3
Chichen Itza International Airport
Chichen Itza, Yucatan
“Ugh,” I groan, standing as the pilot thanks us for flying with him and his crew. “Why again couldn’t we take a private jet?”
I get my second eye roll from Nicole in just over an hour. “Because this job is off-the-books, remember? Rollins wouldn’t sign off on the use of a government plane if it wasn’t being used specifically for our primary mission.”
“Right,” I say, cracking my neck, “but at least we have unlimited first-class upgrades.”
She shrugs, conceding. Even she won’t complain about that.
“So,” she says, looking around, “where are we meeting our man?”
“Right here, my friends!”
We both look down and see him standing at the bottom of our plane’s ladder, arms out, a smile spread wide across his face. His shoulder-length hair is pulled back into a ponytail and he has on a pair of classic reflective aviator sunglasses. From here we can’t see his eyes, but after getting to know the man better over the last few months, I know they’re probably wide and wired. Like me, he likes his coffee and Monsters in large quantities.
Nicole and I exit the plane and descend the stairs, meeting him with unwilling hugs. He’s a very hands-on kind of guy. I know a few Italian’s that are the same way. Fernando is actually Spanish and not of local descent, so the similarities to Italian culture are understandable.
Unless I’m just talking out of my ass… Which is possible.
Nicole grunts her disapproval as he lets go, getting a look from her that could melt steel. He sees it and steps away from her before she can strangle him to death. I can’t help but smile…until Nicole sees me. It quickly vanishes from my face and I find something else to look at.
“So,” I say, getting to business, “what do you have for us?” It’s funny I have to say that now, but he insisted on us being on location before he divulged anything other than a murder was committed and it being of our interest. Wanting to get away from Nowhere anyway, I didn’t argue.
“Let us get on the road first,” he replies, looking nervous.
Not wanting to make him any more uncomfortable, I nod and throw my bag over my shoulder. Nicole does the same, but not before we both put on our signature NVS glasses. They’re awesome and I have no idea what version they are. Todd has made so many upgrades that I’ve lost track of them all. Now, when I need something, I just ask him over our secure network and he tells me what to do.
“You there, Q?” I ask.
“Right here, Indy,” he says, getting a smile out of Nicole.
“If I stop calling you Q, will you stop calling me Indy?” I ask.
“And me Marian,” Nicole adds.
“Sure thing, bossman.”
I just shake my head.
“Ahem,” Nicole grumbles.
“…and bosswoman,” Todd quickly adds.
“Security confirmation: Fernando de los Santos,” I say handing a pair to our contact. “Okay, Todd. Plug him in.”
“Please, just Nando,” he says, eyeing me as he replaces his dollar store flight glasses with our much more expensive variety. He instantly flinches as a laser scans his retinas, encoding his NVS specs so only he can access them.
“Relax, Nando,” I say, using the preferred nickname, “it’s a biometric security feature. No long-term damage to your eyes.”
He looks at me and I grin, satisfied that he fell for it.
His shoulders then relax and he returns my smile with one of his own. “Good one, Hank. No long-term damage… Very funny.”
“Mr. de los Santos,” Todd says in his head, “my name is, Todd Jenkins and I’ll be your eyes and ears until Hank orders me not to be.”
“Um, okay,” he answers, looking around as the Heads-Up Display (HUD) loads and flashes across his lenses. I always get a kick out of a new ENVY user when they get their NVS cherry popped. It’s fun to watch their eyes dance around the inside of their lenses, doing what they can to absorb the data flowing across them.
“This…will take some getting used to,” he says to himself.
“You’ll be fine, Nando,” Todd replies, “just take it slow and ask whatever questions you need answered.”
He nods but quickly realizes that Todd can’t see him. “Okay, Todd, thanks.”
“Todd,” I say, as we continue to Nando’s parked four-door truck, “pull up the security feed from the park. I want to see what we’re dealing with.”
“Not yet,” Nando says, stopping and turning. “Wait until we get to my truck. I’m afraid of ears listening in on us.”
“Oookay,” Todd replies. He then switches over to my private link. “Are you sure about him Hank?” Answering him, I blink twice. It’s a code that Kane came up with if we couldn’t audibly answer. Two blinks mean yes, while one blink means no.
Climbing into the four-door, Nando explains what Nicole and I have been waiting for. “Yes, there was a murder committed on grounds.”
“What kind?” I ask from the front passenger seat.
“That’s the crazy thing, Hank. It actually wasn’t one.”
“I don’t follow,” Nicole replies from the middle backseat.
“Me either,” Todd adds.
“Does your friend have the video?” Nando asks.
“Right here, Hank,” Todd replies, playing it for us.
It starts with two men standing in front of the step-pyramid. We watch as they speak for a few seconds and then suddenly one of the men lashes out with an impossibly quick strike. Our video playback barely caught it as it happened. But it wasn’t the only thing that caught something. The other gentleman snags the attacker’s hand, which I can now see it holding—
“What’s in his hand?” I ask.
“Not sure,” Todd replies, “I’ll work on it when we’re done.”
“Looks like a pen,” Nicole says.
Then, the victim becomes the aggressor and crushes his assailant’s wrist with nothing more than a powerful squeeze of his hand. It’s a display of strength I haven’t seen anywhere outside of an Atlantean, including myself.
“Oh, wow,” Todd says.
“How old is that man?” Nicole asks.
“He was at least sixty,” Nando replies. “White hair. Very serious looking, but in control—not irrational. He was…determined.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Todd says, “the angle from inside the upper temple is too sharp to get a good look at his face either way. We may need to install some alternate cameras later to cover more ground. I would’ve earlier, but honestly, I never expected another incident so soon at Chichen Itz—”
“Now, what’s happening?” I ask, watching as the younger man screams in pain and then starts to shake.
“This is where it gets really strange,” Nando says.
“Holy damn, Hank,” Todd says as the attacker’s head caves in without as much as a blow to it.
“What the…” I say, watching intently as the scene changes into one of chaos.
“Keep watching,” Nando instructs, gripping the steering wheel hard. He’s on edge with what’s about to happen.
I see Nando himself run into view, moving back and forth, searching for the older man as he disappears into the crowd. Then, like something out of a zombie movie, the assassin’s body twitches and his head reforms. After that, he quickly gets to his feet and eventually runs off like nothing happened.
“Well,” Todd says, “I can see why you called us. A murder without a body.” He flips over to my private channel. “You think one of them is an Atlantean?”
I blink once. No.
“I see,” Todd replies, “So what do you—” He pauses his question and groans. He’s on par with me now from the sound of it, thinking the same thing I am. “So, you think both of them are?”
Two blinks.
Well, so much for time off work.
4
Chichen Itza, Yucatan
Nando
leads us through a side entrance, one without metal detectors or anything else that would deter us from gaining access to the park unseen. While Nicole and I are used to working out in the open, we very much prefer working in the shadows when it pertains to anything surrounding Atlantis. Lots of very public things have happened since we found the Atlantean necropolis last year and we’ve done our best to keep their true nature under wraps.
As well as our identities.
“Why don’t we just send out an anonymous report stating that someone found Atlantis in the deserts of Africa, but publish the altered findings through a non-reputable tabloid,” Todd suggested when trying to figure out a way to squelch the public interest. “Maybe if we purposely get the tabloids involved people will immediately scoff at the notion and start looking for other possibilities.”
I nodded, impressed. “It could work.”
“Damn right it would,” Kane added. “People will see the word Atlantis next to the latest Kardashian crisis and not give two shits about the discovery.”
Todd giggled like a schoolboy at the jab at the famous family. “I could easily falsify a report and submit it. Should only take a couple of days to make it look halfway legit.”
“Do it,” I said, patting the I.T. guru on the shoulder. “Good work.”
“Hank?”
I look away from the pyramid and also the memory and back to the scene of the crime. Nando and two other security officers escorted us to the base of El Castillo—to the exact spot where the murder was committed.
Or ‘not’ committed, as it were.
The last time something like this happened was when I personally fought Nannot. I was completely invulnerable at the time, having just been imbued with the might of An’tala. He and I went at it like savages, tearing each apart, spilling untold amounts of blood, and yet, here I am today. Even the Judges weren’t that indestructible. Three of the four died with enough resisting force.
Like the round from a battleship’s railgun to the chest. They didn’t exactly have that kind of firepower back then. They may have been immortal against one another, but not against a war machine like that.
I kneel and inspect an odd color stain on the ground as Nando sends the guards away. They’ll still be around, off to either side of us, but Nando knows I want privacy. The grounds won’t, however, let us roam around by ourselves without official eyes on us. The value of the relics surrounding us is just too great to chance it. Yes, even with the Smithsonian still technically backing this trip, the powers that be here don’t trust us.
And they shouldn’t after the mess we made last time.
“And what do we have here?”
I cringe when I hear the voice. Great…Veruca.
Still kneeling, I look up and see the stout woman marching her way towards us. The look on her face is one of purpose and venom. She was in the crosshairs during our fight with Frost’s thugs, almost getting killed in several instances. Needless to say, I don’t think she’s forgiven any of us.
“Mrs. Victoria Lynch,” Nando says, “I don’t think you’ve been properly introduced to—”
“And I, quite frankly, don’t care to be, Fernando,” Vicky replies as snooty as ever.
“Mrs.?” I ask, getting a snort out of Nicole and a grin from Nando. “Really?” Truthfully, I didn’t intend on insulting her during this trip, but I guess my natural reaction to the woman is to be a pain in her ass.
“And what in the hell does that mean, Mister Boyd? I don’t see a ring on your finger, do I?”
“Ahem.”
Vicky’s eyes dart to Nicole who flashes her engagement ring, letting its stone sparkle in the setting sun. Normally, she doesn’t wear it out in the field, but I suggested it for this exact moment. I figured, Veruca—I mean, Vicky—would come in guns blazing and mouth off to the both of us. Looks like my foresight paid off.
“I would watch it if I were you,” Nicole spits back in her calm and collected voice, letting the rage pour out without so much as raising her voice a single octave or decibel. Did I ever mention Nicole is intimidating as hell sometimes?
Vicky snaps her loose jaw shut and glances at Nando who still has an enormous smile on his face. The last time the two women went at it—a verbal fight that Nicole, of course, won—he and I shared a laugh together. It was the start of a friendship and then eventually a partnership.
“Why don’t we skip the pleasantries and you just tell me what you saw?” I ask, standing, towering over the five-foot-nothing Englishwoman. I would never do anything to physically harm her but I will do my own version of Nicole’s show of intimidation if I don’t get the cooperation I was promised from her superiors.
“Fine, have it your way. You bloody wankers always get what you want regardless.” We stay silent, not taking the baited poke, and wait. “I saw the same thing Fernando did. I’m not sure what else I can tell you that he hasn’t already.”
“Humor me,” I say, getting a little heated.
Eye roll.
Nicole’s posture straightens even more than it already was, which isn’t good. She’s about to interject and say something very rude to our guest. But before she can, Vicky retells her version of what happened.
“I was off to the left here and Fernando the right.” The security footage confirms that. “When the older gentleman turned I saw something incredible in his eyes. It was like a star from the heavens blinked to life.”
“A star?” I ask. “So it was a bright light of some kind?”
“Quite so. Intensely bright and gold in color.” That we couldn’t see from the camera’s vantage point. The older man was facing away from us when everything happened. “It was right after that, that the other man’s head caved in and he died.”
“And then he got up,” I say, thinking to myself.
She only nodded her answer, her eyes widening and bugging out at the thought. She’s reliving it right now, witnessing the encounter again—a wide-awake nightmare.
I know those well…
“Okay, Mrs. Lynch,” I say, trying to end the conversation on a positive note, “thank you.” She again nods and turns, heading off back towards the park’s front entrance and the offices there.
“I did not see such a thing,” Nando whispers, waving his hand in front of his face. “The eyes, I mean.”
“From what we saw on the video,” Nicole says, “you wouldn’t have had a good enough angle, having run in from behind and to the right. She,” Nicole motions to the departing woman, “saw the old man’s face.”
“Which means he also saw hers,” I say, finishing Nicole’s revelation. “She’s also a local around here and would be easy to track down,” I look at Nando. “You too. You said he made eye contact with you before disappearing into the crowd.”
“You think this…man…would come after us?” Nando asked, turning and watching Vicky move off further.
“It’s possible,” I reply, glancing at Nicole, “and I know a way we can find out.”
One of her eyebrows goes up and then the other as she understands what I’m planning in my head.
“You mean to use them as bait, don’t you?”
“Is that a good idea?” Nando asks. “I mean…look what he did to the other guy. He survived the freakish attack because he’s, well, a freak. Victoria and I are as good as dead.”
“I don’t think so,” I say, again thinking as I speak. “He wasn’t the aggressor here. He was here as a patron.” I put up a hand and stop Nando before he can give his rebuttal. “And I think if I can talk to him before things get out of hand, I may be able to at least get an answer out of him.”
“Okay, Sherlock,” Nicole says, her Swedish accent having trouble with the name, “how exactly do you intend on doing this?”
I smile and look at Nando. “You have a Facebook account?”
He shrugs. “Doesn’t everyone?” His eyes get big and he grins. “Smart man, Detective Boyd. You think the old man will be searching the web for anything on him?”
I smile. “And because a large population of the people here are out-of-towners, I think he’ll look for you two first, knowing you’ll be back here, working and out in the open where no one can stop him.”
“How do we stop him?” Nicole asks, folding her toned arms across her chest.
“If he is who I think he is,” I reply with my own grin. “Just leave it to me. I think he’ll want to hear what I have to say.”
Location Unknown
He typed “Chichen Itza Murder” into his Google search, bringing up hundreds of entries on his laptop’s screen. He knew what happened would be all over the internet and wanted to see how detailed the accounts were. Protecting his true identity was crucial, but he also understood there was little he could do about it in the end. People from around the globe witnessed the attack and those same people witnessed his counterattack. They also saw the younger man—the dead man—get up and walk away as if he’d only fallen down.
Gerard, he thought, remembering the man’s face from somewhere in his past. He’d literally met millions of people in his long life, but a few stuck out more than the rest.
Gerard was one of them.
Like his would-be killer, the Architect had gone by many names and identities over the years. Some were known throughout history, some not. Every few centuries, he would rebirth himself and become a noted figure in time. And like Gerard, the Architect wasn’t the only one doing so. For better or worse, a select group of An’talean survivors had formed the world into what it was today. Some lived to start wars, while others did what they could to prevent them.
What made you turn your back on your brothers and sisters?
The Architect had been on both sides of the fence throughout history. If it met his endgame, he’d fight on whoever’s side needed him the most. And when there was no worthy cause, he’d simply disappear into obscurity and continue to exist as nothing more than the average mortal. He even got regular jobs and befriended people just to pass the time.
And then, there are interesting cases like Gerard. He was, by all accounts, impossible to kill, gladly sacrificing himself in order for his masters to prosper. Then, while the latest disaster distracted everyone, he’d reform and stalk anew. The Architect was lucky so far and had not run into him in centuries, but he knew of others who weren’t so lucky. Why Gerard was hunting down those he previously stood by was still unknown.
Elixir of Life: A Novella (A Hank Boyd Adventure - Book 4) (The Hank Boyd Adventures) Page 3
