by Stuart Gibbs
“Pizza,” said Segundo without hesitation. “Oh man, do I miss pizza. Ah. Here we are.” He brought up a photo of Darwin’s code that had been taken in broad daylight, so that the numbers were perfectly visible and easy to read. “What does it say?”
Charlie gave Segundo and his men a quick primer on how the code worked, sketching out the grid that Darwin had used on a cocktail napkin to help them understand. She had already memorized the system, so it wasn’t hard to decode the words, but still, it helped to have the key to it all in front of her to verify that she wasn’t making any mistakes.
Then she wrote out the translation:
Follow the red river upstream for a month until you reach a place that looks like the Thames. Then find the altar in the main temple in the city of stone.
“The city of stone,” Dante echoed, intrigued.
Charlie looked to him. Dante no longer appeared unsettled. Instead, he was now brimming with excitement. Milana was too.
But to their side, Segundo looked gravely concerned.
“What’s wrong?” Charlie asked.
“This is telling you to head directly into the Dark Lands,” he said. “If there really is a city of stone there, you would be wise to stay far away from it.”
TWENTY-ONE
This city of stone,” Dante said. “It’s probably Paititi.”
“What’s Paititi?” Charlie asked.
Dante reacted with surprise. “You mean there’s something you don’t know?”
“I’m only twelve,” Charlie said. “I haven’t had time to learn everything yet. Like, I still haven’t figured out why you haven’t asked Milana out even though you’re obviously crushing on her.”
Dante choked on his beer. He looked to Milana, who was only a few feet away from them. He quickly decided it was best to act like Charlie’s jab wasn’t even worth a response. “Paititi is the lost city of the Incan Empire.”
They were now in one of the guest suites. It was off-season, so there were several vacancies at the resort, and Dante had plenty of money to cover their lodging, thanks to the CIA. (Charlie had decided not to reveal how much cash was hidden in her money belt.) The suite wasn’t fancy, but still far better than Charlie had expected to find deep in the Amazon; there were two connecting rooms, one with a bed for each of the women and a smaller room for Dante. The beds were surrounded by sheer white mosquito nets, which hung from the ceiling, making them look like personal tepees. There was no glass in the windows, only screens, on which thousands of insects were gathered, attracted by the lights in the rooms—as well as a dozen small lizards, which were hungrily gobbling up the insects. The door between the rooms was open. After dinner at the lodge, Segundo had shown them to their quarters and then advised them to get some sleep and think over any decision they made very carefully.
Dante and Charlie were in Dante’s room, going over their equipment. Dante had brought another beer back to the room from the bar, while Charlie had brought a bottle of purified water.
Milana was sitting on the bed in her room, under the mosquito net, painting her fingernails. She said, “I thought Machu Picchu was the lost city of the Incan Empire.”
Dante shook his head, looking relieved that he had managed to change the subject. “Machu Picchu is a relatively small site. Less than a thousand people lived there. But there have always been rumors that the Incas had a much larger city located farther into the rain forest. A city where thousands of Incans lived, possibly even tens of thousands.”
“You think there could have been a city that big all the way out here?” Charlie asked skeptically. “This area is awfully remote.”
“It wasn’t always,” Dante told her. “Much of the world has this idea that the Amazon is pristine and unexplored. That most of it has barely been seen by humans, let alone settled by us. But the truth is, that’s just based on limited observation. There has barely been any archaeological research in this part of the world—but there is a growing amount of evidence suggesting that there may have been a far more advanced civilization here than we realized.”
“Then what happened to it?” Charlie asked.
“The same thing that happened to every indigenous civilization in the Americas,” Milana said coldly. “They got decimated by the arrival of the Europeans.”
Charlie looked at her curiously. “Pizarro conquered the Incas in the 1500s. But they never came this far inland.”
Milana shook her head. “I didn’t say they were conquered by the Europeans. I said they were decimated by the Europeans’ arrival. Most likely by diseases that they had no immunity to. Do you know what the largest city in the United States was before 1880?”
“Actually, I do,” Charlie said. “Cahokia.”
Milana gave her a look of surprise, as if she wasn’t used to people knowing this. “That’s right.”
“It was located close to what is now Saint Louis,” Charlie went on. “And some people think there may have been as many as forty thousand indigenous people living there, which would have made it way bigger than Philadelphia or New York City.”
“Right again,” Milana said. “And Cahokia wasn’t the only large city ever built in the Americas. But then the Europeans showed up and unwittingly transmitted their diseases—and entire native civilizations were decimated. Some were reduced to only a tenth of their original populations, which was devastating on every level: social, economic, psychological. And this happened throughout the Americas. The diseases traveled much faster than the Europeans did. So when explorers showed up in earnest, most of the civilizations they encountered had already been destroyed. Judging the civilizations of the Americas in that context would have been the same as judging European civilization after it had been obliterated by the plague in the 1300s.”
“So then,” Dante added, “it’s very likely that the same thing happened to any Incan cities that had been built in the Amazon. Their populations were wiped out. And since the plant life here grows so quickly, it would swallow up any evidence of the cities within decades, if not sooner.”
Charlie nodded agreement. She was well aware of many archaeological sites throughout the world that had been hidden by jungles for centuries. “Still, all we know is that Darwin found a city of stone. We don’t know that it’s Paititi.”
“True,” Dante admitted. “But it’s evident that he found something. And the area we’re heading to is the exact same region where Paititi is rumored to have been located: a remote section of the Peruvian rain forest. So at the very least, we’re talking about an archaeological find of major significance.”
Charlie gave him a distrustful look. “You sure know a lot about Paititi for someone who just happened to stumble upon its potential location.”
“I happen to be fascinated by the legend,” Dante replied defensively. “It’s a coincidence.”
“I don’t believe in coincidence,” Charlie said.
“That doesn’t mean they don’t occur,” Dante replied. “As I recall, you happened to know plenty about Einstein when we recruited you to look for Pandora. No one thought that was suspicious.”
“Yeah, but I’m a genius,” Charlie said. “So it’s not as surprising when I know something as when you do.”
“I’ll tell you what you don’t know much about,” Dante said heatedly. “Keeping your attitude in check.”
“You knew I had an attitude when you blackmailed me into tracking down Pandora against my will. You didn’t seem so concerned about it then.” Charlie gave her brother a smug smile, letting him know she wasn’t really angry at him; she was just trying to get under his skin.
Which only made Dante more annoyed at her. He was considering chewing her out when Milana spoke. “There’s another issue about this site,” she said, “beyond whether or not it’s Paititi. It’s located in an area that the locals consider dangerous. How seriously should we take that?”
“I don’t think it’s a concern,” Dante told her. “It’s probably just an old myth.”
“A lot of myths have some basis in reality.” Milana put the finishing touch of polish on the nails of her right hand. “Segundo’s people have lived in this area for centuries. You’ve been here twelve hours. They certainly know more about this place than we do.”
Dante shrugged dismissively. “I don’t see how that area could be any more dangerous than any other section of the rain forest.”
“I can think of plenty of reasons that might be the case,” Milana said. “Maybe there’s an extremely dangerous type of animal that lives up there. Or mosquitoes that carry some disease we’ve never heard about…”
“Or maybe there’s an undiscovered tribe of humans up there,” Charlie suggested.
Dante and Milana both looked to her.
“It’s certainly a possibility,” Charlie went on. “There’s at least a hundred known tribes in the Amazon that haven’t been contacted by us yet, either because they’ve chosen to avoid us or because we’ve chosen to let them be. So there could definitely be one up there that no one’s discovered. And there’s a chance they could be dangerous, like the tribe on North Sentinel Island.”
Dante and Milana obviously understood what Charlie meant. North Sentinel Island was located in the Bay of Bengal, between India and Myanmar. It was a notoriously hard island to dock a ship at, and therefore the small indigenous tribe that lived there had little contact with humans throughout its history. They were known for being extremely hostile to outsiders—and so the rest of the world had let them be.
“I’d say that’s an extremely plausible possibility,” Milana said finally, then turned to Dante. “And it’s a serious concern. Not only is it potentially dangerous for us to confront an uncontacted tribe—but it’s generally not good for them, either. From a health or social perspective.”
Dante nodded acceptance, but Charlie could tell he was frustrated; he seemed unhappy that Milana was casting doubts on the mission. He shifted his attention to Charlie. “Is that what you think too? Because this morning you seemed awfully gung ho about going after whatever Darwin found.”
Milana said, “This morning Charlie didn’t know how dangerous this trip might be.”
“Oh, she knew,” Dante said brusquely. “Charlie knows almost everything, remember?”
“You’re right,” Charlie confessed. “I knew there’d be risks. But now I figured that you should know about them too. This expedition isn’t going to be easy.”
Dante looked slightly offended, as though she had questioned his masculinity. “We can handle it,” he said. “We’ve faced far bigger threats than some primitive tribesmen.”
Milana gave him a hard look.
Dante withered under it, then added, “But… I promise I won’t do anything that puts us—or them—at risk.”
Milana held his gaze a long time, as though trying to decide whether he was being honest, then finally said, “All right. I’m in.”
A smile spread across Dante’s face. “Good.”
Milana looked to Charlie. “It’s late. You need to get some sleep.”
Charlie considered protesting this on principle, but in truth, she was exhausted. It had been an extremely long day, during which she had barely survived two attempts on her life. She pried herself out of her chair and headed for her bed, pausing by Dante to whisper, “If you want to switch rooms, I’m happy to take this one to myself and let you and Milana share.…”
“Get to bed,” Dante said gruffly, turning red with embarrassment.
Charlie went into the room she shared with Milana and shut the connecting door. Milana had now finished painting the nails of her left hand and was letting them dry. The polish was bright red.
“Not what I expected,” Charlie said.
Milana looked at her curiously. “The color?”
“The polish, period. Especially here. We’re gearing up to go into the wilderness. Every ounce of equipment counts. And you brought that?”
“It only weighs an ounce and I like how it looks. Plus, your fingernails can be a really effective weapon in a fight, and the polish makes them stronger.” Milana held up a hand, displaying her nails. They weren’t so long that they’d be a hindrance, but they were slightly raised above her fingertips, which would allow her to give someone a nasty scratch.
“Oh,” Charlie said. “Makes sense.”
“Have you ever painted your nails?”
“No.”
“Would you like me to show you how?”
“Maybe later.”
“Okay. Whenever you want. We’ll have plenty of time together.” Milana slipped out from underneath her mosquito net and went into the small bathroom to brush her teeth.
Charlie didn’t get into bed right away. Instead, she went to the screened-in windows and stared out at the dark Amazonian night, thinking.
She had a lot on her mind.
She had lied when she said she didn’t know about Paititi. She had come to learn that sometimes it was better to act uninformed to see what other people knew—or what they chose to share. And Dante had omitted something very important from their discussion. That bothered Charlie a great deal.
But something else was really weighing on her, something that appeared to have escaped Dante and Milana.
It was possible that Darwin’s big discovery wasn’t Paititi at all. Or any lost city. But something even more startling.
And Charlie had a very good idea what that was.
TWENTY-TWO
The confluence of the Napo and Anaconda Rivers
Two days later, another man arrived at Darwin’s kapok tree. He arrived in a much slower boat and appeared to be working on his own—until Segundo and his men had surrounded him at the base of the tree.
“I’d lower those guns if I were you,” Ivan Spetz said calmly.
“Why?” Segundo asked.
The answer was the click of a weapon being cocked behind him.
Segundo and his men turned around to find the Castellos all holding them at gunpoint.
Even if they hadn’t been holding guns, the Castellos would have been a frightening sight. It was evident to Segundo that all three of them had been through a terrible tragedy recently—a fire, it seemed. Patches of their skin were badly blistered and burned. And yet none of them seemed to be affected by it, not physically, at least. Segundo would have expected people with burns like that to be reeling from the pain, but these people didn’t seem to be hurting at all; they just seemed angry.
Segundo and his men all lowered their guns.
“That’s better,” Ivan Spetz said. Then he pointed at the place where, until the day before, Darwin’s code had been etched in the tree. “Something used to be written here. I’d like to know what it said.”
At the urging of Dante, Milana, and Charlie, Segundo had scraped Darwin’s code off the kapok. It had taken him some time, although he knew how to do it in a way that wouldn’t hurt the tree. He had scraped the bark off around the code and then singed the area with fire until it was charred black. It was still evident that something had been carved there, but no one could tell what.
“Others are going to come looking for this code,” Milana had warned. “And there’s a decent chance they won’t be very good people. Since you now know what it says, there’s no point in leaving it there for anyone else to find.”
Segundo had agreed that made sense. He had come to believe that Dante, Milana, and Charlie were honorable and intelligent people, even if he couldn’t talk them out of continuing on toward the Dark Lands. To that end, he had spent an entire day with them, teaching them everything he could about the rain forest so that they would be safer on their travels. He had taught them what fruits were ripe and how to find them, how to catch and cook a piranha, how to recognize and avoid toxic plants and bullet ants, and how to build a shelter at night that would protect them from the rain. (Charlie had turned out to be a startlingly good student, soaking up everything he told her almost instantly. So while Dante and Milana were still mastering the basics of survival, Seg
undo had taught Charlie a few more advanced skills, like how to patch a canoe with the sap from a brazil nut tree and how to catch a poison arrow frog and apply its toxin to an arrow.)
Charlie, Milana, and Dante had spent a second night at the lodge and started up the Anaconda River only that very morning, after which Segundo had gone to the kapok tree to remove Darwin’s code.
Now, a mere twelve hours later, someone had come looking for it, exactly as Dante, Milana, and Charlie had feared.
It had taken Ivan and the Castellos much longer to arrive at that point than the CIA team for two reasons. First, their boat was significantly slower, a refurbished cargo ship built for hauling rather than for speed. Second, they hadn’t been as sure as Charlie as to what Darwin’s clues meant. Therefore, they had moved slowly along the Napo, making dozens of stops along the way to investigate what turned out to be dead ends, until they had finally reached the bloodred confluence with the Anaconda and realized that had to be the right place. After that, Esmerelda had quickly deduced which tree Darwin had meant, as she was familiar with King’s College Chapel herself.
It had been Ivan’s suggestion that he visit the tree first, as a search party, while the others served as backup. No matter where he went, Ivan was always preparing for trouble.
The scorch on the bark where the code had been still smelled like smoke and the tree oozed fresh sap, indicating that the wound was new. Even Ivan and the Castellos, who weren’t nearly as familiar with the natural world as Segundo and his men, could tell that.
“It didn’t say anything,” Segundo told them now, lying as convincingly as he could. “It was only a series of marks made by illegal loggers. They send advance teams in to tag trees for harvest, and when we find such marks, we destroy them.”
Ivan considered this answer for a few moments, then said, “I noticed there was a tourist lodge just up the river from here. I assume you have some connection to that?”
“Yes,” Segundo said warily.
“Let’s get something straight,” Ivan told him. “The way you’re dealing with me right now, lying to me about what happened to this tree, means you’re assuming that I’m a fool. Well, I’m not. I’m also not a very nice person. So here’s how this is going to work. I’m going to ask you about the marks on this tree again. And if you lie to me, my colleagues and I are going to burn your resort to the ground. If you still lie to me after that, I’ll start hurting people. And I won’t stop until I get the truth. So it will cause all of us a lot less trouble if you’d just tell me what this said.”
