The Mayan Priest (47 page)

Tajumulco was frequently scaled by mountain climbers and to date there had been no reports of any unusual activities in those areas. Following her directions, they chose an area rarely seen due to its inaccessibility less than 8000 feet from the summit. It was the most logical position and bought an immediate reaction from Reynata.

She gasped loudly and collapsed to her knees in the dirt. The horror on her face was indescribable. Her eyes were wild and primal, reflecting a long-hidden fear and unspeakable terror.

Peter ran to her immediately, comforting her and whispering in her ear.

Everyone stared although they meant no disrespect. It was hard to ignore someone so visibly in pain and Gillian admitted that it made her a little uncomfortable. She did not know how to react. Some part of her longed to run and comfort this strange woman, but another part made her wary. It was an unusual reaction for Gillian who found her sudden onset of emotions very troubling.

Georgio bent forward and murmured in Gillian’s ear. ‘She was left to die here many years ago, brutally mutilated and alone. She bears many scars both physically and mentally, including the loss of her children and the removal of the fingers on her left hand.’

‘Oh,’ was all Gillian said as she gazed at the black gloved hand and admired the obvious strength this woman possessed.

‘I will lead,’ said Reynata, her smile forced and haunted as she stood upright and marched with determination up the steep rocky incline fraught with large boulders and tufts of hardy grasses.

The walk was not as long as expected and although the temperature had dropped considerably, Gillian was hot and sticky. She did not easily perspire, but the stress and uncontrollable nerves had begun to take their toll on her. She knew they were nearing the entrance which undoubtedly meant espionage and the potential of gunfire. It was to be expected that Arun’s home would be well protected.

Moments passed before Reynata muttered the words: ‘We’re here.’ She pointed to a narrow chasm fitted between a small rock face.

Gillian studied their position carefully. It was an isolated area and it would be impossible to seek help if they needed it. She was further worried about Reynata. They could not in good conscience ask her to accompany them any further, but she was the only one who had ever been inside. Her assistance would be invaluable.

Gillian looked at her and suffered that same flutter of familiarity that had overcome her earlier, and it was really beginning to bother her.

They all drew their guns and hurried after her, following her lead through the arrangement of rock formed by nature and enhanced by the human hand. Years of experience easily allowed Gillian to pick the excellent imitation moulded over the natural shape to create a hidden pathway. She knew it would be fraught with dangers and Reynata’s guidance saved them from incalculable grief.

They reached the colour-coded door within record time, but the lack of intervention was cause for concern and Georgio ordered them to stop before they entered.

‘I’m fuckin’ worried. Where are all the guards? This place should be protected to the hilt, but it’s not’ he whispered, his face crinkled in concern.

Reynata responded. Her voice was soft and shaky. ‘This place is full of security. The only time the guards vacated their post was to witness a sacrifice of importance.’

Gillian’s eyes welled with tears. Her father would be an important sacrifice.

Adam placed his hand on her arm, but she shrugged him off. This was not the time for weakness or sympathy. Her father needed help.

‘Open the bloody door,’ Gillian ordered, her face set and determined. She was not going to take no for an answer. They had come too far to abandon him now.

Georgio grinned. ‘It’s good to see you so fired up. You might actually be useful.’

Gillian felt like slapping him, distracted only by the sliding of the camouflage door and the steel-lined tunnel it revealed.

Georgio turned to Tom. ‘Reynata is too important in the case against Arun for us to risk her life. She requires protection, so I need you to stay with both her and Peter. If we are not back in an hour, you must leave. It’s an order.’

Tom nodded. ‘We’ll be waiting. Sixty minutes and counting.’

Raising their guns for the second time, stopping only to take brief instructions from Reynata, they leapt from their positions and ran on their toes along the windowless hallway.

Georgio led, followed by Gillian and Adam at the rear. They moved quickly and with stealth, pausing momentarily before veering left at the small fork, thirty feet from the entrance. A further forty-five feet passed before they came to another metal door with the familiar Calendar Round symbol imprinted into the centre and a modern keypad with Mayan numerals. Georgio did not hesitate to press the four dots atop three lines, symbolising the Mayan number nineteen, and prayed that Arun had not changed the code since Reynata’s departure.

A collective but quiet sigh escaped their mouths as it clicked and swung inwards, quickly closing behind them, causing Gillian to turn around and view their escape route.

She gasped. There was no internal handle and no obvious way to reopen the door.

She put it to the back of her mind for the moment, concentrating on the task at hand.

They had just reached a set of stairs which in itself was insignificant, but the evolving surroundings gave rise to a new level of fear.

Cut into each polished marble wall were five niches of two feet wide by five feet high. In each niche was a rope stretched from top to bottom and strung up by that rope was an entire body of a recent sacrifice.

Gillian gagged, more at the smell than at the sight. Over the years, she had seen many sacrifices, but these had been bled out from top to bottom whilst still alive. The eyes were still wide with shock, the mouth agape in their final screams. Bruises were still visible on the wrists and ankles where they were shackled in an upright position against a wall or post. The skin had begun to show clear signs of contraction, shrivelling and drying against the internal skeleton whilst the internal flesh began to liquidate.

She turned to Adam and stifled a laugh. He had turned a bright shade of purple and was holding his hands over his eyes to ward off the macabre view.

‘Oh, come on, Adam. Stop being such a child.’

He gave her a scathing look and gestured for her to follow. They did not have time to spare.

Pounding the elaborate floor, they quickly entered through a typical corbelled arch and into a room of cavernous proportions. Gillian looked about in amazement. Clearly designed to either impress or terrify, she considered the latter to be her response.

Constructed entirely from limestone, the walls had been separated into two portions. The lower half was smooth and painted in red, the top half was rough and almost entirely covered in human skulls. It was a sight to behold, not in the sense of enjoyment but in the total bewilderment at the number of humans required to complete such a task. The skulls would have numbered in the thousands and Gillian simply had no words. She was speechless.

Adam’s response was a simple, ‘Bloody ‘ell.’

With a morbid sense of curiosity, Gillian gazed at their features, noting that the mix consisted of larger skulls, most likely to be men, with an approximation of thirty per cent being women, children and babies.

It was so revolting that the hideous, lifelike sculpture of the Mayan god, Cizin, positioned in the centre of the room, barely captured their attention.

In any other surrounding, Gillian would have been suitably taken aback by the squatting figure with the oversized head and large, fearsome teeth, but in this room, it was almost as pleasant as a statue of Venus.

‘Let’s get out of here,’ urged Adam as they required no further encouragement to run from the room, barely missing a contingent of guards who were marching by.

‘Ouch!’ exclaimed Georgio as he slammed his body against Gillian and Adam, forcing them into a small alcove containing a statue of the rain god, Chac.

‘Sorry,’ mouthed Gillian as Georgio gestured for them to stay put whilst he checked the hallway.

He was only gone for a moment. ‘It’s clear,’ he advised before adding, ‘Reynata advised us to continue along this path and veer left, through another gathering room, down a grand set of stairs and into the sacrificial chamber. She also noted that important visitors were able to view the sacrifices from an exclusive room on an upper level, restricted to the general population,’ whispered Georgio.

‘We need to find that viewing platform. At the very least, it will give us the opportunity to view the sacrifice and determine how many people we will be up against. Something tells me that crashing a sacrifice unprepared would not be the wisest decision,’ contributed Adam as Gillian led the way.

With their backs against the wall, they slid along the large, elaborate hallway bedecked with colourful Mayan paintings and numerous statues, resembling more of a museum than an underground sect.

Gillian paid attention to her surroundings. The bizarre skull room and this hallway were designed to impress. It would make sense that people of importance would continue to experience the same treatment for their entire visit. She simply needed to follow the most decorative pathways.

Winding casually downhill, the current hallway passed a set of interconnecting stone stairs and continued on to another ornamental, corbelled arch. On the opposite side of the arch, the hallway split into two further passages, one with a plain stone floor and the other carpeted in red.

They selected the passageway with the plush carpet, pausing when an unexpected intrusion of voices echoed from the stairway twenty feet behind them. Georgio ordered them behind the base of the corbelled arch.

They had prepared for this, but the inability to use their guns created a problem. Georgio had been resolute in his instructions to keep gunfire to a minimum until they reached the sacrificial room. Any warning of an intrusion would certainly alert their adversaries and spell their deaths.

True to form, Georgio ducked and ran to the opposite side of the arch. He held up three fingers as an indication of the three men coming their way.

Gillian was a bundle of nerves and Adam‘s white face indicated he felt the same. She searched her memory to find a moment in her life that she could draw strength from and found the first time she presented a seminar to 300 people. She had been terrified beyond words and resorted to creating a box in her mind in which she could lock her fear. She did the same thing this time and not a moment too soon.

The men were upon them within a few precious seconds and Gillian had no option but to react. She leapt from her position with as much energy as she could muster and targeted the shorter man nearest to her. Without deliberation, Gillian raised her gun and slammed it with all of her might onto the back of the man’s head.

He fell to the floor instantaneously at the same time Georgio grabbed his target by the neck and wrenched it sideways until the spinal cord separated from the skull. Both men fell to the ground with a thud, allowing them to turn their attention to Adam’s fight. He had drawn the short straw, having been allocated a man twice his weight and size, but the head of a nearby statue created a crater in the man’s brain and he joined his friends in an increasing pile of bodies.

Moving quickly, Gillian assisted in pulling the bodies away from the middle of the floor and out of the direct line of vision. It was not a perfect concealment, but they hoped it would buy enough time before the bodies were discovered.

With time rapidly ticking by, Gillian almost broke into a run, coming to a complete stop a mere thirty feet later. Georgio and Adam also heard the rumble beneath their feet, both almost colliding as they knelt down and placed their ears against the floor in unison.

Gillian felt a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach. She knew what it was and her blood ran cold as panic surged through her veins.

They commenced their run, reaching another large room bedecked with faux jaguar fur, large plush couches and a number of tables and chairs. Large paintings of various Mayan buildings decorated the walls and ceilings and a mix of jade and obsidian light fittings were used throughout. Gillian glanced around. She needed to locate a path that would be forbidden to the general population – and quickly.

She scanned the walls in deliberation. There were two further passageways, both of which were unimpressive and open to regular use. What she needed was something that was inspiring. Something that made the guests feel special, important.

Her eyes rolled over the paintings, panels and joins before falling upon a trompe l’oeil. From the distance, it appeared to be a typical stepped Mayan pyramid topped by a glorious temple. To the right and left sides of the pyramid were two smaller pyramids with a passageway into each structure.

That was it! Gillian ran to the painting and it was exactly as she suspected. The painted doorways were real, but which one was the right one?