Ancient Hiss Story (6 page)

T
hey’d been driving
for forty-five minutes when Kate saw the plume of dust behind them. Someone was following them. She twisted in her seat to get a better look.

“Do you see that?”

“What?” Carlotta angled the side mirror.

“I think someone is following us.” Kate squinted but the dust was gone. The road had turned from dirt to thick underbrush and was getting narrower the further they drove.

Kate glanced back again, but the dust plume was gone. Maybe it had been her imagination.

“We’re coming up on the fifty-mile mark. How accurate do you think this guy’s story was?” Vic asked.

Kate scanned the horizon, comparing it to the picture of the painting she had in her lap. Was the painting of the same place? It was hard to tell. The painting had been done long ago and perhaps vegetation had grown up since then.

She did see a big hill in the distance, similar to the one in the painting. In the painting, though, there were huts and structures that looked almost like a little primitive village. She didn’t see any of that here.

“I see a hill that looks like it could be the one in the painting and the man said take a left near the hill.”

“There’s a left coming up.” Carlotta pointed to a dirt road. “Should we take it?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. I guess we need to start somewhere so we might as well try it. Besides, it’s getting late and we should set up camp.”

Vic took the left and they traveled about another mile before they saw some interesting-looking rocks. Rocks that didn’t actually look like regular rocks. Kate remembered the man saying something about seeing the signs. “Let’s stop here. I want to look at these rocks.”

They stopped and examined the rocks.

“Do you think these could be sacrificial stones?” Carlotta shuddered as she bent down to get a closer look at one.

“I don’t know. The way they are worn doesn’t look quite natural.” The granite rocks were fairly smooth on the top—not polished, but flat naturally. The divots in them seemed smoother than they would normally be, as if some force had worked on them over and over again. They were covered with moss.

“In any case, this makes a pretty good place to set up camp,” Vic said.

They spent the next two hours setting up their tents, along with a lean-to and some tarps. Gideon had thought of everything and they even had a folding picnic table that Carlotta set up next to the fire pit Vic had made by arranging large stones in a circle.

Once they were done, Carlotta pulled out the cooler, opened it and sat on one of the large rocks while she rummaged through. “It’s getting close to dinner time. What do you guys say we make supper and come up with a plan of action while we eat?”

“Good idea.” Kate pulled over the duffel bag that had paper plates, cups and napkins while Vic started the fire.

Twenty minutes later, Carlotta had set a metal grate over the coals and put a cast iron pan on top of the crackling fire. The smell of charred hot-dogs made Kate’s mouth water.

The cooler had been placed on the other side of the camp, far from the fire, and Kate went over to dig out ketchup. As she bent over, rifling through the contents, a rustling sound in the jungle behind the cooler caught her attention. She looked around nervously for her snake stick.

“Are there snakes out here?” she asked.

“Probably, but I don’t think they’ll bother us near the fire,” Carlotta answered.

“I hear something out there.” Kate cocked her head. She did hear rustling, didn’t she? That seemed like a lot of rustling for a snake.

Carlotta and Vic exchanged a glance. “I don’t hear anything,” Carlotta said.

Were her parents going deaf? She could hear it, clear as day. They
were
getting older. Maybe they just couldn’t hear as well anymore.

“I distinctly hear rustling.” Kate lowered her voice and crept back to toward the tent where she’d seen Vic put the weapons. “Someone is out there.”

Kate’s heartbeat picked up speed as she cast around for the weapons bag.

“Kate there’s nothing out there,” Vic said.

Maybe her parents had been retired too long and their senses weren’t honed to look for danger like she was.

“Come on and sit down.” Carlotta patted the rock beside her.

Kate glanced at the rock, then back at the bushes. It was almost dark but she could see the dense foliage moving. That was no snake out there. It was something big and it was headed right for them.

Kate lunged for her snake stick that was leaning against a tree on the other side of the camp. She pressed the button and the dagger slid out, then she tensed her legs and got ready.

“Do I smell hot dogs?” Gertie burst out of the undergrowth with Benny, Sal and Frankie following close behind.

“What the heck? What are you guys doing in the jungle?” Kate asked, still pointing the business end of her snake stick at them.

“Hey, watch that.” Frankie nodded toward the stick and Kate relaxed.

“Sorry, dear, we invited them.” Carlotta grimaced. “We thought it would be a nice surprise.”

“And safer with more people,” Vic added.

“Why didn’t you guys just come down the road?” Kate pointed to the dirt road.

“We were exploring,” Benny said. “Our four-wheelers are about a half-mile that away.” He pointed back in the direction they’d come from.

“You’re going to need some people to help dig out this tomb.” Benny punctuated the words by stabbing the front of the metal shovel he was carrying into the ground and leaning on the handle.

“Max is going to send out a crew if we find the tomb,” Kate pointed out.

“Oh, well.” Sal reached toward the hot dogs. He clicked his prosthetic thumb and a corkscrew slid out, which he then used to skewer a hot dog. “It’ll be fun looking for the tomb even if we don’t dig it out. I’m sure you can use extra people to help look, right?” Sal raised his brows at Kate as he nibbled the end of the hot dog.

“Sure.” She could use all the help she could get. And her father did have a point. It would be safer with more people out here in the middle of nowhere.

“So, that was you guys behind us?” Kate asked.

“Reckon so. We’ll just grab some food and then get our machines and set up right here. We can take shifts watching the camp. It’s getting dark and we don’t know what’s out here.” Gertie gestured toward the area outside the camp which looked much scarier to Kate now that it was dark and she couldn’t see more than two feet beyond their camp.

Gertie, Sal, Bennie and Frankie ate a few bites, then scurried off in the direction they’d come from, turning on their large LED head lamps. About twenty minutes later, Kate heard the sound of engines, and they pulled up to camp in four-wheelers, slinging their gear off the machines and setting up small tents while Carlotta broke out some graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate bars.

The seven of them sat around a campfire and Kate felt like she was a kid at summer camp licking gooey toasted marshmallow off her fingers as the others entertained each other with ghost stories.

They came up with a schedule of shifts so someone would always be on watch. Not that it was necessary, but Vic said one could never be too safe and Kate agreed.

They’d also come up with a plan to scour the area the next day for signs of the tomb.

Kate fell asleep sometime around midnight, feeling safe and secure with her extended family watching over her. She was so content that she almost forgot she was out there in search of the tomb of a long-dead Aztec emperor … a discovery that might come with a deadly curse.

T
he next morning
, they split up into teams and spread out in different directions, figuring they could cover more area that way. Kate went east with Sal and Carlotta, all three of them armed with multi-pocketed vests that contained the essentials—compasses, water, bug spray, machetes, stun guns and a GPS tracker to mark reference points.

“This undergrowth is thick.” Sal whacked away at a leathery frond, the serrated edge of which was as sharp as a knife. “And dangerous.” He held up his prosthetic thumb, which had a slice in it from the leaf to prove his point.

“I’ll say.” Kate stayed directly behind him, swishing her walking stick back and forth to ward off any snakes that might be coiled at the sides of the path.

“All the better for the bugs to hide in,” Carlotta added as she swatted away the zillionth mosquito of the day.

Kate heard something to the left and froze. “What’s that?”

“What?” Carlotta froze behind her.

Sal had stopped in front of her. “I didn’t hear anything. It’s probably a monkey.”

Kate turned in a slow circle. He was right. She was being paranoid. Who else would be out here besides them and some monkeys? Markovic’s people couldn’t have followed her here this soon unless his half of the painting yielded the same clues as hers.

She took one nervous glance around, then followed Sal forward. “We'd better stop soon. I have to contact Gideon at twelve fifteen.”

“No problem,” Sal said. “I could use a rest. I think I see a less dense area up ahead with some rocks. Maybe we can set down there.”

They forged ahead slowly. Kate kept her eyes on the ground, wondering how they would ever notice any signs of a civilization from centuries ago in this thick vegetation.

They came into an area where they could at least walk without having to clear a path. Sal hefted himself onto a large rock and took out his canteen. Carlotta did the same, untying the bandanna from her neck and soaking it with water. Kate laid down on top of a large rock and looked up at small pieces of sky that poked through the dense leaves of the tall trees. She was happy for the shade—otherwise, the heat would have been brutal.

At twelve fifteen her watch beeped. “Time to talk to Gideon.”

She looked at her wrist, fiddling with the buttons until Gideon’s face appeared.

“Kate! How are you?” Gideon asked.

“Fine. We had quite the camp out last night and are perusing the area today looking for signs of ancient civilizations.”

“Any luck?”

“Not really. The foliage is very thick here. There could be an ancient Aztec tomb ten feet away and we’d miss it,” Kate sighed. “It’s going to take a while to go over the area thoroughly unless that painting has given up some more specific clues.”

“I’m afraid not. I haven’t been able to figure out the meaning of what I found under the painting yet. It could be some sort of a primitive code.”

“That would be great.”

“In the meantime, I wanted to warn you that word on the street is that Markovic is onto us. He knows you are in Mexico and has dispatched a team there, too.”

Kate felt worry bloom in her chest. “Does he know where we are?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t know what clues were on his half of the map … and also Ace Mason was here in the office and he made some funny comments about the
Lowenstaff Museum
. I think you were right about him being there and he might have recognized you.”

Kate whooshed out a breath. “You don’t think he’s coming here, too, do you?”

“I doubt it. What would the FBI care about an old Aztec tomb?”

“What would they care about that painting in the museum?”

“Good point.” Gideon’s voice crackled and the display got snowy for a second.

“Gideon? You there?”

“Yes. The satellite is almost out of range. There’s one more thing I wanted to tell you.”

“What?”

“There’s another archaeologist in the area. Jersey Swan. I actually know her from some work I did for my master’s thesis.”

Kate frowned “She’s here looking for the tomb, too?”

“I don’t think so. She filed with the government to research the ruins of a Mayan village in the area. I suspect she has no idea about the Aztec tomb, since this is typically an area where they find Mayan remains. The Aztecs were mostly near Mexico City.”

“Right.”

“Anyway, Max said it would be good for you to keep the real reason for your trip secret. We alerted the appropriate people that you are also looking for Mayan archaeology so you won’t get any trouble from the government.”

“Do you think Jersey is going to be a problem?” Kate gnawed her bottom lip.

Gideon shook his head. “I don’t think so. But naturally, you don’t want to encroach on her territory. On the other hand, it might be a good idea to check out what she’s doing. She may have stumbled across something that would be important to our project.”

Kate looked around the dense area. “How will I even find her? I mean, you can barely see ten feet into the woods here.”

“Hey, that’s your job.” Gideon’s voice broke up into bits of static. “ … like … satellite … out of range ... tomorrow twelve thirty …” And the screen went blank.

“Well, sounds like this jungle is going to get pretty crowded, what with these Markovic people, the FBI and this Jersey girl,” Sal said.

“No kidding.” Kate slapped at a mosquito that buzzed her ear. She wasn’t going to worry about all the company, though. It seemed impossible they would run into each other way out in the middle of nowhere. Not only that, but she’d be lucky if she could find any clues to Itizuma’s tomb at all.

Carlotta slid off the rock. “I guess we should continue forward.”

Kate grabbed her walking stick and took the lead. Now that the foliage wasn’t as dense, they could move faster. Twenty minutes later, they came across an area that gave Kate pause.

“It doesn’t look quite natural here.” Kate spun around, taking in the placement of the rocks. There were lots of ferns growing up and moss, but it looked almost as if things had been placed strategically.

“Look at this!” Carlotta lifted the leaves of some sort of giant palm shrub to reveal what looked like stone steps. Crudely made, but steps nonetheless.

“It looks like steps,” Sal said.

“I think you’re right. It’s so overgrown, it’s hard to tell what might have been here hundreds of years ago, but there definitely was something.” Kate pulled out her GPS and marked the spot. “I’ll mark these and we’ll add it to the map when we get back to camp. Maybe the others have found something, too, and an overall view of the different areas of interest might give us something more solid to go on.”

Carlotta twisted her mouth as she looked around, poking under leaves and glancing off into the distance. “Something’s not right about this place. It looks like people have been here and there’s a thin path through the trees over there.” Carlotta pointed to where the vegetation got dense again. Kate could see a thin path.

The three of them walked toward it.

“Look at this.” Sal pointed to a flattened area and the three of them took a step forward for a better look.

“This ground feels awfully spongy …” Carlotta said—exactly what Kate was thinking—and then the ground shifted under Kate’s feet. She jerked her head up, looking at Carlotta and Sal whose faces mirrored the alarm she was feeling.

“Oh, no, I think we—” Kate’s words were cut off by the sinking sensation of the ground disappearing beneath her feet and the heart-thudding panic of free-falling through thin air.