The Oracle Code Read Online Free PDF Page A

months. She really thought she might get through her tour this time without seeing them.
    And what about Major Dolgov? There had been no mention of a Major Dolgov. Only Professor Dolgov. The man’s papers had been checked and verified.
    But it wouldn’t have been the first time someone had gotten into a dig and turned out not to be who he—or she—was supposed to be.
    “Did he say why he needed the security people?”
    “No. Only that he did. We were following Boris Glukov and Thomas Lourds up to the cave where the professors have been spending their time.”
    Followed? Layla picked up her boots and pulled them back on. “Give me a moment, Chizkov.”
    “Certainly.”
    Layla picked up her satellite phone from her desk and used the speed dial.
    A voice answered in Dari. “Yes.”
    “Captain Fitrat? This is Director Teneen. I have need of you.”
    “I am on my way.”
    Before she left her tent, Layla took a flashlight, extra batteries, a first-aid kit, and the Beretta 9mm she kept in her tent for emergencies.

5
     
    32 Miles Southwest of Herat
    Herat Province
    Afghanistan
    June 18, 2012
    They found the third cave on the east readily enough. It was a large room, at least sixty or seventy yards across. Not big enough to get lost in but certainly large enough to stash a house. Stalactites hung from the ceiling, and stalagmites stood up from the ground. Several scars that had been smoothed over in the center of the floor showed where other stalagmites had been removed to make room, presumably, for people who had spent the night in the cave.
    Boris looked around madly. “I don’t understand. I have been in this cave several times while looking for clues. I never found anything before.”
    “Were you looking for a camel before?”
    “No.” Boris sounded exasperated. “There is no camel in this room. Not a living one and not a dead one either. Don’t you think I would have noticed a camel?”
    “Perhaps a pictograph.” Lourds moved off and began shining his light over the walls. The rough surfaces were clear except for phosphorescent chalk marks on the floor that declared the area as CAVE ROOM #16. The chemicals would easily wash off later, but for the moment, it helped with cataloging everything.
    Lourds’s beam froze on two stalagmites against one wall. “Boris, when you think of a camel, what do you imagine?”
    “An ugly, ungainly-looking beast with a savage temperament and a stench that absolutely reeks. What do you imagine?”
    “Aside from those things, what do you think of when you visualize a camel?”
    Something in Lourds’s voice drew his friend around. “Humps, I suppose. Why?”
    Lourds waggled his flashlight beam over the two stalagmites he’d spotted. “One hump or two per camel?”
    “The stalagmites?”
    “Yes.”
    “No way.”
    “The writer did mention ‘between the camel,’ so maybe we’re not looking for a whole camel.”
    Boris flicked his light around the room, but Lourds already knew there wouldn’t be another set of stalagmites that looked the same. These two were rounded on the top, as if the ends had been artificially knocked off and sanded.
    As if hardly daring to believe what he might find, Boris closed in on the stalagmites. The light caressed the dark gray-brown color of the stone. Boris halted at the pair and stared at them. “These have to be the camel’s humps the message was referring to.”
    “I think so as well.” Lourds stood beside Boris and looked around some more.
    “What are we supposed to find?”
    “Perhaps whatever was here has already been taken. It has been hundreds of years.”
    “No.” Boris stubbornly shook his head. “Whatever the author of that carving had hidden, it wouldn’t be hidden in plain sight. There has to be a trick.” He knelt and began feeling around on the humps.
    Lourds knelt beside his friend. “The message said between the humps.”
    “Well, there’s the floor.” Boris slammed his fist into the floor a few times