Empire of the Skull

by Philip Caveney

  'That's enough,' said the Yorkshireman.

  Nelson stared at him. 'Are you out of your mind?' he cried. 'You're defending this conniving little sneak? After what he's done, we oughta string him up from the nearest tree.'

  Coates shook his head. 'I can assure you, that's not going to happen, Mr Nelson. I understand you're angry, but fighting each other is not going to help us, is it? We need to think about working together. Now move away from him, if you please.'

  Nelson shook his head as though he couldn't quite believe what was happening. But after a few moments he went off a little way and sat down on a fallen tree. 'Crazy,' he muttered to nobody in particular. 'Absolutely crazy.'

  There was a short silence and then a dull whump as something in the wreckage ignited. A gout of oily flame belched out of the fuselage. Conchita jumped to her feet and pointed towards it.

  'My costumes!' she shrieked. 'My make-up!'

  Frank looked at her in alarm.

  'I need them for the screen test!' she howled.

  He nodded and started towards the wreckage. 'Don't worry, Conchita, I know exactly where they are,' he said. 'I'll get 'em.'

  'Where the hell are you going?' Ethan yelled after him.

  'Conchita's stuff,' said Frank. 'She needs it.'

  'Don't be stupid! Stay where you are!'

  But Frank was still heading for the plane. Ethan took Alec's hand and pressed it down on the bloody rag he'd been holding against Klaus's back. Then he jumped to his feet and ran across the intervening space. He dived at Frank's legs and brought him roughly to the ground.

  'Let me up!' said Frank. 'I just need to—'

  The rest of his words were lost as the plane's petrol tank ignited and it erupted in a great orange blaze. Alec felt the shock wave rush by him and heard Klaus's last lamenting cry as his most prized possession blew apart in front of him. When he looked down at the German, he saw tears running down his dirty face.

  He reached out and squeezed Klaus's arm. 'It was a fabulous plane,' he said quietly. 'I'm really sorry.'

  He glanced across at Ethan and Frank. They were sitting up now, both of them staring at the great column of fire and smoke rising through the trees.

  Meanwhile Conchita was marching backwards and forwards, her little hands bunched into fists. 'Now what am I gonna do?' she shouted. 'I can't audition for Señor Mayer looking like this!' Coates sighed and shook his head. He moved across to Alec. 'She's got about as much chance of making her blessed screen test tomorrow as I have of becoming lead dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet,' he murmured. He gazed around hopelessly, as though seeking inspiration; finding none, he slipped the pistol into the waistband of his trousers and crouched down beside Klaus. 'One thing's for sure,' he said. 'We're going to have to try and get the bullet out of this fellow's back. Master Alec, this isn't going to be pleasant,' he said. 'You might want to move away a little.' But Alec shook his head. 'I'll stay with him,' he said.

  Coates nodded. Together he and Alec rolled the German gently onto his side, then he lifted the shirt to reveal the wound. Using his handkerchief, he mopped away the worst of the blood.

  'How does it look?' grunted Klaus.

  'I've seen worse,' said Coates, but his expression was grim. He glanced at Alec. 'Would you be so kind as to go and ask Mr Wade for his knife?' he murmured.

  Alec nodded. Ethan was coming back towards them.

  'Coates needs your knife,' said Alec. 'He's going to try and dig the bullet out.'

  Ethan frowned, but he drew the big Bowie knife he always carried at his belt. 'We'll need to make a fire so we can heat the blade up first,' he said. He glanced around. 'At least there's no shortage of wood here. We'll just need to poke a branch into the wreckage of the plane to get a light.' He shook his head. 'This is a fine fix we're in . . .'

  'We'll be all right, won't we?' said Alec. 'I mean, somebody will come looking for the plane eventually, won't they?'

  Ethan didn't say anything for a moment. 'Let's get that fire started,' he suggested finally. 'Then we'll see what's to be done.'

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  A Pow-wow

  Ethan found a clearing dotted with fallen tree trunks and called everybody over to discuss the situation. As they sat down, they were all horribly aware of Klaus, stretched out in the shade of the trees a short distance from the fire. He had passed out some time ago and had not awoken since.

  The crude operation that had finally removed the bullet from his back had been terrible to behold. Coates had been obliged to dig deep with the point of the red-hot blade, but despite the pain, Klaus had gritted his teeth and refused to cry out. Eventually the bullet had emerged, but not before the pilot had lost a massive amount of blood. It had been a mercy when he finally lost consciousness.

  Alec sat beside Ethan and gazed at the others. They all looked pretty sorry for themselves. Coates had managed to stem the bleeding from his forehead, but the side of his face was a mass of dark bruises. Conchita couldn't seem to stop crying; her glamorous blouse and skirt looked not only dirty but faintly ridiculous in this remote setting. Frank had his arm around her shoulders as he tried to console her. His expensive Panama suit was ripped and stained, and the patch of blood at his shoulder indicated that he too had been injured in the crash. Ulysses T. Nelson sat with his arms crossed, glaring angrily around at the others as though he blamed them for what had happened and resented being in their company. Luis Chavez sat slightly apart, his face pale, shoulders slumped, looking as if he wished it was him and not Klaus who had taken a bullet in the back. Despite what had happened, Alec felt a certain degree of pity for him. He felt sure that the Mexican had not intended any of this to happen.

  Ethan looked slowly around at the group, his expression grim. 'I guess I don't have to tell you that this is serious,' he said. 'We've come down in one of the most remote spots in Mexico. From what Klaus told me before he passed out, there's hardly anyone knows where we are and the chances of somebody else flying over this spot are low.' He gestured up at the thick canopy above their heads. 'And even if they did, the likelihood of being spotted from the air is zilch.'

  There was a long silence while this information sank in.

  Frank pointed towards the still blazing wreckage of the plane and the thick column of smoke rising through the trees. 'Surely somebody's going to see that!' he reasoned.

  'It's possible,' admitted Ethan. 'But even if a plane did come by this way, there's nowhere for it to land.'

  'Well, what do you suggest?' snarled Nelson irritably. 'We just sit here and wait to die?'

  'I'm not saying that. No, the way I see it, the only chance we have is to walk.'

  'Walk?' Frank looked amused by this statement. 'Walk where? You saw how big this bloomin' rainforest is. How would we even know which direction to take?'

  Ethan shrugged. 'We'd come to a river eventually. Rivers flow out to the sea, so we'd just have to follow that and hope we could get to the coast.'

  'Great idea,' said Nelson dismissively. 'Who put you in charge of this operation, cowboy?'

  'I'm not in charge,' said Ethan. 'I'm just the man with a plan. You've got a better one, then speak up.'

  Nelson scowled. 'Well, if we had a way of knowing where we are,' he said, 'we'd have a better chance than just wandering.'

  Alec remembered something and reached into his pocket. 'I've got this,' he said. He pulled out a small compass that his father had given him for his last birthday. He lifted the brass cover to reveal the glass face beneath.

  The oil man snorted derisively. 'Oh, now we'll be fine. We've got a kid's toy. Yippie doodle day!'

  'It's not a toy,' Alec assured him. 'It's a real compass.'

  'Great,' said Nelson. 'You'll excuse me if I don't dance for joy. This isn't a boy scouts' convention, sonny, this is serious stuff.'

  'At least Master Alec thought to bring a compass,' said Coates. 'What have you got to offer?' Nelson didn't answer so Coates turned his attention to Ethan. 'What are we going to do about Herr Do
rfmann?' he asked.

  Ethan looked puzzled. 'Do about him?' he muttered. 'What do you mean?'

  'Well, if we're going to try and walk out of here, he's hardly in any condition to join us, is he? We'll have to make some kind of stretcher.'

  Ethan frowned. 'That's a tall order,' he said. 'We don't have any tools. And besides . . .'

  'Yes?' said Coates.

  Ethan lowered his voice, just in case Klaus was awake now. 'That bullet hit a lung – that's why he's coughing up blood. I doubt he'll last the night.'

  Alec stared at him. 'But . . . Coates got the bullet out. There must be some hope.'

  'There's always hope,' admitted Ethan.

  'Might be better if he does die,' said Nelson brutally. 'If we have to carry him, we'll have no chance.'

  'But we will carry him,' said Coates, quietly but firmly.

  'And if he dies?'

  'I will bury him,' announced Luis, speaking for the first time. 'I will do it if I have to dig the grave with my bare hands.'

  'Very noble,' said Nelson. 'It's a pity you didn't think about that before you started waving a gun around. Thanks to you, there could be a few more graves to dig before much longer!'

  Conchita stared at him for a moment, then threw back her head in despair. 'We are going to die here!' she cried.

  'Did you have to say that?' complained Frank.

  'I'm just telling it like it is,' said Nelson. 'Could you get that damned woman to quieten down? Her blubbing is getting on my nerves.'

  If Nelson had punched Conchita in the face, Frank couldn't have looked more horrified. 'How dare you?' he said. 'Can't you see she's upset?'

  'We're all upset,' snapped Nelson. 'But we're not making a song and dance about it.'

  'I'll thank you to keep a civil tongue in your head,' said Frank. 'Let's not forget that we are gentlemen and this is the only lady in our party. The last thing she needs to hear is that kind of talk.'

  'Oh, excuse me,' said Nelson. 'I was forgetting what a classy dame she is.'

  Conchita stopped crying and fixed him with a look that could have stripped varnish from a grand piano. 'You shut up your mouth, big shot!' she shrieked. 'You not so fancy I can't give you a big kick in the pants!'

  'Yeah, like you were saying, a real lady!' mocked Nelson; and Frank started to get up, fists bunched.

  Ethan raised his hands to try and calm everyone down but it was Alec who jumped to his feet.

  'This is ridiculous!' he shouted, and everybody turned to look at him. 'Don't you know how serious this is? The last thing we need is everybody falling out and arguing. We won't last five minutes like that.' He glared around at them. 'We've got to work together if we're to have any chance. If we can't do that we may as well just lie down and wait to die.'

  There was a long silence after he had spoken. Nelson looked as though he was about to say something, but then he bowed his head and looked at his feet. Alec sat down again and Ethan patted him on the shoulder.

  'Funny how it takes a fifteen-year-old kid to tell it like it is,' he said.

  'Sixteen,' said Alec quietly, and Ethan nodded. He looked around at the others.

  'Now,' he said. 'Before the plane came down, Klaus said we were flying south-east . . .' He pointed at Alec's compass. 'There's no telling how far it is to the coast. But if we walk north-west, we will at least be heading back the way we came; and I seem to recall flying over quite a few rivers on the way here.'

  'What do we do when we reach a river?' asked Coates politely. 'Swim?'

  'No, we'd have to build a raft or a boat, I guess.'

  'And you'd know how to do that?'

  'I never have, but we'd just have to figure it out. It's the only thing I can think of. If anybody has any other suggestions, speak up.'

  'I think maybe I have a better plan,' said Luis.

  'Keep out of this,' growled Nelson. 'Nobody gives a damn what you think, Chavez.'

  'Let him speak,' snapped Coates. 'Go on, Mr Chavez.'

  Luis looked around nervously before speaking. 'I realize you all blame me for this,' he said. 'And I accept full responsibility. But . . . I have spent many years in the Huasteca Veracruzana. I know how to survive here.' He looked at Ethan. 'I can show you how to find drinking water, I know how to set traps to get the food we need, I speak the language of some of the Indian tribes. If you will let me, señor, I will try to make amends for what I have done. And if we make it out of here alive, I will accept any punishment that is coming to me.'

  Ethan nodded. 'Seems fair enough,' he said.

  'You remember, on the plane I wanted the pilot to change course? I have friends waiting for me at a landing strip in the jungle due west of here, maybe thirty, forty miles. They have equipment, a wireless, a plane . . . I think we would have a better chance of making it there than heading down some unknown river.'

  Ethan nodded. 'Sounds like good sense,' he admitted. 'Think you could find your way there?'

  'Just a moment,' said Nelson, looking outraged. 'You're not buying this, are you? He just wants to get me to his people so he can go on with his crackpot kidnap scheme. And who's to say that he'd let any of you people leave? You know too much. You could identify him.'

  Luis shook his head. 'I swear to you, Señor Wade, on my mother's grave, I would not betray you. Everything is changed now – a man has been shot and that was never part of the plan. Me and my friends, we only care about the rainforest, about protecting it.'

  'Oh yeah, bring out the violins!' said Nelson. 'Give me a break, will ya?'

  Ethan sighed. 'Well,' he said, 'I have to say it sounds like a better idea. It's forty miles as against maybe hundreds. What does everybody else think?'

  There was a silence while they all considered the question.

  'As you say,' muttered Coates at last, 'it does sound more feasible.'

  'There's something else to consider,' said Alec, and everyone turned to look at him. 'Something I saw from the plane when we were coming down. I know it sounds ridiculous, but . . . well, there's a city not far from here.'

  'A city ?' echoed Ethan. 'What are you talking about, Alec? There couldn't be, not way out here.'

  'I saw it from the plane. You didn't notice because you were trying to get Klaus up out of his seat. It . . . it can't be all that far from here.'

  'Don't you mean a village?' asked Luis incredulously. 'An Indian village?'

  'No, this was built of stone. It looked . . . ancient. There were houses and streets – and a huge step pyramid right in the middle of it. I saw it.'

  Nelson waved a hand in dismissal. 'An ancient ruin,' he said. 'I've heard stories about such places in the jungle. Aztec, most likely, deserted for centuries—'

  'No,' said Alec, wanting to be sure there was no mistake about this. 'There were people, lots of them. I think . . . they were watching us as we passed over.'

  There was a deep silence for a moment and then Nelson laughed. 'I think somebody's had a little too much sun,' he said.

  'No, I swear! I didn't imagine this.' Alec looked at Ethan. 'You didn't see it, but it was there all right. A huge place. Well, they'd have food and water, wouldn't they? They might even give us guides to help us find our way out of here.'

  Ethan and Coates exchanged looks.

  'What do you think?' Ethan asked him.

  'If Master Alec says he saw a city, then I believe him,' Coates said. 'But it may not be as straightforward as he thinks.'

  'How do you mean?'

  Coates frowned. 'Well, he's assuming that the people in this place are friendly – but there's no reason to suppose they are. They could be hostile. Some of the tribes out here . . . well, you hear stories about them, don't you? They practise cannibalism and all sorts.'

  'Cannibalism?' said Conchita, mystified. She looked at Frank. 'What is this?'

  Frank looked away. 'Oh, nothin' to worry about, my dear, it's just . . .'

  'It's just people eating each other,' said Nelson flatly, then smiled triumphantly at the look of terror
on her face.

  'Eating people? Oh no, this cannot be!'

  'Well, let's not go jumping to conclusions,' Coates said. 'I'm only saying, you hear stories.' He looked at Luis. 'You'd probably know more about that kind of thing . . .'

  Luis shrugged. 'Some of the fierce tribes will eat their enemies,' he said. 'Not the whole body, you understand, just their hearts and maybe their livers.'

  'Can we please change the subject?' snapped Frank. 'Conchita does not want to hear that sort of thing, thank you very much!'

  Ethan nodded. 'She's not the only one,' he said. 'Well, maybe we'd be better trying for Luis's airstrip. At least he knows the people there are friendly.'

  'Friendly!' exclaimed Nelson. 'These are the ones who were planning on cutting my head off !'

  'We weren't really going to do that,' protested Luis. 'We would only threaten to. You'd have been released unharmed once our demands were met.'

  'Yeah, sure,' muttered Nelson.

  Ethan frowned. 'Well, Luis figures forty miles to the airstrip. That's one heck of a way to walk, especially if we're carrying a wounded man. There's part of me that says we should at least check out what Alec saw. Kid, how far away you figure this city is?'

  Alec spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness. He tried to cast his mind back to the time that might have elapsed between seeing the city and the plane crashing into the treetops, but everything was a blur. 'Hard to say. It seemed like we flew over it only . . . ten minutes before we went down, but . . . I don't know, it could have been longer. I don't think it would be more than a day's walk.'

  Ethan nodded and looked around thoughtfully. 'Well, we ain't going anywhere today,' he decided. 'It's already getting late and we need to see what we can salvage from the plane. There won't be much of anything left inside, but I'd say we lost quite a bit of stuff as we came down.' He pointed to the vegetation behind the plane. 'The fuselage was ripped open when we hit the trees – I figure some things must have fallen out. I want everybody to help out on this. Look for anything we might be able to use – luggage, tools, food, rope, whatever. We'll camp here tonight and head out at first light.'