Guadalupe waited a few heartbeats before restarting the engine. She pulled out onto the highway heading south.
“Well,” said Addison, “I don’t think they will welcome us back in Casa Azar.”
“First New York, then Olvidados, and now Casa Azar,” said Molly. “We’re running out of cities we’re allowed to be in.”
“There are plenty more cities for us to be kicked out of, Mo,” said Addison reassuringly.
Guadalupe realized with a touch of pride that it had taken her less than twenty-four hours to become wanted by the Ecuadorian police. She was eager to put the country behind her. The team took the winding seaside road south toward Peru.
Nobody noticed a distant car in the rearview mirror, driven by a man in a dark leather jacket.
Chapter Seventeen
The Cliffs of the
Andes
THE SACRED VALLEY LAY nestled in a saddle of the Andes, the longest mountain range in the world. Already the afternoon sun cast the long shadows of the peaks across the grassland below. Guadalupe pulled the tow truck over to the shoulder of an abandoned dirt road.
The team climbed down from the truck cab, stretching their aching limbs. They had traveled straight through the night, sleeping and driving in shifts. Everyone except Eddie was allowed a turn at the wheel. Now they turned and gazed up at the mountain, Addison double-checking his compass and atlas.
“It’s still a healthy climb.”
“Let’s just hope we’re there before Ragar,” said Molly.
“Well, let’s get moving.”
“Not me, amigos,” said Guadalupe. “This is where I say good-bye.”
“What about the treasure?” asked Raj. “Aren’t you curious?”
“We’re so close,” said Addison. “And we can use your help.”
Guadalupe shook her head. She turned to face Addison. “I haven’t been completely straight with you.”
Addison braced himself. He was getting used to this from Guadalupe.
“I’m not an orphan,” she said simply.
Addison shook his head. “I don’t follow.”
“Most of what I told you is true. The part about my mother remarrying. And how I don’t like my stepfather. But they didn’t die in any car accident. I just ran away.”
Addison and the others listened quietly.
“I left my mother and brothers back in Bogotá,” Guadalupe continued. She took a deep breath. Honesty seemed exhausting for her. “You guys took a risk saving me at the castle, even after everything I did to you. You didn’t abandon me.” She forged ahead. “The more I think about it, the more I realize I abandoned my family. And I should go back.”
Addison nodded his head. “I have to admit, I always assumed you were in this for the gold. I mean, escorting us across the Amazon when you weren’t a guide. Following us all the way to Ecuador . . .”
“You were right.” Guadalupe lifted one shoulder and dropped it.
“What changed?”
Guadalupe sighed and shook her head. “Some people you just don’t rob.” She turned to walk back to her truck but Molly stopped her and hugged her. Eddie and Raj patted her on the shoulder as well. Guadalupe gave Addison a hug and turned to climb back in her truck.
“Will you write to me?” asked Addison.
“Sure. I’ve got your address.”
“Great,” said Addison. “Wait, how do you know my address?”
Guadalupe pulled his uncle’s wallet from her pocket and tossed it to him.
Addison caught it one-handed. “You picked my pocket when you hugged me just now, didn’t you?”
“Sorry.” Guadalupe smiled. “Old habit.”
“Here.” Addison reached into his jacket pocket and held out his hand. “It’s the wallet you stole from Professor Ragar.” He shrugged. “I thought it might have useful information.”
Guadalupe took the wallet from Addison, turning it over in her hands. “But when did you . . .”
“When I was sitting next to you in the tow truck last night. You were speeding away from the police. I figured your attention was diverted.”
Guadalupe looked at Addison as if seeing him for the first time, her eyes filled with newfound respect. “Bacán,” she said at last. “You’re all right.”
She swept her long black hair from her face and over one shoulder, her bracelets tinkling. “Keep in touch, Addison.” She hugged him one last time.
Addison’s voice faltered. His cheeks felt flushed. “Okay,” he said simply.
Guadalupe climbed into the cab of the truck and started the chuckling diesel engine. She waved through the open window, set the truck in gear, and rumbled down the country road. Addison watched the truck grow smaller until it finally turned a bend and disappeared.
• • •
Addison led the group across the Sacred Valley. At first, he couldn’t see what was so sacred about it, there being so many thorns and pricker bushes. But eventually, the low regions gave way to pristine forests of alder and coral trees that blanketed the gorges and ravines in richly scented air. Climbing higher, the evergreens opened to reveal meadows of orchids, maize, yucca, and sweet potato. Great clouds of mist turned the tops of the conifers into vague brushstrokes, and by the time the group ascended to the base of the cliffs, Addison felt he had crossed into a fairy-tale landscape.
“There it is,” he said at last, pointing to a few tiny specks far up on the peak. “Machu Picchu is at the summit of that ridge, on top of the mountain.”
“Well, where do we go?” asked Molly, staring up the cliff. “Is the treasure vault in Machu Picchu or just somewhere nearby?”
“I don’t know,” said Addison. “I don’t know how to narrow it down. Ragar has the key. And I didn’t have time to make a copy of the clue.” He sat down on a rock and shook his head.
“Well, I did,” said Molly. “In the tower’s eyrie, before we brought it down the ladder.” From her pocket, she produced a scrap of paper with a pencil tracing of the key.
Addison leapt to his feet, beaming with pleasure. “Molly, you are my second-favorite Cooke.”
Eddie uncrumpled the paper and translated the clue.
“The top of the world holds the treasure of the Incas.
Above the sacred valley in a palace in the sky,
Supay’s mouth is open wide to swallow up the brave.
Beware the curse of Atahualpa or you will surely die.”
“The Incans weren’t interested in making this easy for us,” said Addison.
“I guess we just look for Supay’s mouth,” Eddie shrugged.
“Where’s that?” asked Molly.
“Probably on Supay’s face.”
“It’s at the top of the world,” said Addison. “That’s all the clue tells us. Now, c’mon, let’s hurry. We have to assume Ragar is two steps ahead of us—he has the same clue we do, plus a head start.”
The team began hiking up the steep winding path along the bitter edge of the cliff face. They climbed ever higher into the rising mist. At the tree line far below, a dark figure flitted silently through the grove, catching up.
• • •
The cliff path grew more narrow and treacherous the higher Addison climbed. Soon fog hid the valley below and obscured the path ahead. Addison felt like they were hiking through clouds.
Addison ran the fingers of his left hand along the cliff face. To his right was a thousand-foot drop. He placed each step directly in front of the other to keep inching forward along the ledge. A stiff wind buffeted the group, stinging their squinting eyes. They clung to the rock for fear of being swept away. Addison’s pulse beat double time and then switched to a jazzy triple-time swing. Peering over the ledge, the world plummeted away into fog. It was impossible to know how far one would fall before hitting the earth.
Growing light-headed, Addison stumbl
ed. His shoe sent rocks cascading over the precipice.
“Careful,” said Raj, tightening his bandana. “A hundred and forty-seven hikers die every year in rockslides. One false step, and you’ll be wrapped in the dark cloak of eternity.”
“Thank you, Raj.” Addison did not find Raj’s information helpful at all. He gulped for air, made it a few more steps, and stumbled again. This time Raj grabbed him by the sleeve.
“Addison, if you slip, you’ll die. And you won’t like that.”
Addison pressed himself to the cliff face, gripping vines for support. In his mind, he heard thunder and lightning crashing all around him. He stopped and sat down, hugging his knees. He shut his eyes. “I can’t do it,” he said at last.
“What’s the matter with him?” asked Eddie.
“It’s his fear of heights,” said Raj.
Molly sat down next to Addison, who buried his face in his knees. “C’mon, you can do this.”
“I can’t.”
“Addison, talk to me,” Molly whispered.
Addison swallowed hard. Finally, he answered. “It’s Mom. It makes me think of Mom.”
Molly looked up at the sheer cliff walls and down at the thousand-foot drop. Understanding dawned in her eyes. “You saw what happened to Mom that night?”
Addison nodded. “There was nothing I could do. Nothing except watch.”
Molly nodded.
“I wish I could go back there and do something.”
“It wasn’t your fault.” Molly shook her head. “You were just a kid.”
“I miss her.”
“Me too.” Molly looked at him. Then she gazed out at the remote landscape, veiled in fog. She took a deep breath and let it go.
“If they were here, they’d know what to do.”
“I’m here,” said Molly, “and I won’t let you fall.” She helped him to his feet.
Addison rose unsteadily. Raj put a hand on his shoulder. Eddie, too. They took one step. And then another. Addison willed his eyes open. He forced himself to look at the steep cliffs, the clinging vines, the open air falling away beneath them. He focused his eyes on the path ahead.
Molly, Eddie, and Raj didn’t say anything. They just held on to Addison, his arms, his shoulders. And together, very slowly, they climbed the cliff path, Addison’s footing growing surer with every step.
• • •
The steep path narrowed to a sliver of rock that spanned the length of the open cliff face. Addison’s team sidestepped along the granite, their bellies pressed to the cold stone. Wind shrieked in their ears, and their shoes scraped pebbles from the path, sending tiny rocks skittering a thousand feet over the precipice.
Raj, leading the way, paused at a dangerous curve in the rock. A deep furrow, tall and wide as a redwood tree, was carved into the cliff. “What do you guys make of this?”
The group peered upward at the strange rock formation, but wisps of fog, high above, obscured the top of the stone chute.
“Maybe it’s from water erosion,” Eddie suggested.
“If it’s not Supay’s mouth, then we have to keep moving.” Addison’s fingers were growing cold from gripping handholds in the granite.
The team sashayed along the cliff face, buffeted by blustering gales that drew tears from their eyes. Their legs began to shake from exhaustion.
A few minutes later, Raj came upon another, identical furrow worn into the cliff. “Déjà vu.”
“I don’t see any way we could have gone in a circle,” Addison mused. “I mean, we’re going in a straight line.”
“Two identical columns carved in the rock.” Eddie shivered against the pummeling blasts of frigid air. “It can’t be a coincidence.”
“Well, if it’s not a coincidence, what is it?” Molly asked.
Addison stared up at the carved hollow groove, snaking its way up the cliff. Circling gusts briefly parted the fog above. He saw the twisted furrow narrow to a point, a hundred feet above. Addison squinted his eyes in concentration. And suddenly, his brain did a backflip. “I get it.”
“Get what?” Eddie asked, shouting above the howling wind. “Tell me before I freeze to death!”
“The Incas carved a sign into this rock. But they carved it so large we missed it entirely.”
“Okay.” Molly shivered. “So what’s the sign?”
“Remember the shield carved in the stone wall in the basement of the Cathedral of Lost Souls?” Addison called over the wind.
“The one that opened to the secret door.”
“The very same,” said Addison. “And remember the shield El Mozo carried in his portrait at the castle?”
“Sure.”
“Now imagine this entire cliff face is the surface of an enormous gray shield. What symbol would be in the middle of El Mozo’s shield?”
Molly grasped it at once. “Supay’s skull!”
Addison nodded excitedly. “Those twin hundred-foot columns carved into the rock—those are ram’s horns—”
Molly picked up Addison’s thread. “So Supay’s skull is carved into the cliff somewhere right below us.”
Addison nodded. “We couldn’t see the carvings on our climb up because of the fog . . . plus five hundred years of vegetation.”
“It’s just a theory,” said Eddie, staring doubtfully at the treacherous wall of granite.
“There’s only one way to test it,” said Addison. “And if it’s right, we’ll find Supay’s mouth carved into the rock.”
“Supay’s mouth is open wide to swallow up the brave,” Eddie recited.
The team groped their way diagonally downward, from toehold to toehold, working their way toward the center of the cliff face. Their hair blew in their faces, their clothes flapped and fluttered like a ship’s sails in a squall.
“My hands are icicles,” said Eddie. “I can’t hold on much longer.”
“Keep going,” said Addison. “We’ll make it.”
“My toes are so frozen they could shatter!”
“You should have worn cleats,” said Molly through chattering teeth.
At last, Raj spotted a ledge bulging from the sheer cliff wall below. “Wish me luck,” he said, and let go of the rock.
“Raj, wait!” shouted Molly. But Raj was well on his way. He slid twenty feet down the slick granite to land in a crouch on a stone outcropping.
“It’s okay!” he yelled.
The rest of the team followed suit, hollering as they slid down the chute. They collapsed on the rocky outcropping, exhausted.
For a few minutes, they did nothing but catch their breath. Every step was exhausting in the high elevation.
Raj stood up and peered at the overhanging spar of the cliff, filled with tangles of vines. “The good news is, we’re alive. The bad news is, I don’t see anything that looks like Supay’s mouth.”
Addison swatted away a few vines. “This is a thorny problem,” he agreed, pulling some prickers from his palm. “I wish I had my brain juice.” Addison folded his arms and paced, deep in thought.
“A samurai makes every decision in the space of seven breaths,” Raj put in helpfully.
“That’s sound advice. My uncle Nigel has his own three-step process for solving problems. He sits down, thinks really hard about it, and if he still can’t solve it, he takes a nap.”
“I don’t know if we have time for that,” said Molly.
Addison decided a rest wouldn’t hurt. He found the patch of rock face most well padded with vines. He sat down, leaned his back against the vines, and was quite surprised when he fell inside the mountain.
• • •
Addison landed on his back inside a dark cave. He yelped, parted the vines, and scrambled back outside onto the cliff ledge. The Cooke brain was never as razor sharp as in moments of adversity. Addison quickly surmised th
at the hanging vines hid a cave opening hollowed into the cliff wall.
“Well, that happened,” said Addison, summing things up. He brushed himself off and got to his feet.
“I guess your uncle’s method works,” said Raj, peering through the tangled mass of vines into the cave opening.
Molly began scraping away the old and rotted vegetation, clearing them away from the rock. Eddie, Raj, and Addison pitched in. The vines fell away to reveal a shocking sight.
The massive open jaws of a skull were carved into the stone. Carved, gnarled teeth sprouted from the floor and ceiling. Addison spotted two demonic eyes carved into the cliff wall high above, flanked by the towering, twisting ram’s horns. The gaping, screaming jaws formed an open cave leading deep inside the mountain.
“Supay’s mouth,” Molly whispered in awe.
“Not more skulls!” Eddie exclaimed. “What is with El Mozo and skeletons? Didn’t he have any other hobbies or interests?”
“It is creepy up here,” Raj agreed. “All day, I’ve felt like someone is watching us.”
“El Mozo’s behind all of this,” Molly declared, gesturing at the cave. “If he was working with the Incas and had all that gold, he could afford to build the Cathedral of Lost Souls and the Castle on the Edge of Forever. He could afford to build this hidden mountain cave and help the Incas hide their treasure.”
“Look over here,” said Raj. “Footprints. Lots of them.”
Addison edged closer to Raj and examined a cluster of sandy footprints at the cave’s entrance. He spotted an odd circular mark, the size of a quarter, pressed into the dust. The track appeared every few feet beside a large set of boot prints. Addison pointed. “Do you know what this circular mark is?”
Raj squatted down and studied the print. He slowly nodded his head. “A walking stick.”
Addison turned to his team and lowered his voice to a whisper. “Professor Ragar is already here, somewhere inside this mountain.”
“His group could have climbed up this morning, or even last night,” suggested Raj. “That’s why we never spotted them.”
“And they placed the vines back over the cave entrance when they entered,” concluded Addison. He yanked down a few long vines, coiled them, and looped them over his shoulder. “Mountaineering rope,” he explained.
Addison Cooke and the Treasure of the Incas Page 18
