They decided to visit the site as soon as it was dark. The temple was close enough to reach on foot, but El Capitán insisted they take one of his old military trucks in case they needed to make a quick getaway. Caesar and Galton rode in the cab with the driver, and the four bodyguards settled in the back. When they reached the area, the driver refused to enter the temple grounds, believing them to be cursed. He stopped at the head of a well-worn path, and everyone else exited. They followed the trail for 200 yards before coming to a clearing.

Caesar had traveled the walkway countless times, back when the excavation site was his, and he felt his pulse quickening. The magnificent structure came into view, the black jewel of its capstone extending many feet above them. The rest of the structure lay below the surface, how far below Caesar didn’t know. The heavy equipment they’d seen during the extensive media coverage was gone, but several portable huts that housed makeshift research stations were located near the temple.

“Let’s get in a bit closer,” Galton said, as they peered from behind some bushes at the side of the trail.

The bodyguards stepped into the clearing first, on guard for trouble. They made sure the area was clear, then motioned for Galton and Caesar to follow.

When they approached the closest station, they saw the body of a woman in a lab coat lying face down in the dirt. One of the bodyguards rolled the corpse over and jumped back. The front of her body was badly burned, and the skin on her face had been incinerated. More bodies lay strewn about the path leading to the temple, all apparently burned to death, though their clothing was intact. Caesar feared that his theories were correct, though the other members of the party did not seem as disturbed by the scene as he was. The bodyguards, ex-soldiers all, were used to seeing the aftermath of violence.

“Whoever or whatever killed these people scared the other workers enough that they abandoned the site without taking the dead with them,” Caesar announced.

“What’re we dealing with here, Caesar?” Galton asked in an uncharacteristically subdued voice.

“I don’t know,” Caesar replied.

Galton’s eyes remained fixed on the temple. “Hell with it,” he said in his usual blustery tone. “I’m gonna poke around and see if there’s a way in.”

The bodyguards blocked his path. One said, “Parece peligroso aquí.”

“Dangerous my hide,” Galton replied, waving them aside.

“Lionel, it may really be dangerous,” Caesar yelled after him, but he knew as he said it that mere words would never deter his father-in-law. He watched as Galton ascended the mound of dirt that bordered the enormous pyramid. The capstone towered above him. Judging from its massive size, it seemed to Caesar that the rest of the temple probably descended below ground for several hundred feet, though only about a third of it was visible. That’s as far as the Peruvian government was able to excavate before something halted their progress and forced them to abandon the site, Caesar thought. Whatever it was had left a lot of dead bodies in its wake. Caesar shuddered at the scene of death around him.

Galton began to make his way around the temple, taking careful steps atop the dirt mound while scanning the temple’s four walls, looking for an entrance. He traveled around twice before surrendering. There was no visible entrance. Four sets of stairs led up to the capstone, which had a narrow ledge all the way around. There was no sign of an entrance there, either.

Galton turned to Caesar, who remained standing several yards behind him. “This moonlight ain’t worth a plugged nickel. Can’t see an entrance for the life of me.”

“There are entrances,” Caesar responded. “But we need daylight to find them.”

Galton got down from the mound and made his way back to the guards. Caesar suggested they return to camp and come back at daybreak.

“Nonsense,” Galton said. He gestured toward the portable research stations. “I’m sure one of these has everything we need for the night.” Galton made his way to a building that didn’t have bodies lying beside it. After peeking through a small window, he walked around to the front and stepped inside the open door. Caesar waited just outside with the bodyguards.

“This one’ll do, boys,” Galton said, leaning through the doorway. “Plenty of cots in here.” He instructed one of the bodyguards to tell the driver to head back to camp and return at first light with more men, as many as the camp could spare. He said it in Spanish, and Caesar marveled at his fluency. He didn’t remember Galton ever speaking the language during his marriage to Galton’s daughter.

“Let’s turn in, Caesar,” Galton said. “I’ll have one of the guards keep watch while the rest of us get some shuteye.”

“Best idea you’ve had all night,” Caesar said.

Under the bright light of the morning sun, the six men made their way down a rope ladder and up the narrow steps of the temple. In a matter of minutes, twelve more men arrived from the camp, including El Capitán himself, all of them armed. They joined Caesar, Galton, and the four bodyguards on the narrow ledge that surrounded the capstone. Caesar was thankful the temple had not been fully uncovered. Otherwise he would have had to climb far more than the hundred or so steps that began where the digging had stopped.

Caesar circled the capstone and took a good look at each side of the solid black wall. He studied the symbols that marked the walls above them, located about six or seven feet from the floor of the ledge. There were different symbols on each of the four walls. After inspecting them closely, he determined that all four marked deadly entrances. Only one doorway could be navigated safely, and only if one understood its trap and knew how to avoid it.

“What in the blazes does it mean, Caesar?” Galton bellowed. “You gonna share with the class or stand there gawkin’ all day?”

Caesar asked everyone to step down from the ledge. The men separated into four groups and took positions at the tops of the four sets of stairs that led up to the ledge. Caesar walked around the capstone and halted under the symbol located above the first group. They looked at it as Caesar pointed to it and spoke.

“Earth. Life. This one depicts the element earth. Earth is life to plants, but if you enter this doorway, tons of earth will cave in on you. This way is death.”

He walked to the next side and pointed to the second symbol. “Wind. Exit,” he said. “This is a vortex of wind, like a vacuum that sucks the air from your lungs. That is the way you will die if you enter here.”

He moved to the third side and the third symbol. He didn’t point or even look at it. He simply said, “Water. Death. The drowning pit.”

When he stood in front of the wall under the final symbol, he pointed at it and said, “Fire. Enter. Presumably the only safe way in.”

The men nodded and murmured softly.

“Fire represents the gathering point of the collected light. If you aren’t fully protected, the intense heat from that light will burn you, and the light will leave you blind. One must be fully protected to withstand the heat and light.”

He faced Galton, who stood at the top of the stairway leading to that side. “That’s how the researchers died. They knew enough to find the right entrance, but not enough to survive entering it. Someone must’ve dragged the bodies that fell backwards or partially out of the doorway to the clearing. If they had crossed the threshold, they would have been killed the same way.”

A barrage of questions ensued, everyone speaking at once. “What doorway? I don’t see any doorway.” “How do you know all this?” “What does it all mean?” “Which way, which way?” “How do we get in?” “Are you certain of this?” “Is it true?”

Caesar ignored the questions and looked at the fire symbol again. He retrieved a pair of UV-blocker sunglasses from a pocket, slipped them on, and handed another pair to Galton. He took the remaining three pairs they had purchased and instructed the men to share them when he indicated the proper time.

“Look at the symbol,” Caesar said. “Can you see the writing now, just below it?”

Galton nodded as he peered up at it through his UV blockers. “I see it. But what’s it say?”

“Translated it means ‘Entry is a trial by fire.’ In other words, this is the way in. The only way.”

One of Caesar’s bodyguards had lit a cigar and was taking long puffs to calm his nerves. Caesar stretched his hand toward him and said, “I need your lighter.” The men began to crowd around Caesar.

Galton looked at Caesar and wondered what his son-in-law would do next.

Caesar held the lighter in one hand while pointing the other at the black wall before them. “Do you see how the material of this temple seems to be absorbing the sunlight?”

“Yeah,” Galton replied. “What of it? So far you’re makin’ as much sense as britches on a stallion. All this mumbo jumbo gives me the heebie-jeebies.”

“This temple absorbs energy, solar energy,” Caesar said. “The obsidian outer shell is a kind of solar panel. That means there’s tremendous energy inside. To get in, you have to decipher the header descriptions, which are basically ancient riddles. Each of the four sides has an entrance, but they’re only accessible to the person who knows how to spot them. Even though they’re wide open, they look invisible to the naked eye, as if the wall were solid.”

“What’re you saying?” Galton asked. “The entrances are holograms?”

“Precisely,” Caesar said. “But they’re not the holograms we know today. The principle is the same, but the technology is ancient. A light source is projected from behind, much like modern holograms. That produces a visual effect that tricks the eye into seeing an image of a wall, but it’s actually an opening. This light source is made solely of UV rays. It’s so powerful it will blind you or burn you alive if you don’t protect yourself. That’s what happened to those people.”

“So how in blazes—pardon the expression—do we spot the entrance and get in without being barbequed?”

“It’s only visible when using UV blockers and a countering light source.” Caesar turned toward the wall and flicked the lighter. He ran it along the side of the pyramid wall until the small flame danced just before being drawn toward the black temple wall. “There. That’s what I’m looking for. Keep your glasses on. You’re going to enjoy this.”

Caesar began to trace the symbol from above in the exact spot where the flame flickered, and in an instant, the wall seemed to fade away and a triangle pathway was revealed.

“I’m a son of a gun. How’d you know that’d happen?” Galton asked.

“I thought you read my books, Lionel. This is right out of the Ancient Temples and Their Hidden Secrets series. We’re talking first volume stuff here.”

“Must’ve skipped that chapter,” Galton said.

Caesar instructed the men to pass the glasses around so they could all see the opening in the rock wall. He began to address the group, now gathered before the fire entrance, informing them about the function of the wall, particularly where he had retraced the symbol. “The flame flickered because there’s no wall in that area. The air flowing into the temple is what makes the flame flicker. The temple projects a kind of hologram here to conceal the entrance.”

Suddenly a bodyguard standing at the top of the stairs charged past him and dove headfirst through the opening. To everyone except those wearing the UV blockers, it appeared as if he had gone through a solid wall.

A chorus of shouts arose. “No! No! Caesar had spun around to try to stop the guard, but he was too late, and the motion wrenched his bad leg. He fell to the ground as pain shot through it. He heard a scream from beyond the wall and smelled burning flesh. The horrified men fell silent.

Galton was the first to speak. “You sure that’s the right door?”

Caesar didn’t answer. He struggled to his feet while keeping an eye on the pathway through his sunglasses. One of his bodyguards helped him up. Caesar was stunned and angry.

Galton approached him and whispered in his ear. “Snap out of it, son, what’s done is done. Don’t you be slipping back to three years ago. We need you in the here and now.”

Caesar took a breath and nodded. “I’m all right,” he said. Limping heavily, he circled the capstone once again, studying each of the four symbols that marked the entrances. He returned to the doorway under the fire symbol. It had to be the only way in. All the other entrances meant certain death. There must be some way the fire pathway could be entered without harm. But the odor of burning flesh that hung in the air made the theory a hard sell.

Caesar faced the group and spoke to one of the remaining bodyguards. “I need you and the driver out front to head back to camp and get some supplies for me. I need burlap sacks, blankets, ponchos, or whatever you can locate that can cover something. I also need four or five gallons of water.”

The bodyguard nodded. He spoke to several of the other men in Spanish, and then led a small group of volunteers down the narrow steps.

“What’s up, Caesar?” Galton asked.

“For now, we wait,” Caesar said.

When the bodyguard and the others returned, Caesar had the guards soak his clothes with water. Then he soaked several burlap sacks they’d brought back and stepped into them. He moved closer to the triangular opening and had the guards wrap him with several blankets, leaving flaps at the top to allow him to cover his head at the last minute. He told them to pour all but a canteen’s worth of the remaining water onto the blankets. He told Galton to make sure everything covering him was soaked through.

Caesar shut his eyes tight and took several deep breaths. Before anyone knew what he was doing, he reached over his head, pulled the flaps down tight, and bolted forward. He ignored the pain in his leg, and dove into the open triangle before him.

Galton yelled out, “Caesar! Caesar!” and dropped to his knees. There was no reply. But there had been no scream and no odor of burning flesh in the air. Galton squinted through the entrance, hoping.

Caesar heard his father-in-law’s faint screams as he slid down what seemed to be a stone-lined chute. He held his breath and held tight to the flaps of blanket that lay between him and death. He could feel the intense heat from the light that filled the small space, right down to the soles of his feet, and was thankful for the old hiking boots he wore. His protective sheath hadn’t caught fire. He had reasoned that covering oneself with outer layers was the only method available to the ancients, but he couldn’t suppress the memory of the woman in the lab coat and the others who’d been burned to death.

Caesar continued to slide. Since the blanket and burlap had not caught fire, Caesar figured the light must not ignite clothing, only flesh. That would explain why the lab coats weren’t even singed. He wondered what kind of light could do that. He couldn’t hold his breath much longer and wondered what it would be like to have hot air burn him from the inside out.

He shot out of the channel and slid several feet across a hard floor, landing in an awkward heap. He flipped back the blanket flaps and gasped for air. He took a moment to rub his legs and arms to soothe the pain of the impact and then stood up.

The room he had landed in was completely dark. He was still wearing his sunglasses, and they allowed him to see another carving of the fire symbol on the wall opposite the opening. It emitted a faint glow, and he traced its outline with the lighter. A bright light filled the room. Caesar looked up and saw a set of sconces lining the walls about five feet above him. Though ancient in design, the fixtures had no torch holders or visible mechanical devices. Whatever the light source, it was so bright that he couldn’t look at it for more than a few seconds, even through the UV blockers.

Caesar backed away from the wall that held the fire symbol and tripped over something. He looked down and saw the scorched face and body of his dead bodyguard. He said a quick silent prayer.

Caesar looked around and saw two more bodies. The burned corpses were clad in white lab coats, but these bodies were in far worse shape than the ones they’d found outside. They must have dived into the chute like the bodyguard, and the longer exposure to the light had done more damage.

Caesar went to the opening he’d fallen through and shouted up the long shaft to let the others know he was alive. The narrow passageway was now completely dark. The harmful light was gone, and so was the intense heat. He had done it. He had unlocked the door and disengaged the deadly light mechanism.

Caesar could hear Galton yell back, “You gave us a scare, Caesar. What’d you do, shut off the oven in there?”

“Something like that,” Caesar shouted. “It’s safe now, you can slide down. But don’t come without UV blockers on unless you want to go blind.”

“Yee-hah!” Galton hollered. “I can see a light at the end of this here tunnel.”