Temple

The two Green Berets who had been in the office walked ahead of him and Nash; the other two—the two who had been out in the corridor—walked behind. Everyone was moving quickly. It felt to Race like he was being pulled along by a strong current.

'Will I get a chance to change into something a little less formal?' he asked Nash. He had brought his sports bag along with him. It had his change of clothes inside it.

'Maybe on the plane,' Nash said as they walked. 'All right, now listen carefully. See the young man behind you.

That's Sergeant Leo Van Lewen. He'll be your bodyguard from here on in.'

Race looked behind himself as he walked, saw the mountain-sized Green Beret he had seen earlier. Van Lewen.

The Green Beret just gave him a curt acknowledging nod as his eyes swept the corridor all around them.

Nash said, 'From now on, you're a real important person and that makes you a target. Wherever you go, he goes.

Here. Take this.'

Nash handed Race an earpiece and a wraparound throat

Race had only ever seen them on TV before, on one of SWAT units. You strapped the throat mike neck and the microphone picked up the vibra- voice box.

it on as soon as you get in the car,' Nash said. 'It's so all you have to do is talk and we'll hear you get in any trouble, just say the word and Van here will be at your side in seconds. You got that?'

came to the western entrance of the university, two more Green Berets stood guard at the door. Nash stepped past them, out into the pouring rain.

was then that Race saw 'the car' that Nash had said out front.

the gravel turnaround in front of him stood a de.

motorcycle outriders—two at the head of the two at the rear. Six plain-looking olive-coloured And wedged in the middle, cocooned by the out- and the sedans, were two heavy-duty armoured Both were painted black and they each deeply tinted windows.

At least fifteen heavily armed Green Berets stood with M at the ready all around the motorcade. The pouring rain down against their helmets. They didn't seem to

Nash hurried over to the second Humvee and held the open for Race. Then he handed Race a thick manila envelope as he stepped inside the big vehicle.

“Take a look,' Nash said. 'I'll tell you more when we get the plane.'

The motorcade sped through the streets of New York.

It was mid-morning, but the eight-car procession just raced through the soaking city streets, whipping through intersection after intersection, getting green lights all the way out of the city.

They must have set the traffic lights like they did for the President when he visited New York, Race thought.

But this was no presidential procession. The looks on the faces of the people on the sidewalk said it all.

This was a different kind of motorcade.

No limousines. No flapping flags. Just two black heavily- armoured Humvees hovering in the middle of a line of drab olive cars, slicing their way through the pouring rain.

With his bodyguard seated beside him and his earpiece and throat mike now in place, Race stared out the window of the speeding Humvee.

Not many people could claim to have experienced a clear passage out of New York City in the middle of the mid-morning rush, he thought. It was a strange experience; otherworldly. He began to wonder just how important this mission was.

He opened the folder that Nash had given him. The first thing he saw was a list of names.

CUZCO INVESTIGATION TEAM

CIVILIAN MEMBERS

1 NASH, Francis K—DARPA, Project leader, nuclear physicist

2 COPELAND, Troy B—DARPA, nuclear physicist

3 O'CONNOR, Lauren MnDARPA, theoretical physicist

4 CHAMBERS, Walter J—Stanford, anthropologist

5 LOPEZ, Gabriela S—Princeton, archaeologist

6 RACE, William HnNYU, linguist

ARMED FORCES MEMBERS

1 SCOTT, Dwayne T—United States Army (GB), Captain

2 VAN LEWEN, Leonardo M—United States Army (GB), Sergeant

3 COCHRANE, Jacob R—United States Army (GB), Corporal

4 REICHART, George P—United States Army (GB), Corporal

5 WILSON, Charles T—United States Army (GB), Corporal

6 KENNEDY, Douglas K—United States Army (GB), Corporal

turned the page and saw a photocopy of a newspaper The headline was in French: MASSACRES DES MOINES

DU HAUT DELA MONTAGNE.

He translated. 'Monks massacred in mountaintop read the article. It was dated 3 January 1999—yesterday.

it was about a group of Jesuit monks who had slaughtered inside their monastery high up in the mountains.

The authorities believed it to be the work of Islamic fundamentalists protesting against French interference in The Middle East.

Eighteen monks in all had been killed, all of them : at close quarters in the same manner as in previous slayings.

He turned to the next item in the folder.

was another newspaper clipping, this one from the Los

Times. It was dated late last year and the headline

FEDERAL OFFICIALS FOUND MURDERED IN ROCKIES.

It said that two members of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Set- had been found murdered in the mountains north of