Temple of Fire by Christopher Forrest Read Free Book Online

Basin Desert
     
    Will Langhorne had found four silver coins in his trek through the ruins, but nothing more.  A few worn, pentagonal pieces of ancient currency, if that’s what they were, wouldn’t allow him to sip tropical drinks with a senorita below the equator.
    Black smoke poured from what appeared to be a granary up ahead.  Langhorne coughed, held his gas mask to his sunburned face, and headed in the opposite direction, settling in an area of one- and two-story mud brick buildings.  The bricks were hard as stone, testimony to the skill of the builders.  Only technically savvy cultures were able to combine water, ground up vegetation, and the right kind of soil to yield a brick that could be given square edges in order to mesh perfectly with others.
    He leaned against what had probably been a family dwelling.  The crater was hot as hell, and Langhorne was perspiring profusely.  He took a long swig of water from his canteen and wiped his brow with the long, blue bandana tied around his neck.
    He took a deep breath, reflecting on the life journey that had brought him to a geological inferno in search of treasure.
    After receiving his Ph.D. in geology from Berkeley , he’d married a beautiful Asian woman named Jun Yang, daughter of Chinese diplomat Li Soo Yang.  Jun was so thoroughly Americanized that she went by the name June Yang, a psychiatrist who had a lucrative and thriving private practice in Washington , D.C.   Langhorne was in charge of carbon dating at the U.S. Geological Survey’s headquarters in D.C. 
    Before June died from an aggressive tumor in her left lung at the age of thirty-six, she had been regarded as the “therapist to American statesmen.”  Her client list included senators, congressmen, lobbyists, White House cabinet members, a Supreme Court judge,
CIA
personnel, and several staffers from many of the above.  The ongoing joke at the many galas she and Will attended was that she probably knew the nuclear launch codes.
    It was after her sudden death, when Will had gone through his deceased wife’s records and private papers, that he learned that she’d been feeding military intelligence to her father.  One area that Li Soo Yang had apparently taken a keen interest in was ancient civilizations.
    Will began his womanizing and drinking after June’s death.  She had been the stabilizing influence in the marriage, as well as the principle breadwinner, charging patients four hundred dollars an hour to spill their neuroses and woes to her professional ear.  Because of his subsequent drinking, the Survey transferred Will to Elko, where he methodically used his Ground Penetrating Radar to map sections of the desert, an exercise in redundancy since the entire area was already well known to the government.
    Well, maybe not every area.  He detected what looked suspiciously like an underground city on one of his many GPR sweeps near the camp of U.S. Pet.  Knowing Li Soo Yang’s obsession with such sites, he thought he’d capitalize on his hunch.  Yang had paid him handsomely for the tip, and Langhorne suspected that Chinese forces would arrive any minute, assuming they hadn’t landed already.
    A man had to make a living; it was as simple as that.  With a little treasure, plus Yang’s payment, he might just see the verandas of South America yet.
    He pushed back the brim of his cavalry hat, exposing the creases in his forehead.  What irony it was, he thought, that in Chinese, Jun meant “truth.”
    His wife had been a spy.
    He stood, took another swig of water, and continued his investigation of the blistering hot city. 
     

Ops Center
Aboard the Alamiranta
     
    “We’re in the eye of Beatrice,” Touchdown announced triumphantly, as if he were responsible for the ship’s position.  His ebullience was dampened somewhat by a message from the Bridge.
    “Mrs. Caine ,” said Captain Papagantis , “we’re sailing calm waters now — I’m sure you can feel the difference — but