The Secret of the Desert Stone (3 page)

“You should know,” Mobutu suddenly blurted, “that bringing you to Togwana was not the president's idea.”

Instantly, all their eyes were upon him.

Mobutu continued, visibly nervous. “I must tell you, the president has little use for outsiders, and even less use for advice, even from those close to him. He does not wish to appear weak or in need of help from anyone.”

Dr. Cooper exchanged a glance with the others and then asked, “Is this the reason for the secrecy? Avoiding the airport terminal, racing away in this car, and calling your two men Bernard and Walter?”

Mobutu nodded. “Bernard and Walter do not wish their real names attached to this enterprise in case it should . . .” he had to wrestle the words out of his throat, “in case it should fail.”

Dr. Cooper's voice was firm. “Mr. Mobutu, is the president even aware that we're here?”

“Oh, yes,” Mobutu replied with an emphatic nod. “Yes, he knows you're here, and he does not disapprove. It's just that . . . ” Mobutu's eyes dropped, “he consented grudgingly and warned me that no one should know about it.” Then he leaned forward and spoke in a lowered voice, “But you should know, I offered to bring in a geologist and an archaeologist. I did not tell him I would bring in someone with . . . uh . . .
spiritual
credentials as well.”

Dr. Cooper began to ask, “Are you referring to the fact that I and my children are—”

“Shh!” Mobutu held up his hand. “Do not speak it. Do not even think it while you are in this country. President Nkromo has already banished thousands who are of your . . . religious persuasion. Those who did not leave were arrested, put into forced labor, and some . . . were executed.”

Jacob Cooper's voice had a sharp edge as he asked, “And yet you brought us here anyway, knowing it could endanger our lives?”

Mobutu bowed a little, acting humble. “Dr. Cooper, this problem we have will take more than a mere scientist to solve.”

Jennifer Henderson raised an eyebrow at that remark, but Mobutu continued, “It could require someone with eyes to see
beyond
what is visible.”

Dr. Cooper's eyes narrowed as he replied, “Mr. Mobutu, you have much to explain.”

But instead of explaining, Mobutu leaned close to the window, looked at the weather, and then rapped on the glass panel that separated them from the driver. The driver looked back, Mobutu shouted some instructions, and almost immediately the driver took a hard left turn off the main road, up a steep, winding road into the hills.

“We're not going into the city?” Dr. Cooper asked.

“No,” Mobutu replied, “not yet.”

“Where are you taking us?”

“You need to see the Stone first,” Mobutu answered, “and then we will talk further.”

“The . . . Stone?”

Mobutu added quietly, “We call it a
baloa-kota,
which means an omen, an evil sign. It is why we brought you here. Many, including the president, believe the Stone is magic.”

Dr. Henderson was dismayed. “You brought us all the way to Africa just to look at a
rock?”

Mobutu only smiled at her. “This is your profession, yes?”

A few minutes later, the limousine reached the top of a hill, swerved off the road into some gravel, and lurched to a halt. Then the driver, in his neatly pressed uniform and his cap squarely in place on his head, got out, walked back, and swung the door open with a flourish.

Mobutu stepped out and waited courteously by the door. “Please,” he beckoned.

Dr. Cooper, still unsure of the group's safety, ventured a look outside, then stepped out. “It's all right.”

The others followed.

They had parked on a lofty bluff overlooking the city and the rolling, jungled hills stretching to the east. The clouds were dissolving away in the afternoon sun and the view was wide, sweeping, and beautiful. Nkromotown was a small city of white stone, gray concrete, and red tile. Dr. Cooper could see a cluster of large stone buildings in the center of the city, most likely the presidential palace and parliament hall now occupied by Nkromo and his military leaders.

“A beautiful city, Mr. Mobutu,” he said, turning to look at the Chief Secretary, then turning some more, trying to find him. “A beautiful country, and—”

The sentence died on his lips as he looked toward the west across the vast, rugged drylands. Mobutu was standing on the edge of the bluff with Jennifer Henderson, Jay, and Lila, looking toward the west and then back at him, obviously wanting to see his reaction.

Dr. Cooper didn't know how to react. He didn't even know what to believe. He blinked, then rubbed his eyes.
I can't be seeing what I think I'm seeing,
he thought.

“Dad . . .” said Jay, his voice a hushed whisper. Apparently he was seeing it too.

“What . . . is that?” Lila asked. “How does it—”

“Is this a mirage?” asked Dr. Henderson.

Mobutu shook his head. “No mirage, Dr. Henderson. What you are seeing is really there.”

The clouds continued to thin out, unveiling . . . a wall? A sheer cliff? A towering plateau?

Whatever it was, it totally filled the gap between two mountain cliffs to the north and south, and stretched from the desert floor to a height above the clouds.

“How far away is it?” asked Dr. Cooper, certain his eyes were being deceived.

Mobutu estimated, “From this point, about eighteen kilometers.”

“Ten miles!” Dr. Henderson exclaimed.

“Then it's as big as it looks,” concluded Dr.

Cooper.

“It's a
mountain!”
Lila said, her voice hushed with awe.

The sun was moving toward the west now, so the surface details were in shade and hard to discern. But the shape was stark against the sky, obscured in only a few places by high, fluffy clouds: a rectangle of stone, a huge block, square at the corners, sheer and vertical at either end, and, as far as they could tell, perfectly flat on top. And Lila was right: it was nothing less than a mountain.

“How . . .” Dr. Cooper had trouble finding his breath. “How tall is it?”

“Nearly four kilometers, as close as we can tell.”

“That's over ten thousand feet!” Jay exclaimed.

“And we figure it's at least eight kilometers long and two kilometers wide,” Mobutu added.

“How long has it been here?” Dr. Cooper asked.

“Just a few weeks, doctor,” Mobutu answered. “From here we used to be able to see past those mountain cliffs and cross the flat desert. Now the entire western half of Togwana is hidden from view.”

Dr. Henderson actually sank to the ground, overcome by the sight. “Stone? It's of stone?”

“We think it is.”

“But how did it get there? What caused it?”

Mobutu frowned. “Dr. Henderson, we hired
you
to answer such questions.”

She only shook her head. “But this is . . . this is impossible. Nothing of this size and shape has ever occurred before in nature!”

“And so we call it a
baloa-kota,
” Mobutu said somberly. “A dreaded curse, a plague sent upon us! And now you see it with your own eyes: the Stone of Togwana!”

In the presidential palace, a young butler in a green tuxedo swung open the huge, mahogany doors and announced, “Your Excellency, the Chief Secretary with his honored guests!”

They entered the presidential chamber, a room that resembled a cathedral with a high, arched ceiling, stained-glass windows, and pillared, marble walls. At the far end of the room, at the end of a long avenue of red carpet, His Excellency, President and Field Marshal Idi Nkromo, sat behind a desk the size of a battleship. The medals on his chest glittering like a Christmas tree, Nkromo glowered at them, his eyes big and bulging with anger. On the exquisitely paneled wall behind him, a ten-foot high portrait of himself glared with the same angry expression, only twice as big

.“I am Oz, the great and powerful!” Jay whispered, and Lila gave him a corrective poke.

They marched forward, Mobutu at the head, then stood shoulder-to-shoulder in a straight line before His Excellency.

“Your Excellency,” Mobutu announced, his spine straight as a rod, “I present to you the scientists from America: Dr. Jennifer Henderson, geologist; and Dr. Jacob Cooper, archaeologist!”

Nkromo gestured toward Jay and Lila, his eyes sending the question to Mobutu. “And . . . ?”

Mobutu blurted, “And Dr. Cooper's two children, Jay and Lila.”

Nkromo looked at Dr. Henderson, then Dr. Cooper, then Jay and Lila, his face betraying not the slightest hint of favor at their presence. Then, at long last, he spoke, his voice deep, loud, and intimidating. “I welcome you to the Republic of Togwana! We will do well for each other, yes? You will remove the Stone, and I will pay you well.”

“Yes,” Dr. Henderson ventured, “we do need to discuss our fee before we—”

“How long will it take?” Nkromo interrupted.

They had no answer; they weren't sure they had even grasped the question.

Dr. Cooper gave a slight bow and said, “Your Excellency, we have only just arrived and know very little about the Stone. If it pleases you, we need to venture into the desert and study it closely to learn what it is and where it came from.”

“And how to make it go away, yes?”

Dr. Henderson picked it up from there. “We'll need vehicles and equipment, food and water—”

Nkromo waved her off and declared, “Mr. Mobutu will see to that. Whatever you need, he will supply it.”

“Thank you, sir,” said Dr. Cooper.

Nkromo rose from his chair; Mobutu took one step backward and the four guests did the same. Then the president patted his big belly and admired the towering portrait of himself. “If I want something done, it will be done, you see? I had ten witch doctors, but they could not make the Stone go away. They could not move it. They could not even make it smaller.” He shook his head with regret. “So I ordered their heads smashed in with stones.”

Lila gasped. She didn't mean to, it just happened.

His Excellency was pleased at that response. “So, you will not fail, I know. You are scientists from America! You know about rocks! You will please me, I know.”

Dr. Cooper tried to keep his voice even as he asked, “Are we to understand, sir, that you expect us to
remove
the Stone?”

“Yes! Take it away!” Nkromo bellowed with an angry wave of his arm. “Remove it far from here, I don't care where! It must not remain in the path of His Excellency!” Then he raised his hands toward them as if to grant a blessing, but the tone of his voice sounded more like a threat. “May you have success!”

THREE

A
s they hurried across the palace grounds, intent on getting out of there, Dr. Henderson was the first to speak. “Well, I've heard enough. I'm getting on the first plane out of here!”

“If you try to leave Togwana without permission, you will be shot,” Mobutu said flatly.

Dr. Henderson's mouth dropped open. “You can't be serious!”

“You're forgetting, this is an African dictatorship,” said Dr. Cooper. “Nkromo can do whatever he wants.”

“Nkromo is out of his mind!” said Dr. Henderson.

Mobutu cautioned her with frantic little waves of his hand. “No! Never speak ill of the president!” He lowered his voice to share some inside advice. “Even if he is crazy, that doesn't matter! What matters is that he gets what he wants or people die—even you.”

“But this is an incredible freak of nature, so huge it's mind-boggling! If Nkromo couldn't move it with all his army, what are
we
supposed to do?”

“But we don't even know what it is yet!” Jay countered.

“And I'm dying to find out,” said Lila.

“Well, I don't care to die at all!” Jennifer Henderson snapped.

“Dr. Henderson,” said Dr. Cooper softly, touching her shoulder to comfort her, “we could be staring an incredible discovery right in the face, and we'd be untrue to our professions if we ran from it. As for Nkromo, it's obvious he's afraid of it. It's something he doesn't understand and can't control. If we can give him some answers, his attitude might change.”

Dr. Henderson finally calmed down a bit and nodded. “Well . . . what other choice do we have anyway?”

Dr. Cooper looked at Lila as he addressed Mobutu. “We have a list for you.” Lila pulled several sheets of paper from her pocket and handed them to Mobutu as her father continued, “We'll need vehicles, surveying equipment . . .”

“Seismic equipment,” Dr. Henderson added, “and a core drill.”

“Oh, and I'll need an airplane, single engine, high wing, with short take-off and landing capability.”

Dr. Cooper waved at the list. “It's all on there.”

Mobutu scanned the long list with widening eyes.

“Oh,” said Lila, pulling out another sheet of paper. “And here's a grocery list.”

“Come on,” said Dr. Cooper. “Let's have a look at that thing.”

After a meal and a change into cooler clothes, the Coopers and Dr. Henderson were ready for their first trek into the rugged drylands of western Togwana. They were riding in a land rover provided by Mr. Mobutu—it was the first item on the list. Mr. Mobutu came along, not because he wanted to but because Nkromo required it.

The road into the desert was unimproved but apparently well-traveled, at least by Nkromo's armies. It meandered for mile after mile across a dead, forbidding landscape of wind-carved stone pinnacles and deep, eroded gullies, of sun-baked, jagged rocks and blowing sand. With each mile they drove, the Stone grew larger and its top edge higher and more directly overhead, until finally they entered the Stone's afternoon shadow—miles and miles of shadow, as if the sun had disappeared behind a perfectly straight-edged bank of clouds. Jay and Lila had to stick their heads out the windows to see the Stone's top edge thousands of feet above them, black against the flare of the hidden sun.