The Doomsday Cipher (An Avalon Adventure Book 3) Page 5

  “They don’t have the Codex or Montesino’s directions,” Selena said.

  Atticus gave one of his long, nervous sighs. “Of course, but it’s still bothering me. I mean, what on earth would they want it for?”

  “We can worry about that later,” Decker said, unbuckling his seatbelt. “Right now we need to get on and find what we’re looking for before they do, and that means a hike through some pretty unforgiving jungle off to the west. So let’s get started or we’re going to lose light.”

  9

  They walked across the site, skirting its southern border and made their way to the jungle off to the west. Hacking their way through the dense rainforest, they weaved a winding path around bushy breadfruit trees and wild tangles of bromeliads and spikey epiphytes. The heat was intense, and their rain and sweat-soaked bodies ached from head to toe by the time they reached the area described by Fray Alfonso Montesino in his crumbling, yellowed manuscript.

  “Is this it?” Decker asked, looking around and seeing nothing but undergrowth.

  They were standing in a small grove of cashew trees growing at the bottom of the slope to the complex’s west, exactly where Montesino had written about. Looking up at the ruins off to their east, Selena followed the friar’s code and carefully aligned the Jaguar Temple with the High Temple, or what was also known today as El Castillo, the castle. “I think a little more to the west.”

  Riley pulled his machete blade from the stem of a fan palm and wiped sweat from his forehead. Turning to face the others with a grin on his face, he said, “Which way now, Lena?”

  “Based on Diana’s translation of the text, I think we need to keep going west for another hundred feet or so. That’s where the river runs into the meander drawn by Montesino and it’s also where the jungle seems to be at its heaviest. If there really is some kind of hidden burial ground around here, then it would have to be somewhere fairly impenetrable.”

  “Surely someone flying over it in a plane would have seen something,” Decker said. “And what about satellite surveillance?”

  “Not nearly as extensive as you might think,” Charlie said. “When I was in the Royal Military Police, I worked on a couple of jobs involving civilians in the Secret Intelligence Service. They had experience in satellite recon and told me a lot of the world is still largely uncharted, especially places like this, and especially in the sort of detail to reveal hidden entrances and so on. It’s totally feasible that Montesino was telling the truth about the burial chamber.”

  “I can concur,” Acosta said. The older man was breathing heavily. The effort of the march and the humidity of the rainforest had formed an alliance against his weary body. “Many of our greatest discoveries were in areas we thought we had mostly mapped out. So yes, it’s feasible.”

  “Come on, let’s keep going,” Diana said. She had walked ahead and caught up with Riley as he hacked through the final few yards of foliage. The two of them were standing close enough to the river to hear it rushing over some rocks a little to their left. In front of them the land sloped down into a hollow full of thick, tangled vines. “It’s getting dark.”

  Another short walk. Each step they took, the undergrowth grew denser and harder to hack their way through. Selena stopped and looked up the slope once again. The temples were obscured even more by the rainforest now, but she was still able to see them, and this time the alignment was even better.

  “Here,” she said with confidence. “This is the view Montesino described in his journal. This is the place he claims the priest was buried with the Stormbringer.”

  “Progress,” Acosta said. “At last.”

  “But I don’t see anything,” Charlie said.

  Diana gasped. “Yes! Look down there!”

  The others had caught them up and were gathered on the edge of the slope. “What am I looking at?” Atticus said.

  Diana made her way slowly down into the foliage. “Some rocks, boulders maybe. Behind these vines.”

  “Look out for snakes,” Riley said, stumbling down after her. “I don’t want to have to suck any poison out of the bite wound.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I’d sooner die.”

  He laughed. “Sounds like you never got bitten by a snake before, mate!”

  She ignored him. “Here.” The Portuguese woman swept a thick fistful of vine creepers to the side to reveal a steep rockface in front of her. What had looked like natural rocks from a distance were in fact hand-carved blocks of stone built into the side of a rise. She traced her index finger along one of the grooves dividing two of the blocks and smiled.

  “I think I found the entrance,” she said. “Behind these vines! Look, if I move some more away you can see the outline of a door and a sort of stone handle…”

  “Wait!”

  Riley grabbed her arm and pulled her away. “It’s a boobytrap. Check out the last dude who tried to get in here.”

  Now she saw it. A sun-bleached skeleton with vines twisting out of its eye sockets stared back at her from beside the wall. She gasped and staggered back into the Australian’s arms.

  “Take it easy,” he said. “You’re okay.”

  “Whoa,” Charlie said. “Looks like we’re not the first to try and get in this place. Check that guy out!”

  “So we’re not the first to find this place,” Selena said coolly. “But judging by the state of these bones it looks we might be the first in a very long time.”

  Diana looked nervously at the skeleton and chewed her lip. “What killed him?”

  Acosta said, “There’s no sign of any bone damage. No broken skull or evidence of any hacking or stab wounds. I’d say poison, maybe from a dart.”

  “Then we have to be careful.” Decker scanned the surrounding area for anywhere likely to contain hidden blowpipes. “The good news is we haven’t set anything off yet.”

  “Yet,” Charlie said. “Which isn’t that reassuring when you stop to think about it.”

  Riley was also looking into the trees. “Not necessarily a fixed weapon though. Might have been fired from a mobile pipe by a warrior or someone charged with protecting this place.”

  “You think that person might still be alive?” Diana asked.

  “Not unless he’s five hundred years old,” Selena said, staring at the skeleton. “So let’s just pull ourselves together and get on with it. It’ll be night soon and we need to get going. Now, get those bones out the way and let me get into the burial chamber!”

  “That’s my girl,” Atticus said proudly. “Never lets anything get in her way. Not even a skeleton.”

  As she elbowed past him, Decker gave her a doubtful glance. “I like a woman with ambition, but this is ridiculous. Have you no respect for the dead?”

  “I’m an archaeologist, Mitch! I spend most of my life around very dead people!”

  He shrugged. “When you put it like that…”

  Selena turned the handle, pushed open the door and led the way inside the passageway. She went carefully, raising her flashlight and illuminating the damp, stony interior. Angling the beam upwards, she saw the tunnel’s ceiling had been reinforced with broad slabs of rocks. “Doesn’t look too safe, but if it’s been holding the place together for the last five hundred years, I guess nothing’s going to change today.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Decker said, joining her inside the tunnel and sweeping his own flashlight across the rock ceiling. “Looks like sandstone. Each of those rocks must weigh at least a thousand pounds. If one of them comes down on any of us, it’s Goodnight Vienna.”

  “We can talk about this later,” Charlie said. “I think the armed thugs just turned up!”

  Decker’s shoulders sloped and he sighed. “Are you kidding me?”

  Charlie was at the back of the line, still outside with Diana and Acosta. He turned and looked off to his right, ducking down a little to keep his head down. “No jokes. Several men, all heavily armed.”

  “They must have parked out of sight,” Selena said. />
  Decker said, “They were waiting for us to show them the way inside, damn it!”

  “But how could they know?” Atticus asked.

  “Don’t ask me difficult questions at this time of the day,” Decker growled. “Never do that.”

  “Oh, bugger!” Charlie said. “I think they saw me!”

  Then the firing started – tracer bullets zipped through the gathering tropical dusk and pinged off the stonework around the entrance.

  “Everyone get in here!” Decker yelled. “Now!”

  “We don’t even know where it leads!” Diana said.

  “It’s our only chance,” Decker said. “And I know where those bullets lead!”

  Atticus nodded. “I agree. We must have faith in Montesino, Diana. If he says there is a hidden site here, then there must be. He also said there were two entrances to the burial chamber, remember? When we get inside we can find what we need and use the other one to get away.”

  “That’s a plan, then!” Decker said, rolling his eyes. “Maybe we could stop talking now?”

  Riley drew a Browning automatic from his holster. Charlie’s weapon was a Glock, which he now drew and gripped confidently in his hand. “You guys go on ahead and find the chamber,” the Australian said. “Me and Charlie will keep these pricks out of your hair for a bit.”

  Decker and Selena looked at one another, each already knowing what the other was thinking.

  “Fine,” she said at last. “But don’t do anything stupid like getting yourselves killed!”

  “I’m not planning on it!” Riley said. “What about you, Charlie?”

  “Not today, no.”

  Riley caught sight of some movement outside the passageway and turned to see a man crouch-walking down the path they had cleared, slowly closing on their position. He was carrying what looked like an M249 light machine gun. Riley levelled his gun and took a shot at him, ripping a bullet into his thigh and sending him crashing to the jungle floor, shrieking and screaming and clutching at his wrecked leg.

  He turned back to the others. “What are you waiting for, losers? Get on with it! Get to the chamber!”

  The crew looked to Decker, and he gave a casual shrug. “I guess the guy can shoot straight enough to keep us safe. Let’s go!”

  10

  Decker was in the lead now, pounding down the tunnel with his flashlight gripped in his hand and desperately praying there really was a way through at the other end of the chamber. Riley and Charlie were still at the entrance, returning fire on the attackers as Selena, Diana, Atticus and Acosta followed the American into the gloom.

  “You find anything down there, Mitch?” Riley shouted. He took another shot and watched the thugs scatter behind tropical undergrowth running with rainwater. “Because we’re outnumbered up here! They’re everywhere and all armed to the teeth.”

  “Yeah… I’m working on it, Riley!” he yelled back.

  Decker heard the Australian loose another shot while Charlie reloaded. “How many mags you got, mate?”

  “This is the last one,” Charlie said. “You?”

  “Same here.”

  Their conversation faded out as Decker sprinted further down the passageway.

  “I hope they’re okay,” Diana said.

  “They’ll be fine,” said Decker. “They’re both ex-soldiers and they know how to handle a solid defensive position like that entrance back there. Their only problem is if they get too outgunned, in which case they’ll just retreat and join us back here.”

  “I pray you’re right.”

  “He is!”

  Riley’s voice. Still running along the tunnel, Decker glanced over his shoulder and saw the Australian and Charlie sprinting up behind them.

  “How many?” Decker asked.

  “Too many to count, and they’re on their way down here. Just seconds behind us.”

  “Holy crap! We haven’t even reached the chamber yet!”

  Hearing the men gaining on them, Charlie spun around and unleashed several rounds down the tunnel. The muzzle flashed in the darkness and illuminated the men’s faces. He hit one in the chest and he tumbled over into the dirt. Then his associates returned fire.

  “Shit, we’re in deep!” Riley called out. He raised his Hi-Power and fired into the black, the sound of his weapon almost deafeningly loud in the enclosed tunnel. “We need to get out of this passageway right now, or we’re Swiss cheese, Mitch!”

  Decker ignored the imagery. He knew they were massively outnumbered and if they didn’t reach the chamber soon, they would be caught in a dead end. The phrase ‘shooting fish in a barrel’ wouldn’t do the situation justice if these men hunted them down inside the tunnel. But the darkest hour was just before dawn, and then he saw it. Up ahead, the dim outline of a stone door inside an archway made of a smooth stone plinth resting on two vertical stacks of carved rock.

  “We made it!” he called out from the front. “I see some kind of door up ahead.”

  The crew followed him down the last remaining few yards of the tunnel until they reached a large stone archway.

  “We’re here!” Selena said. “That’s the good news.”

  “What’s the bad news?” Diana asked.

  “Here is just an antechamber. The main event is behind that!” She pointed to the stone slab blocking the entrance.

  “At least we’re in the right place,” Decker said.

  “Yeah,” said Charlie, “but those psychos are also going to be in the right place in about thirty seconds!”

  “How do we get it open?” Riley said, glancing over his shoulder. “Right now we’re just rats in a trap!”

  Selena swept her flashlight over the door. Everywhere she looked, she saw carvings of dots, dashes and what looked like tiny seashells. “Um… let me see. I wonder what these mean?”

  “Wonder faster than that, Lena,” Riley said.

  “They’re maths symbols,” Atticus said. “Remember the Maya counting system?”

  “Um…”

  “And look closer, darling,” he said with a mischievous grin. “What do you see?”

  Selena gasped. “Of course! I see it now. This slab is locking the way into the main chamber and maths is the key!”

  “Math,” Decker said.

  “Not now, Mitchell,” Selena said in clipped tones. “I’m thinking.” She tapped her lip and cocked her head to one side, deep in thought. “Shells, dots, dashes. It’s the ancient Maya script, both words and numerals. Seems to be some sort of puzzle.”

  “Remember, it’s not decimal,” Atticus said. “The Maya system was like many of the older counting systems and was base-20.”

  “Base-20?” Charlie said.

  Atticus smiled. “Vigesimal.”

  “Eh?”

  “Based on twenty,” Selena said. “It’s not hard, Charles.”

  “Oh, sure.”

  “It’s a superior system, in my opinion,” Atticus said dreamily. “After all, twenty is divisible by more numbers than ten. But then, I’m old-fashioned.”

  “And crazy!” Riley said, turning and firing on the men and driving them back once more. “Do you even remember we’re being hunted by armed maniacs?”

  A bullet ripped between them and ricocheted off the top of the stone plinth above the slab.

  “Damn it!” Decker cried out, moving away from the slab and joining Riley and Charlie at the rear. “We have to hold them back!”

  He fired and drove the men back again. Riley and Charlie also opened fire and forced the invaders further back around the bend in the tunnel.

  “We can’t keep them away forever,” Riley said. “Only until the bullets run out.”

  “We need more progress, Dad,” Selena said with a sigh.

  Atticus frowned as he studied the carvings. “The shell is worth zero, right?”

  She nodded. “Yes, and then it’s a various combination of dots and dashes to create any number you like. It’s asking us a question though, right here.” She leaned closer and stu
died the Maya script carefully. “It’s says two sons and two fathers went hunting together. They killed precisely three curassows. Then each hunter had one curassow.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” Riley called over.

  Charlie said, “And what’s a curassow?”

  “It’s type of bird,” Atticus said haughtily. “It was hunted for food in ancient Maya culture.”

  “But it doesn’t even make sense,” said Decker. “Two sons and two fathers went hunting. They killed three of these birds. Three. Then it says they had one each, which is four. Does not make sense.”

  “That’s why they call it a riddle,” Acosta said. “Perhaps they should have just left a key under the doormat so men like those shooting us could just walk in whenever they felt like it?”

  “Your attitude is affecting my aim, Pepe,” Decker said, taking another shot.

  “The answer is one of the fathers was also a grandfather,” Selena said. “It’s an old maths riddle. One man was both the father of his son and the grandfather of his grandson. Three men.”

  Decker smiled. “Not bad work, Professor Moore.”

  “Why thank you, Captain Decker!” she said.

  Riley grinned. “She’s not just a pretty face.”

  “Indeed not, gentlemen,” Selena said. “So now I simply push the tiles for grandfather, son and grandson in that precise order and just like that…”

  A large puff of dust burst out of the gap at the sides and top of the slab and a deep grinding noise filled the antechamber. Seconds later, the slab had retracted behind the stone wall and given way onto a darker inner chamber. Waving a thick cloud of dust away from her face, Selena turned and gave the team a triumphant smile. “I thank you!”

  They rushed inside the chamber. “I’ll thank you later,” Decker said. “For now, can we close this door again?”