He tapped that spot on the screen.
Gray looked over his shoulder. “That’s still a lot of territory to cover.”
“And it’s landlocked,” Vigor added. “As you can see, his original territory did not extend to the Yellow Sea or the Pacific.”
Everyone stared over at the ship, while Vigor kept his nose close to his laptop’s screen, bringing up more research files on the region.
“Then why leave a ship as a clue?” Gray asked, nodding to the relic.
Vigor zoomed in on the map and pointed to a large body of water at the northern edge of that darker oval.
“Because of that,” he explained. “Lake Baikal.”
“What’s the significance of that particular lake?” Gray squinted at the crescent-shaped body of water. “Do you know anything about it?”
“Only what I’m looking at now,” Vigor said and summarized aloud. “It’s the oldest and deepest lake in all the world. It holds over twenty percent of the world’s fresh water. To the ancient Mongol people, it was a major source of fishing . . . and still is today.”
Gray stared closer at the scrimshaw. “Then I understand the fish carved on the boat’s hull, but what about these frolicking—?”
“Seals?” Vigor asked, with a triumphant smile. He sat back and let them see the picture on his laptop, of a dark sleek shape sitting atop a rock. “Let me introduce you to the nerpa. The world’s only breed of freshwater seal and—”
“Let me guess,” Gray said, cutting him off this time. “They’re only found in Lake Baikal.”
Vigor’s smile widened.
Gray’s satellite phone rang. He glanced at the screen. “It’s Sigma command.” As he headed away to take the call in private, he pointed back to Vigor. “Learn everything you can about that lake.”
“Already on it.”
Vigor paused long enough to look heavenward.
Thank you, my friend.
6:18 P.M.
“And you’ve heard nothing from Monk?” Painter asked over the phone.
“Not a word.” Gray had moved over to his bedroom for privacy, but also not to disturb Vigor’s investigation into Lake Baikal.
“I’ve tried reaching him for the past ten minutes,” Painter said. “But there’s been no answer. The last update from his team was when they were heading out on horseback into the mountains.”
“It’s getting dark out here,” Gray offered. “Maybe he’s busy setting up camp.”
Painter sighed in tired exasperation. “I had hoped to consult with Dr. Shaw before they settled in for the night.”
“Why?”
“I just received a final assessment from the crew over at the SMC in L.A. I told you about the physicist who was monitoring the gravitational anomalies that Jada had first noted in the comet’s path.”
“Right. You mentioned something about them changing.”
“Growing, in fact. They’ve confirmed that these tiny changes are incrementally increasing in direct proportion to the comet’s approach toward Earth.”
“You’re not concerned about the comet hitting us, are you?”
It wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility. In 1994, the Shoemaker-Levy comet collided into Jupiter, and sometime next year, a comet was likely to smash into Mars.
“No,” Painter said, “the comet will pass close in astronomical terms, but it has no chance of striking us. But that doesn’t mean we’re out of danger. We’ve been tracking NEOs for the past day.”
“NEOs?”
“Near-Earth objects. We’ve been monitoring any asteroids that might pose a risk of shifting earthward due to the stirring of the comet’s energy through our neighborhood. Its trajectory has already shaken up the cosmic game of billiards out there, resulting in the recent meteor showers.”
“Along with what happened in Antarctica.”
“Exactly. That was why I wanted to consult with Dr. Shaw. She understands these gravitational anomalies better than anyone. The consensus out of the SMS is that the increasing flux could trigger the mother of all meteor showers as the comet reaches its closest pass by the earth. And NASA is monitoring some very large rocks beginning to respond to those deviations.”
Gray heard the dread in the director’s voice. “Is there anything we can do to stop this?”
“The physicist at the SMC believes that Dr. Shaw would be the best one to answer that question. He’s growing to believe that there must be a reason these anomalies are growing larger in direct relation to its approach toward Earth. He thinks there must be something here on the planet that the comet’s energy is responding to.”
“Jada seemed convinced of the same,” Gray conceded, suddenly glad he had agreed to search for the stolen relics. “She thinks this ancient cross we’re hunting for might have been sculpted out of a piece of that comet when it last appeared. That it could still retain some of its dark energy, and that the two—the cross and the comet—are entangled at the quantum level.”
“Then we need to find that artifact.”
Gray offered a bit of hopeful news. “We may have a solid lead for once. Vigor is working on it right now. But as a precaution, can you get Kat started on arranging transportation for our group?”
“Where?”
“To Russia, to a lake near its southern border called Baikal. It’s about three hundred miles north of where we are now.”
“We’ll get on it. That short a distance should only take a few hours of travel, but you’d better still hurry. We only have forty-eight hours remaining until the events pictured by the satellite come true.”
Recognizing the urgency, Gray finished his call and returned to the others. As he stepped into the room, he found everyone gathered around Vigor and his laptop.
“What?” he asked.
Vigor swung to him. “The more I look into Lake Baikal, the more I’m convinced that’s the correct spot.”
Rachel smiled over, flushed with excitement. “We may even know where on Lake Baikal to look.”
“Where?” He shifted to join them.
“First of all, legends say that Genghis Khan’s mother was born on an island in that lake.”
“Another island,” Gray said.
That at least sounded right. The first relics were found hidden near Boszorkánysziget, the Island of the Witches, in Hungary, and the second beneath an island in the old Aral Sea.