City of Gold

by Arnold, Carolyn

  Daniel closed the door behind the two of them.

  Robyn seemed to catch her first glimpse of Cal at that moment, and her eyes traveled over his outfit. She laughed. “You really don’t get the concept of dressing up, do you?”

  “I don’t see what’s wrong with an old-fashioned pair of jeans.”

  “I’m not sure old-fashioned is the right term for those. Look at all those tatters! How old are they?” She shook her head. They all knew it wasn’t a question that needed an answer. When her gaze turned back to Matthew, her expression had softened. “Why can’t you come to a single exhibit dedication?”

  He wasn’t going to bring up the fact that Cal had missed this one, too, even though the temptation was strong. “You know why.”

  “I do? If you’re referring to your father, he remains in the dark as far as Gideon goes, but he believes you are an archaeologist. Your interest in new findings is to be expected.”

  It wasn’t like he never visited the artifacts he’d tracked down. He just preferred not to see them on their opening nights.

  Despite his strained relationship with his father, he loved it when she brought him up and showed concern for the man. William Connor had initiated the role of a surrogate parent to her. It was ironic that Matthew was the man’s flesh and blood—and at times he wished he weren’t—while Robyn had eagerly accepted an unofficial invitation into the family. At one point, Matthew had wanted to make it official. But that was many years ago. Before treasure hunting and life became so complicated. While one of their reasons for separating had been the dangerous lifestyle he had chosen, she had come to adopt that way of living, too, and it now bonded them. Another of life’s ironies.

  “Would you stop looking at me like that? It’s like you’re not even listening.” Robyn filled a glass with champagne and fell into a chair. She put her feet up on the table in front of her and crossed her ankles.

  “I was listening to you. It’s just…” Matthew shook his head. “Never mind.” This particular conversation wasn’t one worth finishing. He entertained telling Robyn about this Liam Neeson character following Cal and Sophie but decided against it. Until confirmed as a threat, he didn’t need to frighten anyone else.

  Matthew took another flute out of a corner hutch, set it next to the bottle, and took a seat on the sofa beside Cal. There was no way Matthew would be having another glass. His head was already spinning from the two he’d drunk in quick succession downstairs.

  “Go ahead if you’d like, Daniel,” Matthew offered. “Have some bubbly, take a load off.”

  Daniel didn’t accept Matthew’s suggestion and remained standing.

  “So what do you have for us, Danny?” Robyn winked at him before taking another sip of her drink. She was the only person who got away with calling him Danny.

  “I have come across something of immense value. People might start believing in their dreams again, that anything they can imagine is possible. This discovery, if successful, will change the world.” Daniel slid his gaze to Matthew.

  For such claims, the implication of danger was inherent. But where there was great risk, there was great reward.

  “What if I told you that the City of Gold may exist?” he asked.

  “The City of Gold?” Cal guffawed. “You mean like El Dorado? Isn’t that purely folklore? I find it hard to believe it’s anything but fictional. Streets paved with gold? Nope, I’m not buying it.”

  Daniel’s pulse tapped visibly in his jaw as he continued. “There is reason to believe that it may be more fact than fiction.”

  “Did you hear this from the leprechaun at the end of the rainbow?” Cal’s laughter shook the couch.

  Daniel pointed a finger at Cal and dragged it toward Matthew. “If you don’t tell your boy here to back off, I’m not going to say another thing until he’s gone.”

  Cal held his hands up, continuing to fight off his chuckles.

  “Continue, Daniel,” Matthew said with a nod.

  “People have been searching for the lost City of Gold for centuries without any luck. It’s been relegated to the status of legend, but I believe it does exist. And I believe that it hasn’t been found because everyone has been searching in the wrong place. People have scoured northern Peru, near Machu Picchu and Cusco to no avail, but I think it’s in the northeastern Bolivian jungle.”

  Matthew found his heart racing again. Discovering the city really would change the world, just as surely as Daniel had surmised. And Matthew and his friends could have a part in making that happen. “What makes you think it’s located in Bolivia?”

  “This.” Daniel slipped a folder out from beneath the drink tray he had set down. He removed and distributed photographs to each of them, and by the looks of it, there were more in the folder.

  “What are we looking at?” Matthew asked. The picture he had was an aerial image. Based on the coloring, he’d guess it was taken using some technology that penetrated the ground.

  “These photographs were taken with special cameras that detect heat and depth. You are looking at what I believe to be the real City of Gold—Paititi.”

  “You mean El Dorado.” Cal had composed himself by then and was sitting with one leg crossed over the other, his fingers drumming on his shin.

  Daniel passed looks to all of them and stopped on Cal.

  “What?” Cal ceased tapping.

  Daniel let his gaze linger on Cal, and Matthew fought to keep his smile from showing.

  Of the three of them, Cal was the least educated when it came to history. He was a man who hungered for travel and adventure, not for a classroom. Matthew often wondered how Cal had made it through college with his seeming aversion to textbooks.

  Cal repeated himself. “El Dorado, right? That’s the City of Gold?”

  Daniel let out a rush of air. “That city is mythical. El Dorado is actually a ritual, not a place. It was a ceremony performed by a Muisca chieftain called the Golden One. He was said to be sprinkled with gold dust. He’d set out across the lake on a raft and submerge himself into the water with precious metal and jewels. A small gold replica of his raft was found in 1969. It’s all quite fascinating actually.”

  “Yes, fascinating.” Sarcasm soaked Cal’s words. “But I’ve never heard of Paititi.”

  Another warning look from Daniel to Matthew. Cal picked up on it and twisted his fingers in front of his lips as if locking them with an imaginary key.

  Daniel sighed. “The brief history lesson is this,” he began. “The Spanish and the Incas of Peru had been at war for nearly forty years. It led to the Incas retreating to the Vilcabamba mountains where they were safe until 1572.”

  Robyn put her feet down and picked up the story. “And by the time the Spaniards found and conquered what remained of the Incas, most of the treasure was gone.”

  “Correct, Robyn,” Daniel said.

  “It’s believed the Incas hid the bulk of their treasure in Paititi, a city speculated to be somewhere in the remote rainforests of Bolivia, Brazil, or Peru,” Matthew added.

  Daniel nodded, and Robyn carried on. “Some say that the Spaniards created the legend of a golden city to provoke excitement back in Spain. They wanted more people to accompany them on return trips. Though they had already found great riches, they were greedy for more gold.”

  “See, there is too much talk about Paititi for it to not be real. Think of it this way…” Daniel said. “There are always three sides to things—two opinions and the truth, which usually lies in the middle. Even with gossip magazines, for example, we know their claims are likely false overall but that they are also built upon a snippet of fact.”

  Cal uncrossed his legs. “So, by extension, you believe there’s some city hidden in the jungle full of gold? It sounds kind of crazy to me. How much would a place like that be worth, assuming it does exist?”

  “Are you sure this
man is a friend of yours?” Daniel asked Matthew.

  “Hey,” Cal said, “you’re just a maid, remember?”

  Daniel took a few steps, his strides large enough that just those few took him across the room. He stopped in front of Cal. Matthew jumped up between the two men. Cal was smirking, and Daniel was fuming. His energy was pulsing beneath Matthew’s hand. All Daniel did was stare in Matthew’s eyes. No words were said. Nothing needed to be.

  “Daniel, please, pour yourself a drink and take a seat,” Matthew said.

  “He’s so skeptical,” Daniel said, shaking his head. “And how can one even put a price tag on history? He’s ignorant.”

  “Sit.” Matthew stared at Daniel until he backed off and pulled down on his suit jacket. “Are you okay?”

  “I will be fine, but I swear to you, that boy bugs the living hell out of me.”

  “Well, he’s part of the team, and he’s not going anywhere. Can you accept that?” Matthew hated being placed in the position of referee and wasn’t about to pick favorites.

  “Yes, fine.”

  “All right, then. Answer his question.”

  A bolt fired through Daniel’s eyes. “How is it even possible to place a monetary value on a find like this? It really is beyond me.”

  Matthew ignored his rant and raised a commanding eyebrow.

  Daniel grumbled unintelligibly for a moment, then said, “Ten billion.”

  “Is the find explicitly gold?” Matthew asked, trying to appear calm and not like his blood was pounding in his ears the way it actually was.

  Robyn answered the question this time. “I studied the Incas and the City of Gold, but it was years ago. While its name was obviously derived from the presence of gold, it is known—or at least was rumored—to include jewelry and other valuable trinkets.” She worded the part about it being a rumor as if she questioned that viewpoint. “But even though the ancient Incas had all this wealth, they never looked at it from a materialistic perspective. Gold was sacred to them and used in their worship. They believed it brought them closer to their sun god, Inti.”

  “Impressive,” Daniel said. “You know your Incan history well.”

  Cal flicked the photograph he held. “So all we have to do is drop into the middle of a jungle, face the dangers inherent in said jungle, and find a city that may or may not exist. Am I understanding this correctly?”

  Daniel finally poured himself a glass of champagne and took a sip.

  “What made you look in Bolivia?” Robyn asked, ignoring Cal. Her gaze was on the photograph in her hand, and Matthew looked at his again, too. He wasn’t an expert in this field, but it looked like there was something beneath the surface.

  “I compared several accounts before arranging for an expedition team to fly overhead.” Daniel sat on a chair. “I’ll try to give you the simplified version. The details are compiled, of course, and I have them for you, Matthew. I’ll deliver them tomorrow.”

  Matthew nodded. Normally, Daniel would whet his appetite by pitching the mission on a broader scale, then provide the finer details.

  “The Incas did allow some people to see the city,” Daniel continued. “It’s rumored that they were blindfolded and led there so they couldn’t return. A Spaniard lived with the Incas for a time. He even wrote a book about his experience. Then in 2001, an Italian archaeologist, Mario Polia, studied a Jesuit document, thought to date back to the sixteenth century, that described the city of Paititi. Records point this way and that, even contradicting one another, but I zeroed in on the northeastern jungles of Bolivia. As a side note, Paititi translates to ‘city of the jaguar’ and ‘all white and shiny’ or ‘white gold.’”

  “They can’t even get their facts straight.” Cal apparently didn’t mind tempting fate again.

  “I’m not understanding what led you to Bolivia,” Robyn said.

  “There is one account of Paititi which describes the city as an immense kingdom located ‘approximately close’ to the Bolivia–Brazil border. But it was a number of things that brought my attention there. Do you know who Manco Cápac is?”

  “The name sounds familiar but refresh my memory,” Robyn said.

  “Cápac was worshiped and viewed to be the son of Inti. While the legends vary, they both center on Lake Titicaca. In one version, Cápac emerges from the lake and, in another, from a cave near the lake. Both have him carrying a tapac-yauri.”

  “A golden staff,” Robyn added.

  “Correct. Now, Cápac was directed to build a temple in honor of his father and it was to be where the staff sank into the earth.” Daniel paused and looked at Cal. “Please don’t say that could be anywhere.”

  Cal shrugged and smirked. “I don’t have to. You just did.”

  Daniel rolled his eyes.

  “I remember now,” Robyn said. “Many Incan myths hinge on Lake Titicaca. Are these pictures from a mountain range near the lake?”

  “Not exactly. Legends describe the trek to Paititi as taking days. As a point of reference, the journey started at Cusco.”

  “Paititi has been described as being in southeastern Peru. Among other places.” Matthew added the last part as an afterthought. The truth was, people had searched for Paititi throughout South America.

  “Lake Titicaca is shared by both Peru and Bolivia,” Cal said with a shrug. They all looked at him at once. “What? I know geography.”

  Daniel shook his head, then continued. “There have been discoveries of Inca tunnels under Cusco. It’s believed that the Incas traveled underground.”

  “I remember hearing that, too, and it makes sense. They lived in some rough terrain—jungles, mountain ranges.” Matthew stretched his neck from side to side.

  “Right, so why go over a mountain if you can go under it?” Daniel agreed. “You can see what I think is likely a tunnel into Paititi in the photo you have, Matthew.”

  Matthew looked down at the picture and noticed a darker section that was conceivably a tunnel-shaped void. There was an issue with the anomaly, though: it didn’t seem to connect with another, yet larger rectangular void.

  He held it for Daniel to see. “What is this?”

  “I believe that is the City of Gold.”

  “But it doesn’t seem to connect with what looks like a tunnel,” Matthew said.

  “It comes close, but it’s also possible the tunnel goes deeper and that’s where it meets the city. It may be beyond the scope of the technology’s ability.”

  “So the darker it is in this image, the further it is underground?”

  “Yes.”

  “You really think it’s underground? It seems strange to me. The Incas loved to be elevated. They established cities on the top of mountains to bring them closer to their sun god,” Robyn explained. “You’ve already mentioned Machu Picchu.”

  Daniel gave her a knowing smile. “Another reason I believe the city of Paititi is hidden underground. It would be the last place people would look.”

  The room fell silent. Was it really logical to consider the existence of Paititi? And underground, at that?

  Robyn looked around at them. “You know, it does kind of make sense when I really think about it. If the Incas really did shuffle gold back to the city of Paititi, they couldn’t have done so aboveground. They would have easily been followed. But if they had a discreet entrance and a tunnel system…”

  “People expect Paititi to be elevated,” Daniel reiterated. “But positioning the temple in a cavern between two mountain peaks would serve their purposes. The sun would stream in and illuminate the gold to honor their god. You can see it in that photograph you have, Robyn.”

  She took a look. “There does appear to be an opening between the two mountains. It’s really overgrown, though.”

  “How do we get inside the cavern?” Matthew asked. “By foot through the tunnel system, assuming there is mo
re than one? Or can we climb the mountain and scale down? Maybe we could be lowered in from a plane.”

  “No offense, sir, but you’re not a mountain climber,” Daniel said. “Besides, the altitude makes scaling impossible.”

  “That’s too bad because dropping in from a plane sounds fun,” Cal said, earning Matthew’s approval.

  Daniel turned to Cal. “You’d freeze to death. And that would be such a shame.”

  Cal snarled.

  “Okay, so we’re back to the tunnel,” Matthew said to Daniel.

  “That we are.”

  “Is it possible that the tunnel goes deeper than what was captured in the pictures? Can we know with certainty that it starts here and ends there?” Matthew pointed to the spots on the map. “And the distance between what we think is a tunnel and Paititi looks pretty large.”

  Daniel smiled. “That is where your sense of adventure comes in.”

  Matthew had to admit he was getting excited, despite the odds presented with this quest.

  “So no one has come close to finding the city?” Cal asked.

  “Oh, some people thought they were,” Daniel responded, “but they were in the wrong spot or they were killed.”

  Cal swallowed audibly. “Killed?”

  “One example: An explorer went missing and was never found. Rumors ranged from starvation to illness to succumbing to wild animals. In a more recent documentary, a native Indian chief confessed that their ancestors had beaten the man to death. Apparently, he had showed no interest in their culture and had no respect for their way of life.”

  “Whoa! Hold on.” Cal leaned forward. “You’re telling me that we also have to worry about natives who are going to beat us with a club?”