CHAPTER 71

I squinted at the rising sun as the silhouette of a short, stubby figure—made slightly taller by the high priest’s feathered headpiece, sitting lopsided on his head—emerged from the shadows.

He was using the golden corncob staff as a walking stick. The stick was twice as tall as he was. He was wearing some kind of long robe or dress. It was two sizes too big for his tiny frame, so the fabric sort of puddled around his ankles.

Nathan and Chet Collier stepped out of the darkness to flank him.

“The sun god smiles on us this day!” said the short man in a very thick Spanish accent. “We have five hearts to choose from for our sacrificial rite of capacocha!”

“That’s true, Señor Rojas,” said Nathan Collier, sounding like a total suck-up. “If at first we don’t succeed, we can try, try again!”

“Shut up, Nathan,” said the man in the middle without turning to look at either Collier. “Or I will send you and your son away as I sent away your worthless soldiers of fortune.”

“You betcha, Señor Rojas. Zipping my lip. I’m only here to help. Got the whole sacrificial rite memorized. Won’t say a word until we’re ready to go full-on capacocha.”

“Nathan?”

“Sí, señor?”

“Shut! Up!”

“Right. No problemo. Shutting up.”

I checked out as much of the surrounding area as I could with my arms pinned behind my back. The goons were definitely gone. It was just the two Colliers; the high priest and Supay chained to Tommy’s old post; us chained to the Inkarri statue; and Señor Rojas. His name, of course, rang a bell. A very loud bell.

“Juan Carlos Rojas,” said Dad calmly. “At long last, we meet.”

“Yes. Too bad your wife isn’t here, Dr. Kidd. Then I could kill you all in one swell foop!”

“You mean ‘one fell swoop,’” said Storm. “When studying English as a second language, a command of common euphemisms and expressions can prove quite useful.”

“¡Silencio! Oh, how I wish Mrs. Kidd and that idiot Chaupi were here. I would cut out their hearts first. Dragging me to that ridiculous summit meeting at the presidential palace in Lima. Meddling in my affairs. Trying to take away what is rightfully mine.”

“And what would that be?” asked Dad, because he’s not afraid of anybody or anything, including Supay’s knife, which Juan Carlos Rojas had just pulled out of the fancy belt tied around his shiny priest robe.

“The rain forest!”

“You don’t own it, Señor Rojas.”

“Perhaps not,” he said with a grin. “But soon I will. I will own the entire country. The people of Peru will gratefully give me everything I desire!” He was sounding loonier and loonier as he gestured to the old high priest and Supay. “For I will prove to those two ignorant peasants that I, Juan Carlos Rojas, am the new sun god! I will command the Lost City of Paititi to rise from its tomb, and, with Señor Collier’s magical words and your human hearts as a sacrificial offering, it will do my bidding! After such a feat, who would dare stand in my way? When I restore Paititi to its former glory, all will call me Inkarri! They will crown me the new king of the Incas! I will rule the rain forest!”