31
Eddie gazed up at his discovery. Behind the
waterfall, everything was shrouded in shadow, but there was still
more than enough light to see the scale of the wall. Like the
ceremonial buildings at the heart of Paititi, it was built from
exactingly carved blocks, fitted together with incredible
precision. Thirty feet above him was its top, a horizontal line
bisecting what had once been an irregularly shaped cave mouth. He
couldn’t help thinking it looked like a battlement, the almost
sheer, incredibly smooth surface making it impossible for anyone to
get inside.
Except by the
entrance further along the ledge.
The laser rangefinder
had been correct; there was a second, much smaller hole. He
regarded it with deep suspicion. It was about five feet high by
four wide, and as far as he could tell wasn’t barricaded. A simple,
inviting way in.
Too simple. Too
inviting. The Incas wouldn’t have built a massive defensive wall,
then left a hole through which any gold-hunter could wander. There
had to be a catch.
‘What do you mean, a
wall?’ said Nina over the radio.
He described it, then
continued along the ledge. ‘I’m going to look through the doorway,’
he reported as he advanced. A gentle trickle of liquid splashed
over his hand as he balanced it against the wall – not from the
waterfall, but from a small slotlike opening above. There were
similar gaps nearby. ‘I think there’s water behind the wall as
well. I just went under a drainage hole. Hope nobody’s still living
here – I’ll be pissed off if I’ve been pissed on.’
‘At least you’ll be
able to wash yourself straight away,’ said Nina. ‘How far to the
doorway?’
‘Almost there.’ He
sidestepped along the last few feet, then cautiously peered into
the opening.
Nothing leapt out at
him, no traps were sprung. The confined stone passage looked empty,
extending about twelve feet before stopping at a wall. Taking out a
Maglite, he crouched and shone the torch inside. There appeared to
be a vertical shaft rising up on the other side of the wall. But to
where?
‘Okay,’ he said,
after telling Nina and the others what he had found, ‘it looks
clear, but I don’t really trust it. Were the Incas big on
booby-traps?’
Osterhagen took the
radio. ‘The Incas never developed the wheel, so they weren’t able
to build complex mechanisms. But there have been simple traps found
at some sites – tripwires, balanced stones.’
‘Great. Just what I
needed to hear.’
Nina’s voice came
back through the speaker. ‘Eddie, wait where you are. I’m coming
up.’
‘Don’t suppose I
could persuade you not to? Yeah, thought not,’ he added before she
could even reply. ‘You’ll want to put on a rain hat,
though.’
It took her ten
minutes to get there, holding the rope tightly as she shuffled
along the ledge. Even though she had donned a hooded nylon poncho
over her clothes, she was still soaked to the skin. ‘God damn it!’
she said as she reached him. ‘This thing was supposed to be
waterproof.’
‘Even if you wore a
full gimp suit, water’d still get in somewhere,’ Eddie told her.
‘Anyway, this is what we’ve got.’ He shone his light into the
tunnel. ‘I risked a look inside while I was waiting. There’s a
ledge about seven or eight feet up the back wall, some more above
that. And there’s something else. Have a gander.’ He ducked, and
moved carefully into the passage, at its end turning sideways so
Nina could squeeze past him to see for herself. ‘What do you
think?’
‘I think . . . that
looks kinda damn worrying,’ she said as she looked up the
shaft.
The way up appeared
to be stepped; she couldn’t see all the way to the top, but at
least three ledges were visible above. Anyone trying to ascend
would have to jump to grab the lip of the next step, then pull up
and repeat the process. It would be a strain for someone of her
modest height, but far from impossible.
That wasn’t what
concerned her, however. The reason for her worry was what faced the
ledges, set into the back of the great wall behind
her.
Spikes.
The first row was
only a foot above her head. She gingerly touched one. The dirt that
had built up over the centuries came away at her touch, revealing
the metal beneath. ‘Oh, my God,’ she said. ‘It’s silver. Solid
silver. They all are.’
‘Silver?’ echoed
Eddie. ‘But there’s dozens of the bloody things – hundreds. They
must be worth a fortune!’
‘And these are just
the defences. Imagine what the treasures they’re actually
protecting must be.’ She tapped the spike’s tip. ‘Ow! Okay, that’s
still sharp.’
‘Not much of a
defence, though.’ Eddie leaned across the vertical passage,
stretching out one arm to the back wall. ‘There’s plenty of space.
You’d have to be really clumsy or a total fat bastard to hit them
while you were climbing up. Maybe the spikes move.’ He tested how
securely the silver prong Nina had touched was attached to the
wall. It was firmly fixed. ‘There’s got to be something. Otherwise
why put’em here?’
‘I suppose you’d hit
them if you fell back down the shaft.’ The ranks of spikes were
angled upwards, as if to catch anything that dropped on to them.
‘Or were pushed.’
‘Something pops out
of the wall?’
‘Maybe. I don’t know.
But it’s the only way up.’
Eddie directed his
torch back up the shaft. ‘I’ll have a look at the next level,’ he
said, stepping out of the low tunnel and standing upright. ‘Move
back. Just in case anything happens.’
Somewhat unwillingly,
Nina retreated. Eddie aimed his torch beam along the lip of the
ledge above. No sign of loosely fitted stones that might be
triggers. Something as simple as small spikes just behind the edge
would prove nasty, so he jumped up as high as he could, looking for
telltale flashes of silver. Nothing.
He steeled himself,
then leapt again, this time grabbing the edge with both hands. He
hung for a moment, listening for any unexpected noises. But there
was nothing except the waterfall’s constant rumble.
‘Do you see
anything?’ Nina called.
‘Just looking now . .
. ’ He pulled himself up. The ledge, a rectangular stone slab four
feet wide and three deep, was empty of anything except dirt. ‘It’s
clear.’ He climbed the rest of the way.
Nina watched as he
used the Maglite to check the walls – and the spikes. ‘Is there
anything there?’
‘Nope.’ He examined
the ledge above. ‘Oh, ’ello! There’s something on the next
level.’
‘What?’
‘Statue heads on the
back wall.’ Still cautious, he climbed up for a closer look. Three
stone faces stared coldly at him: sleek, aggressive and feline.
‘Big cats – like panthers or something.’ He reached for
one—
‘Eddie, don’t touch
them!’ Nina cried.
His hand froze an
inch short. ‘What is it?’
‘The map, in Paititi
– it had jaguars on it. Three of them, at the entrance to the lost
city. And something bad was happening. Give me the radio, I need to
check with Leonard.’
He tossed it down to
her. ‘Leonard,’ she said, ‘do you have the close-up photo of El
Dorado from the map?’
‘Just a moment,’ came
the crackling reply. A short while later, the German’s voice
returned. ‘I have it.’
‘Good. Look at the
section with the three jaguars – tell me exactly what you
see.’
‘Why? What have you
found?’
‘Eddie’s found the
jaguars, but I think we might find something else if we’re not
careful. What’s on the picture?’
‘Okay, there are . .
. three jaguars sitting in a line. To the left is what appears to
be a waterfall, with two men being swept away by it.’
‘Eddie, did you hear
that?’ she asked, looking up. Eddie nodded. ‘Is there anything
unusual about the waterfall? Any objects or symbols by
it?’
‘There are . . .
small lines beside it,’ the older archaeologist said. ‘Many of them
– twenty or more.’
‘Diagonal, pointing
up, yes?’
‘Yes, that is right.
You have a good memory for pictures.’
‘No, I’m staring
right at them.’ She gave the silver skewers a leery look. ‘We’re in
a vertical shaft, and one wall is covered with metal
spikes.’
‘Wait,’ said Eddie,
‘so the waterfall comes down here?’
‘And washes you into
the spikes, yeah.’
‘Oh, that’s fucking
magic! I’m coming back down.’
‘No, stay up there,’
Nina said quickly. ‘Leonard, I’m going to get Eddie to describe
what he’s seeing, okay?’ She held the radio high so it could pick
up his voice.
Unnerved, Eddie
shouted a description of the three stone heads. ‘They’re about a
foot apart, and . . . ’ He looked more closely, shining his torch
beneath them. ‘And it looks like they move. There’s a vertical slot
underneath each of ’em, like they’re on the ends of
levers.’
‘How far can they
move?’ Nina asked.
‘Not far. Six inches,
maybe.’
She thought for a
moment, trying to compare what Eddie was seeing with her memory of
the picture. ‘Leonard, what was on the other side of the three
jaguars?’
‘A man climbing some
very steep steps.’
‘And are the spikes
on that part of the picture too?’
‘Yes.’
‘Two sets of stairs?’
Eddie wondered.
Nina shook her head.
‘There’s only one entrance. No, it’s something to do with the
cats.’ She asked Osterhagen to describe the three
animals.
‘The two on the left
are sitting upright,’ he told her. ‘The one on the right is
crouching down.’
‘Two up, one down,’
she said. ‘It’s part of the Incas’ journey, a clue. But it’s like
the huaca markings and the khipu - they
thought it was one only they would understand.’
‘Well, if you
understand it, I wish you’d tell me,’ Eddie said.
‘I think it’s a key –
the way to get into El Dorado safely. The two cats on the left are
sitting up, so their heads are held high - at the top of the slots.
But the one on the right is looking down at the man climbing up the
steps—’
‘At the bottom of the
slot,’ he concluded. ‘Like a combination lock. Two up, one down,
and that stops you having terminal acupuncture.’
‘Exactly. Well, er, I
think. I hope.’
‘Yeah, I hope too,
seeing as I’m the one who’s going to have to bloody test
it!’
‘Are you sure?’ she
asked. ‘We can always go back and try to figure out some other way
to get up there.’
‘No, I think you’re
right,’ he said. ‘They wouldn’t have put it on the map if it didn’t
mean something. All the other stuff on it’s worked out so far, so .
. .’ He straightened. ‘Let’s give it a shot, then. Here, kitty,
kitty . . . ’
He put his hand on
the rightmost of the three carved heads, hesitated – then firmly
pushed it down.
There was a muffled
grinding sound from behind the slot, then silence. He looked up. No
water erupted into the shaft. ‘Is it all the way down?’ Nina
asked.
‘Far as it’ll
go.’
‘So now
what?’
‘See if it worked, I
guess. Okay, let’s see . . .’ He swept his light along the edge of
the third step above him. Nothing out of the ordinary presented
itself. He climbed up, finding that this ledge was devoid of any
features, only plain walls of intricately arranged
blocks.
The top of the shaft
was now visible above, the ceiling of a high cave picked out in the
half-light coming through the waterfall. Whatever secrets the Incas
had left behind were only a matter of feet above.
The thought made him
more wary than ever.
He performed another
round of checks for potential traps on the fourth ledge. This time,
he noticed something different, and unsettling: a gap beneath the
slab forming the step. It was only a matter of millimetres high,
but compared to the precision of everything else it stood out like
a gaping chasm. He took out his knife and probed the narrow
opening. It was deeper than his blade could reach.
‘Nina?’
‘Yes?’
‘Go back outside. I
think I’ve found the trigger.’
‘No, I’ll stay with
you.’
‘No you won’t, ’cause
if we’ve cocked this up, I’ll end up stuck on some spikes and
you’ll get chucked on to those rocks outside! Go back on to the
ledge – stand a few feet from the doorway be safe. Go
on!’
Nina reluctantly
headed down the tunnel. Eddie waited until he was sure she was
clear, then turned his attention back to the next step. Could he
wedge something into the gap? Maybe, but that seemed a little too
obvious.
Besides, he had
confidence in his wife. All the puzzle pieces fitted together – it
was time to see the full picture.
He jumped up and
grabbed the edge of the slab.
A faint creak, just
the tiniest hint of give as his full weight hung from the stone . .
.
And
nothing.
He climbed up to
stand on the ledge and a jolt of fear surged through him as the
stone tipped very slightly beneath his feet. But again, nothing
happened. Either the trap had broken down over time, or the jaguar
heads really were in the correct position to stop it from going
off. There definitely was a trap,
though; beneath the slab was a fulcrum, the stone tilting on it
like a seesaw. But it wasn’t the weight of someone climbing up that
would set it off, rather when they stood on the ledge itself,
thinking they were safe . . . only for water to explode down the
shaft and slam them into the spikes.
‘Clever little
buggers,’ Eddie muttered, turning his attention to the top of the
shaft. As far as he could tell there were no more hidden
threats.
He climbed up into
the cave itself.
Nina had guessed from
the absence of water surging down the tunnel that Eddie had
successfully avoided the flood trap. But as minutes passed with no
sign of him, she became increasingly worried. Unable to endure the
uncertainty any more, she went back through the opening. ‘Eddie!’
she called. ‘Eddie, can you hear me?’
No reply. Concern
rising with each step, she peered up the vertical shaft – and Eddie
dropped down in front of her, making her shriek in surprise. ‘Ay
up, love.’
‘Jesus, Eddie!’ She
recovered her composure. ‘Are you okay? What took you so
long?’
‘I’m fine – I was
just having a look round.’
‘What’s up
there?’
He shrugged. ‘Bits
and bobs.’
‘What?’
Disappointment washed over her, as cold as the waterfall outside.
Had the site already been looted – or worse, was it nothing but a
decoy, an Inca trick? ‘There’s no city? Nothing
valuable?’
‘I dunno, I’m not the
archaeologist, am I? Come on, I’ll help you up so you can see for
yourself. Watch out for the spikes.’
He hoisted her up so
she could climb on to the first ledge, then followed. Before long
they were at the top of the shaft. ‘I’ll go first and pull you up,’
said Eddie. He climbed into the cave, then reached down for her.
‘Ready?’
She nodded and took
hold of his arms, then he hoisted her up the final section of wall.
Nina stood, eyes adjusting to the grey light as she looked into the
cave.
For a moment, she was
dumbstruck. Then she finally managed to speak. ‘Oh, you son of a
bitch.’
Eddie shrugged again,
this time with a grin. ‘Yeah, I was lying. Just wanted to see your
face.’
Filling the great
cave was a lost Inca city. El Dorado. The legend was
real.