Aztec Gold (5 page)

Hernandez stood beside her as she compared the location of the hillside to the two maps in her possession. Neither Rafe’s nor Cordero’s maps indicated the presence of any natural land masses at this position. If anything, by now they should have reached the outer protective wall of the Aztec city that had surrounded the temple.

“Are we in the right place?” Dani asked, squatting to review the laminated copies of the maps that Cynthia had laid on the ground while Cynthia double-checked their coordinates with her compass and GPS device. Both instruments confirmed that they were at the correct location.

“We are, but the hillside is not on the map, unless…”

She rose, peered at the sloped incline of earth and scanned the top of it in either direction. The uppermost edge was relatively level as was the east-west line of the tall mound. Too straight and too regular for it to be anything other than manmade.

Jamming her hands onto her hips, she looked at her team leader. “In Cholula they built a church at the top of what they thought was a hillside.”

“But it was really an Aztec temple that had been covered by centuries of growth and earth buildup,” Hernandez confirmed.

She nodded and gestured to the incline leading to the top of what she suspected was the earth-covered outer wall of the temple city. “If this is the outer wall of the city, it means we have one of two choices—lose the burros and scale this incline—”

“Or find another way past this big pile of dirt,” Dani finished.

“If we leave the burros, we lose a lot of equipment and food that’s too heavy to carry on foot,” Hernandez commented, shooting a fleeting glance at the packs on the animals.

“We also lose time if we try to find an alternate route but can’t,” Booth offered for consideration.

Cynthia surveyed the tall and daunting hillside of tangled brush and dense vegetation. Given the slant of the earth, they would also waste a good deal of time trying to scale it in addition to the loss of the valuable supplies and equipment.

Kneeling down next to the maps, she once again considered their location on the two versus what would be the most probable place for an entrance. The Aztecs regularly placed large avenues through their cities to allow for the easy transport of goods and people. By her calculations, the opening to one of those thoroughfares might be just a few miles away in an easterly direction.

Grabbing the maps, she explained her theory to Hernandez. With a satisfied nod, her team leader pointed in the direction she had suggested and said, “We go that way with the burros.”

A muffled grumble came from Booth, who seemed more inclined to ditch the animals and make the arduous climb over the hillside, but then he fell into place silently behind her. It left Dani and Rogers to handle the burros, with Hernandez in the lead, his rifle cradled in his arms once again. Despite his seemingly at-ease pose, Cynthia knew that with just a quick move he would be ready to shoot.

For good measure, she undid the safety strap securing the handgun in place on her holster. As she did so, the smooth leather on the handle of the obsidian dagger brushed against her hand, reminding her of the Aztec women’s concerns about the Devil’s Jungle.

The detour would eat up time, especially if she was wrong and the hillside was just that and not the buried walls of an ancient Aztec city. If they had to double back, they might find themselves having to make camp overnight in the jungle rather than in a more protected location. She didn’t relish the possibility of being out all alone where it would be more difficult to defend their camp.

Hernandez must have been thinking the same thing since he set a brisk and determined pace as they skirted the bottom of the hillside and pushed toward the spot where Cynthia believed the city entrance to be. Thankfully, the brush along the perimeter of the slope was low and easier to traverse than the copious growth in the jungle just a few feet away. Every now and then, however, a vine would tangle around her ankles, making her stumble. She did not let that daunt her and plowed on behind the team leader, eager to reach safety and, although she didn’t want to dwell on it too much, anxious to reach the village where Rafe may have stopped.

Unlike the swath of jungle through which they had traveled, the area around the hillside seemed devoid of much animal life, although the earthen berm was alive with thick vegetation and wildflowers in a riot of bloom. Here and there a beautiful monarch butterfly would flit by a colorful patch of blossoms, one of the few signs of life. Because of the lack of fauna, it was decidedly quieter with only the sounds of their booted feet and the occasional rustle of something in the brush as they marched.

With the faster pace set by their team leader, they reached a break in the hillside in a little over an hour. At the breach was a lower mound of grasses and shrubs no more than about six feet high and twice as wide. In the middle of the opening, a three-foot-wide path had been cleared of vegetation.

Booth rushed past her and Hernandez and scrambled up the path to the top of the berm where he stood, arms akimbo, and let out a low whistle. “Holy shit. You are not going to believe this.”

Hernandez helped Dani and Rogers to tether the burros to some small trees along the edge of the jungle. With the animals secured, they all made the short climb to the uppermost edge of the mound and paused as the enormity of what lay before them left them breathless.

From this vantage point, Cynthia was able to confirm her earlier hypothesis that the hillside they had just circumnavigated was too regular and large to be anything other than manmade. The earthen-covered walls formed a nearly perfectly square, although there were occasional gaps that hinted at other entrances along the perimeter. She had no doubt that beneath the dirt berm they would find the walls of an ancient pre-Colombian city.

The center of the hillside directly across from them rose up at least five times as high as any of the surrounding walls and extended well beyond the outer edge of the barrier. Based on the notations on the maps, she knew she was staring at what was likely the temple. Like the walls of the city, it had also been overtaken over the centuries by a buildup of dirt and vegetation.

“That should be the temple across the way,” she said and pointed at the immense mound that jutted up from the ground. Like the protective borders surrounding it, its shape was regular and clearly in the pyramidal shape in which the Aztecs and other Meso-American tribes had built their sacred structures.

Before that towering edifice and all within the area surrounded by the ancient fortifications was more jungle except for an area a mile or so away from the entrance, where there appeared to be a clearing of some sort. From this height and distance, it was difficult to tell what it was, although Cynthia assumed it was a settlement, as a smoky haze rose above the tree line, hinting at possible human life nearby.

“Over there, Booth,” she instructed, and he turned the binoculars in that direction.

“Hard to tell, but it could be a village.”

A village that was halfway to the temple across from them, she thought. Glancing up at the afternoon sky, she realized they still had a few hours until dusk and she shot a glance at Hernandez.

“We’ve got enough time to make it to the village before nightfall so we can make camp.”

“If they’re friendly, remember. We have no idea if Dr. Santiago and his team reached the village, and if they did, what kind of reception they received,” the team leader replied and shaded his eyes with his hand as he scoped out the area before them.

“Considering that Santiago and his group went missing somewhere in this area, that’s a big if,” Rogers added, pulling his own binoculars from his equipment belt and scanning the large area enclosed within the walls of the temple city.

“We go in cautiously and with a smaller group at first. If there’s trouble, the others who remain behind can call for help and return to the other village if need be,” Hernandez directed.

He glanced at her, his gaze narrowing as he considered her for only a split second. “Cynthia and I go in first since I may need her language abilities to communicate.” After he said it he waited, as if expecting her to refuse.

Just a few days ago, she might have dissented, still a captive to her fear. But now others were depending on her and she had to bank whatever concerns she had for the good of the group.

For the possibility of finding out what had happened to Rafe.

She nodded her agreement and then Hernandez addressed the others. “The rest of you can remain in the jungle until we judge the kind of reception we’re getting.”

With Hernandez directing, the team went into action.

The burros that Dani and Booth untethered balked at first about going up and over the mound and pawed the ground skittishly. Booth got his animal to proceed with a quick slap on the backside and Dani’s tagged along docilely. Rogers unslung his rifle as he went up the path, his features giving little away, although his eyes had a wary cast and his gaze constantly darted around the area around them.

Hernandez took the lead down the path on the other side of the walls, Cynthia immediately behind him.

A short distance away from the berm, at the edge of the jungle, was another path that appeared to be regularly traveled. Rather than machete their way through unknown terrain, Hernandez decided to follow the road more traveled.

Cynthia wondered if it was a wise choice, thinking that if the natives weren’t friendly, they might encounter dangerous discouragements along the well-worn trail, recalling a trap or two that her parents had avoided when she had been with them. Or maybe she had watched one too many Indiana Jones movies lately, she thought as she walked with her gaze shifting from the ground in front of her to the trail ahead, on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary. Hoping there weren’t any booby traps to deter would-be intruders.

Nothing happened. No snares underfoot or traps from above. Nothing but a fairly smooth trail that made their trip much quicker than the earlier passage through the dense jungle. Barely twenty minutes later, they neared the clearing they had pinpointed from the top edge of the walls and heard the sounds of human habitation not far ahead.

They split up as they had agreed earlier, Cynthia and Hernandez proceeding up the path toward the village while Dani and the others melded into the underbrush of the jungle, vigilant for any signs of trouble. They had their weapons ready as well as the satellite phones in case they needed to call for help, although with their distance from any major metropolis, assistance would take at least a day or more to reach them.

As she and Hernandez exited from the dense foliage of the jungle trail and slowly walked down the central path to the village, the people stopped what they were doing to watch them pass.

They were dressed much like the Mexica settlers in the village they had just left, in lightweight, loose-fitting clothes, although the colors were not as bright. Cynthia wondered if this might possibly be due to a lack of access to modern dyes. However, much as with the other villagers, their faces showed a combination of curiosity and fear.

If Cynthia had to take a guess, the fear took precedence, increasing her own anxiety. Could they be so fearful as to attack them? Was that what had happened to Rafe and his expedition? she thought, but corralled her worries as she trudged beside her team leader.

Never let them see your fear
, her mother had once cautioned her when they had crossed paths with an aggressive group of orangutans during one of their missions. They had held their ground that day and the apes had pulled back and gone on their way.

Pulling her shoulders back, Cynthia matched Hernandez’s posture. His back was ramrod straight. His gun was still loosely cradled and she shot a quick glance at him, but there was nothing on his handsome visage that showed any emotion. A veritable poker face.

As they pressed onward, the obviously inquisitive villagers fell into place behind them, following them to the center of the small collection of adobe buildings. About a dozen or more single-story dwellings were laid out in the shape of a cross. At the center of the cross was a village square and as before, a fountain graced that space, although it was not as grand as the one in the other village.

Word must have moved more swiftly ahead of them since a squat, stocky man dressed in the colors of a
calpulli
already waited for them in the square. His arms were crossed against his massive chest and a grim set marred what might have otherwise been attractive features. His displeasure at their presence was clear, but then someone stepped between them and the
calpulli
.

There was something familiar about the presence of the tall and imposing man with his back to them. The pale beige fabric of the tunic he wore strained against his shoulders but draped loosely around a narrow waist and hips. Long, thick hair glinting blue-black in the light of late afternoon fell to his shoulders in shiny waves.

Cynthia didn’t know why he seemed familiar or why she felt an immediate connection.

“These are my friends,” the man said in Nahuatl, holding out his hand and motioning back to her and Hernandez. Turning halfway so that she could finally see his profile.

“Rafe.”

His name escaped her in a pained whisper.

She brought her hand up to her mouth, covered it to keep silent as the
calpulli
spoke.

“They will bring death and destruction to my people.”

“I will be responsible for them, Medicine Eagle. I will see to it that they leave before She rises once again.”

Leave? Cynthia thought. Leave when they had only just gotten there? When the seemingly impossible had happened and Rafe was still alive?

With a reluctant nod, as if sensing Rafe would not be dissuaded, the
calpulli
gestured to the jungle with a desultory jerk of stubby and aged-crooked finger. “There are others with them. Make sure you take care of all of them.”

A broad sweep of the
calpulli
’s arm sent the villagers into motion, returning his people to whatever they had been doing before the arrival of strangers had interrupted their day. Only Rafe remained in the town center.