Incarnate: Mars Origin I Series Book III

by Abby L. Vandiver

  “You’re kidding, right? Battery powered.”

  “Or some kind of generator. Pretty sophisticated stuff.”

  “Do you think it’s Maya, Ma?”

  “I don’t know.” I smiled at her through the refractions of light. “But I do think it’s amazing.

  “I think it’s the Hall of Records,” Jairo said.

  “The Hall of Records,” Logan asked.

  I laughed. “Jairo. You can’t believe those books you read. There is no such thing as a Hall of Records.”

  “I read your book, Justin.”

  “Yeah, and you’re one of a few that believed it.”

  “What is the Hall of Records?”

  “It’s a library that houses the history of man, his origins and all of his secrets,” Jairo said.

  “Yeah,” I said. “And it is located on a metaphysical plane of consciousness.”

  “What else could he be?” he asked.

  “Just what it appears to be. A library.” I flashed my search light around the room. “You’re going to have to tell your benefactor about this, Logan. Get a group down here. Without light you can’t do anything. You’ll have to string some down here.”

  “I can’t wait to tell my benefactor about this,” Logan said. Then she paused. “You think they’ll try to push me aside? Take the credit?”

  “I would hope not. What do you think Jairo?”

  “We are all witnesses to this. You’ll get the credit for the lead in this, Logan. I don’t think you’ll have a problem with your benefactor.”

  I bit my lip. “I would love to have a look at this.” I eyed Logan. “Before it’s all carted away.

  “I think if we took a few of the bound ones out to the hall, it’d be okay.”

  “You think so, Logan? I could just kick myself for not having any gloves or plastic. Nothing to preserve it. I just didn’t think we would find anything.”

  “Really? All this time you went along with this and you didn’t think we’d find anything.”

  I chuckled. “No. Never. In fact Micah is coming down day after tomorrow. I had planned on leaving.”

  “Bet you don’t want to go now,” she said.

  “You’d win that bet.” I laughed. “C’mon let’s go and get the things we need, Logan,” I let my searchlight scan the room. “We’ll come back tomorrow. Prepared. We can then pack up some of the manuscripts and papyri.”

  “Ma, I know you have to want to look at his stuff as bad as I do. How can you wait until tomorrow?”

  I squinted one eye. “It’s hard. But if we pull this stuff out into the air . . .”

  “I think if we just took something wrapped in leather. One or two of the codices.”

  “I don’t know, Logan.”

  “Yeah, Justin I was thinking I could take one of the battery operated lamps. I want to see how they work.”

  “Well, that would be okay. We’d just have to be sure to catalogue it. But a book? It’s not safe.”

  “Ma, one little book. We can take one you choose.”

  “One, Logan.” I closed my eyes and relented. “Just one. Jairo, you get a lamp.”

  It was decided. We’d come back with the stuff we’d needed to preserve a few of the papyri and manuscripts. We’d have to send something out to get dated. Logan and I walked around the room. She picked up the first few “safe” things she could find and lugged them into the hall. I chose more carefully. I flashed my light up and down the shelves until I saw things that looked familiar to me. Something I’d never thought I’d find in Mesoamerica.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  We worked in the hall and library for two days. The first day, we sketched out the area by hand and then we took pictures. Lots of pictures. We didn’t bring down lights because we would have had to have a generator to hook them up to. We’d wait until we told Logan’s benefactor so he could give the say so on what he wanted to do on setting up a camp. And then, on the second day, we set about deciding what things we’d take out to show her benefactor and send out for testing.

  I wanted Logan to do the right things. Make it look like she was experienced enough to handle the dig. It wasn’t like the one in Caracol that had been excavated for years. This would be a new dig.

  Starting from day one. And this find would make history.

  I had only grazed over the codex we took out the first day. And on the second day, I hadn’t told Logan, but I’d taken something else. I hoped I would have a chance to look at it.

  “Jairo. I forgot. I had wanted to scrape some of the walls and flooring and have it analyzed, but I forgot the equipment in the jeep. Would you go and get it for me?”

  “Sure. Be right back.”

  I took in a deep breath and stretched out my back. “Other than the scrapings. I think that’s about it, Logan. What do you think?”

  “I think that I am still too excited to think.”

  I laughed. “I know that feeling. So let’s start taking this stuff out and when Jairo gets back, we’ll do the scrapings and we’re done for now. I looked at my watch. “Oh. Shoot I didn’t realize it was this late. We have to hurry, Micah should be here.”

  “You’re still leaving. I was sure you’d change your mind.”

  “You don’t want me to be here when you tell your benefactor. You and Jairo should get the credit for this. I’ll fly back down after the announcement. Like a proud mother. No one will be the wiser.” I smiled at her. “C’mon. Don’t want to keep Micah waiting.”

  ϫ ϫ ϫ ϫ ϫ ϫ ϫ ϫ ϫ ϫ

  “Mom’s not in her hotel room.”

  “What time were you supposed to meet her there?”

  Micah looked at the time on his phone and put it back up to his ear. “Ten minutes ago, Dad. I even tried calling her on her cell. No answer.”

  “Well you know your mother, she’s never on time for anything. And I’d be really surprised if she had that cell phone with her. She always forgets it.”

  “So why did you have me put that GPS on it?”

  “After her little unexpected rendezvous with Senator Cook, it made me feel a little safer. Knowing that I could track her.”

  “Let me see if I can pull up her phone’s location.” Micah, standing in the hotel lobby, went and sat on one of the couches near the front doors. He put his father on speaker and clicked on the GPS icon.

  Mase laughed. “You put a tracker on your phone?”

  “Yeah, it gave me a scare seeing her drive away in that car. I didn’t know where she was going and I couldn’t help her. I think Uncle Greg might have done it too. After I told him about it, he asked me how to get the app.”

  “Did you tell your mother we made it so we could follow her?” Mase asked.

  “No. But I wasn’t thinking about how she always forgets her phone. I should have told her so she’d be sure to carry it with her all the time.”

  “She’d still forget. You couldn’t reach Logan, either?”

  “Okay, Dad. I can see the last location of her phone. And it’s not here, so she has it with her.” He took the phone off speaker and put it back up to his ear. “And no, I couldn’t reach Logan, either. I tried her on that satellite phone but it rolled right over to voicemail.”

  “I’d say, don’t worry about it. Just sit tight and they’ll get back eventually.”

  “Yeah, alright. I’ll just check into my room. Maybe grab something to eat, watch a little television. I’m sure they’ll be back soon. I’ll leave her a message. And I’ll call you back when I hear from them.”

  “Sounds good, Micah.”

  ϫ ϫ ϫ ϫ ϫ ϫ ϫ ϫ ϫ ϫ

  “You pinpointed the signal to the phone?” Aaron asked Castor.

  “I have the general area.”

  “What’s going on? Why can’t you pick it up?” Aaron leaned in close to Castor to look at the screen.

  “Probably, they’re too deep in one of the caves. Simon said there were a bunch of caves they were working in. He didn’t know the exact location where they’d
be today. Just the general area.”

  “So what do you suggest?”

  “We sit tight, Aaron. They’ve got to come out of the cave eventually.”

  “We should have come earlier.”

  “Castor’s right, Aaron. Just be patient.” Laura said. “What? You got an itchy trigger finger?”

  “I’m not thinking about shooting anyone.” He laughed. “I’d leave that up to Castor.” He glanced at Laura. “No just excited. So disappointed about my last dig. Simon promised me something good here. Something big.” He clenched his jaw. “He better be telling me the truth.”

  Laura looked at Castor staring at the phone’s GPS locator and back at Aaron. “Why don’t you take a look around? Survey the land.” Laura stroked Aaron’s hair. “Where would you put your camp?”

  Aaron smiled at her.

  “Come on. Walk with me,” Aaron said. “Let’s see what this place has to offer.”

  Five minutes out into their walk, Aaron and Laura heard a rustling in the bushes behind them.

  “Castor is that you?” Aaron called out. No answer. “Castor!” he called again.

  Castor stepped though the bushes with a smile on his face. He held up the tracker device. “We’ve got her.”

  Chapter Fifty

  “Did you hear that?” I stopped dead in my tracks. We were starting to move a couple of the things we wanted tested out beyond the hall area. We’d made it outside of the tunnel entrance going into the cave. “Listen.”

  “Mom. Stop trying to scare me. I’m sure it’s just Jairo coming back.”

  She turned her head and listened toward the direction of the entrance. She turned back and looked at me. “I don’t hear anything.”

  There was a loud boom, like a gunshot,” I said. “You didn’t hear that?”

  “No. And how do you know what a gunshot sounds like anyway?”

  “I’ve been shot at before.” My mind went back to that night in Jerusalem when Hannah Abelson or Simon Melas, never figured out which one, shot at me. Jack took the bullet but I felt like it had hit me.

  “Oh, man, Ma.” She rolled her eyes. “Why would you say that? You’ve never been shot at?” She shook her head.

  “There it is again.”

  “I heard that! That’s a gun?”

  “This is not good,” I said. “Where in the world is Jairo? And who could be firing a gun.”

  Logan ducked down and covered her head.

  “We’ve got to get out of here,” I said. I pulled her up. “Hiding out in the open won’t save you, you know.” I pulled her down into the tomb room. “Just because you stoop down, doesn’t mean the bullet can’t hit you. We need to hide.”

  “I gotta pee.”

  “No you don’t.”

  “I do, Ma. Really. I gotta pee.”

  Logan’s entire body was trembling. Her eyes searched mine for help, imploring that I fix things. All my past fears flooded my mind. The fear that some harm would come to my family because of my work. But I was sure this had nothing to do with me or my work. I didn’t know who was shooting outside of the tunnel or why they were shooting, but I was scared and so was my daughter.

  “Well, you can’t pee here.” She looked at me like what I was saying didn’t make a bit of difference. “Look. Do you want to stop and pee and hope you can finish before a bullet hits you, or you want to find a place to hide?”

  “Oh my God. I’m so scared. Do you think that someone with a gun is coming to look for us?”

  I don’t know. I don’t know why anyone would.”

  “It’s the Assistant Director, Logan said. A tear fell down her face. “The Assistant of the Belize Institute of Archaeology. I just know it.”

  “This isn’t Belize.”

  “He’s followed us.”

  Tears starting running down her face. I wasn’t’ so sure she wasn’t going to lose it. My first instinct of course was still to protect my child. But at my age, and as out of shape as I was I just didn’t know how I could pull off any “Indiana Jones-like” moves.

  “We can hide. Down in the library,” I said and grabbed her around the shoulders. Her knees were starting to buckle. I wasn’t sure if she could stand without my help. Then I heard a voice calling my name.

  “Justin!” The voice was barely audible. “Justin!” I kept hearing my name called over and over.

  “Jairo,” I whispered and looked at Logan. “That’s Jairo’s voice.”

  I leaned Logan up against the wall and started walking toward the voice. Out into the cave.

  “Jairo. Is that you?” My voice fought to make it out of my throat. “Jairo?”

  “Shh!” he said, coming toward me, he waved at me to stop. “Don’t come any further. You’ve got to go the other way. You’ve got to hide. They’re here with guns.” He moved in closer to me and pulled his hand away from his stomach. His hand and his shirt was covered in blood.

  He collapsed, and tumbled over on me. I grabbed hold of him, and fell back on the wall to try and support the weight of his body. But his body was too heavy for me to hold. Dead weight.

  “Oh my God! Who, Jairo? Who’s here with guns?”

  He didn’t say anything.

  I slid down the wall letting the weight of his body push me down. I landed on my butt, my legs splayed in front of me and his body stretched across them. “Oh my God.” I stroked his hair and felt tears welling up in my eyes.

  Logan came walking around the corner. I looked up at her. “I think he’s dead.”

  She let out a wail.

  “Shhh!”

  I gently pushed Jairo off of me and clambered to get up. It broke my heart that he was dead, but I couldn’t stop and mourn. Just then a voice echoed down the cavern.

  “I hear you. I know you’re in there.” It came in a sing-songy, low pitched voice. “I’m coming to get you. You should just make it easy for yourselves.”

  I looked down at Jairo and back up at Logan.

  Logan started crying. A slow whimper at first, but then she couldn’t catch her breath and she began to heave, taking in loud gasps of air and crying. I looked down the cave and knew that someone with a gun and no hesitation in killing was coming in after me and my child.

  “Shh!” I put my hand up to Logan’s mouth. “You have to be quiet,” I whispered to her. “C’mon.” I nudged her with my elbow. We went back though the cave into the tunnel and entered the tomb room. I grabbed the searchlight and hit the switch, we plunged into complete darkness.

  We have to hide.” I put her down through the tomb first. Then I went in and pushed the tomb shut behind us.

  “They’re going to find us.”

  “No, they’re not. No one knows about this place but me, you and Jairo. And he’s . . . gone. We’ll just keep quiet. In the dark. We’ll be safe.”

  We waited for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, I felt we were safe.

  “C’mon. We have to try and get out of here.”

  “We’re not going to make it.” I could feel her fear in the dark.

  “We have to. Or we’ll be like Jairo.” I spoke into the darkness. “We have to. Can you do it?”

  We didn’t dare turn on the searchlights. Our breathing was heavy and if anyone was close would have given us away. We ran through the tunnel, and out to the cave, finding ours way out. Stumbling over rock, tripping in holes, and bumping along the walls. We held onto each other hands, the slick sweat coating our palms making it difficult to stay connected. My heart was pounding so hard I was sure thought it was going to give out.

  . Every few seconds looking back over my shoulder to see if anyone had seen us. I hadn’t the faintest idea where we were going to go. What we were going to do, or how we could fight back.

  I didn’t even know who was chasing us.

  Logan and I were visibly shaking and we were covered in sweat mixed with the dirt, it made my face grimy. My stomach was flipping over and had clinched into little knots. I kept swiping at it with the back of my hand. I was so t
ired. Panting, I just needed to sit down. I didn’t have the stomach or strength for what was unfolding.

  We scrambled out of the cave, into the open rainforest. I stopped dead in my tracks. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Simon Melas was sitting in a jeep waving us over.

  “Oh, thank God,” Logan said. “Someone to help us.” She started running toward the jeep. I grabbed her arm and jerked her back.

  “C’mon, Mommy, we’ve got to get out of here.” What’s wrong with you?”

  “Simon?” My voice was strained. “What are you doing here?”

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Simon was in an army-style jeep. No top. Cage bars across the top. Sitting there with a look of satisfaction on his face.

  “Get in,” he said. “You’re safer with me, Justin.”

  “Safer than what?” I still didn’t know why Simon was sitting there. Where he’d come from? But more than that, I didn’t know how much he had to do with me being shot at in Jerusalem or spears being thrown at me in the Andaman Islands. I didn’t trust him. “Did you shoot Jairo?” I said.

  He picked up something off of his lap. It was a gun. I grabbed Logan close to me.

  “Oh, my God, Mommy who is that?”

  “I’m your benefactor, Logan. And your only means of escape. Don’t worry, the gun is to protect us from them. I didn’t shoot anyone.” He laid it back down in his lap. “I’m not the bad guy here. Get in if you want to make it out of here safely.”

  I looked at Logan, we both were trembling. I spotted Logan’s jeep. There was a dark blue sedan parked next to it. “We can take ourselves out of here,” I said. I pointed to the jeep and nudged Logan toward it.

  “Go ahead then.” he said.

  I automatically patted my pockets. Nothing in it but my cell phone. Jairo, I thought. He had the keys when he left to go out to the car.

  “I have to get the keys.” I didn’t know why I was explain myself to him. “C’mon, Logan.” I grabbed her hand and turned to reenter the cave that led to the tunnel.

  “You won’t make it if you go back in that tunnel. They’re in there. It’s you two they want.”