looked at her strangely.
“Is this the sonar?” Sam asked, standing by two black Anvil road cases emblazoned with Fragile.
“Yes. That one is the monitor and sensor units and the other is the tricycle contraption.”
“I haven’t seen one of these in a while,” Sam said as he opened the cases.
“They used them on some of the other locations. But the range is limited. The Muon detectors are more effective.”
“Still, it will penetrate, what, thirty to forty feet and give reasonably accurate readings? I recall those are the specs.”
“Of course. But it will be going back tomorrow. I told them not to bother sending out the operator. A delivery truck will be by in the afternoon to pick it up.”
Sam and Lazlo exchanged a conspiratorial look. “That should be more than enough time.”
“Time? For what?” Maribela asked, edging closer.
“I’ll fill everyone in once the police have cleared out and it’s just us,” Sam said, then returned to examining the device, Lazlo beside him, the pair exchanging hushed whispers.
Antonio turned to Remi, who just shrugged. “Don’t look at me. I married a crazy man.”
The Federales departed at six-fifteen, when a jeep with six armed soldiers arrived—the night shift, who were understandably on edge after their predecessors’ fate. The men gripped their weapons nervously, on alert but with no obvious threats to defend themselves against.
As dusk fell and the pyramids’ shadows lengthened, Sam pulled up a camp chair and faced Antonio and Maribela while Lazlo and Remi perused the latest images from the vault. He took them through his suspicions and he told them what he wanted to do: use the sonar to perform a clandestine search for another chamber while nobody was around.
“I want to do it this way to avoid any leaks. There were far too many people here when we found this site. Somebody talked. The only way to ensure a secret stays a secret is to keep it between us.?
?
“You really believe there could be another chamber?” Maribela asked in disbelief.
“It’s a possibility. One I don’t want to overlook. And it seems we have the perfect chance to work with the sonar without an audience tonight. Let’s do it. If we don’t find anything, it’s only an evening of our lives. But if we do . . . I just don’t want to get on a plane and fly out of here not knowing.”
Antonio nodded. “How do you want to do this?”
“We’ll get the sonar unit down into the crypt and I’ll push it along,” Sam said. “Any cavities beneath the surface will show up as interruptions of the normal pattern on the scope. It’s fairly simple detection but should do for our purposes.”