The Stones of Nomuru

The spacious suite was lit by several torcheres, whence protruded wavering yellow-white flames fueled by a plant oil. Like most Kookish dwellings, the apartment reeked with the dead-fish smell of Kooks plus the sour-sweet odor of this household illuminant.

Since there was not a chair in the palace, the attendants fetched two cushions and placed a stump-legged table between them. When Salazar and Kara were seated with as much comfort as they could manage, the servants brought an unopened bottle of Henderson's best "whiskey," a pitcher of water, and two mugs, which they set on the table. The senior attendant asked:

"When do you wish dinner, honorable sir?"

"In about an hour," Salazar replied, pouring two drinks. When he told Kara what he had ordered, she protested:

"Keith! I hope you're not planning to get drunk in all that time!"

He smiled. "No, my dear; to relax to that extent in Kookland I should have to be certifiably insane." He swallowed a gulp. "But this should wash out the taste of the advice I gave the Empress."

"What do you mean?"

"I recommended the pretexts for naked aggression that European imperialists employed in conquering other continents, in the four hundred years that began with Columbus. If somebody else did it, I should call him a scoundrel; but it was the only way I could see to save the site. Now I shall call my people. Do take a sip; the stuffs not bad."

Salazar pressed buttons on his poignette and presently heard Galina's voice, tiny and tinny with distance. "Allo? Hello?"

"Keith speaking," said Salazar. "How's the dig?"

"Splendid! Sambyaku's workers arrived the day before yesterday. We have uncovered that wall down to the footing for a length of four meters. We have come upon the remains of an earlier brick wall at right angles to it, and evidently older; the stone wall cuts through the upper courses of the brick. The stone wall must have been built when the ground level had risen to—"

"Please!" said Salazar. "Conclusions can wait until we have all the data. What else have you found?"

"I am trying to tell you. At the end of the four meters we have uncovered, the stone wall turns at a right angle; and in the angle of the wall we have found a lot of ceramic cylinders, about ten centimeters in diameter and sixty or seventy long. We pulled one out, and Marcel pried off the cap. Inside was a scroll of some sort of leather, tanned by that Kook process which preserves it for centuries—"

"I hope you didn't try to unroll it!" cried Salazar. "It'll crumble into fragments unless treated in the laboratory first."

"No, we did not, although I had to slap Marcel's hands to stop him."

"How many cylinders are there?"

"We don't know. We uncovered the tops of perhaps ten or twelve more."

"Listen carefully, Galina. Cover the exposed cylinders with dirt, and make sure none of you says a word of this to anyone—"

"You think this might be the library of King Bembogu?"

"Can't tell yet."

"When are you coming back?"

"In a few days, I hope," said Salazar. "Any trouble with Bergen's crew?"

"No. The machines have not arrived. He has a man out here every few days to see how we're doing, but nobody has tried to stop us. Mr. Pokrovskii came by yesterday to say that the contract has been signed and the bulldozer will soon be here."

Salazar grunted. "That changes things. Hold on. Let me think." After a silence he said: "Take pits A1, A3, and A5 along the northern side. You and the Kooks dig all three down to a depth of two meters."

"But we cannot do that and keep a record of the finds, stratum by stratum!"

"I know, but we're in a hurry. Have them pile the dirt from each ten-centimeter layer in a separate pile near the pit. Put stakes in the piles, labeled so we can tell which is which. We'll sieve the piles later. Sloppy archaeology, but it can't be helped.

"Then lay a tarp over each of those three pits. Hold it down with rocks around the edge—use ones from the ancient wall if you have to, but paint numbers on them—and spread a coat of dirt over the canvas, so it looks like undisturbed soil."

"You mean to make pitfalls, the way the primitive Kook tribes catch big game?"

"Yep. Don't do it while Bergen's men are there. If they give trouble, don't do anything rash. I'd rather lose the site than my team."

Salazar exchanged greetings with Frappot and Kurita and clicked off. He next called Firestone's apartment. After greetings he said:

"Oh, about as well as could be expected. Her Imperial Majesty has a soft place for me in whatever Kooks have for a heart, as a result of that boundary business. We're working up a deal, but I can't tell you now."