The Mayan Priest

by Guillou, Sue

With renewed vigour, Richard moved to the panel in question and studied the picture with great consideration. The measurement between the inner and outer squares was comparative to the distance between the lift and the tunnel. The eye shape in the middle made no sense, but the drawing also consisted of two dots followed by the traditional hieroglyph for Tuun (stone). This was followed by the hieroglyph for hand.

  Richard tried to interpret it: ‘two stones per hand. What could that mean?’

  ‘A hand every two stones, but that doesn’t make sense either,’ mused Mitchell.

  ‘It’s a good thing that every team has a smart woman,’ laughed Julia. ‘The hand impression is neither an open hand nor a fully formed fist. It is somewhere in between. More like a hand hold. The two dots followed by the Tuun means “every two stones”. My interpretation of this little diagram is that there is a hand hold on every second stone, but it doesn’t stop there. If you look at the next diagram,’ Julia moved to the right, ‘we have the same painting, but the Tuun is replaced by “Tok” which means “flint”. This time there are three dots and the hieroglyphs meaning “room”. I think there is a flint room, or tool room, behind the third stone.’

  ‘The only problem with this is that there are no stones. It has all been covered by obsidian,’ said Fred.

  ‘Yes, but the shaft was constructed by human hand and there must have been a way for the craftsman to make his way up and down the tunnel,’ concluded Richard. It agreed with his previous thoughts on the matter.

  ‘If it helps, these hieroglyphs are against the upper wall depicted in the paintings, which would correspond with the west wall of the tunnel. There is also a distinct needle-like, hollowed stone in the centre of each tunnel that faces to the north.’ Julia pointed to the small eye shape in the middle of the pattern. ‘If we can find what that needle-like stone is, we will be able to get our bearings,’ added Julia.

  Richard smiled to himself. He knew exactly what the needle-like stone was. It was the rock that held the rope. He could not believe he had not made the connection himself. Trust Julia to figure it out first. She was always quicker than he was and the smug look on her face was typical of her expressions when she knew she was right. Richard grinned at her and requested another lift onto the roof.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Samuel parked the taxi in a side street only a short distance from the Brooks City-Base. He had driven around the unfamiliar area for over an hour until he had gained his bearings and located a position that afforded him the best view of traffic leaving and arriving at the base. His goal was to wait until the vehicle carrying the woman was halfway between the compound and the gate before moving from his parking spot.

  Samuel grinned as he viewed the interior of the taxi.

  He had wondered how he was going to make his way to the base until he had spotted the lone cab waiting for a passenger outside the airport terminal. It was a master stroke on his behalf as travelling about in a taxi would allow him to move easily without promoting suspicion – an ideal arrangement.

  Samuel approached the taxi with stealth. He noted that it was occupied by an elderly man who was around sixty years of age. He sat slumped in his seat, clearly on the verge of exhaustion after a long shift. His face was tired and lined and he looked depressed.

  Initially Samuel had envisaged sliding into the taxi and slitting the throat of the driver before pushing him into the passenger seat and taking control, but for the first time, he felt a twinge of guilt. In his home, the elderly people, particularly ahaw, were revered for their knowledge and the strong beliefs they provided. This man, although belonging to the lower plains of existence was nevertheless an old man. Samuel decided to be nice to him and upon entering the vehicle, he placed a gun to his chest and ordered him to get out. The old man quickly complied but was struck by an oncoming vehicle in his haste to get as far away as possible. Samuel did not know if he lived or died, but it was of no concern to him; it wasn’t of his doing.

  The time was closing in on 10 am and by his reckoning the woman must have made it to the base before him. There was no movement at the headquarters, but that did not overly bother him considering the woman could not stay in there forever. He was a patient man and if the ahaw desired the woman then he would oblige even if it meant waiting. So, he settled himself into the driver’s seat in preparation and was just about to pull out his binoculars when a plane flew overhead. He was taken by surprise. It was not an American fighter jet as he expected. It was Australian.

  Samuel’s interest climaxed. This was most unusual. If the Australian Prime Minister or someone else of importance was to visit America, it would be via a passenger jet. For a two seater F-111 to enter America so far from its home spelt ’emergency’ and Samuel was keen to find out the reason. He contemplated driving a little closer but feared that may draw unwanted attention. It would be better to go in on foot.

  Samuel climbed out of the taxi and was just about to leave when his phone rang. It was his esteemed Ahaw.

  ‘Plans have changed, Samuel. It seems that a greater treasure has been located.’

  Samuel could hear the hysterical excitement in his voice.

  ‘We have located a genuine jewel-encrusted Calendar Round in Australia. It is arriving at Brooks City-Base as we speak.’

  Samuel smiled. He had seen the plane.

  ‘I want that disk, but more importantly I want it all, including the treasure we know exists at the excavation site in Tikal. I do not want to jeopardise any part of it. Success is what you must achieve.’ Ahaw paused.

  ‘Your task is to enter the base, find Major General Dale Bright’s office and gather as much information about Tikal you can find. Leave the Calendar Round to me. I have a couple of my best men on site for that’

  Samuel was about to ask why the men could not gather the information at the same time but decided it best not to question the wisdom of his ahaw. The very thought of second guessing him meant that Samuel would need to offer blood for his sins.

  ‘The information must be faxed to me at once,’ Ahaw ordered as he hung up the phone.

  Samuel dared to wonder what would happen if there was no information about Tikal in the General’s office.

  Samuel sighed as he pulled out the needle for the second time in two days and pushed it into his penis, taking care to avoid the previous insertion site, which was still quite tender. He proceeded to finish the ritual in record time before zipping up his pants and crossing the road. From previous surveillance, he had already determined that the weakest link was in the fence on the western boundary. It was well covered by trees that would allow him to move unseen into the region of the outbuildings.

  He kept low and guarded, stopping every few minutes to ensure he had remained undetected, until he reached the patch of evergreen trees he had seen on the surveillance. He was extremely pleased to discover that the associated fence had suffered previous damage from falling branches during a storm and the repairs had been adequate at best. Samuel easily crawled through the created holes accidentally encasing his body in a mound of freshly cut grass which he decided to leave as a kind of camouflage. Luck was on his side and he prayed to Nohock-Ek (the planet Venus) to give him guidance as he made it to the storage room undetected and proceeded to make his way through the six consecutive sheds and exiting behind the main building.

  It was here that Samuel caught the movement of the men arriving at the main building from the Australian plane. They were walking across the tarmac with a confident swagger except for a dark-haired man who lagged uneasily behind. He appeared unsteady on his feet and stopped regularly to catch his breath, making it evident that he was the Australian carrying the holy disk. Samuel had an insane moment of wanting to shoot them all and take the disk, but he dared not infuriate Ahaw any further than he already had.

  He ducked quickly behind a yellow sedan and waited until the men entered through the rear door.

  Reacting almost instinctively, Samuel shadowed the men, pausing quickly to
place a stone in the doorjamb before waiting to hear their voices fade down the hallway. Once he was confident they had distanced themselves, he crept cautiously into the building and followed the crevices until he reached the kitchen. It was strangely quiet which caused him concern until the sound of a trumpet echoed throughout. Samuel smiled at the realisation that the troops had gathered in the central courtyard, giving him an opportunity he could not miss.

  Samuel grabbed a cooks apron to provide an excuse should he be caught and proceeded to tiptoe along the photo-adorned hallway until he had safely passed the utility rooms. The rooms within the headquarters ran in order from the lowest ranking to the highest and he simply had to follow the names until he found the one that stated ‘Major General Dale Bright’ on a bright silver identification tag.

  Samuel pushed open the door and viewed the sparse but regal room with disgust. The wood cabinetry was rich and expensive, the carpet plush and the curtains extravagant. It was far more suited to someone of Ahaw’s stature than an air force general.

  Samuel closed the door behind him and was instantly drawn to the wall left of the door. It was covered in medals of valour and for one brief, traitorous moment he realised that Dale Bright had been honoured for his services to his country. He was akin to a gallant soldier fighting for the survival of his people, a man who did his own dirty work instead of ordering others, like his ahaw. A fleeting moment of anger bubbled in Samuel’s chest before it was quelled by the slam of a nearby door. He was furious; he had dallied and wasted precious time instead of following the commands given to him. A failure here would mean the loss of his life and more importantly, the loss of the disk.

  He moved quickly to the desk and immediately noticed various photos and laser images of Tikal. He was no expert in the field, but pointers scrawled in neat black pen indicating the shaft in which the archaeologists were trapped and a connecting tunnel at the base, sent shivers of excitement up his spine. Another passageway could mean only one thing: the shaft and elaborate trap must have been designed to conceal something of great importance … treasure.

  Ahaw was right about the treasure all along and would be pleased with confirmation of his judgement. Contemplating the admiration he would receive on deliverance of this new information, Samuel felt as if he would explode with joy. He would receive a feast in his honour and if he was lucky, a piece of the treasure as a keepsake to recognise his loyalty. Goose bumps of excitement ran over his body and he was in the midst of enjoying his forthcoming fruits when a set of heavy footsteps disrupted him. He was suddenly overwhelmed with an emotion that was unfamiliar … panic. Samuel scanned the room but noted that there was little in the way of suitable hiding spots, so he ducked under the first thing he could find – the desk.

  The door opened and Samuel watched in absolute fear as a pair of black shoes strode purposely to the desk, paused for a moment and turned to retreat from the room. He let out a huge sigh of relief as the lock clicked shut and he clambered out of the cramped position as quickly as possible. He had to leave before he was discovered. It would ruin everything if they found him.

  Samuel grabbed whatever he could, including a few photos and other nondescript documents. He did not have time to sort out what he really needed. He could do that later.

  The hallway was clear, but he could hear raucous voices echoing down the passage in the direction he had entered. He had seconds to make his escape.

  Samuel exited to the right, passing a room which contained the woman he did not want to name for fear of giving her an identity (he was much happier loathing her) and her father in deep conversation. He longed to capture her and take her as a trophy, but he had just made a critical mistake by indulging in his hatred. He had paused for too long and Dale Bright looked up at the same moment that Samuel stopped.

  Dale scowled and reacted immediately, racing for the door as Samuel leapt into action. Samuel made a split minute decision to go back the way he came, knowing he would meet with hostility but also understanding that it was better to deal with a familiar route than arrive at a dead end.

  Running headlong down the commercial grade grey carpet, Samuel heard Dale yell after him. He did not look back, extending his stride to his maximum capacity and forcing his way through a group of four men. They were so surprised that they did not take action until Dale’s furious expression signalled the severity of the event. They joined the chase.

  Samuel knocked two people over, punched a young woman for standing in his way and tossed three bags of luggage into the face of his pursuers. He could not stop them. They kept coming and as Samuel forced his way to the exit, he prayed to the gods that the yellow sedan he had seen on his arrival was still idling in the driveway. It was, and to his delight it was driverless.

  Samuel jumped in and put the car into gear as the officers opened fired into the back windscreen and rear tyres. They shattered the glass and succeeded in splitting a wheel in two, but this did not stop Samuel who slammed his foot on the accelerator and sped down the driveway in record time. The vehicle was a mess, leaving a thick plume of burning rubber in its wake, but it worked in his favour, concealing him from his pursuers long enough to pull into a nearby car park.

  He thanked the gods once again for giving him guidance and the intelligence to stake out the surrounding roads. His taxi could be easily accessed by jumping the fence and running through the small playground, which he did just as the trailing cars flew around the corner and pulled in next to the trashed yellow Chevrolet.

  Samuel easily escaped, stopping at a local post office fifteen minutes later and faxing to his ahaw all of the documents he had collected along with a couple of photos. On his heading letter, he apologised for not sorting them out, but he thought it best to leave it in the knowledgeable hands of his ahaw to judge what he did or didn’t need.

  ***

  Dale Bright surveyed his desk with disgust. He could not begin to comprehend the events of the last few minutes. This person had brazenly entered and ransacked his office whilst he had been only feet away and was most likely already in the room when he had come to collect his wallet. The lack of crime in this area had caused a lax attitude amongst the men and Dale also admitted to stupidly leaving his office open from time to time. It was bad enough that the GPR images were missing, compromising the security of his men in Tikal and the trapped archaeologists, but he had also lost the photo of Reynata. Even worse was that he had written her address on the back. He had effectively handed her back to the very people she had escaped from.

  When they had first found her it had been discovered that she had been dumped, presumed dead, and she had been placed into protective custody for her own wellbeing. It was not known if she had represented a threat to them and as it turned out, she was unable to recall much of her time with the sect anyway. Over the years she had been either unwilling to help Dale break the ring or was simply too petrified. He presumed it was the latter. Despite this, it stood to reason that the group would not know that she had been unable to provide assistance, logic telling them that she was an unacceptable risk to their organisation. She simply knew too much and they would undertake to nullify her as soon as possible. Dale had been left with no choice but to abandon his daughter and travel immediately to her home town of Austin.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Gillian was shocked that Samuel had followed them to the base and gained access with such ease. Surely an American air force base would be the recipient of top security, the lack of which totally surprised her. Her father was a stickler for rules and regulations even going to the extent of locking up the photos of her as a child in case someone misplaced these precious items.

  It was for that very reason that the uncommon sloppy safety measures, like leaving his office door unlocked, was totally out of character. Perhaps he simply had too much on his mind, her theory supported by his hurried and unexplained departure to Austin. She had attempted to question him, but the familiar furrowed brow and pleading look of understanding c
learly told her this was an important mission for him. She let him go with a nod of acceptance, quite used to his unexplained exoduses.

  Gillian was also puzzled by the objects Samuel stole. He had gone to great extremes to obtain the GPR images and the photo of Reynata, the only explanation being that he was aware of the possibility of treasures in Tikal … but why Reynata?

  It was all very odd, but it did indicate a connection between the tattoo on her neck, the Calendar Round arriving from Australia and the strange trail of clues left by a priest called Kinix.

  Gillian considered the matter of Reynata for a moment. Why was it that she felt there was much more about the woman than her father was telling her?

  Yes, the tattoo was rare. Yes, there was a connection with the Mayan society and her father’s explanation of her involvement in the drug ring, but her photo had been in his drawer. He never left photos in his drawer unless they were of great value and importance.

  For shit sake, there was only one photo of her, his only daughter, on his desk.

  She frowned and left the room to seek any information she could on the robbery.

  Unfortunately the intrusion had caused mass chaos at the headquarters, rendering Gillian’s attempts to gain any further information useless. There were simply too many people running around trying to determine the course of events to submit an accurate report to the government for them to answer her seemingly insignificant queries.

  One thing was quite clear though: Samuel must have had inside help. There was no way he could have located them and travelled the distance he did without a private jet or helicopter. In the time they had journeyed from Tikal to San Antonio to Houston and back, Samuel had managed to get himself to San Antonio and locate them. She was not even sure if he was behind the helicopter bombing in Houston, which would mean that he must have prior knowledge of their activities and friends in high places.