Black Sun

She wrapped the pellet in a cloth and slid it into the lead-lined case that contained the stone. Then she and Hawker hustled to find McCarter. The plan was to go now, to lure Kang’s forces away from the town and ditch the pellet along the way, hopefully distracting him further.

They entered the church and immediately made their way to the wine cellar.

As they descended the stairs, she called out to McCarter. “Professor?”

She heard a crash and raced down the remaining stairs. She spotted McCarter in the far corner, the table overturned next to him. They ran to him.

“Professor,” she said, helping him up.

He was drenched with sweat.

“He’s burning up,” she told Hawker.

“Are you all right?” she asked him.

“I couldn’t …,” he mumbled. “I can’t …”

She pressed her hand against his forehead. His temperature had to be over a hundred. McCarter reached into his pocket and produced five days’ worth of antibiotics, which he had been pretending to take.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I wanted to see her again. I thought that the stone could bring her to me. Make it real.”

“I’ve got to get you upstairs,” Danielle said, as she and Hawker helped him up.

With Hawker under one arm and Danielle under the other, they began to move. “I tried to figure it out, but I don’t know,” McCarter said. “I can’t think.”

“What did you find out?” Hawker asked.

“The stones, they heal the earth,” he said.

“The earth?”

“The ground,” he said meekly. “The land.”

“What about the Black Sun?” she asked. “What does the sun do?”

“Not the sun,” he said. “The land.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The land blackens the sun,” he said.

She looked over at Hawker. He shrugged.

“It comes …,” McCarter sagged, almost unconscious. “From down here,” he said.

They were holding him up now, a two-hundred-pound rag doll. He seemed on the verge of delirium.

They’d made it to the top stair and out into the church.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I wanted to see her again.”

“You will.”

The words came from Hawker, surprising to her as so many things about him were. She didn’t know if he was just trying to put McCarter at ease or if he believed them, but the way they’d been spoken, filled with conviction, seemed to indicate that he did.

“Outside,” she said. “The cool air might help his temperature a bit.”

They dragged and carried him outside, laying him down on the church step. He looked horrible.

“Can you do anything for him?” Hawker asked.

“I can force-feed him some antibiotics, I can jury-rig an IV with fluids, and I can clean out that damn wound again,” she said, then looked up at Hawker. “What I can’t do is leave him here alone.”

“What about the stone, the destiny?”

“I came back for a friend,” she said. “I realized that last night. Whatever other reasons there were, whatever the stone programmed me to do, I came back for McCarter. I’m not leaving him now.”

Both of them knew what that meant. Hawker would go for the Temple of the Jaguar alone.

CHAPTER 60

As Danielle worked on McCarter, Hawker went to find Father Domingo. Sneaking into his room, he switched on a flashlight.

“Forgive me, Father, for I have si

Father Domingo blinked in the bright light. He blocked the beam of light with his hand. “What have you done, my son?”

“I woke a priest up in the middle of the night after he threw a heck of party.”

Hawker lowered the light.

“Is that all?” Father Domingo asked.

“No,” Hawker said. “But that’s all we have time for.”

Father Domingo sat up. It was a heavy, ponderous movement, like a bear coming out of hibernation. “You’re leaving,” he said, looking at Hawker’s ma

Hawker nodded. “Tell me where I have to go.”

“What makes you think I know?”

“You asked us if we pla

“Are you sure you want to go there?”

Hawker nodded.

“You want to, or you believe you must?” Father Domingo asked.

“Other people believe,” Hawker said. “Right now, that’s good enough for me.”

“Then you must hike back to the lake where we found you,” Father Domingo said.

“Go past it and past the long, narrow lake beyond. There you will come to a series of hills. Between the third and fourth ridge you will find a sinkhole, much like the cenotes of the lowlands. At this time of year it is filled with water, with a small island in the center no larger than this room.”

“That’s the temple?” Hawker asked.

“The island is the temple; the cenote is the Mirror.”

“Why do you call it the Mirror?”

Father Domingo nodded. “The water is like glass. Like any mirror it shows us who we are.”

Hawker tried to take it all in. “Where’s the stone? The others were hidden.”

“Get onto the island. The Temple of the Jaguar is a simple place. Up close you will see what looks like a common drinking well. But it is different. Instead of dropping a bucket and working to pull it out, a system of counterweights was developed. All you must do is release the lever. The weights will drop, the shield of rock will move apart, and the stone will be brought up to you.”

“You’ve been there.” He guessed.

Father Domingo nodded. “I have seen it. I have touched it.”

“Last of the Brotherhood,” Hawker said, admiringly.

A gleam appeared in Father Domingo’s eye. “I should hope not,” he said, staring at Hawker.

Hawker didn’t know what to think. All he knew was that he had to get away from San Ignacio as fast as possible, to lure their pursuers in one direction and make his way in the other. “Thank you for trusting us.”

The priest stood and took a sip from a glass of water. “The Mayan people that I know would tell you this day is not doomsday but a day of transformation. Perhaps like many transformations it will be painful, even destructive. But they believe it will lead to a new dawn.”

“What do you think?” Hawker asked.

Father Domingo looked to the Bible at his bedside. “When he was on the earth, the Lord told us that he would make all things new again. He did this through his death and resurrection, and by granting us the faith to believe we could do the same. Painful, destructive, but leading to a new dawn. So who am I to say this isn’t another way of his making?”

Hawker stood to go. “I just wonder why they didn’t design these things to do what they’re supposed to do automatically.”

“You’ve said they are machines, sent here to save us?” Father Domingo replied, echoing an earlier conversation.

“Some people think so,” Hawker admitted.

Father Domingo smiled. “My son, even God requires an affirmative act of faith. Machines ca

Hawker did not know if he had the faith everyone was placing in him, but he had no time left to worry about it. “I have to go,” he said.

“I will pray for your safety,” Father Domingo said. “Vaya con Dios.”

A moment later, Hawker was leaving the village, sneaking out of town two hours before dawn, the stone and the pellet secured in his pack.

In a small house near the edge of the village, Yuri awoke in the darkness. He had heard something, as if someone had shouted. But there was no sound around him, no light or noise. The other children slept, some of them breathing loudly, but there was no movement.

And yet he could feel movement.

He sat up and looked around. He was certain now; he could hear it again. He could feel it.

Carefully, he picked his way across the room and looked out the window. There was no light, but there were colors to be seen. He could see it off in the hills just past the edge of town: The siren was moving.