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Chapter 24

HE KEPT CHECKING AND DOUBLE-CHECKING THE COMPASS, aware that in his present state of exhaustion it would be all too easy to make a mistake. He had been this way several times in recent weeks, but he knew he couldn't trust himself to recognize the path. Nothing ever looked the same two days in a row in the jungle. New growth was always taking the place of old, altering the landscape. And then there was all the damned psi to contend with. The plants and trees gave off even more energy than quartz, probably because they were living things. The swamp of paranormal waves played tricks on the normal human senses.

His feet felt as if they were made out of solid mag-steel now. It was all he could do to get one thousand-pound boot in front of the other. The effort required to keep his eyes open was painful. The postburn rush was fading fast.

Fortunately, his destination was not far. He pushed through one last web of cascading vines. The alien ruin was there, right where the compass said it should be. Relief nearly overwhelmed him. Sierra would be safe here while he slept off the afterburn.

She came up beside him and halted suddenly, staring in amazement at the strange structure.

"Not a cave," she whispered, sounding vastly relieved.

"No," he said.

"I was so afraid it was going to be a cave. This is incredible."

"I know."

The ruin was unlike any other that he had ever seen. It was made of quartz but not the usual opaque green variety. Instead, the graceful, circular pavilion was fashioned entirely of a transparent, emerald-tinted stone. Seven clear stone pillars supported the elegantly vaulted, crystal-clear quartz roof. On an earlier visit he had measured the diameter of the transparent floor. Fifteen feet. Plenty of room for both of them.

"You'll be safe here," he said, aware that he was starting to slur his words. He managed, barely, to haul himself and the emergency kit up onto the transparent floor.

"The clear quartz must have some special properties," Sierra said, following him. "This place should have been buried by vegetation centuries ago. Instead, it's as clean as the day it was built."

"Like the tunnels," he said. He crouched to open the supply kit. "You can leave the pavilion, but don't go out of sight of it. Understand? You won't be able to find your way back."

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere down here without you."

He pulled out the bedroll. "There's water in the supply kits, but feel free to drink from the stream over there. I tested it."

"I've heard that all the water that has been found in the jungle so far is safe to drink."

"So far. Down here you don't make too many assumptions." He kicked the bedroll open and stretched out, yawning. "I'll wake up in about three, maybe four hours."

She was as safe as he could make her for now. He sprawled on the bedroll, turned on his side, and let the weight of sleep take him.

THE HUMIDITY WAS INCREASING EVEN AS THE LUMINOUS green sky darkened with ominous peridot clouds. The long-sleeved turtleneck Fontana had pulled out of the closet and told her to put on before they escaped the mansion had proved to be an exceptionally bad fashion choice. She was so hot in it that she began to worry that she might suffer from heatstroke. To be fair, Fontana had never intended to take her into a jungle tonight.

She opened one of the supply kits. There was a variety of neatly packed items inside, including some energy bars and what looked like one of Fontana's shirts. The shirt was typical Guild boss black with amber buttons. There were also several chunks of amber in the bag. All of it tuned, no doubt.

She started to remove the suffocating turtleneck and then paused self-consciously to make sure Fontana wasn't awake. But he was sound asleep on the bedroll, his back to her.

Hurriedly she removed the garment and tossed it aside. After a moment's thought, she took off her perspiration-dampened bra as well. Constricting undergarments were not comfortable in the jungle.

The shirt was much too big. It hung to her knees and kept sliding off her shoulder, but when she rolled up the sleeves, she was pleased with the result.

"Much cooler," she said to Elvis. "Here, let me take off your cape. It can't be very comfortable in this heat."

He didn't pay any attention when she slipped the rhinestone cape off over his head. He was too busy checking out the contents of the supply kit.

She folded the little cape and tucked it into her purse.

"Hungry?" she asked.

He rumbled.

She removed one of the energy bars, unwrapped it, and handed it to Elvis. "It's no peanut butter and banana sandwich, but it's all we've got."

He took it eagerly and crunched the bar with evident enjoyment.

She unwrapped a second bar and tried it warily. It wasn't bad.

"Not very tasty, but definitely edible," she declared.

She surveyed her surroundings while they ate. The first thing she noticed was that, unlike the tunnels, the rain forest was a noisy place. Birdcalls echoed endlessly through the leafy canopy. There were occasional flutterings and skittering sounds in the undergrowth. Each time she heard something, she glanced at Elvis to see if he looked alarmed. He remained fully fluffed.

She looked at the stream Fontana had indicated earlier. It emanated from a small, plant-choked grotto. Water bubbled out of a rocky green pool and flowed away, disappearing into the undergrowth.

"Wonder what this place looks like at night," she said to Elvis. "Sure hope we don't have to find out."

On the positive side, the oppressive sense of claustrophobia was gone. The tunnel walls were no longer closing in on her. There was one thing to be said about the jungle: it was big; so big that if she hadn't known she was underground, she could easily have believed that she was in a real tropical rain forest. Except for the green-tinted artificial sunlight, of course. That was just plain alien-weird.

No one knew how far the jungle extended. Exploration had barely begun, but the most popular theory at the moment was that the eerie, underworld rain forest linked all four of the dead cities that had thus far been discovered and the ruins of the smaller outposts as well. Unable to live in the aboveground environment, the aliens had been forced to construct an underground ecosystem that could sustain them.

They had done an impressive job. Their bioengineering work had survived and was still flourishing long after the builders themselves had vanished.

A sharp, shrill shriek somewhere nearby startled her so badly she dropped what was left of her energy bar. She looked at Elvis, who showed no indication of going on alert status. Instead, he scampered across the clear stone floor, picked up the uneaten portion of her energy bar, and finished it off.

"Guess the five-second rule applies here as well as anywhere else."

She folded the wrappers from the two energy bars very neatly and stashed them in the supply kit.

There was no sound from Fontana. After a while, she got a little worried. She rose and leaned over his still form to check on him. He was sleeping deeply, but his breathing sounded normal, slow and even.

She absolutely had to stretch her legs. Cautiously she stepped off the strange floor and onto the ground.

Elvis chattered excitedly, sensing a new game.

"You're my early warning system," she reminded him. "I'm counting on you to let me know if there's trouble in the vicinity."

He fluttered off the circular floor and bounced up onto an emerald green rock near the stream. He began to investigate a vine full of green orchids that hung from a tree limb.

She wandered over to a nearby palm and availed herself of the privacy offered by the broad, fluted fronds. Fontana might be out like a light, but it was the principle of the thing. She hardly knew the man. Sure, they were married and he had just saved her life and the sexual chemistry between them worked both ways and she was definitely falling headfirst into love. Still, you just didn't pee in front of a man you had only known a couple of days.

When she was finished, she washed her hands in the little stream and went to join Elvis on his rock. She leaned forward and plucked one of the emerald orchids.

"It's gorgeous," she said.

In fact, now that she'd had a chance to grow accustomed to the sights and sounds, she was beginning to relax and take in the sheer, otherworldly beauty of the rain forest.

"It's not so bad," she said to Elvis. "Magical, in fact."

He clutched the dangling vine in all six paws and pushed himself off the edge of the rock. The makeshift swing carried him out over the grotto pool in a graceful arc. When the return arc brought him back within reach, Sierra caught him, much to his delight.

Laughing, she launched him into another swing. He chortled gleefully.

"When we get out of here, I'll ask Jake to build you your very own swing," she said. Then she stopped. Jake was gone, possibly dead. Why was she suddenly thinking about him?

In fact, now that his name had popped into her mind, she could not stop thinking about him. A little rush of intense awareness shot through her. She knew this edgy sensation well. It was her intuition kicking in, warning her to pay attention. There was something Jake had said…

And then the storm broke. Green lightning flashed. The rain hit. She grabbed Elvis and hurried back into the crystal gazebo.