Because now, as they angled round the mountain, they were close enough to see the white, foaming torrent of water that gushed from the upper slope of the mountain and crashed down in a tremendous waterfall into a clear blue lake beside the grey stone ruins.
‘Where does the water come from?’ Matt wondered in amazement.
She could not have heard him, but Katherine shouted the answer above the sound of the engines. ‘The mountain is an extinct volcano. The plateau might look solid, but under the vegetation is a huge caldera – the mountain is almost hollow. Several streams and small rivers feed into it, and the rain water builds up. It’s forced out through the waterfall. Spectacular, isn’t it?’ she added unnecessarily.
Now they had passed the waterfall, the helicopter turned again and headed back towards it. From this side, they could now see behind the waterfall, into the space between the water pouring out and the mountainside. The sun was shining through the water making it sparkle like solid silver. It arced out from the lower slopes of the mountain, and there behind it, below the point where the water emerged, the mountain had been carved away. On a shelf of rock hidden behind the waterfall was a huge pyramid. It’s four sides were massive steps of rock, like a staircase leading up into the very heart of the volcano.
The Waterfall Pyramid.
And as the helicopter swung in towards the shelf of rock, the sunlight filtering through the surging water cast the shimming shadow of the edge of the pyramid against the naked rock behind it – the stepped walls echoing the shape of the waterfall, created out of light and shadow.
The helicopter was dwarfed by the pyramid as it came to rest on the shelf of rock. Matt was amazed it had fitted behind the waterfall. They had been so close he reckoned he could have reached out of the cabin window and touched the water. The whole side of the glass bubble that was the cabin was spattered with drops of water. It reminded Matt of the window of the train on the way from school – the patterns and shapes of water on glass …
Two enormous stone archways stood impassive between the helicopter and the pyramid. They framed a huge doorway into the massive structure. And standing in the doorway, a tiny figure in the middle of the ancient grandeur, was Atticus Harper.
Katherine in particular was keen to get out of the heat, and hurried them inside. Once through the heavy, polished steel doors, Matt found himself inside a structure that was a strange mixture of ancient and modern. Whereas in Venture’s house the old and the new seemed to coexist side by side, here the contrast was so marked that he wondered if it was deliberate.
The doors opened into a large foyer from which a massive stone staircase rose to the floors above. It looked more like the sort of thing you’d find in a National Trust property than in the middle of an ancient South American pyramid.
The floors were slabbed with stone, like a medieval castle. Windowless stone walls were hung with modern art as well as photographs of archaeological sites and paintings of ancient monuments. Katherine Feather’s voice echoed as she told them this was Atticus Harper’s centre of operations and corporate headquarters.
‘Not that there are many people here,’ she said as she led the way up the stone staircase. ‘But the building provides accommodation and recreation facilities as well as office space. When the city on the plain outside has been mapped and excavated, we might move some of the people out there.’
‘Wouldn’t that destroy the archaeology?’ Matt wondered.
‘The secret is to use the space sympathetically,’ Venture said. ‘I doubt this staircase, for example, is an original feature.’
‘Hardly,’ Robin agreed.
‘Mr Harper will do whatever is best,’ Katherine said. ‘He is in the business of preserving and enhancing the past, not destroying it.’ She led them from the stairs along a corridor. ‘We have given you rooms just down here.’
The flagged stone floor of the room Matt was given was covered with a deep, soft Persian rug. A plasma screen television even bigger than the one on Harper’s private jet was hung on the wall opposite the bed. The bed itself was surrounded by velvet curtains and might have come from a five-star hotel, while the furniture – wardrobes and cabinets – was polished wood. The bathroom was modern, with marble tiles, a shower, a deep bath that was almost a mini swimming pool, and chrome taps and fittings.
His bag was already at the foot of the bed, and Katherine Feather told him that she would collect him for dinner in half an hour.
After only twenty minutes, there was a knock at the door. It was Robin. The door opened normally from the inside, but outside was a numeric keypad on which you had to enter a code to get in.
Robin looked round the room. She didn’t seem terribly impressed. ‘Mine’s pretty much the same,’ she said. ‘I’m next door, that way.’ She pointed through the bathroom. ‘My code’s 0118.’
‘And why are you telling me that?’ Matt asked.
She shrugged. ‘I don’t like locks and bolts and codes. It’s for information, not an invitation.’
‘Fine. The code for my room is –’
‘0116,’ Robin interrupted confidently.
Matt smiled. ‘No it isn’t. It’s 1601.’
But Robin didn’t seem upset to be wrong. She nodded as if this made perfect sense. ‘They reverse the pairs so it isn’t a progression. Makes sense.’
‘Not to me,’ Matt admitted. ‘What are you on about?’
She sighed, like a teacher trying to be patient with a slow pupil. ‘My room is the ninth along this corridor, which you’ll have noticed runs the length of the first floor of the building. The system they use to derive the codes is that they double the room number – so double the 9 and you get 18. Floor 01, room 18. So it’s 01-18.’
‘And my room is the eighth. Double that is 16. So it should be 0116. Like you said.’
‘Except they must swap the pairs of numbers every other room so there isn’t such an obvious progression. Instead of floor 01 room 8, you’re room 8 on floor 01. So double the 8 and it’s 16 then add the floor number 01 after that. You get 1601. Simple.’
‘Yeah. Simple.’ Anyone else, and he’d have suspected they were making it up as they went along. But somehow he knew that Robin was right. ‘You worked that out pretty quickly,’ he said.
She brushed off the comment. ‘I didn’t work it out at all. It’s obvious.’
Katherine found them a few minutes later. ‘It’s nice to see you two children getting along so well,’ she said.
Robin’s lips tightened, and Matt guessed she wasn’t happy being called a child. But Katherine seemed not to notice, and led them back along the corridor to the impressive stone staircase they had climbed from the entrance hall.
‘So how much of this was already here?’ Matt asked her. ‘I mean, were all the rooms and everything just like this?’
‘Oh no.’ Katherine didn’t look back as she led them down the stairs. ‘The pyramid was completely hollow. Asingle huge chamber. Empty.’
‘So Mr Harper built the internal structure.’
‘Completely.’
‘Impressive,’ Matt said.
‘I’m sure he’ll be pleased you think so.’
‘Why did he bother?’ Robin asked.
Katherine’s foot hesitated over the last step. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Like Matt said, it’s impressive. But why go to all the trouble? Why bother?’
She did turn to face them now. ‘You can ask him that as well. But this is Mr Harper’s base of operations. He runs all his businesses from here, and all his archaeological work too.’
‘Not many staff,’ Robin said.
‘You’d be surprised. Just because you haven’t seen people doesn’t mean they’re not here. This is a big place. There are offices, kitchens, accommodation. The whole of the sixth floor is a computer suite housing the servers that control and monitor and record every aspect of Mr Harper’s work throughout the world. All his other subsidiaries and offices and employees can link into here.’
‘I’d like to see that,’ Matt said.
Katherine nodded. ‘Yes, I’m sure you would. I’ll see what we can arrange. But later. Now, you must be hungry. I know I am.’
• • •
They saw the first of the ‘staff’ when they arrived at dinner. Katherine led them down the stairs and then through the entrance foyer, along a wide stone-walled corridor until they reached a set of double doors. The corridor continued, but the doors were obviously where they were headed. Two large men dressed in khaki-coloured camouflage uniforms stood on either side of the doors.
‘Expecting trouble?’ Matt asked.
‘Not at all,’ Katherine assured them. ‘Mr Klein’s security team is here for just that. Security. There is not a lot of official law and order out here. We had a bit of trouble with one of the local tribes when we first arrived. Nothing serious, and they soon moved on to another part of the rain forest. They keep well away now and leave us to our own devices. But it’s as well to be careful.’
‘And Mr Harper is an important man,’ Robin said.
‘Indeed,’ Katherine agreed. ‘He has many business rivals. Some of them have very questionable business practices.’
‘Unlike Mr Harper,’ Robin said.
Katherine seemed to take her at her word. ‘Quite.’ She gestured for them to go into dinner.
Atticus Harper and Julius Venture were already seated at the dining table and deep in conversation. The room was like the banqueting hall of a medieval castle, dominated by a long wooden table and with a gallery running round the upper level. There were alcoves round the stone walls under the gallery, and in each of these was a painting or photograph spotlit by a bright halogen lamp set into the stonework above.
‘The pyramid is formed of 72 steps in all,’ Harper was saying. ‘I’m sure I don’t need to explain the significance of that.’
‘And I notice that the area outside, where we landed, is composed of 366 stone slabs,’ Venture said. ‘One of which is a quarter the size of the others. Representing the 365 and a quarter days in a year.’
‘You must count very quickly,’ Harper said. ‘But yes, the ancient Mayans who originally built this structure knew more than most people credit.’
Katherine led Matt and Robin to seats next to each other at the table, which was covered with bowls and dishes containing fruit and salad and cold meats. ‘What’s so special about there being 72 steps?’ Matt asked as he began to help himself to food. He hadn’t realised till now how hungry he was.
‘Precession,’ Robin replied.
‘You what?’
It was Robin’s father who answered. ‘The earth wobbles very slightly on its axis as it spins,’ he explained. ‘So the point at which the sun rises and sets and the constellations too all appear to move very slowly back and forth across the sky as the earth tilts back and forth. It’s called precession.’
‘And the sky moves one degree every 72 years,’ Robin finished.
‘You really think the people who built this place knew that?’ Matt asked.
‘Undoubtedly,’ Harper told him. ‘And not just because of the 72 steps. That could be coincidence, though it is a number repeated often enough throughout ancient architecture. The number 72 crops up again and again, along with pictograms of the constellations at various points in history. But then there is also the way the pyramid is aligned exactly on the points of the compass, as are certain of the carvings in the outer stonework, and the buildings in the town below. This building and the associated town are a message passed down through history.’ He leaned forward, resting on the table, fixing Matt with a piercing gaze. ‘And everything about it speaks of the passage of time. The number of slabs in the causeways equals the days in the year – the earth’s journey round the sun, as Julius mentioned. Also the blocks in each layer of the pyramid are multiples of 24 – the hours in each of those days. The buildings in the town are laid out in sets of seven. And it was all constructed close to fifteen hundred years ago.’ He leaned back and smiled, his point made.
‘I suppose the real surprise,’ Venture said, ‘is that the site isn’t older. At this position, with the level of astrological and temporal detail you describe, I’d have expected remains dating back rather further.’
Harper’s eyes narrowed. ‘Really? And how much further, would you expect.’
Venture smiled. ‘Oh, about eleven thousand years. What’s for dinner?’
The enthusiasm Harper had for his Pyramid Palace was obvious throughout the meal. Venture and Robin quizzed him on all aspects of the pyramid and the details of how he had discovered and then renovated it. Matt soon bored of the details, and instead tried to make out each of the pictures in the alcoves, guessing what they might be. Katherine Feather said little, probably having heard it all before. She caught Matt’s eye and smiled. He smiled back.
There was only one picture that Matt had not been able to examine surreptitiously. He had spotted paintings of ancient Egypt, photographs of the pyramid they were in being cleared of creepers and jungle plants, and a map of the world with dots on it to represent ancient sites or maybe Harper’s offices. But he had not turned to look immediately behind him, and Matt knew there was a picture there. He had glanced at it on his way in. He twisted in his chair in an effort to see it without attracting attention.
He failed dismally. Harper saw at once what he was doing and called down the table. ‘That is Lieutenant Colonel Percy Fawcett.’
Matt didn’t bother trying to pretend he hadn’t been looking. He twisted round properly in the chair to look at the picture. It was a black-and-white photograph of a man in a heavy coat and fur hat. He had a dark beard, and eyebrows that spiked up at the ends. A pipe was clamped in his mouth and his hands were thrust into his coat pockets.
‘So who was he?’ Matt wondered.
‘He was an explorer,’ Venture said. ‘He disappeared somewhere along the border between Brazil and Bolivia, or so it’s thought, in 1925. Am I right?’ From his tone, he knew he was.
‘Indeed,’ Harper agreed. ‘He was following in the footsteps of other lost explorers. He found an account of an eighteenth-century Portuguese expedition that claimed to have discovered a lost city in the jungle.’
‘He was searching for a lost city?’ Matt said.
Harper laughed. ‘For a lost civilisation. He thought the survivors of some ancient cataclysm were scattered across the world and perhaps passed on some of their knowledge.’
‘It’s a mystery, for example,’ Robin said, ‘how the ancient Egyptians transformed themselves from groups of warring factions into a kingdom with such technology and learning in such a short space of time. There’s no evidence for the evolution of the hieroglyphic language. It just appears, fully defined. Maybe it evolved somewhere else. Maybe they had help.’
‘And the Mayans too,’ Harper added. ‘Or so Fawcett thought.’
‘He’s a hero of yours?’ Matt wondered. ‘A romantic explorer chasing a dream?’
‘I suppose so. But more than that.’ Harper stood up and tossed his napkin down on the table beside his empty plate and wine glass. He walked slowly over to look at the picture. ‘When we finally opened this pyramid,’ he said, ‘when we managed to clear the plants and debris from the entrance way and force open the stone gates that stood there …’ He reached up and brushed the back of his fingers gently against the glass over the photograph. ‘We found a skeleton. A human skeleton, trapped inside by a rock fall that jammed the doors closed. Someone who got here before us, got into this building. But he never got out again.’
‘Fawcett?’ Robin said.
Harper turned to face them, and his eyes were sad. ‘DNA testing suggests that the skeleton belonged to a European. It was male. It dated from the right period. What was left of the clothing would seem to bear that out. Of course, we can never be absolutely sure, but I like to think it was him. That he succeeded at least in that part of his great treasure hunt.’
He strode back to the tab
le. ‘And speaking of such things,’ he said, ‘I think perhaps now is the time for you to tell me how our own treasure hunt is going. Although of course it is not the Treasure as such that I am interested in. It is the knowledge, the wisdom, the information that is contained in the ancient documents that Sir Robert of Lisle rescued from Constantinople all those years ago. Knowledge I can add to what I have already gleaned from other sources. So many other sources. Perhaps with that we can finish what Colonel Fawcett started.’ His eyes were gleaming with enthusiasm as well as sadness now. ‘I believe that when we find the Treasure of St John, we will discover the truth in those scrolls and parchments. We will know at last for certain that such an ancient people existed.’
Chapter 9
They left Julius Venture to explain their progress so far. Both Katherine and Harper himself seemed to assume that neither Robin nor Matt were much involved in the investigation. Matt could see that Robin was irritated by this, but although he was anxious to find his father he was happy to leave the discussions to Venture.
‘Can I see this computer facility?’ he asked Katherine.
‘Aren’t you tired?’
‘Not yet.’
‘All right then.’ Katherine turned to Robin. ‘Are you interested in computers?’
‘As a means to an end,’ she said. ‘As tools. But not for what they are. Not really, no.’ Robin yawned. ‘I think I’ll get some sleep, if that’s all right.’
Katherine smiled. ‘Fine. It’s been a long day for you, I expect.’
She turned back to Matt, so she couldn’t see the face that Robin pulled in reply. It wasn’t like Robin to be tired. Matt remembered she had been up all the previous night, but she had slept on the plane. Jet lag perhaps – after all, while it was early evening here, it was the middle of the night back home.
The Chaos Code Page 11
