Empire of Gold

by Andy McDermott

  ‘But,’ said Kit, standing to address the room, ‘he also has the treasures that were stolen from Paititi – the sun disc and the khipu. Considering their enormous value, the Venezuelan government understandably wants them back.’

  ‘I’m sure the Peruvian government’ll have its own opinions on who owns them,’ said Nina, raising some muted laughter.

  ‘That’s for the international courts to decide,’ said Kit with a smile, before becoming serious once more. ‘But for now, they’re worried the treasures could be damaged or destroyed during the raid.’

  ‘We’ll aim to minimise that possibility,’ said Baker, folding his arms.

  ‘Even so, there’s still a risk.’ He turned to Nina. ‘Which is why President Suarez has personally requested that Dr Wilde, as director of the IHA, oversees their safe recovery.’

  Nina, who had been taking a sip of water, coughed it out. ‘Wait, what?’

  ‘Nice of him to tell us!’ Eddie hooted.

  ‘You won’t be going in with the SWAT team,’ Probst assured them. ‘Once we have secured de Quesada and the house, you will come in to locate and identify the artefacts.’

  ‘You don’t need us there for that. Big sun made of solid gold, thing like a hippie belt with loads of strings hanging off it. They should be a piece of piss to spot.’

  ‘All the same, it would be good to have your help,’ said Kit. ‘Interpol and the IHA started this operation together, so it makes sense for us to see it through to its conclusion.’

  Eddie looked dubiously at the image of de Quesada. ‘What kind of fight is he likely to put up?’

  ‘His house usually has seven or eight bodyguards,’ said Baker, going to a laptop and tapping its keyboard. The freezeframe was replaced by an aerial photograph of a small island. Shaped somewhat like a kidney bean, it was cut off from the high cliffs of the mainland by a narrow, curving channel. The island was a sea-worn stack, sides almost vertical; its flat top was slightly lower than the nearby land, a bridge sloping down to it across the channel’s narrowest point. The island itself, however, was completely dominated by a palatial Spanish-style white house. ‘But the bridge is the only way on or off the island, apart from a jetty on the seaward side. So he either stands and fights, which means he’ll die, or he runs. And these drug lords ain’t big on self-sacrifice. So we think he’ll get his men to try to hold us back while he runs for a boat.’

  ‘What if he gets away?’ Nina asked.

  Baker snorted faintly. ‘Doesn’t matter if he’s got the fastest boat in the world, Dr Wilde – it won’t get far with a fifty-calibre hole through its engine block. We’ll have snipers on the cliffs. Like I said, he ain’t going anywhere.’

  Eddie had another question. ‘What about his bodyguards? What’s their armament?’

  ‘Based on the information we have,’ said Probst, ‘most likely assault rifles and shotguns, handguns, maybe grenades. But we will have superior numbers, snipers, tear gas – and the advantage of surprise.’

  ‘And when were you planning on doing all this?’ Nina demanded.

  The Colombian official answered. ‘We are getting the warrants signed by judges now. The operation will take place tomorrow.’

  ‘Great,’ said Eddie. ‘You know, I was hoping for a bit of recovery time. Like a month. In Antigua.’

  ‘You’ll still be going to the Caribbean,’ Kit pointed out. ‘So will you come? Having the IHA there to verify the identity of the stolen artefacts will be very helpful.’

  Nina looked at Eddie, who gave her an ‘I guess’ shrug. ‘All right,’ she said. ‘But we’re not going to be involved in the actual SWAT raid, okay? I’ve had enough of that kind of thing lately to last me a lifetime.’

  ‘We’ll take care of all that, Dr Wilde,’ said Baker confidently. ‘Don’t you worry.’

  ‘Famous last words,’ Eddie muttered.

  After the Interpol meeting Nina and Eddie returned to the hotel, where Osterhagen was waiting.

  ‘I am glad you are back,’ he said excitedly, following them to their suite with a wad of papers clutched in his hand. Macy, who had been helping the German with his work, tagged along. ‘The khipu – you said you thought the knots are connected to the map at Paititi. I believe you are right. Loretta’s camera was recovered from Callas’s headquarters, and I have been examining the pictures of the map. I think the khipu is the key to deciphering the markings on it. With the map and the khipu, we can find the lost city!’

  ‘Well, that’s a bit of a problem,’ said Nina as she entered the suite. ‘A Colombian drug lord called de Quesada bought the khipu off Callas. Paid two million dollars for it.’

  Osterhagen was horrified. ‘What? But – surely he couldn’t know its importance?’

  ‘He doesn’t,’ said Eddie. ‘The only reason he bought it was to piss off one of his rivals.’

  ‘Pachac,’ Nina added. ‘The guy who brought the helicopter to the military base.’ The German’s grim look told her that he remembered the murderous Peruvian all too well. ‘Seems that there’s bad blood between them. De Quesada bought the sun disc because he knew it would drive Pachac mad to know that he owned a symbol of the Inca empire. Same with the khipu.’

  Osterhagen flopped down glumly on a sofa. ‘Then we cannot decipher the map.’

  ‘Not so fast, Doc,’ said Eddie. ‘That’s why we were just at Interpol. They’re going to raid his home – partly because he admitted to being a drug smuggler on national TV, but also because Suarez wants those Inca treasures back. I think he’s a lot more bothered about getting his hands on two tons of solid gold than the khipu, but they’ll be a package deal. We’ll get them both.’

  ‘ “We”?’ said Macy, surprised. ‘You’re going too?’

  ‘So it seems,’ Nina replied with a faint sigh. ‘They want someone from the IHA to take charge of the artefacts once they’ve been secured. Specifically, me.’

  ‘Huh. You’re not going to have to get all dressed up in body armour, are you?’

  Eddie smirked, giving his wife’s body an exaggerated once-over. ‘I dunno, some women look really hot in combat gear . . . ’

  Nina huffed. ‘Oh, God. Just when I think I know everything about you, you always come up with some new fetish! But,’ she went on, turning back to Osterhagen, ‘if everything goes to plan, we’ll have the khipu back in our possession soon.’

  ‘Excellent,’ he said, relieved. He held up his notes, which included colour printouts of the painted wall. ‘I think I have worked out how the knots on the khipu relate to the markings on the map. Once we have the khipu, it should, I hope, be quite straightforward to calculate the location.’

  ‘Can’t we just use the statues?’ Eddie asked. ‘I mean, the other half of the last one should be in El Dorado. You can just use your magic mojo to point to it.’

  ‘Not without knowing where to find another earth energy source,’ Nina reminded him. ‘We only know about Glastonbury, and we can’t triangulate a position without one. Unless you want me to wander around South America holding the statues out in front of me until they start glowing.’

  ‘I suppose. It’d be pretty funny to watch, though. So, we get the khipu back, work out the map, and then . . . ’

  ‘And then,’ said Nina, ‘we find El Dorado.’

  26

  Colombia

  Francisco de Quesada leaned against the door frame, hoping the view would calm his frustration and anger. It wasn’t so much the scenery he was admiring – though the impossibly blue sweep of the Caribbean beyond the clifftop edge of his palacio’s infinity pool was certainly something to behold – as the occupants of the pool itself, a pair of stunningly beautiful women who had responded to his click of the fingers by entering a passionate, lip-locking embrace, making a show of unfastening each other’s bikini tops. There was normally nothing like a pair of twenty-year-old bisexual models to take his mind off life’s burdens.

  Not today, though. The weight hanging over him was too heavy to ignore. Annoyed, he tur
ned back to his guests, who were studiously attempting to ignore the display in the pool. ‘I don’t see why you can’t make this go away,’ he snapped. ‘You have done before – why not now?’

  His visitors shifted uncomfortably, and not solely because they were wearing formal suits in the humid heat. ‘The thing is,’ said Corwin Bloom, the bald and doleful chief representative of the American law firm de Quesada had on permanent standby, ‘with all the previous charges against you, the evidence could be made out to be tainted and therefore inadmissible, or witnesses, ah . . . dealt with. But on this occasion you were seen by millions of people on national television making a deal with General Callas.’

  ‘That was in Venezuela, not Colombia. Surely that doesn’t count as admissible evidence?’

  ‘The DEA submitted it,’ said Bloom’s assistant, Alison Goldberg, a starchy young woman in black-rimmed glasses and stiletto heels. ‘Under the rules of Plan Colombia, evidence obtained by the DEA, no matter from where in the world, is admissible in Colombian narcotics-related cases.’

  Bloom put down his briefcase on a table and opened it, handing a document to the drug lord. ‘This is a memo we, ah, obtained from within the Ministry of Justice, from the minister himself.’ De Quesada began to read it, his expression rapidly darkening as he flicked through the pages. ‘To summarise, they think they have you.’

  The Colombian hurled the papers to the floor. ‘No one has me!’ he snarled, snapping his fingers angrily at a broad-shouldered bodyguard standing near a drinks cabinet. By the time de Quesada reached him, the man had poured a large glass of Scotch and soda filled with clinking ice cubes. He downed half the amber liquid in a single gulp, and crunched a cube between his teeth.

  ‘We also learned there is a plan in motion to take you into custody,’ said Goldberg.

  De Quesada whirled on her. ‘And you didn’t tell me this the moment you came through my door?’ He looked in alarm at the bodyguard, who hurried away to alert his comrades.

  ‘They’re waiting for the final warrants to be signed,’ said Bloom. ‘We have a source inside the Ministry who will alert us as soon as this happens. You’ll have ample warning.’

  ‘Not if they’re already here.’ He crossed to a window and looked suspiciously out at the cliffs across the channel.

  ‘We didn’t see anyone when we arrived,’ said Goldberg.

  ‘No. You wouldn’t.’ De Quesada finished his drink, chewed another ice cube, then waved for the Americans to follow him. ‘Tell me what my options are.’

  They entered a broad hall, the walls decorated with artworks old and new – and the khipu, pinned to a board like a giant bedraggled moth. ‘There is the usual ploy of dragging the matter out in court, of course,’ said Bloom. ‘Challenging of evidence and witnesses and so forth—’

  ‘I don’t want this to even get to court,’ de Quesada growled. ‘I meant, what are my options for leaving the country?’

  ‘Limited,’ Goldberg told him. ‘It would give the American government the excuse it needed to freeze your assets worldwide. And then there’s the issue of extradition . . .’ She tailed off as the Colombian went into a white-tiled room – and unzipped his fly.

  ‘What? Haven’t you ever seen a man take a piss before? Keep talking,’ he demanded. But both lawyers had been left speechless by the bizarre nature of his bathroom. Rather than a lavatory, the room housed a sunken square four feet to a side. Incredibly, set into its floor was the stolen sun disc. An unimaginable fortune in gold, a priceless cultural treasure . . . now acting as a urinal.

  Hearing no further legal advice forthcoming, de Quesada looked over his shoulder. ‘Oh, this?’ he said, anger briefly diminishing as he took the opportunity to boast. ‘A little trinket I bought in Venezuela. I thought it would take weeks to arrive, but my new shipping company was very efficient. Now every time I take a piss, I’m pissing on the culture of my old friend Arcani Pachac! I may even send him a picture – although I doubt he has good cell reception in the mountains of Peru.’

  ‘Ah . . . quite,’ said Bloom, as de Quesada shook himself off and zipped up. ‘But on the subject of extradition—’ His phone trilled. ‘Excuse me.’

  Now de Quesada was all business, watching intently as the lawyer listened. ‘Was that your man?’ he said as Bloom terminated the call.

  ‘I’m afraid so. The warrant has been signed.’

  ‘This way,’ the drug lord ordered, pushing past them and continuing down the hall.

  Two of his men met the trio. ‘Jefe!’ said one. ‘I just talked to someone in the village. He said some trucks went down your road and haven’t come back.’

  ‘When?’

  ‘About two hours ago.’

  De Quesada glared accusingly at the two lawyers. ‘I told you, we didn’t see anyone,’ Goldberg said, trying to conceal her sudden nervousness.

  De Quesada whispered to the bodyguards, who nodded and jogged back to the room overlooking the infinity pool. ‘In here,’ the Colombian said, leading the Americans to a set of arched double doors. He opened them to reveal a large room that was a combination of luxurious lounge and office, leather armchairs and couches laid out before a black chrome desk with a top of polished granite. Along one wall was a bar with hundreds of different bottles arranged behind it – and above them a large, yet seemingly empty, aquarium.

  Goldberg regarded the glass tank curiously, but de Quesada passed a second archway to the hall and went behind the bar to the shelves at its end. He pulled out one particular bottle – which only slid so far before stopping with a click. ‘My vault,’ he told the intrigued pair. ‘There are some documents I don’t want them to find, you understand?’

  ‘Perfectly,’ said Bloom.

  ‘Good.’ He swung the shelves away to reveal a small room hidden behind them. Goldberg tried to peer inside, but at his stare switched her attention back to the aquarium. ‘You like my pets?’ he asked. Both lawyers were puzzled, seeing nothing. ‘There, in the middle.’

  Goldberg stepped behind the bar, finally spotting one of the tank’s occupants: a little yellow octopus, two of its suckered tentacles holding it to the transparent wall. She leaned closer, hesitantly tapping the glass. The octopus leapt away, turning a far brighter yellow with rings of black and vivid blue appearing all over its body. Eight limbs pulsing in unison, it shot towards the surface.

  ‘Don’t stand too close,’ said de Quesada. ‘It’s a blue-ringed octopus – one of the world’s deadliest creatures. If it bites you . . . you’ll die.’

  ‘The glass looks quite thick,’ she said, covering her brief shock with haughty indifference.

  ‘Maybe, but the tank has no top – and they can climb.’

  She hurriedly retreated. De Quesada laughed harshly. ‘Now, here is what I want you to do,’ he said. ‘Wait on the bridge for them to arrive, and do not let them pass. Say you need to check the warrant, any legal shit you can think of, just hold them up for as long as you can.’

  ‘This . . . isn’t really what you hired us for,’ said Goldberg.

  ‘I hired you to keep me out of prison, and I pay you a lot of money to do it. So do it. Consider it part of your client service.’ The bodyguard entered, carrying Bloom’s briefcase. ‘Take your case and go. Keep them busy.’ When they didn’t move immediately, he barked: ‘Now!’

  Affronted, Bloom collected his case and the lawyers departed. The bodyguard waited until they were gone, then went to the bar. ‘Did you do it?’ de Quesada asked.

  ‘Yes, jefe.’ He handed the drug lord a small remote control unit. ‘Everything is set.’

  ‘Good. Tell the others to arm up. And bring Alicia and Sylvie here – I want them as my last line of defence.’ A cruel smirk. ‘No man would dare shoot them.’ He returned to the hidden vault. ‘I have to destroy the hard drives. Get ready – they will be coming!’

  ‘The guy may be a criminal,’ admitted Nina, ‘but he’s got a gorgeous house.’

  The combined force from Interpol, the Drug Enforcement
Administration and the Colombian police – and the two representatives of the International Heritage Agency – was concealed amongst the trees along the clifftop, looking at the little island below. De Quesada’s villa had been impressive enough in photos, but in reality it was magnificent; white walls gleaming in the sunlight.

  ‘Nice taste in bodyguards, too,’ said Eddie, taking a closer look through binoculars.

  Nina could guess at what – or whom – he was looking. ‘Give me those,’ she snapped, wresting the binoculars from his grip as the two young women emerged from the infinity pool and padded, still topless, into the building. ‘And I’m pretty sure they’re way below your “half the man’s age plus seven years” rule.’