“Is it inside, then?” said Klimov. “Shall I shoot to bring it out?”
“Sir,” said Daniel, his mouth dry as his mind reviewed the ways the immediate future could very quickly deteriorate. “I think if you’ll just brace my right foot, I can get high enough to see into the cave. Thermal imaging will tell me if there’s anything inside. If not, you and your wife can—”
“Yes,” said the Klimovna. She went down on her left knee in the mud, bracing her arm against the smooth crystalline side. “But here, step on my thigh. It will hold you.”
Hesitant only in his mind—an RCN officer shouldn’t show doubt when he knew he had to act—Daniel set the arch of his boot on the woman’s leg just back of the knee. He rose, lifting his head, shoulders, and rifle muzzle over the lip of the opening. He scanned the interior with thermal imaging, then switched to light amplification.
The passage reached straight back into the pyramid without bends or bulges. It contained nothing save scraps of previous meals—and not many of those. The resident was a messy eater, but it apparently swept its den with some care.
Daniel stepped back. “Thank you, Valentina,” he said with a nod that approached a bow. Her leg trembled, but she hadn’t flinched; he could’ve shot accurately if he’d needed to.
He leaned his impeller against the face of the pyramid, made a stirrup of his hands, and went on, “May I lift you inside in return for your greatly-appreciated help?”
“Here, you,” the Count said, plucking Hogg’s sleeve. “Kneel down. I’ll step on your back.”
“Not bloody likely,” Hogg said, continuing to search the sky. “And if you jiggle me again while I’m watching for flying snakes, you’ll be down on the ground yourself.”
“I’ll lift you in a moment, sir!” Daniel said quickly. “If the dragon isn’t at home, it may be coming home.”
The Klimovna smiled, stepped onto his hands, and caught herself neatly on her hands and knees at the mouth of the passage. She’d left her weapon beside Daniel’s; as soon as her weight lifted, he took the impeller by the balance to hand to her. She’d gone inside instead of waiting.
“Sir,” Daniel said, leaning the weapon back and interlacing his hands. “May I help you mount?”
Above them Valentina remarked something. The angled walls distorted the words beyond understanding, but she didn’t seem worried.
“Yes, yes,” the Count said. He wasn’t angry about the rebuke. Despite the cultural overlay, Klimov seemed quite a decent fellow. “But can you get me higher? I’m not as supple as my wife.”
“Certainly,” Daniel said. He waited for the Count to position himself, raised him to waist height, and then pitched him up and forward as he would’ve done with a log he’d lifted on end.
Klimov hurtled into the cave with a startled cry, his weapon clattering on the crystal. It was only then that Daniel realized he should’ve checked to make sure the safety was on.
Valentina stepped into view, sidling to get around her sprawling husband. “There is nothing in here, Daniel,” she said. “Do you suppose it was a tomb, or what? It certainly isn’t natural, and it’s all one piece.”
Daniel looked up the slope of the structure. This one was just under sixty feet high. He’d used the laser rangefinder to measure all the pyramids visible from the Princess Cecile; they ran from a little over fifty feet high to a touch under seventy-five, all of them perfectly regular tetrahedrons which—save for the opening in one side—could’ve been tossed randomly onto the ground.
“Ma’am,” Daniel said. “Valentina. I’m sure I don’t have any idea. Except as you say, that it isn’t natural.”
As he spoke the words, he felt a sudden doubt. Couldn’t they be natural? He’d seen regular crystals, none nearly so large but—
Realization struck him. He scuffed the ground with his bootheel, then scraped sideways at the dimple he’d kicked.
“There’s an apron of the same crystal here in front,” he said, loud enough for all three companions to hear. “The mud’s splashed up and covered it over the years, I guess.”
“Faugh, there’s nothing here,” said the Count, stalking to the front of the tunnel where he stood by his wife. “It is time that I shoot my trophy, yes?”