The Inca Prophecy

22 Alliance

Nina had trouble sleeping. After hearing the dreadful news over a myriad of news channels that her two closest friends had probably perished in a terrible seaborne crash, her mind could not stop racing. She was on her way to Spain, not sure exactly where she would start looking for Purdue and Sam, but she did not care. As long as she did not have definitive proof that they were dead, she would keep searching. Of all people she knew them best and had a hard line to their way of thinking.

After the crash was reported, Nina had contacted Purdue’s assistant and various offices of his, only to learn that he was indeed missing and had not yet contacted any of them. The same went for Sam. His cell phone number informed her that the subscriber was not available, something Sam’s phone would never normally say. At worst, it would go to voice mail. This confirmed her fears that the two men may truly be lost, but she refused to write them off as dead and gone.

After her Glasgow to Dublin flight, she connected almost immediately to her Madrid flight, leaving her exhausted by the time her plane touched down on the wet runways of the Madrid — Barajas Airport. The rain was unusual for this time of year in Spain, but after the recent heat wave, it was not too surprising.

Nina had barely switched on her cell phone when a whole list of missed calls came through on her phone. Her demeanor lifted instantly, assuming it would be either Sam or Purdue telling her that they were safe and sound and keeping a low profile for some reason. They would do such a thing. In fact, it would be odd if they behaved normally. All the calls were from a landline in Sagunto, which could very well have been the boys. Of all the calls, the last that came from that number was on her voice mail.

Hastening, she punched in her code and listened.

“Hola, this is an urgent call for Dr. Nina Gould the historian,” a male voice opened. His English was decent, but his accent was very heavy and she had to strain to understand. It was a call from a Sagunto police officer, Capt. Sanchez, urgently needing her expertise in an ongoing homicide investigation. Nina sighed. Feeling disappointed, she hung up the phone before the message was completed.

“I don’t have time for this,” she muttered, hardly able to stay awake anymore. She decided to return the call from the unknown number once she got to Málaga, but first she had to freshen up and get something to eat at one of the airport restaurants. While she was having an order of lasagna and espresso her phone rang incessantly inside her leather sling bag. She would check the call to make sure it was not Sam or Purdue, but noticed that the police captain was unbelievably persistent.

“Come on, nothing can be this urgent,” she said with a mouth full of food as she answered the phone, hoping it would repel his efforts. But it had quite the opposite effect.

“Dr. Gould? Dr. Gould! Dios mío, I have been desperate to speak to you,” he gasped in delight.

“Um, hang on,” she replied, and took a moment to swallow her food. “Listen, Capt. Sanchez, I appreciate that you need to get my advice on something, but I am extremely busy right now.”

“Please, Dr. Gould, I will not take more than five minutes, I think, of your time. Please. As we speak I am leaving to a town in Alicante where something terrible is about to happen between a suspect and a very nefarious member of the Black Sun, and I have to know before I get there,” he implored in one fell swoop without as much as taking a break to breathe.

“Wait, what?” she asked abruptly. She had to make sure that she’d correctly heard the name of the organization that had almost claimed her life a few times. “The Black Sun did what?”

“You see, I need to know what they are, what they aim to do, before this young woman and the little boy come to harm…,” he insisted, but Nina stopped him. She had an idea.

“Capt. Sanchez, I am in Spain currently,” she began to explain.

“Oh, fantastic! Can we me…?” he interrupted her.

“Listen!” she barked. “My apologies for being a bitch, but I have two dear friends missing, I have not slept in about two days, and I have no idea where to even begin looking for them. Now, I might have a solution for both of us,” she offered in a milder tone.

“I’m listening,” he replied.

“Alright, Captain. I’m at the airport in Madrid, the Madrid — Barajas airport,” she said.

“Sí, sí,” he mumbled, clearly busy grappling for a pen and paper on the other side of the line.

“If you could meet me here, I can postpone my flight to Málaga and first help you,” she suggested. “But in return I need your help and resources to help me find my friends. Do we have a deal?”

“I’ll do you better,” he said hesitantly, and then corrected his phrase. “I’ll do you one better, okay? If you help me with this information, I will take you myself to where you must go and ask my colleagues to make a search party, if you want.”

Nina was more than satisfied. “Captain Sanchez, we have an accord. What time will you be here?”