The Messiah Secret - James Becker [128]
‘Apart from the corpse, nothing at all.’
Directly in front of them was an oblong stone structure, the top made of large flat stone slabs, the sides from smaller, cubical stones, the whole thing standing about three feet tall, four feet wide and eight feet long, and at first sight apparently devoid of markings or decoration. But Bronson had spotted something.
‘There’s a mark on the middle slab,’ he said.
Angela walked forward to the stone structure, shining a torch directly at the carving. ‘It looks to me like an early Tibetan script, and I think the letters are probably Y and A.’
‘Yus Asaph,’ Bronson murmured.
But it wasn’t the marking on the slab that was holding anyone’s attention. At the foot of the structure, in what looked like the foetal position, lay the crumbling bones of a skeleton clad in a few wisps of cloth.
‘I think,’ Bronson said, his voice sounding unnaturally loud in the silent room, ‘that he might have died on his knees and then fallen sideways.’
‘In prayer, you mean?’ Angela asked in a whisper.
‘Maybe.’
‘You think that’s what’s left of the guy who sealed the door?’ Masters asked.
Bronson nodded. ‘The bones are really fragile. I touched one of them and it just crumbled away to nothing.’
‘And what we’re looking for is in that stone thing at the back? The thing that looks a bit like a big altar?’
‘Probably,’ Angela said, sounding oddly subdued.
‘Right, then,’ Masters said briskly. ‘You can bet the Indian Army will be heading this way pretty soon, so we’d best get on with it. I’ll get Cross in here, and I suppose Donovan as well. After all, he paid for this little adventure.’
With Cross and Masters doing the shifting, removing the stone slabs from the top of the altar-like structure didn’t take long.
When the last one had been lifted off and stacked against the wall, they all stepped forward and peered into the cavity. As well as Bronson and Angela, Masters had allowed both Donovan and Killian to witness what he called ‘the unveiling’.
The stone cavity appeared to be just that, three low stone walls abutting the back wall of the inner chamber, and inside it was a large wooden box, much bigger than a conventional coffin.
‘Come on, then, get it open,’ Donovan demanded, some of his old bravado reasserting itself now he was no longer facing the direct threat of Bronson’s pistol.
Killian opened his mouth to say something, but noticed Cross watching him closely, and changed his mind.
‘I don’t think we should be doing this,’ Angela said suddenly.
‘Why not?’ Bronson asked.
‘I don’t mean we shouldn’t do it at all. It’s just that I think this should be done under controlled conditions, in a museum or laboratory somewhere.’
‘Not an option,’ Donovan snapped. ‘We’re in the middle of Kashmir. The sort of facilities you’re talking about don’t exist anywhere within a couple of hundred miles of here, and there might not be any even as close as that.’
‘But we don’t know what’s inside that box—’ Angela began.
‘I do,’ Donovan said. ‘A multi-billion-dollar resource for the genetics industry.’
‘All you can think about is money, about how you can exploit this situation for your own personal gain,’ Killian shouted, unable to keep silent any longer.
Cross waved his pistol again threateningly, and Killian lapsed into silence once more.
Masters looked at the tomb, then nodded, as if he’d just made a decision.
‘I’m not coming back here,’ he said, ‘and nor are my men, so we need to find out what the hell is inside this, and then leave. And, Donovan, if it’s what you believe it is, then we’ll be taking charge of it until you make the final payment. And the price has just gone up. If this really is a billion-dollar resource, like you just said, then I’m charging you five million for delivery, plus expenses.’
‘Agreed,’ Donovan muttered. ‘Just get on with it, will you?’
‘I still think we should wait,’ Angela said.
‘You’re out-voted, I’m afraid,’ Masters said. He turned to Cross. ‘Get the lid off that wooden box.’
Cross took the crowbar and jammed it into the wooden crate, where the lid met the side. But as