Day of the Predator - Alex Scarrow [105]
‘Uh?’
‘A forensic expert matched the print pattern to the Nike brand last year.’
‘And no one else knows?’
He laughed. ‘Of course not. The boys who originally discovered the artefact … well –’ he glanced at her – ‘our methods were a little uncivilized back then.’
‘Killed?’
‘Hmmm … vanished … is the term I think we prefer. And, of course, it turned out a few years later that some other local rockhound had found fossilized human footprints the previous summer … so again there was need for some damage limitation.’
‘Vanished too?’
He shook his head. ‘News of the human footsteps got to the local newspapers before it could be contained. We simply discredited the story. Easily done, the same old boy swore blind his dead mother lived in the attic and came down once a year to bake his birthday cake.’ He snorted. ‘Complete loon by all accounts. Anyway, go look it up sometime. I’m sure it’s on some conspiracy website somewhere: “Humans Walked with Dinosaurs – Dinosaur Valley, Texas”.’
She looked down at the message again. ‘So, you know exactly how old the fossil is?’
He shook his head. ‘No, not exactly. Of course not. It’s identified as coming from a seam of sedimentary rock that pre-dates the end of the Cretaceous period. What they call the K–T boundary. That’s as precise as we can be, I’m afraid. Geology works in aeons and ages, not months or years.’
He gestured at the piece of paper. ‘The numbers … I presume the numbers contain specific information that would help you retrieve your friend?’
She could deny that, but it was quite obviously the information Liam would have put down there. ‘I hope so,’ she said.
‘But unfortunately it’s encoded,’ he said. ‘Now, the secret service boys who pre-dated my little club’s involvement in this matter identified this pretty quickly as some sort of book code. See? The numbers follow the page, line, word structure. And about a decade ago, we managed to secure some very expensive time on the Defence Department’s mainframe and ran every single book in the Library of Congress through it.’ He splayed his hands tiredly. ‘We got diddly squat for all our troubles, of course. Which leads me to think, as I sit here with you now, that that was a big waste of time as this probably is a book that hasn’t even been published yet. How about that?’
Maddy shook her head. ‘I … I don’t know. I really don’t.’
She glanced at the last words of the message. ‘Key is “Magic”.’ She looked up at Cartwright. ‘That’s the clue, right? But I just … I just don’t know … If that really is a clue to a book, I wouldn’t know which one.’
‘What about your colleague?’
‘Sal?’ She sat up and groaned with the effort. ‘Is she OK? Where is she?’
‘Oh, she’s just fine,’ he said, waving his hands dismissively. ‘And she’s nearby. Maybe it’s time I had a chat with her.’
‘You won’t hurt her?’
He looked sternly at her as he reached for the piece of paper, got off the stool and picked his jacket up off the cabinet.
‘Because, see, if … uh … if that’s what you’re planning to do,’ Maddy continued, ‘then don’t b-bother.’
‘Oh, let me guess, because the pair of you are heroes and neither one of you is going to talk, huh?’
‘Because –’ she shook her head and laughed nervously – ‘because there’s really no need. Neither of us are heroes. We’ll talk, OK? Just promise me you won’t hurt us.’
CHAPTER 58
65 million years BC, jungle
Kelly struggled up the steep incline, cursing under his breath as low-hanging thorned vines scratched at his face. Ahead he could hear the others pushing their way noisily uphill, the snapping of branches and vines, the clatter of dislodged rocks and soil rolling downhill.
‘Leonard? Edward?’ he called out.
‘Here,’ gasped Edward.
‘Come on, you need to pick it up … we’re lagging behind the others.’
Their sweat-drenched faces emerged through a