The Balance Omnibus

by Alan Baxter

  ‘Sure. Thanks.’

  Father Paleros held open the flap of the first shower tent. ‘I’ll stand guard here to see that you’re not disturbed.’

  After her shower, the effects of which vanished after thirty seconds back out in the heat of the day, Katherine walked with Father Paleros back to her hut. She put her things inside, then rejoined him in the bright sunshine, her camera pack slung over one shoulder. ‘Do you know where Senor Sanchez is?’ she asked.

  The priest nodded. ‘He is in the pyramid at the moment. Your associate, Mr Drake, is enjoying the rather frugal breakfast that we can offer here. Might I suggest that you join him? I’ll fetch Senor Sanchez while you eat.’

  ‘That would be marvellous. But I’d rather not disturb Senor Sanchez while he’s working.’

  Father Paleros raised both his hands. ‘Not at all. He said to be sure I let him know when you were both up. In truth, I think he’s rather pleased at the idea of an exclusive interview, and an article about his work. He confided in me last night that he actually has a healthy respect for your magazine. Although he won’t admit it, he’s really very excited about your presence.’

  ‘Really? You wouldn’t guess it.’

  ‘Don’t be fooled by his demeanour,’ Father Paleros said. ‘He’ll rarely show any kind of emotion, I’ve noticed, but listen carefully to what he says. He’s a very passionate man.’

  ‘I’d be very grateful if you’d let him know then. And I am very hungry.’

  Father Paleros led her to a larger tent at the end of the longest row. Inside it was marginally cooler, much less bright. There were several trestle tables filling the tent with a couple of serving tables at one end. An old lady, her skin dark and leathery, etched with deep creases, stood behind one of the tables. Coffee urns and large metal bowls of what looked like rice pudding or porridge stood on the table before her, which she served to the waiting workers. Thomas Drake, with his white skin and even whiter hair and beard, stood out among all the workers. Their clothes were light, colourful, though grubby with the sandy soil of the area. Thomas still wore his tweed suit. The perfect Englishman.

  She thanked Father Paleros, who went to find Pedro Sanchez, and walked up to the lady serving breakfast. Katherine tried her rusty Spanish. ‘Buenos dios.’ The old lady smiled, yellow, broken teeth, and pointed at the coffee urn. ‘Si, gracias,’ Katherine said, smiling back. She was amazed by this woman, by the beauty that was so obvious, buried now by age like the jungle had buried the pyramid, but revealed by a smile. The woman poured a tin mug of strong smelling black coffee and slopped a couple of ladlesfull of the steaming porridge-like breakfast into a bowl. Katherine thanked her, making a mental note to get a photograph of this remarkable woman before she left.

  Thomas Drake raised a hand in greeting as Katherine approached. ‘Good morning, my dear. Did you sleep well?’

  She smiled. Why did everyone here call her ‘my dear’ all the time? ‘I slept very well, thank you. I don’t even remember my head hitting the pillow. You?’

  ‘Indeed. And I awoke this morning ravenous! This is porridge, I believe, and it’s actually not too bad. This is my second bowl. However, I would advise steeling yourself for the coffee.’

  Katherine paused, her mug halfway to her lips. ‘That bad?’

  Drake chuckled. ‘I won’t lie to you. It is coffee, but that’s as far as I’m willing to go in judgement of it.’

  Katherine gamely took a sip. She winced as she swallowed the strong, bitter beverage. It was extremely potent, enough to make her toes curl involuntarily. ‘My god! That’s brutal!’

  Drake laughed. ‘The first sip is the worst. Try the porridge.’

  As she scooped up a spoonful of the steaming white breakfast she asked, ‘Have you seen much of the site?’ The porridge did taste fairly good.

  Drake nodded, finishing the last of his second helping, leaning back from the table. ‘I had a bit of a stroll around this morning. The living quarters, toilets and showers make up two sides of the site, it seems, with the jungle marking the second long side and the pyramid at the head of it all. The pyramid is really quite impressive, I can’t wait to take a look inside.’

  ‘Me too. Father Paleros has gone to find Sanchez now, so hopefully he’ll give us the guided tour.’

  ‘I hope so. I had a look at a couple of the other covered areas. They seem to be buried chambers of some kind. These fellows are all in there dusting off the insides very carefully. It all seems to be very well organised.’

  ‘It does,’ Katherine agreed. She pushed her camera pack across to him. ‘Here you go. This will reinforce our claim that you’re my photographer. I have to trust you now. Can you take a decent photograph?’

  Drake opened the zippered bag. ‘The integrity of your magazine rather depends on it, doesn’t it?’

  ‘It does really. The story will need to be accompanied by decent shots.’ As Drake began removing items from the bag Katherine identified each one. ‘That’s the main body. It’s a semi-automatic SLR. You can set it for full-auto for most of the pictures you take. The camera will automatically focus, set the aperture and so on. There’s a pop-up flash that will fire if it’s needed, but I have a proper flashgun too. That’s it, it just slides on the hot-shoe there. The lens on there is a basic wide angle to telephoto, twenty eight millimetre to seventy. Use the grip wheel there to zoom in and out, press the shutter button gently and the camera will do the rest. The other lens is a zoom, pretty powerful. I’ll show you how to change the lens when we come to it. Any time we need a shot that requires a bit of setting up, I’ll help you out. Okay?’

  Drake nodded. ‘This is a very nice camera. I have used something similar before. I’m sure we’ll manage.’

  ‘I’m sure we will,’ Katherine replied. ‘After all, my editor knows this is a last minute stopover and he knows I don’t have a photographer with me. My photographer will meet me at my next stop, so my editor won’t be expecting the greatest shots. I’m not famous for my photographic skills.’ She leaned back, pushing her empty bowl away. ‘You’re right, that is pretty good.’

  Pedro Sanchez approached the table. ‘Good morning, my friends. I trust you slept well and have been satisfactorily fed.’

  ‘Absolutely,’ Katherine replied. ‘Please, join us.’

  Sanchez sat down beside her on the bench seat. ‘Thank you. I take it you are rather anxious to look around?’

  ‘Yes, I’m really very excited to be here. Maybe we could have a look around to get a feel for the place this morning, take some photographs and so on, then perhaps I could take the first interview with you?’

  Sanchez beamed. ‘Of course. Please, follow me.’

  He got up and led Katherine and Thomas back out into the day. Thomas was fumbling with the camera pack, settling it and the camera around his neck. He leaned toward Katherine as they stepped from the tent. ‘Is there a film in it?’ he whispered.

  Katherine chuckled. ‘Digital,’ she whispered. ‘That’s why there’s a little screen on the back. The On button is beside the shutter button. Loads of memory too, so don’t worry.’

  ‘Ah. Good-o.’ Thomas straightened up and began looking carefully around, squinting up at the light, getting into character.

  Sanchez led them first toward one of the covered areas in the centre of the site. He walked slowly, relaxed, talking as they went. ‘The pyramid itself is obviously the prize of the site, but there’s so much else of interest. There are still people investigating the surrounding jungle, but I’m fairly convinced that all the ruins lie in this area, south of the main face of the pyramid. I say main face because that seems to be where the main entrance is situated.’ He gestured to the tarpaulin-porched doorway in the lowest level of the pyramid. ‘There may be other entrances to the structure and there may be other interesting things to be found in the immediate vicinity, but, for now at least, we’re concentrating our efforts on this area. It was the easiest to clear as well, not so dense as the jungle on the other three
sides of the pyramid. That in itself suggests that it’s not as old, not so established. We’re wandering in the dark here in a lot of ways, and I’m sure we’re missing out on some pretty interesting stuff, but there’s so much here already that we don’t really have the time to look further afield. We’ll get to it eventually, of course.’ Pride was obvious in his voice.

  As they reached the covered dig Thomas crouched low, getting a photograph of the operation. ‘You seem to have everything very well organised, Senor Sanchez,’ Katherine noted.

  Sanchez turned to her, smiling a little uncomfortably when he spotted the small dictaphone in her hand. ‘Oh, do you mind?’ Katherine asked. ‘I could take notes if you’d feel more comfortable.’

  Sanchez’ smile relaxed. ‘Of course not, my dear. Whatever’s easiest for you. And don’t be fooled by our appearance of organisation. We only have just about enough men to keep a grip on things. I’d really rather not find anything else just yet. I’ve only recently arrived myself, but the people working for me have done a wonderful job. I’m really only keeping what they started going.’

  ‘Father Paleros said you’d struck archaeological gold here; would you agree with that?’

  Sanchez nodded. ‘I think so, yes. This is by far the biggest operation I’ve ever been involved with. We really do stand to make some remarkable finds here. We already have, of course, but I’m convinced there’s more.’

  Thomas came back to stand beside them. ‘So what are these chaps here up to?’ he asked, looking at the excavation beside them.

  Sanchez crouched. ‘As you can see there, the walls of this dig are the original walls of some kind of chamber. There’s a large amount of bas relief on the walls, the Mayan equivalent of Egyptian hieroglyphics, if you like. The Maya had a remarkably accurate calendar system. All their art and architecture bears some reference to when it was laid down using their Long Count calendar. Here we’re trying to clear the walls of the chamber to decipher its purpose. There are several of these chambers leading up to the pyramid in a rough avenue. There’s almost certainly more to it. We’re slowly going to clear the ground right up to the foot of the pyramid. The jungle floor has risen over the years with increased leaf litter and so on. Hopefully we can bring the ground level down by a foot or so to see what else lies along the avenue. The most interesting of these chambers is over here however.’

  As they headed toward another tarpaulin covered excavation, only twenty feet or so from the foot of the pyramid, Katherine asked, ‘What do you think was the original purpose of this whole area?’

  Sanchez shrugged. ‘That’s what we’re trying to find out. It doesn’t bear the classical marks of a Mayan settlement as such. It’s relatively small compared to many sites, such as Chichen Itza. It seems to have been a purely ceremonial site, but we don’t know why. The more we learn about the avenue and the pyramid itself, the better a picture we’ll build of the purpose of the site as a whole.’ He pointed into the dig before them. ‘This one is really very interesting. It’s initially identical to the other chambers, with similar inscriptions. These ones are nearly cleared now. But far more interesting is the floor in this particular chamber. See there, they’re clearing away what appears to be a trap door of some kind. The large stone they’re working around looks as though it could be removed.’

  As Thomas leaned over to take a photograph, Katherine asked. ‘Do you think it’s just another chamber below there?’

  Sanchez gripped his hands together, wringing them ever so slightly. ‘Well, I don’t know. However, I’m hoping for a little more than that. You see how close to the pyramid this chamber is? There seems to be another level to the pyramid, below ground, maybe several more levels, but we simply cannot get there. The only subterranean area we’ve been able to reach so far contains the crystal skull. I’m desperately hoping that this will turn out to be a passage leading under the pyramid, into its underground chambers. Imagine what we might discover there!’

  Katherine smiled, charmed by Sanchez’ enthusiasm. ‘Might we have a look inside the pyramid?’ she asked.

  Sanchez nodded. ‘Certainly. It’s cool and damp in there and the flooring is not too good, so please be careful. We’re slowly getting boards laid down to make it easier.’

  ‘I’m really rather enjoying all this you know,’ Thomas whispered.

  Katherine smiled, trying not to laugh out loud. This was quickly becoming one of the most bizarre assignments she had been involved with.

  They stopped at the tarp covered entrance, peering into the gloom. Sanchez turned to face them. ‘There are oil lamps along the way inside, but we don’t keep them lit. We’re attempting to preserve things as they are. So many of these sites are suffering immensely from the invasion of people. A person simply breathing inside makes a difference, humidity, body heat, and so on. As soon as we opened this entrance we irreversibly affected the monument. It’s important to keep our impact as subtle as possible. We only light the lamps as we need them and try to use battery torches as much as we can.’ As he spoke he unhooked a large Maglight torch from his belt, twisted it on. ‘Follow me, and please don’t touch anything. Even lightly touching a wall leaves an oily residue that will take its toll in time.’

  Katherine nodded. ‘Certainly, I understand.’

  Thomas stepped up to them. ‘Yes, me too. You know, I was once on holiday and we decided to tour some caves. They were splendid, remarkable formations like stalactites and veils and so on. The guide fellow showed us these areas of shiny rock, smooth as a pickled onion. He said that they’d only gone smooth like that over the last decade or so, because tourists would run their fingers along to see how it felt.’

  Sanchez nodded. ‘Exactly! And every tourist that does that changes it a little more each time and none of them actually know what it originally felt like.’

  ‘Bit of a conundrum really. If you touch it to see how it feels, you’ll change the feel of it. So effectively, one can never know how it originally felt.’

  Katherine was looking from Sanchez to Drake and back again. ‘Have you two finished?’ she asked, smiling. ‘I get the idea. I promise I won’t touch!’

  Sanchez laughed. ‘It’s a point of some considerable annoyance to people such as ourselves, Miss Bailey, that the very purpose of our work contradicts what we try to do. Knowledge of the past often involves the destruction of that past. We’re hypocrites desperately trying to justify our endeavours, while honestly seeking ways to minimise the impact on our sites.’ He shone his torch into the dark passage before them. ‘This way then.’

  The passage was extremely cool, accompanied by a chalky, dusty smell. There was a slight dampness in the air, though it was unlike the humidity outside. Thomas let out a small sigh. ‘I’d rather have a cot in here than out there, you know.’

  Sanchez laughed. ‘I think we all would, but our last conversation should remind you why we haven’t succumbed to the temptation.’

  ‘Of course.’ He looked at Katherine and shrugged, mouthing the words Oh well. Katherine shook her head, smiling. She reached out with her dictaphone as Sanchez began speaking again.

  ‘Once we located the stone that was actually the door, which is in itself a little unusual, we first spent a long time clearing the edges, making sure that we didn’t damage the stone itself or the surrounding rock. We want to be able to reseal the pyramid as tightly as possible, should we be away from the site for any length of time.’ He indicated two passages, one on each side of the corridor they followed. ‘These two lead to large chambers rich in mural work and calendar references. There are always people working in there during the day, so feel free to take a look. Please only take one photograph in each area though. The flash, you understand.’

  Thomas nodded. ‘Of course. It’s very generous of you to let us take pictures inside at all. I’ll pop in those rooms on the way back.’

  ‘As you wish.’ Sanchez pointed ahead. ‘Now we come to the current prize of the site.’ The corridor they were following seeme
d to come to a dead end some twenty feet ahead. There were no markings on the walls or ceiling. The floor was made of wood. ‘We put in this false floor once we had removed the original stone. The stone that made this part of the floor had an exquisite mural worked into it. We believe it’s a representation of one of the most powerful of Mayan gods, Zamna. Images of Zamna are really rather uncommon, so we were very pleased to discover it. That turned out to be the tip of the iceberg, however. On investigating the stone we realised that it could be removed. We very carefully excavated it and discovered a stairway leading down. As I said, it’s the only subterranean area so far discovered.’ He bent down, lifted the edge of the wooden cover. It was around five feet square, tightly nailed boards. Light from an oil lamp shone up from below, flickering orange. Katherine was reminded of the old Hammer House of Horror movies. This would have to be The Mummy.

  Sanchez gestured for them both to descend. He followed them down the steps, gently closing the makeshift trapdoor above him.

  Katherine and Thomas looked around themselves in wonder. A small, nervous looking workman glanced up from his position on the floor, where he was carefully brushing at an area of wall. When he saw Sanchez appear, he went back to work. All four walls of the chamber were covered from floor to ceiling in intricately carved designs. The grooves and cuts were filled with dust, slowly being cleared by the careful brushwork. It was a beautiful sight, made rather eerie by the gentle orange glow of the oil lamp. A section of hessian sacking hung down over one area of the far wall, about two feet square, some three feet from the floor. Thomas gestured toward it. ‘Is that the err...’

  Sanchez smiled. ‘Yes, it is.’ He went over to the hanging sack. The man on the floor looked up, his face betraying anxious concern. He babbled something in Spanish. Sanchez nodded, his expression a little annoyed. The man put down his brush and scurried from the chamber. Sanchez looked to Katherine and Thomas, his eyes apologetic. ‘Many of them have considerable superstitious ideas relating to this object,’ he said.