Clive Cussler - The Eye of Heaven

The two security men Antonio had deployed to guard the tomb took a break from their monotony and moved far away from the trench as an SUV eased to a stop near it. They’d been well compensated to make themselves scarce for thirty minutes and to see and hear nothing and they had gladly complied, each pocketing a month’s pay for a paltry half hour of disinterest.

Janus Benedict exited the passenger side and walked to the edge of the excavation, joined by Reginald. The driver remained in the vehicle with the engine running.

“This is it? Doesn’t look like much,” Reginald said, annoyed to be awake at four a.m. to waste his time in some armpit well away from the refined comfort of his five-star Mexico City hotel.

“Looks like for once the Fargos came up empty. Which I’m thrilled about. But also a little intrigued by.” Janus sighed. “I suppose even the best of us comes up short every now and again. Bound to happen.”

“Then what are we doing here?”

Janus peered down into the trench again and then shook his head and returned to the car. “Since I flew halfway across the bloody globe, I thought I’d see it for myself.”

“Looks like a hole in the ground to me.”

Janus glared at his brother. “Nothing slips by you, does it?” he snarled as he climbed back into the passenger seat.

Reginald muttered an oath when the door shut, angry at his brother’s barb but knowing better than to confront him. Nerves were close to the surface, with the temple having been found, and he didn’t want to risk an outburst from his jet-lagged sibling.

The tires crunched on gravel as the big vehicle backed away, and when the security guards returned fifteen minutes later, the site was calm and empty, which would be their report the following morning, now only a few hours away.

What is it?” Sam asked as they took a taxi from their motel to the site.

“I don’t know. Something just doesn’t feel right. I can’t believe that that was it. It just feels so … I don’t know, so incomplete.”

“Of course it’s disheartening, but at least we solved the riddle of the manuscript and located the chamber,” Lazlo said.

“That’s what’s bugging me. I’m not convinced we did. We found a chamber; but the question is, did we find the chamber?”

Sam turned to her. “What are you saying?”

“Isn’t it possible that we got something wrong?”

“We found it. Right where we thought it would be.”

“Not where we thought it would be — where Antonio and his sister were convinced it would be. But what if they are wrong?”

“And we just happened to find a crypt by accident?”

“They’ve been finding new tunnels and chambers around those pyramids for years. Nobody dug that area up before, I’ll bet. We excavated a huge stretch of the base. The odds of finding something aren’t as high as you’d think. And what did we actually find? A looted tomb. That’s all we know. Did you see a lot of images on the walls that would lead you to believe that it was the final resting place of a ruler revered as a god?”

“Well, actually, now that you mention it, it was rather simple. But still …”

“If you were going to construct a hidden tomb that was legendary for its riches and contained the remains of the most important ruler your civilization had ever known, would you consider that a fitting final resting place?”

Lazlo nodded from his position in the front seat. “She has a point.”

Sam studied her face. “Is that what’s got you jittery? That it’s so … unimpressive?”

“I think it’s that, and that I’ve never been a hundred percent convinced that their assurances were right. I’ve had my doubts since they first told us. Don’t ask me why. Call it intuition. But some part of my brain was going, No, that’s not right. I don’t know what I saw that led me in a different direction, but whatever it was, I did, and I’ve learned to trust my instincts.”

Sam’s face grew serious. “Wait. What did you just say?”

“Didn’t you hear me?”

“Of course. You said you don’t know what it is you saw.”

She looked perplexed. “Right.”

“What do you mean you saw ? Where could you have seen something that would lead you to a different conclusion? What did you see that’s convinced you they got it wrong?”

Remi thought in silence and, as they approached the gate, shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s just a figure of speech.”

“I’ve known you for a long time. You’re very precise with your use of language, whether you realize it or not. You said you saw something. Now my question is what?”

“Sam, I’m really trying to think, but I honestly don’t know. It’s baffling.”

He nodded. “Let your brain work on it. Don’t keep concentrating. Let it come up with the answer on its own. It’ll come to you when your brain figures it out. Brains are good that way.”

“Since when do you know so much about brains?” she asked, eyeing him skeptically.

“That’s how mine works. I figured yours might operate the same way.”

“If that were true …”

Lazlo was silent, lost in thought during the exchange. When the taxi rolled to a stop, he looked around, as though startled, before climbing out of the cab.

Sam paid the driver, and they began the walk to the temple from the entry gates. The morning air was cool, a light overcast providing some relief from the sun’s blaze. When they arrived at the site, Antonio was standing under the tarp, studying an image on a large monitor.

“What’s that?” Sam asked as they approached him.

“Ah, good morning. This is a feed from a robot that I wrangled from my colleague for a few hours. They’re using it at the other tunnel, but I figured it would speed up our work to have the interior of the chambers filmed before we go crashing around in there.”

“Excellent idea. Where’s your sister?”

“She’s down in the trench, operating the remote. It’s on a cable, so she was limited by length.”

They watched the images flickering on the screen, and Lazlo shook his head when the lens slowly roamed over the carvings. “What do you make of those?”

“Pretty average for Teotihuacan.”

“Do they look Toltec?” Remi asked.

Antonio took a closer look. “Not particularly, but it’s so hard to tell until we have a chance to really—”

“But your first impression is that they look more like the others here?”

Antonio slowly turned to face Remi. “What are you getting at?”

“Something tells me that this find, while interesting, isn’t what we were looking for.”

His eyes widened. “What?”

She explained her reservations to him, taking him through her thinking process. When she was done, Antonio didn’t look quite as confident as he had when they’d arrived.

“But you don’t know what it was you saw that made you question the location?”

She frowned. “Not yet. But it’s a strong feeling.”

Sam moved toward the excavation. “Good morning,” he called down to Maribela, who was staring at a smaller monitor set up on a card table near the crypt entry, maneuvering a joystick to direct the robot beneath her feet. She pressed a button and looked up at him with a smile.

“ Buenos días to you as well.”

“You didn’t happen to find an incredible treasure while we were running late, did you?”

“No. Anything of value was taken long ago.”

“What’s your impression of the carvings? I only saw a few.”

“Too early to say.”

“Did they strike you as appropriate homage to a breathing incarnation of a god?”