Ancient Hiss Story (8 page)

T
hey spent
the rest of the afternoon exploring within the area they’d mapped out earlier. The tropical forest was dense and it was slow going, so they decided to call it quits around four p.m. after not finding a thing.

By the time they got back to the campsite, they were exhausted, sweaty, and feeling like they’d lost a pint of blood to the mosquitoes.

Kate had just changed out of the sweaty clothes she’d been wearing and into something more lightweight for supper when Vic and Benny came roaring out of the woods on two of the ATVs.

Vic gave Carlotta a peck on the cheek and then turned his eyes to Kate. “How’d you do, Kitten?”

“We had an interesting day. We didn’t find much in the way of Aztec tombs, but we did run across some archaeologists digging up a Mayan village.”

Vic’s left brow rose up a notch. “Really? Do you think that has something to do with the tomb we’re looking for?”

“I don’t think so. The Aztecs came after the Mayans. I don’t think they used the same sites, but I guess anything is possible. Archaeologists are discovering new information all the time, so just because we’ve never found them to inhabit the same sites before doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”

“So is this person in competition with us?” Benny asked.

“Not according to what she told us. She’s here excavating the Mayan site. She seems to be telling the truth and Gideon said her permits stated such. Anyway, they’ve invited us over for supper tonight. Maybe we can find out more.”

“So Gideon knew about these other archaeologists?” Vic asked.

“Yes, he actually knows her personally,”

“Well, I guess she must be all right, then,” Benny said.

“Did he have any other news?” Vic asked.

Kate chewed her bottom lip, remembering what Gideon had told her. “Unfortunately, Markovic must have uncovered some clues that have led him to this area. Gideon says he’s dispatched a team to Mexico.”

Vic’s face darkened. “That’s not good. He could really put a damper on our expedition. Do you think he knows where we are?”

Kate shook her head. “Not unless he has a contact like we did.”

“Or better clues that lead right to this area.” Gertie had walked out of the forest minutes earlier and caught the last part of the conversation.

“We’ll have to really be on the lookout,” Benny said. “His guys fight dirty.”

Carlotta nodded, then turned to Vic. “And what did you guys find?”

“Well, we didn’t find any relics or artifacts but we did stumble across a little village with a cantina.”

Gertie’s brows shot up. “So you spent the day drinking?”

“Not drinking,” Benny said. “Well, we were drinking a little, but we had to in order to keep the locals talking about the tomb.”

“And did you discover any new information?” Kate asked.

“As a matter of fact, we did. There
is
a tomb near here, but the people we talked to seemed very close-mouthed about it. Almost as if they were afraid.” Vic said.

“That makes sense,” Carlotta said. “The man in the market told Kate it was cursed, so that would be a legend locals were familiar with.”

“Yeah, but I can’t believe someone wouldn’t have looted it by now. You know money trumps curses every time,” Gertie said.

Benny frowned. “You see, that’s the thing. The guys we talked to said someone
did
try to loot it many years ago. He was bitten by a snake in the process and his leg turned black and he died, after suffering for several weeks.”

Kate shuddered. She knew there were poisonous snakes in the area and not all of them would kill you right away, but if you didn’t tend to the bite, the poison would eat away at your tissue and cause just what Benny had described.

“I guess that pretty much scared everyone off,” Vic said.

Carlotta scoffed. “Really? A snake bite here in the tropics hardly seems out of the ordinary. I think they were just being superstitious.”

“Let’s hope that’s the case,” Kate said. “They didn’t happen to say where this tomb was located?”

Vic shook his head. “No one could say for sure. They just kept talking about curses and snakes and something about Itizuma’s legend that is better off not being known.”

Kate thought about the hookah man’s words about how some things are better off left buried. She’d thought he was just referring to the curse, but from what Vic had just said, it sounded like there might be more to it.”

“We might have found something.” Gertie’s words pulled Kate from her thoughts.

“Really?” Kate asked.

“We were just walking along when we stumbled on some flat stones. They had carvings. Most of them were hard to make out … except for this baby.” Gertie held her cell phone out. On it was a picture of a rock with a carved creature. Kate bent forward to get a closer look, a feeling of foreboding running through her—the creature looked like part bird and part snake. She hoped there was no such creature in real life.

“That looks like Quetzalcoatl,” Carlotta said. “It’s like some sort of God. The feathered serpent. The feathers are said to represent the heavens and the wind and the snake the earth and fertility. It was an important Aztec God, so you might be on to something.”

“Where did you find it?” Kate asked.

Gertie pulled out her GPS and they all looked over her shoulder. “Right in the corner of our search area.” She pointed to a speck on the map on the GPS screen display.

“That’s near the archaeological dig,” Kate said.

“What an interesting coincidence,” Vic added.

“Yeah, but it must be just that—a coincidence. I saw the relics they were digging and they looked too early for Aztec,” Kate said. “And Jersey really seemed sincere, didn’t she?”

Carlotta pressed her lips together. “She did, but it could be that
she
is sincere and someone else on her team isn’t.”

“You mean like a mole?” Kate asked. “Using her dig to gather information on the Aztec tomb?”

“Maybe. If that tomb really is somewhere near the Mayan ruins, they could be just biding their time and trying to find out what they can.’

“Kind of like what you guys will be doing at supper tonight?” Gertie asked.

Kate grimaced. “When you put it that way, it makes us sound like we’re no better than Markovic’s guys.”

“I’m not sure about Jersey. She’s too cute to be up to no good, but that Ed guy seemed awfully antagonistic,” Sal said.

“Yeah, he wasn’t very friendly,” Kate agreed.

“It could be he’s just wary of strangers stumbling on their dig. They have more reason to be suspicious of us then we are of them since they were here first,” Vic pointed out.

“True dat.” Sal rummaged in the khaki duffel bag and came up with a gallon bottle of rum. “But if they are up to something, I have a feeling it will all come out once I start fixing them up with my famous Pearl Harbors tonight at dinner.”

L
eave
it to the
Golden Capers
gang to bring all the fixings for Pearl Harbors, Kate thought as she sipped one from a mason jar. To the left, a bonfire crackled. Shadows danced in its light as Benny regaled everyone with one of his many tales. Dinner had been fun, with both crews pitching in to provide a feast of steak, potatoes and asparagus.

Kate and Jersey had moved away from the fire. It was still in the eighties even at night and Kate liked the cooler air on the outskirts of the camp. Away from the fire, she could see the stars and hear the insects chirping.

Kate looked over her purple paper umbrella—yes, Gertie had even thought to bring drink umbrellas—at Jersey, who was seated beside her on the stone bench sipping her own drink.

“So how did you get interested in archaeology, anyway?” Kate asked.

“I guess you could say it’s in my blood. My grandfather was an archaeologist so I was raised on it.” Jersey took a small sip of her drink. “What about you?”

“I’m not an archaeologist, really. But my job at the museum takes me out in the field like this sometimes. To scout out things the museum might be interested in.”

“Interesting job. Does Gideon do that, too?”

“Oh, no, he mostly stays back in the lab restoring paintings and doing research.” Kate left out the part about his inventions. Sometimes it was better not to give too much information about their covert operations. “Did you know him well?”

Jersey tucked a strand of her long, blonde hair behind her ear. “Not really. We hung around with the same people in school.”

“Oh.” Kate looked down at her drink. It was almost gone while Jersey’s was still three quarters full. Maybe she should slow down. She was starting to feel a bit giddy and she tended to talk too much when she drank.

Over at the campfire, the others were laughing and having a good old time. Except for Ed. Kate could see him lurking sullenly around the edges.

“What’s with your associate, Ed? He doesn’t seem like he wants us here.” Ooops, maybe she shouldn’t have said that out loud.

Jersey’s lips twisted. “He can be kind of a party pooper. My boss insisted that he come along as my assistant, but the way he acts sometimes, I wonder if he thinks
he’s
the one in charge.”

“Who is your boss?”

“Oh, a private company.” Jersey waved her hand dismissively. “Anyway, Ed’s not all that bad. He’s just really committed to the project and he’s kind of straight-laced about it. Doesn’t want anything to screw it up.”

Kate decided it was probably better to move the conversation away from Ed. She wasn’t sure she trusted the guy and it seemed like maybe Jersey didn’t, either. Jersey seemed sincere and Kate believed she was just out there trying to recover what she could from the Mayan village. Kate couldn’t help but wonder if maybe Ed had another agenda. But that wasn’t Kate’s problem.

“How long have you been out here?” Kate asked.

“Two months.”

“Wow, don’t you miss malls? Or anyone back home?”

Jersey’s eyes darkened. “Malls, maybe. Someone at home, no. That’s why I’m out here, actually. To forget about someone at home.”

“Bad breakup?”

Jersey nodded. “The worst. We were engaged, and I thought things were perfect. I had visions of white picket fences and two point five kids … until I caught him with my best friend. They both betrayed me, so I figured I was better off in the jungle alone.”

Kate’s heart twisted in sympathy. She knew how that felt. She found herself pouring her own story about how she and Ace had been more than partners during her brief stint in the FBI. It had been wonderful—idyllic. For a while, she’d thought he was ‘the one’ but when she’d used unconventional means to catch a bad guy, he’d betrayed her to the FBI. The bad guy had gotten off the hook and Kate had lost her job. It had taken her a long time before she could even think about Ace Mason without wanting to shoot something. At least now she didn’t feel so angry, but she still never wanted to see him again, even if he had tried to make up for it by saving her life last summer.

Jersey listened with a sympathetic ear. “Who needs them, anyway? We’re better off now.” She held her fist out for a knuckle tap.

Kate tapped Jersey’s fist with her own. “That’s for sure. ”Kate couldn’t ignore her bladder’s nagging any longer. One can only drink so many Pearl Harbors before one needed a break. She stood up. “Excuse me. Nature calls.”

Jersey’s hand shot out. “I’ll hold your drink.”

Kate gave her the drink and walked off into the woods, venturing as far from the campsite as she felt comfortable. On the way back, she walked past the cave-like opening she’d seen when they’d been visiting earlier in the day.

Curiosity got the better of her. She hesitated in front of the cave, glancing quickly back at the campfire to see if anyone was watching. No one was. She stepped closer to get a better look. It looked like some sort of opening that had been cut down into the earth and shored up with rocks and timber. The inside was dark. Kate’s curiosity warred with a sense of foreboding.

Should she go in?

Her heart skittered as she stepped forward. Her foot came down on a dry twig, the snapping sound echoing loudly in her ears. She took another tentative step forward, bringing her right foot up in the air, when a rustling just where she was about to land her foot startled her. She squeaked and fell backward, her eyes widening in surprise when someone caught her. She turned to see who it was, her heart freezing when she met the dark, menacing eyes of Ed.

“What are you doing out here?” he asked.

“Umm, I was just out on a nature call and I guess I got lost,” Kate said lamely.

“It’s dangerous in there. I thought we told you to stay away from here.” As if to prove his point, Ed smacked the inside of the doorway with a stick. Kate heard the unmistakable slithering of snakes as they moved away from the noise.

Ed leaned toward her, so close she could feel his hot breath on her cheek. “This cave is full of snakes. Poisonous snakes.”

“Sorry, I didn’t realize. I’ll be more careful next time.” Kate pulled her arm away from him and started back toward the campsite.

She could feel his eyes burning a hole in her back as she walked away. When she was halfway to the camp, she couldn’t resist looking back over her shoulder. Ed was still watching her, his arms crossed over his chest. She quickly turned and hurried back to the campfire, wondering what was more dangerous—the cave with the snakes or Ed.

K
ate woke
up the next morning with a pounding head and a feeling of trepidation. Maybe she shouldn’t have had that second Pearl Harbor, she thought, as she crawled out of her sleeping bag and made her way toward the smell of fresh-perked coffee.

Carlotta, Vic, Gertie, Benny, Frankie and Sal were already sitting around the campfire. A cast iron skillet loaded with scrambled eggs sat on top of the stainless steel grill over one half of the fire. Crisp strips of bacon were laid out on a paper towel on the table.

“That smells divine.” Kate didn’t know which smelled better, the coffee or the bacon and eggs.

“Grab a plate. It’s just ready now.” Carlotta gestured to the stack of paper plates and Kate helped herself then grabbed a big cup of coffee and sunk into one of the camp chairs next to the fire.

“I think we’re all in agreement that we she should check out the site that Gertie and Benny found,” Vic said.

Kate nibbled the crispy end of a piece of bacon. “The one with the feathered serpent?”

“Yes.”

“Definitely. That seems like our biggest lead. We’ll map off the area and each take small quadrants.” Kate looked at her watch. “And I need to remember to connect with Gideon at twelve thirty-five.”

After breakfast, they looked up the coordinates on Gertie’s GPS, then got on the ATVs and headed to the site. The area was thick with tropical foliage. Kate was glad she’d brought her walking stick which she tapped zealously on the leafy fronds so as to scare away any snakes that might be hiding inside.

The abundance of thick scrub plants made it difficult to map out areas for each of them to explore. They divided the area into quadrants—north, south, east and west—then made several sections in between. Kate took the west quadrant and proceeded to walk the area, slowly making her way back and forth looking for signs of ancient civilizations.

She’d made her way quite far from the others when she discovered a pile of rocks set in an unnatural pyre.

She fisted her walkie-talkie. “I think I have something.”

“What have you got?” Vic’s voice crackled over the walkie-talkie.

Kate flicked out the knife on the end of her walking stick and used it to cut away some of the surrounding plants. She found a rectangular slab like an old marker that had once been standing upright but had been toppled by centuries of forest growth. On it were the geometric carvings typical of the ancient Aztecs.

“I found some rocks in an unusual formation and near them some Aztec carvings,” Kate said.

“We haven’t found anything.” Gertie’s voice dripped with disappointment. “Maybe we should all converge in Kate’s area and help her clear more of it away.”

“That sounds like a good plan. The forest is very thick here and I could use some help clearing away the plants.” Kate rattled off her coordinates. She whacked at more plants as she waited for them to arrive, which didn’t take long since they were all only a few minutes away.

Kate showed them the marker and the stones, then they got to work clearing away enough of the plants to give them room to scout out any other signs of ancient civilization.

Even though the leaves on the taller trees provided a canopy of shade, the overhead sun beat down on them, causing Kate to sweat uncomfortably.

“That overhead sun really is hot.” Carlotta echoed her thoughts.

“Yeah, it must be high noon or thereabouts,” Benny said.

Kate’s eyes flew to the watch on her wrist. “It’s actually half past. The satellite is almost overhead. It’s time to contact Gideon.”

She moved to a more densely forested spot, sat down on a boulder and fiddled with the watch. After a few minutes, it crackled with static. Gideon’s face appeared through a snowy, dotted haze.

“Kate, you look a little pale. Is everything okay?” Gideon asked.

“Well, it’s hot as Hades here and I’m in the middle of the jungle getting eaten by mosquitoes,” she snapped, then added, “and I may have stayed up a little late last night with your friend, Jersey.”

Gideon frowned. “Jersey? You mean you ran into her?”

“Yes. You could say we stumbled into her.” Kate glanced over at Carlotta and Sal who laughed at her joke. “It turns out she’s excavating a Mayan village not too far from here.”

“Is that so? How is she?”

“Fine. She seems very nice, though I’m not sure about her assistant. He didn’t seem to be very pleased that we were in the area.”

Gideon pursed his lips. “I guess that makes sense. You know how archaeologists are. They don’t want anyone jumping claim on their find.”

“Don’t I know it,” Kate said. “But I might have good news. She angled the watch toward the marker. “We just found this and we’re searching the area to see if there’s anything else. This is definitely Aztec, right?”

“Yes, it is.”

“And Gertie found a carving yesterday with some sort of bird serpent on it.”

“Quetzalcoatl? That was an Aztec deity or god. You guys could be onto something.”

“Great. What about you? Have you made any progress with the painting?”

“As a matter of fact, I have. There does seem to be something under the top layer of paint but it’s not a map or anything. It almost looks like some sort of a cipher for a code. It could be hieroglyphs, though. I can’t make out a lot of it, but it looks like frogs.”

“A code? What kind of code and how would that help us find the tomb?”

“I’m not sure. It might be a way to help you find the tomb or a way to help you with what’s inside the tomb.”

Kate’s brows pinched together. “What do you mean help us with what’s inside the tomb?”

Gideon shook his head. ”I’m not sure but I get a funny feeling that Itizuma may have been more than just a ruler. He might have had some sort of valuable secret and it could be in his tomb.”

Kate scoffed. “I highly doubt some secret from six hundred years ago would be of interest to anyone now.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure. This could be something pretty big from the rumblings I’m hearing. And even worse than that, I think Markovic might know more than we do. We don’t know what was revealed in his half of the painting.”

“Do you think this could have something to do with the curse?”

“It’s possible. Or it’s possible the curse was invented to keep people away from the tomb. Whatever is in there may be more valuable than gold or riches and a curse would be just the thing to keep superstitious locals at bay.”

Kate remembered what the hookah man had told her. She thought it was just some legend that he was warning her about, a legend probably instilled long ago to keep people from raiding the tomb. But the way he had said it did seem a little strange, especially the part about how some things should stay buried.

A seed of the doubt rooted in Kate's stomach. From the very start, she’d thought Markovic’s interest in the painting was a little odd. Sure, an Aztec tomb loaded with gold and ancient carvings could be worth a lot of money, but you can’t just go into a tomb and take things out. You have to register with the government and you wouldn’t get to keep everything. There
was
money to be made, but not as much as one might think.

But if there was something else—something more valuable than gold like Gideon had indicated, Kate needed to know about that right away. Because if there
was
something else, it could change the scope of her assignment. She needed to know what she was up against and there was only one way for her to find that out. She had to go back and talk to the hookah man.