The Soviets stood in silence as a Chaplain Cook and Yitshak Jacob, acting as a rabbi, administered last rites and kaddish. A Soviet Uzbek Moslem stepped forward to offer his prayers.

Mirsky threw the first spade of dirt into the Soviet graves. Gerhardt threw a spadeful into the NATO grave. Then, without planning or warning, Gerhardt took a shovel of dirt from the mound to be pushed over his men, and carried it to the first Soviet trench. Mirsky did the same without hesitation.

Belozersky watched with a face permanently locked in disapproval. Vielgorsky kept a silent, dignified demeanor. Yazykov seemed to be somewhere else, and his eyes were moist.

Hoffman and Farley stepped forward and laid a wreath at the head of each site.

As the crowd moved away, the archaeology team immediately began filling in the trenches. The Soviets divided to return to the first and fourth chambers. Farley, Carrolson and Hoffman joined Lanier and Heineman at the zero bridge. They watched people crossing to go to the train terminals. Carrolson edged closer to Lanier and touched his arm.

"Garry, there's something we have to talk about."

"Let's hear it," he said.

"Not here. In the compound," Carrolson said, looking to Hoffman. They gathered in the trucks and crossed the first chamber. Carrolson, Farley, Heineman and Hoffman accompanied Lanier to the deserted administration building, where they gathered around Ann Blakely's desk on the first floor.

"Sounds like bad news coming," he said. His eyes widened in prescient realization. "Oh, my God," he said. "Where's—"

Carrolson interrupted him. "You've been too busy until now. We're not sure what's happened, but Patricia can't be found anywhere. There are two reports, but one's Russian and it may not be credible. Rimskaya heard it when he was talking with the Russian science team. The other's from Larry. We thought we'd find her, that maybe she was just hiding out somewhere, but—"

Heineman nodded. "What I saw just seems to add to the mystery," he said.

"Patricia left the fourth chamber compound last Wednesday," Farley said. "Nobody saw her go, but Lenore is convinced she must have taken a train to the third chamber."

"She said she was going to a library. We were all a little crazy then, and she was taking it very hard," Carrolson said.

"The Russian team says that a Soviet soldier saw an aircraft land near one of the subway terminals in Thistledown, on the northern side—the zero line terminal," Farley said. "Two people got aboard—and something the Russian called a devil. One of the. . . humans was a man and the other a woman, and the woman fits Patricia's description. The aircraft flew off. White, spade-shaped, but with the nose blunted. It didn't make any noise."

Heineman stepped forward. "I saw a boojum go past when I was down the corridor. Arrowhead-shaped, blunt nose. It was traveling in a spiral around the plasma tube, heading north."