Viper's Nest (24 page)

‘What is it?’ Stefan asked as the dull light flickered over the parchment.

‘An old map of the entire site of El Tajin, dating back just a few years after it was rediscovered and before the renovation work started. I reckon we’re in this pyramid here.’
She stabbed her forefinger at the triangular shape. ‘And here’s the entrance that you found, Amber. Which means that right now, we’re just about here.’ Cate pointed at the
blue lines. ‘What do you think these are?’ she asked no one in particular.

‘Streets?’ Thor guessed.

‘I thought that,’ said Cate, ‘but it seems odd that some of the important pyramids don’t have streets leading to them. That big one there for example – it has no
blue lines near it, but this smaller one does.’ She paused, running her hand along them, noticing how each blue line seemed to end up in one of the several rivers that bisected the site.

Next to her Thor let out a quiet yelp of excitement. ‘It’s showing the drainage system. It must be. At one point El Tajin held thousands of people. They would have had to build a
water network and they were easily capable of building one underground. It makes sense. There are thermal springs in the jungle and they probably tapped into those.’

‘That’s it.’ Amber was crouched down next to them, tracing a blue line that ran right through the centre of the pyramid. ‘According to the map, a drainage channel runs
straight under this chamber. Now all we have to do is find it.’

‘Did any of you hear any running water?’ Cate asked hopefully.

‘No,’ Stefan said apologetically. ‘Not me. Anyone else?’

There was a dull thud and above them the roof shivered and shook.

‘It’s started,’ Cate said quietly. ‘They’re going to blow this place apart.’

‘Ritchie!’ Novak’s voice was muffled. ‘Why are you hiding? Your uncle just wants to know that you’re safe. He wants to help you. And your friend.’ He paused
then tried again. ‘I’m not sure what Cate has been telling you, but I’m sure it’s lies. She’s a spy, Ritchie, a spy. She works for the bad guys. She snoops and she
lies and she turns friend against friend. Go on, ask her. She’s even turned you against your own uncle.’

‘Don’t!’ Cate put her hand out to stop Ritchie as he began to scramble to his feet. ‘Don’t listen to them. You’ll be sending us all to our deaths.’

He looked at her in the torchlight, his eyes narrowing. Finally he nodded. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘I’m with you. Now come on, let’s find this drain.’

‘We looked,’ Jade said despairingly. ‘We spent ages searching this chamber from top to bottom for an escape route. If there’s a drain we’d have found it.’

‘We need a divine miracle. Or a water diviner.’ Ritchie made an attempt at a smile.

Another dull thud rocked the room and a shower of dirt and small stones fell from the roof, rattling on to the Viking ship. A small boulder fell from the ceiling, narrowly missing Cate, where
she was standing staring open-mouthed at Ritchie.

‘Genius,’ she said, reaching into her pocket. ‘That’s what you are. A genius.’ She pulled out the heat-seeker.

‘Thor.’ She turned to the Norwegian. ‘You said something about thermal springs? Just how warm was the water? Over thirty-six degrees by any chance? As warm as the human
body?’

‘Warmer,’ said Thor. ‘Sometimes up to seventy degrees. I’ve seen drawings of whole families in steaming baths.’

‘Well let’s just hope it’s not further than three metres down,’ said Cate to herself, switching on the wand and moving it methodically over the sandy floor as the roof
creaked and groaned above them.

She moved urgently back and forth across the chamber, dodging the debris that was coming down in an almost-constant stream now from the walls and ceiling.

They felt another explosion and this time the loose stones they had put back into the wall began to wobble precariously. Any minute now they would fall and expose their hiding place to the men
who wanted them dead. As she came up against Ritchie he whispered into her ear, his voice suspicious and confused.

‘How can you see in the dark? And that thing in your hands – where did it come from? The same place you got your laser that I’m not meant to ask you about? Is Novak right,
Cate? Are you some kind of spy?’

Suddenly the wand was bleeping a warning sound to show that it had found heat. Cate desperately hoped it wasn’t so loud that Novak had heard it.

Cate paused for a second, hardly able to believe her ears, then all of them dropped to their hands and knees, smoothing away the layers of sand, scrabbling around to find a chink in the solid
stone floor.

‘It’s here.’ Ritchie grabbed Cate’s hand and directed it to a narrow slit in the stone. ‘Amber, Jade,’ he whispered urgently. ‘Over here, quickly. Hold
the torches. Stefan, Thor, help me lift this slab up.’

They crouched down, straining with their fingers to try to release the slab from its bed.

‘It’s no good,’ Thor panted. ‘I can’t get a grip. We need a lever.’

‘Got anything in your kit?’ Ritchie asked Cate with a wry smile.

Cate shook her head, looking around her frantically. The entire chamber was shaking now, the floor moving away from her as if it had been hit by an earthquake. They didn’t have long. If
they weren’t discovered, they’d be buried by rock. They had minutes at best.

And then, she saw it. A Viking sword, two-handed, made of steel that would have felled a tree. She reached into the prow of the ship and pulled it out, marvelling at its weight, how it glistened
in the torchlight.

‘Sorry,’ Cate found herself muttering as she rammed it underneath the slab. ‘I know you’re a thousand years old but, well, we need you.’ She thrust her entire
weight on to the handle, and felt the sword drop as the slab lifted slowly up before them.

Thor grabbed at the slab and lifted it away from the hole below.

‘Oh my God,’ said Amber, shining her torch into the darkness below. ‘We’ve found the drain. And it’s large enough for us to get down in it.’

‘Let’s go!’ said Cate, relief washing over her. ‘You first, Ritchie. You’re the strongest. If anything’s blocking our way you have the best chance of shifting
it.’

He shook his head. ‘No, Cate. I’ll go last. I’ll pull the slab down behind us. I want to see you all safely down there. It’s my way of making amends.’

Behind them the loose rocks finally fell free, landing softly on the ground. The light from the torches carried by the gang flooded through into the chamber.

‘For God’s sake,’ said Stefan, swinging himself down into the hole and putting a hand out to the twins. ‘Come on! Leave these two to play heroes if they want. I’m
getting out of here.’

‘Go!’ Ritchie urged, standing back, shielding the hole with his body.

Galvanised into action, they leaped into the tunnel, the twins first, followed by Stefan and Thor. Cate looked around for her rucksack, but couldn’t see it among all the fallen rock. She
gave up and followed the others.

Inside the tunnel, the steam rose up in great swathes to meet the cold air above. Cate placed one foot on either side of the water channel and began to move forwards. She glanced behind her.
Thor was in the chamber now, urging her on.

‘Hey, Ritchie . . .’ She could hear Novak’s voice, echoing down the tunnel, triumphant, cruel. ‘You’re not running away from your good friend Novak, are you? Your
uncle sent me. He wants to talk to you.’

Cate and Thor looked at each other in horror.

‘Ritchie!’ Cate cried. ‘Ritchie, come on.’

She tried to run back, but Thor stopped her. ‘Go, Cate, go!’ he said, pushing her forward as the sound of gunshots rang through the tunnel. ‘Don’t stop, don’t look
back, just run!’

And then Ritchie was levering himself into the tunnel as a huge roar came cascading down from the chamber above them and the whole world shook as if a gigantic bomb had exploded.

‘Listen to the man, Cate,’ said Ritchie. ‘Run!’

The helicopter came swooping in at dawn, dropping neatly on to the vast grass rectangle that separated the four biggest pyramids of El Tajin, the down drafts from the rotor
blades sending gusts of cool dawn air in through the gaping holes of the pyramid. It whipped through the tunnels and chambers and down to a small cave where the six students were huddled together
for warmth, telling stories to keep their spirits up, as they waited for their rescuers to arrive.

Just before dawn, Thor and Stefan had volunteered to go back and check the damage, reporting that the pyramid was gone, flattened, almost unrecognisable from what it had been. Had Novak and his
men been killed? It seemed probable. At the very least, surely they had been trapped and were injured. If Novak had left any guards outside the pyramid, they must have fled.

‘The Viking ship,’ said Amber sadly. ‘Gone for ever. And we didn’t even get a picture of it.’

‘The find of the century.’ Stefan was wringing his hands. ‘The most incredible treasure trove in years and it’s destroyed.’

‘We saw it, Ambs,’ Jade said, giving her twin a hug. ‘Six of us – we saw it. It’s not like poor Thor Heyerdahl with only his theories. Hopefully, the world will
believe us. Perhaps something will eventually be salvaged from the ruins. And maybe, just maybe, there will be other Viking treasure nearby.’

But now their anger and frustration was forgotten, the relief of rescue sweeping everything else away. They cheered with joy at the sight of the helicopter and ran across the wet grass, leaping
up into the belly of the chopper, desperate to get away from the place that had so nearly become their tomb.

‘Hey, Cate.’ Marcus was at the controls, his dark face wreathed with a huge grin as his co-pilot handed out blankets and cans of Coke. ‘I wasn’t expecting a
party.’

‘Sorry, Marcus,’ said Cate, buckling herself into her seat directly behind him. ‘Lost my phone – I lost everything. I had no way of contacting you.’ She gestured
behind her. ‘But at least the students are safe. Not that we can say the same for the bad guys.’ She dropped her voice, mindful that Ritchie was sitting just a few seats away from her,
the only glum face in the helicopter.

‘It was Novak, you know, who did the heists. Helped by Gabriel. The evening before the students were kidnapped, they must have left their pick-up trucks in the jungle and hid out in the
pyramids.’

‘Yep, we know,’ Marcus said, flicking the engine switch up. ‘Late last night we raided Johnny James’s house. His lawyer was outraged, of course, but shut up pretty fast
when he realised that the Governor of California had signed the warrant.’

‘Yeah, but what did you find?’ Cate could hardly contain her excitement.

‘You were right. The Mexican artefacts were there. Heaps of them. They were definitely on the missing list from the Mexican heists.’

Cate sat back in her chair. She felt almost giddy with relief.

‘So that’s the proof we needed?’ she asked Marcus. ‘That Johnny James was involved.’

The engines were revving now, the propeller beginning to turn above their heads.

‘Pretty much,’ Marcus said. He looked at his watch. ‘If all has gone to plan, Mr James should be having a nice chat with Henri about now. Well done, Cate. Brilliant job –
again.’

‘But why on earth did Johnny James risk everything for this?’ Cate said. ‘It makes no sense at all.’

‘Who knows?’ said Marcus. ‘He loved art – and although he sold a lot of the stuff that was stolen, he kept plenty for himself. Maybe he just loved owning it. Perhaps it
gave him a thrill? Or a feeling of power? I wonder if he’ll ever tell us.’

The helicopter rose slowly up into the air. Cate looked out of the window down on to the ancient, mysterious site of El Tajin, at the pyramids, the pillars, the rivers, the ball courts and
jungle that surrounded it. Despite everything that had happened, despite the lives that had been lost there, the terrors she had faced, she still hoped that one day she would return to enjoy the
wonders around her without having to size everything up as a potential death trap. Be normal. Be a proper tourist. Maybe even with Michel.

There was a long silence and then the applause was deafening, the audience rising as one to clap the film that had just been shown on the massive screen that edged each corner
of the vast Hollywood Bowl.

Simply entitled
Street Life
, and shown to a backdrop of Black Noir’s soulful music, the film had pulled no punches in its depiction of the suffering of the many thousands of
children abandoned on the city streets of Mexico.

The film had flitted from the drains and sewers, where the children slept on filthy rags, to their attempts to earn enough money to survive – begging at street corners, picking through
rubbish dumps, pleading with drivers to allow them to wash the windscreens that they could hardly reach.

Some of the children were clearly struggling with physical disabilities, for others mental illness had taken hold, yet in the midst of the suffering, they looked out for each other, comforted
and protected younger children, shared food and even money.

Cate brushed away tears from her eyes and glanced surreptitiously along the row of seats to where Marcus and Henri were standing on either side of her mother, just down from Amber and Jade. If
she didn’t know better, she thought, she could have sworn she saw a tear in Henri’s usually steely eyes.

Michel reached out for her hand and gave it a squeeze. ‘You OK?’ he asked anxiously. He had been so caring, so concerned about her since he arrived in LA just hours after Cate had
returned from her debriefing in Veracruz.

Once she’d got over her surprise, Cate couldn’t have been happier to see him. And, despite a few grumbles about their wasted girlie holiday, even her mum had welcomed Michel with
open arms, inviting him to stay at her house.

On the flight back from Mexico, and despite Henri’s pleas for silence, Cate had made up her mind. There could be no more lies, no more half-truths. If their relationship was to have a
chance, Michel would have to know everything.

And this time he had listened, without getting angry, pulling her tightly into his arms when she had told him about the fear she had felt when she thought she was going to meet her death in the
darkness of the chamber. He told her how brave she was, how clever.