Adrian D'Hage - The Maya codex

‘She is a princess?’

Roberto smiled. ‘You must pack your things quickly,’ he said. ‘Just the bare essentials. It’s no longer safe for you here and we are leaving tonight.’

‘But the figurine…’

‘Do you know if the German drank the pulque? ’

‘Just one mug,’ Levi replied, the meaning of Itzel’s gift dawning on him.

‘One mug is enough. The pulque was carefully prepared.’

‘So, Fraulein, come and sit on the bed, where we can get better acquainted.’ Von Hei?en steadied himself with the help of the tent pole as he closed the flap. He turned, trying to focus, but the inside of the tent started to spin. He lurched towards Itzel but instead fell face-first into the red dirt, and Itzel did as she’d been instructed. She took the keys from his pocket, unlocked his trunk and placed the figurine in her satchel. She returned the keys to von Hei?en’s pocket and made her way across the airstrip to where the shaman and Levi, together with a protection party of six young warriors from the village, were waiting. Levi had only had time to pack a satchel containing some toiletries and underwear, his tools, the two maps and Ramona’s precious letters.

‘Put this in your bag,’ Roberto said, handing Levi the jade figurine.

‘There is still one more to be found, but the maps will guide you. Safeguard the two figurines you have with your life, because together with the third, they will lead you to the Maya Codex.’

‘But how -’

‘It will happen when the cosmos is ready,’ Roberto replied as the lead warrior re-lit his torch.

‘What about the Germans?’ Levi asked as they moved off down the jungle track.

‘Leave them to us. The women and children of the village are already on the move to a safe hideout in the jungle. The warriors will take you by canoe downriver and on to Puerto Barrios and the Gulf of Honduras. One of our people will meet you there. We’ve arranged passage to Naples on a cargo ship, and from there you can make your way back to Vienna. It will take time, and it won’t be very comfortable, but going through Italy will be safer. Von Hei?en will probably report you missing and they’ll be watching the airports.’

‘I don’t know how to thank you…’

‘Safeguarding the figurines will be more than enough,’ Roberto replied. He turned and smiled at Levi, his teeth flashing white in the torchlight. The sounds of the German marching band and the singing in the mess tent receded, supplanted by the crickets and a roar from one of the great cats.

‘I ’ve done as you requested, Eminence, and interviewed anyone who might have information on the lost Maya Codex, including Father Ehrlichmann and the papal nuncio in Guatemala City,’ Alberto Felici said. ‘I’m now convinced it probably lies hidden in or around Tikal.’

‘So Himmler is on to something concrete?’ Pacelli observed.

Felici smiled enigmatically. ‘I’d be very careful of Reichsfuhrer Himmler, Eminence, he keeps some very strange company. On the advice of a Karl-Maria Wiligut, a former colonel in the Austrian Imperial Army, Himmler has taken over a medieval castle in Wewelsburg and turned it into a Nordic academy for the SS. But I’ve discovered that Wiligut is a deranged, violent alcoholic who was only released from a mental asylum in 1927.’

‘Why would Himmler take notice of a deranged alcoholic?’

‘For one thing, Wiligut is a fierce opponent of the Jews, and he publishes an anti-Semitic paper called The Iron Broom. But there’s a lot more to Heinrich Himmler than anti-Semitism, Eminence. He’s feared throughout the Reich as a cold, hard, ruthlessly efficient administrator who doesn’t miss the slightest detail, but behind the scenes, the Reichsfuhrer is heavily into the occult. Wiligut has been presented as a mystic who has access to lost cities and civilisations via ancient channels… He’s managed to convince Himmler that the final great battle for civilisation will occur around Wewelsburg in the valleys of Westphalia.’

‘Then we’re dealing with a crank?’

Felici shook his head. ‘Never underestimate Himmler, Eminence. He’s turning the SS into a new Aryan aristocracy, a noble order of warriors sworn to the Fuhrer, modelled on the Knights Templar and the Jesuits. Himmler intends to develop Wewelsburg as an SS city, a pagan Vatican at the centre of the new world.’

Pacelli’s eyes widened.

‘Himmler is now relocating the villagers of Wewelsburg and remodelling the castle. He’s established a concentration camp in the Niederhagen Forests, where Jews are being imprisoned and drafted into forced labour. We’re dealing with the Devil here, Eminence. Outwardly Himmler’s prim and proper, but his mind is medieval. He’s cold, calculating and lethal; and as far as his treatment of the Jews is concerned, you may have to make some public remarks. International condemnation is growing.’

‘I’m aware of that, Alberto,’ Pacelli said, irritation in his voice, ‘but there are bigger issues to consider than the plight of the Jews.’

‘Are you also aware then, Eminence, that your papal nuncio in Istanbul is organising an escape route for Jewish children? Weizman confided in me that if things get any worse in Vienna, he may have to get his family out through Turkey.’ Felici watched carefully for any reaction that might reveal enmity between the powerful Cardinal Secretary of State and his subordinate in Turkey, Angelo Roncalli.

Pacelli made a mental note to speak with the archbishop in the Vatican’s foreign ministry. ‘Did Professor Weizman give you any idea of what might be in this codex?’

‘He thinks the Maya have encoded a warning of a coming annihilation; but he also thinks there could be a connection between the Mayan warning and the warnings of the Virgin at Fatima.’

Pacelli went pale. His own connection to Our Lady was strong. Pope Benedict XV had elevated him to archbishop on 13 May 1917, the very day the blessed Virgin Mary had first appeared to the three peasant children at Fatima in Portugal. The connection had never been lost on Pacelli, nor had the blessed Virgin’s three warnings.

‘Is the Vatican going to make these warnings public, Eminence?’

Pacelli didn’t answer. A heavy silence descended on the Secretary of State’s apartment. ‘It’s possible,’ Pacelli said finally, ‘that we may release the first two warnings. At present, all three are in the hands of the Bishop of Leiria in Portugal. The third – and this must remain strictly between you and me – the third contains a threat to the Holy Church itself, and it must remain hidden.’

‘Perhaps all three should be moved to the secret archives, Eminence, where they will be better protected? The existence of the documents and the miracle of the sun are quite widely known.’

Pacelli’s thoughts went back to the last apparition, on 13 October 1917, when on a wet and windy morning 70 000 people had gathered in the fields at Cova da Iria to witness the miracle the blessed Virgin had promised the three children at Fatima. As the clouds cleared, little Lucia had called to the crowds and pointed towards the sun. Suddenly, the sun began to rotate like a catherine-wheel, shooting light in different colours, as the great crowds would attest. Several journalists from Portugal’s most influential newspapers, including O Seculo, a pro-government and anti-religious paper, reported the sun ‘zigzagging’ and reversing direction across the sky. The Lisbon daily, O Dia, recorded the sun as having a deep-blue light emanating from its centre, illuminating thousands of people prostrate and weeping on the ground.

‘The warnings are secure for now, Alberto,’ Pacelli said, ‘but, as you say, they should be moved to the secret archives. In the meantime I want you to keep a close eye on developments in Tikal. If the Maya Codex is linked to the warnings of the blessed Virgin, then it too must be secured in the secret archives.’