by Rob Jones
“Well bugger me,” Scarlet said, impressed.
“National Service!” the young Colombian called back.
But then they heard a scream and turned to see Chastain go over the edge and fall inside the panthers’ enclosure. He landed in what he had smugly described as the dining room.
“Please…!” he screamed. “ Oh, Jesus H. Christ, help me!”
“Call me crazy,” Lea said coolly from the viewing platform, “but I don’t think he can hear ya.”
Clyde moved first, rising to all fours on his powerful haunches and turning his broad, square face toward the new arrival.
Chastain stumbled back a few yards to the edge of the cage, almost surprised when he walked into it. “Please… you can’t do this to me.”
“I thought you said it was fun?” Lea said.
Bonnie now got up and joined Clyde.
Chastain raised his head and saw his own chopper slowly rising above the training area, with Kruger, Saqqal, Jawad and Rajavi all safely on board. He waved a fist in the air and screamed. “You bastard, Saqqal!”
“Looks like you need to learn how to make better friends,” Hawke said, strolling over to join Lea as she climbed down from the platform.
Clyde growled, and began to pace up and down in front of Chastain. It was a low, deep growl that they all felt as much as heard.
“He sounds hungry,” Lexi said. “When was the last time you fed them again?”
“I think he said four days ago,” Reaper said.
“Ouch,” Scarlet said. “Poor little kitty cats…”
The black panthers were now getting agitated.
“Did you know,” Ryan said at last, “that all black panthers in Asia are leopards, but all black panthers in South America are jaguars?”
“I did not know that, mate,” Hawke said. Ryan’s voice was harder now, without the levity. Hawke thought he sounded ten years older than the last time he had heard him speak.
“Neither did I,” Scarlet said. “Good to have you back, Ryan.”
“Thanks.”
“Yes, I damn well knew that!” Chastain said. His voice was now a desperate whisper as he sought to calm the angry panthers a few feet from him. “Just please get me the fuck outta here and you can have whatever you want, I swear!”
“We can have whatever we want already, darling,” Scarlet said.
“C’est vrai,” Reaper added, rolling a cigarette. His eyes were fixed on the thin line of tobacco in the folded paper, but he could hear and smell the panthers as they closed in on the former Delta soldier. All that was between him and the wild animals now was the partition gate.
“They are so beautiful,” Lexi said. “It’s just such a shame to keep them locked up like this.”
She threw the lever and the partition gate began to creak open.
“You can’t do this to me!” he shouted.
Hawke scanned the area and saw Corzo sprinting across the training area toward the Kiowa. Kruger made no effort to stop for him, but he got there all the same, leaping for his life and slamming into the portside skid. As the chopper ascended above the jungle canopy and disappeared into the west, Carlos Corzo was still dangling off the skid and hanging on for all he was worth.
“Hope the bastard falls off,” Lea said, and then she heard a deep growl a few feet behind her. She turned to see Bonnie and Clyde crawling under the gap in the dividing bars and approaching Ross Chastain with hunger in their eyes.
“Please!” Chastain said, pleading with them one last time. “Let me out.”
“Goodbye, Chastain,” Lexi said, and slammed the vine-covered gate behind her as she left the cage area. As a horrendous mix of human screams and jaguar roars drifted above the vines, Lexi dusted her hands off and faced the others. “Don’t go in there. It’s a clawful mess.”
“Oh, please,” Scarlet said, rolling her eyes, but Hawke laughed.
“Love it.”
Lea was still shaking as Hawke put his arms around her and held her tight. She liked the way it felt when he held her close. She felt safe, and for just a moment it was okay to let her guard down… the guard she had kept up since her father was taken from her. The buzzing wasp of hatred and regret that was behind every thought she ever had.
When she was in Joe Hawke’s arms the wasp went away and she could breathe again. She was no fool. She had seen the way he’d looked at Maria Kurikova, and she had an idea there might be trouble with Alex Reeve on the horizon, but what else could she do?
She knew no one else in the world and all she’d ever wanted was peace and happiness. For a time, Richard Eden had offered it to her, but now even that looked like it was about to be taken away. Life was a hurricane, and Joe Hawke was her storm shelter. Solid, reliable, and always ready to take her in. Now, just seconds after almost being turned into cat food by Ross Chastain, she was so grateful to be alive she saw things with a renewed clarity.
“Come on you lazy bastards,” Scarlet said. “Kruger’s getting away.” She flicked her cigarette into the bull grass and walked over to their weapons. “And we all owe Luis a beer.”
CHAPTER TEN
They grabbed their weapons from the pile Corzo had made after their surrender and began to trudge back up the hill. The humidity was hell, and all around them the scream of the crickets and tree frogs rose up on both sides of the goat track as they got closer to the Jeep.
Halfway up, they found a smiling Luis Montoya with an old grenade launcher on his lap, and they introduced him to Ryan.
“Luis, meet Ryan Bale,” Scarlet said. “Ryan, meet Colombian Ryan.”
After the handshake, the attention turned from Luis’s grenade intervention to Ryan Bale, newly rescued from the clutches of Dirk Kruger and Ziad Saqqal. When they were back at the Jeep and away from the burning mansion, Lea turned to him, kissed him on the forehead and looked him in the eye. “So what the hell happened?”
He looked dazed but pleased to be safe at last. “It’s all a blur…” he said, peering over their heads and into the Jeep.
“He jumped off the scaffolding to stop Kruger, is what happened,” Reaper said. “He’s a hero.”
Ryan blushed. “But after that it’s a blur. I thought – this guy’s an archaeologist, how hard can he be? We fought on the deck and I realized Korać was trying to blow up the petrol tank. That was when I broke away from Kruger and tried to jump off the boat. I was in the air when the bullets hit the tank and sparked the petrol. There was an enormous explosion that sent me flying like Superman…”
“In your dreams,” Scarlet said.
“All right, like a bird, and the next thing I know Dirk Kruger was dragging me out of the water and smacking my face to bring me around.” He looked in the Jeep again. “Where’s Maria?”
“But I searched the area,” Reaper said.
Lea looked at him and bit her lip. “And we searched it again when we left in the boat.” Her voice was growing quieter.
“That’s because he took me into one of the sailing boats on the south jetty and tied me up at gunpoint. I watched you sail away from the porthole. It was a tough moment. I thought he was going to kill me.”
Lea felt a wave of hatred for Kruger rise in her soul, only to be pushed out of the way by a stronger feeling of sadness for what Ryan had been put through, and what he now had to be told. “And then what?”
“Then we sailed to the Azores where some of his associates arranged a private flight to Lisbon. Is Maria on Elysium?”
“And then to Cape Town?” Lexi asked.
Ryan shook his head. “No. That’s what I was expecting but when we got to Lisbon he made contact with people in South Africa who told him about the Syrians. He and Saqqal wanted to meet to discuss the Lost City so a meeting was arranged in Tunis.”
“Tunis?” Hawke said.
Ryan nodded. “We were there less than a day. It was decided that Kruger would secure the Mask of Inti while Saqqal arranged the extra muscle with Chastain. I don’t know what Saqqal is looking
for but it’s not any lost treasure. He kept going on about Utopia.”
Hawke frowned. “Utopia?”
“Uh-huh, but no idea what that means. I think he’s a few clowns short of a circus, if you ask me.”
“So what happened next?” Lexi asked.
“Then the plan was to meet up in Colombia, and that’s where you entered the picture.” He sighed heavily. “Which is good, because Kruger said he was only keeping me alive until he had no further use for my skills… and then the plan was to shoot me… I’m so glad it’s over. Now, would someone please tell me where Maria is?”
“Come with me, Ryan,” Reaper said. “We need to talk.”
“About what?”
“Please…”
Reaper flicked his roll-up away and put his tattooed arm on Ryan’s shoulder as he wheeled him away from the group. They walked back along the track a few yards and the Frenchman began talking quietly.
Lea watched the conversation from a distance, her heart breaking as she watched Ryan get smashed yet again with the terrible news about Maria Kurikova and how she was killed by Ekel Kvashnin back on the Seastead. The young man walked around in circles for a moment, with his head in his hands and then collapsed to the floor as he broke down. Reaper tried to comfort him with a heavy hand but Ryan pushed him away and then staggered to his feet before scrambling into the jungle.
Reaper returned slowly to the group and began to roll another cigarette. “I told him what happened. I told him she was a hero.”
“He needs time,” Lea said, anxiously scanning the tree line for any sign of her ex-husband.
“That can’t have been easy to take,” Hawke said flatly, working hard to keep any emotion out of his voice. “Not after Sophie.”
Scarlet sighed. “No…”
*
The journey into Bogotá was winding, stuffy and silent. Ryan sat in the back and stared wordlessly out the window as the jungle slowly turned into the suburbs of the city. When they got back to the hotel they bought beers and moved away from the bar to talk. Ryan pulled a piece of grubby paper from his pocket, handed it to Luis, and after downing his drink he turned and walked right back to the bar on his own.
“I need another drink.”
“What’s this?” Lea said.
Without turning or stopping, Ryan called out over his shoulder. “The marks on the mask Kruger nicked from Cartagena.”
Luis Montoya’s eyes widened like two full moons when he saw the sketches Ryan had made from his memory of the Mask of Inti. “This is incredible… are you sure it is what you saw?” He looked up but saw Ryan was now at the bar and making his order.
“Can you help us, Luis?” Lexi said.
“Maybe.”
Scarlet sighed. “Helpful. Kruger’s got the mask and is presumably well on his way and we’re buggering around with a maybe.”
“Easy, Cairo,” Hawke said, raising his hand to calm her. “He’s doing his best and he’s all we’ve got. I don’t think Ryan’s with us at the moment.” Looking into the bar he saw Ryan downing his third consecutive whisky.
“Yeah, I noticed that,” she said.
Lea stepped into the fray. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Stand down, kitten,” Scarlet said. “It’s supposed to mean precisely nothing.”
“I can help, I think,” Luis said, ignoring the obvious tension in the room. “But these are very unusual symbols. I can see why Héctor hid it away.”
“Tell us what you can,” Reaper said, lighting a cigarette and moving over to the window.
Hawke passed a tense hand over his face and sighed before crashing down on a soft chair. “Yes – please, Luis. Anything you have could help us.”
“If these sketches are accurate then they are Incan in origin, which is not surprising, but they’re not entirely consistent with the traditional Incan style.”
“What are you saying?” Lexi asked.
“I’m not sure I can read them – at least not this one here. It’s very confusing. It appears to be Indian in origin.”
“As in curries?” Scarlet said.
“As in the Hindu Mandala,” Luis said. “Are you sure Ryan can’t help?”
Lea looked over at Ryan. He was slumped over the bar and leaning into a good-looking woman with a low-cut top and lots of lipstick. “I think Ryan’s still MIA.”
Luis looked confused. “MIA?”
“Missing in Action.”
“Ah… I see. What about this Alex?”
“She’s been called away to be with her family,” Hawke said, and didn’t elaborate. “We can communicate with her but it’s on her schedule not ours.”
Reaper stubbed out his roll-up and stepped over to them, stopping to clap his heavy hand on Luis’s shoulder. “What they’re saying, mon ami, is that it’s all down to you.” And with that he raised his lager and took a long drink before sighing with satisfaction.
“So speak up or forever hold your peace,” Scarlet said.
“I don’t think I can help you. I am concerned by the presence of the Hindu Mandala on this mask. It should not be here. I can only presume it has been added later as a joke.”
“I wouldn’t bank on it,” Lexi said.
“What do you mean?”
“She means we’ve found many archaeological pieces which don’t exactly add up to make sense,” Hawke said. “What we need to focus on right now is what these markings mean. Kruger has killed people for the mask and he obviously knows what it means. That means we have to know as well or we can’t stop him.”
“Yes!” Luis said, leaping up from his seat and pacing up and down. “I agree, but what?” In his hand he was still holding the folded paper Ryan had drawn on, and as he raised it to his eyes for a closer look he knocked Reaper’s beer off the table where it tumbled to the floor and spilled out all over the carpet.
“Oh, sorry!”
“De rien,” Reaper said, and grabbed another beer from the bar while Luis hurriedly mopped up the mess on the floor with a napkin.
“What were you going to say, Luis?” Lea said, concealing the frustration in her voice.
“I think we’re going to need to show this to Mauricio Balta.”
“Who’s he?” Scarlet said.
“He’s the curator of the Larco Museum in Lima.”
“Lima, Peru?” Lea said.
Luis looked at her. “Is there another one?”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Lima
Their flight to the Peruvian capital was uneventful and boring and as soon they had cleared customs they were piling into a hired SUV and racing into the city. Lea watched the suburbs rush past in a blur as Hawke weaved the Pajero deftly in and out of the lanes on the highway, and her mind drifted to Dirk Kruger and his new friends, Saqqal and Jawad. As for Rajavi, the Iranian strongman, she shuddered to think what was behind the mask.
She hated that she didn’t know what Kruger was up to. Was he now using his massive wealth and grubby black market connections to expand his network in a bid to beat them to the truth they had sought for so long? Even worse was the fact that now they had two enemies to fight – the Oracle and his mysterious Athanatoi and now Kruger and his nutcase Syrian terrorist friends and their weird obsession with Utopia – whatever the hell that was.
She glanced in the mirror and looked at Ryan. He was sullenly staring out of the window but his eyes were covered by a pair of sunglasses. He’d pulled his messy hair forward to hide his face. He hadn’t spoken since Reaper told him about Maria’s death and she knew he was turning inside himself again. This time it would be worse than ever. The anger and misery of grief was whispering its poison in his mind and only time could heal that.
“We’re here,” Hawke said, interrupting her thoughts. She looked up to see they were in the rear car park of a coffee shop in the Miraflores district of the city. They had called ahead to the Larco Museum and Balta had told them he wanted to meet here. She unbuckled her seatbelt and climbed down from the chunky SU
V before following Hawke, Scarlet and Luis into the coffee shop. Reaper and Lexi stayed in the Pajero with a silent Ryan Bale.
Out the front window of the coffee shop they saw huge crowds of people jostling for space along the street.
“What the hell is going on?” Hawke asked.
“Lollapalooza,” Scarlet said matter-of-factly. “Good line-up this year as well.”
“Like who?” asked Lea.
“Foo Fighters, Aerosmith, Chili Peppers, Temper Trap, Kaiser Chiefs, Chainsmokers…”
“An excellent line-up,” Hawke said, giving them a look. “I’m especially proud of the fact I only recognized about two bands out of that lot.”
Lea rolled her eyes and took a step toward their guide. “Do you see him, Luis?”
Luis Montoya stood on his tiptoes to peer over the heads of the customers in the busy shop and looked down-heartened for a few moments before a smile suddenly flashed on his face. “There! He’s over by the other window.”
Lea followed his gaze and saw Professor Mauricio Balta innocuously stirring some sugar into a large cup of coffee. The two empty cups on his table told her he’d been waiting for some time.
They approached him, Hawke scanning the small space for anything suspicious as they went, and as their shadows fell over his table, Balta looked up from his coffee and smiled at them. “You must be here about the mask?”
Hawke held out his hand. “That’s right, Doc. The name’s Hawke, and this is Lea Donovan, Scarlet Sloane and Doctor Luis Montoya from the University of Bogotá.”
The legs of his chair scratched on the tiled floor as he pushed it back to greet them, meticulously shaking their hands with a polite bow of the head. “Please, take a seat,” he said, gesturing at the empty chairs he had obviously arranged around his little table.
“Thanks,” Lea said and sat down opposite him. The others joined her.
Balta spoke first. “So, is it true? Does the Mask of Inti really exist?”
Luis nodded his head. “It most certainly does, Professor Balta! Héctor Barrera saw it with his own eyes… He held it in his hands.”
