Empire of Gold (50 page)
Authors: Andy McDermott
He could tell from her struggle to contain another smile that it was something big. Which, considering what they were looking for, could only be one thing. ‘El Dorado?’
‘El Doraaaa-do!’ she sang, showing him a blow-up of the painted city, the Punchaco – and the final piece of statue – at its heart. Mac chuckled at her unrestrained enthusiasm. ‘The number of
huaca
markings on the map before you get there is exactly the same as the number of strings on the khipu up to the point where they turn northeast. They left Cuzco, headed along the Andes, thought they’d found a safe place to hide the empire’s greatest treasures . . . then had to move again to avoid the Spanish. But they left some of the treasure behind. And now . . . we can find it.’
huaca
markings on the map before you get there is exactly the same as the number of strings on the khipu up to the point where they turn northeast. They left Cuzco, headed along the Andes, thought they’d found a safe place to hide the empire’s greatest treasures . . . then had to move again to avoid the Spanish. But they left some of the treasure behind. And now . . . we can find it.’
Eddie gave her a genially mocking look. ‘What, you mean you haven’t already? I thought you were supposed to be good at this archaeology lark!’
She pouted. ‘Well, we
have
only just had breakfast. At least give us until lunchtime!’
have
only just had breakfast. At least give us until lunchtime!’
It took rather longer than that, the process of calculating all the directions and distances represented by each thread of the khipu and then relating those to known
huacas
throughout Peru dragging on through the day. But Osterhagen’s knowledge of the country and its culture proved an enormous asset, even though he was at times on the verge of falling asleep at the table and had to be prodded awake by the two women. The Incas had illustrated on their map what were now known archaeological sites, and the German’s wealth of experience allowed the group to skip long sections of the trek, narrowing the possible location of the lost city each time.
huacas
throughout Peru dragging on through the day. But Osterhagen’s knowledge of the country and its culture proved an enormous asset, even though he was at times on the verge of falling asleep at the table and had to be prodded awake by the two women. The Incas had illustrated on their map what were now known archaeological sites, and the German’s wealth of experience allowed the group to skip long sections of the trek, narrowing the possible location of the lost city each time.
While Nina, Osterhagen and Macy worked in the lounge, Eddie made a phone call from the bedroom. ‘Hi, Nan.’
‘Edward!’ came the delighted voice from across the Atlantic. ‘It’s so wonderful to hear from you. How are you, my little lambchop?’ His grandmother sounded somewhat stronger than the last time they had spoken, if still a little breathless.
‘I’m fine, Nan. I was going to ask you the same thing.’
‘Oh, I feel a lot better, thank you. I still have to wear this silly mask, but hopefully not for much longer – oh, excuse me.’ She stifled a yawn. ‘I’m a bit tired.’
‘Sorry, I forgot about the time difference!’ England was five and a half hours ahead of Venezuela, making it past ten o’clock in Bournemouth. ‘I’ll call back another time.’
‘No, don’t be silly, Edward. It’s never a problem staying up to talk to you. Where are you ringing from?’
‘We’re in Venezuela, but probably won’t be for long. Nina’s on the trail of something.’
‘Venezuela!’ Nan said, alarmed. ‘Is it safe there? I saw all that trouble on the news.’
‘Yeah, we saw some of it too,’ said Eddie, smiling to himself. ‘But everything’s okay now.’
‘Oh, I’m glad. You do lead an exciting life. But when are you going to be in the newspapers, or on television? Everyone saw Nina in the Sphinx last year, but you were only in the background. Why didn’t you say something?’
‘I’m not much of one for publicity. Nina isn’t either,’ he added, ‘but she sort of gets stuck with it. Besides, who wants to be famous? I’d rather be rich.’
‘Well, you’d better get to work on that. And while you’re at it, some great-grandchildren for your old nan would be nice. Before I pop my clogs.’
‘Plenty of time for that, Nan,’ Eddie insisted. ‘But I’ll see what Nina thinks once we find what she’s after.’
At that moment, Nina burst into the room. ‘Eddie, Eddie!’ she said in excitement. ‘We’ve found it! Come and see!’ She rushed back out.
‘She doesn’t waste time, does she?’ said Nan, amused. ‘So, about those great-grandchildren . . . ’
‘Eddie!’
He sighed. ‘I’d better go, before she drags me out. But I’ll call you again when I get the chance.’
‘That’ll be lovely. Will you be coming back to England? I’d love to see you again.’
‘Yeah, soon as I can. I’ll take you for another walk down to the sea.’
‘I can’t wait. Talk to you again soon, Edward. Love you.’
‘Love you too,’ he replied. ‘Bye.’
‘Goodbye, love.’
He hung up, then went into the lounge just as Mac and Kit entered. ‘We were summoned,’ Mac told him wryly.
The three men joined the archaeologists at the table. ‘So, what’ve we got?’ Eddie asked.
‘This is where we’re looking,’ said Nina, tapping a map of Peru. The area beneath her fingernail was in the Amazonas region, south of the border with Ecuador, on the eastern flank of the Andes. ‘Leonard worked out that one of the last places the Incas visited en route was Kuélap, which is a pretty amazing fortress near Chachapoyas.’ She flipped open a reference book to show her audience a picture of its imposing outer wall.
‘Impressive,’ said Mac. ‘And it looks in good shape, too. Did the Spanish discover it?’
‘Actually, no,’ Osterhagen told him. ‘Even though they reached that region, they never found it – which is why it has survived so well.’
‘Which makes it more likely that they never found El Dorado either,’ said Nina. ‘The whole region is cloud forest; high-altitude jungle. Very few inhabitants, now or then – and lots of places to hide.’
‘So how close have you got to finding it?’ Eddie asked.
‘We think within a couple of miles. The directions from Kuélap take you more or less due north for about forty miles, until you reach the point where the Incas headed northeast towards Paititi.’
Kit peered at the map’s contour lines. ‘It looks rather hard to get to.’
Osterhagen shook his head. ‘Not as hard as you think. There is a road that runs through the mountains. Well, I say a road, but it will not exactly be an autobahn. It will be narrow, it will be steep . . . and it will be dangerous. Very dangerous.’
‘Oh, great,’ said Eddie. ‘A death road.’
‘A what?’ Macy asked, alarmed.
‘Well, you know how in the States dangerous roads have barriers and warning signs and kerbs to keep you away from massive cliffs?’
‘Yeah?’
‘This won’t.’ She appeared unhappy at the prospect.
‘Any road is better than no road,’ Mac assured her. ‘But presumably it can’t be too close to the road, or somebody would have discovered it by now.’
‘We’ve got some more clues,’ Nina replied. ‘The map in Paititi showed that El Dorado was very close to a waterfall.’ She nodded towards a laptop. ‘We’ve checked the IHA’s satellite imagery, and think we’ve pinpointed it.’
‘And we should be able to drive most of the way,’ said Osterhagen. ‘There will be a trek through the jungle, but nothing worse than at Paititi. The area around the waterfall is reasonably flat.’
Mac nodded. ‘That sounds good.’
‘For what?’ Eddie asked.
‘For me.’
‘What?’
‘I rather fancied coming along with you this time,’ said the Scot amiably.
‘Are you kidding?’
‘Not at all. I’d quite like to see one of these incredible discoveries first-hand. And to be perfectly honest, that little jaunt around Caracas the other night . . . well, it made me realise that in some ways I rather miss the action.’
‘But you really want to come on an expedition?’ Nina asked.
‘Why not? Dr Osterhagen said the place you’ll be exploring is fairly accessible. And just because I’ve got a tin leg doesn’t make me helpless. I’ve run a couple of half-marathons on it.’
‘Well, if you think you’re up to it, I’d be happy for you to come with us,’ said Nina. She saw from her husband’s face that he had a different opinion, but he said nothing. ‘So,’ she went on, addressing the whole group, ‘this could be it. We might actually have found El Dorado.’
‘What’s the next move?’ asked Kit.
‘The first thing is to contact the Peruvian government via the UN and ask permission to mount an expedition. Considering what we’re looking for, I think we’ll get an answer fairly quickly. Once we have that, organising everything shouldn’t take too long. As Leonard said, we can drive there.’
‘And if we actually find El Dorado?’ asked Mac.
‘Then we’ll probably be sticking around for a while! But you won’t have to stay if you don’t want to. As much as I love getting down to the real nitty-gritty of archaeological work, I know it’s not for everybody.’
‘Does that mean I can leave too?’ Eddie asked, raising a few laughs.
Kit had more to add. ‘When you talk to the Peruvian government, Nina, make sure you emphasise the need for security. If word gets out about what we’re searching for, the entire region will fill with treasure hunters – or worse.’
‘Wait, “we”?’ said Eddie. ‘You want to come an’ all? Thought the case was closed now that we’ve got back the stuff Da— de Quesada nicked.’ Only Kit noticed his near-slip, but the Interpol agent’s knowing look assured him that their mutual secret would remain that way for now.
‘Technically, it is,’ said Kit. ‘But . . . well, I agree with Mac. I want to see the lost city of gold! And I also want to see what happens when Nina puts all the statues together.’
‘Okay,’ said Nina. ‘I’ll talk to the UN tomorrow. Until then, we’re still honoured guests of the Venezuelan president, so we might as well make the most of it. Dinner, I think?’
There was a chorus of agreement from round the table. The group broke up, heading back to their rooms to freshen up and change. Eddie followed Mac out, catching up with the Scot in the corridor. ‘Mac. A word?’
‘Something the matter, Eddie?’ Mac asked innocently.
‘You know bloody well there is. Why do you want to come with us?’
‘For exactly the reasons I told Nina. I’m honestly keen to see what she’s going to find. And since I flew halfway round the world, I think it would be a shame to go home right before the interesting part.’
‘You didn’t think being shot at by a Hind was interesting?’
‘There’s interesting, and there’s
interesting
.’ Mac smiled; then his expression became more serious. ‘I may be getting on, Eddie, but I’m not some invalid. And I want to make the most of life before I become one. As I told Nina, I ran some half-marathons after I recovered from losing my leg, but I doubt I could manage another one.’
interesting
.’ Mac smiled; then his expression became more serious. ‘I may be getting on, Eddie, but I’m not some invalid. And I want to make the most of life before I become one. As I told Nina, I ran some half-marathons after I recovered from losing my leg, but I doubt I could manage another one.’
‘Good job you don’t need to. You’ve got a free bus pass now.’
‘Very amusing. Although I do like being able to get home without having to pay. Once I’m there, though . . .’ A regretful tone came into his voice. ‘It’s rather an empty place, truth be told. Especially in the evenings. I want something to do, and people to do it with.’
Eddie was taken aback by his friend’s confession. ‘Why didn’t you say something before? I could have come over to England more often.’
‘I don’t want sympathy, Eddie,’ Mac snapped. ‘I want to play my part!’
‘But you do, though. You do that consulting work for MI6, you’ve helped me and Nina out of trouble – Christ, you even saved a roomful of world leaders from getting blown up last year.’
‘We mostly have Kit to thank for that,’ said Mac. ‘But the point is, I don’t want to suffer a gradual slide into senescence—’
‘Into what?’
‘Crumbling decrepitude. I’d rather keel over dead on the spot from a heart attack before I reach seventy than shrivel away in a hospital ward stuck full of tubes.’
His words summoned up an image in Eddie’s mind: his grandmother, small and helpless in the hospital bed, face covered by an oxygen mask. ‘Yeah,’ he said quietly. ‘That’s no way to end up.’
Mac recognised his change of mood, and understood its meaning. ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to be quite so . . . blunt.’
‘That’s okay.’ He forced away the depressing mental picture. ‘So what you’re saying is, you want to fight to the end.’
‘To coin a phrase, yes.’ A wry smile crinkled Mac’s features. ‘Although I could do without literally fighting. I’ve had more than enough of that!’
‘But you really think you’re up for it? Jungles, mountains, death roads?’
‘If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have asked to go in the first place, would I?’ He clapped the younger man on the shoulder. ‘I already had you carry me to safety once in my life. Twice would be embarrassing. I still have my pride!’
‘Well . . . all right,’ said Eddie, feigning grudging acceptance. ‘So long as I don’t have to share a tent with you.’
‘If that were going to happen, I’d back out right now!’ They both laughed. ‘Better get ready for dinner. See you soon.’ He headed down the hallway.
Eddie watched him go, then returned to his own suite.
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