by David Wood
Bones thanked her and headed to the waiting area. He wanted to sleep, but something told him he would be up all night trying to figure out why in the world it mattered that Orley did not have a bull.
Chapter 7
Chaco Canyon was the root of Anasazi Culture. This desert country, with its long winters, short growing seasons and minimal rainfall seemed to Maddock an unlikely place for civilization to take root, yet it was once the center of Anasazi life. From the end of the first millennia to the middle of the second, people had farmed this canyon and constructed fantastic greathouses and kivas. In terms of architecture, life and social organization, the Anasazi of Chaco Canyon had reached heights unsurpassed by their kindred of the Four Corners region.
The Chacoans constructed their magnificent center of trade and worship on a nine-mile stretch of canyon floor, with an eye to longitude and the cycles of the sun and moon. Working with only primitive tools and without a system of mathematics, they raised massive buildings that still inspire awe.
Maddock was too focused on the sheer desolation of the land to take notice of the architecture. Most of the ruins were just far enough off the road to make it nearly impossible to see much of anything. He was road weary from the seemingly never-ending trek from the highway to the park, which lay in the midst of sparse, dry land.
Saul had insisted on driving the car even before their plane touched down in Durango, Colorado. Maddock sat in the back of the rented Range Rover, poring over a park map with Jade.
“Are you sure there’s anything out here?” Saul asked, not for the first time. “This is the emptiest place I’ve ever seen. There aren’t even any tourists around.”
“Yes, I’m sure,” Jade said, not looking up from the map. “Just keep going.” She sighed loudly, but Saul was focused on his own thoughts.
“And people really lived out here? Hard to believe, it’s so dry.”
“Chaco Canyon was actually the center of Puebloan culture for a long time,” Jade said. Saul snorted but said no more.
“So, go over the plan with me again,” Maddock said. He remembered the plan well enough, but he preferred Jade’s voice to Saul’s any day. He was still weary from the whirlwind of the last three days. Since he had recognized the picture on the breastplate as being that of Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, they had scrambled to make arrangements. Willis, Matt, and Corey had stayed behind in Argentina to finish the job on which they had been working. Meanwhile, Jade worked furiously to research Chaco Canyon and any possible connection to Fray Marcos.
“The cross on the breastplate,” Jade said, pulling a folder out from underneath the map, “is, I think, more than a cross.” She laid the folder on top of the map and opened it to reveal the photos she had taken of the artifact. “A line with a sunburst at each end is a symbol commonly associated with a solstice or an equinox.” Her finger traced the vertical bar of the cross, coming to rest on the top sunburst. “It can’t just be a cross, or else why bother putting sunbursts there?” She closed the folder and slipped it back beneath the map.
“Here,” she indicated a spot far from the park entrance they had passed not long before, “is Fajada Butte. Atop it sits the most famous astronomical marker in Chaco Canyon, perhaps the most famous in Anasazi Culture: the Sun Dagger. At midday, three large, vertical slabs cast a dagger-shaped shaft of light onto a spiral petroglyph carved into the rock face behind the slabs. The carving is used to demarcate solstices, equinoxes and phases of the moon. We’ll climb to the top and check it out.”
“And you’re hoping we’ll find what?” Maddock asked.
“We’ll know when we get there,” Jade said. “The pictures I found on the internet didn’t tell me much, but there could be something there. I think there’s a clue carved into the rock, or possibly buried.” She sounded determined, if not confident.
“I still think we’re going to have to blast through that petroglyph to get to whatever is behind it,” Saul interjected. “That spiral looks just like a bullseye to me.”
“We aren’t going to blow up the Sun Dagger,” Jade said. “We don’t even have permission to climb the butte. Besides, the petroglyph was carved long before Fray Marcos came to the New World. In fact, the Chaco Canyon settlement was nearing its end during his time.”
Saul shrugged. “Suit yourself. I’m still bringing my toys.” Apparently Jade’s assistant fancied himself a demolitions expert. “By the way, did I tell you what I learned this morning?”
“How to tie your shoe?” Jade quipped.
“No, really,” Saul said, ignoring the jibe. “I was reading an article about Chaco Canyon. The people who lived here were famous for their Cibola-style pottery. Cibola! Pretty cool, huh?”
“Uh huh,” Jade said, returning her gaze to the map. “I feel like we can get in and out of there pretty quickly. The park doesn’t get many visitors, so they likewise have very few rangers. I’m figuring they spend most of their time inside the air-conditioned welcome center. The butte is off the beaten path, so we should be all right.”
Saul stopped the car in a small turnoff amidst sand-colored hills. “We’re hoofing it from here, ladies and gentlemen. Grab your jocks and your socks.”
“Lovely, Saul,” Jade mumbled as she stepped out of the car.
Saul opened the trunk, and they each donned a heavy backpack. They had outfitted themselves with climbing gear, analytical instruments, and water. Lots of water.
A twisting, sloped trail wound its way up into the bare hills. Maddock was soon reaching for a water bottle. They called a halt upon gaining the top of one of the rocky promontories. Years on the water had helped him grow accustomed to the sun beating down on him, but in this place the air seemed to suck the last drops of moisture from his body. He took a long, cool drink and scanned the horizon. It was beautiful if such a desolate place could be called so. The sky was high and slightly hazy with the heat. He tried to mop his brow, but the sweat evaporated almost instantaneously. How had people ever lived in this oven?
“Down the hill and to the east,” Jade said, leading the way. The trail was gravelly but not particularly precarious. Saul lost his footing more than once, each time falling heavily onto Maddock’s back, cursing all the while. The man was a buffoon, but there was nothing Maddock could do to get rid of him, so he gritted his teeth and continued bearing Saul up, hoping all the while that it wouldn’t be much longer.
Twenty minutes later they stood at the base of Fajada Butte, staring up at the massive red rock. As Jade had predicted, there was no sign of a park ranger, or any other human being for that matter. Maddock circled the base, looking for the most promising climb. He finally settled on the southwest side, stripped off his pack, and began pulling out climbing gear.
“I don’t know,” Saul said, walking up beside Maddock. “This thing looks pretty tall to me.”
“One hundred thirty-five meters, to be exact,” Maddock said. “Not the easiest free climb I’ve ever made, but far from the most difficult.” He and Bones had done their share of rock climbing together, and they had never agreed on who was the more skilled. Maddock was more agile, but longer legs and arms allowed Bones to reach crevasses and holds that Maddock could not. Until a few years ago, they had placed bets on all of their free climbs. Maddock chuckled and shook his head at the thought of his friend. Bones had promised to join them as soon as Isaiah was out of the woods. Maddock hoped it would be soon. It just wasn’t right doing this without his partner.
“Are you all right?” Jade asked in her satin-over-sandpaper voice that reminded him of a young Demi Moore. “You look worried.”
“No, I’m fine,” Maddock said. “Just got distracted thinking about Bones’ cousin. Wondering if he’s going to be okay.”
“I’m sure he will,” Jade said. “He has to, so I can meet this Bones character you’ve been telling me about. In any case, if you’re serious about free climbing this thing, you’d better keep your focus.”
“Yes ma’am,” he replied in his best m
ilitary voice. He sprang nimbly to his feet. “When I get to the top, I’ll set a rope for you. Send Saul up first, so you can belay for him.” That, and if the rope breaks, we’ll have one less problem to deal with. “You bring up the rear.” No one had told him he was in charge of the climb, but sometimes a given set of circumstances seemed to dictate it. Since neither Jade nor Saul objected, it must have been the right thing to do.
He set to climbing and was pleasantly surprised at the ease with which he scaled the rock. The cracked, pitted surface provided ample handholds, and none of the angles were too treacherous. Soon, the three of them stood atop Fajada Butte, admiring the surrounding landscape. He found it truly amazing that a people had not only lived but flourished amidst this hard land.
“The Sun Dagger,” Jade said, her voice filled with reverence and wonder. She indicated a spot against a high rock wall where three slabs of rock stood against the rock wall beneath an outcropping. The tallest was just over nine feet tall, and they all were tilted slightly to the left, like slices of bread.
“It’s not much to look at,” Saul said. And he was right. Despite having seen snapshots, Maddock had created an image in his mind of something larger than life, something magical and mysterious. This was something quite ordinary.
Jade’s enthusiasm was not dampened in the least. She hurried over to the stone slabs and ducked down, vanishing behind them. Maddock followed her. Slipping into the shade beneath the stone pillars, his eyes were immediately drawn to the pictograph—a large spiral, twisting into a point in the center of the sandstone slab. He had read that the spirals carried different meanings depending on whether they spun out clockwise or counterclockwise, but he could not remember anything more.
“It’s beautiful,” Jade whispered, her fingertips mere centimeters above the rocks surface, tracing the spiral line without touching it. She was right. There was something in its simplicity, its balance, its perfection that moved Maddock’s spirit. “Maddock,” she said, “a thousand years ago people sat in this very place and followed the earth’s journey around the sun.”
“Sort of makes Mount Vernon seem trite, doesn’t it?” Maddock was partial to the colonial period of American history, but this was truly American history.
They sat for a while in silence, neither replying when Saul stuck his head in and asked what the holdup was.
Jade finally let out a long sigh. “I guess we’d better get to work.”
After making a thorough visual inspection and taking pictures with a high-resolution digital camera, they began work with a hand-held ground penetrating radar unit. Jade looked like a cop laying for speeders, her tanned face and almond eyes solid and serious as she held the radar unit in a two-handed grip. She first took readings below the slab, then around it, and finally of the slab itself.
“Nothing,” she said after taking her third reading of the slab. “It’s solid rock all around. Time to re-think the plan, I suppose.” Her shoulders sagged, and her face fell.
“That means it’s my turn,” Saul said, picking up his backpack. “Stand back, ladies and gentlemen.”
“Saul, you are not blowing up the slab.” The downtrodden Jade of a moment before had vanished, and the stubborn ball of fire had returned. “If there was anything to be found underneath the rock, the radar would have picked it up. I’ll not have you destroy a piece of history for your own amusement.”
Saul turned around and was about to protest when something caught Maddock’s attention.
“That’s enough,” he said. Jade rounded on him, but he did not give her a chance to speak, taking her by the shoulders and turning her toward the west where a black spot on the horizon was growing larger by the second. “You see that? That’s a Sikorsky S-70, a military helicopter though it doesn’t have any markings to indicate it’s anything other than a civilian craft now. It probably has nothing to do with us, but just the same I think we should get out of here.”
Chapter 8
Maddock was relieved that Jade did not argue with him. She squinted and looked at the approaching helicopter for a moment before nodding her assent. They collected their gear, and Jade and Saul made a rapid descent. Not wanting to leave any evidence behind, Maddock took the ropes loose and dropped them down to Jade. He looked back at the Sikorsky and found that it still seemed headed directly toward them, and it was coming fast. There was no way he could make the free climb to the bottom before it was upon them. He knew he was being overcautious, but his instinct told him that the black bird on the horizon was bad news.
“Go on! I’ll catch up!” he shouted down to Jade and Saul. She put a hand to her ear and tilted her head. “I can’t get down in time!” He pointed toward the path along which they had hiked. They understood then. Jade shook her head, but Saul took her by the upper arm and trotted away. Jade had to follow or be dragged. He’s happy enough to get rid of me, Maddock thought.
He stole a last glance at the approaching helicopter before beginning his descent. It was slow going, feeling for the cracks and ledges he had climbed earlier. He wanted to look back and see if Jade and Saul had gotten away, but it was critical that he maintain his concentration.
A low hum filled his ears, quickly growing into a sound like a thousand angry hornets. The bird was almost there. Down and to his right was a crack in the stone face that looked almost wide enough to squeeze into. He made for it, his fingertips clutching at the most miniscule lumps of stone as he scooted across the rocky face. He slid his right foot out onto an egg-shaped protrusion and shifted his weight to his right hand and right leg. Almost there.
With a soft crunch, the rock broke away, and he was dangling by scraped, raw fingertips. He held on tight, not panicking. A less experienced climber might scrabble his feet against the stone searching for a foothold and actually force his body away from the rock. Maddock took a deep breath, ignoring the scorching hot pain that coursed through his wrists and forearms. Sliding his right foot upward, he found an angled crack in the rock into which he could push his toe. Soon he had found purchase for his left foot, and he was on steady footing four feet away from the fissure.
The helicopter was virtually on top of him now. Bits of sand and rock blown by the wash of the rotors rained down on his head. He searched for a way to get to the fissure, but the intervening space was worn smooth by sand and wind. He looked up to see the craft hovering over the butte. Had they seen him?
His senses sharpened by adrenaline, he spotted a crack running horizontally along the far inside wall of the fissure, level with his waist. Ignoring his better judgment, he flexed his knees, ankles, and wrists as much as possible, gathered his strength, and flung himself eaped sideways across the face of the rock.
For a panicked instant, he thought he was going to fall. As he had intended, he overshot the fissure, reached in and hooked the crack with his left hand. A violent yank nearly tore his shoulder from its socket, but he held on. His feet swung out, and he felt as if he were going to be upended, but then he swung back and caught hold with his right hand. Sucking in his breath he squeezed back into the shadowed opening.
He waited there, listening to the beat of the rotors. His arms burned with the effort of holding his weight, and he squeezed deeper into the crack, forcing the rock to bear some of the load. After about thirty seconds, though it seemed a half hour to his weary mind and body, the bird flew away to the east. As the sound faded away, he heard voices.
“See anything?” The voice was a man’s, youthful with a Midwestern accent.
“Nothing. I wondered if we’d find anyone out here. This place is pretty remote.” The second speaker pronounced “out” so that it rhymed with “remote”. Canadian, perhaps. “I’m just glad we got here first.”
“How can you tell? The rotors would have washed away any footprints. Never mind. What’s the radar say?”
“It says…” The man Maddock now thought of as Canuck paused. “Rock. Lots and lots of rock.” He paused again. “All over the damn place. Rock.”
Midwest man uttered a vile oath and must have kicked a fist-sized stone because one nearly cracked Maddock’s skull as it tumbled down. “You’re absolutely positive?”
“Yup,” replied Canuck. “The big man won’t like it so much, but that’s how it is.”
“Fine.” The tone of Midwest’s voice said that it was anything but. “I’ll call the bird back.”
“Suit yourself.”
The chopper returned less than a minute later, hovering over Fajada Butte long enough to pick up the two men, before heading west, back in the direction from which it came.
Relieved, Maddock scrambled down the rock faster than was safe, but he’d had all the rock climbing he could take for one day. At the bottom, he scanned the horizon but saw no sign of the helicopter. No reason it should return anyway. Not stopping to regain his breath, he set off at a jog toward the hiking trail.
Jade met him halfway back to where they had left their Range Rover. He wondered where Saul was, but did not care enough to ask. After assuring her that he was all right, he recounted what had happened on the Butte.
“Who could they be?” Jade frowned, her intense eyes boring into him. “And what are they looking for?”
“Probably the same thing we’re after,” he said, taking her by the hand and setting off down the trail. He had thought about it, and nothing else made sense. Surely Jade wasn’t the only person in the world who had heard of Fray Marcos de Niza and his connection to the legend of Cibola.
“But how would they know?” she protested. “Do you think it’s the same person who broke into your boat?”
“I suppose there’s a connection,” he said. “Right now, that’s our only suspect in any event.” With nothing left to them but idle speculation, they lapsed into silence.
Ten minutes later they stood in the empty spot where they had parked the Range Rover. Jade exhaled noisily and punched Saul’s number into her cell phone. She made a face and snapped it closed. “No signal. The jerk! We had an argument. He read somewhere that Casa Rinconda, which is the largest kiva in Chaco Canyon, and not too far from here, has a solstice window. Every year at the summer solstice, the sun shines through into an alcove. He wanted to check it out, but I told him the kiva had been excavated before. Whatever sat in that alcove, if anything, is long gone.”
