robert Charrette - Arthur 02 - A King Beneath the Mountain Read Online Free PDF

Sorii she'd known wouldn't have let the meeting go past unremarked. Nevertheless, the resemblance was so strong that she'd done some checking, just to be sure, and found that Hagen had been with Nakaguchi's staff almost as long as Sorii had been on her payroll. As far as her sources had been able to tell, the two men were related by no more than the fact that both were afflicted with dwarfism.
    A smiling Nakaguchi emerged from the cockpit. "The pilot wishes you all to know that our landing was not something of which he is proud. He did the best he could under the circumstances. Something about excess baggage."
    That Nakaguchi ended his survey of the assembled passengers by looking at Pamela was surely no coincidence. What was he playing at? He could have denied her permission to come along.
    "If this find is as important as you seem to think, it is only appropriate that I be there."
    "Did I say otherwise?"
    His look of innocence was probably very effective with office ladies, but Pamela wasn't buying. "Not directly."
    He gave up on the pretense and shifted to a more confidential tone. "Ms. Martinez, you are still in charge of the North American Group. Nominally. I am sure you know your geography well enough to realize where we are."
    She did. What she didn't know was why he was being so lenient. Did she hold some advantage of which she was unaware? Only time would tell. Meanwhile, she would hold on to—and use—every advantage that she did have. "The location is unimportant. This is a Charybdis Project operation."
    "Of course it is. And the Project is still listed under your table of organization. However, I don't think I need to remind you of who is actually in charge."
    "My name is on the appropriations. I have a right to be here."
    "And so you are here. I have to ask myself why. You were content before to let others do the work and take the risks. What prompts such intense, and personal, interest now?"
    "Times change."
    "Indeed they do. Now more than ever before. But your Charybdis Project has taught you something of that, hasn't it?" he asked, smiling knowingly.
    He didn't seem to really expect an answer, so Pamela didn't give him one. She just smiled back at him. Let him wonder what was behind that!
    With a bang and a clatter, the hull door opened and the access stairway rattled out. Someone clumped up and called for "Senor Nakaguchi."
    "Here," he said.
    Nakaguchi proved himself as boorish as the local by casting corporate etiquette to the wind. The two of them spoke briefly, softly enough that the noise of the dying engine masked their words. Nakaguchi left the helicopter without speaking to anyone else on board. Annoyed, Pamela sat down and watched Nakaguchi's aides depart. Hagen was the last to leave. He stopped by her seat.
    "He'll be in a hurry," he said.
    "So?"
    "You might want to change into something more suitable for climbing."
    "Climbing?" she asked, pretending she didn't know what he was talking about. Duncan had intercepted Nakaguchi's predeparture memo instructing his aides to bring mountaineering equipment, and they had come prepared.
    "We will be going up the mountain."
    "I see. Why are you telling me this now?"
    "Trying to save trouble. I can arrange some gear if you'd like."
    "No, thank you. That will be unnecessary."
    Hagen shrugged. "Suit yourself."
    "I will," she said to his back as he left the helicopter.
    When Nakaguchi returned, Pamela and Duncan were already attired in their tight-fitting Mountaineer HiClimber™ suits, their packs and harnesses loaded and ready to don. His aides were still fumbling with their less hi-tech gear. Nakaguchi seemed surprised—from the way he looked her over twice—as much by the form her HiClimber revealed as from the fact that she was wearing it and ready to go. Characteristically, he hid his surprise with an attack.
    "Do you even have the slightest comprehension of what we are headed for?" he asked.
    She matched his condescending tone with her own. "A little