“Don’t you just hate all the naysayers and trolls that come out with each new discovery,” Hannah said.
He nodded in agreement. “Grandpa, what do you think about going to the Motaqua River Valley to investigate where the capstone map leads? I know some people at the PACUNAM Foundation in Guatemala, who were involved with the LIDAR mapping of Maya Biosphere Reserve. I think we could get access to their knowledge of Guatemala and maybe even their data.”
“Cool, I’m in,” Shane said before I could answer. He didn’t have to think about it.
I looked around to make sure Emily wasn’t overhearing this conversation. “That’s a young man’s adventure, Andy. I’m too old. I’m not saying no; just that you need to consult with James Lee about it. He and André de Lionne are partners in a business venture and you don’t want to jeopardize that.
“Even if it could result in further evidence and confirmation that the Chinese discovered America before Columbus?”
“Talk to James Lee,” I said. Andy could be impulsive when he wanted to be and I wasn’t of a mind to run interference for him again. I still carried the scars from his episode in Istanbul and he was over twenty-one now.
“Just because you sell the map’s digital imagery and data, doesn’t mean we can’t look for what it leads too,” Andy said.
By the way he said that, I already knew what was going to happen and my heart went out to Emily. She would not take it well.
. . .
One night, the following week, I had just closed my eyes when my cell phone rang. Because Sunny was there beside me I grabbed it and stuffed it under my pillow. I’d deal with it in the morning I told myself, but was unable to go back to sleep. I grabbed the phone and went into the bathroom. It was from Tankut so I called him back.
“Hey, my friend. What’s so important that it couldn’t wait until in the morning?”
“I’m sorry, Max. It is my age. I completely forgot about our time difference. Did I tell you that my youngest daughter and her husband are living with me now?”
“I think James Lee mentioned it.”
“Oh. Well, it’s quite disconcerting, I have to tell you. They are young and night people and it’s very disruptive to the household staff. I think I will have to buy them a place here in Istanbul. Why is your grandson here?”
“Andy? I don’t know, Tankut. I thought he was in Austin.”
“He and Afet are out again with her sister and her husband, Gérard. I suppose I shouldn’t tell you this, but I will anyway. I am still upset with André for letting his brother force Gérard out of the family business at Crédit Lionne S.A. Now I must see to it that Gérard can make a living to support my daughter.”
“I hear you, my friend.”
“Cansu told me this in confidence. It was sur l’oreiller, you understand.”
I had no idea what he meant. I did know I didn’t want to be part of his family’s private business. I had enough trouble keeping up with my own family. “Then don’t tell me.”
He ignored me. “André is a layman in some secret Third Order of the Catholic Church. Cansu did not know which particular Order, though, or what his title is. She just knows that he is very close to the new Pope. And, she learned that the stone etching was based on an old map that had been made from an ancient Mayan book that was presented to a Portuguese explorer named Jorge Álvares when he landed on an island near the historic city of Guangzhou in southern China in May 1513. They call the city Canton, now, I think.”
“Tankut, you should know, I’m out of this thing with your friend André. The sale of the property is about to close with the Bishop in San Antonio and when it does, I’m just gonna put my feet up and relax. Besides, I figured you had a piece of whatever André finds with the map.”
“Why would you say that? I was merely facilitating the exchange. I am friends with all the parties involved.”
“It was just a hunch. I am a suspicious man by nature. So, what do you think the map is for?”
“I don’t know. I doubt André does either. He was merely following his interest in his family history and hoped the map would substantiate his family’s role in the settlement of Texas. Perhaps he thought there was a Portuguese connection. I don’t think he had a real interest in your ranch.”
‘Do you know how he found out about the cistern in the first place?”
“I have no idea. Do you want me to ask him?”
“Yes, if you get the chance; I’d like to know. Well, it’s late here and I don’t care much what the Catholic Church, or the Pope or his Religious Orders are up to. Tell Afet to go easy on my grandson while he’s there.”
“Your grandson seems like a fine young man. And he is smart and well-educated with a PhD. Afet will be twenty-seven this year, did you know that? All of her friends her age are married as is her younger sister. Perhaps it is my daughter I should worry about, no? I’m sorry if I have disturbed you so late, Max.”
“You didn’t disturb me. It was good to talk to you again. Good night, Tankut. Take care of yourself.”
Tankut had seemed like he wanted to talk about something more than we did, but like most men of our generation he never got around to the core of matter. I wasn’t casting stones at my friend just acknowledging that the older we get the more we want to hear the sound of a friend’s voice.
Chapter 28
It was one of those days in the Texas Hill Country where everything seemed right with the world and confirmed once again my belief that we were in God’s country. Eight million dollars in the bank can do that for you. After we’d made the map presentation and retrieved the jade pieces from André de Lionne, I sold him the map’s digital image and GIS data files for three million and fifty thousand dollars once James Lee gave me his approval. I kept the Pape Ranch and the jade Death Mask. That seemed like a lot of money for a map, but it didn’t seem to bother André.
André told me later, by way of Tankut, that he didn’t know about the missing page in the Diary and had no real interest in why it was missing. The Diary had always been in the possession of his younger brother’s family and I had believed him, mainly because I didn’t care what the map was for. I was satisfied with the sale price. Tankut did mention that according to André the cistern had been spotted using enhanced satellite imagery by the French Historical Society trying to track down the shrine from other historical documents.
It bothered the hell out of me that I would have to give Constance Pickering twenty-five percent of three million dollars, though, and I was still arguing with my conscience that a digital image of the limestone capstone was a Spanish treasure. I had convinced myself that it wasn’t; it was from a Mayan artifact, not Spanish, so I instructed Sam Hallinan to gear-up for a court battle when she learned of the sale. The following week after the sale of the map data to André de Lionne, we closed on the sale of half of the Pape Ranch to Bishop McCrory for the five million he had budgeted and I gave him right of first option on the remaining half that contained the cistern to be exercised within the next fifteen years. I figured I’d be long gone by then and wouldn’t be around to fret over it and it would give Hannah McCoy a chance to pursue the historical significance of the site if she wanted to and explore the cavern beneath the cistern.
All of us involved still wondered why the Mayan capstone and the jade Death Mask had been placed in the cistern to begin with. I accepted that the French had built the cistern, but why was a Basque Jesuit Priest who was being kicked out of New Spain instructed to hide those items there. Hannah had suggested that we might never know.
Bishop McCrory had agreed to help Hannah gain access to the Catholic archives in Mexico City and Rome for her research. However, Hannah and I both knew that the real answer lay on the Asian side of the globe, not on the European side. It could take her a lifetime of research and she was leaning towards Shane’s idea that the answer would be revealed to her where “X” marked the spot on the map.
Hannah had selected what she called an NGO in Guatemal
a to donate the Mask to while she finished her dissertation on the Journal. She didn’t want to give it just to anyone, and especially the Guatemalan Government, so she had taken her time. She also mentioned to me that she and Shane were discussing a side trip to the Motagua River Valley after the presentation of the Mask.
Everything was being done in secret while she was restoring the Mask and writing an article on the discovery of the Mask for the Journal of Archaeological Science. James Lee had also taken more than a passing interest in the Mask and had contacted the Chinese Cultural Minister in Beijing. They had sent someone over from China to investigate the Mask’s authenticity and to help Hannah with the restoration of the jade pieces, which hadn’t set well with her at first.
Andy, Shane, and Hannah had pitched the idea of going to the Motagua River Valley to James Lee, I’d heard second hand from George. He didn’t know what James Lee had told them about going to look for the site on the map, but I suspected James Lee would have told them to wait a few months given his interest in a good relationship with the Chinese. On the other hand, I had told George that Andy or anybody else was free to pursue the map. We had signed any agreement concerning the map and turned over to André all the photographs and copies we had taken, but as Andy had pointed out he had not asked for the digitized GIS data in the sale contract.
I was pretty well satisfied with the way things had turned out. I was still a bit curious as to how so many foreigners knew about the abandoned cistern, but that was my nature and I didn’t worry about it too much. The Jesuit Priest’s Journal and Arsène de Lionne’s Diary entries confirmed André’s story that it was already in existence in 1757. The information was already out there and in this Google age it was available for anyone to find, I supposed. The idea that some student intern in France had found the cistern on the Pape Ranch using satellite pictures was just a bit hard for me to get my arms around, though. It was just a small opening.
James Lee called me one evening after we had closed on the sale of the Pape Ranch to give me some news.
“I thought you should hear this from me. I spoke to Tankut this afternoon. Andy has asked Tankut for permission to marry Afet.”
“That doesn’t surprise me at all,” I said knowing how Howard men were and then I felt my stomach turnover when I thought of his mother. There would be hell to pay from Emily. I took out the roll of Tums from my pocket and thumbed two off.
“Tankut told Andy he would sleep on it and give him an answer in the morning. Tankut wanted me to ask you what you thought about it.”
“Tell Tankut they have my blessings, but it’s not me he has to worry about. Why didn’t he call me?”
“I think he’s concerned you’re angry with him after your last conversation for the way the Pape Ranch deal went down.”
“Not at all. Everyone got what they wanted, especially us. Tell him for me that there are no hard feelings. How about you? Are you and Tankut okay?”
“Not everyone got what they wanted,” he said with a chuckle. “Cansu’s husband was fired from the de Lionne family business and is now working for Tankut in Istanbul. He’s a little upset that they’re living with him, but he doesn’t blame us.”
“Have you heard anything from André about the map?” I said.
“Not a word. I don’t expect to, given his penchant for secrecy. But my geologist did confirm that there’s nothing geologically unusual down there that he could uncover. At most it was a small ancient Mayan settlement for jade mining operations. There are still a few working mines there. Just so you know, I did give the Ministry for Economic Development in Guatemala a heads-up and hinted that the French were interested in a Spanish Treasure there. They agreed to keep me posted after the donation I made. I think they’ll keep a good eye on any of André’s people if they ever show.”
“So what did you think of Andy’s idea looking for the X on the map?”
“Pie in the sky. There’s nothing in the Motagua River Valley of value.”
“Well, sometimes you gotta let a boy fall off his horse to see what he’s made of.”
“My relationship with André is tenuous. He’s getting up there in age and there are members of his family who question my five points in the Tunisia deal. I don’t want to rock the boat and give them an excuse to sever my participation with him.”
“I thought you guys had kissed and made up.”
“Business is business; this is personal with them. I explained all of that to Andy. You should also know I’m flying to Beijing next week. Once Hannah and their man have restored the Death Mask, the Chinese Government is very interested in taking a role in the return of the mask to Guatemala.”
“I’ll tell Hannah, but you should know she doesn’t want to give it to the government down there.”
“Who does she want to give it to?”
“She called it a NGO. It’s an organization that represents the Maya People.”
“Still, this is a great opportunity for us. Can you imagine what it would be worth for the Chinese to be able to say they were in trade with Mesoamerican civilizations in the sixth century and have proof of it? The publicity from working with the Chinese over this could be worth millions to us. You’d better dust off your tux, Dad.”
“I don’t own a tux. Now look, I want the Death Mask to be returned to the Mayans, not the Guatemalan Government. It belongs to the native people there, not some banana republic government. I promised Magali to return the Mask to the Mayan people. Let’s not let the politics of this get in the way of returning the Mask to the people of Tikal. By the way, how’s George doing?”
“He was over for dinner last night. I think he’s looking forward to starting graduate school soon. Oh, he’s met someone.”
“Good for him. Be sure to keep an eye out for him. The men in our family are easily distracted.”
“Tell me about it!”
“No, I don’t think I will. Don’t forget Thanksgiving this year at the ranch. I want your family here. We’ll have a turkey, too.”
“We’ll be there. Dad, I need you to keep an open mind about the Death Mask. It’s one of those objects of world historical significance that deserves to be available for everyone to see as well as study. We can say the Mayans own it but maybe it needs to be displayed somewhere else other than in a Guatemalan Museum. The United Nations Cultural Attaché has expressed an interest, so have the Chinese.”
“It’s up to the Mayan People to decide, not you or me, or even the Chinese; and definitely not the UN.”
“Why don’t you talk to Hannah about it? It wouldn’t hurt her career at all.”
“I’ll pass it on to her. Did you take care of that other matter for me?”
“I spoke to Elizabeth personally, yes.”
“And?”
“She’s you’re daughter, no doubt about it.”
“What’d she say?”
“She told me to keep the money. She didn’t want it.”
“You explained the trust fund wasn’t for her, right?”
“Yes.”
“Well, then, that’s all I can do. When she and I are gone, reach out to her children, will you, James Lee. Maybe she won’t have poisoned them against all the Howards.”
“It’s hard to believe she and Emily are sisters?”
“Ain’t it the truth? Tell those cayuses of yours that I miss them. Awat and I need to wet a line at the tank when he gets here.”
“I’ll tell him, Dad. We’ll see you Thanksgiving. Bye.”
“Bye, Son. I love you,” I said with the ease of slipping on a pair of well-worn boots. Why was it so hard to tell him that when he was a boy I wondered after we hung up?
. . .
A couple of days after talking to James Lee, I was sitting on the front porch whiling away an October evening. Sunny was sitting next to me drinking some god-awful tea her sisters had got her hooked on while she was out on the Lummi Reservation. I held a longneck between my fingers and was lost in thought as Sunny chatted away.
Magali had passed through the Pape Ranch again after I sold the front half of the ranch to Bishop McCrory. I guessed it had taken her that long to begin her journey again and to walk from the Border. She was camped out on the mesa when Shane had spotted her. He called me and he and I rode out to the mesa to check on her.
When we reached the trail up to the mesa, I said, “I want you to wait here, Shane. If I’m not back down here in one hour call 911 and wait for help to arrive. I don’t want you up there by yourself.”
“No, way. I’m going with you.”
“If you want to keep working for me, you’ll stay here. It’s that simple. Choose.”
Shane was not a happy man, but he wasn’t stupid either. He stayed.
When I got to the top of the mesa they were waiting for me. Magali seemed to have no recollection of me shooting her before. I wasn’t so sure that Gabor didn’t remember, though. He seemed much more nervous around me this time.
“I have come for the jade Death Mask of Lord Wak-Chan-K’awill ruler of Tikal,” she said when I rode up to her. Sally was nervous and didn’t want to keep still. She side stepped a one-eighty and when she started again I reined her in.
There was no recognition in Magali’s eyes. No, “Hey, it’s good to see you again.” But then I had shot her so I guessed she wasn’t really glad to see me again. She seemed to expect me to have what she wanted, though. Maybe it was her god, Itzamná, talking for her this time.
I told her that we had found the Death Mask and that we were going to turn the Mask over to the Mayan People in an official ceremony in the following weeks in Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción. I also reminded her that the curse would soon be over. I’d expected her to be happy with the news, but she wasn’t.
The Turbulence of Butterflies (Max Howard Series Book 6) Page 38