Tarántula looked at the seal and mumbled. “This way, it’s pointing to the north of the lake.”
Novarro slung his bags over his shoulder and brushed past them. “What are we waiting for?”
Miguel took one look outside and sunk back into his seat. “I think I want to stay in the helicopter. It’s so comfortable in here, and there’s air-conditioning.”
Tarántula adjusted his hat and blew out a deep breath. “Get out. Now.”
“Do as he says, Mico,” Carlos said.
“You said they have an old sea plane, right?” asked Carlos.
Diablo nodded. “This is what I am told. Why?”
“Because without a helicopter, there is nowhere to land around here for hundreds of kilometers. If they are going to land here, then they must use the lake.”
Tarántula started to grin and turned to Carlos. “You hear that, old friend? Our archaeologist friends have no choice but to bring their plane down on this lake. I want you to make sure they have a welcoming committee when they arrive.”
“Leave it to me, boss.”
Tarántula’s grin broke into a greasy smile, the diamond on his front tooth reflecting the bright moonlight. Then, the Snake King wandered back over to them, his face still concealed by the grotesque jade mask.
“I am most pleased with our work here tonight. If we sacrifice the foreigners to Huracan and then locate the source of his divine power, he will greatly reward us!” He turned to the moon and fell to his knees. “Kaloomte! The king of kings!”
Tarántula and the others shared an unsettled glance as the Snake King began mumbling his prayers to Huracan.
*
The Avalon flew low with night still at its back. As the bright Mexican moon rose rapidly above the jungle, the vintage sea plane turned to the left and swooped down toward a large lake to their southwest which had been totally invisible only moments earlier.
In the low ambient light of the cockpit, Decker turned to Selena and gently nudged her awake. “We’re almost there.”
“Go away and leave me alone,” she mumbled. “I need at least another hour’s sleep.”
“Sorry, but we’re about to land. Let the others know and tell them to buckle up.”
Selena begrudgingly climbed out of her seat and was making her way toward the cockpit door when a loud explosion sounded in the night. A second later, the Avalon rocked wildly in the air and then lurched over to one side, sending her tumbling into Decker’s lap.
“Sorry, Mitch!” she said, pulling herself up and grabbing hold of the back of his seat. “But what the hell was that?”
“I don’t know, but we’re going down!”
Riley’s face appeared in the door. “Your flying sucks, mate! You just woke everyone up!”
“We’ve been hit by something,” Decker called out. “Maybe shot at. I don’t know. Tell everyone to buckle up. We’re going down.”
“This is not what a guy wants to hear from a pilot, Mitch.”
“Now, Riley!”
Riley left the cockpit and Decker scanned the instruments once again.
Only three hundred feet in the air and dropping like a stone.
He gripped the yoke with all his might and fought hard to keep the damaged aircraft in the sky. He’d been in a few scrapes in his time, but this was already the worst and it had only just begun. The enormous rotary engines, fixed either side of the cockpit on the vintage plane’s high-wing configuration, roared and whined as the Avalon’s nose pitched down harder.
He glanced momentarily to his right and saw Selena. She looked scared as hell. “Listen, you’d better go back into the main cabin and strap in. Looks like we’re going down hard and fast and there’s nothing I can do about it except try and keep her on a track to the lake.”
“And you’ve tried everything?” she asked, wide-eyed with fear.
“No, I thought I’d try some of the things I can do to stop her going down, and forget about the rest. Yes, I tried everything!”
“No need to be facetious, Mitch. I was just asking.”
“I’m sorry.” He swivelled in his seat and craned his neck to the left to look outside the side window one more time. “Engine seems okay but the wing surface has been badly damaged by what looks like gunfire! Bastards shot my plane to shit! Ailerons look like goddam vegetable strainers. God only knows what they did to the back, but judging from the response I’m getting up here…” he turned and fixed his eyes on her. “It ain’t good.”
A meaty explosion on the right. Selena jumped and swore, and then looked out of her side window. “Mitch, what would it mean if there was a thick cloud of black smoke billowing out of the back of an engine?”
Decker, who had leaned forward in his seat and was tapping the glass screen of the attitude gauge, stopped what he was doing and turned to her. “Huh?”
“Black smoke, Mitch. Pouring out of the thingy at the back of the engine.”
He looked at the starboard engine’s oil pressure gauge and watched the little needle slowly sinking down to zero. “Looks like they took out engine number two… sons of bitches! And it’s the cowling, not a thingy.”
“Perhaps rather than correcting my speech with your somewhat niche airman’s vocabulary, you might be more concerned that the Mexican jungle is about to smash into this cockpit!”
“I think you’ll find the cockpit is about to smash into the Mexican jungle, Lena.”
“I swear to God, sometimes I could slap your—”
Riley Carr’s face appeared in the cockpit door once again. “Engine two’s out, Mitch, and the horizontal stabilizer on the portside looks like Swiss cheese.”
“I worked that much out, but thanks.”
The Australian SAS man gave a bright, toothy grin and leaned on the doorframe as casual as if he
