Trifariam, The Lost Codex (2012)
Page 32
Mary looked back at their tracks, trying to make out if anybody was following their footsteps in the distance. “Nobody’s following us. Come on James, one last push,” said Mary, trying to encourage him. “We have to get to that city, and we’ll think of what to do when we get there.”
Mary radiated with an astonishing energy that James hadn’t noticed up until then, when their strength was starting to desert them and they had gone days without sleeping and eating well. If it were up to James, he would lie down under a tree, pray that everything was a dream and suddenly wake up in his seven foot bed with his soft feather pillow.
“Look!” cried Mary with joy. “We’re getting there.”
By squinting slightly, they could see a large number of buildings which fused together to make a beautiful city called “San Martin de las Piramides”, the city chosen by the girl as their escape destination. It was no more than two-thirds of a mile from the rear face of the Pyramid of the Moon.
“Mary!” he shouted after seeing that she was walking slowly towards it. “There are houses over there, too.”
James looked towards what seemed to be another small city around 430 yards away, this time behind the rear side Pyramid of the Sun.
“That’s San Francisco Mazapa. It’s a much smaller town and they would be able to find us easily. The best thing for us to do would be to blend in with the hustle and bustle.”
Although the temptation to get away from that plain as soon as possible was enormous, Mary was right. They couldn’t rush, they had to be cautious.
When the Pyramid of the Sun hid them no longer, they decided to drag themselves along the stony ground on their stomachs like snakes. Now covering even a few feet was extremely complicated. Furthermore, for the last couple of minutes a light wind had picked up which was whipping up the clods of loose earth and dust that whirled about in the air until they landed in their eyes.
They continued side by side, one next to the other, taking advantage of the smallest trunk to hide behind it. The professor’s energy was draining by the second, but when faced with the idea that Mary might have thought he was a wuss, James gathered all his courage and pride, summoning strength where there was none before.
“Quiet!” shouted Mary when she heard a group of dogs barking in the distance.
When James turned around, he immediately recovered all his strength. Two men dressed in military gear had just appeared on the plateau from the same direction they had. They had two muscular hunting dogs tied with a leather lead and, judging by how they were pulling on it, they had picked up their scent. They weren’t the usual pursuers, those that normally called themselves Alpha 1 and Alpha 2. James remembered the opening of the e-mail he had read that very morning in Richard’s inbox: They’re starting to suspect… For a moment he considered the possibility of them having hired two other assassins so that they wouldn’t recognize them and catch them unawares. They could have been right next to them without them knowing!
They were relatively far away, about 430 yards, but the houses were even further.
“Look!” shouted James. “There’s a small slope that looks as if it leads to a higher land level, maybe about seven feet. There’s a lot of vegetation, we’ll be able to run without being seen.”
Mary thought about all the options. It was obvious that if they kept crawling along, they would get there in less than two minutes. And although the entrance consisted of a very narrow path with a pile of undergrowth that practically prevented them from walking upright, they could easily cross it by staying close to the ground.
James took the initiative and slipped through one of the few holes which opened up before him. Mary followed. On the way, several cacti caught their sharp spines on her bare arms, causing grazes that barely bled.
The dogs’ barks were inching closer. James felt the animals’ breath on the nape of his neck while their saliva, dying to taste fresh meat, dripped down their mouths. 380 yards, 350 yards, 320 yards… they were too close.
“Don’t move!” whispered James suddenly. From his tone of voice, he sounded startled, nervous.
In front of them and right at the end of the slope was a snake about seven feet long. It was coiled up, forming a big ball on several handfuls of dry leaves which had fallen from the trees. As he had been in such a hurry, James had been more worried about the distance between them and their pursuers than looking ahead, and now it was too late. The large snake with diagonal stripes and diamonds in different shades of brown slithered about just over a foot away from his face. Its head was massive. James had the impression that his whole body could fit into its mouth with no trouble at all whenever it chose to do so.
With slow and controlled movements, it moved closer towards its prey. Its tongue vibrated in the air while it moved its head up and down, analyzing him. It was all a declaration of intent. Its eyes had a vertical pupil similar to that of a feline, while its skin was shiny and similar to plastic - definite indications that this snake was extremely dangerous.
Mary was just at his side and had realized something very important that James had overlooked. The snake was agitated because it had over twenty babies behind her, and she was defending them.
“We have to go back, it has young,” cried Mary.
But it was too late. The snake obeyed its killer instinct and launched itself at James’ jugular, while he miraculously managed to get his right arm in the way in the nick of time.
The young man couldn’t help but cry out in pain when he felt the snake coil itself around his arm and inject him with a generous dose of venom. He grabbed its head with his left arm and yanked it sharply, causing its fangs to open the wound even more as he ripped it off. Even though he had a tight hold of it, it didn’t stop writhing in the air - it had become much more nervous. It was an enormous specimen, weighing about 13 pounds.
“Quick! Go through now!” he shouted as he threw the snake as far as he could in the direction of their stalkers.
Mary dragged herself through the nest of recently-hatched snakes with her eyes practically squeezed shut, with some of them insisting on working their way into her clothes. She eventually got out into the open air. James followed a few seconds later, angry and cursing the snake with a string of expletives.
“What’s up? Did it bite you? Let me see the wound.”
James was devastated. A couple of tears of helplessness slipped down his nose and eventually fell on the ground. There were 200 yards between them and their pursuers, more or less the same distance they needed to cover to get to the highway.
He ripped the shirt he was wearing and tore off one of the arms.
“What are you doing? Are you going to use it as a tourniquet?”
James ignored her. He reached into his pocket and took out the knife he had intended to use to finish off Richard, and he made a tiny incision just where the snake had bitten him. The wound started to bleed heavily and, without thinking twice, he clamped his mouth on it and sucked it hard, spitting out everything he had in his mouth. He managed to get out some of the venom, but it was too late.
While they were trying desperately to reach the highway, James gave himself first aid. He walked slowly so as not to increase his pulse and cause his heart to beat faster; if it did, then the venom would spread around his body much quicker.
“I saw a documentary on National Geographic about that snake a few months ago. There are a lot of them in Mexico.” He sucked furiously at the wound again and spit the blood onto the floor, disgusted. “It’s called the ‘Bothrops asper’ and its venom acts in a special way.”
Mary barely turned to look at him, she remained quiet.
“This snake has a potent venom which causes muscular necrosis. If I made a tourniquet it would stop the flow of venom, causing it to remain stagnant in one part of my body. It would quickly destroy my arm, turning it gangrene and the only solution left would be to amputate it. It’s better to give the body a chance to fight it and get the antidote in the meantime.”
“Let’s go! I can see the highway!”
James gave faint smile. The only solution was to get to a medical center as soon as possible, but his face changed dramatically when he saw the two assassins standing in the middle of the highway. They seemed to be waiting for them. “Get down!” he whispered, but Mary seemed not to hear him. “Mary, get down!”
“What? Can’t you see the road? Run, there’s only three hundred feet left.”
Suddenly Mary’s eyes met with those of one of the assassins. Her first reflex was to lie down on the ground, but it was too late. They’d just found them.
“Fuck! Shit! I hadn’t seen them. But… how many people are after us?!”
“They must have received a tipoff. They knew we were trying to cross the forest and they were waiting for us on the other side.”
One of the assassins took out a pistol from his pocket and leapt over the wire fencing that restricted access to the compound. The other opened a briefcase and started to assemble what appeared to be a long-range rifle.
“What will we do?” asked James, completely heartbroken. The aggravation to which he was subjecting his body was causing his heart rate to speed up and he was starting to feel the first signs of dizziness brought on by the venom. The early stages of suffering had begun.
They were trapped. Behind the, a group of several men with dogs were preventing their retreat and the two assassins in front stopped them from continuing on. Fields stretching for 1300 feet sat to their right, but it would be crazy to head off in that direction and even more so in the state James was in. They would catch up with them too quickly.
“The only solution is to go back to the ruins,” said Mary finally. “We’re next to the Pyramid of the Moon, we could blend in with the crowds.”
James sharply blew out a puff of air and eventually nodded. “Okay. Run for it!”
Chapter 55
They covered the three hundred-yard rocky path which led to the plaza with the pillars and the Plaza of the Moon. When they reached the first one, Mary quickly spun round expecting to see her pursuers; she saw one of the assassins making his way through the vegetation, armed with a gun, the other was walking towards the first group of soldiers with a rifle in his hand. He was trying to help them because they were desperately searching for an alternative route by which they could continue the chase.
The plazas were full of people. The number of tourists had increased dramatically over the last hour, mostly due to a sudden drop in temperature. The sun was having a short rest and the wind had started to blow hard, something James was immensely grateful for.
James hid his arm under his jacket so as to pass unnoticed through the crowds. They tried to blend in among several groups of tourists, but there were always one or two who noticed they looked dirty, unkempt and sweaty, not to mention the horrible stench emanating from their bodies. They always gave them an inquisitive look at first, before ending up whispering about their tattered clothing with their companions.
“Let’s get out of here! We’re attracting a lot of attention.”
“But… where will we go?” said Mary studying her friend’s wound. It was starting to look quite nasty and dark. “Those bastards will be everywhere.”
Those words sparked a survival instinct in James. He stopped for a few minutes at the foot of the Pyramid of the Moon and looked around him. He didn’t need much time to take stock of the situation. The road which surrounded the site was plagued with black all-terrain vehicles. Why could we not have realized before?! At the side of one of them there was always a person too well-dressed to be a tourist and sometimes seemed to be talking to themselves, or rather an intercom.
Suddenly, and almost without giving them time to react, the saw a group of eight people approach the Pyramid of the Moon. They looked like hunters beating the area to corner or scare their prey. Some sniper would surely be lying in wait to give chase.
“They’re surrounding us, we can’t escape.”
Mary looked in all directions until she found them in among the crowd. “We don’t have any choice. Let’s go up!”
James didn’t understand what she said at first, but he immediately did when he turned around.
The imposing Pyramid of the Moon towered them from behind. Although it was smaller in size than the Pyramid of the Sun, the professor had a feeling that it would be hugely difficult for him to get to the summit in his current state.
“Come on James! They haven’t seen us yet.”
Just like the Pyramid of the Sun, the structure was made up of several platforms, in this case four, which just so happened to be swarming with people that day. At first it seemed easy to blend in with the tourists and get to the top undetected. But the continual dizzy spells that James was starting to suffer along with the sudden bouts of nausea and excessive sweating brought on by an imminent fever made it enormously difficult for him to climb up.
Step by step, slowly, but without undue hesitation they began their ascent. The first two platforms were less difficult for him than expected, with them often looking behind to see if they were already being followed. However just as they were about to reach the top of the third platform, a ray of sun penetrated the thick cloud and momentarily blinded him. His feet couldn’t coordinate his movements and he tripped on one of the steps. His hands tried to grip the handrail but they slipped and grasped at the air. As he was falling he felt as if his head wanted to leave his body, his mind remained blank for what seemed an eternity, waiting for a hard blow to his neck that never came.
“Are you okay?”
A man’s voice addressed him in perfect English. He was an athletic, strong and robust person who was trying to reach the top following the steps of the professor. When he saw him lose his balance he tightly grabbed his arms.
James could barely smile. His anguished face showed the heavy burden he was under. “Yes, yes. Thanks a lot.”
“Are you sure you’re okay? You don’t look too good.”
Mary, who had watched everything unfold without being able to do anything, took James by the hand and gently urged him to continue the ascent. “Don’t worry. He’s very sensitive to changes in temperature and the heat must have affected him.”
He didn’t seem too convinced by Mary’s words. The temperature was cool rather than hot.
“Excuse me,” said the young man again, to the noticeable irritation of the archaeologist. “Is this yours?”
He was holding in his hands one of the two fragments they had found, the one from Egypt. It probably fell out when the young man grabbed James.
“Yes, thank you very much. It’s a souvenir that we bought in a shop. My mother will be eternally grateful.” Mary went over to him, thanked him once more and practically snatched the object from his hands while she smiled at him.
After more than ten minutes climbing they eventually reached the top. The fresh air at the summit momentarily relieved the professor’s agony.
“James, it’s best I keep hold of the objects or you’ll end up losing them.” Mary was still holding the first fragment that they had found in Cairo. Without waiting for confirmation from her friend, she put it away in her bag. “If you remain loaded down with them you’ll only hold us back.”
He thought about it carefully and just as it seemed he was going to hand over the second fragment, he changed his mind. “It’s best that the fragments are kept separately. That way they won’t be able to complete it if one of us is captured.”
“Okay, but you’re in no fit state to be carrying heavy weight,” said Mary bluntly.
For the next few minutes, the summit was practically empty. The wind had picked up and was whipping Mary’s hair as if it were a paper handk
erchief, giving the impression that a heavy storm was on the way. Only a couple of people, among whom was the young man who had stopped James from falling, stoically put up with the weather conditions taking photographs of the city from the top of the pyramid. But faced with the strong gusts of wind, they gave up and started their descent before the weather conditions made the uneven steps even more difficult.
James had a rest on an old platform located halfway across the summit. It was used thousands of years ago to perform ceremonies in honor of the goddess of water, related to the Moon and whose statue was found at the base of the pyramid. He was exhausted and he didn’t give a shit if he was flouting some rule or other. His only concern at that time was about being poisoned to death and not being able to say goodbye to his little girl. To tell her the truth about what happened, although her bitch of a mother would no doubt win her over with some story where he was the bad guy. The bruise on his arm started to turn black and was occasionally heavy and hard to move.
“I don’t know what to do. They’re going to find us any second now.”
James didn’t seem to care. Deep down in his heart it was what he really wanted, for everything to be over and put him out of his unnecessary suffering.
Mary crept over to the rear face of the pyramid. The highway which led to the city was just below, but it was very dangerous to try to descend that slope without any kind of harness. Most probably, the wind or humidity that was starting to impregnate the atmosphere would make them trip and fall violently to the ground.
“At least if we had a rope,” said Mary, “we would be able to scale down one of its faces.”
The memory of his daughter had given him new energy. He quickly analyzed the situation and made his way over to Mary, worried. “We’re trapped here, we have to go,” suggested James. “They’ll send somebody up here sooner or later. Don’t you see? We’re inside a cave waiting for the bear to come.”
“You’re right. Let’s go!”
Just then, a dark cloud that was hovering above their heads deposited a few small drops of water on top of the pyramid. The few drops quickly multiplied. It was starting to rain over Teotihuacan.