by Rob Jones
“He has a plan,” Acosta said. “This makes me feel much better.”
“Cool it with the attitude, Pepe,” Decker said, raising his voice. “You know, you’re a real pain in the ass!”
Acosta was shocked. “But…”
The ex-marine squared up to him. “Ever since this mission began it’s been one long brag about how goddam great you are!”
“But this is not true! I…”
“And now look at us! You went and got us killed!”
Atticus’s jaw fell open. “How dare you, Captain Decker! Dr Acosta is one of the very finest archaeologists I have ever had the honor to know!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Decker said, turning his hand into a flapping mouth. “Dr Acosta and his Montesino Codex, Dr Acosta and his Xunantunich glyphs, Dr Acosta and his stupid, ancient book of goddam Maya priest incantations, Dr Acosta and his great big flapping mouth and his…”
“Wait!” the Snake King stepped forward and used his hands to push the barrels of the Mercados’ guns down to the floor. “Wait! What did you just say, Captain Decker?”
Decker turned from an angry and confused Felipe Acosta and faced the Snake King. “Huh?”
“I asked you what you just said…to him.”
Decker feigned ignorance and smiled broadly. “Don’t tell me, you’ve also had experience of his big, flapping mouth?”
The Snake King’s eyes began to bulge. “What did you say to him about incantations!?”
“Oh, that…” Decker looked disappointed. “I thought you and I could start some sort of club, right? We could have little t-shirts with I survived Felipe Acosta written on them and…”
The Snake King grabbed Carlos Mercado’s gun and held it to Decker’s temple. “Felipe, what is this book of incantations? Please realize this man’s life depends on the answer.”
Acosta was dumbfounded, and worked his mouth without any sound coming out of it.
Luckily, Selena had already worked out what Decker was doing. “It’s nothing,” she said, playing it down. “Just an old parchment covered in gobbledygook. Not worth your time. Rubbish. Drivel, really. Just some nonsense about summoning gods and storms. Just hokum, nothing to interest a serious mind like yours.”
The Snake King’s eyes had filled with greed. “Where did you get this parchment?”
“In the convent,” Atticus said, now onboard with the gambit. “It was beneath the Montesino Codex. Held flat under it. My daughter’s right. It’s just mumbo jumbo, Nate.”
“I am not Nate! I am the Snake King!” He pushed the submachine gun’s muzzle harder against Decker’s temple. “The Snake King!”
Atticus took a step back, eyes widening in fear. “Yes, of course. My mistake, Snake King.”
The Snake King calmed down. “Where is this Codex? Hand it over!”
“It’s not here, silly,” Selena said.
“Why not?”
“Like we just said, it’s nonsense. We saw no reason to bring it along. It would only weigh us down.”
Weigh us down, Decker thought with an eye roll. “What she means is, we didn’t want to damage it for no reason so we left it someplace safe.”
“What place?”
As she spoke, Riley was making his way closer to Novarro, one eye on his gun.
Selena played along. “Actually, it’s in a safe.”
“I am losing patience,” the Snake King said. “I want the location, now!”
Riley fired his elbow into Novarro’s face just as Decker smashed the Snake King’s gun away from his temple, grabbing hold of it.
Tarántula saw what had happened and raised his gun but Decker was one step ahead. He squeezed the trigger and swept the muzzle across the cavern, spraying bullets everywhere. Tarántula and the Mercados were first to hit the deck. Novarro and Diablo grabbed the Snake King and Atticus and pulled them to the ground behind the capstone. Then, all of them returned fire on Decker and Riley and drove them into cover.
His gambit had failed. The men had scrambled to cover before anyone else on the Avalon crew was able to get hold of a weapon and the Snake King still had Atticus. Now, Diablo put a gun to Atticus’s head and the firing stopped.
The Snake King got to his knees and dusted himself down. “Impressive, but at the same time pathetic. Tarántula! Have your men get the capstone out of here at once. Then I want everyone to evacuate and blow the roof. There’s a lot of water in the lake above this cave system. More than enough to drown all of you like the rats you are.”
Decker watched as the Mercado brothers removed the capstone and then dragged Atticus out of the complex. To give the old guy credit, he kicked and screamed and fought across every inch, but the gangsters were much stronger. They were all gone a few minutes later, leaving only the Snake King and Tarántula.
“The charges, Tarántula!”
The man from Acapulco put the C4 into three strategic locations around the cave and then the two men walked over to the entrance.
“Goodbye, Avalon crew,” the Snake King said. Tarántula was already up the rope ladder and now the Snake King turned and began the ascent. As his feet climbed up out of sight, Selena turned to Decker.
“So what now? Do we disarm the C4?”
“As soon as that psycho hits the detonator,” Riley said, “that C4 is turning into a giant fireball. Thing is, we don’t know when he’s going to push the button.”
“Riley’s right,” Decker said. “Best advice is get as far away from the explosives as we can and take some sort of cover. That way…”
It was too late. All three packs of C4 exploded in a fierce fireball, blasting chunks of rock and smoke into every corner and shaking the entire cave beneath their feet.
24
“Jeez, who farted?”
Riley’s voice sounded muffled in the smoke. All around him, debris slowly fell back to earth and for a few seconds he wondered if they were going to make it. Then he felt water on his forehead.
“Um, you guys all right?”
They all checked back in, coughing and spluttering.
“That’s good, but I think we’re in trouble.”
“Danvers’s plan worked?” Selena called back.
“Let’s put it this way, raindrops are falling on my head.”
“Mine too,” Diana said.
“And me,” said Decker. “Look at the cave ceiling! Now the smoke is clearing, I can see at least three giant cracks and they’re all getting worse. Danvers’s plan worked. The entire lake is going to come crashing down on us any second.”
“So what do we do?” Acosta said.
“We wait,” said Riley, earning him a strange look from the Mexican academic.
“Wait?” Selena said. “They’re holding my father hostage and getting away with the capstone, plus we’re about to have a lake crash down on top of us! We need to move!”
“No, I agree with Riley,” Decker said. “We wait, but somewhere safer than this.”
“I don’t understand,” said Acosta.
“It’s simple.” Decker began climbing up to a ledge running around the south side of the cavern. “When that roof falls in, it’s going to bring millions of tons of rock and water crashing down into this cavern. We get caught in that and we’re dead. But, if we can survive the initial collapse we should be able to ride the surface of the water up to a higher level in the cave complex and find another tunnel that leads us to safety.”
“You mean, use the water like an elevator?’ Acosta said.
“Exactly, and then…”
The time for explanation was over. The cracks in the ceiling had joined up and now broke open completely. Water rushed down through them and crashed into the floor. It grew heavier and faster and then reached the edges of the cavern. Seconds later, it was as high as their ledge.
“Get into the water!” Decker screamed. “We can swim out of here over there! I see some sort of tunnel opening up just behind where one of the cracks formed!”
They rode the water up to the t
unnel and then climbed up over the ledge. With the water rushing up behind them, they sprinted along the passageway. This was narrower than those that had come before it, and much lower. Riley was the tallest in the group and was now having to tip his head forward and hunch his shoulders in order to make his way through it.
“Can’t wait for this to end,” he said with humor. “This place is literally a pain in the neck.”
“We must be nearly there by now,” Selena said. “Oh…”
Ahead was a large stone bridge stretching across a wide canyon. Flowing underneath it, they saw a thick, wide channel of bubbling, flowing lava.
Charlie pulled up. “I told you… hell!”
Decker skidded to a halt beside him. “I think we’re going over that bridge.”
Diana was horrified. “You think we should walk over a rickety wooden bridge a hundred meters above a river of lava? Are you totally insane?”
“On seconds thoughts, you’re right,” Decker said. “Forget that. Let’s flap our wings and fly across instead.”
The Portuguese academic rolled her eyes and sighed. “There is no need to be… what is the word… faceto!”
“I don’t know what that means,” Decker said, “But I know there’s no other way across this ravine unless we take the bridge.”
“I agree,” Charlie said. “And I’m sure when Riley gets back, he’ll give us a full report of what he found on the other side and then we can proceed safely.”
Riley scratched at his stubble and grinned. “What is it with you mate? You want me to die or something?”
“Absolutely not,” Charlie said. “I need you to get back here alive and tell us if the bridge is safe or not.”
“Who knew you were so funny,” Riley said. “Not me, that’s for sure. Or anyone else. Ever.”
“Just greasing the wheels,” the former soldier said. “I’ll go across first.”
“No, you won’t,” Decker said. “I’m going first.”
Selena pulled her head back and stared at him, wide-eyed. “And why you?”
Decker pushed his hat up and wiped the sweat from his eyes. “Because I am obviously the team leader, and that’s what team leaders too. We don’t let our team members do anything we wouldn’t be prepared to do first.”
“All good,” she said. “Except I am clearly the team leader!”
Riley sighed. “Have you two not organized this yet? I thought you settled all this a long time ago?”
“We have,” Decker said. “And…”
“I’m the boss,” both he and Selena said together.
“In that case I’m assuming command,” Acosta said. “In the absence of any sanity, Doctor Felipe Acosta to the rescue! Now get out of my way… I’m going in!”
“Pepe, no!” Selena said, taking hold his elbow. “Please! Let Mitch go first.”
But Decker was already on his way, brushing past Acosta and pushing down on the boards with his right boot to test their strength. He spent another minute pulling on the wooden support towers and guide ropes. They were old and frayed but seemed firm enough. When he stood on the first board, the entire structure groaned and creaked and swayed a little from side to side.
Selena gasped. “I don’t think this is a good idea, Mitch. The heat from the lava must have severely damaged this bridge over so many years.”
“It’s hundreds of feet down,” he called back, peering over the side at the flowing magma so far below him. “Any damaging effect it might have would be too greatly reduced by the distance, no matter how long it’s been here.”
“It’s still crazy,” she said. “We need to find another way over.”
“There’s no other way!” he yelled, and the others followed him across the old bridge. On the other side, the shaken team took a few seconds to get their breath back and searched for the next part of their escape route.
“Any ideas?” Charlie said.
“Here!” Selena yelled. “Look at this carving in the rock. It’s showing us the way out.”
Riley stared at it, confused. “Eh? Just looks like a tangled mess to me. What does it all mean?”
Selena said, “As I said before, the Maya believed the universe was divided into three separate realms, heaven, the earth and the underworld. Each of these different kingdoms was connected by a giant tree with its roots down in the underworld and the trunk in the earth and then the canopy and leaves up in the heavens. It’s best to think of these realms as three separate, existential planes. This part here is clearly the trunk and it’s showing us to go this way.”
Riley scratched his head. “I’ll leave the thinking part to you, Lena.”
They followed the path until they saw light. Moments later, they marched out of the underground cave system and into the diffused lighting of the forest floor. All around them insects and birds chirped and cried out in the sweat-streaked humidity. It was another world. Through the canopy, a stormy sky bubbled with dark gray clouds.
“We made it!” Charlie said. “I don’t believe it.”
“We didn’t all make it,” Decker said. “We lost a man. We need to get Atticus back. Let’s get moving!”
“I agree, but…” Diana collapsed down on one of the boulders either side of the entrance and sighed deeply. “The heat is too much for me. In Porto we have a drier heat. This is like trying to walk through a bowl of caldo verde.”
“Eh?” Riley said.
“Hot soup.”
“Ah – gotcha!”
“I blame Camaxtli,” Acosta said.
“Eh?’ said Charlie.
“The Maya god of fate Camaxtli, who brought fire to our world…”
“No more Maya gods,” Diana said. “Please.”
“All right,” Decker said. “We wait here for a few minutes to let everyone get their breath back and then we get back to the lake.”
“And pray Danvers hasn’t trashed the plane, right mate?” said Riley.
Decker looked at him, horrified. “I never thought of that!”
“C’mon,” Selena said. “We really must get going. Think of Dad.”
And then they were on their way.
*
Riley Carr knew all about jungle. Making corporal in the Australian SAS was no cake walk. Selection to get into the training program lasted three weeks. 130 men sign up to selection and 104 of them go home bruised and disappointed. After this section of the course follows another 18 months of courses which must be passed before they join a squadron with the rank of junior trooper.
This is called the reinforcement cycle. Here, Riley got the hard stuff. Heavy and light weapons training, parachuting, combat survival, demolitions work, urban combat, patrolling techniques, medic training, signals training, ingress training. Then he was posted to a sabre squadron where he specialized. Some specialized as medics, others as signallers or even linguists. Riley chose to be an explosives expert.
Here in his sabre squadron, he started a three year cycle of further training and operations. This was a time of developing the skills already taught, advanced conventional warfare training and clandestine ops. Explosive ingress techniques, confined-space assaults, building clearance and close quarter battle techniques.
With all these years of reinforcement training under his belt, Riley Carr, the young man from an isolated outback station, was finally badged as a full member of the Australian SASR. He finally won the world-famous tan beret and winged dagger insignia badge and joined the regiment, one of only ten percent of the original cohort to do so.
After these years of training, Riley was confident there wasn’t a building, ship, plane, train or oil rig he couldn’t break into and clear. And he was more than comfortable engaging the enemy in any terrain. Snow, desert, scrub, savannah, maritime, urban.
Or jungle.
He had spent many a hot, sweaty week on exercise in the dense, steamy jungles of Papua New Guinea, just off Australia’s north coast. The PNG Government had a long-standing arrangement with Canberra to allow the Austral
ian Defence Force to train on their territory and Riley had been up there on many occasions, sometime pitted against other Special Forces guys. All good fun, mate. No problem.
But today he had problems.
While he could spend all day playing with the Snake King and his men if he was on his own, only Mitch Decker had any serious jungle time under his belt. Charlie was a soldier, but he was a former military policeman with mostly urban experience. As for Selena, Atticus and Diana or Acosta… they would stand zero chance in a place like this if they got lost or injured, and both were a serious possibility if a firefight broke out.
He marched on, chatting with his friends but always keeping an eye out for trouble. Hours later, they reached their destination and he gave a silent prayer of thanks. Up ahead, Decker made the lake shore first and took cover behind a giant fan palm as he scanned the area for any sign of Danvers and his men. The Avalon was still bobbing about on the surface, badly damaged from the initial attack but from the look of things, not suffering any further problems.
“All right,” the American said, breaking cover. “We’ve got a lot of work to do if we’re going to get the Avalon into the air again. I’ll get my tools from the cargo hold. Then we get airborne, rescue Atticus and secure the capstone.”
Selena put her hands on her hips and blew some hair out of her eyes. “But where the hell do we start? We don’t have a clue where they’ve gone!”
Charlie grinned and shook his phone. “We might not, but I know a man who might.”
25
Havana, Cuba
The short flight over the dark blue waters of the Caribbean Sea was mostly smooth and enjoyable, even in a vintage plane designed and built long before many of the comforts brought by modern aviation. They flew through the hottest part of the day and crossed into Cuban airspace just as the sun was starting to sink behind them. As the hypnotic hum of the old radial engines lulled the others to sleep, Selena stared through her window and watched the sunset light endless sugarcane fields a deep, welcoming amber.
She gave a quiet sigh and felt the aircraft begin its descent. The agricultural landscape of the island’s western provinces slowly melted into farms then villages then conurbations. Lines of tobacco bushes on the rich red soil of Pinar del Rio were smoothly replaced by jumbles of buildings connected by quiet country roads. Further to the south, a heat shimmer rippled over the Mayabeque hills, already distorted by the blue haze of twilight.