The Fourth Prophecy

by Ernest Dempsey

  “Forever?” Tommy asked. “That’s a long time. You really think you can—”

  “Silence!” Pablo tightened his finger on the trigger.

  “You know, Pabs,” Sean said, disobeying the order, “you might want to rethink killing us just yet. Looks like the natives are a little restless.”

  Pablo followed Sean’s gaze. He was looking through the jungle toward the camp where, apparently, the rest of the cartel’s troops were rallying. Lights danced in the darkness, and voices soon filled the air.

  “I guess the gunfire got their attention,” Sean said. While Pablo was looking the other way, Sean slipped his hand into the pocket where the little metal device was still sitting in the bottom.

  Pablo’s eyes flared in the moonlight coming through the opening in the canopy above. “I don’t need your help to escape,” he sneered.

  “Maybe not,” Sean said, “but we’re going to offer it anyway.”

  He pressed the button, and the night suddenly erupted in a bright flash of orange-and-yellow flame. The concussion rocked the trees surrounding the camp and blew some of the tents over.

  Fires blazed instantly in several places as the highly flammable canvas tents sparked to life.

  The lights coming toward the two Americans suddenly disappeared as Martinez’s men turned around and rushed back to the emergency.

  Pablo nearly jumped out of his shoes at the explosion. He spun around to see what happened, momentarily losing track of his captives. The second he realized he’d made a mistake, he turned back to face them, but it was too late.

  Sean had used the distraction to grab Martinez’s gun and held it out at arm’s length, the sights lined up straight at Pablo’s forehead.

  Pablo bit his lower lip and sighed, frustrated.

  “Now,” Sean said, “drop the gun.”

  Pablo hesitated, so Sean cocked the hammer. It was an unnecessary display but one he felt reinforced the fact that he would kill the other man if he didn’t play along.

  The point hit home, and Pablo let his weapon fall to the ground.

  Tommy rushed over and grabbed it, stuffing it into his belt as he rushed around to collect some of the other weapons.

  “You are making a grave mistake, Sean Wyatt,” Pablo said. “You can kill me, but if you find the temple and unleash its power, you and everyone else on the planet will die.”

  “Did he mention that before?” Tommy asked, looking at Sean.

  “You know what? I think he did. Now, Pabs…mind if I call you Pabs?”

  Pablo looked incredulous.

  “I’m gonna take that as a yes. Anyway, you’re not going to like this, but I only have two options here. One, I shoot you in the face and leave you here to be jungle food. I’m sure some jaguar or giant lizard would love to chow down on you, but I’d rather not do that.

  “Of course, I could leave you here, but then you’d be caught by the cartel’s guys over there as soon as they figured out what happened. Maybe you slip away and don’t get caught, but it’s also likely you could be captured by the guerrillas, who I believe aren’t far from here.”

  Pablo’s eyes narrowed, still full of fury but now more curious than before. “Then what?”

  Sean ran back and fished a phone out of one of the dead men’s pockets. It was the same device they’d used to take pictures of the code in the waterfall. A quick check revealed that the man didn’t use a password to protect his phone.

  Sean hurried back to the other two and glanced at Tommy, exchanging a knowing look.

  He faced Pablo once more. “You’re coming with us.”

  Chapter 23

  Washington

  Emily roared and threw a stack of files off her desk. The papers inside flew around like giant snowflakes until they fluttered to the floor in a pile.

  Smalley and the other detectives rubbed their foreheads or averted their eyes, not wanting to get caught in the line of fire.

  “How in the world do we have zero leads?” she stormed.

  “This person is a pro,” Smalley said. “It’s rare to get someone this good in a case of any kind, much less a high-profile one with government officials.”

  Emily shook her head and put her hands on her hips. She’d not slept much during the week since arriving in Washington. Eating had also been optional. She hadn’t checked, but if she had to guess, Emily would say she’d probably lost a couple of pounds.

  And the bags under her eyes showed her fatigue. It was the most stressful case she’d ever worked, and after all her hard work and the efforts of the men in the room, they’d managed to turn up nothing.

  “When Kennedy was killed, they found the man responsible that same day, and they didn’t have half the technology we have now. So, I ask again: How is this possible?”

  A young man in a white button-up shirt, loosened blue tie, and black slacks rolled his shoulders. “We know it’s a woman,” he said. “That’s not nothing.”

  “So, what if we know it’s a woman? That narrows the field of suspects to about three and a half billion.”

  He bowed his head impishly, embarrassed he’d even mentioned it.

  Her phone started buzzing on the desk. She sighed and looked at the caller ID. It was coming from IAA headquarters in Atlanta.

  She muted the device and set it back on the counter. No time to talk to Tommy right now.

  “What else do we have, people? Do we even have a plan of where to go next?”

  Smalley and the others sat silently. Most stared down at the floor, not wanting to make eye contact with Emily. A few looked out the window behind her.

  “We’ve analyzed every bit of evidence we could find,” Emily said. “We’ve exhausted the few leads we could get. We’re at a dead end.”

  Her phone started ringing again, dancing on the desk surface.

  She looked at the screen and saw once more that it was the number for IAA. She let out an exasperated breath and picked up the phone.

  “Hello?” she said. “I’m kind of busy right now, Tommy. You think this can wait?”

  “It’s not Tommy,” Tara said. “We can’t get ahold of him and thought maybe you knew where he and Sean were and how to reach them.”

  Emily’s audience saw her face contort. If she’d been a cartoon, steam would have billowed out of her ears. As it was, her skin flushed deep red.

  “Tara, I don’t mean to sound rude, but I’m sort of in the middle of something important here in Washington. I’m sorry, but I have no idea where Tommy and Sean are. I have to get off the line. I apologize.”

  “It’s okay,” Tara said. “Sorry to bother you. Our vault was just robbed. Some woman broke in and stole something extremely valuable. It’s a pretty sensitive subject.”

  Emily didn’t need Tara to tell her the kinds of things they kept in the vault at IAA headquarters. Almost everything there was priceless. They housed a collection of artifacts unlike any in the world. Most were things people didn’t know even existed.

  Emily frowned and motioned to the team in her office to take a five-minute coffee break.

  The men and women filed out the door. When they were gone, she closed the door and started talking again.

  “I’m sorry, Tara. I’m in the middle of a murder investigation. Did you get an ID on the thief?”

  “No. She was wearing a mask that covered her face from the nose down and a black baseball cap. Whoever this woman is, she’s a pro and knows how to get in and out of places with minimal detection. She shut down all the cameras in our facility. We found a device in the back of the building she used to hack the system and distort the images for about an hour.”

  Emily’s interest was piqued. “How do you know what she looked like, then?”

  “One of our guards saw her. Cops are still looking for her. As of now, they have no leads.”

  Emily’s eyebrow lifted. “When did this happen?”

  “A few hours ago. We were trying to get in touch with Tommy to let him know what was taken.”

/>   “What was taken?”

  “An amulet. We’ve been analyzing it for months, trying to understand where it gets its power.”

  Emily knew a little about the amulet though she was fuzzy on the details. Sean had been a bit vague on how they came by it.

  “Why would someone steal it?” she asked. “Other than the obvious that it’s probably worth a lot of money?”

  “How much do you know about that amulet?”

  “Not much,” Emily admitted. “Just that the guys brought it back a few months ago and they were trying to keep things around it pretty hush-hush.”

  Tara took a deep breath and paused. “Emily, we believe that amulet has the power to grant life to whoever possesses it.”

  “Grant life?”

  “Immortality. As far as we can tell, something about it can heal pretty much any disease, any injury; it can even stave off death from a wound that would be considered mortal.”

  Emily hadn’t heard that part. “I would think something like that should be at the CDC or perhaps in a government research facility somewhere.”

  “That’s why Sean and Tommy wanted it kept here. They figured if the government got their hands on it, that would be the last anyone ever heard about the amulet.”

  She wasn’t wrong about that. Emily kept secrets as part of her day-to-day routine. She’d seen any number of things in her career that were dubbed unsafe for the public and were subsequently marked as classified. There’d been cover-ups galore—some she approved of and others that made her scratch her head.

  Emily didn’t need Tara to tell her the reasons behind keeping the amulet a secret. Sean and Tommy knew all too well what could happen.

  Unfortunately, the other bad thing that could go wrong—did.

  What intrigued Emily about the amulet heist wasn’t just the stolen article. The moment Tara described the thief, big red flags went off in the Axis director’s head.

  She wandered back to her side of the desk she’d been using and flipped open the only remaining file that wasn’t on the floor. It contained a picture. All this time she’d been in Washington, working the case for the president, it was an image that had confounded her.

  She stared at the picture for a moment. There wasn’t much to go on. It was just a shot from a traffic camera in Washington taken on the night Lilian Pike was attacked. It featured a woman in black with a matching mask over her face and a baseball cap that cast her eyes into shadow.

  “You said this woman was wearing a black mask and baseball hat?” Emily asked again, just to be sure.

  “Yes, but that’s all we have to go on.” There was another pause. “Why do you ask?”

  “I’m working on something here…I can’t give you all the details over the phone because it’s of a pretty sensitive nature. Would you and Alex have time to meet with me tomorrow morning and answer a few questions?”

  “Sure. Of course. Anything we can do to help.”

  “I’ll need that security guard, too. Make sure he stays safe tonight.”

  “All right,” Tara said, sounding a little befuddled.

  “I’ll be on a plane tonight and there at your office first thing tomorrow.”

  “Sounds good, Emily. Thank you.”

  Emily ended the call and gazed at the picture in her hand. Finally, she had a connection. The woman in the image looked exactly like the description Tara gave her. Sure, it was a stretch. There could be a thousand thieves who dressed the exact same way. She’d need to talk to the security guard to be sure. Even then, she doubted they’d get a positive ID on the woman. At the very least, however, there was a sliver of hope.

  Chapter 24

  Chiapas

  Sean, Tommy, and Pablo hurried along the ridge, cutting their way through brush and dangling branches.

  Down below, the lush river valley stretched out between the mountains, running far off and eventually to the sea. Smoke rolled up from the jungle behind them where the cocaine mill still smoldered from the night’s explosion and fires.

  As far as the Americans were concerned, they couldn’t move fast enough.

  At first, Sean and Tommy thought Pablo would put up a fight, but apparently their trust in him and willingness to drag him along meant something. That didn’t change the fact that at a moment’s notice he might turn on them and try to kill them.

  On the hillside across the way, another column of smoke rose from the canopy. Sean noticed it and stopped in his tracks to get a closer look. The others halted right behind him and gazed out into the wilderness.

  “Guerrillas,” Pablo said, gasping for air. “I passed their camp on the way in.”

  “How’d you get by them?” Tommy asked.

  Pablo shot him a disparaging look.

  “Fine,” Tommy said. “Just trying to have a friendly conversation.”

  Pablo shook his head. “You two fools don’t understand. I cannot let you unleash the power that’s buried in that temple.”

  Sean sat down on a rock and wiped his forehead with the bottom of his shirt. They hadn’t had any water since the day before, and their mouths were dry as a desert lake bed. The humidity and heat were pushing their bodies to the limit. Sweat rolled off their foreheads and soaked their clothes.

  “I know, Pabs. You’ve mentioned that a few hundred times already.”

  “Three times,” Tommy corrected, trying to be cordial. “Look, Pablo, we’re not the bad guys, here. If there’s something dangerous in that temple that’s capable of doing what you say it is, Sean and I are the best people in the world to find it and make sure it stays locked down for all eternity.”

  Pablo didn’t seem sold. “You two are nothing more than treasure hunters. I know about your exploits. You run around the world digging up ancient relics that the rest of history forgot. Then you parade around in your suits, throwing big exhibit parties to show off what you’ve done. Believe me when I tell you, if you find the lost temple…it will be the end of all things. You don’t know what you’re dealing with.”

  Hearing the threat again spiked Sean’s curiosity.

  “You’ve said that a few times, too, Pablo. Tommy’s right. We aren’t looking to get rich from some lost treasure here. As to your comments about our exploits, some of those you may find in the media are highly exaggerated.”

  Pablo seemed to consider the comment.

  “I’m telling the truth. If there’s something sinister down there, we need to make sure it stays there. Now, we were told that whatever is in that temple is the source of great power, power that could be harnessed to give free energy to billions of people. It could change the world for the better. Why wouldn’t you want to at least see if that’s true?”

  “Who told you this?”

  The two Americans exchanged a glance and then looked back at Pablo without saying a word.

  Pablo snorted a derisive laugh and shook his head. “El Templo de la Muerte is not a source of energy that can be harnessed by humans for fuel. Whoever told you this is a liar.”

  Sean rolled his shoulders but kept his comments about politicians and deception to himself.

  “As the story goes,” Pablo went on, “thousands of years ago, the first Mayan settlers discovered that place. It was unlike anything they’d ever seen before. They marveled at it and wondered what could be waiting inside.” There was a tone of sadness in his voice.

  “Some believed treasures awaited. Others thought it could be a gateway to the realm of the gods. There were a few who warned everyone that something evil lurked inside, but that didn’t stop their king from sending men in to investigate.”

  He stopped and looked out over the land.

  “What happened?” Tommy asked, fully sucked in to the story.

  “They all died,” Pablo said. Not a single man the king sent into that place was ever seen again.” Then he motioned to the diary Sean held in his hand. “The man who wrote that saw firsthand what the temple is capable of. He tried to enter it and was thrown back by the power inside. Som
e would say he was lucky not to be killed. Then again, he obsessed over it for the rest of his life, always close to finding El Templo de la Muerte again but never succeeding.”

  Sean and Tommy let Pablo’s words linger for a moment in the muggy air. Thick gray clouds rolled up the mountainside across from their position, bringing a steady rain to the area. Thunder rolled in the distance.

  “The woman,” Sean said abruptly as he shook the diary, “the woman who gave us this has been a major proponent of green energy for a long time. She did her research on this. If she’d found anything like what you’re saying, she would have warned us.”

  “This woman,” Pablo said, “would have no way of knowing the things I know. Long have we kept the secret of El Templo de la Muerte out of the minds of mankind. You won’t find it mentioned in any history books, any lectures, or any specials on the History Channel. For all intents and purposes, it doesn’t exist. It must remain that way.”

  The Americans fell into silent contemplation for a long moment.

  Exotic birds squawked and chirped in the trees above. The sound of rain sweeping down the opposite hillside filled the air with a steady pounding as millions of droplets splashed on leaves and earth.

  The men had no intention of moving yet. The cooling rain would feel good on their sweat-soaked skin.

  “You said everyone who entered the temple died,” Sean said, breaking the relative silence.

  “Yes.”

  “But Alvarado…he didn’t die.”

  “He was unconscious when his men took him away. According to the story, he barely made it beyond the entrance to the temple.”

  “Yes, but you’re saying that whatever is down there could bring about the end of the world. If Alvarado went in there—heck, if the ancient Mayans who found it went in there—you see what I’m getting at here, right?”

  Pablo nodded. “Yes, I understand your question. Why didn’t the world end if those people went in. Effectively, on a grander scale, nothing bad happened.”

  “Exactly.”

  Pablo rested his hands on his knees for a few seconds while the rain began its steady climb up the hillside toward where they sat.