The captain took the controls again, and Lucia joined us at the railing near the bow. The tour boat roared across Lake Gatun like she was built for racing—the bow lightly tapping each wave as it disappeared beneath the Balboa.
I studied my watch for the hundredth time. We were nearing the southern end of the lake and we had six minutes left. I knew Mr. Zola’s boat was just around the point, so unless we ran out of gas, we were going to make it.
“There it is!” Eric shouted. “Straight ahead... About a kilometre away.”
I looked at my watch again. “Perfect!” At the speed we were going we’d make it in less than five minutes.
“Ay, caramba!” Lucia cried.
I looked up to see the bulbous prow of a massive container ship slipping out from behind the point onto Lake Gatun. The fancy bronze yacht began to disappear behind the hulking ship. As more and more of the vessel blocked our path, it was clear we’d have to stop and wait for it to pass.
Only we didn’t stop.
The Balboa screamed across the water on a collision course with the big ship. Eric and I automatically looked to the wheelhouse to check if the captain had abandoned ship. But no—Captain Pescada was still at the controls.
“What’s he doing?” Eric yelled. “He can’t play chicken with that.” Eric pointed at the ship beginning to block the horizon.
“He will try to cut across her bow,” Lucia shouted. Then, as if reading our minds, she added, “He knows what he’s doing.”
We watched in horror as Captain Pescada pushed our small tour boat across the container ship’s path. I knew we were racing against the clock, but this... this was nuts.
BOOOOOOOM!
The three of us jumped. For a fraction of a second I thought we were too late, and that Mr. Zola had blown up Camp Gatun. But it was just the freighter cursing our dangerous seamanship with an angry blast from its air horn.
The Balboa rode so close to the other boat, we actually passed under the shadow of the big ship’s bow. I held my breath and waited for the crushing noise of metal against metal. But miraculously, we slipped across undamaged and shot out on the west side of the canal. Captain Pescada cut a gentle arc around the point and slipped in behind Mr. Zola’s yacht.
Whew! We made it.
I’d seen how precisely Lucia’s dad was able to handle the Balboa, so I was surprised when we bumped hard into the docking platform. The tour boat shuddered as it snapped the heavily lacquered planks behind the Praise of the Two Lands.
I looked over my shoulder at the wheelhouse. Captain Pescada grinned at me, shrugged his shoulders, and yelled, “Oops!”
“We will wait for you and your friends,” Lucia said, “in case there is... monkey business.”
Eric and I nodded and jumped onto the damaged platform. The captain backed away slowly and idled in the small cove one hundred metres from the yacht.
I flung the backpack over my shoulder and scurried up the ladder behind Eric. We ran to the mirrored doors of the cabin, slid them open, and stormed inside.
“We got it!” Eric yelled. “Don’t blow up anything. We have the skull!”
Mr. Zola sat in his chair at the head of the table, while Anna, Rachel, and Ben paced around the cabin impatiently. Everyone—except Mr. Zola, of course—ran over to us when we entered the cabin.
“Thank goodness,” Rachel said, giving me an awkward one-armed hug.
“Man, you guys cut it close,” Ben said.
Anna studied Eric. “Are you all right?” she asked. “You look terrible again.”
“I’m okay,” he said. “Just hungry.”
Mr. Zola began clapping his hands—not in a happy way, but in one of those super-slow, creepy bad-guy ways.
We all looked at the table.
“Bravo,” he said. “Now, can you all please sit? I would like to complete our transaction.”
We took our places around the table again.
“I see you took an alternate vessel back,” Mr. Zola said calmly.
“We ran out of time,” Eric said. “We had to.”
He nodded. “Very resourceful. May I please see the item?”
I opened my bag, pulled out the fake crystal skull, and placed it in front of Mr. Zola.
He gasped.
Rachel, Anna, and Ben gawked at the clean, shiny head, and then turned to Eric and me. Mr. Zola, meanwhile, continued ogling his prize skull. I wanted to let my friends know that we knew what we were doing, so I tried to give them a conspiratorial wink and a nod. But I think I messed that up because they still looked pretty worried.
Mr. Zola cleared his throat. “Please sign the documents,” he said, “and you can be on your way.”
“What documents?” I said.
Rachel pointed at two papers sitting in the middle of the table. I hadn’t noticed them in all the excitement. “While you guys were gone,” she said, “he had his lawyer email some sort of contract here to the boat.”
“But what for?” I said. “I thought we already had an agreement.”
“We do,” said Mr. Zola. “However, upon reflection, I felt that we needed something a bit more... official.”
Eric and I looked at each other. We had no idea what that meant.
“He wants us to sign a contract,” Ben said. “And the contract says that we agree not to change our minds and try and get the skull back.”
Mr. Zola nodded. “But it also states that I will have the two broken skulls returned to Camp Gatun.”
“You mean the skulls you stole from the camp?” Eric asked cheekily.
Mr. Zola shook his head. “An employee of mine stole them, and I ordered that employee to return them.”
“Don’t you think,” I said, “you should include something in the contract about removing the explosives from the camp?”
“There were never any explosives,” he said. “I told you that simply to motivate you. I am a businessman, not a terrorist.”
We all stared at Mr. Zola.
What a rich, sneaky jerk!
I considered what he said. “So that contract makes this all legal?” I asked. “Even though we’re kids?”
He nodded. “The deal will be finalized when we all sign it.”
I did a bit more considering. “I think,” I said, again being very decisive, “that I would like to add one more thing to the contract.”
“Huh?” Eric said.
Mr. Zola frowned. “You wish to add a clause?”
“Yes,” I said, “I want to add a clause.” I wasn’t sure exactly what a clause was, but it sounded like the thing that I wanted to add. I continued: “You’re going to get a genuine, priceless crystal skull—the only one in the whole world—and we’re going to get nothing except the return of two broken skulls.”
“That is true,” he said.
“Well, this skull is Chocoan,” I said, pointing at the crystal, “and I think you should do something nice for the Chocoan people. I want you to build a new school for their village. It’s just across the water.”
“And why should I do that?” he asked.
“So that you can keep their sacred skull,” I said. “If you build them a school, we’ll sign the contract and we’ll promise to never tell the Chocoan, or anyone else for that matter, that you stole their skull.”
Mr. Zola smiled. “I don’t see what bargaining power you have. You are children. You can’t do anything to stop me.”
I stared back at him good and hard. He was right, of course, but I couldn’t let him know that. We were a bunch of kids in a foreign country, and Mr. Anton Zola was a billionaire who seemed to have the power to do what he wanted. Sure, he was a liar and a... Wait a minute. If he could bluff us, maybe we could bluff him... again.
“That’s what you think,” I said, t
rying to sound like I wasn’t about to make up a bunch of lies. “If we aren’t back on the Balboa in thirty minutes, Captain Pescada and his daughter are going to get eighty Chocoan warriors. They’re going paddle over here in their canoes, storm this boat, and then wreck everything until they find their crystal skull again.”
Mr. Zola’s smile faded a little bit. “And why would the captain not fetch the warriors now? I have the skull. He must know I will leave with it.”
“He personally doesn’t care about the skull, but his people do.” I said quickly. “He knows the government will simply take it anyway and put it in a museum somewhere. He wants his people to benefit immediately, and what they need right now is a new school.”
“Hmmm...” That was Mr. Zola.
“Plus,” Eric said, “he thinks the skull is cursed, so he doesn’t really care what happens to it. But the rest of his people will totally freak out on you when they find out you’re pilfering their sacred skull. So there!”
We all suffered through another minute of silence, waiting for him to make some sort of decision. Finally, he said “Very well, Cody. That sounds reasonable. I will gladly build them a new school.”
“You will?” Ben said, equally shocked.
“Yes,” he said. “I will ask my legal team to make those changes and send a revised contract immediately.”
I didn’t know what to say, but somehow I managed to croak, “Good, you do that.”
Chapter 13
“AND YOU’RE ABSOLUTELY sure you gave him the fake skull?” Rachel asked.
“For the tenth time,” Eric said to his sister, “yes.”
“I still can’t believe you guys did all that in two hours,” Ben said. “Man, I sure wish I could have come along with you.”
It was 2:30 in the afternoon and we were all back in the camp dining tent sitting around our unopened binders. The place was empty, except for a cook who was checking his emails on a computer in the corner. Captain Pescada and Lucia had dropped us off at the main dock thirty minutes earlier. We knew we’d see the captain again, but Lucia hugged us and thanked us for five minutes before she let us leave the Balboa.
“That was nice of you to ask for a new school,” Anna said, “for the children.”
I shrugged. “It was the least we could do, I guess.”
“I still think you could have demanded some stuff for us,” Eric griped. “I bet he would have bought us video games and all sorts of cool gadgets—if we’d only asked.”
“Don’t be so selfish,” Rachel said. “You should be happy Lucia’s village still has their secret skull and will get a new school.”
“I am happy,” Eric whined. “But I’d be happier if I had a new dirt bike too.”
We all laughed.
Bruno stormed into the tent with his brother right behind him. They were both grinning like they’d each won a dirt bike. “Ahh, good, you’re all still here,” Bruno said.
We all jumped up from our seats.
“Uncle Rudi!” Anna cried, running up to her giant uncle.
Still here? Eric and I looked at each other. Mr. Zola must have lied about calling Anna’s dad too.
We each took turns greeting Rudi and shaking his hand.
“I have good news, children,” Bruno said. “The stolen skull pieces have just been returned.”
We pretended to be surprised.
“Who stole them?” Ben asked.
“Well,” Bruno began, “it seems that one of Mr. Zola’s deckhands—from his beautiful yacht—sneaked into camp and stole the artifacts. When Mr. Zola became aware of the theft, he ordered the man to immediately return the skulls and apologize.”
“That is fantastic,” Anna said.
“It’s not so fantastic for the thief,” Rudi said.
“Oh?” Eric said. “Why’s that?”
Bruno took a few seconds to chuckle. “Mr. Zola was so appalled at his employee’s behaviour, he ordered the fellow to spend the week here digging pits and trenches for the archaeologists. The hard work may not reform him, but he’s certainly going to lose some weight.”
“Huh,” Rachel said.
“I believe I may have misunderstood Mr. Zola,” Bruno said. “I think he is a gentleman and a great philanthropist.”
“He collects dinosaur bones?” Eric said.
“What?” Bruno stared at Eric. “No, no, that is a paleontologist. Mr. Zola is generous with his money. We also just found out that he has moved a team of contractors from Pedro Miguel to a small village across the canal. They will be building a new school there for the local children.”
“Wow!” I said.
“That was fast,” Ben said.
“I’m sorry?” Bruno said.
“I mean,” Ben said, “the stolen skulls were returned fast.”
“Oh, yes.” Bruno nodded. “Of course, of course.”
He studied us carefully for a minute from the end of the table—sort of like he was seeing us for the first time. “You children are working much too hard,” he said. “You need to go outside. The fresh air will do you all good, especially you, Eric—you look awful.”
We promised we would take a break from our intense studying, and Bruno and Rudi left the tent again to go and examine the broken skulls. “We would like to take a good look at them before they are sent to Panama City,” Rudi said on the way out.
As soon as they were gone, Rachel leaned forward, “Okay, tell us exactly what you saw inside the skulls, Cody.”
“I think I can do even better than that,” I said. “I can show you.”
I left them in a state of confusion and walked over to the cook. He closed his computer and smiled at me. “Hallo,” he said, using pretty good English.
I gave him what I thought was a sad, homesick look, and said, “Could I please use your computer for a minute to email my mom?” The cook said he didn’t mind because he had to start making stuff for supper anyway. He opened the laptop again and showed me the basics. Three minutes later I was back with my friends.
“What’re you doing?” Eric asked.
“Since we left the yacht,” I said, carefully setting down the cook’s computer, “I’ve been thinking about the image we saw inside that crystal skull.”
“Was it freaky?” Ben asked.
“Well, yeah, it looked freaky,” I admitted, “but it also looked familiar. In fact, I’m certain now that I’ve seen it before.” I pulled the computer close and did a quick search for the image I wanted. The screen filled with dozens of photos of the two people we saw hidden deep inside the crystal. I clicked one of the images so that it filled the entire display. I spun the computer around and said, “This is what we saw.”
“Holy cow!” Eric cried. “That is what was in the skull.”
“What is it?” Anna said.
I tapped the computer screen. “This is a photograph of the plaque NASA bolted to the first spacecraft that ever left our solar system.”
Ben nodded. “Pioneer 10, right? I remember our science teacher telling us about that.”
“Yeah, we learned about it in school too.” I turned to Rachel. “Remember when Mrs. Snedden showed us those slides?”
Rachel’s brow creased like it always did when she was deep in thought. “Didn’t she tell the class that NASA put the plaque on the spacecraft in case it was ever intercepted by extraterrestrial life? NASA wanted aliens to know what humans looked like, right?”
“Exactly,” I said.
“You mean this is what you saw?” Anna asked, studying the laptop. “A man and a woman standing side by side?”
“Not exactly,” I said.
“Huh?” Ben said.
“What we saw inside the skull,” I said, “was a three-dimensional version of this—a hologram.”
�
�Yeah,” Eric said, “it was like this—a man and a woman standing next to each other—but with way more detail. It was totally in 3-D.”
“With a rainbow,” I said.
“There was a rainbow in the skull?” Anna said, sitting up a bit.
“Yeah,” Eric said again, “right over the heads of the two people.”
“Is a rainbow important?” Rachel asked Anna.
“Perhaps,” Anna said. “It is the universal symbol of peace and hope. In mythology it is considered a bridge between two worlds. And in many cultures it represents water.”
We sat quietly, listening to the distant kitchen noises.
After a minute, Ben cleared his throat. “So, let’s see if we can work this out,” he said. “Five or six hundred years ago someone showed up near here with a crystal skull. And inside that skull there was a hologram of the same image that NASA bolted onto Pioneer 10. But Pioneer 10 didn’t blast off into outer space—or even exist—until hundreds of years later.”
“That’s the way I see it,” Eric said. “But what does it all mean?”
“What if,” Ben continued, “someone from the future wanted to let the world know that we weren’t all alone in the universe? I know it sounds crazy, but what if a person from the future time-travelled to the past to help people... to give all mankind a hand with something?”
None of us thought that Ben’s idea was crazy, because we all knew that the pillars opened up wormholes to the past and the future.
“If that’s what happened,” Eric said, “the secret Chocoan skull could be someone’s way of saying ‘Hello.’”
“And if their legend is accurate,” Anna said, “the people who made the skull also included some special information inside it.”
I nodded. “Too bad we have to wait until we’re old to find out what that information is.”
“That’s fine with me,” Rachel said, “as long as Mr. Zola doesn’t get his hands on it or—”
Panama Pursuit Page 14
