CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

October 3, 8:00 P.M.

Cusco, Peru

CASH WAITED AT the bottom of the stone steps for the rest of the group, allowing his eyes time to adjust to the blackness of the subterranean corridor. Their small headlamps barely pierced the inky tunnels, making each step hazardous.

“Is everyone here?”

Various grunts and groans indicated all were accounted for and ready to proceed. Cash took the lead, stooped over to avoid hitting his head on the low ceiling, and began the slow penetration of the damp passageway. After about fifteen minutes, Cash stopped.

“Does it feel like we’re gradually going uphill to anyone else?”

“I kind of thought so, since I was getting a bit winded,” Diane stated, “but I attributed my difficulty breathing with the elevation of Cusco.”

“Maybe this tunnel leads back to the surface. I’d love to get out of this confinement and take a breath of fresh air,” Pete added.

“Well, there’s only one way to find out. Let’s keep moving.” Cash turned and resumed walking.

After another ten minutes, they emerged into an open cavern with a high ceiling. They stood side by side, gazing at the scene visible in the dim light of their four small headlamps. The chamber was about half the size of a football field and dotted with irregular-shaped rock formations standing like remnant chimneys of burnt-down homes. The rough stone pillars appeared natural and were webbed with black and gold colored veins. But the feature dominating the cavern grabbed their attention.

“Oh my God,” Marjorie and Pete gasped in unison.

A shallow pond glistened in front of them, filled with a liquid substance that emitted an unusual and unfamiliar odor. A massive solid crystal column stood in the center of the pond, reaching nearly to the top of the chamber. Twelve stair-like platforms with saucer-shaped hollows were gouged out of the pillar as it ascended toward the ceiling of the cavern. The first stair step rested below the liquid level, and each progressive step narrowed until reaching the highest platform. At the apex, a crystal head larger than any the group had seen so far, nearly the size of a beach ball, glowered down on them with deeply carved eye sockets and what appeared to be a movable jaw.

“It’s Ten,” Marjorie whispered in reverent awe as her gaze froze on the massive object at the top of the pillar.

For several moments everyone watched Marjorie as she stared in transfixed amazement at the magnificent sculpture, none grasping the significance.

“Ten what?” Pete finally asked, interrupting her thoughts.

“Sorry. The sculpture at the top represents the head-variant number ten. In Mayan legend, this number symbolizes the deity of the upper world associated with devastation, desertion, and the end of an epoch of humanity. It is thought to be the supreme god of death. To the Mayans, this isn’t necessarily a morbid or frightening thing. The god, Ten, denotes the transition from the world we inhabit to that of gods and our ancestors, like the Christians’ Heaven. Ten was believed to possess the power to transport humans to a higher level of consciousness, allowing mortals to see the past and the future.”

“Why is it here, perched on a massive pedestal, and why is this head so much larger than the rest we’ve seen?” Pete asked.

“Because it’s the most powerful, and it symbolizes potential cataclysmic annihilation. Once the other crystals are placed in their appropriate places and the catalyst introduced, the result is no doubt the event Zara seeksmassive destruction, possibly the end.”

As Cash moved his light around the room, trying not to land directly on the crystal, the beam came to rest on the ceiling above the pillar. A clear outline of what appeared to be an opening was delineated.

“Well, Pete, as far as we’ve climbed upward, I’d bet if we opened that panel, we’d get your desired breath of fresh air and a source of light. And, if we could determine which relic should be placed in the depressions gouged into each step, we would have the pattern you sketched.”

“Yes, it’s identical to the diagram etched on the underside of the gold box’s lid I saw in Bimini, only this scene is real, but missing twelve of the thirteen heads, and all of those, except one, is in the hands of an insane woman,” Pete respond, stunned by the spectacle in front of him. The smells assailed his senses and the story Marjorie just conveyed made him shudder. In order to get Olivia back alive, they would have to share this secret with Zara, and if they handed over the Argentinean crystal, she would possess everything she needed to test the legend of destruction.

Cash waded cautiously into the pool. The substance was translucent and seemed to magnify his feet as he stared down on them. He scooped up a handful of liquid and took a whiff.

“It smells like something flammable, and it’s got a soft, almost slick texture.”

“Now that I think about it, I detected the same odor in the tunnels of Bimini too,” Pete added.

Cash paused and looked at Pete for a moment before pressing on. The liquid only came up to mid-thigh, yet his whole body tingled. The fluid was cold, but he doubted the temperature had anything to do with the odd vibrating sensation which increased the closer he got to the crystal pillar.

Cash touched the column and the surface was much warmer than the liquid in the pool. He knelt on the second step and then began to climb toward the massive carved eyes looking down on him from above. Once at the top, he covered his light with his shirttail to dim the beam and examined the magnificent carving.

“The head can’t be removed. It and the pillar are one solid piece of crystal,” he yelled down to the group.

“What’ll we do?” Diane asked. “If you don’t meet Zara at midnight with the last two relics, she’ll kill Olivia.”

The problem was apparent and Cash didn’t need Diane pointing out the quandary. He hated the idea of Olivia being at Zara’s mercy, since Zara didn’t possess a merciful bone in her body and she seldom accepted excuses, even valid ones. This only made everything more complicated.

“We don’t have much choice. This head isn’t budging. I’ll tell her the truth and hope she believes me.”

“Can we get out the opening in the ceiling?” Pete asked.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to try. Even though it’s nighttime, we have no idea what lies above. We could emerge into a vulnerable situation, or maybe an artificial light source exists which could trigger an unwanted reaction with the crystal and the liquid, whatever that might be. I vote for backtracking out of here. At least that way we know what to expect.”

“We need to leave soon to avoid being late for the meeting with Zara,” Diane added.

Cash agreed. He climbed down the pillar’s steps, waded back across the pond, and crawled out of the unusual fluid which burned his skin.

“I imagine it won’t work, but did you try to get coordinates?” he asked Pete.

“The crystal crashed all my electronics,” Pete replied as he stowed his GPS unit and the digital camera he had hoped to use to take a photograph of the structure.

“I figured as much. I guess we better go.”

“Wait,” Marjorie stated. “Zara isn’t expecting anyone but you, so why don’t Pete and I stay here? Maybe we can figure out what all this is and how it’s supposed to be used. If Zara didn’t see the lid in Bimini, Pete knows more than she does. Also, if she hasn’t figured out by now that the relics represent numbers, we might have another advantage. I bet the heads are lined up in some sort of mathematical arrangement. Clearly the order is not simply numeric, since Ten is at the top.”

Marjorie sensed that Pete liked the idea by the way his face lit up. Even though they worked in drastically different fields, he was a scientist, so his curiosity had to be gnawing at him. If he was anything like her, the thought of leaving such an unusual and mysterious find without investigating further would kill him.

“The only way to prove I’m telling the truth and save Olivia’s life will require bringing Zara here to verify my story,” Cash stated.

“You’re supposed to meet her at midnight, so you probably won’t return until at about 12:30, and I promise we’ll be nowhere in sight by then.”

“We’d have more leverage if we discovered how to use the relics, the pond, and the pillar. Just be sure to vanish before I get back with Zara.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve tangled with her enough for a lifetime,” Pete replied. “If I never see those green eyes again, it’ll still be too soon.”