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believe.”
“ Like who?”
“ The Mormons.”
Jade ’s mouth was open to reply, but then she closed it and sat back.
“ Not officially,” Professor continued. “Not anymore at least, but for decades it was an article of faith in the LDS Church that the legends surrounding Quetzalcoatl were evidence that Christ once visited the Americas. And I don’t need to remind you that the Dominion has expressed a keen interest in some of those more antiquated bits of LDS folklore.”
Professor knew that Jade had first-hand experience with this subject; a few years earlier, her first encounter with the Dominion had seen the group infiltrate a Mormon sect in order to locate Biblical artifacts concealed in the Seven Golden Cities of Cibola.
“I’m not suggesting that the chamber is going to contain the remains of Quetzalcoatl or Jesus Christ,” he continued. “All I’m saying is, the Dominion might believe that, and if they do, then you can bet they’ll be watching to see what you discover.”
Jade processed this for a moment. “Okay. You said two reasons.”
Professor nodded his head in her direction. “You’re the other reason.”
“ Me?”
“ You’ve foiled their best laid plans a few times now, Jade. They aren’t likely to forget, and they certainly aren’t going to forgive.”
She laughed mirthlessly. “So that’s how you were able to act on this so quickly; been keeping an eye on me. Well, I appreciate the concern, but you can go back and tell Maddock that I’m a big girl. I don’t need protecting.”
Professor felt a twinge of irritation at her assumption that he was acting as Maddock ’s lackey. “I’m not here to protect you,” he replied, speaking slowly to avoid letting any bitterness creep into his tone. “I’m here because if there’s even a chance the Dominion might show up, I want to be ready to crush them.”
She flashed a sardonic smile. “You sure know how to make a girl feel special.”
“ Damn it, Jade, make up your mind,” Professor snapped. “Which is it? Do you want someone watching your back, or not? You can’t have it both ways.”
Jade ’s lower jaw shifted slowly to the left, as if biting back a scathing retort. When she finally spoke, her voice was low, smoldering with pent up anger, but she didn’t address the subject directly. “What about your friend, Hodges? Is he really a robot expert, or is that just cover?”
“ Brian knows what he’s doing,” replied Professor with equal intensity. “He got his training in Naval EOD. He also hates the Dominion more than you and I put together. His wife and baby daughter died at Norfolk.”
Jade blinked. The mere mention of the Dominion attack on Norfolk, in which thousands had died in a catastrophic tsunami wave, triggered by an ancient Atlantean device, seemed to have broken through her tough girl facade. Then she shook her head, dismissively. “Well, it’s probably not going to matter. What I’m really going to need is someone who can drive a robot into that chamber. Like I said, there’s nothing here that’s going to be of interest to the Dominion. It’s just straightforward archaeology.”
Professor raised his glass again. “Well, here’s to straightforward archaeology.”
THREE
Jade stared at the strange looking bundle of metal rods. “That’s a robot? It doesn’t look anything like WALL-E.”
Hodges grinned. “Some of them do, but in order to explore a vertical shaft, we need a unit that can climb walls. That’s why I brought Shelob here.”
“ Shelob. Cute.” She took a step back, giving him room to assemble the robot, but Paul Dorion quickly occupied the space she had vacated.
“ How does it work?”
Jade had not seen the particle physicist look so excited since the discovery of the hidden tunnel, though in truth, she had not seen much of him or Sanchez in the past few days. They had made themselves scarce while she had been laboring to dig the exploratory shaft, probably