The Forensic Geology Box Set by Toni Dwiggins

Author:Toni Dwiggins [Dwiggins, Toni]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Private Investigators, sleuth team, CSI, california fiction, wilderness, outdoor detective, Women's Adventure, female protagonist, series, psychological suspense, political, financial crime
Publisher: Toni Dwiggins
Published: 2014-01-07T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 38

Walter shined his flashlight. “That’s worth a closer look.”

We stood at the open gate. His beam had caught a bull quartz vein, creamy and white, deep in the throat of the tunnel. Where the tunnel took a turn, a streak of silver intruded the white.

“Look all you want from here,” Oliver said. “Soliano says you don’t go in.”

Walter waved his flashlight. “I believe he meant, don’t go exploring. I don’t believe he’d say, don’t nip in there and collect a critical mineral sample.”

I said, “I’m willing to stipulate that’s a telluride.”

“You’ll stipulate? When the answer’s fifty yards away?”

I said, “We don’t have a gas detector.”

Walter shifted his beam to illuminate a shaft that cut through the ceiling like a stovepipe. “It’s ventilated.”

“I don’t care if it’s air-conditioned,” Oliver snapped, “you don’t go in.”

“Mr. Oliver,” Walter said, “my feet hurt. I’ve been running around all morning. So you’ll understand that I want to sample that vein, and if there is any justice to be had we will ID this place and turn it over to Scotty so he can clean up the damnable mess and we can go back to the Inn and soak our feet.”

“Amen,” Dearing said, lifting the toes of his boots.

Walter opened his pack and retrieved his headlamp.

I sighed and got out my own headlamp.

Oliver stiffened. “Hold on just a goddamn minute.” His obsidian face turned rock-hard. “Why am I here? I’m here because you’re looking for the mess. You go in there, I’ve gotta go too.”

Walter shook his head. “I’ll just nip in and out.”

“I’ve seen guys like you. They make it personal.”

Walter fitted his headband.

“You’re not the goddamn bad guy,” Oliver said. “You got nothing to do with the mess.”

Walter considered. “Strictly speaking, I do.”

“The hell’s that mean?”

I fitted my headband. It means Walter makes it personal. It means he’s Walter. I said, “He consumes power. Nuclear’s part of the nation’s power grid.”

Oliver just shook his head. He told Dearing, “Take the watch and call Soliano.” He switched on the flashlight built into the forward grip of his submachinegun. He shoved around Walter to take the lead. “So you wanna live in the Stone Age?”

No we don’t, I thought. They didn’t have French press coffeemakers and scanning electron microscopes in the Stone Age.

Or Geiger counters. I took it out, just in case. We’d brought it along because Scotty told us to monitor outside every mine and if the count rose above background to get the hell away. We hadn’t expected to be going into a mine, which was why we hadn’t brought hazmat suits. And even if we’d wanted to bring that heavy equipment we’d have needed a couple of RERTs to schlep it, and RERT was tied down at the Inn.

Well, we’ll just nip in and out.

We entered the tunnel, abandoning day for night. At first the rain-gray light seeped along with us but within a few yards it yielded to the dark. We traveled on three thin beams. My hair stirred as we passed the ventilation shaft.

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