Black Rain

There were many reasons to push; openly, she worried about the rains. They would only hold off for so long, and when they did come, work would have to cease for several months. But the real problem was their as yet unknown competitor.

Gibbs’ latest satellite call had informed her of the computer breach, and though he insisted that the temple’s location remained secret, Danielle could not shake the feeling of an enemy growing closer with each passing moment.

She glanced over at Professor McCarter, who was working with Susan and the porters. Their lives were in danger, and they didn’t know it in the least. Certainly, they watched Verhoven and his men patrol, listened as Hawker flew in with a load of defensive equipment, including motion sensors, computerized tracking devices, lights, flares and boxes of ammunition—and the pack of trained dogs Verhoven had insisted upon—and in all likelihood they considered it only a precaution. A little bit of the government’s heavy hand when a lighter touch would have been fine.

Danielle knew better. Somewhere out there an enemy sought them, and despite the time they’d bought by racing up the river, eventually that enemy would find them. She wanted the civilians long gone when it happened. To make sure that happened, she had to keep pushing.

She looked to Professor McCarter, crouched on the rooftop, ru

“Tell me again what this means,” she said.

“You see how precise the fit is?” he said, pointing. He waved the others closer and then used his knife to scrape at the moss. The stonework was so tight that the moss hadn’t grown into it, just covered it over like a tarp. “You couldn’t get cigarette paper between these stones. All the great sites that have stood the test of time show this type of craftsmanship. In the Yucatan, in Egypt, in Mongolia.

“This structure must be remarkably stable to look like this, perhaps built onto some bedrock like the skyscrapers of Midtown Manhattan. I have seen some damage on the north side,” he admitted. “But the foundation itself can’t have subsided too much or these seams would be loose and jumbled. I’m quite excited about that.”

“You said you might have found a way inside,” she reminded him. “Can we skip ahead to that part? That’s what I’m excited about.”

“You’re not one for slow cooking,” McCarter replied, only slightly bothered.

“Microwave,” she replied. “Or faster.”

He smiled and moved to another section of the roof, waving the group over. “This stone tells us another story. The co

At last. “You think this is the way in,” she guessed.

“If there is one,” he said. “Most Mayan temples have nothing inside except an earlier temple.”

Puzzled looks came his way.

“The kings and Ahau of Maya wanted monuments to themselves like all the other leaders of the ancient world. But in a surprisingly pragmatic twist, they would often commission a new structure to be built over the existing ones, a sort of pre-Colombian municipal rehabilitation project, one that enabled them to leave behind a greater temple than their predecessor. The result is something like those Russian nesting dolls, where each larger doll covers the smaller one. At places in the Yucatan some temples have half a dozen underlying layers.”

He returned to his original thought. “But other Mayan temples are stand-alone structures, some of which contain i

Hawker winced. “Kind of puts a damper on that whole being a king thing.”

Danielle laughed and looked back at McCarter. “So you think this is one of the latter types?”

“It looks that way,” he said. “And that could help us determine if this place is Tulan Zuyua or not.”

“How?” she asked.

“Remember how Tulan Zuyua had other names,” he said. “The stone Blackjack Martin found contained one of those names. Seven Caves. Other Mayan writings refer to it as the Place of Bitter Water.”

“Seven Caves,” she said, ru

“Possibly,” McCarter said. “But I’m thinking on a less dramatic level. Other Mayan sites linked to the word ‘cave’ have been found to contain i

“Our theory?” Danielle said.

“I’m co-opting it,” McCarter said, smiling. “Besides, there’s another reason to go inside as well, a more important one perhaps. Anything that’s inside will have been protected from the sun and rain for all these years. The walls out here have been worn smooth by the environment, but in there, we might find writings, murals or pottery. Even ritual objects with information on them. The best and quickest way to gather information is to get inside, and that means we start here.”

It would take the better part of four hours, a rash of strained muscles and one broken pulley, but eventually the slab was dislodged and forced upward by the leverage of the pry bars. A nylon rope was passed beneath it, and with a jerry-rigged tripod they managed to raise the stone and move it backward an inch at a time. It had traveled almost two feet before the contraption collapsed and the stone ground to a halt.

As McCarter got down on his stomach to peer through the slot, he began coughing and then turned away. Danielle could smell acrid fumes in the air escaping from the temple’s i

McCarter looked up, his eyes watering. “That’ll clear your head.”

As he moved back toward the entrance, Danielle took a deep breath and got down beside him, the beams of their flashlights playing across a flight of wide steps that dropped into the darkness beyond.

“Let’s get in there,” she said.

McCarter caught her eye and seemed to realize there would be no point in arguing. He took a fluorescent lantern from her hand.

“Anyone else?” he asked.

As a few of the others backed away to unvolunteer, Hawker stepped up. “What the hell, another hole in the ground. At least this one has stairs.”

McCarter nodded then looked at his student. “Susan?”

Susan had backed away from the entrance, coughing and wheezing from the sulfur smell. “I can’t,” she said. “I won’t be able to breathe.”

McCarter nodded. “I’ll give you a full report.” He turned to Danielle. “Okay, boss, let’s go.” With that McCarter squeezed through the gap, disappearing from view. Danielle followed, with Hawker right behind her.

Once inside, they were soon able to stand, descending a flight of stairs while pungent sulfur fumes assaulted them, stinging their eyes and burning their throats. The thick stone walls deadened the place to outside noise and distorted their voices with strange reverberating echoes. When the others spoke too loudly or too quickly, Danielle noticed that their words became unintelligible.