The Maya Codex (7 page)

Twenty minutes later Levi emerged into a clearing, surrounded by moss-covered limestone pyramids. The jungle was noisier now. The howler monkeys competed with the chirps and trills of the hummingbirds, the
hoot-oot
of the blue-crowned motmot, the insistent
kyowh-kyowh
of the orange-breasted falcon and the
squark-squark
of the brilliantly coloured macaws and parrots.

Levi moved through the East Plaza, skirting the sacred court where the Maya had played humanity’s oldest and most brutal ball game. He reached the Great Plaza and the base of Pyramid I, built by Jasaw Chan K’awiil, the twenty-fifth ruler of the ancient city. Levi looked up. The limestone steps of the huge pyramid connected nine separate levels, culminating in the roof comb, nearly forty-six metres above the plaza.

Breathing hard, Levi at last reached the summit and turned to survey the jungle below. A heavy white mist drifted through the tops of the thirty-metre-high ceiba trees, sacred to those who had once occupied the ancient city. Huge mahogany, cedar, chicle and ramon trees towered over the smaller copal trees and escobo palms, forming a thick green carpet as far as Levi could see. To the west stood the imposing Pyramid II, and to the south-west of the Great Plaza he could see Pyramid III. Further west the roof comb of Pyramid IV thrust defiantly through the mists, while to the south, the top of Pyramid V was also visible, as was the Pyramid of the Lost World. Levi walked to the east side of Pyramid I. The mists on the horizon were tinged with a brilliant orange-red glow. A fiery sun rose slowly and majestically, bathing the ancient city in its light.

Levi felt a sense of awe as he reflected on the ancient Maya. To the east of the Great Plaza the jungle had taken over the magnificent paved causeways that once controlled the entry of traders into a bustling marketplace. The pyramid temples of a mighty city that had glimmered in a brilliant shade of salmon pink had now eroded to reveal a dirty limestone, covered here and there in a dank, dark moss. Levi shivered. The sudden fall of the Maya was an eerie reflection of humankind’s vulnerability and mortality. He turned towards Pyramid IV, pulled a compass from his pocket and took a bearing, then a second bearing on the Pyramid of the Lost World.

Far below, von Heißen adjusted his binoculars. He stood in the shadows of the ball court and watched as Professor Weizman put the compass to his eye.

Roberto Arana, the shaman from the shores of Lake Atitlán, was also watching. He was short and stocky and his sun-weathered face looked older than his years. His jet-black hair was tied in a ponytail and he wore a bright-red bandana. More at home in the jungle than either von Heißen or Levi Weizman, Roberto kept both men in view from his position in the rainforest beside Pyramid II.

Levi waited while the mother-of-pearl disc steadied. His pulse quickened as it stabilised. His experiment back in Vienna with the light beam had predicted that the prism on top of the first figurine would deflect the sunrise, aligning the sun’s rays on precisely the same bearing, directly towards the top of Pyramid IV. Was the second figurine somewhere in the depths of the partially explored Pyramid IV? And where was the third?

Levi replaced the battered compass in the pouch on his belt and began to descend the steep blackened limestone steps on the eastern face of Pyramid I. His thoughts turned to Ramona, Ariel and Rebekkah. In Vienna, he knew, things had gone from bad to worse. Hitler was more threatening than ever, and the Austrian Nazi Party’s Brownshirts were firmly in control of the streets.

Von Heißen put down his binoculars and waited.

5

VIENNA

A
riel Weizman started up the steps towards
Judengasse
, fighting back tears. Rebekkah was already crying and Ariel took her hand, determined to protect her. The humiliation at the hands of their new teacher had been crushing.

‘You! Weizman and your sister!
Jude Kinder!
’ Herr Schweizer had yelled at Ariel and Rebekkah as soon as the bell rang to signify the start of classes. Schweizer was thin and balding with a wispy moustache.

‘Filthy, stinking
Jude Kinder
! You’re lucky to even be allowed in this class. From now on you will both sit at the back of the room. The world would be better off without your type, and the rest of us don’t want to be contaminated!’

Laughter echoed off the old
Hauptschule
walls, and Ariel looked around. Even his friends were laughing at him. He made his way to the back of the class with Rebekkah and sat down. Numb. What had they done to deserve this?

Herr Schweizer, a senior vice president for his region in the banned Austrian Nazi Party, addressed his new charges.

‘There are going to be some changes around here, for the good of Austria and the greater
Deutschland
. We will deal this morning with the Treaty of Versailles. Can anyone tell me what that was and why Germany should never have been a party to it?’

Rebekkah clung to her brother’s hand as she dragged her satchel up the
Donaukanal-Judengasse
steps, her blonde curls bedraggled; the cracks between the steps fuzzy through her tears.

It wasn’t until they’d almost reached the top that Ariel noticed the crowd. Suddenly a stranger grabbed him by the ear. His assailant was a large, rotund man in breeches. The man wore a felt hat with a large feather. His coat looked several sizes too small and he was wearing a swastika armband on his sleeve.

‘What are you doing here?’ the man demanded, his face florid.

‘Let go of me! We live here!’ Ariel replied, trying to shield his little sister.

‘So!
Jude Kinder!
Gutter-dwelling
Jude Kinder
!’ the stranger bellowed, addressing his remarks to the jeering crowd. Though it was the second time Ariel had heard the words that day, the sting was no less vicious. He caught sight of Herr Lieberman and his wife, who owned the carpet store a few doors down from his mother’s boutique. They were scrubbing the steps with toothbrushes. Herr Lieberman looked sad yet somehow dignified as he shook his head at Ariel and Rebekkah, indicating they shouldn’t resist.

The stranger thrust a paint can and brush into Ariel’s hand.

‘Schreiben Sie hier Jude verrecke!’
He grabbed Ariel by the neck and forced him roughly to the ground. The crowd began to chant menacingly. In a futile gesture, Rebekkah flailed at the stranger who held her by the hair.

‘Sieg Heil! Jude verrecke! Sieg Heil! Jude verrecke!’

Through uncomprehending tears, Ariel began to paint the words in large black letters on the steps.
Jude verrecke!
Death to the Jews!

When Ariel finished, the crowd reacted with a roar and the stranger kicked him behind his knees. Ariel’s legs buckled and he fell backwards down the steps. The man kicked the paint can after him and thick black paint splashed over Ariel’s face and school uniform. The crowd cheered wildly.

Ariel wiped his nose and mouth and looked up to find three older boys in brown shirts crowding over him. He yelped in pain as one of them kicked him in the ribs.

‘I wouldn’t walk to school tomorrow, Jew boy, and that goes for your bitch of a sister too. We’ll be waiting.’

Ariel missed his father more than ever, and once again he fought back the tears. He put his arm around Rebekkah to shelter her and together they made their escape.

Himmler strode past the high-backed red-and-gold armchairs and tables interspersed at regular intervals down the Hall of Marble, a long impressive room at the front of the new Reich Chancellery. His boots rang on the marble floor, echoing off walls decorated with priceless tapestries. The magnificent red marble had been specially quarried from Untersberg. Designed by Hitler’s architect, Albert Speer, the Chancellery took up several city blocks on
Wilhelmstrasse
and
Vosstrasse
.

Two SS guards stood beneath the marble archway that led to the double doors of Hitler’s vast office.

‘
Reichsführer Himmler, mein Führer
.’ Hitler’s adjutant Oberst Friedrich Hossbach clicked his heels.

Anyone admitted to Hitler’s office in the Reich Chancellery could not fail to be impressed. Hitler’s huge desk at the far end of the room was exquisitely finished with inlaid wood and upholstered with the finest red leather, and was matched with a high-backed red-leather chair. A map table was positioned near the French doors overlooking the courtyard. Some of Hitler’s favourite oils hung from the walls, and indoor plants in large Egyptian-styled vases on the floor added to the ambience. A large golden eagle was suspended over the double doors.

‘Our expedition has arrived in Tikal, and they’ve begun their search,’ Himmler advised his leader after they were seated on the comfortable powder-blue lounges in front of a vast marble fireplace at one end of the office.

‘Excellent,’ Hitler affirmed with a satisfied look.

‘I’ve received a cable from our ambassador in Guatemala City,’ Himmler continued. ‘It appears that during his last visit to Lake Atitlán, Professor Weizman met with a Mayan shaman and discussed the existence of a priceless codex. We’ve not been able to confirm it, but Weizman may have also discovered an ancient figurine that may hold a clue to the whereabouts of the codex.’

‘How does the ambassador know that?’

‘Our ambassador and the papal nuncio in Guatemala City keep in close contact,
mein Führer
. Father Ehrlichmann, the Catholic priest to San Pedro and Tikal, is a useful source of intelligence.’

‘Von Heißen has been warned?’

Himmler nodded. ‘Weizman’s belongings have been searched and von Heißen has him under constant surveillance.’

‘You can never trust a Jew, Himmler, never! But the search for the origins and secrets of the Aryan race must go on. Keep Weizman alive, but only for as long as he’s useful.’

‘
Jawohl, mein Führer
. When you take over Vienna, we will turn his apartment upside down.’

At the mention of the city in which he’d known desperate poverty, Hitler became agitated. He got to his feet and began to pace the length of his huge study.

‘There are those amongst us who think invading Austria is a mistake.’ Hitler glared into the courtyard through the French doors, arms akimbo. ‘But I’m meeting with the chiefs of staff and that lily-livered foreign minister, von Neurath, this afternoon to inform them that not only are they to be ready to invade Austria, but Czechoslovakia as well.’

Himmler nodded approvingly. ‘We must have more land,
mein Führer
.’

‘
Lebensraum!
It’s a question of space for the master race, gentlemen.’

The Führer’s energy crackled through the silence around the vast cabinet table. Just six men were seated in the burgundy chairs, each embroidered with a black eagle atop the swastika: Reichsmarshal von Blomberg, Commander in Chief of the armed forces and Minister for War; Baron Konstantin von Neurath, Foreign Minister; Admiral Doktor Erich Raeder, Commander in Chief of the navy; Generaloberst Baron Freiherr von Fritsch, Commander in Chief of the army; Generaloberst Hermann Göring, Commander in Chief of the air force; and Colonel Friedrich Hossbach, Adjutant to the Führer. The long polished mahogany table was covered with a burgundy tapestry runner embroidered with gold swastikas. Gold tassels overhung the table at either end. Lighting was provided from small candelabra lamps spaced at intervals down the centre. Crimson files embossed with the golden eagle and the swastika and marked
Streng Geheim
– most secret – lay unopened on the cabinet table. Each man knew the contents well, and each was now contemplating the enormity of the Führer’s plans.