The Inca Prophecy

29 Convergence

Nina’s lips fell softly onto Sam’s. He became aware of a hum that prevailed in the darkness, but he could not place what it was. Unaware of his surroundings, he only focused on her, his lover on occasion, his friend perpetually. Sam parted his lips with hers and he felt as if he were floating through space. The hum turned into a rhythmic echo far away, and it gradually turned into a heartbeat as his ears processed the sound. Eventually he realized that the heartbeat was breaking up into little pieces, separate voices and words, spoken in a tunnel.

Is this what it is like to be dead? he wondered, thinking of all those tales about tunnels and loved ones. But Nina isn’t dead, so I must be imagining her.

Sam could still smell her perfume, but she seemed distant, unable to see him. Drifting in and out of darkness, the words and voices became more prominent. Again he felt Nina’s kiss, but this time it was cold. Sam tried to open his eyes, but the dark would not release him.

“Sam!” he heard Nina yell. Her voice was sharp and loud, almost unpleasant. The he felt the cold, not the cold of her lips, but the discomfort of the cool wind on his wet body. “Sam, can you hear me?” she repeated a few times, tapping him lightly on the cheek. Her voice turned vague as she addressed someone behind her, “He is alive, but I can’t seem to revive him.”

He forced his eyelids apart, but as soon as he managed that he was blinded by a collection of bright searchlights glaring down on him. Sam lifted his hand to shield his eyes, but his arms felt like lead. “Oh God, my arm!” he groaned.

“He’s awake! He’s awake!” Nina shouted. “We got them both! Fuck yes!” she shrieked excitedly. “Sam, can you hear me, love?”

“I thought I was in heaven before, but I seem to be there now,” he smiled faintly. “You have no idea how good it is to hear your voice again. I thought I would never hear that sweet sound again.”

Purdue spoke from next to him. “And would you even have missed me?”

Sam tried to laugh, but both men were too exhausted, having barely survived their atrocious ordeal. Had it not been for Nina and Capt. Sanchez, they would have filled the bellies of sharks by now.

Blankets could hardly keep Sam and Purdue warm, but Capt. Sanchez’ officers brought them some soup and got them inside. Again, they sat at the nook where so many discussions had determined their fate thus far, that both of them looked a little ill in the gills at having to sit there again.

Purdue’s shoulder had been dressed. He kept it folded against his chest in a sling, while the EMT braced Sam’s arm and put it in a cast on site. They found that the infirmary on the trawler was less than adequate for these types of injuries: it had been ransacked, by the looks of it.

“Where is Barnard?” Purdue asked Capt. Sanchez. “How did you find us?”

“Who is Barnard?” Nina asked.

“A you-know-what from the you-know-who,” Sam answered, holding his bluish lips to the soup to warm up.

“What?” Sanchez asked with a frown.

Nina answered, “Another asshole from the Order of the Black Sun, Captain.”

“Oh,” he replied, “them again.”

“Aye, they are everywhere,” Purdue sighed. “How did you locate us?”

“Capt. Sanchez called me as I was about to start my search for you two,” Nina explained. “By the way… a huge fucking thanks for not calling me to let me know you are not dead, you bastards. We will still have that discussion. I swear to God, if I was not so stoked to see you both, I would have keelhauled you myself.”

Purdue looked at Sam with a victory smile, gloating, “See? I told you we should have called her.”

Sam only scoffed. He was too tired to explain himself. It felt as if he had been rescued from the bowels of hell, and he had been, but he just wanted to sit there and listen to Nina’s bitching for a bit, soaking up her trademark threats with pleasure.

“We approached the trawler in the dark, using only infrared and radar to navigate. Dr. Gould asked me to assist her in finding you, so we picked up your signal, Mr. Purdue,” the police captain elucidated.

“His signal?” Sam asked.

“Your tablet, Purdue. Capt. Sanchez had been using a global satellite network to track the movement of the device since the date of the crash,” Nina smiled. “And we found you in the nick of time. Literally.”

“Earlier today, a patrol plane noticed that the Cóncord was in trouble when the pilot reported what looked like blood all over the decks and around close proximity of the boat — too much to be fishing bait. It coincided with your locator, which had Dr. Gould here convinced that you were in trouble… again,” Sanchez recounted. “We came out with an eight-man fire team, just in case. And good thing we did. We spooked the villains, it seemed, because we reached the trawler just after you were both tossed overboard.”

Nina looked upset, but she placed her hand over her mouth and contained it. “I watched it happen. Jesus, I watched it happen and I was still so far away, too far to help you.”

“But they took off as soon as we started shooting from the darkness. They obviously had no idea how many of us were on approach,” Sanchez said. “Who is Barnard, exactly?”

“Well, all we have gathered between the lines is that his grandfather was an Allied soldier during the Second World War, a traitor who assisted the SS in obtaining stolen relics from a Spanish convent,” Purdue explained through small sips of hot soup that were filling him with life again.

“Aye, and now he thinks he is entitled to the treasures his grandfather helped steal, like that golden statue,” Sam added. “By the way, where is she? Did they take her before you got to them?”

“Where is who?” Nina asked.

“The golden woman,” Purdue chipped in quickly.

Nina and Capt. Sanchez gawked at one another for a long moment. They looked taken aback by Purdue’s uttering. Shocked, in fact. Purdue saw that, and he wondered if they knew something that he and Sam did not.

“What?” Sam asked.

Nina and Sanchez started talking together, both fascinated by the cryptic clues falling into place by some eerie chain of coincidences. She let Sanchez have the stage on this one.

“From the last transmission Dr. Gould and I received from the bug on our suspects, the Golden Woman is part of an Incan prophecy,” he said in pleasant surprise. “I’ve been trailing a murder suspect who, believe it or not, is a victim of a bigger crook… uh, also from the Black Sun! This is why I called Nina in the first place.”

“No way,” Sam cried. “They really are everywhere!”

“But it gets better,” Nina squealed excitedly. She couldn’t believe that in all this misfortune and pain for so many people, she was sounding like a silly schoolgirl, but Purdue and Sam’s information finally helped her and Sanchez to make sense of Madalina and Raul’s abduction.

“They are out to kill a young boy as a sacrifice to open the golden city of El Dorado,” Sanchez told them. “And they tried it before, according to Dr. Gould, during the Second World War, to attain the hoards of gold reputed to make up the city.”

“They failed because… and here is the part we couldn’t solve yet… both ships sent to Argentina sank at the same time in different oceans!” she exclaimed. “I mean, they went down within the same goddamn minute, according to my records of the logbooks recovered!”

“No reason why they sank,” Sanchez added, looking as alive and enthusiastic as Nina. “They could find no cause of accident and no account of anything unusual by vessels in the same vicinity that night.”

“Don’t fuck with the golden woman,” Sam said plainly. Purdue nodded in agreement with his eyes wide. “Is the prayer stick still here? I suppose they made off with the golden woman?”

“Aye, there is nothing on board but some creepy fucking corpses in a bunch of secured crates!” Nina grimaced. Sam laughed and looked at Purdue in humorous reprimand. He pointed a thumb at Purdue. “Those are his.”

Nina stared at Purdue in disgust. “Really, Purdue?”

He shrugged. “Look, if we can analyze the tissue and the uniform fabric, we’ll know more about what caused their mummification. That, in turn, could link us into the local legends about seemingly groundless incidents of catastrophe. Think about it. Nothing just occurs by happenstance. Old mariners were superstitious. I am a scientist. I needed to find out how ships appeared to have just run aground, how men trampled each other into hot, dry areas where their skins turned to paper.”

“Um, that’s another thing,” Nina told them. “Our suspect’s brother suffered the same inexplicable fate.”

“How?” Purdue asked, hoping that it would explain his find.

“He wants a scientific explanation, Dr. Gould,” Capt. Sanchez reminded her, but she had to tell Purdue the truth. From what she and Capt. Sanchez had been hearing through the bug transmission, it was not science as much as psychology.

“He was compelled to self-mummification by a practitioner of Santería black magic?” she said timidly.

“Oh Jesus, Nina,” Purdue exclaimed, looking away.

Sanchez thought to lend some support down on the middle ground. “Don’t be so quick to dismiss that just because it sounds superstitious, Mr. Purdue. I am a very steadfast man. I’m not even religious, but I can tell you what we heard. This man, Dr. Sabian, is a psychologist who has used his professional therapy to brainwash, no, to hypnotically suggest to this young man’s brain that he was being emaciated and dehydrated. And from what we heard, he finally succumbed to the horrific spell.”

“Okay, say we buy that,” Sam said, “and he could do this, why would he do it? Are you of the opinion that this is what happened to the men on the ships?”

“Could very well be,” Sanchez answered. “You said it yourself, Mr. Purdue. Things don’t just happen without some explanation. Now we know, at least, that your Barnard and our Sabian are involved in the same twisted conspiracy to kill this little boy by the time of the next solar eclipse over the Incan city of Macchu Picchu.”

“We recorded the last transmission from the bug,” Nina explained, “where the Inca prophecy was recited. We know where they are and where they are going. We know when they are planning to kill the boy and the lady who has been protecting him. So I am afraid your analysis will have to take a backseat to this child’s life, Purdue.”

“Absolutely,” Purdue agreed. “We have to pursue them anyway, because they have the only two relics that can avoid El Dorado opening.”

“The golden woman statue?” Nina asked.

“And the prayer stick,” Sam added. “We have to melt down the statue to find something inside her chest to work in conjunction with the prayer stick, otherwise we can’t stop them from getting what they want.”

“How many days until the eclipse?” Purdue asked.

Nina looked stressed and Sanchez cleared his throat. “We have two days, gentlemen.”