Empire of Gold

‘And I thought you married an archaeologist, not a hydrologist,’ Mac said to Eddie with a wry smile.

Zender edged nearer to the temple’s entrance. ‘We don’t need to wait for her, do we?’ Eddie shot him a cold look. ‘Ah, okay, okay. We can wait. Just for a minute.’

Nina scurried up the steps and forced herself to bypass the waiting temple and whatever riches it might contain to see what lay behind it. Her ears had not deceived her. A jet of white water, so much pressure behind it that it appeared almost solid, blasted out of a six-inch hole in the cave’s back wall into a deep pond, from where channels carved in the rock floor sent it downhill to different parts of the city. It was a primitive water main, a simple but effective piece of Inca engineering.

What was considerably less simple was the way the jet had been created. Surrounding the torrent was not natural rock but a wall, as precisely and solidly built as the towering defence at the cave mouth. It was almost like a plug set into the stone, roughly twelve feet across.

She hurried back to the square. The other team members had put down their gear and were waiting for her impatiently. ‘So, find anything interesting?’ asked Eddie.

‘Yes – I worked out how the Incas built this place,’ she said excitedly. ‘They must have dammed up the river before it went underground. Then they plugged up all but a little hole at the back of the cave so they’d have a water supply, and after that they built all of this, then demolished the dam. But since the river couldn’t flow freely down into the cave any more, it went over the top of it . . . and formed the waterfall. A whole city to hide their treasure, and it’s completely invisible from outside.’

Osterhagen was suitably impressed, taking in the ancient buildings surrounding them. ‘The Spanish never gave them enough credit for their engineering skills. That they could build a place like this is amazing.’

‘Their treasures were amazing too,’ said Zender impatiently, once again edging towards the temple’s entrance. ‘Dr Wilde, are you ready see what is inside? Or is their plumbing more interesting to you?’

Nina was tempted to make everyone wait by exploring the smaller buildings around the square, but decided that since Zender was only here for the glory of finding a big prize, the sooner he saw one the sooner he might leave. ‘All right,’ she faux-grumbled. ‘Let’s give baby his bottle.’ The group laughed, to Zender’s annoyance.

She and Osterhagen led the way to the darkened opening. While the limited space in the cave had forced the Incas to compress most of their architecture, the Temple of the Sun was, if anything, larger than its counterpart at Paititi. A short passage followed the curve of the outer wall before opening into a chamber.

Even before she reached it, Nina saw there was something unusual about the interior. Through the roof’s skeletal remains, the light in the passage had the same diffuse twilight cast as the rest of the cave. But the room ahead was different. Not brighter, but somehow warmer, almost like a dawn.

Osterhagen had seen it too. He quickened his pace. They entered the chamber . . .

And were bathed in golden light reflected off the object on its western wall.

‘Mein Gott!’ gasped Osterhagen, gasping. Nina was equally staggered.

They had found the Punchaco.

It dwarfed its copy from Paititi. That had been four feet in diameter; the golden disc before them now was nearer nine, and at least twice as thick as its counterpart. It stood almost floor to ceiling, mounted on the wall to face the trapezoidal eastern window. Unlike the smaller sun disc, which while ornate had been fashioned only from gold, this was decorated with hundreds of precious stones around its rim and outlining the great face of Inti, the sun god, that stared from its centre. The greatest treasure of the Incas, weighing tons, had been transported across hundreds of miles to protect it from the Spaniards’ gold-lust; a monumental, almost unbelievable journey.

But here it was. And an entire city had been built to house it.

The others filed into the room. ‘Jesus!’ said Eddie. ‘De Quesada would have had a job fitting that into his loo.’

Zender’s mouth dropped open at the sight. He gabbled in Spanish to Juanita. ‘What’s he saying?’ Mac whispered to Macy.

‘He’s telling her to start arranging a press conference,’ she replied. The Scot made a sound of quiet amusement.

Nina regarded the relief of Inti, then turned to see where the Inca god was gazing. Through the window, she could see the waterfall – and, she remembered, there was a gap between two peaks on the opposite side of the valley. Even though the view would be obscured by the falls, the Incas had still made sure the temple faced the rising sun. ‘So what do you think, Mr Zender?’ she asked. The Peruvian official had a hand raised to the Punchaco’s rim, fingertips hovering just above its surface as if afraid to touch it. ‘Worth the trip?’

‘Oh, yes, yes,’ he said, so transfixed that he didn’t even turn his head to address her. He finally summoned the willpower to put his hand against the sun disc. Satisfied that it was indeed real, he looked round. ‘Dr Wilde, Dr Osterhagen, this is . . . ’ He struggled for the right words. ‘Amazing!’ was all he could manage. ‘You have found the greatest treasure in Peru’s history. You are both national heroes!’

‘Thank you,’ said Osterhagen, ‘but we are not heroes – simply scholars. The real heroes were here over four hundred years ago, preserving this place for the ages. They made an incredible journey and took great risks to protect their culture and its heritage.’

Zender nodded, rather calculatingly. ‘Yes, yes. If you say that at the press conference, that would be very good!’

‘Let’s save the media planning until we’ve found everything, shall we?’ Nina suggested. ‘There’s still a whole city to explore. And there was something else on the Paititi map.’ She put down her pack and took out the case containing the statuettes. ‘We’ve got two and a half out of three; let’s see if we can complete the set.’

She opened the case, revealing the figurines. The Peruvian contingent looked on in bemusement; Nina had only told a few senior politicians about the IHA’s other ongoing mission when requesting permission to mount the expedition. ‘What are these?’ asked Olmedo.

‘Pointers, I think,’ Nina said. She picked up the first statue; as she had hoped, it glowed with an earth energy reaction, though not an especially strong one. Even so, in the low light it was perfectly clear, the Peruvians reacting with surprise. ‘If I put them all together, I’m hoping they’ll show me the missing piece.’