Full sunrise brightened the day, but not their moods.
"Why don't we just blow it up?" Kowalski asked.
"It may come to that, but let's give Hank and Chin at least a minute to finish their examination."
Still, Painter had to consider Kowalski's option. They had roughly forty minutes until the valley exploded.
"Just in case," Painter asked, "do you have any C4 with you?"
He had asked Kowalski to secure some of the explosive for the flight here, in case they needed to blow their way into a tunnel or passage. But the man had come here with no satchel or pack.
"I have a little," Kowalski admitted. He stepped back and flared out both sides of his ankle-length duster, revealing a vest covered in cubes of C4.
"You call that a little?"
Kowalski glanced down. "Yeah. Should I have brought more?"
Over by the mushroom rock, Hank and Chin stood up together.
Hank gave their assessment. "We think it's meant to act like a plug, perhaps symbolic of an infant's umbilical cord. Either way, we need four strong men to hook their arms around that lip-which I believe is the very reason it's there-and lift straight up."
Kowalski volunteered, as did Major Ryan, Bern, and Chin.
Bending at the knee, the men circled the stone and linked arms.
"The rock is porous," Chin said. "Hopefully we can lift it free."
On a count of three, they all heaved up. From the strain on their faces, the geologist's assessment was proving questionable. But then a grating metallic sound groaned from the earth. The stone plug rose in the men's arms. With the stopper finally loosened, the men easily lifted the stone and sidestepped out of the way to set it down.
Painter moved forward with Hank and Rafael.
"Is that gold?" Jordan asked behind them.
If it was, they'd definitely found the right place.
Painter studied the bottom of the stone stopper. Gold coated the lower foot of the mushroom-shaped rock and rimmed the pit's edges.
"The precious metal must be to keep the plug from corroding into place permanently," Chin said.
Hank studied the hole. "This reminds me of the opening to a kiva . The entrance to the underworld."
Kowalski glared down that hole. "Look how well that turned out for us last time."