The Fourth Prophecy

by Ernest Dempsey

  Smalley wasn’t sure. In the end, it wasn’t his job to worry about those kinds of things. If he was honest, he was glad to have a little extra help from Starks. The additional work she’d requested wouldn’t be fun or easy. In that regard, Smalley wished he could completely pass it off to the Axis director. At least now, however, he wouldn’t be held responsible. One more thing off his plate. There was a sort of peace that came with being an underling. He’d not felt that peace in a long time.

  After being in the game for two decades, he’d burned out on this sort of stuff. He only had six more years until he could retire with a full pension, and Detective Smalley had no intention of taking the blame for a stalled murder case.

  That could fall on Director Starks.

  Chapter 4

  Washington

  Tommy and Sean waited patiently in the deep leather couches that faced Lilian Pike’s desk. The room felt like every other politician’s office they’d been in before. The smell of polished wooden furniture filled the air and mingled with the scent of corporate America that seemed to occupy every boardroom across the nation. It was a smell that seemed a mix between a bank and a library.

  The only emotions the room evoked came from the pictures of Pike and her family. The son she lost and the husband who’d killed himself took up space in most of the picture frames. There were few exceptions: images of Pike with other politicians at fundraisers, galas, and other high society events. In most of the pictures, she tried to appear happy, though there was a distant sadness in her green eyes.

  “I wish this didn’t take so long.” Tommy broke the silence.

  They’d been sitting in the room for nearly twenty minutes, waiting on the congresswoman to arrive. She’d been delayed by a sudden meeting and was running late due to no fault of her own.

  “That’s the way it is in this town,” Sean said. “Sometimes things come up, and the people she works with aren’t the types who take no for an answer.”

  “Oh, I know those types all too well.”

  Their eyes wandered around the room again for the umpteenth time. More pictures hung from the walls. Some featured Pike in exotic places like the Amazon rain forest, Costa Rica, Africa, and Alaska. A shelf to the right of the window held several awards she’d received through the years for her work on environmental issues.

  The door to the left suddenly opened, and Pike appeared, walking briskly across a thick, burgundy rug to meet the men. Her shoulder-length reddish-brown hair waved gently in the air as she moved.

  “Gentlemen, I do apologize for the delay. It’s been a hectic morning.”

  Before the two visitors could stand, she extended a hand to Sean.

  He was impressed with her firm grip, but not surprised. Women had to be strong in Washington. It was a playground where boys had pushed girls around for far too long, and to get respect, girls had to push back even harder.

  She shook Tommy’s hand and gave a curt nod.

  “Unfortunately, we’re dealing with a difficult issue right now. Please, sit down,” she said.

  The two did as instructed, sitting at the same time like grade-school children.

  “Difficult issue?” Sean asked.

  Pike looked somewhat surprised and cocked her head to the side. “Yes, the murder?”

  The two guests scrunched their faces and shook their heads.

  “Congressman Haskins?”

  Their heads turned side to side once more.

  “Oh, I see you two don’t bother to keep up with the news.”

  “Beg your pardon, ma’am, but we hopped on a plane and came right up here. Haven’t had much time to check on current events,” Tommy said.

  “Ah yes. Of course. Well, Congressman Haskins was murdered last night, right here in this very building. Police said it was poisoning.”

  “Any leads?” Sean asked, suddenly more interested in the murder investigation than the original reason they were there.

  “Not that I know of,” she said. “The authorities have been working around the clock but so far have nothing.”

  Tommy’s head shrank back as he scoffed at the idea. “With all the cameras and security they have here? They couldn’t find a thing? I’d think the killer would have had a tough time staying hidden, much less getting in and out of here.”

  “Well, it seems they found a way. Haskins is dead. His intern was here late last night, but they’ve already dismissed her as a suspect.”

  “Why’s that?” Sean asked.

  “Right now they don’t have a motive or proof. Whoever poisoned the late congressman did so by lacing his cigars with the chemical.”

  “Was anything missing from his office?”

  Pike scowled at the line of questioning but went ahead and answered. “Not that I know of. And before you ask, yes, the congressman had many enemies. He wasn’t exactly a straight-and-narrow kind of guy. If you ask me, he was probably sleeping with his intern, as he’d done with her predecessors. But the toxin the killer used is extremely rare. It would have been difficult for someone like her to acquire. There were no traces of the substance in her vehicle or in her home. Now, if that answers all your questions about the death of one of my colleagues, I’d appreciate it if we could move on to the reason you two are here.”

  Sean and Tommy gave a shrug and then nodded.

  “Sure, go right ahead,” Sean said.

  Pike stepped around behind her desk and eased onto the leather seat. She assumed a power position, like a CEO of a major corporation, folding her hands on the desk with elbows propped on the edge.

  “First, I need to thank you for coming on such short notice.”

  “Happy to, Congresswoman Pike,” Tommy said. “When I received your email, I was a bit surprised.”

  “Do you not normally get requests like that?”

  “No, we do.”

  “Then why the surprise?”

  She was friendly but direct. Sean liked her immediately.

  “I guess…I…” Tommy stumbled to find the right words.

  Her bright green eyes pierced through him and unnerved him to a level he’d not experienced in quite some time.

  “We usually get requests from governments, museums, historians, or archaeologists,” Sean answered after seeing his friend was stumped for some reason.

  “Ah I see. You don’t normally get them from an individual.”

  “Right,” Tommy said.

  “Well, gentlemen, I apologize if I didn’t go through the proper channels, but based on what I’ve heard, you two are the best.”

  “The best at what?”

  She grinned. “I appreciate your modesty, Mr. Schultz. Let’s just say your organization has a stellar reputation for recovering things that have been missing for a long time.”

  Tommy had worked hard to make sure IAA kept that good reputation. He knew that the agency was respected around the world, and he had every intention of keeping it that way.

  “In spite of that good standing, I did a little checking first to make sure you two were the men for the job.”

  “Checking?”

  Sean sat quietly for the moment, listening to the conversation between the other two.

  “Yes. I asked around. Turns out you two have a penchant for solving riddles. It seems your expertise in foreign languages, cultures, history, and even code breaking have resulted in some incredible discoveries.”

  “I wouldn’t say we’re experts in code breaking,” Tommy said. “The guys at the NSA are much better at that sort of thing than us.”

  Sean perked up in his seat. “I’m sorry, Congresswoman, is that what this is, some code you’d like us to figure out? Because if that’s the case, Tommy’s right. I’m sure the people over at the NSA could knock it out much faster than we could.”

  Pike leaned back in her seat and folded her hands across her lap. Her expression never changed, remaining serious.

  “I am aware of the many talents that organization has to offer, gentlemen. With this matter, ho
wever, I feel discretion is in order.”

  Both of the men leaned forward, eager to hear what had this woman of power so spooked.

  “By now, I’m sure, you’re dying to know what it is, and I’m afraid I’ve been keeping you far too long. You must understand, though, that there are people out there who might try to take what I’m about to show you and use it for personal, selfish gain.”

  A million guesses ran through Sean’s and Tommy’s brains, but they kept their thoughts to themselves, choosing to let her finish.

  Pike only forced her guests to wait another few seconds before she stood up and sauntered over to a wall to her right where a bookshelf stood next to the shelf displaying several awards. There were dozens of volumes occupying the shelves. Some were books on politics, history, and cultures. There were a few that had old, dusty looking spines. Others appeared to be brand new.

  She put her hand out and pried a small book from the collection. It had a tattered leather spine and looked more like an old journal than anything in the rest of her modest library.

  The cover, too, was cracked and weathered. Whatever it was, the two visitors assumed it to be quite old.

  “This,” she said, holding out the book for Tommy to take, “is a diary or journal, if you will.”

  “Looks old,” Tommy said as he took it from her. “Who did it belong to?”

  “It is old,” she said with a nod. “Nearly five hundred years old, to be precise.”

  Tommy’s body tensed, and he nearly dropped the book. “Did you say five hundred?”

  “Yes. Don’t worry. I’ve taken much better care of that than whoever had it before me. I made sure the leather was restored as best as possible. The pages, I fear, are on their last legs, which is why I had the entire contents stored digitally.”

  “Digitally?”

  “We took hundreds of pictures and saved them to multiple hard drives.”

  “Oh right,” Tommy said, feeling stupid.

  Sean leaned over the armrest and gazed at the worn cover.

  There was a cross burned into it.

  “Spanish cross,” Sean said.

  “Yep,” Tommy confirmed his friend’s assessment. “This belonged to a Spaniard five hundred years ago?” His mind already started connecting the dots. “This wasn’t the journal of Cortes, was it? Because we already have one of those.”

  Pike let a grin slip across the right side of her lips. “Very good, Mr. Schultz. I am impressed. It seems your reputation was spot on.”

  Tommy smiled with pride.

  “Not Cortes, though,” she corrected. “It belonged to one of his generals, a man named Alvarado.”

  It wasn’t a name that rang a bell, but that didn’t mean much. Throughout history, the greatest leaders stood on the shoulders of people who were often greater. The books and scholars never spent much time on those who lifted up others, and so their names were frequently lost to antiquity.

  “Okay,” Tommy said. “What’s this got to do with us?”

  “Open it,” she instructed, hovering over him with her hands behind her back.

  Tommy looked up at her with uncertainty in his eyes. He really didn’t want to without the proper tools, gear, and a contained environment.

  “Do you have some gloves?” he asked. “I’d really rather not mess this thing up.”

  Pike sighed. “Mr. Schultz—”

  “Tommy. Call me Tommy.”

  “Very well, Tommy, do you know where I acquired that book?”

  He shook his head.

  “It came from a book dealer in Barcelona. I was there for a conference a few months ago and wandered into a little side street where I discovered the book shop. I went in hoping to find something interesting, an old first edition of something famous, perhaps. While the store did have some things of that nature, I was drawn to a bin in the back where there were lots of old books like this one, some newer, some probably from the same era. I asked the store owner how much he wanted for them and he said they weren’t for sale because no one would buy them. He explained that they were mostly just old diaries.”

  “So…how did you get it?”

  “I made him an offer…a very generous offer. After that, he was more than happy to part with the books.”

  “So you brought a bunch of old books back to the States?” Sean asked.

  “No. I leafed through them while I was there and picked out a few I thought were interesting. That one,” she pointed at the journal in Tommy’s hands, “was particularly fascinating.”

  Tommy reluctantly opened the cover and stared at the faded writing on the first page. It was difficult to make out the signature, but he could see enough to make out the name Alvarado.

  “I assure you, Tommy,” Pike said, “if I’d found that book in better condition, I would have taken every precaution to ensure it remained in good shape.”

  Tommy nodded. He’d heard enough to believe the woman despite the fact that he still cringed every time his fingers touched the paper.

  He looked over the first page and then cautiously turned to the next. “It’s just the ramblings of a soldier,” he said after poring over the second page.

  “I’m glad you’re able to read Spanish,” Pike said. “I was beginning to worry you only knew ancient languages.”

  Tommy and Sean looked up at the woman. She flashed them a playful grin. “I’m kidding, Tommy. Please, keep reading. The initial few pages are just what you said, the ramblings of a soldier during his time in the New World.”

  Tommy continued looking over the lines, turning pages until he came to a point in the middle of the journal where he stopped. His eyebrows furrowed, and he hovered his finger over a paragraph to make sure he wasn’t reading it incorrectly.

  “This is what you mentioned in your email,” he said. His voice cut through the silence.

  “That’s correct.” She turned and wandered over to the big window behind the desk. She stopped and looked out at the mall. People were running around with their children and pets. Some were taking pictures of the historic buildings. Others were sitting in the shade, seeking relief from the warm sun.

  “Alvarado speaks of a lost temple,” she went on. “According to the account, it gave him and his men quite a scare.”

  Tommy’s eyes moved faster now as he read through the document, turning the pages more carelessly than he did before.

  “It says there were howling sounds, wind, and a great flash of light.” Tommy looked up from the pages and stared at their host with questioning eyes.

  “I know,” she said. “Quite the imagination the author must have had.”

  “That or he saw something out of the ordinary,” Sean said.

  Pike raised an eyebrow. “The things he described in that passage sound almost…supernatural.” She was loath to use the word; at least she sounded that way.

  “No offense, Congresswoman—”

  “Please, call me Lilian.”

  “Lilian,” Sean corrected. “Tommy and I have seen our fair share of stuff we couldn’t explain. There’s probably a reasonable explanation behind what this Alvarado guy wrote in his diary, but that doesn’t mean you can blow it off. There’s still so much out there that humanity doesn’t understand or can’t explain.”

  The congresswoman’s eyes narrowed. Her lips creased. “Good. That’s what I was hoping you’d say.” She turned her attention to Tommy once more. “Alvarado goes on to speak of a great power, something that was hidden in this ancient place.”

  Tommy listened as he continued turning the pages. He stopped near the end of the book and gazed at the pages.

  He pointed at a spot in the text and looked up. “What is this?”

  Sean craned his neck to see what had stumped his friend.

  The two pages were filled with a sequence of nonsensical letters and numbers.

  “Because it looks an awful lot like a cipher,” Tommy said.

  “That is exactly what I believe it to be,” Lilian said.

 
She turned and walked over to the left-hand wall where a coffee pot steamed atop a long counter. She picked up the pot and poured the hot liquid into a nearby ceramic mug.

  “Coffee?” she asked.

  “No thanks. We already had some.”

  She shrugged and set about pouring a few tablespoons of creamer into the cup.

  “Alvarado,” she said, “went crazy for a while.”

  Sean and Tommy shot each other a sidelong glance, wondering where the change of subject was going.

  “He was so traumatized by whatever he saw there that his men had to carry him back to their camp. He was taken back to Spain where he later recovered from what they could only describe as a kind of shock.”

  “Then he wrote all this down?” Sean asked.

  “We believe so, yes. You’ll notice a distinct difference in the handwriting from the beginning of the journal and the end.”

  “Did someone else write in it?”

  “That was something I considered, but after careful analysis, it was done by the same hand. The changes were subtle, not surprising after the strange occurrence Alvarado described.”

  Something was still bothering Tommy about all this. “I guess my big question is, why did he document all this? I mean, it sounds like the kind of thing he’d want to keep secret. Did they find anything in that temple? Gold? Jewels? Anything else?”

  Lilian shook her head. “They were unable to enter the temple. Alvarado goes on to say that his second in command, a man named Carlos, ordered the temple destroyed and buried so that no one would ever be able to find it again.”

  “Seems kind of extreme,” Sean said. “Sounds like that Carlos guy was pretty terrified of whatever they found.”

  “Indeed. Alvarado thought the same thing. He spent the rest of his life trying to relocate the temple but could never get back to its location. By the time he returned to the Yucatan, several years had passed. The jungle takes over quickly down there. Constant rain and warmth cause the vegetation to overrun everything.”