Read Online The Spirit Banner by Alex Archer - Free Book Online Page B

man, who by now had assembled a portable cutting rig from parts removed from his pack, passed the rig to his waiting companion.

The item they had come for was less than fifteen feet away, separated from them by just a thin section of plaster and wood.

The leader glanced at his watch.

They were right on time.

He gave the signal for his teammate to start cutting.

    * * *

    A NNJA FOUND M ASON and his employer in Davenport's study on the first floor. She wasted no time in getting to the point.

"Something about the journal has been bothering me since this morning and I've only just now figured out what it is. If Curran died in that cave, who found the journal and how did you come to be in possession of it?" she asked.

Mason glanced at Davenport and the other man nodded, giving permission for him to answer the question.

"I handle a variety of jobs for Mr. Davenport. One of those happens to be scouting out new business opportunities. I was in Mongolia recently with a geological team, looking for mineral deposits. While investigating a series of caves a few days outside of Karakorum, we stumbled upon the mummified remains of two men. The journal was on a shelf near one of the bodies."

"And so you took it?"

Mason shrugged. "I thought it might be important and taking it with me seemed the best way of preserving it."

Annja frowned. "But now that you've had time to examine its contents, surely you understand that the site, and anything it contains, could be of historic importance to the Mongolian people?"

Davenport stepped in. "Of course we do, Annja. But we also want credit for finding the site and permission to excavate it. That is why we intend to apply for the proper paperwork to sponsor an expedition to do just that in the spring." He spread his hands, as if to say, Can't you see we're doing the right thing here? "Determining the authenticity of the journal seemed an important step in that process."

Annja wasn't sure if that was the whole story or not, but she recognized that it was all she was going to get at the moment.

"Good enough," she said, with a shrug of her own that clearly said she wasn't going to make an issue of it. "Then I guess it's okay to tell you…I think it's real." Annja couldn't keep the smile from spreading across her face as she admitted it.

Davenport let out a whoop of joy. "I knew it!" he shouted. "I just knew it."

Mason was up, shaking his employer's hand, congratulating him, the two of them laughing and talking, when Annja broke in again.

"I said I think the journal is real. Unfortunately, the map is not."

That brought both of them up short. Davenport's voice held a trace of steel as he asked, "What do you mean the map is not? "

Annja brought her laptop over to the table in front of the chairs where they'd been seated and turned it around to face them.

"Look," she said. "This is a full-scale image of the map from the back of the journal." The map appeared on the screen before them. "I cleaned it up some, but otherwise it is exactly the same. No image enhancements or anything like that."

The two men nodded to show they were following her.

"Now this," she said, calling up another image, "is a modern-day map of the same area. I've reduced it to scale to match the other one." The two maps appeared side by side.

Davenport glanced between them. "I don't see…Oh."

Annja grinned. "Yeah. Oh." She tapped the keyboard and they all watched as the two images slid over each other. Doing so allowed them to see that Curran, or whoever had drawn the map, had deliberately introduced errors into the positioning of many of the major landmarks. For instance, the Onon River had been moved slightly to the east while the Hentiyn Nuruu mountain range had been relocated a good distance to the south. The other errors were similar in nature; Annja had counted eleven in all.

Davenport stared at the map in confusion. "Why would he do that?"

Annja opened her mouth to reply but Mason beat her to the answer.

"He