A good many of my fellow countrymen have died at the hands of you…why?
Getting back to his search, he narrowed it down to the various social media platforms. Ignoring the less relevant ones, he focused his attention on the largest of them all: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. After searching for a few minutes and only finding slight mentions of his presence, the Architect was about to shut down his computer and be satisfied in knowing that no one identified him as anything more than a “murderous old man.”
They have no idea, he thought, staring at his own reflection in his laptop’s screen as the next page loaded. Then, it was gone as the next link appeared, making him grit his teeth.
Someone named, “Fernando de los Santos,” he said to himself.
He was an employee of Chichen Itza and just posted a fairly detailed description of him. He even went on to describe what happened, but thankfully, the more brutal details were hazy at best. It honestly sounded like more of a fight scene from a movie than anything possible in real life.
He smiled. “I guess I’ll have to pay Mr. de los Santos a visit in the morning and see what else he knows.” His perfected Greek accent was his favorite, but he also enjoyed his waspy British inflection along with the countless others he honed—not to mention the languages that went along with them. Come to think of it, he wasn’t exactly sure which was his natural one. It's been so long since he was able to be himself.
Someday, he thought, standing. But first, I need to take care of this bump in the road. The Order can’t know what I’ve been up to.
5
Chichen Itza, Yucatan
Roaming the open field surrounding El Castillo was easy for Nando, it was his normal duty to do as much. But doing it while waiting for a superhuman Colonel Sanders to strike you down made it a little more nerve-wracking than ever before. Luckily for him, he was in contact with Hank and the others via his futuristic sunglasses, something Todd called, NVS-X. The software was nicknamed ENVY and it was fully integrated into the network. They could even talk to it and it would talk back without flaw.
At least I have my gun, Nando thought, resting his palm atop the hip-mounted weapon. He’d also given a similar weapon to Hank and Nicole, knowing they didn’t have the luxury of bringing any with them through customs.
The pistols were brand new, a recommendation from an unnamed supporter. That benefactor was none other than, Hank Boyd himself, Director of ATLAS. Todd had set up a dummy company that would supply the Chichen Itza security team, along with those over at Teotihuacan, with state-of-the-art weaponry. He said it was the least he could do after what happened to both sites.
While Chichen Itza only sustained minor damage in the form of bullets and bloodstains, Teotihuacan was utterly devastated and had yet to reopen. The once beautiful place and its main attraction, the Avenue of the Dead, was only a shell of itself now.
Some things can’t be replaced, Nando thought, watching as a couple walked by his position. They were dressed like all the others, the man wearing a baseball cap displaying an old English D while wearing t-shirt and jeans. The blonde woman showed off her flawless curves and toned physique beneath her tank top and capris cargo pants.
The couple, Hank and Nicole, were also armed and plugged in, watching Nando’s every move, but they were also on the lookout for the old man with white hair and Kung Fu grip. The park was as busy as ever and picking out their target wasn’t going to be easy. Thankfully, they had an ace up their sleeve.
“How’s it going?” Todd asked.
“Okay, I guess,” Nando replied, making sure he looked at every single face of those walking around him. Hank and Nicole were likewise doing the same.
“You’ll be fine,” Todd assured. “My program can track everyone you all see. If there’s an anomaly, and I spot someone that didn’t first come through the front gates, I’ll let you know from here.”
“Where are you?” Nando asked, curious.
“Technically, Virginia, but—”
“Cut the chit-chat,” Nicole ordered. “Hank thinks he sees the old man.”
* * *
“Got him,” I say, seeing a man fitting the description given by Vicky, Nando, and Todd. The latter put together the likeness in our glasses, giving us a face to match to the man we’re here for. “He’s directly in front of us and headed towards you, Nando. Just do as we planned and you’ll be fine.”
“Okay, Hank. I see him too.”
Nicole and I are ten paces behind our target, watching as he casually makes his way towards Nando and the pyramid’s southern staircase. While I’d normally feel good about our present situation, the target isn’t exactly human. Our bullets will do exactly jack to him if we can’t reason with him.
“Hurry up, Hank,” Nando whispers, turning his back to us. “He’s right on top of me.”
“Ready?” I ask Nicole.
“Ja,” she says, focused and primed for a fight.
“Mr. de los Santos, a moment if you could?”
We stop twenty feet away from the two men and watch them interact. My hand wants to go to the small of my back, where my Glock is, but I do everything in my power to resist. Shooting him might buy Nando enough time to get away but it won’t finish this. I need to step up and take control of the—
“Hey, old man,” Nicole says, beating me to the punch. She looks my way. “What? You were taking too long.”
Nando backs away as the other man turns on us, his face matching Nicole’s, still as stone. We stare each other down, making me wish I planned on a better opening than. “Don’t move.” So, I decide to lay my cards out on the table and dig into my pocket.
Before he can react, I flip the one thing I have on me that might keep him from going berserk on us, my Atlantean coin. The old man reflexively catches it and looks at it, his face instantly falling flat for a moment. I take my glasses off, wishing for the first time since losing them, that my eyes were still gold. It would be an instant peace treaty. But alas, they’re gone. Now, I need a new get out of jail pass.
“I hope you’re not a friend of Nannot’s because that guy was a real asshole.”
A hint of a smile forms on the old man’s face as he tosses the coin back to me, relaxing his stance a little. “Was?” he asks.
“Yep,” I say, “I killed him and his wife.”
“His kids too,” Nicole adds for good measure.
“His children?” he asks.
“The Judgers of Man. The ones who throw around the earthly elements like a toddler with a bazooka.”
“Ah, yes,” he says, laughing at my description of him, “the Judges. I must apologize for my forgetful memory, it’s been a long time since I’ve spoken to someone about them…” His eyebrow raises. “Let alone about them to a human.”
I shrug. “I wasn’t always human, you know.”
The crow’s feet around his eyes squint harder. “Who are you?”
I step forward and extend my hand. “My name is Hank Boyd, Director of the Advanced Technological, Logistical, and uh…Archaeological Sciences division of the CIA…” I roll my eyes as I stumble through the name…again.
“ATLAS?” he asks, piecing together the gaudy acronym.
I smile. “…and once upon a time, I was a Priest of An’tala—the last priest actually.”
This gets an unexpected reaction out of the old man—one of shock. He nervously takes my hand and pumps it three times. Whatever fight he was here for has completely vanished now, giving me a chance to breathe normally.
“A priest?” he asks. “It can’t be?”
“It is,” Nicole says, stepping up next to me. “He was given his power by none other than the king himself.”
“Thoth?” he asks, putting a hand to his chest. “You met the lord?”
“His sons too…sort of. I found the three priest’s coffins beneath the necropolis in Algeria.”
“The necropolis?” he asks, still shocked.
I nod. “Once I touched Rahji-itza’s crypt, T
hoth spoke to me and gave me the might of An’tala.”
“You wield its fire?”
“He did,” Nicole replies. “He used it admirably and saved the world from Nannot.”
“And Enki,” I add.
“Enki?” he asks, rubbing his hands together. “So it’s true. Thoth’s power—its origin—it was alien?”
I nod. “Very E.T.”
“And now?” he asks. “What of An’tala’s enemies?”
“All are very dead.”
Relief washes over his face. “I must say, Mr. Boyd, I’m impressed. Few have battled Nannot and survived and I don’t even know what to make of Enki. Thoth refused to speak of him, even in private.”
“It’s Hank, by the way. What’s your name?”
“Um, excuse me,” Nando says, behind the old man, “does this mean you’re not going to kill me now?”
The old man just laughs and shakes his head. “No, my friend, I’m not going to kill you. Not anymore, at least.” He then turns back to me, forgetting I asked his name.
“Your name?” I ask again.
“Oh, right, sorry,” he says, standing straight and proper. He bows. “I have gone by a great many names in my life, but the one I always return to is my first, Rand Intari, chief advisor to Lord Thoth, King of An’tala.”
“Advisor?” I ask. “You were on the council?”
“What council?” Nando asks.
Rand’s shoulders dip at the mention of the group. “He speaks of the Order of An’tala, and yes, I was a part of them—sitting in their uppermost seat, in fact.”
“Hank,” Todd says, speaking up for the first time since we welcomed Rand, “we have incoming.”
My face must say a lot because Rand’s ancient eyes narrow. “What is it?”
I hold up a hand. “Say again, Todd.”
“He’s there, Hank. Undead-Man is in the park!”
Now it’s my turn to look shocked.
“We need to go,” I say, motioning for Rand to come with us. “Your friend is here.”
“Gerard?”
I nod and pull on his shirt sleeve. “If that’s his name, then yes, Gerard is here. We need to go, now!” I draw my gun as Nicole and Nando do the same. “Get us out of here, Nando. Find us a backdoor.”
“Wait,” Rand says, shrugging out of my grasp. “Follow me, I know a way. We can lose Gerard there.”
I look at my small team and get the same reaction out of them both. Confusion. But a scream from behind us gets me moving and I shove Nicole and Nando forward after the sprinting Rand.
“He is very spry for an old guy,” Nando says, taking off after him with Nicole and me in tow.
6
Chichen Itza, Yucatan
As soon as he reentered the grounds, Gerard made it a point to cause a ruckus, wanting nothing but utter chaos surrounding him as he made his way forward. While he was all but unkillable, Gerard had another special talent, one he was currently putting on display.
As he passed through the front security checkpoint, Gerard caught a glimpse of an advertisement for a vacation package on the window of one of the shops. The company apparently worked out of the visitor’s center, but it wasn’t the travel agent’s name or even what they offered that brought a smile to Gerard’s face.
It was their corporate logo.
A jaguar—more specifically the red jaguar throne found inside El Castillo. Its crimson pelt was beautiful and inlaid with jade jewels, giving it an even more unique appearance.
He held his arms out to the side as he continued his march, concentrating on the creature’s appearance, seeing it in his mind’s eye. Then, like countless times before, it happened. Gerard, the immortal hunter, became that jaguar, morphing into it one body part at a time. It’s what caused the people just inside the front gates to shriek in terror.
First, his face cracked and broke into the correct shape and size, quickly covering itself in blood-red fur. He felt his eyes reform and the pupils elongate into what he knew to be that of a cat. Next, was his chest and arms, matching his head’s oversized feline appearance. As his hands turned into powerful paws, he felt a set of razor-sharp claws form right beneath his skin. His lower body quickly followed, as well as a tail, sprouting from his tailbone.
His voice was replaced with a guttural growl that was half roar and half snarl. The best part about Gerard’s transformation ability was that he kept his human form’s intelligence and memory. He was basically the same exact being just in the shape of a mythical jungle predator.
Stalking his way forward, Gerard sent everyone within range running in fright, knocking over one another like he had the plague. He had no quarrel with the humans between him and the Architect, but if they got in his way, he’d pounce.
Yes, he thought, that’s what jaguars do, pounce.
A mother and her son were huddled together just out of his range and he thought about testing his newfound abilities on them. But as soon as made his first move towards the pair, twin projectiles struck his right flank, turning him towards the pest.
A man wearing a shirt depicting the park’s name was firing a gun at him, hands shaking, hitting Gerard with only half the rounds used. He sneered and then showed his teeth in a horrifying smile, licking his lips.
As he expected, the security guard lost his will to fight and fled but not before Gerard pounced on him from behind. He tore into the screaming man with all the rage his body possessed. It had been years since he transformed into another creature and killed a man. He needed to be careful too. If he overexerted himself, Gerard would lose his concentration and revert to his human body, winded and vulnerable.
No worries, he thought, they’ll be dead by then.
Tasting the man’s blood on his lips, Gerard roared into the air and leapt away but spilled to the ground. He was having trouble controlling himself. Need to be patient—let it come to me. He slowly moved on all fours and found the clearing that held Chichen Itza’s crown jewel, El Castillo. As soon as he entered, he stopped and took in the air. Even in his human form, Gerard could smell the Elixir on the Architect. It was like he was soaked in the stuff. He probably bathed in it to keep himself alive.
It shall be mine.
Focusing on the pyramid, Gerard saw movement around its northern side. Three people he didn’t recognize were accompanying his target around the rear, heading for… What exactly?
He knew the Architect had a hand in designing a few of the world’s ancient monuments, but to what extent, he wasn’t sure. What Rand Intari was best at, was recording historical events. He oversaw the same thing during his time in An’tala’s council. Like Thoth, Rand believed in learning from their own history, using their past to help guide them to their future. It was Rand who had documented their homeland’s history in the form of carved pictographs in the tunnels of the necropolis beneath the kingdom’s foundation.
Gerard truly admired the man’s work. Who couldn’t? But in the end, his masters within the Order needed more than just records and temples... They need Rand himself, or rather the knowledge he possessed regarding Thoth’s most treasured secret.
The Elixir of Life.
* * *
Last to round the northeast corner of the pyramid, I look back and zoom in on something that shouldn’t be. Something alive…
“Is that a jaguar?” Todd asks, seeing what I do.
“Yes?” I answer with my own question.
Focusing on its face, it locks on to me and smiles. “Oh, shit.”
“Did a giant red cat just smile at you, Hank?”
“Yes it did,” I reply, catching up with the others. We approach the northern staircase and continue around it. It sticks out from its main structure a good fifteen feet but it’s not the staircase’s construction that has my attention, it’s the metal gate attached to a tunnel entrance built into its western face.
Rand steps up to the gate, grips it, grunts, and yanks it off its hinges. Metal chirps as it’s bent and broken. He quickly drops th
e mangled metal at his feet like it’s made of balsa wood and steps through like he owns the joint.
“Where are we going?” I ask, following the others into the dank room.
“Rand thinks we can escape through a secret tunnel within El Castillo,” Nando replies. “But I don’t know of any such tunnel, only the one leading up to the interior temple built within the outer structure.”
El Castillo, like a lot of other ancient structures, is not the original design. There is, in actuality, a smaller, cruder pyramid beneath the shell you see now, built several hundred years before the newer addition was put in place atop it.
“It’s here,” Rand says from ahead of us, “don’t you worry. All I have to do is find the correct step and we can take the shaft down to the cenote below.”
“Cenote?” Nicole asks. “What cenote?”
I answer. “About a year or so ago, some science types from the University of Mexico found evidence of a large underground cave directly beneath the pyramid. Like most all cenotes, its filled with water.”
“And probably used for sacrificial purposes,” Nando adds, crossing his chest in fright. “They always give me the creeps.”
“I can’t imagine why,” Nicole mumbles, getting a look from the both of us. “Sorry…”
“Anyway,” I say, continuing, “the discovery might shine some light as to why the pyramid was built here in the first place. There’s nothing else of significance around here. The builder’s reasoning for the location has always been a mystery.”
“Quite so, Hank,” Rand says from a few stairs above us. “Cenotes depicted a maternal womb to the people of the region, signifying the origin of life.”
“Not to make light of our current situation,” I say, “but how do you know so much about this place? How do you know there’s even a shaft to the cenote?”
Elixir of Life: A Novella (A Hank Boyd Adventure - Book 4) (The Hank Boyd Adventures) Page 4