by Bill Craig
“How far ahead of the Nazis do you think we are?”
“Not far enough,” Fortune replied.
Sturmbannführer Eric Klausen was angry as his men finally came upon the trucks of the Newkirk expedition. The trucks were empty. The members of the expedition were gone. Where had they gone? Deeper into the swamp was the obvious answer. But where?
Hopefully, the Zeppelin would arrive soon, to take them over the trees and the swamp to The Lost City of the Maya! He looked at Schmidt. “Have your men start making rafts. We will follow them!”
“I will have them make the rafts, but how do you propose to know what direction that they moved in?” Schmidt asked.
“We go out there,” Klausen waved at the swamp. Schmidt shook his head and walked away.
New York City.
Hiram P. King frowned as he looked across the table at Peabody Griffin. “You seem unusually cheerful,” King noted.
“Why shouldn’t I be? My niece is well on her way to discovering a lost Mayan city?” Griffin smiled.
“You seem sure of that?”
“Oh, I am, Hiram. Despite you going out of your way to stop her. Glory will never have anything to do with you. She despises you,” Griffin smiled.
“So, you say,” King smiled.
“Oh, it is true enough. She recognizes you for the dark brute that you are,” Griffin told him.
“Your words wound me, Peabody.”
“As well they should, Hiram. You are the only one who seems to want her for anything but her mind. Glory is a smart woman and she could easily see through you!” Griffin smiled.
“I will have her, Peabody. It doesn’t matter what you or she thinks,” King said.
“You really believe that, Hiram?”
“I know it,” King told him.
“You’d be wrong.”
“Prove it!”
“I will,” King smiled.
The Yucatán.
Mike Rogers kept looking behind them as the expedition walked their way through the swamp. They had a few instances of snakes going after the rafts, but they had managed to repel them.
He had made sure to leave a trail thatFortune could follow. He didn’t know how close the boss might be, but he was sure that the Captain was coming along behind them.
Mike had faith in fortune. More so than the others did. He had been with Jake during the trench warfare in ‘No Man’s Land’. Jake was a natural leader, and he was one that other men would follow into the depths of hell if need be!
Mary Beth walked up to him. “Are you sure that they are coming behind us?”
“I am,” Rogers told her.
“So, why don’t we wait on them?” Mary Beth asked.
“I don’t know if the bad guys are between us and them,” Mike sighed.
Chapter Fifteen
Mike Rogers looked down at the map in his hands. According to Chac, they were almost through the swamp. He would be glad when they were. Some of the water snakes, the ones like water moccasins, were even more aggressive than the North American cottonmouth! They had been forced to waste valuable ammunition and kerosene repelling the damn creatures. Once thing was certain, this place they were going was no Garden of Eden. Not with all the snakes they had encountered.
Instead, he felt that it was closer to some hellish version of the garden, filled with danger and venomous creatures. At least, the alligators had left them alone. Some had followed them for a bit out of what appeared to be curiosity, but then had moved away when they had done nothing to antagonize them.
He wondered how far behind Fortune and the Professor were. He was certain that by this time Jake had rescued the Professor and had come after them. The question was, had they let the Nazis get ahead of them? It was something that he would have to prepare for, just in case.
Because that was what Jake Fortune would do. So, it was what Mike Rogers had to figure out. He had to think like the Captain and keep the expedition on track, until Jake caught up with them.
Jake Fortune popped another salt tablet and drank more water. His canteen was at the half empty point. He glanced over his shoulder to the back of the raft at Glory Newkirk. Her pale skin was bright red from exposure to the tropical sun, even though it was more like twilight in the swamp. Her breathing was shallow, even though she was resting. He figured by now, that they had nearly a day on their pursuers. They needed to rest. He made for one of the many islands that dotted the swamp.
“What are you doing?” Glory asked weakly from behind him.
“We need some rest on dry land. You need food and water or you aren’t going to make it,” Fortune told her.
“I’ll be fine, Jake. Stop worrying about me. We need to reach the others.”
“All in good time, Kid. All in good time,” Fortune told her, as he paddled them to the shore of a small island. There were a few trees with low hanging branches. Fortune had a few supplies in his pack, including a coffee pot and coffee. He pulled the dugout canoe up onto shore, and then he went about gathering wood to build a small fire.
Once he had a small amount of water boiling for some coffee, he helped Glory out of the canoe and to a seat on a log near the fire. Fortune had already decided that they would sleep in the trees. He didn’t trust the swamp around them, filled with alligators and snakes as it was. No, he wanted to be off the ground where they would at least have a chance of defending themselves.
Eric Klausen frowned at the news that they would not be able to begin their pursuit until the following morning. “We are losing time!” he growled at Schmidt.
“It cannot be helped, Sturmbannführer! Unless the Zeppelin arrives sooner, we cannot start before morning,” Schmidt replied.
“It would be nice if they could arrive. Der Führer wants to recover these mystical gems in the worst possible way. He was badly upset at losing the Ark of the Covenant to the Americans.”
“The secret discovery of the Ark, despite the fact the world is unaware of it . . . Ja, it was a bad blow. But there are still more artifacts out there, ones that are even more powerful.”
“Yes, and we have people pursuing them. Get some rest. Tomorrow will be an arduous day,” Klausen said.
“Heil Hitler!” Schmidt saluted. Klausen returned the salute and disappeared out of the tent.
“Jake?” Glory asked.
“What is it, Kid?” Fortune asked. They were tied to branches in one of the trees on the island.
“Do you think we’ll catch up to the others?”
“I think we will,” Fortune told her.
“I wanted to be the one to find The Lost City. That has been my dream for years,” Glory sighed.
“Would it be so bad to get there second?”
“It might be, yes. I want to reap some fortune and glory for my discoveries.”
“You will, Kid. Trust me,” Jake told her.
“How can you be so sure?” Glory asked, looking across at him.
“Because you’ve got moxie, Kid. You’ve got moxie in abundance. Nothing is going to get between you and what you want.”
“You sound sure of that.”
“I am. You remind me of someone I knew once. She was just like you. Except she wouldn’t listen, and it got her killed.”
“I’m sorry to hear that Jake.”
“No need to be, Kid. It was what it was. She didn’t follow orders and she gave her life for it. Nothing I could do about that. It was her choice,” Fortune shrugged.
“Are you sure about that, Jake?”
“I am. But I still blame myself for her death.”
“Why?”
“Because I could have stopped her from getting in the line of fire, but, instead, I trusted her to do what I told her. That was my mistake,” Fortune shrugged.
“It sounds to me like she had made up her own mind,” Glory said softly.
“Well, she made a stupid decision and it killed her,” Fortune sighed.
“I’ll do what you tell me, Jake. At least, up to a point.”
>
“That’s your choice. I hope it works out better for you than it did for her.”
“Me too.”
The drums greeted them again with the morning light. Mike Rogers was one of the first to emerge from his tent. He immediately sought out Chac to see what he had to say about the drums.
“What are they saying?” Rogers asked as he walked up to the young Mayan. Chac had been standing and listening, his head titled sideways.
“A second group follows. They repelled an attack by the Jaguar Tribe after thunder filled the air during the attack. A man and a woman left the group and ran into the jungle. The others were too busy fighting the warriors of the Jaguar Tribe to pursue them until the sun rose.
“Other tribes say that the man and woman entered the swamp last night while the other group was just entering it this morning,” Chac translated.
“So, the Captain and Professor Newkirk are coming after us?”
“It sounds like it,” Chac admitted.
“Then we wait here on them,” Mike said, his face as hard as stone.
“Are you sure that is the best thing to do?” Chac asked him.
“I don’t know, but it is what we are gonna do. Tell everybody to start fortifying this island as best as they can. Trouble is gonna be on the Captain’s tail and he’s gonna be coming in hot!”
Chac nodded and walked off to pass the word. Mike headed back to tell the rest of the security detail and to break the news to the scientists.
He still couldn’t shake off the deep foreboding sense of a dangerously evil presence surrounding them.
Fortune awakened at the first touch of sunlight on his skin. He unbuckled himself from the tree and scanned the ground below them to make sure that there was nothing below them that would be dangerous. A quick search of the island revealed several ripe passion fruits that would give them both a good breakfast. He gathered them in his shirt tails and carried them back to the tree where they had taken refuge for the night.
Glory Newkirk was climbing down when he approached the base of the tree. “Give me a couple of minutes,” she waved him off, as she disappeared into the bushes to take care of her morning toilet. She emerged a few minutes later, looking at the fruits he had gathered. “What’s that?” she asked.
“Breakfast. You ever eat passion fruit before?” Fortune asked her.
“I can’t say as I have,” Glory replied, not taking her eyes off his face. Jake cut the fruits in half and showed her how to scoop out the delicious pulp with her fingers. Fortune handed her one, and then cut of one of the others open for himself.
“You’re in for a treat,” he told her, chewing up pulp of the fruit. She sampled hers and was amazed at how delicious it tasted. She quickly consumed the first one and took a second. She noticed that Fortune had stopped at two.
“Aren’t we going to eat all of them?” she asked.
“Not yet. We’re going to save these for lunch,” Jake explained.
“That, actually, sounds like a good idea.”
“Let’s get moving. We’re not too far behind the others, but Klausen isn’t that far behind us.”
“Such a comforting thought,” Glory sighed.
“Ain’t it though? Anyway, we need to get moving. The sooner we catch up to the others, the better. Besides, the drums have been talking this morning and it makes me a little uneasy.”
“I can agree with you there, Jake. The sooner we catch up with our people the happier I am going to be!”
“You aren’t the only one,” Jake told her.
The Archangel airship had been over the jungle for a couple of hours. The communications officer had been trying to raise Klausen’s unit for at least an hour. Finally, a response. The man on the ground directed the Zeppelin to a place where the Zeppelin could descend low enough to drop a ladder to the commando unit on the ground.
Sturmbannführer Klausen regarded Fregattenkapitän Meijer with veiled eyes. “Thank you for coming to our assistance, Fregattenkapitän. We are in pursuit of a group that are trying to keep us from collecting something that our Der Führer wants!”
“I am well aware of my orders, Sturmbannführer.”
“I am sure you are. Once all my people are aboard, we need to proceed deeper into the interior.”
Mary Beth looked worried as she walked up to Mike Rogers. “Why are we forting up?” she asked.
“Because Captain Fortune and Professor Newkirk are coming up behind us,” Rogers told her.
“You know this?”
“I do.”
“How do you know it?”
“Chac told me. He said the drums told him,” Roger’s shrugged.
“You are basing this all on drums? Do you realize we could all die if we stay here?” Mary Beth asked.
“Yes, I know that,” Mike Rogers told her with a smile.
“You are nuts,” Mary Beth shook her head.
“Maybe I am, maybe I’m not,” Rogers told her.
Jake and Glory paddled as fast as they could in the grueling heat. Both were soaked with sweat and it was barely 9 o’clock in the morning. Jake was continuing to follow the blazes left by Mike Rogers. They had seen a few alligators sunning themselves on small islands and a few floating in the water, pretending to be logs until they heard the splash of the paddles and opened their eyes to gaze expectantly at the intruders to their world.
Finally, Jake called for a break and they quit paddling, letting their forward momentum carry the canoe across the glasslike surface of the water. Fortune took a salt tablet and a swallow of water from his canteen. Glory did the same. “How much farther until we reach the others?” Glory asked, wiping the sweat from her brow. She pulled out a bandana and tied it around her head, hoping it would keep the sweat from running down into her eyes and burning them.
“I wish I knew,” Fortune said honestly.
“Do you think we’ll catch up to them?”
“I think we will. I just don’t know if it will be in time. Okay, we’ve had some rest. It’s time to start paddling again,” Fortune said over his shoulder. Then, the paddles were back in the water, pushing them along.
The Archangel started out across the expanse of jungle and swamp. The sun gleamed off the silver hull and made the blood red square around the white circle with the black swastika in the middle stand out all the more. It hung over the land like an angel of death.
Chapter Sixteen
The fog over the swamp was starting to burn off when Fortune and Glory paddled out of it. Fortune’s face broke into a wide grin as he spotted the rafts tied up around a fair-sized island in the swamp. He could see movement on the island and began to stroke harder, making the canoe slide quicker across the water.
“What is it?” Glory asked from behind him.
“We’ve caught up with the others,” Jake said over his shoulder.
“Thank God,” Glory sighed. She was worn out and needed to rest. The events of the past twenty-four hours were rapidly catching up with her.
“Jake, man, am I glad to see you!” Mike Rogers waved from shore, as he reached out to catch the front of the canoe and helped drag it up onto the small beach. He put out a hand to help Glory out of the canoe while Fortune scrambled onto land, glad to stretch his legs.
“I was surprised to catch up with you this quick. Why haven’t you moved on?” Fortune asked him.
“The drums. Chac said you were coming after listening to them, so I thought it was worth waiting on you,” Mike replied.
“The Nazis aren’t far behind us, Pal. I almost wish you guys had moved on instead of waiting,” Fortune sighed.
“I’m glad they stayed. I need to rest,” Glory said, as she started to collapse. Jake caught her in his arms before she hit the ground and lifted her up.
“Got a place set up where she can sleep?”
“Mary Beth has a tent and cots set up,” Mike said, referring to the nurse. Fortune nodded and followed carrying the professor to the tent. He settled her onto a cot and then the
two men stepped back outside, leaving Mary Beth to tend to her.
“So, Mike, tell me what you’ve got set up for a defensive perimeter?”
“It’s easier to show you,” Rogers replied, leading him away from the medical tent.
Wolfgang Schmidt use binoculars to study the swamp beneath them. He was searching for the American expedition. They had to be somewhere below. The Americans were proving to be far more resourceful than the Sturmbannführer had believed them to be.
Schmidt had doubts about the veracity of this mission to Mexico. Looking for some lost city to find a pair of gems that could give a man the power of a god. Schmidt shook his head. The fairy tales that even powerful men who should know better believed. Himself, he was more interested in the two giant emeralds for their monetary value. Sturmbannführer Klausen could always catch a bullet if they found the place. Schmidt smiled at the idea. It was one worth considering.
King Tikal stood in the shadowed doorway of the Temple of Kukulkan, his brown eyes searching the sky. The drums had spoken of two groups approaching his city, one by water and another by the sky. He had consulted with the God Kukulkan in a sacred ceremony, and the great Feathered Serpent had told him that the group that traveled through the sky would bring death and destruction, and the group that traveled by water would help fight the others.
The king had summoned the elite warriors called the Eagle Knights. They were the most formidable warriors in the tribe, followed secondly by the Jaguar Knights. The Eagles were the city’s first line of defense. They would strike from the heights at the enemy and rain death and destruction down upon them. Then, the Jaguars would strike on the ground and finish off any who lived.
The biggest question was which group would arrive first? Those who traveled by sky, or those who came via the swamp? They Maya God Kukulkan had promised to send his own warriors to battle the intruders, as well, and Tikal know how deadly the Feathered Serpent’s snake servants could be. He had seen how quickly that a man could die from just a small amount of their venom. He shuddered at the thought.
