Panama Pursuit

by Andreas Oertel

  Lucia thought about that. “If our village was that far away,” she said, “we would not have heard you yelling from the stones.”

  We all looked at Eric. “What?” he said.

  “Duh!” Rachel said. “Lucia and Diego heard you yelling and then came here to investigate.”

  “The jungle also told us,” Diego added.

  “The jungle told you?” Anna asked.

  “Yes,” Lucia said, leading us all north along the ridge. “The birds and monkeys and frogs let us know that people were near the sacred stones. You only have to listen to them.”

  Diego followed his cousin, and we followed the two Chocoans. I was behind Anna and Rachel, and Eric and Ben were behind me. As we rounded a corner, I held up my hand and signalled Ben and Eric to stop.

  “If we sense a trap,” I said, “or if it seems like they’re trying to get us lost, we need to be ready to make a run for it.”

  Ben had been making up the rear, and he nodded vigorously. “I’m going to do my best to memorize the way back,” he said, “in case—in case things get weird.”

  “Things are already pretty weird,” Eric said. “I still can’t believe we’re following these strangers deeper into the rain forest.”

  Diego and Lucia continued to lead us through the jungle. They walked silently and confidently, occasionally swinging their long blades to whack a branch out of the way. After five minutes of hiking, the rough path we were on merged with a proper trail—a trail that looked like it was used regularly. And that trail slowly became a rutted road, which took us right into their village.

  We all stopped in front of two dozen houses clustered together along a dirt road. An old jeep and few motorcycles looked like the only vehicles in town. The houses were made of wood and metal and looked reasonably solid. A power line that followed the road from the east jumped from house to house.

  Eric whispered, “I can’t believe there’s a little village tucked away in the jungle.”

  I nodded. It really was a surprise.

  “Where does that road go?” Anna asked Lucia.

  “It goes east for thirteen kilometres,” Lucia said, “and then south along the Panama railroad line. But we live off the land and the lake, and rarely leave town.”

  “And you have electricity?” Ben said.

  “Of course,” Diego said, “we need it for the lights and water pumps and refrigerators. Also, we can’t check our email or use computers without electricity.”

  Lucia took us past a shabby building that we knew was a school. We could see (and hear) about twenty kids reading a passage together from a book. The door looked like it was about to fall off and none of the windows had bug screens. The teacher gave us a smile and a wave and then kept reading.

  The next house was Lucia’s, and she took us inside. The house was neat and clean but sparsely furnished.

  “Please sit,” Lucia said, pointing at an odd assortment of chairs around the kitchen table.

  She took off her hat and hung it on a peg. The wall around the peg was covered with family photographs. One or two were framed, but most were just taped or pinned to the rough surface. I was studying one of the pictures when I heard Lucia say, “My father is at work, and the rest of my family is fishing on Lake Gatun and will not return until evening.”

  Eric didn’t want to hang out in her house—he wanted to get right to the point. “Tell us what you want to tell us,” he said.

  “Please sit,” Lucia said again.

  Eric took off the backpack, sat down, and clutched the bag close on his lap. He wasn’t going to let it out of his sight.

  “How did you know where to find the skulls?” Lucia asked sitting down at the table with the five of us.

  “You first,” Ben said. “Why should we give you the skulls?”

  She twisted her mouth again in that same funny way and began her story. “The people in this village—the Chocoan people—have sworn they would protect those skulls for the past five hundred years.”

  “Protect them from whom?” I asked. “Or what?”

  “We were asked to keep them safe, until the right time.”

  “Who asked you to keep them safe?” Anna said.

  “Tell them,” Diego said. “They have to know.”

  Lucia looked at each of us for a second. “You will not believe what I’m about to tell you, but it is the truth—I swear it.”

  “Just tell us,” Eric said. “We gotta get back.”

  “The story passed from Chocoan generation to generation states that a long time ago a strange man magically appeared at the sacred stones. He wore futuristic clothes and looked different from any of the other tribes on the isthmus.”

  “You’re right,” Ben said, “that’s kind of hard to believe.”

  Anna, Rachel, Eric, and I glanced around the table at each other. Lucia’s story may have sounded crazy to Ben, but it was perfectly believable to us because we had already used the wormhole marked by the stones twice.

  “What exactly did this stranger want?” Rachel asked.

  “The man presented our people with a crystal skull and said we must keep it safe for eight thousand moons. He said that when the time is right, the world will know why it is important.”

  “Maybe the right time is now,” Eric suggested. “You’ve kept it safe—way to go—and now we’re going to present it to the world.”

  “No!” Lucia cried. “We have done the calculations many times, and it is too soon. We are very close, but another forty years must pass.”

  “What’s the difference?” Ben said.

  “May I please see the skulls?” Lucia asked.

  Rachel elbowed her brother, and he reluctantly took both skulls from the backpack and placed them on the table in front of Lucia.

  Lucia didn’t touch the crystals; she just stared at them and cried quietly for a minute. “The Chocoan have always protected the skulls’ secret,” she said, wiping her nose on her wrist. “But no one has seen the skull in over five hundred years.”

  Eric pushed both skulls closer to Lucia, indicating that she could hold them if she liked.

  Rachel gave Eric a tiny nod and smiled.

  “Why are there two skulls?” I asked.

  Lucia continued to gaze at the crystals but still wouldn’t handle them. “Around the time that the Spanish came to the area, a Chocoan artisan began to have visions. In his dreams, he was told to create a second skull—a skull that would be needed to trick a great foreigner into leaving the Chocoan alone. That artist broke several skulls before finally creating an exact copy of the skull the stranger brought. We don’t know why the copy was never used. Perhaps the foreigner died before it was needed.”

  “Did your people have a village on the other side of the canal?” I asked.

  “Probably,” Lucia said. “The Chocoan constantly moved their communities around Lake Gatun.” She finally picked up a skull and slowly examined it. “It’s beautiful... flawless.”

  I looked at my friends. “That would explain the two broken skulls that were found across the canal at Camp Gatun—the ones Rudi is accused of swiping.”

  “And,” Rachel said, “it would also explain why we found two crystal skulls by the pillars. One was the original skull and one was the copy made by the carver who had the dreams.”

  “But you have to admit,” Eric said, “my pet cemetery idea made sense at the time.”

  Rachel grinned. “At the time, yes, but not anymore.”

  I tried to go back to Ben’s earlier question. “I still don’t understand why we can’t show the world these skulls now.”

  Lucia gently put one skull down and picked up the other. “The man who appeared by the sacred stones was very specific and insistent. He said that if my people kept the skull safe until the right tim
e, the entire world would benefit from its secret. But if the skull ever got into the wrong hands, the traveller said, all of humanity would suffer. Diego and I have been using our computer to calculate the time that has passed since the story first began. And eight thousand moons will have come and gone forty years from now. That is when we can give the skulls to science and to the world—no sooner.”

  Anna pointed at the crystals. “I wonder what they could possibly reveal then that they can’t reveal now?”

  “It must have something to do with the silicon,” Ben suggested.

  Lucia nodded. “That’s what Diego and I believe too.”

  “Huh?” Eric said to Ben. “What do you mean?”

  “Well,” Ben said, “my dad is always talking about silicon wafers and silicon computer chips, and how they’re the basic components in the memory of a computer.”

  Now I was confused. “I don’t get it.”

  “These two crystals are in the shape of human skulls and look super cool,” Ben said. “But they’re still just giant chunks of quartz. And quartz is silicon—the stuff used to store information in all computers. The skull might be a massive memory chip.”

  “Yes, exactly,” Lucia said. She sounded pleased that Ben understood. “Perhaps in forty years, humans will have the technology to read what is stored in these skulls, but until then we must keep them safe.”

  “The skulls might have information we need to cure a future disease,” Anna suggested.

  “Or maybe,” I said, “they’re the blueprints for a space ship to get to some other planet.”

  “Yes,” Lucia said, “it could be anything like that.”

  “How come you were in such a panic to find the skulls now,” Eric said, “after so many years?”

  “As soon as we heard about the canal expansion,” Lucia said, “we knew we had to find the skulls, so we began searching for them. We worried that this side of the canal would be widened too. If that happened, the sacred stones would be destroyed with the skulls. And when the area on the other side of the canal became an international archaeological site, finding the skulls became even more urgent.”

  “What difference did Camp Gatun make?” I asked.

  “If the site over there were to become protected through international pressure, all digging would be moved to this side.”

  Anna’s forehead wrinkled in thought. “So you were digging near the stones last night to try to find the skulls.”

  “Yes,” Lucia said. “The people in our village have been taking turns searching for weeks. But after many days of hard work, people had to get back to work—to feed their families. Diego and I were the only ones left who still had faith in the prophecy; however, even he was beginning to wonder if the story was... was just a story. But now this... It was all true.” She pointed at the two heads.

  Eric grinned. “Yup,” he said, “it’s a good thing we found these guys for you.”

  “How were you able to locate them so quickly?” Lucia asked.

  “We know something very important about your sacred stones,” I said. “Something that helped us find the skulls.”

  Lucia raised her eyebrows. “What could you possibly know of our two stones?”

  “Well for starters,” Eric said, “There used to be three stones.”

  That really got her attention. “Three?” she said.

  I explained to her that we had similar stones back home and that there were formations just like it all over the world. When I told her that we simply triangulated the centre of the two possible formations and dug our holes, she smiled.

  “You are truly world-class archaeologists,” Lucia said.

  “So now what?” Eric asked, still comparing the two crystals.

  “Well,” Rachel said, “we can’t take the skulls from here. Not now. Not after what Lucia told us.”

  “I was afraid of that,” Eric griped. “She gets two crystal skulls in perfect condition, and we don’t even get the broken ones.”

  “And to make matters worse,” Ben said, “the cops still think Rudi pinched those broken skulls.”

  “I believe I know who stole the artifacts from Camp Gatun,” Lucia said.

  Chapter 10

  “YOU DO?” ANNA asked.

  “Yes,” Lucia nodded. “I think the man with the expensive boat has them.”

  “The bronze boat sitting behind the point?” Ben asked.

  Lucia nodded again.

  The five of us suspected Mr. Zola might be involved, but it was interesting to hear a stranger had the same theory. “Why do you think he stole the crystals?” I asked.

  “My aunt Bella delivers fresh fish to Camp Gatun each morning before sunrise. Yesterday morning she saw a man leave the rich man’s boat and paddle to the shore in a black inflatable boat. She thought nothing of it, as she was also travelling on the canal very early. The stranger did not know it, but Aunt Bella followed the man through the jungle and up to the tents. She was not intentionally spying on the man. She was simply taking the same trails he took.” Lucia laughed.

  “What’s so funny?” Ben said.

  “My aunt Bella said the man moved like a bull. She said she could have followed the giant stranger blindfolded with all the noise he made. When they neared the tent city, my aunt became curious. She began to wonder why the man was clad in black and what business he had at Camp Gatun.”

  “What did she do next?” Anna asked.

  “She tied her bag of fish to a tree and watched as the big man met one of the cook’s helpers near the camp generator. Next, the helper—he is a young boy from Paraiso—guided the stranger into one of the tents and—”

  “Which tent?” I said, interrupting her story.

  Lucia shrugged. “I do not know and Aunt Bella did not say. Anyway, some time later, the man left that tent carrying a bag—a bag that appeared to hold something heavy.”

  “Hmmm...” Eric said. “That does sound like our perp.”

  “Our what?” Anna asked.

  “Our perpetrator,” Eric said, sounding very pleased to be explaining something to Anna for once. “The guy who committed the crime.”

  “Aunt Bella never followed the man back to the canal,” Lucia said, “but she was sure he took something from the archaeologists.”

  “Then why didn’t she tell someone at the camp?” Ben asked.

  Lucia looked at Ben like he was loony. “Who would the police believe—a Chocoan fish peddler, or a wealthy man on a million dollar boat?”

  “Would she step forward now,” I said, “and tell someone what she saw?”

  Lucia shook her head. “I’m sorry. We do not want trouble—not with the archaeologists, not with the Panamanian police, and not with those rich thieves. They can all make trouble for our little village.”

  “What happened to the boy—the cook’s helper?” Rachel asked.

  “The rumour Aunt Bella heard is that he complained of being homesick and was placed on the next canal shuttle home.” Lucia grinned. “I suspect he and his family have been rewarded handsomely.”

  “Bribed, huh?” Ben said.

  Lucia nodded.

  “Hmmm...” That time it was Anna.

  We sat quietly around the table for a long time, until Eric felt the urge to summarize our predicament. “So, Lucia gets both the good skulls, Mr. Zola gets the broken skulls, and Rudi goes to jail for stealing something he didn’t steal. What a rip!”

  “I’m sorry,” Lucia said, standing up.

  “That’s not good enough,” I said. “We helped you; now you have to help us.”

  Ben pointed at Anna. “Her uncle is about to go to jail because of your skulls. You have to talk your aunt into reporting what she saw. That might be enough to free Rudi.”

  This time it was Lucia who looked
ashamed.

  “If you don’t help us,” Eric said. “We’ll be forced to spill the beans about these two skulls. I’m sure the Panamanian government would be interested to know you have two of these ancient artifacts.”

  “All right, I will speak with Aunt Bella.” Lucia said, heading for the door. “I will take you back now. But please don’t do anything until I come to the camp.”

  When we got to the pillars again, Lucia begged us again not to do anything hasty and then walked away.

  Eric watched her disappear into the jungle. “If I’d only kept my big mouth shut,” he mumbled. “They wouldn’t have heard me yelling, and we’d be the proud owners of two really cool skulls.”

  “We did the right thing,” Rachel said. “If the Chocoan legend she told us about is true, we can’t take the skull.” She led the way down the hill and toward the canoes.

  “If that legend is even true,” Eric shouted at us from behind.

  I don’t think any of us were looking forward to the canoe ride back across the canal. We were all bummed. We had been excited about finding the skulls, but we had to leave those with Lucia. And just when we figured out who really stole the broken skulls, we couldn’t prove it without Aunt Bella’s cooperation. But that wasn’t our only problem.

  The canoes were gone.

  We stood and stared at the black inflatable boat pulled up on the muddy shore.

  “What the heck’s going on?” Ben said. “The canoes were right here.”

  Anna pointed at the rubber boat with the small gas motor on the back. “This is the boat Lucia’s aunt saw yesterday—the one from the yacht.”

  The bushes behind us suddenly separated and a monstrous man emerged from the forest. His face and arms were covered with scratches, and his dark clothes were soaked in sweat. He looked like he’d been prowling the area for some time. He smiled at us like he was pleased to have finally found us.

  “What did you do with our canoes?” Eric demanded.

  The man wiped his grimy forehead with his palm, but didn’t say anything right away. I think because he had to catch his breath before he could talk. He had short black hair and a tan complexion, fitting Rudi’s description perfectly.