a sensual lustiness about her.
'Thank God you got here when you did,' said Shannon with a shiver.
'I deeply regret I was too late to save Doc Miller.'
'Where have they taken him?' asked Rodgers.
'I stopped the scum who was disposing of the body just outside the temple entrance. Doc is lying on the landing above the steps.'
Giordino gazed at Pitt, inspecting him from head to toe, observing the multitude of cuts and scratches on his friend's face and arms from his race through the jungle in the dark, seeing a man who was all but dead on his feet. 'You look like you just finished a triathlon and then fell on a roll of barbed wire. As your resident medicine man, I recommend a few hours rest before we hike back to the sinkhole campsite.'
'I look worse than I feel,' Pitt said cheerfully. 'Time enough for a snooze later. First things first. Me, I don't have the slightest inclination to play Tarzan again. I'm taking the next flight out of here.'
'Madness,' muttered Giordino half in jest. 'A few hours in the jungle and he goes flaky.'
'Do you really think we can fly out of here?' inquired Shannon skeptically.
'Absolutely,' Pitt said. 'In fact I guarantee it.'
Rodgers stared at him. 'Only a helicopter could come in and out of the valley.'
Pitt grinned. 'I wouldn't have it any other way. How else do you think Amaru, or whatever his name is, transports his stolen goods to a coastal port for shipment out of the country? That calls for a communications system, so there must be a radio around we can appropriate to send out a call for help.'
Giordino gave an approving nod. 'Makes sense, providing we can find it. A portable radio could be hidden anywhere in one of the surrounding ruins. We could spend days looking for it.'
Pitt stared down at Amaru, his face expressionless. 'He knows where it is.'
Amaru fought off the pain and stared back at Pitt with black malignant eyes. 'We have no radio,' he hissed through clenched teeth.
'Forgive me if I don't take you at your word. Where do you keep it?'
'I will tell you nothing.' Amaru's mouth twisted as he spoke.
'Would you rather die?' Pitt queried dryly.
'You would do me a service by killing me.'
Pitt's green eyes were as cold as a lake above timberline. 'How many women have you raped and murdered?'
Amaru's expression was contemptuous. 'So numerous I've lost count.'
'You want me to fly into a rage and blow you away, is that it?'
'Why don't you ask how many children I've slaughtered?'
'You're only kidding yourself.' Pitt took the Colt .45 and placed the muzzle against the side of Amaru's face. 'Kill you? I fail to see the percentage in that. One shot through both eyes would be more appropriate. You'll still live, but along with your other recent impairment you'll also be blind.'
Amaru put on a show of arrogance, but there was unmistakable fear in his dead eyes, and there was a noticeable trembling of his lips. 'You're bluffing.'
'After the eyes, then the kneecaps,' Pitt described conversationally. 'Perhaps the ears next, or better yet the nose. If I were you, I'd quit while I was ahead.'
Seeing that Pitt was stone-cold serious, and realizing he was at a dead end, Amaru caved in. 'You'll find what you're looking for inside a round building fifty meters west of the temple. There is a monkey carved above the doorway.'
Pitt turned to Giordino. 'Take one of the students with you to translate. Contact the nearest Peruvian authorities. Give our location and report our situation. Then request they send in an army unit. There may be more of these characters lurking in the ruins.'
Giordino looked thoughtfully at Amaru. 'If I send a Mayday over an open frequency, this homicidal maniac's pals in Lima might very well pick it up and send in a force of goons ahead of the army.'
'Trusting the army can be touch-and-go,' added Shannon. 'One or more of their high-ranking officers could be in on this.'
'Graft,' Pitt stated philosophically, 'makes the world go round.'
Rodgers nodded. 'Shannon's right. This is tomb robbery on a grand scale. The profits could easily match the take of any top drug smuggling operation. Whoever the mastermind is, he couldn't conduct business without paying off government officials.'
'We can use our own frequency and contact Juan,' suggested Shannon.
'Juan?'
'Juan Chaco, the Peruvian government coordinator for our project. He's in charge of our supply headquarters at the nearest city.'
'Can he be trusted?'
'I believe so,' Shannon replied without hesitation. 'Juan is one of the most respected archaeologists in South America, and a leading scholar on Andean cultures. He's also the government watchdog on illegal diggings and smuggling of antiquities.'
'Sounds like our man,' Pitt said to Giordino. 'Find the radio, call him up and ask for a chopper to airlift us the hell back to our ship.'
'I'll go with you and notify Juan of Doc's murder,' offered Shannon. 'I'd also like a closer look at the structures around the temple.'
'Take along weapons and keep a sharp eye,' Pitt warned them.
'What about Doc's body?' asked Rodgers. 'We can't leave him lying around like a road kill.'
'I agree,' said Pitt. 'Bring him inside the temple out of the sun and wrap him in some blankets until he can be airlifted to the nearest coroner.'
'Leave him to me,' Rodgers said angrily. 'It's the least I can do for a good man.'
Amaru grinned hideously, actually grinned through his agony. 'Fools, crazy fools,' he sneered. 'You'll never leave the Pueblo de los Muertos alive.'
'Pueblo de los Muertos means city of the dead,' Shannon translated.
The others glanced in disgust at Amaru. To them he seemed like an impotent rattlesnake too injured to coil and strike. But Pitt still saw him as dangerous and was not about to make the fatal mistake of underestimating him. He didn't care for the eerie expression of confidence in Amaru's eyes.
As soon as the others hurried out of the room, Pitt knelt beside Amaru. 'You act pretty sure of yourself for a man in your position.'
'The last laugh will be mine.' Amaru's face contorted in a sudden spasm of pain. 'You have blundered into the path of powerful men. Their wrath will be terrible.'
Pitt smiled indifferently. 'I've blundered up against powerful men before.'
'By lifting a tiny piece of the curtain you have endangered the Solpemachaco. They will do whatever necessary to prevent exposure, even if it means the elimination of an entire province.'
'Not exactly a sweet-tempered group you're associated with. What do you call them again?'
Amaru went silent. He was becoming weak from shock and the loss of blood. Slowly, with much difficulty, he lifted a hand and pointed a finger at Pitt. 'You are cursed. Your bones will rest with the Chachapoyas forever.' Then, his eyes went unfocused, closed, and he fainted.
Pitt stared at Shannon. 'Who are the Chachapoyas?'
'Known as the Cloud People,' Shannon explained. 'They were a pre-Inca culture that flourished high in the Andes from A.D. 800 to 1480, when they were conquered by the Incas. It was the Chachapoyas who built this elaborate necropolis for the dead.'
Pitt rose to his feet, removed the guard's felt hat from his head and dropped it on Amaru's chest. He turned and walked into the main chamber of the temple and spent the next few minutes examining the incredible cache of Chachapoyan artifacts. He was admiring a large clay mummy case when Rodgers rushed up, looking disturbed.
'Where did you say you left Doc Miller?' Rodgers asked, half out of breath.
'On the landing above the exterior steps.'
'You'd better show me.'
