“Yeah… I’m working on it, Riley!” he yelled back.
Decker heard the Australian loose another shot while Charlie reloaded. “How many mags you got, mate?”
“This is the last one,” Charlie said. “You?”
“Same here.”
Their conversation faded out as Decker sprinted further down the passageway.
“I hope they’re okay,” Diana said.
“They’ll be fine,” said Decker. “They’re both ex-soldiers and they know how to handle a solid defensive position like that entrance back there. Their only problem is if they get too outgunned, in which case they’ll just retreat and join us back here.”
“I pray you’re right.”
“He is!”
Riley’s voice. Still running along the tunnel, Decker glanced over his shoulder and saw the Australian and Charlie sprinting up behind them.
“How many?” Decker asked.
“Too many to count, and they’re on their way down here. Just seconds behind us.”
“Holy crap! We haven’t even reached the chamber yet!”
Hearing the men gaining on them, Charlie spun around and unleashed several rounds down the tunnel. The muzzle flashed in the darkness and illuminated the men’s faces. He hit one in the chest and he tumbled over into the dirt. Then his associates returned fire.
“Shit, we’re in deep!” Riley called out. He raised his Hi-Power and fired into the black, the sound of his weapon almost deafeningly loud in the enclosed tunnel. “We need to get out of this passageway right now, or we’re Swiss cheese, Mitch!”
Decker ignored the imagery. He knew they were massively outnumbered and if they didn’t reach the chamber soon, they would be caught in a dead end. The phrase ‘shooting fish in a barrel’ wouldn’t do the situation justice if these men hunted them down inside the tunnel. But the darkest hour was just before dawn, and then he saw it. Up ahead, the dim outline of a stone door inside an archway made of a smooth stone plinth resting on two vertical stacks of carved rock.
“We made it!” he called out from the front. “I see some kind of door up ahead.”
The crew followed him down the last remaining few yards of the tunnel until they reached a large stone archway.
“We’re here!” Selena said. “That’s the good news.”
“What’s the bad news?” Diana asked.
“Here is just an antechamber. The main event is behind that!” She pointed to the stone slab blocking the entrance.
“At least we’re in the right place,” Decker said.
“Yeah,” said Charlie, “but those psychos are also going to be in the right place in about thirty seconds!”
“How do we get it open?” Riley said, glancing over his shoulder. “Right now we’re just rats in a trap!”
Selena swept her flashlight over the door. Everywhere she looked, she saw carvings of dots, dashes and what looked like tiny seashells. “Um… let me see. I wonder what these mean?”
“Wonder faster than that, Lena,” Riley said.
“They’re maths symbols,” Atticus said. “Remember the Maya counting system?”
“Um…”
“And look closer, darling,” he said with a mischievous grin. “What do you see?”
Selena gasped. “Of course! I see it now. This slab is locking the way into the main chamber and maths is the key!”
“Math,” Decker said.
“Not now, Mitchell,” Selena said in clipped tones. “I’m thinking.” She tapped her lip and cocked her head to one side, deep in thought. “Shells, dots, dashes. It’s the ancient Maya script, both words and numerals. Seems to be some sort of puzzle.”
“Remember, it’s not decimal,” Atticus said. “The Maya system was like many of the older counting systems and was base-20.”
“Base-20?” Charlie said.
Atticus smiled. “Vigesimal.”
“Eh?”
“Based on twenty,” Selena said. “It’s not hard, Charles.”
“Oh, sure.”
“It’s a superior system, in my opinion,” Atticus said dreamily. “After all, twenty is divisible by more numbers than ten. But then, I’m old-fashioned.”
“And crazy!” Riley said, turning and firing on the men and driving them back once more. “Do you even remember we’re being hunted by armed maniacs?”
A bullet ripped between them and ricocheted off the top of the stone plinth above the slab.
“Damn it!” Decker cried out, moving away from the slab and joining Riley and Charlie at the rear. “We have to hold them back!”
He fired and drove the men back again. Riley and Charlie also opened fire and forced the invaders further back around the bend in the tunnel.
“We can’t keep them away forever,” Riley said. “Only until the bullets run out.”
“We need more progress, Dad,” Selena said with a sigh.
Atticus frowned as he studied the carvings. “The shell is worth zero, right?”
She nodded. “Yes, and then it’s a various combination of dots and dashes to create any number you like. It’s asking us a question though, right here.” She leaned closer and studied the Maya script carefully. “It’s says two sons and two fathers went hunting together. They killed precisely three curassows. Then each hunter had one curassow.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Riley called over.
Charlie said, “And what’s a curassow?”
“It’s type of bird,” Atticus said haughtily. “It was hunted for food in ancient Maya culture.”
“But it doesn’t even make sense,” said Decker. “Two sons and two fathers went hunting. They killed three of these birds. Three. Then it says they had one each, which is four. Does not make sense.”
“That’s why they call it a riddle,” Acosta said. “Perhaps they should have just left a key under the doormat so men like those shooting us could just walk in whenever they felt like it?”
“Your attitude is affecting my aim, Pepe,” Decker said, taking another shot.
“The answer is one of the fathers was also a grandfather,” Selena said. “It’s an old maths riddle. One man was both the father of his son and the grandfather of his grandson. Three
