Lost In Translation Part 26

"The petroglyph, then," prompted Spencer. "Ask if they've ever seen one in the hills around here."

She took the paper from her pocket and gave it to Kuyuk. He talked to the monks and pa.s.sed it back to her. "They say they have seen these before. They are carved on rocks here and there in the mountains. Some of these places are well known to the local people. But they have never seen one around here."

A silence. Finally Lin spoke up. "May we have a look around the area, then?"

Kuyuk conferred. "They ask only that we do not disturb the land, for it is sacred. Also he cautions that it is the time of wind."

Wind, yes: she had noticed the wind yesterday, at this same time, and then when the afternoon came to an end it had sunk low and died. Now that afternoon was upon them again the wind was back, a stinging fine-grained roar that whistled and slammed at them outside the high, protective walls.

They filed out of the complex and trudged up a narrow path that switchbacked steadily higher up the dirt flanks toward the sky. This was one of the side canyons, but one that looked like it went all the way up. They all tied on handkerchiefs, scarves, anything against the screaming wall of air that fought at them.

They stopped at a rise. Spencer heaved a look back at the sweep below. "Think like Teilhard!" he said.

"Anzhao Teilhard-de silu silu xiang!" xiang!" She breathed heavily, looking downward. How marvelously and lucidly arranged is the geology here, she thought. The pattern of rock and shadow marching, like ripples in silk, down to the sea of dunes, then all the way out to the edge of the sky. She breathed heavily, looking downward. How marvelously and lucidly arranged is the geology here, she thought. The pattern of rock and shadow marching, like ripples in silk, down to the sea of dunes, then all the way out to the edge of the sky.

Lin was thinking the same thing. "The priest would have loved it here."

She put this in English, prompting Spencer to quote the man. "'The earth's crust changes ceaselessly under our feet' "'The earth's crust changes ceaselessly under our feet'- what's next ?"

" 'While the heavens sweep us along in a cyclone of stars,'" 'While the heavens sweep us along in a cyclone of stars,'" she finished. Spencer laughed. she finished. Spencer laughed.

They kept climbing against the onslaught of wind. They scanned the rocks, boulders, cliff faces on all sides, but there were no petroglyphs. Nothing but the sun and the wind and the walls of stone.

"A cave," Dr. Lin said finally.

"What?" Spencer stopped.

"Teilhard would have looked for a cave."

"G.o.dd.a.m.n, yes, Dr. Lin, that's exactly right." Spencer had been gleaming all day with the renewal of hope he'd been given last night at the banquet, grinning, writing in his book like a madman. Now, answering Lin, he seemed to ratchet up one notch more.

"The Helan Shan is full of caves," Kuyuk put in.

At that the wind roared louder, sending small rocks and pebbles dancing across the path. They huddled their heads down and climbed again, but this time studying the walls, each cleft and shadow and overhang, for signs of a cave as well as for the rock art.

They panted around a corner and saw, abruptly, the lamasery far below them, a box-walled labyrinth. They stood in silence a moment. Think like Teilhard. Teilhard.

"Look at that," Kong called, and pointed upward. It was a rock cairn, all the rocks piled on over many years by many pairs of hands, by travelers pa.s.sing along the crest above where the five of them stood right now, the travelers stopping at the temple perhaps, or saying a solitary prayer, or adding a rock. From the top of the pile prayer flags, cloth long faded but still faint with Mongolian letters, crackled stiff and straight out in the wind.

"We need a cave." Alice sighed. "We need the monkey sun G.o.d."

"Let's climb higher," Kuyuk said, m.u.f.fled.

And later, after winding much higher and not talking, heads down in the wind, suddenly Kong's voice was s.n.a.t.c.hed out of him and tossed around: "I see one."

"What!" They all cried and shouted, but then, following Kong's slim pointed finger, they froze, all seeing the abrupt black cleft in the hillside, the dark opening that was deeper somehow, blacker, than the mere shadow it should have been.

They scrambled to it, rocks and sand raining down away from their shoes.

"Careful," Dr. Kong said from the ledge above her. He extended his fine-boned hand.

"Caves are dangerous," Kuyuk barked. He seemed to have suddenly remembered he was responsible for two academics from Zhengzhou and two Americans, actual foreign guests. "It would be better if we came back with a light. I can prepare-"

"Just a little way in," Spencer pleaded. "We'll be careful."

"Xing, " Kuyuk sighed. " Kuyuk sighed.

So forming a line, they crept inside.

Lin was worming into the irregular opening behind the others, stooped over. He looked back around to her and gave her his hand. "Lai." "Lai."

Farther. They inched over the uneven rock floor. Loud breathing, crunching rocks. They pa.s.sed through the dense overhanging shadow, and the darkness was almost total.

"This is a bad idea," Kuyuk protested from somewhere up ahead. "Let's return later!"

"Just a little way." Spencer's voice from somewhere, insisting.

"Yidian, " she translated, noticing that the voices sounded farther away from her now. But what was this? She felt Lin squeeze her hand and pull her to him in the blackness. Her nose b.u.mped the front of his shirt. She froze. His hands moved to either side of her waist, touching her softly, experimentally. They moved up, taking the measure of her rib cage. Outlining her torso. Avoiding her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. " she translated, noticing that the voices sounded farther away from her now. But what was this? She felt Lin squeeze her hand and pull her to him in the blackness. Her nose b.u.mped the front of his shirt. She froze. His hands moved to either side of her waist, touching her softly, experimentally. They moved up, taking the measure of her rib cage. Outlining her torso. Avoiding her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

She held her breath.

The warm hands drifted up her shoulders, her neck. Fingers waved through her hair, curious.

"Wait, I think I have a match," Kuyuk called.

The hands vanished.

The sc.r.a.pe and flare, the sulfur, and in an instant of flickering light and shadow she saw the damp irregular cave walls, just where they ought to be, the rocks and boulders, the others standing there.

And Lin. He stood facing her, eyes boring into her. Had he really touched her?

"See that?" Kong said, in a wondering voice. There was a petroglyph carved into the wall. The monkey sun G.o.d.

"The rock art!"

"Is it not?"

"It is!"

Then Spencer's voice, shouting, "Jesus Christ!" and they all turned again.

In the last microsecond of the match they saw a man-made wall, the dark burnished gleam of metal. The cave pa.s.sage ahead was completely closed off. There was a steel wall, and a giant submarinelike wheel-lock glimmering in its center.

The match went dead. The snuff of darkness.

"I have only one more," Kuyuk whispered.

Through the pounding of her heart Alice heard the papery sounds of him fumbling, and then the chuffing hiss, and then light again. Lin had moved away from her. He knelt by the metal door, the same brown hands that had just explored her now tracing along the metal wall.

"See those characters?" Kong pointed to an incised marking down in the corner.

"It says, 'Installation forty-eight, Alashan Base six,' " Lin read. "People's Liberation Army."

"Anything else?"

Lin peered closer, dropped to a whisper. "Yuanzidanchangku." "Yuanzidanchangku."

She whispered this in English. "Nuclear silo."

"d.a.m.n!" spat Spencer.

The match went out.

She lay in bed on her back, heart pounding, staring at the ceiling. He had touched her. In the cave, in the moment of total darkness, despite the possibility that Peking Man was near-he had done it. It was already as unreal to her as a dream. She put her own hands on her waist, trailed them up. Wasn't this what he had done? She touched her neck, her hair. Lin had never made a sound. He just touched her. He was telling her he wanted her. Wasn't he? The thought made her ache. What would it be like with him? She put her hand between her legs and began to move, arching her back, imagining it. How would he do it? How?

12.

She slid into her chair at the sun-pooled breakfast table. No one was there but Lin. "Dr. Kong's not up yet?"

"No. Dr. Spencer?"

"The same."

"Are you excited about today?" he asked.

"Oh, yes," she said, wondering which way he meant it.

"I am too." He began serving her, lovingly, the way family members serve each other at home, selecting the finest-looking morsels and piling them on her small plate.

"You needn't," she murmured, and hurried to reciprocate.

But he stopped her. "No," he smiled. "you must let me. Set your heart at ease." He surveyed the table and scooped up a few more things for her plate. "Eat now, girl child," he said gently. He chose food for his own plate and started in.

She chewed slowly. He appeared relaxed, happy, as if they had been eating breakfast together for years.

"I believe we'll have success today." He glanced at her.

"I hope so."

"Peking Man is certain to be in the cave. Is it not so? Not only do we know the French priest went there-to the lamasery-but there, in the cave entrance, was the rock art."

She nodded.

"It should not be so difficult to meet with the military head of Alashan." Lin paused, thinking about it. "He will make time for us. Peking Man is a matter of importance."

"It's so." And we're in another autonomous region now, too, she thought in a quick flood of relief; far away from that horrible Lieutenant Shan in Yinchuan.

He poured her tea.

She started to eat, then, feeling his eyes on her, looked up. He was not eating. Instead he was watching her, playing with one of his chopsticks.

His fingers moved deliberately up and down the wooden utensil. He watched her while he did it.

Am I imagining this? she thought.

No. He's actually doing it.

"I think, despite everything, we may be close to it." He didn't glance at his fingers stroking the kuaizi. kuaizi. His eyes stayed on hers. "Do you think so? Do you think we're close?" His eyes stayed on hers. "Do you think so? Do you think we're close?"

"Close to what?" she whispered, barely able to speak.

"Finding Sinanthropus. Sinanthropus. Of course." Of course."

She could only nod, afraid to even breathe.

"I really think we are," he said, but now his voice had gone slightly hoa.r.s.e.

Then an utter change clicked over him. "Eh," he said, "Dr. Spencer." He laid the chopstick down.

Adam sat noisily beside them. "So? We have a meeting with somebody?"

"Today, we hope. Someone military."

Spencer nodded. Still suffused with his new optimism, he started serving himself.

She s.n.a.t.c.hed a glance at Lin. He ate as if nothing had occurred.

She cleared her throat gently at the empty desk. A fuwuyuan fuwuyuan came out from the back room, her world, her bed and desk and basin. "Miss, I trouble you too much. Is there any phone?" came out from the back room, her world, her bed and desk and basin. "Miss, I trouble you too much. Is there any phone?"

"No phone," said the tall, equine woman.

"May I ask, where is there a phone?"

The woman thought. "In Yinchuan."

"So it's like that."

The woman made the faintest affirmative expression with her eyes, high set, brilliant, and black.

Now what do I do about Horace? Alice despaired. I'm out in the middle of nowhere, there's no phone, and what if he is dying?

What if. Because the day will come, maybe soon, when I'll stand on this earth without him. He'll be gone and it'll just be me, Alice Mannegan.