Chapter Nine #3
Archaeology was funny that way. There was something about discovering mysteries from the past that brought out the Sherlock Holmes in many people, even in those who hadn’t devoted their lives to finding answers.
But the excitement of discovery wasn’t the only hook; there was also learning more about those who occupied this planet before.
For Angélica, knowing there were civilizations that thrived so long ago gave her a measure of comfort.
The fact that people went about their daily lives—helping their parents, finding love, birthing children, exploring the world around them—same as humans did today was a reminder to take a moment now and then to enjoy the trips around the sun.
She looked at Quint. Lucky for her, she’d found someone to travel by her side.
Key-me? What the hell had Daisy—or whoever might have been using her as a channel—meant with her cryptic words?
She blinked back to the present and something she could make sense of … “Show me the passageway,” she said to Raul.
He led her past Daisy and the weapons cache. About ten feet beyond, Fernando waited at the entrance to a small clearing in the jungle with his machete in hand and piles of sliced fronds, vines, and branches scattered around his boots.
“I hear you found something, Fernando,” she said in English for Quint’s sake.
“Sí.” Fernando stepped aside, pointing with his machete. “Behind the vines and roots from the strangler fig,” he said in Spanish, which Raul translated for Quint.
“Plus a stack of rocks,” Raul added in English.
Angélica stepped by him into the narrow clearing, ducking low to keep from having her hat snagged by a stray branch.
She moved forward carefully, not interested in running into anything venomous waiting under the forest debris.
A little ways in, the shadows grew thick—too thick to see more than a short distance into the passageway.
She returned to where her foreman and the others waited. Behind Quint, she caught sight of her father caning his way toward them. Shit! She didn’t want him to try to follow in her footsteps until they’d cleared out a wider path.
“Fernando, can I see your flashlight, please?”
He obliged, and she hurried back into the machete-cleared tunnel.
At the far end, a set of narrow stone stairs cut down into the jungle floor.
The crumbling steps were bordered on each side by limestone block walls that bulged inward, slowly losing the battle to the weight of the earth they had been holding back all these years.
A skinny sapodilla tree was growing in the middle of the stairway, its roots bursting through the stone, cracking the steps into smaller pieces.
Vines both thick and thin hung down from the tree and along the edge of the walls, disguising the surface.
What’s down there?
She shined the flashlight beam around the tree, but the hanging vines blocked her view.
Crud. She should probably go back and figure out a strategy to clear this before going any farther, but …
She took a step down, careful on the loose stone, and held aside some vines to see the stone behind them.
Why a stairway into the ground? Where could this lead?
Pulling off one of her gloves, she lightly ran her hand over one of the blocks in the wall.
It was scratchy with lichens, too bumpy to feel any signs of possible carvings.
She shined her light across the block at an angle, using the shadows to help look for a change in relief on the surface, for any sign of a glyph or some other sort of carving.
Further back, on the next block down, there was an area less coated and crusty. She took another step and pushed aside more vines, grazing the surface again with her flashlight beam.
There!
Her heart picked up speed.
She could see a faint relief of something carved into the stone.
She ran her fingertips over the area, closing her eyes as she felt the stone underneath.
KuTu’s words about the outer stone wall not “singing” replayed in her head.
Was there energy in these stones? Were they singing?
It was hard to tell. She spread her palm out on the rock, listening with her touch as well as her ears.
Silence. Under her hand, the block of limestone held steady, no vibrations that she could feel, although the surface was surprisingly cool for so hot a day.
Her fingers grazed a small change in the relief. She followed the indented line in an arc that led to another arc going in a different direction. That was definitely not Mother Nature’s handiwork. Someone had carved something into the stone.
She opened her eyes, shining the light on the rest of the block.
Unfortunately, with all of the lichen covering the remaining surface, it was going to take some time to see if there were glyphs waiting underneath or simply a carving depicting a scene that might further define where the stairs led.
Better yet, an explanation of what the purpose of the whole site might be. Wouldn’t that be a lucky find?
Maybe she should bring Daisy down here to have a look around.
She shined her light farther along the wall.
What about the next block?
Her blood pounded in her ears, the ringing blocking out the sounds of the forest. Her focus locked onto the piece of limestone about head-high.
In the light, she caught sight of something under the lichen covering.
She took another step down, shining the beam on the block from below.
There was something carved there, she was certain, but she couldn’t tell what for sure.
The next block farther down was half clear, only seeming to be covered in dirt. From where she stood, she could see there were carvings on it, too. She took a step closer, reaching out to touch it.
Just a little farther …
She started to take another step down, but someone grabbed the back of her shirt, stopping her in her tracks.
“Not so fast, boss lady.” Quint yanked her back into him. He shined his flashlight over her shoulder toward several vines that draped down the wall not three feet in front of her.
As she watched, one of the vines twisted slightly in mid-air before sliding down onto a slight rock ledge. The snake turned toward the light, its forked tongue darting in and out. It opened its mouth slightly, hesitating as it stared their way.
“That’s a pit viper,” he whispered, slowly pulling her backward along with him. “They like to jump, remember?”
“Jesus,” she whispered. “Look at the fangs on that thing.”
As soon as they were safely out of the snake’s range, he let her go. “That was too close, woman. You got my ol’ ticker pounding hard there for a minute.” He wiped his face with his shirt sleeve. “Do you always have to touch everything?”
“I couldn’t help it.”
She pulled her glove back on, her heart pounding hard, too. Had Quint not stopped her, she’d have allowed her curiosity to lead her into trouble. Damn it, she knew better than that.
“Thanks.” She squeezed his arm. “I was so focused on finding out what was carved on the blocks that I didn’t even see the snake.”
“You do tend to have a one-track mind when it comes to Maya glyphs, sweetheart.” His wink took any sting out of his words. “And kings’ tombs and limestone mines and …”
She lightly backhanded him on the shoulder. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, Parker. I get obsessed. You’re starting to sound like my father.”
He shined his flashlight down the stairs, angling around the tree in the middle. The snake was either gone or hiding in plain sight. Angélica didn’t want to see if it was the latter.
“You think that leads under the outer wall?” he asked. “We can’t be more than fifteen feet away from it here.”
“Maybe, unless it is just a root cellar sort of room, in which case it might have another cache filled with something interesting.” Something even more exciting than old weapon parts and pieces.
God, she really wanted to see what the story on the stairwell walls told. Those carvings were the first sight of any sort of communication from those who were here at Site 5 long ago.
“We need to clear this area out more first. Chase away the snakes,” she said.
Quint groaned, shuddering visibly. “Those damned fangs give me the heebie-jeebies.”
“Dad will want to check out the structural safety on those side walls before we go down very far. You see the way they’re bulging inward?”
“Yeah. Those are just one small earthquake from crashing down and burying that whole stairway. Unlike you, boss lady, there is not one part of that stairway to Hell that makes me want to see what’s waiting at the bottom.”
She nodded. “But I’m going down there anyway.”
He growled. “Fine, but I’m leading the way. Me Tarzan, you Jane.”
“Aww.” She caught his hand in hers. “Aren’t you just the sweetest little good demon?”
“Little? Quit insulting my manliness. Now, come on.” He led the way back to where Fernando, Raul, and her father stood waiting.
“Well? What did you see?” Raul asked.
“A pit viper,” Quint told him.
Raul grinned. “Wow! Danger and adventure at every turn. This place has it all.”
Her dad shuddered. “From now on, gatita, nobody goes rushing into the jungle without someone else by their side.”
“Agreed.” It was easier just to go along than resist when he had that fatherly tone.
Angélica looked at Fernando. “In addition to the snake and the tree growing in the middle of the steps, the bottom of the stairway looks blocked with debris. We need to clear it out, see if there is another cache at the bottom of the steps, or if that leads to an underground passageway.”
“A passageway to where?” her father asked.
She thumbed toward the bigger structure. “Maybe next door.”
“Or under the big wall,” Quint added.
“That would explain the lack of gate in the wall,” her dad said. “But it also leads to more questions.”
She nodded slowly, staring up at the barrier. “Have you ever seen a fortification like this before, Dad?”