Alpha Force: Fault Line

by Chris Ryan

  ‘Well, from the style I can tell you it was made between AD 250 and AD 900. There’s only ever been one golden Maya mask found before in the whole of central America; they’re usually jade. In fact Maya funerary masks are not that common at all. So that makes it a very significant find indeed. I’m very excited.’

  Carmela took back the mike. ‘You can’t have done any tests on it yet, so what makes you think it’s that old?’

  Felipe grinned. ‘Good question. You see this piece of silver in the mouth? It’s associated with Chac, the rain god, and was an amulet of survival. There was also one in the mask found at Palenque in Mexico, which dates from AD 695 and is one of the finest treasures of that period.’

  Carmela could see that Felipe was warming up for a full-scale lecture and wrested the interview back to Alpha Force. ‘And it looks like you picked up a heroic injury to get it.’

  Alex saw the black lens of the camera home in on his damaged fingers in the sling. He wanted to curl up inside. ‘Yeah, we took a few knocks,’ he said nonchalantly. Off camera, Hex’s wry expression said, You great fat liar.

  Carmela turned back to the camera. ‘So there we are. We’ll be talking some more to these real-life Indiana Joneses tomorrow, when they’ve had a chance to catch their breath. But for now, back to the studio.’

  She lowered her microphone and looked at the others. ‘We’ll be back at about ten tomorrow morning. Is that all right?’

  ‘Fine by me,’ said Felipe, loosening his tie. ‘Is that OK with you?’

  ‘Yeah, great,’ said Li and Paulo.

  Hex and Alex grimaced at each other. Amber looked dubious.

  The camera- and soundmen started to pack up their equipment, while the red-headed museum official faced a barrage of questions from the school teachers and their excited charges.

  ‘How did she know about the tomb robber?’ said Alex.

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Amber sharply. She was trying to work that out too. ‘I didn’t say anything about that to my uncle.’ She looked at Felipe.

  Felipe had been loosening his tie; now he decided to take it off altogether. ‘The journalists saw all the helicopter stuff and followed the ambulance to the hospital. Plus the police cars gave them a few clues.’

  ‘Great,’ groaned Amber. ‘I didn’t really want my uncle to find out about all that. He’ll flip.’

  ‘Everyone seems to move fast here,’ said Paulo. ‘You only called him about an hour and a half ago.’

  ‘That was my doing,’ said Felipe. ‘I wanted to get it out in the open as soon as possible. You know that other mask I talked about? The other gold one?’

  Amber nodded as Li handed the mask back to him.

  Felipe took something out of his other pocket. It looked like a black handkerchief but as he shook it out they realized it was Hex’s T-shirt. ‘It was me who found it. I took it to the museum in Guatemala, where I was working. A government official was visiting when I brought it in. Everyone was very excited, especially when he asked to see it. He said he’d pay to have it tested so that we could see where it was made and when. The director of the museum couldn’t refuse – he had to let him take it away.’ Felipe wrapped up the mask as he talked. Cotton wool came out of more pockets and was carefully inserted as padding. ‘We never got the mask back. A week later, he sent back something else, a really bad fake. It was nothing like the mask – didn’t even look like it, wasn’t even gold. The real thing was worth millions – solid gold and incredibly rare. And this minister just took it from under our noses. There was nothing we could do, because we hadn’t gone public. No one knew what the real thing looked like. So today when John Middleton called me, I thought, That’s not going to happen again. Now the whole country’s seen it. The cameras did a good close-up. No one will be able to walk off with it in a hurry.’

  ‘Hey, we’ve still got an audience,’ said Paulo. The school party was standing watching them with interest.

  Felipe grinned. ‘Why don’t we give a few more people a close-up?’ He took the wrapped mask over to the little group. There was a buzz of excitement as they crowded around him.

  If Carmela was a pro with the camera, Felipe was a natural with the kids. ‘For over a thousand years,’ he said solemnly, ‘this mask has been buried in a tomb, on the face of a great Maya lord.’ He flipped back the black material. The party gasped in wonder as they saw the ancient mask up close. ‘And these people over here are the brave people who discovered it,’ he went on, indicating Alpha Force. ‘They found the tomb being robbed and brought the robber back to face justice too.’

  Several small faces looked at Alpha Force in wonder. Hex turned round to escape their gaze, but he could still feel them looking at his sweaty back. ‘Tomorrow could be really embarrassing,’ he hissed to the others.

  ‘Oh I don’t know,’ whispered Paulo. He winked at a couple of pretty girls who’d decided he was more interesting than the mask. ‘I don’t mind being treated as a hero once in a while. Real-life Indiana Joneses. Dashing, brave—’

  ‘Just so long as my uncle doesn’t see the show,’ muttered Amber.

  ‘Can’t we just go back to the jungle?’ said Alex. ‘Tell them we’ve got to look for the Ark of the Covenant?’

  At that moment, the bones of the great tyrannosaur skeleton began to shake. Felipe stopped mid-sentence and looked up in alarm. The whole room was hushed. The bones of the giant shuddered and the wires that supported them blurred as though something had plucked them. The great skull nodded; the clawed front legs twitched.

  Then, the next instant, it was still again.

  Felipe relaxed. ‘That happens all the time. You get used to it. That’s why it’s held up with tensioned steel cables.’

  The three teachers looked unhappy. ‘Is this the room we’re sleeping in?’ said one. She was plump and wore a chunky pendant set in Mexican silver.

  ‘Take your pick,’ said Felipe. ‘You can sleep in here, the room next door, or—’

  ‘I think it would be safer to sleep in the next room,’ said the teacher. She glanced at her colleagues. ‘Don’t you?’ The other two teachers – a well-built man in blue cords and fierce spectacles, and a petite woman wearing a simple gold chain – agreed.

  The children seemed to have other ideas and made noises of protest.

  Felipe hit on a way to keep the peace. ‘Next door is where we keep the needles and axes. And they were all found in tombs anyway.’

  The children brightened up. The teachers looked a little less happy.

  ‘Or you might like to sleep in the jade gallery,’ he suggested, ‘which has a rather fine mural of the blood-letting ceremony.’

  ‘I think we’ll make do with the needles and axes,’ said the man.

  Felipe turned to Alpha Force. ‘By the way, where are you guys staying tonight?’

  The five friends looked at each other. Everything had moved so fast, they hadn’t had time to think about it.

  Alex tried one last bid for freedom. ‘I don’t suppose the heli would take us back to the jungle . . .’

  ‘You know,’ said Amber, ‘my bite feels much better now. I think I second that.’ It was preferable to the complications of being grilled by a journalist eager for a swashbuckling story.

  ‘They’re coming quite early tomorrow,’ said Felipe. ‘I’ll find you a hotel.’

  ‘Actually . . .’ said Hex. He tailed off. They all looked at him. ‘Does anyone fancy sleeping with the dinosaur?’

  The resounding chorus of ‘Yes’ nearly deafened him.

  Felipe looked pleased. ‘The more the merrier – I’m bringing my kids in later to join the school sleepover – they love it here. We’ve got extra sleeping stuff in the stores, so help yourselves. In the meantime, if you’re hungry, the cafeteria is open for dinner.’

  To the five Indiana Joneses, that sounded like an even better idea.

  Hex was the first to emerge from Felipe’s storeroom. His view almost obscured by the sleeping bag, roll and pillow, he headed
purposefully for the dinosaur.

  Amber watched him. ‘No way will any teacher tell him he’s not to sleep with the T. rex.’

  ‘Quite right too,’ said Alex, and manoeuvred past her after Hex.

  ‘What is it with you boys and dinosaurs?’ asked Amber.

  Felipe stuck his head in. He’d obviously been home to collect his children because he had changed into jeans and a checked shirt. ‘Have you got everything you need?’

  Amber, Li and Paulo were sorting out three more sets of sleeping stuff. The cupboard was crammed with kit. Felipe was even better equipped than they were.

  ‘Why have you got all this?’ said Li.

  ‘It’s expedition gear,’ said Felipe. He picked up a sleeping bag and handed it to Paulo. ‘Don’t worry, it’s been washed.’

  ‘I don’t mind,’ said Paulo. He picked up his gear and made his way out of the storeroom. Felipe shook his head and knelt down to look for something in a cupboard.

  ‘Felipe,’ said Amber. ‘What’s the press saying about us and this tomb robber? What kind of questions are they going to ask us tomorrow?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Felipe. ‘Does it matter?’

  ‘Well, they’ve already got the wrong end of the stick,’ said Amber. ‘Carmela said we had to fight the robber off, but we didn’t have any fights with anybody.’

  Felipe grinned. ‘But they probably think it makes a great story. Relax. Enjoy it. You’ll look great on TV.’

  Amber rolled her eyes to the ceiling. Li put a hand on her arm. Her expression said, Chill – it’ll be all right.

  ‘Where’s the mask?’ asked Li.

  Felipe was still rummaging. ‘I put it in the high security vault downstairs.’

  Li and Amber might have been unimpressed by the dinosaur, but a high security vault was another thing entirely. Li stopped in the middle of folding a sleeping bag and stared at Felipe’s back. ‘Wow. What else have you got down there?’

  ‘Lots,’ said Felipe, his voice slightly muffled. ‘Things that have just arrived and we haven’t yet worked out how to display. More examples of the things we’ve already got on display – there’s loads more pottery, which is fascinating to me, but if we showed it all people would get bored. Things we’re sending to other museums. Tell you what, when we get out the mask for the programme tomorrow I’ll take you down there.’

  Now it was Amber’s turn to be excited. ‘You’re on!’

  Amber dumped her sleeping gear beside Li’s. The others were standing by the mural of the prehistoric jungle scene.

  Alex pointed at it. ‘Spot the deliberate mistake.’

  They all peered carefully. Li came up behind them. ‘I give up,’ she said immediately. ‘Is it something obvious like they’re wearing wristwatches?’

  Alex ignored her sarcasm and pointed to a couple of stumpy-looking dinosaurs, feeding on a ragged carcass. ‘That one. It’s a plant eater, not a carnivore.’

  ‘Oh yes,’ said Hex. ‘It’s a bagaceratops.’

  Amber, shaking out her sleeping roll, had been trying to keep out of this male-bonding exchange of dinosaur trivia, but that name was too absurd to be ignored. ‘What’s that – a dinosaur you make into handbags?’

  ‘No,’ said Hex primly, ‘it says it down there. Bagaceratops. Late Cretaceous.’

  Amber shook her head again and went back to bed-making. After handing them out to the children, Felipe had also supplied them with glow sticks – plastic rods containing fluorescent chemicals. Amber activated them by breaking the capsule inside and laid them on the floor between the sleeping bags. The sticks would glow like torches for eight hours.

  ‘Lights out in one minute,’ called Felipe from the next room. ‘Then you’re on your own.’

  ‘Glow sticks on, everyone,’ called the voice of a teacher. ‘If you need to get up in the night you can’t put all the lights on. Hide them in your sleeping bags until you need them.’

  ‘Can’t we see the animatronic dinosaur?’ pleaded a voice.

  ‘I told you, Jorges,’ said Felipe. ‘It’s still in the workshop.’

  ‘But you said—’

  ‘It’ll be ready some time next week, Jorges, I promise.’

  Amber grinned. ‘Sounds like that must be one of Felipe’s kids.’

  Hex, Paulo and Alex were looking at each other with wide eyes. ‘Animatronic dinosaur?’ they said, as one.

  Li poked Paulo. ‘Maybe if we’re still here in a week you can see it too.’

  13 BUMP IN THE NIGHT

  The lights were out. The children were settling down in the axe gallery. In the dinosaur room next door, Alpha Force sat on their sleeping bags, around the starfish of green light sticks.

  ‘You know,’ sighed Amber, ‘I was really tired when we got here, but now I can’t sleep. Anyone coming for a wander?’

  Hex rummaged in his bergen and brought out the night vision goggles. ‘Give these another spin.’

  ‘I’ll come,’ said Li.

  Amber put on the goggles and adjusted them to fit her head. When she looked through them the glow sticks in the centre of the room disappeared completely.

  Hex, looking up at her, pulled a face. ‘I saw that,’ said Amber.

  ‘Just testing. You look like a biceratops.’

  ‘Biceratops?’ echoed Alex.

  Hex grinned. ‘Well, if triceratops means horrible three-horned face . . .’

  The others laughed.

  Amber snatched off the goggles. ‘Come on, Li, let’s leave these philistines to sleep while we go and look at fascinating old things.’

  The girls picked their way through to the next gallery. Li carried a green light stick. It illuminated just a few metres in front of them. The first thing they saw was a statue of a reclining figure holding a bowl on its stomach, with its face turned towards them. As the eerie green light glanced off its headdress and eyes it looked quite real, its expression strangely forlorn.

  ‘It’s a chacmool,’ said Li.

  ‘What’s that?’ said Amber.

  ‘I don’t know, that’s just what it says here.’

  Amber carried the night vision goggles but didn’t bother to put them on. There were cabinets around the walls. She wandered up to them idly. They contained pieces of jade, laid out in neat rows. In the half light they looked like blobs of black glass. Further along there were hoops and amulets and necklaces.

  Li fell into step beside her. ‘What’s up?’

  Amber shrugged. ‘It’s silly.’

  ‘Your uncle?’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘I think you’re making a mountain out of a molehill, Amber. He must know the kind of things we’ve done—’

  ‘But we’ve always been under cover before. We covered our tracks. Now we’re going to be on national TV as ninja temple warriors.’

  ‘He might not see the programme.’

  ‘Of course he will.’ Amber trailed her fingers idly along a row of cabinets. She looked in but hardly noticed what was in them. ‘He’s connected with the museum – they’ll have told him to watch the news. And everything else. And who wouldn’t watch their relatives on TV? Especially him – he’s always trying to find out what I really get up to.’ She sighed. ‘I just couldn’t stand it if he pulled the plug on Alpha Force. Or if he even threatened to.’

  Li didn’t know what to say. She gazed into a cabinet, collecting her thoughts. Then she spotted something. ‘Hey, Amber. Look at this.’

  Amber came over.

  ‘Look at that label.’

  Under a pair of jade ear hoops and a ring was a plate that said: BY KIND PERMISSION OF MR T. AND MRS J. MIDDLETON.

  Amber looked at it. For a moment she couldn’t speak.

  ‘Amber?’ said Li gently. ‘Are you all right?’

  Amber shook herself. ‘I suppose my parents must have found some stuff while on one of their missions. And donated it here.’

  ‘Just like us,’ said Li quietly. ‘History repeating.’

  Amber’s thoughts
were a whirl. No wonder her uncle was able to pull strings so quickly. He’d pulled those same ones before. He’d known exactly how to get helicopters here too. Had he done the same for her parents? What had they been doing while they were here? Apprehending tomb robbers was a bit lightweight for them – did John Middleton imagine his intrepid niece had been fighting bandits, drug barons and all the other potential dangers the area had to offer? He’d surely fear the worst. But most of all, seeing the label made her feel quite strange. Amber hadn’t known her parents very well. Moments like this were like suddenly being given an undiscovered snapshot of their lives.

  Li put her arm on Amber’s shoulder. ‘It’s nice. It’s what we wanted, wasn’t it? To carry on their work. We’ll keep doing that somehow.’ She looked further along the cabinet. ‘I wonder if there are any more?’

  Amber could feel tears pricking her eyes. She felt wrung out like a rag. She didn’t want to cry, so she put the night vision goggles on to hide her eyes. All the shadows disappeared. The room instantly spread out, became green. She could see into every corner. It was all in shades of pale greeny grey. All the stonework looked hazy, as though seen through netting. She turned. Her heart jumped into her mouth.

  Beside the chacmool was a glowing figure, reclining in the same position. It had wild white curly hair and it held its hands in the shape of a bowl. It grinned and the inside of its mouth showed white like a furnace.

  Amber’s heart was hammering like an express train. She was about to shriek at it but it put a finger to its lips, materialized into Paulo, then pointed. Amber followed his finger. A couple of metres away from the chacmool was another glowing figure. This one had short tufts of hair – Hex. Paulo pointed again to the doorway. A floppy-fringed chacmool had arranged itself there. Alex.

  Amber wanted to giggle but she stifled it. She took off the goggles. ‘Hey, Li, you should try these in here. They’re interesting.’