“Knowledge I can handle,” Decker said. “Gold I can also handle. What bothers me is Montesino’s doomsday surprise.”
Charlie pulled up in the parking lot and switched off the engine. “Nous sommes arrivés.”
“Better we find it than anyone else,” Acosta said. “Especially a gang of armed men.”
“Talking of whom…” Diana scanned outside her window. “Any sign of them?”
“Not that I can see,” said Decker. “No sign of any of Mauro’s Jeeps. Maybe they’ve moved on.”
“I don’t think so,” Atticus said. “And if Danvers was right, I’m starting to understand why a gang of thugs would have an interest in this place. If there really is some kind of doomsday machine here, it’s imperative we get to it first and secure it for men and women of learning. Heaven knows what Montesino saw, but if he was halfway accurate in his description then we can be sure we don’t want a gang of armed criminals reaching it before us.”
“They don’t have the Codex or Montesino’s directions,” Selena said.
Atticus gave one of his long, nervous sighs. “Of course, but it’s still bothering me. I mean, what on earth would they want it for?”
“We can worry about that later,” Decker said, unbuckling his seatbelt. “Right now we need to get on and find what we’re looking for before they do, and that means a hike through some pretty unforgiving jungle off to the west. So let’s get started or we’re going to lose light.”
9
They walked across the site, skirting its southern border and made their way to the jungle off to the west. Hacking their way through the dense rainforest, they weaved a winding path around bushy breadfruit trees and wild tangles of bromeliads and spikey epiphytes. The heat was intense, and their rain and sweat-soaked bodies ached from head to toe by the time they reached the area described by Fray Alfonso Montesino in his crumbling, yellowed manuscript.
“Is this it?” Decker asked, looking around and seeing nothing but undergrowth.
They were standing in a small grove of cashew trees growing at the bottom of the slope to the complex’s west, exactly where Montesino had written about. Looking up at the ruins off to their east, Selena followed the friar’s code and carefully aligned the Jaguar Temple with the High Temple, or what was also known today as El Castillo, the castle. “I think a little more to the west.”
Riley pulled his machete blade from the stem of a fan palm and wiped sweat from his forehead. Turning to face the others with a grin on his face, he said, “Which way now, Lena?”
“Based on Diana’s translation of the text, I think we need to keep going west for another hundred feet or so. That’s where the river runs into the meander drawn by Montesino and it’s also where the jungle seems to be at its heaviest. If there really is some kind of hidden burial ground around here, then it would have to be somewhere fairly impenetrable.”
“Surely someone flying over it in a plane would have seen something,” Decker said. “And what about satellite surveillance?”
“Not nearly as extensive as you might think,” Charlie said. “When I was in the Royal Military Police, I worked on a couple of jobs involving civilians in the Secret Intelligence Service. They had experience in satellite recon and told me a lot of the world is still largely uncharted, especially places like this, and especially in the sort of detail to reveal hidden entrances and so on. It’s totally feasible that Montesino was telling the truth about the burial chamber.”
“I can concur,” Acosta said. The older man was breathing heavily. The effort of the march and the humidity of the rainforest had formed an alliance against his weary body. “Many of our greatest discoveries were in areas we thought we had mostly mapped out. So yes, it’s feasible.”
“Come on, let’s keep going,” Diana said. She had walked ahead and caught up with Riley as he hacked through the final few yards of foliage. The two of them were standing close enough to the river to hear it rushing over some rocks a little to their left. In front of them the land sloped down into a hollow full of thick, tangled vines. “It’s getting dark.”
Another short walk. Each step they took, the undergrowth grew denser and harder to hack their way through. Selena stopped and looked up the slope once again. The temples were obscured even more by the rainforest now, but she was still able to see them, and this time the alignment was even better.
“Here,” she said with confidence. “This is the view Montesino described in his journal. This is the place he claims the priest was buried with the Stormbringer.”
“Progress,” Acosta said. “At last.”
“But I don’t see anything,” Charlie said.
Diana gasped. “Yes! Look down there!”
The others had caught them up and were gathered on the edge of the slope. “What am I looking at?” Atticus said.
Diana made her way slowly down into the foliage. “Some rocks, boulders maybe. Behind these vines.”
“Look out for snakes,” Riley said, stumbling down after her. “I don’t want to have to suck any poison out of the bite wound.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’d sooner die.”
He laughed. “Sounds like you never got bitten by a snake before, mate!”
She ignored him. “Here.” The Portuguese woman swept a thick fistful of vine creepers to the side to reveal a steep rockface in front of her. What had looked like natural rocks from a distance were in fact hand-carved blocks of stone built into the side of a rise. She traced her index finger along one of the grooves dividing two of the blocks and smiled.
“I think I found the entrance,” she said. “Behind these vines! Look, if I move some more away
