“No survivors?” Pablo asked, finally finding his voice again.
“That’s right. Some might think that leaving a witness or two would be better because then the witness could issue a warning to those in charge. Doesn’t work that way. It’s much better to let the dead do the talking.”
“Yeah, but sooner or later they’ll figure out it was you and your group here.”
“That’s why we leave clues,” Jack said.
“Clues?”
“Yep. Make it look like it was the Mexican government doing the dirty work. The cartels have already been at it with the government for a long time. They think we’re on the same side. I simply let them keep thinking that.”
He grabbed a plate and handed it to Tommy. “Taco?”
Tommy nodded and took the plate gratefully.
The other two helped themselves and continued down the short line where there was a pan of beef, onions, some kind of sauce with cilantro, and a few other items the guests could add to their food.
“So, this thing you’re looking for,” Jack said, “what is it exactly?”
“We’re trying to find a lost temple,” Sean said.
“Right. Temple. Where is it?”
“We don’t know. We found another clue, but we have to get back to civilization so we can try to figure out where to go next.”
“Why civilization? Need the internet or something?”
“Yeah, or something. Why? Don’t tell me you have an internet connection out here.” Sean was dubious, but he didn’t think the camp had anything like that.
“Nope,” Jack said with a smile. “I haven’t had internet since I came down here. Have to be honest. I don’t miss it.” He paused for a second. “Should I?”
The other three shook their heads.
“No. It’s a mess,” Sean said. “Everyone’s on social media now, acting like they should get all the world’s attention. It’s really annoying.”
“But the internet is useful, right? I mean, you can find stuff on there.”
“Oh sure. It’s useful. But being unplugged from it sounds pretty nice. I get away now and then to the wilderness to reset.”
Jack nodded that he understood. “It’s the best way to live, man. So, you’re looking for a temple. Maybe I can help.”
Sean and Tommy exchanged a sidelong glance.
“Really? How’s that?”
Jack’s lips creased into a huge smile. “There are other ways to find what you’re looking for.”
Chapter 31
Chiapas
“Here you go,” Jack said. “This is everything we have.”
Sean and Tommy looked around the tent, taking inventory of all the gadgets, gizmos, and technological equipment.
Some of it looked like it came from the industrial era when telephones were in their infancy and people were still reluctant to leave Morse Code behind. There were a few old radios along one of the tent walls. The antique communication devices were set up on top of rickety wooden tables and connected to a gasoline generator just outside.
A computer sat on a table along the far wall. It wasn’t new, but it was less than five years old. Funny, Sean thought, how context changed one’s point of view.
In the United States or most of the civilized world, a five-year-old computer was the equivalent to a few hundred years old. Deep in the heart of the jungle, however, things changed. Any kind of technology was a rare and appreciated blessing.
“You can use that computer to call anyone you need,” Jack said, pointing at the rudimentary workstation. “We have a link that feeds up to a satellite and then filters back down through wireless networks and cell towers.”
Sean raised a dubious eyebrow. Tommy, too, was suspicious.
“How did you manage that with this little operation?” Sean asked.
Jack flashed a mischievous grin. “Do you really want to know the answer to that, or do you just want to make a call?”
Sean returned the smile. “I’ll just make the call. But we have a little work to do first.”
“I thought you’d say that.”
He led the way over to the desk and turned on the computer. It flickered to life despite looking like it was covered in a month’s worth of dust.
“It’s charged up and ready to go,” Jack said. “The battery is pretty old, so if you need it for more than half an hour, let me know and I’ll turn on the generator. What else can I get you?”
“Paper. Pen. Maybe a map if you have one.”
Jack turned to one of his men and issued the order to get the things Sean requested. Tommy and Pablo pulled up chairs and circled around the workstation while Jack remained standing, watching them over their shoulders.
Sean set down the diary and then placed the phone he’d taken next to it.
He turned it on and went to the camera app, opened it, and pulled up the images they’d taken in the cave behind the waterfall.
“Where’d you get that?” Jack asked.
“Took it off one of Martinez’s men. He won’t be needing it anymore.”
“What is that on the screen?”
“It’s the code we’ve been working on,” Tommy said. “This diary works in conjunction with those engravings. We’ve found those symbols in several places. One set leads to another, and as we progress, the matrix becomes easier to solve.”
Jack looked at the grid in the diary, then the image on the phone, and back to the old book again. “How in the world do you guys find this stuff?”
Sean rolled his shoulders and snorted a laugh. “This gig was actually a private deal. Someone wanted us to look into this book for her. We’re trying to see if this lost temple is actually a source of power.”
“Power?”
“Or evil,” Pablo added with a heavy layer of cynicism.
“Evil?”
“Pabs is worried we’re going to uncover something that might bring about the end of the world. He’d rather us not trigger the apocalypse.”
Jack raised an eyebrow. “I’d prefer you not do that, as well.”
“Obviously. The thing is, if this temple really does exist and there is something dangerous inside, better we find it than someone else. Right, Pabs?”
Pablo said nothing, but he didn’t disagree. They’d already been over that.
“So, you’re trying to find some ancient Mayan temple. We’ve seen all sorts of interesting stuff like that in the jungle over the years. You stumble across ruins pretty frequently. The jungle grows so quickly, I imagine most of the ancient buildings and other structures were probably covered up in a short amount of time.”
“Which is why these clues are so important,” Sean said. “If we can pinpoint the temple’s location, we can avoid any needless wandering around.”
“You definitely don’t want to do that, the wandering thing. Lots of stuff out there that can kill you.”
“Right.”
Sean turned his attention to the phone and the diary.
A few seconds later, the guard Jack sent out returned with an old notepad, a pencil, and a folded map. The man laid the stuff on the workstation and returned to the corner of the room to watch in silence.
Tommy took the pencil and paper and started drawing the symbols on the notepad while Sean held the book open and kept the phone’s screen from going back to sleep mode.
“It’s weird,” Tommy said, looking at the phone, “it seems like most of those emblems circle around those three dots in the center.”
“I noticed that,” Sean said. “Wonder why?”
Once Tommy had copied the symbols, he turned his attention to the diary and the matrix they’d been working from earlier in their quest. He created a new matrix and began working through the code to translate the symbols.
Two-thirds of the way through the translation, he scowled and scratched his head.
“What’s the matter?” Pablo asked.
Tommy shook his head. “The translation. It’s…it’s nonsensical. Just random lette
rs put together.”
“Before you pass judgment,” Sean said, “finish the code, and let’s see what else it contains.”
“Fine, but I’m telling you I don’t like it. Something is wrong here.”
Everyone leaned in closer as Tommy kept working, translating one symbol after another until he’d finished the entire sequence. He leaned back and put the pencil down. Tommy shook his head back and forth.
“I don’t get it,” he said.
The words on the page looked like a jumble puzzle with mixed-up consonants and vowels. There was no way to make hide nor hair of any of it.
“Maybe we have to shuffle the letters around to make sense of it,” Sean offered.
“No,” Tommy said, shaking his head. “I already thought of that. There’s not enough vowels to make it work.”
He stood up and walked to the other side of the room to take a breath and reset his mind. Sean, Pablo, and Jack remained at the table, still poring over the diary and phone images.
Sean frowned as he stared at the phone screen. He tilted his head to the side and narrowed his eyes.
“What if”—he paused for a second to make sure he wasn’t suggesting something crazy—“these aren’t part of the cipher from before?”
Tommy spun around and waited for further explanation.
“It could be that the cipher ended with the previous clue,” Sean went on. “Maybe Alvarado wasn’t trying to code this last piece at all but gave us the answer right there on the ceiling of the waterfall cave.”
Tommy stepped back toward the workstation. “What do you mean, exactly?”
“Look at these images on the phone,” Sean said. “Maybe the last site has a code all its own, a new one we have to figure out based on a completely new key.”
“Then where is the key?” Tommy asked. “We can’t solve the thing without it.”
“It’s not another language?” Pablo asked. “I know several different dialects from this region, and it relates to none of those. It could be something foreign.”
Sean stood and paced around the room while he thought. Tommy mimicked his behavior along the opposite wall while Jack and Pablo remained by the table, trying to work out what the strange message could possibly mean.
After twenty minutes of working on it, no one could decipher the bizarre message. Jack stretched out his arms and yawned before he moved away from the table.
“You know what helps me when I’m in a pickle like this and can’t figure something out?” he asked.
“What?” Tommy wondered.
“I step away from whatever it is I’m working on and take a break for a little while.”
“We just started on this like twenty minutes ago,” Tommy said.
“I know. And for that twenty minutes you were hammered down on that. Maybe you should take a step back, come out here by the campfire, and let things go for a while. Have some tequila. Try to relax. And maybe it will come to you.”
“I think I’ll pass on the tequila,” Tommy said. “But maybe you’re right. It might do us some good to give our brains a little rest. We’ve been working so hard on figuring this out, running from drug smugglers—”
“Killing my men,” Jack added with a wink.
“Still, I’m sorry about that.”
Jack shrugged. “Personally, I had my doubts about them. Pretty sure they were plotting to overthrow me. So, if you were going to take out any of my guys, those two were the ones to go.”
“That makes me feel a little better,” Sean said.
“Come on. It’s getting dark outside. We make our own tequila here, and it’s very good.”
“I’ll have some of that,” Pablo said, standing up with an eagerness the other two hadn’t seen in him since they met. “I need it.”
Outside, dusk had already taken over. Twilight filled the jungle, bathing it in a pale darkness that grew blacker with every passing moment. The sounds of wildlife died slowly, leaving only a few tropical birds to fill the air with their exotic songs. In the center of camp a fire crackled, sending sparks and smoke high into an opening in the canopy above. The fire’s dancing tongues of orange and yellow licked the air in wild and erratic fashion.
Some of Jack’s men were standing guard at various points around the camp while several others took their turn around the fire, pouring each other tin cups full of home-brewed tequila. Jack spotted some empty chairs to the left and led the way over to them where he had a seat and offered his new guests one as well.
Sean and the others accepted graciously, easing into the rickety chairs where they could feel the warmth radiating from the fire. He looked up into the night sky as stars began twinkling in the ever-darkening blanket above. The smell of smoke filled his nostrils, a welcome scent from the past he didn’t get the chance to enjoy all that often anymore.
“I miss camping,” Sean said out of the blue. “I can see why you like it here.”
Jack nodded. “Yeah, I mean, this setup has its challenges, but I don’t miss my old life that much. There are times when I miss the little things like a hot shower or air conditioning, but you adjust. The freedom that comes from living out here far outweighs the cons.”
Tommy let their host finish as he stared into the hot coals at the bottom of the fire. Someone passed a jug of tequila to him, and he started to hand it off to Pablo when he realized the man who gave it to him was anxiously waiting for him to take a drink.
“No getting out of this one, Tommy,” Jack said. “It would be rude to refuse.”
Tommy sighed. “Really? Tequila isn’t my thing. I mean, I don’t really drink, but if I did, it would probably be bourbon or something like that.”
“Tommy….” Sean prodded with a devilish grin.
“Fine,” Tommy relented. He took the jug and tipped it up to his lips. The peppery liquid splashed into his mouth, and he swallowed with a grimace. The burn hit his throat as he lowered the jug. He nearly coughed the tequila all over his legs. Somehow, he fought off the urge and managed to keep it down before passing the jug to Pablo.
“Smooth, isn’t it?” Jack asked, holding off a fit of laughter.
Tommy was still coughing a little, so he couldn’t answer right away.
Meanwhile, Pablo tipped the jug back and took two giant swigs. Only a small dribble escaped down the side of his mouth and over his chin before he passed the jug to Sean.
“That isn’t bad,” Pablo said with smile. “Warms the soul.”
Sean took the jug and passed it to their host.
“Don’t want any?” Jack asked.
“I’m good,” he said. “I prefer to keep all my wits about me. When you’re already working on a brain cell deficit, it’s best to hold on to as many as you can.”
Jack pursed his lips and nodded, happy to take the jug and pour some tequila into his throat.
“Hey, wait a second,” Tommy protested abruptly. “No, sir. You said it would be rude if I turned down a drink, but it’s okay if he does it?”
Jack shrugged, holding the jug in front of his mouth. “I was messing with you. These guys don’t care if you have a drink or not. More for us if you don’t.”
Sean and Pablo erupted into a full round of laughter while Jack enjoyed several gulps of the homemade liquor. Tommy shook his head, but he couldn’t help joining in the laughter even if it was at his own expense.
The jug made its way around the campfire a few times before Pablo and Jack decided they’d had enough.
“I can see what you mean about the freedom of being out here,” Tommy said after a long period of contemplative silence. “But it’s got to be dangerous. I mean, the cartels are obviously bad news, but the wildlife here is equally as terrifying.”
“Yep,” Jack agreed. “It can be if you let it. We keep a pretty good perimeter so the venomous snakes and other dangerous animals usually stay away. Now and then, we spot a jaguar hanging out in the trees, but they typically keep to themselves. And there’s always a fire burning at night to make sure
any particularly brave animals will think twice.”
“What about supplies?” Pablo asked. “You said you go into one of the towns to get things you need. Where do you get the money?”
“Ah,” Jack said, holding up a finger. “Nothing gets by this guy. We are privately funded.”
“Privately funded? By who?”
“That, my friends, is a secret and one I’m not permitted to share. Just know that we are well taken care of and want for nothing…well, except the air conditioning I mentioned before. This place gets pretty hot and humid.”
None of the men had anything to add at that point, so they all fell into a comfortable silence, listening to the background noises of jungle mixed with a few sparse conversations from Jack’s guerrillas.
Sean stared up into the sky. It was the first time he’d had a chance to relax in a while. Even though he knew danger might lurk all around them, he allowed himself to switch off and just enjoy the sights, smells, and sounds washing over him from all directions.
He hadn’t had much time like that in recent memory. A few vacations with Adriana were his primary conduit for rest, though those were rare. He realized he’d not been in touch with her in nearly a week. Oddly, he hadn’t even thought about her that much, though it wasn’t without good reason. With everything going on in the lost temple mission, there hadn’t been a lot of time to sit down and pine over her absence.
Now, however, he wished she was there, sitting by him at the campfire, enjoying a moment of quiet in the middle of the Mexican jungle. Maybe he had a weird sense of what it meant to relax. He didn’t care. It was what he enjoyed, and it went perfectly with his skewed sense of adventure.
He put his palms on the back of his head and continued to gaze up into the night sky. Billions of stars twinkled like miniature lamps burning in a far-off galaxy. He knew some were galaxies. Others were stars in other solar systems, and a few were planets he knew well from his time spent studying astronomy.
Sean had taken the class out of pure curiosity. His major wasn’t even remotely related, but that didn’t matter. He’d always enjoyed looking at the stars as a younger man, even sitting out in his driveway to gaze up into the heavens at the incredible creation above.
The Fourth Prophecy Page 23