by Nick Cook
‘Oh my god,’ Ricardo whispered.
The men bundled Cristina into the back of their jeep and drove off just as slowly as they’d arrived, obviously not wanting to draw attention to their vehicle.
Ricardo stared at the monitor, his hands clawing the counter.
‘But why in hell’s name would the police commandant want to abduct a young woman like Cristina?’ Jack asked, voicing what we were all thinking.
My body felt like it had drained of blood. ‘To silence her?’
Jack nodded. ‘If some people really do believe she’s a devil, that’s not out of the question. Machu Picchu generates most of the income for this whole region. So any negative publicity that might threaten that revenue stream is going to be bad for business, especially on top of the recent earthquakes.’
I stared at Jack, not wanting him to be right, but knowing he was making a strong point.
‘Then we have to do something about this,’ Mike said. ‘This footage is solid evidence that something has gone down here. I say we show it to the authorities.’
‘The authorities being the police,’ Jack said. ‘See any problem there?’
‘We can’t just let that bastard get away with this,’ Ricardo said.
‘And we won’t,’ I said. ‘But we need to go higher up the food chain and take this over Villca’s head.’
‘But how do we do that?’ Mike asked. ‘It’ll take time that we don’t have. We need to do something right now, because if Villca really does see Cristina as that sort of threat…’ Mike let his words trail away.
‘Then we have to find her and fast,’ Jack said.
They were both absolutely right, but a thought struck me. ‘Hang on – the fact they didn’t just murder her in her apartment has to be a good sign.’ I caught Ricardo wince but pressed on. ‘After all, they could have blamed it on some fanatic who’d taken the law into their own hands.’
Mike clicked his fingers. ‘You’re right. They must need her for something. And helping themselves to her drawings has to be linked to that.’
‘But why would they be interested in those?’ Jack asked.
An awful answer hit me. ‘Guys, what if the Overseers have already beaten us here and have paid Villca off?’
‘You mean they know Cristina has a synaesthesia ability like yours?’ Jack said.
‘It’s certainly a strong possibility. If they’ve put two and two together like we did, they may have realised she’s someone who could lead them straight to the micro mind.’
‘Then we need to contact Niki and request a security team from Tom’s investigation to rescue her,’ Mike said.
I held up my hands to halt them. ‘Guys, slow down and think it through. By the time a team gets here it could be too late. Besides, this is just a theory, not a known fact. I say we get ourselves up to Machu Picchu – if we’re right, I’d bet good money that’s where they’ve taken her.’
‘The observatory, to be exact,’ Ricardo whispered, still staring at the monitor.
‘The what?’ I asked.
‘It’s where Cristina had her visions.’
‘That makes sense – it’s part of the Machu Picchu site,’ Jack said. ‘The sky was important to the Incas, especially for their rituals, and the moon and the sun were both worshipped as gods. On the summer solstice, sunlight would shine through a specific window in the Solar Observatory, a date that was a big deal in the Inca calendar.’ Jack rubbed his chin. ‘And now Machu Picchu has been closed off because of –’ Jack made air quotes – ‘the danger of rock falls from the earthquakes.’ It was a message we’d seen on a sign when we’d entered the town.
‘We need to get up there and find Cristina,’ I said. ‘Before it’s too late.’
‘I thought this was just a reconnaissance mission?’ Jack said.
‘If needs must, we have to step in.’
Jack shrugged. ‘You’re the boss.’
I caught the slight edge to his tone. What was that about?
‘We should also tell Gabriel about this,’ Ricardo said. ‘It’s an important lead.’
‘Not if we don’t want a lynch mob heading after Villca.’
‘And why is that a bad thing? He’s more than earned it,’ Jack said.
Exasperation rose through me. It was so obvious. ‘Because if that man is prepared to kidnap someone in broad daylight, I doubt he’d pause in shooting other innocent people to keep things covered up. We need to stop talking and get moving.’
Jack rubbed his eyes with his thumbs. ‘Right.’
Ricardo hauled his gaze away from the monitor. ‘You’ll need someone to guide you up the old mountain path that bypasses the roadblocks the police have in place.’
‘Are you sure?’ I asked. ‘We don’t know what we’re getting ourselves into here. It could be very dangerous.’
‘You said yourself that Villca might be capable of anything and this is my cousin we’re talking about…’ Ricardo hung his head.
‘Now there’s a motivation I think we all understand,’ Mike replied, patting Ricardo’s shoulder.
Chapter Eleven
We slowly wound our way up the less visited side of the mountain towards Machu Picchu. Even with the collapsible walking poles from our panniers, the ascent was tough-going up the steep mountain path. On a more positive note, we were well hidden by the trees as we approached the site.
We walked in silence, each of us lost in our own thoughts, the cicadas our soundtrack.
The jungle around us thinned, giving us a glimpse of the east slope of the mountain and the switch-back road that led from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu. It was empty of vehicles thanks to the roadblock we’d skirted past at the bottom.
‘Let’s take a break for a moment,’ Ricardo said.
‘Fine by me,’ Mike said, breathing hard. ‘Hey, Ricardo, have you any more of those coca leaves? They do seem to be helping.’
‘Sure, my friend.’ Ricardo took a single green leaf from a plastic bag and handed it to Mike who began to chew it.
‘I still can’t get my head around the fact it’s the same leaf cocaine is extracted from,’ I said.
‘In its leaf form it’s a very mild dose,’ Ricardo said. ‘It has been used for centuries to help with altitude sickness and to calm people. Just don’t try to take these leaves out of Peru – your own countries are likely to throw you in jail if you try.’
‘I don’t much fancy getting locked up for accidentally smuggling drugs,’ Mike said. He unhooked his binoculars and scanned the main road to our left. ‘As expected, there’s no sign of any rock falls.’
‘Well, there’s a surprise,’ Jack replied.
Ricardo gazed out at the empty road. ‘It’s strange seeing the mountain this quiet. At this time of day there should be dozens of buses bringing the tourists back down to Aguas Calientes. The longer this goes on, the harder it will get for us tour guides to survive.’
I took a sip of water from the mouthpiece of a hose over my shoulder. What I would have given to be using our Zeros to climb this mountain. But Ricardo had been adamant about leaving them behind. He’d told us that, however great our bikes were, this route involved almost vertical rock faces that we would have to climb. Reluctantly we’d left the Zeros outside the bar with a promise from the owner that he’d keep an eye on them for us…which had cost us more cash. We’d discreetly loaded up with our weapons as an insurance policy and I also had the Empyrean Key on the off-chance it would come into its own once we got up to the site. Plus Mike had one of his portable monowave quake probes that Jodie had constructed, a device with a short metal corkscrew spike and a digital readout on the top. I hoped he wouldn’t have a chance to use try it out – I didn’t much fancy experiencing an earthquake first hand.
I took another drink of the cooling water. Even under the cover of the trees, the combination of the heat and thin mountain air of the Andes made me feel like I’d run several marathons. No wonder most sensible people took the bus.
‘OK,
let’s get going,’ Ricardo said, putting away his own water hose.
I was even more grateful for the walking poles as we ascended further. Just as Ricardo had promised, in places we had to tackle sheer slopes that would have challenged a mountain goat. There were far too many buttock-clenching moments, but the ground began to finally level out, much to my relief.
Ricardo pointed along the trees. ‘This small path will take us straight to the site.’
I put my hands on my hips and stood before him. ‘Then this is where we should part company, Ricardo.’
‘What are you talking about? I’m coming with you.’
Jack shook his head. ‘No, Lauren’s right. You need to go down to Aguas Calientes and be with Gabriel. He needs a friend right now.’
I placed my hands on Ricardo’s shoulders. ‘If Cristina is here we’ll rescue her, I promise.’
Ricardo looked between us. ‘Are you really sure?’
‘Just have a beer waiting for us when we get back down,’ Mike said.
Jack unhitched his rucksack and shrugged it off his shoulders. He took out a roll of ten thousand dollar bills we’d already agreed among us and held it out towards Ricardo.
Ricardo held up his hands. ‘I didn’t help you for money. There’s no charge for any of this.’
I gazed into his eyes. ‘Use the money to make a difference for you and the other guides until Machu Picchu reopens, OK?’
He held my gaze for a moment but then took the roll and put his hand over his heart. ‘Thank you, my friends, on behalf of all of us.’
‘Just do us one favour,’ I said.
‘Name it.’
‘Whatever happens, you never met the three of us.’
He peered at us. ‘Who are you again?’ A beaming toothy smile filled his face. ‘And don’t worry, the other guides won’t say anything either.’
Ricardo pursed his lips, leaning into us, his mouth opening to say something. But then his shoulders dropped. He nodded to Mike and Jack, then leant forward and kissed me on the cheek. ‘Be lucky, my friends.’ He held our gaze in his. Then he held up his hand in farewell as he turned away and headed back down the mountain.
I waited until he was out of sight before I returned my attention to the others. ‘Right, time to get ready for whatever is ahead.’ I opened my rucksack and took out my LRS from its slim shoulder holster and strapped it on, trying to look a lot more confident than I felt. I was already feeling the weight of leadership pressing down on me.
‘Just to remind you, this is meant to be a reconnaissance mission,’ Mike said as he took out his dart gun.
‘Sod that if Cristina’s life is on the line, but I promise we’ll only engage if we absolutely have to. Our first priority is to rescue Cristina if she’s up here. The second will be for me to get close enough to this Solar Observatory to try out the Empyrean Key and see if it activates anything.’
‘You think we’ll find the micro mind there?’ Jack said as he slipped on a lumberjack shirt to hide his Glock’s holster.
‘Well, Cristina’s encounter bears a lot of similarities with my own experience at Skara Brae, so there’s every reason to be hopeful.’
As I dug through my pack for my sports top, my eyes fell on the Empyrean Key nestling in the bottom. I ran my fingers over it, anticipation growing in me. Hopefully not much longer until I saw Lucy again. See her, rescue Cristina, save the world. If only it were that simple. Experience had taught me it would be anything but.
I took out the tuning fork from its leather pouch and slipped it on to my belt in readiness.
We began to thread our way through the trees that cast welcome dappled shade over us. Ahead was a small rock face with plenty of handholds. Yet it was a surprisingly strenuous climb, no doubt altitude playing a big factor, and Jack was the first to reach the top of the ledge.
‘Holy crap,’ he said, staring ahead of him.
I crested the top at the same time as Mike, my eyes eating up the astonishing view stretching away before us.
Framed against the mountain peaks of the Andes, Machu Picchu lay out above us across a series of stepped terraces that followed the contours of the mountain to the top. Buildings ringed a grassy plateau, llamas wandering everywhere across the site. The sheer beauty of it in the spectacular mountaintop setting stole my breath away. It certainly exceeded any of the photos I’d seen of this place. No wonder so many people sought it out as a bucket list experience.
‘Now that is seriously cool,’ Mike said.
‘Oh, Machu Picchu is far beyond cool,’ Jack replied. He waved a hand towards it. ‘All the greatest thinkers among the Incas civilisation lived up here. In their culture it was brains not brawn that was held in the highest esteem.’
I wrapped my hands round the back of my neck. ‘Building something like this so high up must’ve taken incredible amounts of effort.’
‘You’d better believe it, although of course the top of a mountain is exactly where you want to be when a quake hits. The way these buildings are constructed is an astonishing feat of engineering. The gaps between the interlocking stonework of the walls are almost millimetre perfect and have survived centuries of quakes. Even today researchers are still mystified about how they achieved such high standards.’
Mike pointed a finger to the sky and whistled the opening tune of The X-Files. ‘Maybe they had help?’
‘I hope not,’ Jack said. ‘I like to think that Machu Picchu was all their own work – another great example of human ingenuity.’
‘But can you imagine if the Angelus did visit here?’ I said.
‘Yeah – the Incas would have probably thought it was their sun god putting in a house call,’ Jack replied with a smile. ‘If that’s true, once again everything I thought I knew about archaeological history will be turned on its head.’
‘It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it, so let’s go and find out for sure.’
We started forward again, climbing up another slope through the trees towards the first of the terraces.
I unhooked my binoculars and peered through them.
Among the structures on the slope above us, I could see the distant specks of several people clustered round one that had curved walls, unlike the rest. Blue and white tape stretched round it, cordoning it off from the rest of the site. Uniformed police officers, along with a number of workers in dusty grey coveralls, were carrying red boxes and stacking them up on the main plateau, much to the interest of several llamas.
‘What are they up to?’ I asked.
Mike peered through his binoculars. ‘I don’t want to worry you, Jack, but those are transport boxes for dynamite. They’ve got enough there to level Machu Picchu.’
‘Why the hell would they do that?’ Jack asked, now looking through his binoculars. ‘Hang on, isn’t that Villca and…shit. He’s got Cristina with him.’
I swung my binoculars to where Jack was looking and saw Villca talking to an older woman as they walked together. She had silver hair and was wearing a khaki shirt, trousers and wide-brimmed hat. The police commandant was pointing to the explosive boxes and shaking his head. Meanwhile, Cristina was being pushed along after by the thin policeman we’d seen with Villca on the security-camera footage.
‘So that confirms he brought her up here with him,’ Mike said.
‘I’m still hoping that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s working with the Overseers,’ I said.
‘Possibly, and that woman with the silver hair is none other than Professor Evelyn Fischer,’ Jack said. ‘She’s notorious among archaeologists and makes Indiana Jones look like the model of restraint. She doesn’t give a damn about destroying a site if she can plunder the artefacts and peddle them to the highest bidder on the black market. The fact she’s here at all is very bad news for Machu Picchu. She’s brought those charges for a reason. There are rumours going way back that a hoard of Inca gold is hidden somewhere here. And maybe that’s why Cristina is here too, to show Fischer exactly where she saw her vis
ions in case they were a sign of a hidden chamber.’
‘A sign from the Inca gods, you mean?’
‘Maybe for Villca. But for Fischer money is the only god she worships.’
‘She’d go as far as blowing holes in one of the greatest wonders of the world just to follow a hunch?’ Mike asked.
‘I’m sure I don’t need to remind you how the Spanish plundered sites like this back in the sixteenth century. The Incas started to hide their treasure because of it. And if a hidden chamber exists, maybe that’s where any hidden Inca gold is too. Fischer is certainly the sort of woman who will follow through on even the vaguest clue, however weird.’
‘But surely Villca won’t stand by and let her destroy Machu Picchu. It’s the lifeblood to the whole region,’ Mike said.
‘It could be as simple as money, and probably lots of it,’ Jack replied. ‘The Inca gold could be worth countless billions. It could turn a lot of heads to do something like this. Fischer has almost certainly offered Villca a share of the profits.’
‘Some people make me truly sick,’ I said.
We watched through our binoculars as the group headed for the curved building.
‘As we expected, they’re making straight for the Solar Observatory,’ Jack said.
The thin policeman pulled the hood off Cristina’s head. Fischer came up to her, cradled Cristina’s face in her hand and asked her something. Cristina shook her head and Fischer slapped the younger woman hard on the face.
I stiffened as Cristina glowered at her, a trickle of blood running down over her chin from her split lip.
‘That bloody bitch,’ Mike said.
The thin policeman shoved Cristina hard in the back and she took several faltering steps forward towards the Solar Observatory. She gestured with her chin towards the curving wall.
‘I think she just told them where she saw those symbols,’ I said, lowering my binoculars.
‘I’m starting to think the Overseers are behind this after all,’ Mike said. ‘They must know your synaesthesia has something to do with being able to interact with a micro mind.’