by Rob Jones
“Exactly what I’m thinking,” said Lexi.
Hawke stood up from his seat. “Any more details on this mask?”
Lund sighed. A bridge of trust had not yet formed between them but he had no choice. “The Mask of Inti is an ancient Incan facemask made of pure gold which depicts Inti, the Incan god of the sun. Believed by many archaeologists to have been merely a legend until recently discovered on the wrecked ship, the mask is supposed to hold a clue leading to the…” He stopped talking and studied their faces for a few moments. The atmosphere in the plush office was tense and awkward.
“Leading to where?” Lexi asked.
“Yes, don’t keep us all in suspenders, dahling.”
“There are few details, naturally – the Incas never left written records as far as we can tell, but my contact in Colombia, a Héctor Barrera, believed that there was some kind of legend saying that the mask would lead the bearer of it to the Lost City of the Incas.”
“The Lost City of the Incas?” Lea said.
“Yes,” Lund said curtly. “Paititi.”
“I thought that was just a…” Hawke said.
“Just a what?” Lund said.
“I was going to say just a myth, but then I realized that being just a myth doesn’t mean much anymore.”
“No,” the Dane replied flatly. “People have sought the Lost City for literally hundreds of years, but every expedition has ended in total failure, and very often the deaths of those taking part. The main problem was always a lack of reliable information detailing its location, but now it looks like there might be a new lead.”
“The mask?” Lea asked.
“Yes. According to Professor Barrera, there were legends about the Mask of Inti pointing the way to Paititi, but the truth is until we found the San José off the coast, the mask itself was no more than a legend.”
Lea sighed and fixed her eyes on Lund. “And this Barrera is certain the mask is the real deal – the genuine Mask of Inti?”
Lund nodded slowly. “Of that there is no doubt. He had a short time with the artefact before the raid, and was most certain of its authenticity. It was found with a number of other items on the San José that he was sure were once part of the famous Lost Treasure of the Incas, and he was the very best. We can be certain we’re looking for the genuine article.”
“He was the very best?” Hawke asked.
Lund’s face turned into a stern frown. “I’m afraid he was shot by the looters in the raid and rushed to hospital, but he was dead on arrival.”
“Do we have any leads?” Reaper asked. He knew they all felt the same thing he did – that the one person they needed more than anyone just wasn’t here anymore.
“That is where you come in,” Lund replied. “I have arranged for you to meet with a Professor Meier in Cartagena. He holds a senior position at the museum that was looted and has more details of the raid.”
“Looks like we’re off again,” Scarlet said.
“And soon,” Lund replied. “You’re meeting Meier later this afternoon so I suggest you fly immediately.”
And with that, they were on their way.
CHAPTER FOUR
Cartagena
Luis Moyano was a freshly-minted doctor of archaeology from the Universidad de los Andos in Bogotá with a PhD so fresh you could still smell the wrapping. It might be true that Luis had about as much life experience as the average boy scout, but that wasn't about to stop him taking on the world, no sir. His new job at the naval museum was just the first step in what he hoped would be a long and eminent career.
Now, he looked at the people standing outside his office door, wiped his hand on his shirt and offered it to them.
“I was expecting Professor Meier,” Lea said, reluctantly taking the hand.
“And I was expecting the police,” he said. “They’re talking to everyone about the robbery.”
Hawke stepped up. “We’re investigating the same crime.”
Lea showed him her ID card. “Is Professor Meier here?”
“No. Unfortunately Ricardo was taken ill a few hours ago and went home. I’m afraid he won’t be able to help you, but he was my supervisor for several years and my boss here so I know him better than anyone… except Mrs Meier, of course.” Without waiting for a response from the others Luis exploded into the most awkward laugh Lea had ever heard in her life.
She glanced at Hawke for a second and then back to Luis. “Can we come in?”
“Ah, yes… of course. Forgive me.” Luis walked backwards a few steps into his office and tripped over his bin, knocking pieces of paper and some crumpled soda cans onto the floor. “Paila!” he said, and immediately dropped to his knees to pick it all back up again. “Please, take a seat while I sort this mess out.”
Lea and Hawke exchanged a glance. “No, you’re all right, mate.” Hawke said, raising his eyebrow as he watched the young man scrabbling about on the floor. “I prefer to stand.”
A minute later and Luis Moyano was on his feet again and moving back around to his desk. “So, I would be happy to help any friend of Ricardo’s – as you can see, I have researched this field extensively.” As he spoke he wafted his arms to indicate his vast collection of peer-reviewed journals and books, but along the way he knocked over his coffee cup and it slopped out all over a pile of students’ papers. “Oh, damn it all!”
As Luis began to mop up the mess with his pocket handkerchief, Hawke rolled his eyes and leaned in to Lea. “Is this guy for real?” he whispered.
“Shhh,” she said, and slapped him away.
“So,” Luis said, smiling broadly as he stuffed the coffee-soaked cloth back into his pocket. “How can I help you?”
“We’re here about the robbery at the museum,” Hawke said flatly.
Luis shook his head and sighed. “We’re all very angry and shaken up. I hope Héctor is all right after such a terrible ordeal.”
“You mean you haven’t heard?” Lea said.
“Heard what? I was in the library researching all morning with strict instructions not to be interrupted.”
Hawke sighed and moved forward a step. “Héctor Barrera was murdered during the raid.”
“Señor Barrera is dead?” Luis’s mouth fell open in shock. “We were told he was injured and taken to hospital.”
“That’s true, but he died before he got there. I’m sorry,” Lea said. “Did you know him well?”
“We weren’t close at all, no… but I knew him a little professionally. I worked with him on several projects involving the Inca culture not to mention the discovery of the San José.” Luis fell into his chair and ran a hand through his hair. “I can’t believe this.”
“I think the San José is why he was killed,” Lea said.
Luis looked up at her. “Really? What makes you say that?”
“Tell me,” Hawke said, “Do you have a manifest of the treasure items found on board the galleon?”
“Somewhere, yes. Let me look for it.” Luis jumped up from his desk and turned to search the filing cabinet. He tried to open the top drawer but it was stuck, so he pulled harder, and then harder again. Turning to face Lea and Hawke with an embarrassed look on his face he grinned and made his apologies. “It’s not locked – just a stuck a bit.”
Hawke glanced at Lea and sighed. They were both watching the spider plant on top of the cabinet as it wobbled back and forth, and expecting the inevitable.
Luis gave it a serious yank this time and sent the plant flying through the air. Lea reached out and caught it and Hawke gave a round of applause, but the soil went everywhere.
Lea handed the plant back. “Luis?”
“Yes?”
“Is that the key right there?’ She pointed to a lone key sitting on top of a little pad of Post-It notes.
“Ah – yes, perhaps. I thought it was unlocked!”
Hawke and Lea exchanged another glance. “All we want is a quick look at the manifest,” Lea said, trying not to laugh behind the young man’
s back as Hawke re-enacted her catching the spider plant.
“Of course,” Luis said. “I will get it for you now the cabinet is unlocked. I don’t know what made me think it was already unlocked. Professor Gomez came in here earlier and asked for something and I was sure I had already unlocked it.”
“Have you found it yet?” Hawke asked.
“Yes! Here it is. The manifest from the San José!”
He pulled out a folder from the cabinet and spun around, smashing his elbow on the top of the drawer and cursing loudly as he rubbed it with his hand.
Lea took the manifest and opened it up. She traced her finger down the long list of items on the paper as Hawke peered over her shoulder.
“Look at all this stuff,” she said.
“Don’t pretend you know what any of it is,” Hawke said, nudging her gently in the ribs.
“Get lost, Josiah,” she said with a smile. “Ah ha – I found it!”
Her finger pointed at the Mask of Inti and Hawke nodded as he looked at it. “So it’s real all right. What can you tell us about this mask, Luis?”
“It’s small – like a child’s mask – and made of solid gold of the highest quality. It has some precious stones embedded in it but of more interest are the markings.”
“Markings?”
“I can say no more because I only know what Héctor told me. I never actually saw the mask myself.”
“But why do you think these markings are so important?”
He smiled at them. “I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking the markings will lead you to the Lost City of the Incas. This is what those murdering thieves must be thinking. I have heard the legend too.”
“You’re sceptical?”
“I am not sceptical at all,” he replied. “I am absolutely certain the markings will not lead to any great lost city for the simple reason I do not believe there is such a place. So no scepticism – just certainty.”
“But Héctor believed in the Lost City,” Lea said.
Luis nodded and frowned sadly. “Héctor lived on a cloud of farts – is that how you say it in English?”
“Not exactly ringing any bells,” Hawke said.
“I mean he is – how do you say – out of touch with reality?”
Hawke smiled. “That’s more like it but I preferred the first way you said it.”
“It’s true though – he had some insane theories about the Incas and the Nazca Lines that very nearly got him fired on more than one occasion. He certainly believed in the Lost City, but that isn’t to say such a place existed. Just because he was an eminent archaeologist does not mean he was always right or all his theories are sure to be true.”
“We need to find out one way or the other,” Lea said.
“So how can I help?”
“First thing we need to find out is who exactly knocked this place off,” Hawke said. “Do you have any idea?”
Luis shook his head. “Not at all – the police are still investigating as you must have seen when you walked to my office. They’ve been here all day. Perhaps we should talk with them?”
Hawke moved toward the door. “I think that sounds like a grand idea.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Luis Montoya walked them along the corridor until they reached the young police officer guarding Barrera’s office. A short conversation later and they were walking down the steps to the museum’s security office where a large, bald man with a thick moustache introduced himself as Lieutenant Rodrigo Santos.
He checked their ID, and not content with that he made some calls. When he padded back into the small office he gave a cursory nod and told them to sit.
“The Major says you check out, so you can stay.”
“That’s very kind of him,” Hawke said.
Santos stared at him with weary eyes and sighed. “You prefer my men to take you to jail for obstructing the investigation?”
Lea scowled at Hawke. “We’re very grateful to be here, Lieutenant, and we’d like to help in any way we can.”
Santos paused a few seconds before responding and then nodded his head, crumpling up his double chin. “Good,” he said, and pointed at Luis. “And he stays outside. He’s a potential suspect.”
Inside the small office, Santos flicked on a monitor and sighed. “We have only this footage from the CCTV.” He spun around and replayed the black and white film on the security monitor. “I’ve watched it fifty times. Perhaps you can be of more help.”
Hawke and Lea stared at the grainy image as it flickered to life. “What do they use for a camera?” Hawke asked, squinting at the screen. “A potato?”
Santos gave him a look. “Not a potato, no. A camera.”
“Right.”
“You can see there were three of them, and they wore these stupid Halloween masks for nearly the entire raid.”
Lea stepped forward, searching the fuzzy image for anything that might help her. “Nearly?”
“Yes… what our murderers didn’t know was there is also a camera just across the street on a restaurant. While the museum’s internal CCTV shows us nothing, when they clambered into the van one of them took his mask off just a second too early.”
“Can we see it?” Lea asked.
Santos sighed and turned his round face to her. “What do you think I’m doing now?”
“Sorry.”
The Lieutenant changed the discs and played the back-up CCTV footage from the restaurant. The image was black and white but of a much higher quality this time and it was easy to make out various details as they watched the footage. A handful of pedestrians were walking along the pavement and then the men burst into shot. They were all holding guns and wearing the masks Santos had described a few moments ago. They ran toward a Hyundai and Hawke noticed someone was slumped in the back seat.
They pushed the passers-by roughly out of the way and opened the doors of their van. They clambered into it and that was when one of the men ripped off his mask.
Hawke was stunned when he looked at the CCTV footage and saw the unmistakable face of Dirk Kruger appear from behind the skull mask. At first he thought he was imagining it but then Lea spoke.
“Holy Buggering Moses – is that Dirk Kruger?”
Hawke clenched his jaw and felt his blood pressure rising. “It damn well is.”
His eyes burned two holes in the screen as he watched Kruger jump into the Hyundai and skid off down the street. “Rewind it.”
Santos complied. “Who is this Kruger?”
“He’s a professional shit,” Lea said.
Hawke was speechless. He thought Kruger had died on the Oracle’s Seastead in the same devastating explosion that had killed Ryan. That day had been chaos – his memory of it just a blur of sea spray, gunfire and the noxious smoke of battle as they fought to stop the Oracle fleeing, but at least he thought he had come to terms with it all. This raised it all in his heart and mind. “Tell me I’m not seeing a ghost,” he mumbled.
Lea gripped his arm. “You’re not seeing a ghost.”
Hawke’s eyes widened. “Don’t you realize what this means? If Kruger is alive then maybe Ryan is too.”
Lea shook her head. “That’s a helluva leap, Joe. It was crazy out there that day and you heard what Reaper said about the explosion. Maybe Kruger just got lucky – besides, if Ryan had survived he would have contacted us by now to stop us worrying.”
But Hawke’s optimism was undeterred. “Yes – unless Kruger got to him after the explosion. Maybe he’s holding him hostage with a view to using his life as leverage against us.”
Lea furrowed her brow. “You really cared about him, didn’t you?”
Hawke clenched his jaw and was silent for a moment. “He was under my command – a civilian that I let go into a dangerous military environment with a hostile enemy. I have a responsibility to make sure he’s all right. It’s every commander’s duty. Now there’s a chance, at least and…”
“He’s dead, Joe. You have to accept that. Mari
a’s gone too, and for all we know Rich isn’t going to make it. Remember what you told me? We owe them and we repay that debt by not stopping, by keeping on and taking out bastards like Kruger. With Rich in a coma it’s up to us to lead ECHO now – it’s up to you.”
“Me? You’re the 2IC.”
Santos stared up at them with a bemused face.
“I’m Second In Command in name only, Joe, and we both know it. Ever since you came on board it’s always been you leading the team when we’re in the field.”
He sighed as he listened to her words. The truth was he felt used-up, especially after the loss of so many team members during the Seastead battle. Their decimated team was no longer a place of camaraderie and banter, but a hollowed-out crew of grieving friends. They had come so far together, only to lose so much at what they had thought was the final hurdle, but was in reality just the beginning of a terrible new nightmare.
Destroying the Oracle and his mad cult of immortals would have been a tall order before their team was annihilated, but now with only a handful of them left they stood no chance. They would be lucky if they could stop a madman like Kruger from pillaging the Lost Treasure of the Incas, never mind the sort of force the mysterious Oracle could muster to guard his desperate secret.
“I don’t know any more…”
“What happened to never give in and never give up?” she asked, rubbing his arm.
“It gave in and gave up.”
“Stop talking shite, ya skanger. What is it you always say – where’s your spirit of adventure?”
“I’ve never said that.”
She rolled her eyes. “Get out of it! It was one of the first things you ever said to me back on that night when we chasing that little toerag over the rooftops of Geneva. Remember?”
“Of course I remember, you silly goose.”
“Silly what now?”
“I said, let’s get our arses into gear and get after that bastard Kruger.”
“That’s more like the Josiah Hawke I know and love.”
“Don’t push it, Donovan.”
She smiled and was pleased to see he was perking up again. “So what now?”