chamber.
'Hello, gentlemen,' he said in a loud and clear voice.
The white-haired man with the scar quickly slipped a pistol from its belt holster and cocked it in Austin's direction.
'We're unarmed. There are just two of us,' Austin said quickly, staring at the muzzle. He had gambled that the man was too much of a professional to let off a panic shot.
'Come forward where I can see you.' Austin followed the order, he and Zavala closing the distance by several paces. The white-haired man climbed out of the boat wreckage, cautiously approached, and relieved them of their sheath knives. The livid scar on his face became more pronounced when he grinned.
'We really have to stop meeting like this,' he said, tossing the knives out of range.
'Introduce me to your friends, Guzman.' Halcon stepped from the wrecked boat, a gun in his hand.
'Please excuse my rudeness, Don Halcon. Allow me to introduce Mr. Austin and his NUMA associate Mr. Zavala, whom I met in Arizona. Zavala is the gentleman who was photographed by our surveillance camera.'
'Of course, now I recognize him.'
'You'll have to send me a copy of the picture, Halcon,' Zavala said.
Halcon chuckled. 'I'd be surprised if you resourceful gentlemen didn't know my name. Guzman told me about you. In fact I ordered him to kill you. You've been lucky; he rarely fails to carry out a task. Before he now redeems himself, I must admit you have me baffled at how you got into the temple.'
'We were swallowed by the jaws of Kukulcan,' Austin said.
Halcon studied Austin like an entomologist examining an insect in a killing jar. 'You're either telling the truth or simply trying to be ironic,' Halcon said. 'Either way it doesn't matter. You won't be leaving through the jaws anytime soon.'
'I'll tell you how we got in if you answer the questions of a couple of condemned men. I'm just curious if our theory is correct.'
Halcon must have known Austin was stalling for time. Austin looked at it from a different perspective, the opportunity to set up an escape. He had no intention of dying in this tomb.
A bargainer to the last,' Halcon said, evidently intrigued with the game. 'Go ahead.'
'First of all, how did you find the temple?'
'The same way we knew about your Andrea Doria expedition. Mr. Donatelli's man, the Sicilian.'
Antonio?'
'His name is not important. When you told Mr. Donatelli you were headed for Central America we ordered our spies to follow you to Guatemala. That ridiculous little yellow plane was easy to keep track of.'
So much for the Beaver's unobtrusiveness, Austin thought.
'I've generously allowed you a bonus question,' Halcon went on. 'I'm still interested in your theory.'
'How's this for starters?' Austin said. 'The Phoenicians traded with the Americas for thousands of years. When the Romans besieged Carthage, a Phoenician fleet moved its treasure to the other side of the ocean. Centuries pass, Columbus arrives in the New World and hears tales of a fabulous treasure. He finds the talking stone, concludes it will point the way, and sets off on a last voyage to bring home the bacon. He misinterprets the information on the stone but comes pretty close.'
'Almost as close as you have, Mr. Austin. Now will you reveal how you got in?'
'We came down that stairway' Austin said, glancing toward the burial chamber.
Halcon smiled and turned to his companion. 'Guzman'
'I'm not done,' Austin interrupted. 'Columbus has ties to a mysterious organization called the Brotherhood, so it is quite likely they knew of the treasure.'
'More than likely' Halcon stayed his henchman's hand. 'I'm truly impressed, Mr. Austin. The Brotherhood has been one of the best-kept secrets in the world. Not even when we sank one of the world's most famous ocean liners did anyone suspect our existence.'
'You're telling me that the Brotherhood sank the Andrea Doria?' Austin said.
'Guzman, really. While my father and the others were dealing with the armored truck guards in the hold, Guzman was taking care of matters on the ship's bridge.'
'It was an accident,' Austin countered.
'So they say. It wasn't as hard as you might think. We knew the boats would pass close to each other that night. Guzman was prepared to kill everyone on the Stockholm's bridge and ram the Swedish vessel into the other ship. As it was, he only took advantage of the mistakes made by others.'
'If what you say is true, and the Brotherhood knew the talking stone pointed the way to treasure, why did they send it to the bottom of the sea?'
'Unfortunately the stone's value didn't become known until fairly recently. My father ordered the stone sunk. He was carrying out the original mandate of the Brotherhood, to destroy anything that discredited the discoveries of Columbus.'
Zavala chuckled and said something in Spanish.
'You're quite right, Mr. Zavala, my father did, as you put it, screw up. But he couldn't have known that I would change the mandate of Los Hermanos.'
'When did it change from sinking ships to starting revolutions?' Austin said
A cloud crossed Halcon's pale thin face, then he laughed and clapped his hands. Bravo, Mr. Austin. You have bought yourself more time on your death sentence. Tell me what NUMA knows of my plan.'
'I will, after you fill in a few more holes.'
'Your tongue would loosen if I started shooting holes in your colleague's arms and legs,' Halcon said with a smile.
'You could do that, but let me offer another proposal. Tell me what your plan is, and I'll reveal a secret known to no other man on the planet but me. I give you my word.'
And I accept it.' Austin had judged Halcon correctly as a megalomaniac who would want others to know of his mad schemes. 'I can sum up my plan in one word. Angelica. The new country that will be carved out of the Southwest states and southern California. Those of Hispanic descent will take back what was stolen from them by force.'
Joe chortled. 'Good luck, pal. I know of a certain superpower that might object.'
'Please give me credit. I'm well aware of the armed might of the U.S. and have no intention of going up directly against it.'
'Then all those arms you're buying are for sport shooting?'
'Oh, no, they will be used for military reasons. You're of Spanish ancestry, Mr. Zavala, so you know what I learned in the bullring. With a few flutters and flourishes of a cape and deft footwork you can vanquish a much larger and more powerful foe.'
'The U.S. isn't exactly a fighting bull,' Austin said.
'The same principle applies. I have prepared the groundwork well. I have moved millions of illegal immigrants into the old Spanish territories now occupied illegally by the United States, until they are on the verge of outnumbering the non?Hispanics. I have used my fortunes to acquire key businesses such as gas, oil, and mining. With my profits I have sponsored candidates pliant to my will for public office and bought and bribed others. Now I can put my plan into action. As soon as I leave here I will give the word. The army I have been training will move on the border towns. Others will conduct raids in the interior. There will be a backlash against Hispanics, much like that against the Japanese Americans in World War II. Although this time we will give them the means to resist against their Anglo tormentors, and a reason: to redeem the national pride that America has so often demeaned.'
'You're talking bloodshed and chaos.'
'My goals exactly! What can the U.S. do, free Albuquerque and Phoenix by nuking them? Conduct street-to- street fighting in the boulevards of San Diego? They will know a political settlement follows every armed conflict, and I will provide the way out. The governors I have elected will sue for peace and suggest that the U.S. turn to one of its citizens of Spanish heritage to act as mediator. I will negotiate de facto secession from the Union.'
'There's no guarantee your scheme will succeed, in which case hundreds of thousands of people would have been killed for nothing.'
'They will have served their purpose as a means to an end.'
