by Rob Jones
Tarántula remained calm as Brolo hit the floorboards and started moaning in agony. Blood poured out onto the polished wood around him.
“What if this goes wrong, and these people find the Stormbringer before us? Now, the Snake King might lose his only chance to possess the power of the ancients. You know how that makes me feel?”
Moans and whining from Brolo. A mumbled plea for mercy was cut short by Tarántula pointing the Colt 2000 at the dying man’s legs and firing off shots six, seven and eight. The deafeningly loud explosions rocked the room, but Tarántula was not done yet.
“It makes me feel angry but also sad. Angry that one of my oldest friends could not understand how important this is to me, but so sad that now I am forced to do this.”
“Please…”
Tarántula knew his weapon. He had cherished it since the day his father had given it to him when he was twelve. He had killed many men and women with it. Every night, he made sure it had a fresh, full magazine of fifteen rounds just before he slipped it under his pillow and went to sleep. José had taken two of those rounds, and now Brolo would take the other thirteen.
“Incompetent fool!”
Shots nine, ten and eleven into the unconscious man’s abdomen.
“Liar! Traitor!”
He fired the last two rounds into his head, finally putting him out of his misery. Then he hit the mag release, dumped the empty magazine and smacked a fresh one from his desk drawer back into the gun. Then he picked up his phone.
“Get in here, Diego.”
Moments later, a large man with a thick moustache and long black hair pulled into a ponytail opened the door. Despite his face being mostly covered with gang tattoos, he couldn’t hide his horror when he registered the sight of the two dead men on the floor.
“I heard the gun, but I thought it best to leave you alone,” he said.
“You a smart man, Diego Novarro. If you had come in here, I might have killed you, too.”
Now, Novarro saw the hairy spider crawling over José’s stomach. “What do you want me to do?”
“First, I want you to get this garbage out of my office. Take it down to Benicio’s scrap metal yard and process it in the normal way, in the car crusher.”
“Got it.”
“Then, I need you to get the jet ready. Diablo says there was a team of foreign archaeologists at the convent. They’re flying in a vintage plane and they just took off for Xunantunich ruins, so we still stand a good chance of beating them there if we leave at once. My jet is much faster. I feel the Snake King’s eyes crawling all over me, the way this spider crawls on José’s stomach.”
Novarro nodded. “Yes, boss.”
As Novarro began dragging Brolo’s bullet-ridden corpse out of the door, Tarántula slipped his Colt into his holster, reached down and scooped up the tarantula, now crawling on José’s leg. He cradled the fat, hairy spider in his hands for a moment and then spoke, lowering his voice to the gentle whisper of a father soothing his troubled child.
“Sorry you had to go through that, my darling. But it will all be worth it in the end. Papa is going to be much more powerful soon. Papa is going to possess the power of the ancient gods. Then, the whole world will change forever.”
7
Xunantunich Ruins, Western Belize
Decker teased the throttle and brought the Avalon’s engines to idle. Less than two hundred feet above the narrow Maya Flats runway and he could barely see it thanks to a powerful storm which had blown in from the sea, bringing a viciously heavy downpour onto the land. As rain streaked across the windshield and a strong gust buffeted them from the side, he struggled to bring the old plane smoothly down.
“What the hell happened to paradise?” Riley called out. He was standing in the cockpit door looking down at Decker and Selena who were strapped into their seats.
“It got lost,” said Selena. “Now sit down before you fall down.”
Decker sighed. “Damn it, Riley! I told everyone to sit down and buckle up. Do it now.”
“Aye aye, Cap’n!”
He got to his seat seconds before the aircraft’s gear touched down on the slick wet runway and Decker put the two powerful engines into reverse. They revved and roared in response and a low, loud grumble vibrated through every panel and rivet onboard.
He slammed on the brakes and brought the heavy aircraft to a thundering, juddering halt right at the very end of the runway with just inches to spare. Using the engines and rudder to turn in a giant arc on the grass, he turned the plane away from the runway, pulled the throttle back to idle and cut the power.
Riley’s face appeared once again in the cockpit door. “That was a real brown trouser job, Mitch!”
“I got us down alive, didn’t I?” he said. “What more do you expect?”
Selena was still wincing. “And thanks for the imagery, Riley.”
Riley slapped them both on the shoulder and peered out through the cockpit window. “Is that your mate over there by the Jeeps?”
Decker looked across the airfield. A filthy portacabin beside a small car yard with LOPEZ’S JEEPS written above it waited in the rain.
“Yes, that’s Mauricio’s place.”
“Doesn’t exactly look like he as a great choice,” Selena said disapprovingly. “I can only count one.”
“When I called him, he told me he had half a dozen,” Decker said. “I don’t understand.”
“Let’s go and find out then,” Atticus said from just behind Riley. “And let’s get on with the adventure!”
They stepped out of the Avalon into the thick, sucking Belize humidity and made their way over to the customs official. He was housed in a small building just beside the airport and after a few moments asking questions and stamping passports, he allowed the crew to walk back out into Belize and over to the rental yard.
A short man in white shorts and a black short-sleeved shirt strolled over to them with a big, toothy grin on his unshaven face. “Mitch!”
“Mauro! How are things?”
“Always good.” He raised his two hands palms up, as if weighing something. “But only so long as I keep the sunshine and stress in the right balance.”
Riley looked out at the rain-soaked airstrip. “Sunshine?”
“And Stress?” Charlie said. “In a place like this? Seems like paradise to me, even with the rain!”
Mauro’s face darkened. “You would be surprised what can happen even in a paradise.”
Decker pushed his hat an inch or two up his forehead to get a better look at his old friend and then pointed his finger at the Jeep. “Is that the only one you’ve got?”
“Sorry, but yes.”
“But you said you had several to choose from! We have to drive out to the ruins today.”
“This is not a far journey, Mitch. Just a few kilometers. No more than thirty minutes’ drive.”
“I know where it is,” Decker affirmed. “I can read a map, Mauro. The point is, what if we need to go farther? Sometimes our investigations lead us onto other locations.” He took another look at the old heap beside them. “I’m not convinced this vehicle could make it to the edge of the airfield.”
“Of course she can!”
Selena rolled her eyes. “Why do men always have to refer to machines as she?”
“It’s a term of endearment,” Decker said. “The Avalon is a ‘she’.”
“And don’t I know it...”
‘And just what is that supposed to mean?”
Selena opened her mouth to speak but Riley stepped in.
“I think we may be straying from the point,” he said. “Which is that this Jeep is a heap of crap.”
“No, it’s fine,” Mauro said. “I drove her in the forest reserve just south of here a few days ago. She’ll do anything you want her to do with no complaints and minimal cost, except for maybe a little wear to the rubber.” He kicked the tires with his tennis shoe. “I swear.”
A wistful smile spread on Riley’s face as
he sighed. “Reminds me of a chick I once knew in Nha Trang.”
“Oh, please!” Selena said with disgust. “I do wish you’d have the courtesy to keep the contents of your sordid little mind to yourself.”
“You’re just jealous,” he said.
“I think not, Mr Carr.”
Mauro, said, “It doesn’t matter one way or the other. This is the only Jeep. Take it or leave it.”
“I guess we’ll take it,” Selena said.
“I’m sorry,” Mauro added. “Men came here earlier and took the best Jeeps. The money they offered was top dollar and they threatened me. I couldn’t turn them down!”
“Men, what men?” Decker asked.
“Mexicans, I think. Several tough looking characters, lots of gang tattoos. One of them, I think it was their leader was a very strange man, but he had lots of dollars and threatened my life so I looked the other way in a hurry.”
“How was he strange?”
“Something about the look in his eye maybe, I don’t know. You know how these things are.” He tapped his chest. “Instinct. Anyway, this really is my next best Jeep.”
“It’s your only Jeep,” Selena said.
“It’s still very good, I promise.”
“Really?” Decker said. “Because it still looks like a heap of crap to me.”
Atticus frowned. “Tell me more about these men though. I’m intrigued? Where is their aircraft?”
“They arrived in a chopper. Said they had flown into Belize City on a private jet and that they were a team of treasure hunters from somewhere in Mexico. They had guns, too. Lots of guns.”
“Guns?” Decker said. “This sounds like trouble. I mean, why here? Why now? We find evidence that Montesino’s Doomsday Machine was real and buried out in Xunantunich, and by the time we get here, a small army of men have already arrived armed to the hilt?”
“They’re probably just on a hunting trip,” Riley said.
“Yeah, right.” Decker leaned in and picked at a flake of rust on the rear wheel arch. “Did they say where they were heading?”
Mauro nodded. “Sure, the ruins out at Xunantunich.”
“Quelle surprise,” Atticus said.
Decker sighed. “Great. And this is definitely your next best Jeep, right?”
“My very best,” Mauro said with a grin. “I swear to you. Only the very best for Mitch Decker.”
Decker straightened himself up and squared up to him. “Because if I didn’t know you any better, Mauro, I’d say you reneged on the deal you made with me just to make a buck out of these guys with guns, keeping this heap of rusting junk back just for me.”
“What is this?” Mauro said. “You insult me. You offend me. Your words cut me deep. How long have we known each other?”
“Seems like forever.”
Mauro grinned at Selena. “Nearly ten years. That’s how long. We met in the Caribbean. You want to know how much credit, trust and faith ten years buys you?”
“Go ahead, Mauro. You tell her,” Decker said, checking the tires’ pressure.
“Nothing,” he said. “Not with Mitch Decker. Not a thing. See how he distrusts me?”
“He has a point about the Jeep, Mr Lopez,” Selena said. “It does seem somewhat worn.”
“As I said, take it or leave.”
“Gee thanks,” Decker said sarcastically. “We’ll take it.”
8
They paid Mauro Lopez in American dollars and climbed into the old Jeep. It was a relief to get out of the rain and on their way. They took the Western Highway south to San Jose Succotz and then followed Diana’s directions to make a right turn and pull up on the banks of the Mopan River.
“What’s that thing?” Selena asked, pointing to a small wooden shed floating on the river.
“It’s a hand-cranked ferry,” Decker said. “Don’t tell me you’ve never hand-cranked a ferry before?”
“I don’t know about a ferry exactly,” Riley said, “but I can tell you that when we used to go out together…”
“Thank you, Riley, and do stop being so vulgar,” Selena said. “And no, I have never used one of these contraptions before. What makes you so surprised?”
Decker shrugged. “I just thought with you being an archaeologist and all you might have come across one before, that’s all. No harm no foul.”
“C’mon,” Charlie said. “Let’s pull the ferry back over to our side of the river and get on board. It’s getting late and we don’t want to be getting back after the bar shuts.”
“And remember the men with guns,” Acosta said. “Lopez said he gave them the Jeeps earlier today for their journey out to the ruins. It’s already way past normal visiting hours and yet the ferry is still on the north bank. If you ask me, the armed men he’s talking about are still at the ruins.”
“The professor is right,” Selena said. “Let’s get a move on.”
Decker and Riley hopped out of the Jeep and walked over to the riverbank in the torrential rainfall. The young Australian grabbed the crank handle and began to winch the small wooden ferry back over the Mopan. Decker checked up and down the tropical river for any signs of the armed men but saw nothing. When the ferry was in place, Charlie fired up the engine and drove the Jeep carefully down a slippery, muddy bank and then onto what was essentially a covered raft.
With everyone safely on board, Riley hopped up beside the Jeep and operated a second crank to wind the ferry slowly across the muddy, jade green river. The endless downpour clattered heavily on the ferry’s tin roof as they drifted over to the other bank. From her seat inside the Jeep, Selena peered across the rain-pocked water at their destination and saw nothing but logwood and mahogany trees obscured in the steaming rain.
When they reached the other side, Riley secured the rope and blew out a deep breath. “Not as easy as you might think. Bloody handle has ruined my nice soft hands.”
“Stop messing about and get in the car!” Selena called out from the window.
When he and Decker were safely inside, Charlie drove off the ferry and onto the north bank of the Mopan. Then he turned right and headed up a narrow track and into the trees. The steamy air surrounding the Jeep was filled with the sound of croaking toucans and rattling cicadas.
“This place gives me the creeps,” Diana said.
“Not me.” Selena shook her head. “I think it’s beautiful.”
“Yeah, it sure is,” Riley said. “But if we get there and we find some gates with Jurassic Park written on them, I’m out of here.”
“It’s not Jurassic Park waiting for us,” Atticus said. “Look!”
They followed his pointing finger through the rain-streaked windshield and saw the incredible sight of the world-famous Xunantunich Ruins approaching at the end of the tree-lined track they were driving on.
“I still can’t believe we’re going to find anything here,” Decker said. “If these ruins are so famous then surely they’ve been searched inside out by countless people over the years. Whatever the old friar thought was buried here has to have been found by now. If not by professional archaeologists then looters.”
“Not necessarily,” Selena said. “Even famous sites sometimes guard secret treasures for a long time without anyone ever finding them. Take Holmul, for example.”
“Where?” he asked.
“It’s a pre-Columbian Maya site in the Petén Basin on the border of Belize and Guatemala, first discovered by modern archaeologists from Harvard well over a hundred years ago. The city there was probably founded around 800BC and like most other places, it was abandoned around the time of the great collapse in Maya civilization.”
“When was that again?” Diana asked.
“What we call the ‘Classic Maya Collapse’ happened around 900AD,” Selena said. “And that was the end of Holmul, like most other places in their culture. But the point, in answer to Charlie’s original question, is that only a few years ago a team of archaeologists discovered two tombs in Holmul full of the most amazing t
reasures and artifacts. Totally untouched.”
“Tombs?” Decker asked. “Tell me more.”
Selena grinned as Charlie drove the Jeep down the track. She always liked it when Decker showed an interest in her work. “Yes, tombs. Vaulted chambers beneath two of the pyramids in the city. There was all manner of treasures inside the tombs, including a skeleton with jade-inlays on its teeth, an honor reserved for Maya royalty. They also found ceramics, obsidian, necklaces and other separate pieces of jade jewellery.”
“Quite a find,” Charlie said.
“And the point is that not only had professional archaeologists never found them, but it had also escaped looters, not only from 900AD all the way up to the find in 1911 by Professor Merwin’s Harvard team, but in the intervening years from that discovery all the way up to three or four years ago. It just goes to show, there’s a lot of undiscovered sites in a place like this, just waiting to be unearthed and brought to light. The treasures waiting to be discovered are unimaginable.”
“All that gold!” Riley said, rubbing his hands together. “Fiji, here I come!”
“All that knowledge,” said Selena, frowning. “And with some luck, we might make a similarly impressive discovery for ourselves today.”
“Knowledge I can handle,” Decker said. “Gold I can also handle. What bothers me is Montesino’s doomsday surprise.”
Charlie pulled up in the parking lot and switched off the engine. “Nous sommes arrivés.”
“Better we find it than anyone else,” Acosta said. “Especially a gang of armed men.”
“Talking of whom…” Diana scanned outside her window. “Any sign of them?”
“Not that I can see,” said Decker. “No sign of any of Mauro’s Jeeps. Maybe they’ve moved on.”
“I don’t think so,” Atticus said. “And if Danvers was right, I’m starting to understand why a gang of thugs would have an interest in this place. If there really is some kind of doomsday machine here, it’s imperative we get to it first and secure it for men and women of learning. Heaven knows what Montesino saw, but if he was halfway accurate in his description then we can be sure we don’t want a gang of armed criminals reaching it before us.”