Chapter 19: A Time Of Discovery

"Bring that useless female with us," I pointed at Katherine with a K. Warren not too gently dragged her to her feet and shoved her in our direction. All Katherine could do was moan. None of us felt sorry for her in any way and me least of all.

"Why that woman is hurt," Professor Wiggins said. It seemed to totally slip his mind that she had in essence tried to force her way in at gunpoint. "We have a first aid room where she can be tended to down below." He stepped in last and pressed one of two buttons on the wall next to the large door.

I barely felt us begin to drop. We quickly picked up momentum. I heard a low-pitched whine as the elevator descended. Suddenly I wondered if this was such a great idea after all. We were locked in a small room descending into the depths of the Earth. Then I shrugged and decided now was not the time for second thoughts.

The elevator slowed its descent and smoothly stopped. "Better than an orgasm," Bobbie whispered in my ear. Then she added, "Almost."

She seemed to have forgotten all her ladylike manners. The big door opened up into a great cavern painted bright, stark white. Like farmers from Iowa on a tour of Manhattan, we got off the elevator and gawked. The cavern was at least a hundred feet across. The ceiling was perhaps twenty feet above our heads. It seemed to be a perfect circular dome. The floor was covered with white material of some sort I could not identify. Everything was a pristine white.

"Christ," I said under my breath.

"To access the laboratory, you must wear clean room garments. We maintain ultra clean room conditions." The professor sounded like a proud tour guide. "You may, however, look through the viewing windows." Somehow, as he spoke to us here on his turf he looked more like a keen scientist than a mad professor.

"This is all a part of a prehistoric mine complex that opens up into a series of natural caverns. There are cave paintings in some of them that are quite fascinating. We haven't had time to explore the rest of this complex. Our research comes first.

"Could we see the drawings, sir?" I asked him deferentially. Something about this man demanded respect.

"Of course, merely go through that opening over there." He pointed to a tunnel opening a short ways from where we were standing. "There's a light switch inside. We have lights strung for almost a quarter mile in that tunnel."

"Since this is in my domain," Keith stated, "I'll stay here and suit up to go inside the lab. We have some decisions to make and I want all the information available."

Warren, Bobbie and I slowly walked toward the indicated tunnel opening. "Mind if I tag along?" Bobbie's limo driver asked. I nodded yes and we four proceeded to where the paintings were located.

Warren fumbled for the switch and suddenly the tunnel was flooded with dim light. A single fluorescent tube punctuated the darkness every ten feet about. We didn't see anything but bare walls for twenty feet. Then the first of the cave drawings came into view. They were magnificent examples of primitive art and all looked as fresh then as when the unknown artist created them many years before. "Oh shit oh dear," I blurted.

What is it, Honey?" Bobbie asked me. "Are you all right?" She looked at me worried.

"I need to go back and ask the professor a few questions. You coming?" She smiled and nodded and threw her arm around my waist.

Our driver came alongside, "I don't know what all the fuss is, I can draw better than that and I'm not any kind of a artist al att." He was happy in his own ignorance and saw no reason for change. I didn't bother to answer him.

Warren joined us. "If those things are authentic and I believe they are, this is the find of the century." He took a deep breath and shook his head.

"Danny, I understand the excitement over discovering some new cave drawings, but what are you and Warren talking about? Why are these so special?"

"These paintings are in a played out lead mine. Now if they are as old as I believe they are, a whole bunch of academic noses are going to be bent out of shape. If those drawings are the real Mc Coy, they prove there was underground mining in England way before the Romans or even the Angles. Those larger figures depict what was considered a god or gods. See the power rays from the stick fingers that connect to the smaller, lesser beings? I believe these might predate even the findings in South America and Easter Island.

"Warren," I stopped and hugged Bobbie against me and started to get another hard on. "Warren, my friend, we need to do one hell of a job concealing this place. We have two problems, I see right away. First we need to draw the Senator and his friends away from here. Second we need to update the security around the whole operation so tight even we have trouble getting in.

"There are some other items to be considered, but those are the first on the agenda." The sinking feeling in my stomach became more pronounced as I thought of the implications of this place buried deep underground. The whole problem just got bigger.

"Hey, driver," I said to him.

"Yes sir?" he asked.

"You want a job driving my wife around where ever she wishes to go and visit America and get laid in Hollywood?"

"What are you raving about?" Bobbie exclaimed.

I looked at Warren and he looked back and nodded yes. "Honey, we either hire this man or kill him. He knows our secret. Now since I never have killed a man without disliking him and I sort of like this guy. So I say we should hire him."

Then it dawned on Bobbie what I was talking about. Seriously she said, "Well, let's hire him. He looks too sweet to shoot."

The driver began to look worried. He wasn't too certain if I was joking or not. "You are having a humorous moment, aren't you sir?" He gulped and looked around.