The Moche Warrior

18

They didn’t hear us coming, the sound of the trucks muffled by the din of the incoming aircraft. Four trucks, each driven by one of the Guerras, dipped and dove around the woodland and across the desert sands, sometimes on a worn roadway, others overland. As we rushed forward on an interception course with the smugglers, the rains, long expected, began, the first drops forming tiny craters in the dry, dry earth. I sat with Steve in the first vehicle to point the way. Ahead of us, small fires flared up one at a time in two neat rows, and a plane, coming in low, hit the runway with a thump, and then whipped to a stop in front of the hut.

Four people were silhouetted against the light from the burning paint cans, their shadows dancing across the walls of the hut. Behind them loomed the Andes, implacable, immovable. One of them, catching sight of us in the distance, bolted to the aircraft. Within seconds, we heard the whine of the engines revving up, and the plane began to shudder as he readied it for takeoff. Another—Lucho, I was almost certain—disappeared inside the hut next to the runway.

“Cut him off!” Steve yelled, jumping out of the lead truck and waving his arms in the direction of the runway. “Don’t let him take off!” The Guerras moved their battered old trucks into position. But the pilot, seeing them, swung the plane around and began to move down the runway in the direction from which he’d come. The wheels of our truck, driven by the youngest Guerra brother, Regulo, spun as he wrestled it across the sand in a futile attempt to catch the escaping plane.

The pilot let out the brakes and the aircraft began to hurtle away from us. Suddenly, just as the airplane seemed about to hit takeoff speed, the grey Nissan, Hilda at the wheel, bounced across the runway and careened to a stop right in the path of the airplane. I almost screamed in fear for Hilda as the door opened, and she tried to get out. Clearly in pain, she couldn’t move fast enough. I thought she was almost certainly going to be killed.

At the last moment, the pilot swerved to avoid the truck, then lost control on the runway, already slick from the first of the rain. The plane plowed into the little hut, sweeping it right off its foundation, and then plunged into the woods, coming to rest in a thicket of thorn trees, one engine still shrieking at maximum power. Regulo Guerra pulled the truck off the runway and up to the plane, and Steve pulled a dazed pilot from the cockpit. Manco Capac made a feeble attempt to get away, but fell to his knees a few feet from the aircraft.

A shout went up from the Guerras. I turned and saw Laforet’s gold Mercedes wheel around, fishtailing in the sand, heading for the road. Carla Cervantes, now abandoned and left to her own devices, first tried to run after the departing car, and then headed into the woods, one of the Guerras in hot pursuit. Hilda had followed the Mercedes, I thought. She was here because she had followed Laforet from town. And now he was going to get away, as he always did.

The Nissan was still running when I climbed in. I pulled it into gear and started after Laforet. He had a good head start by now, but I kept going, thinking I would at least keep him in sight until help came along. He picked up the dirt road between the river and the irrigation canal, moving along at a good clip. Water sprayed from his wheels as he went. Water! I thought. Where is this coming from? But soon it was clear. The river, swollen from the rain in the mountains, was overflowing its banks. The water made the road treacherous, but Laforet barely slowed down. I knew if he made it to the highway, I’d never catch him.

We were almost there. I could see the lights of Paraiso off to the right. Laforet had a choice here. The shortest route to the highway would be a quick right across a stretch of sand a few yards wide, then on to the cleared area in front of Paraiso, then straight to the highway. The other choice was to stick with the road, turn left, cross the river on a little bridge, and pick up the highway to the south.

I found myself trying to second-guess Laforet. The shorter route was the obvious choice, but it was risky because he might get bogged down in the sand. Being in the truck, I had a better view ahead than he did, and I could see that the Paraiso route would not work for him. There was a flashing blue light in the parking area that signaled an official car of some sort. Perhaps Puma had brought the police.

I decided he’d have to go left, and although I was still well behind, I tried to make up some ground and head him off at the bridge. Laforet kept to the right, but seeing the flashing light, pulled the Mercedes into reverse, and then went for the bridge. I was right on his tail as he went over the hill and started down toward it. The bridge, once high and dry over a dusty riverbed, was covered with a film of water, and the road leading down to it was very slippery, the mud feeling like glare ice under the truck. I switched to four-wheel drive, but I could feel the tires loosing their traction as I crested the hill just a little too fast.

Ahead of me, Laforet’s car began to slide. He made it onto the bridge, sliding sideways by now. The car made a wide arc, hitting the wooden bridge railing broadside. For a second or two, the car hovered there—I, and I imagined Laforet, holding our breath— then, with a sound more like a moan than a crack, the railing gave way, and the car plunged several feet into the raging current. I pumped the brakes, but it was too late. I too lost control and the truck slid down the embankment, but more slowly than Laforet had, missed the bridge entirely, and came to a stop heading straight down the riverbank, still upright, but with water rushing over the hood of the truck. Laforet, I could not see.

I tried to push open the door on the driver’s side, but it wouldn’t budge, the force of the water against it too great. The truck was now swaying and creaking as the water pushed against it, and it slowly started to tilt downstream. I knew if I stayed in the truck I was dead, that it would either flip or be swept away. I slid with difficulty across the front seat and pushed as hard as I could against the passenger door. It gave way, and I fell into the water. I’m a good swimmer, but the rush of the water was so strong, I could just barely keep my head above water. I fought the current but was tired within seconds. I finally just let myself go, gasping for air as I was swept along.

Many yards downstream I crashed against something and scrabbled for a handhold. It took me a few seconds to realize I’d been stopped by the Mercedes, caught against a tree branch that angled out from the riverbank. I saw—or thought I did, it was so dark— the lifeless face of Etienne Laforet, hair streaming upward, mangled hand pressed to the glass, eyes wide open, staring at me through the windshield. I grabbed the door handle and held on, screaming for help, knowing as I did so, that it was hopeless, that no one would hear. I knew that even though I was just a few feet from solid ground, I would never make it, that if I let go of the door handle to try to reach the embankment, I’d be swept away.

Just as I felt the last of my strength ebb from my fingers and arms, a dark figure loomed above me on the bank. It was Cesar Montero. He must have been at Paraiso and heard the crack of the bridge as it gave way. I’m dead, I thought. He’ll just walk away and leave me, and the river will do the rest. No one will know. He disappeared, as I thought he would, but then reappeared a few seconds later with a long pole.

“Grab the pole,” he yelled at me.

Was this a trick? Was he going to use the pole to push me off the car and into the raging stream? I felt the Mercedes shudder and start to slip into the current once more. Should I take my chances with Montero or the car?

In my fevered brain, I thought I saw Ines, dressed as she had been that first day I’d seen her, hovering in thin air, a few feet over the Mercedes. “What should I do?” I yelled at her.

She gestured toward the pole. “Take it,” she said.

I let go of the door handle with my right hand and reached for the pole.

“Good,” Montero yelled. “Now the other one.”

The car started to slide. I had no choice. I let go of the door handle with my left hand and grabbed the pole tightly. The Mercedes flipped over and slid downstream once more. I felt Cesar pulling hand over hand on the pole. Then his arms grabbed me and pulled me to safety.

The worst of the rain held off until Manco Capac, shaken but alive and even relatively unhurt, had been led away in chains. The Guerras caught up to Carla, already badly scratched by thorns, only a few yards into the woods. Lucho took a little longer. He’d managed to make it into the tunnel before the airplane ripped through the hut, and was holed up in the chamber at the bottom of the spiral staircase. With the Guerras guarding the trapdoor at the runway end of the tunnel, and Campina Vieja’s finest at the top of the staircase, it was only a matter of time before he surrendered.

There was no time for rest, to ponder what had happened and the terror of what might have been. By three in the morning, the rain was coming down in torrents. The Pan-American Highway was flooded, the irrigation canals, already full to overflowing from the water from the mountains, were now spewing their water in sheets across the land. The federal police were out going door to door, urging everyone to leave. A steady stream of cars, trucks, and motorcycles headed south for shelter.

There was no time to deal with the tomb of the Moche warrior, nor unfortunately with Montero, so the police moved the crates back underground to their original hiding place, sealed the trapdoor at the runway end of the tunnel, locked up the little house, and posted a policeman on the door.

“I’m not going. We’ve got to save the site,” Steve said. “Anyone who wants to go can do so.” None of us moved.

“All hands on deck, then!” he yelled, and we headed for Cerro de las Ruinas: Ralph, Tracey, Hilda, Pablo, the students, Puma, the Guerras, and any of the workers we could track down. Steve supervised from the top of the huaca, Hilda down below. It was back-breaking, bone-chilling work. I was so exhausted, physically and mentally, that I wasn’t much help, but I did what I could. The Guerras brought large plastic sheeting to cover up the vigas as best we could. Slipping and sliding on the greasy surface, working in the dark, we all shoveled the back dirt, now mud, over the excavation. I had a niggling sense of unfinished business, something I should think about, but there was no time.

At the dark point just before dawn, I was sent back to the hacienda to find all the blankets and jackets I could. The road was pretty well gone. As I passed the commune, I watched one of the little huts slide several feet toward the sea on a pillow of mud. The commune residents, soaking wet, with their pathetic little bundles of worldly possessions, were moving out.

The hacienda was deserted when I got there, and, in the storm, the electricity, predictably, was out. I stood in the doorway, almost too frightened to enter for a moment or two. I could hear the waves crashing on the dunes not that far away, imagined ghostly whispers as the rain swept in sheets across the courtyard. Shutters banged intermittently against the walls.

Resolutely, I took a flashlight from the truck and made my way across the courtyard, now awash, and up the stairs. I could hear water dripping everywhere. As fast as I could, wanting only to get away from the place, I grabbed my sweater, waterproof jacket, and the blanket off my bed, then went into Tracey’s room. She’d told me to take whatever I thought we could use, and, setting the flashlight on the dresser, I rifled through her closet, tossing jackets and sweaters on the bed as I did so. Grabbing them up, arms aching from all that had happened, I turned to go.

I wouldn’t normally read someone else’s mail, but something caught my eye.

Hello, Tracey, dear, the letter began. It was wonderful as usual to hear from you yesterday. You seem to be making such nice new friends, and your work sounds absolutely fascinating. Hearing about your discovery of the huaca, and the possibility there might be a tomb there is so exciting. We feel as if we ‘re right there with you every step of the way. And to think your stuffy old mother thought you should be a nurse. (Just kidding, dear. I never thought you ’d be a nurse!)

Buy yourself something nice with the money, and if you need anything, call right away.

Ted sends his love too. We miss you. Love, Mom

It was all very innocuous, endearing really, except for one thing: the words, embossed in silver across the top of the white linen paper. Mr. and Mrs. E. G. Edwards.

Of course it wasn’t Dougall, I thought, Tracey’s name. Ted was Tracey’s stepfather. Ted Edwards, one of those names where the last name and first name are similar, like Ken Kennedy or Tom Thompson. Ted Edwards, Ed Edwards, or was it Edmund Edwards? In that split second, I knew I had made a deadly assumption or two. Tracey’s stepfather, I suddenly knew with certainty, was Edmund Edwards of Ancient Ways in New York. Edmund Edwards was alive. He was not the old man in the gallery in New York, as I’d assumed. He was the proprietor, the recipient of stolen antiquities. He might even be the mastermind of the whole operation.

I’d left my business card at the gallery, and so he knew my name. But he’d known it before I ever got to New York. He would know me as the person who had bought his pre-Columbian antiquities at Moles-worth Cox, taken them right from under his nose, or more accurately, under the watchful eyes of his henchman, the Spider. He might not yet know me as Rebecca MacCrimmon, but he would. His stepdaughter would tell him, once they compared notes and she knew my real name. And he would not, could not, rest until I was dead.

I dashed out of the hacienda and back to the site. Leaping from the truck, engine still running, I yelled up at Steve, “Where’s Tracey?”

Steve looked down at me. “Don’t know. Don’t care.” He gave me a tired smile.

I cared. And there was only one place I could think she would be.

The policeman lay next to the door of the ruin, unconscious most certainly, and probably dead. The padlock was gone. I pushed the door open carefully and looked inside. A flicker of light came through the holes in the matting on top of the staircase.

As quietly as I could, I crept down the staircase. The treasures of the Moche warrior lay out on the table, glinting in the light. It must be pure gold, I thought, unalloyed, because it hadn’t corroded at all. It was priceless, a fortune. Tracey was stuffing a large sack with the gold as fast as she could.

I stepped off into the water at the bottom of the step and she turned to face me.

“Rebecca!” she exclaimed. “I’m so glad you’re here. I came over to make sure everything was all right, and the guard is dead! You’ve got to help me get the treasure out before someone steals it.”

My, she was cunning, and very, very convincing. An hour ago, I’d have believed her. “I’ll help,” I said. “I’ll hold the sack, and you put the stuff in it.” Where guile is concerned, I like to think I’m a match for anyone.

She hesitated for a moment, but then handed me the sack, still grasping it with one hand all the time. I wondered what she’d do when the sack was full. I didn’t have long to wait. As she crammed the last piece of gold into the sack, Tracey reached into her handbag, dropping her hold on the treasure sack for just a second. She’s going for the gun, I thought, the missing gun. It was now or never. I grabbed for the handbag and knocked it out of her hand as hard as I could, then watched as the gun arced upward and splashed into the water.

We were holding the sack with both hands now, pulling and tugging to get it, like two little kids fighting over a toy. Tracey gave a great pull on it, and I let go. She stumbled backward and, hitting her shoulder on the rock wall of the chamber, lost her grip. The sack opened, dumping its contents onto the floor of the chamber. Ear spools, necklaces, gold and silver peanuts, back flaps, gold pectorals, beads in the shape of spiders tumbled into the pool of water. The gilded bells jangled as they fell. The ripples blurred the edges of the gold, made it shimmer.

She shrieked, leaned over, and like some female Midas, started clawing at the gold. I grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and dragged her the few feet to the door into the tunnel. She struggled, but I was fighting for my life, and I knew it. I shoved her into the tunnel and slammed the door shut. As I closed the door, I heard her gasp, something I attributed to the sight of Carlos Montero. It gave me the moment I needed to push the table the couple of feet to the door. I piled the crates on top of the table, and one under, and watched as she tried desperately to push the door open. It would do her good, I thought, to be entombed with one of the victims of her little scheme. After a few seconds of effort, though, she stopped. I could hear her footsteps receding. She was going for the other end of the tunnel. There was a possibility that she had unlocked that end before going down the staircase. She might have been planning to leave that way, and gone first to unseal it.

I hauled myself up the spiral staircase and made for the other end of the tunnel to head her off. It was almost dawn, a wedge of light showing to the east. The shortest route to the trapdoor was through the agarrobal, and I plowed right in, never thinking about the danger.

The forest was still dark, the grey light of early morning not yet penetrating the branches of the trees. I kept my eye on the light at the far end of the woodland, and kept going, trying not to step in or brush through the thorns. It was deadly quiet in the woods, the only sound the hiss of the rain and the rasping of my breath, loud in my ears, as I struggled on.

I should have realized there was someone else there. Tracey’s gasp as she saw the body of Carlos Montero should have told me she hadn’t put him there. But I was too tired to think. I did not hear the quick footsteps until it was too late. I felt hands whip over my head, then a belt tighten around my neck. Gasping, I clutched at the belt, trying to pull it away from my throat. I felt a blackness around the edges of my consciousness, a high-pitched ringing in my ears. A sharp crack echoed in my head, but I could not tell if it came from within me or without.

Just as suddenly as it had tightened, the belt loosened, and the man I knew only as Spider crashed to the forest floor.

Jorge Cervantes, Lizard’s brother, a dark, avenging angel, stood in the algarrobal, framed against the approaching light of dawn. Slowly he lowered his gun. “May you rest in peace, now, Ramon,” he whispered. “May you rest with God.”