Xibalba

CHAPTER 33

Stunned, Maddock did the only thing he could. He raised his hands, the barrel of the SIG pointed up at the ceiling, and turned around.

Charles Bell was standing a few paces away from Bones, a pistol in his shaking hands. He seemed uncertain of what to do with it, pointing it at Maddock, then at Bones, then back again. The gun was just like the one Maddock still held. Bell had probably swiped it from Bones’ belt. The question of where he’d gotten the weapon was of far less importance than why, but Maddock thought he knew the answer to that question as well.

“Dad!” Miranda shouted, frantic. “What are you doing?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Maddock shouted, locking stares with Bell. “He’s working for ScanoGen. Helping them find Xibalba.”

“That’s impossible,” Miranda said.

There was a strange grinding noise in the wall, and then with another loud report, a skull ball — possibly the same one that had just rolled past — shot out of the elevated hole on the right.

Some kind of automated ball return, Maddock thought. From start to finish, the process had taken only about thirty seconds.

Bell flinched as the ball sailed over their heads, but then stabbed the pistol at Maddock. “I told you to drop it. No one else has to get hurt.”

“That’s right, Maddock!” called out another voice. Maddock knew it had to be Scano himself. “I don’t want to hurt you or your friends.”

“Dad?” Miranda said again, but this time it was a desultory question. “Why?”

“He’s the mole?” Bones said, incredulous. “Not Miranda?”

“Me?” Miranda gaped at Bones. “You thought I was working for the other side?”

“You were always on your phone. And you got all pissy when you thought we were leaving you out of the loop. You were the logical choice.”

“Thanks a lot.”

“Sorry.”

“ScanoGen got to Copán ahead of us,” Maddock added, maintaining eye contact with Bell. “And they showed up here right on our tail. We knew someone was leaking information to them. Just couldn’t figure out why. I know you said ScanoGen was giving you grant money, but this is something else, isn’t it? Did he offer to let you and Miranda be among the chosen few to survive the apocalypse he’s going to unleash?”

Bell clenched his teeth. “I said, drop it!”

Maddock inclined his head and then slowly bent his knees and lowered his arm, placing the SIG on the floor rather than actually letting it fall. He was stalling, waiting for his chance to act. He did not believe for a second that Bell really wanted to shoot anyone, and it looked like Scano and the snake warriors were adopting a wait-and-see mentality, but eventually someone would do something to escalate the situation.

For a few seconds, the only sound in Xibalba was the noise of the ball court — skull-balls bouncing, walls and stelae swatting them away. Maddock risked a glance back and saw Alex and Carina advancing, with six Serpent Brothers spread out in a half-circle behind them. Some had blowguns raised, others were hefting war clubs studded with obsidian blades. The warriors looked about uncertainly, clearly as concerned with what was going on behind them as they were with the confrontation.

“Dad,” Miranda said again. Her voice sounded hollow, desolate with disbelief. “Tell me this isn’t true. Tell me that you didn’t know what he was planning. This is just a mistake, right?”

“Unleashing the apocalypse?” Bones said. “Yeah, definitely a mistake.”

“There isn’t going to be an apocalypse,” Bell said. “The Shadow will be just another doomsday weapon that nobody will ever dare use. But the cure. The knowledge that studying it will reveal? That will change the world. New antibiotics. Cures for cancer, and other diseases we don’t even know about yet.”

Maddock nodded in understanding. “Maybe even a cure for your COPD.”

“Yes. Why not?”

“Were you dropped on your head as a kid, Doc?” Bones snarled. “You can’t believe anything he says.”

“ScanoGen is not the same company it was under my father,” Alex said, taking a step forward. “Whether you believe it or not, I just want to help people. Save the world. And men like Dr. Bell share my vision of looking to the past for the cures that will save the future.”

“You’re going to save the world with bioweapons.” Maddock shook his head. “Sorry, I just don’t buy it.”

“You’ve been misled, I’m afraid,” Alex said, smiling. Maddock guessed the man had no idea how arrogant it made him look. Or maybe he did and he just didn’t care. “We’re only trying to develop a cure for a terrible disease.”

“Sure you are.”

Another ball bounced into view, most of its energy spent. The warriors shifted a few steps out of the way, though they were never in much danger to start with, and the ball rolled past them, into the slot at the base of the wall.

As ancient stone machinery rumbled to life again, Maddock started a mental countdown. He glanced past Bell, meeting Bones’ stare for a second, telegraphing his intention with his eyes. Then he looked up, ever so slightly to Kasey, still perched on Bones’ shoulders, a good ten feet from the top of the wall where Angel, Isabella and Miranda waited. He flicked his eyes up, hoping she would get the message.

“You are a fool!” Isabella shouted from the wall, an accusatory finger pointing at Scano. She spat the words out with a contemptuous laugh. “You are dead already. The Shadow has touched you.”

Scano stiffened at the odd accusation, and then looked at Carina. “What the hell is she talking about?”

“I know the signs,” Isabella said. “Eyes as red as blood. I saw it earlier. Now I am sure. Did you do this to him, Carina? When you found el Guia?”

Carina looked back at her wide-eyed. “No. She’s lying. Trying to divide us.” But she nevertheless took a step back, as if trying to distance herself from him.

“Damn it,” Alex snarled. “That worm, Doug. He did this. Don’t worry. I’m probably not contagious yet.”

Isabella’s pointing finger now shifted to Bell. “You have also been touched.”

Bell’s eyes went wide, wide enough for Maddock to see that the whites of his eyes were indeed blood red. After all they had been exposed to — from smoke to ammonia fumes — that was hardly a surprise, but Bell sagged a little under the weight of the revelation.

“The scorpion sting,” he whispered. “In the City of Shadow. I was infected.”

Scano shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. We’re here now. And so it the cure.”

“Fool,” Isabella said again. “There is no cure.”

Her revelation could not have come at a better moment.

With another loud crack, the skull-ball was launched into play, startling everyone.

Everyone except Maddock, Bones and Kasey.

“Now!” Maddock shouted.

Right on cue, Bones reached up to grab Kasey’s ankles, and then thrust her straight up. She flew like a rocket, rising as high as the top of the wall, but her back was turned to it, and even though she tried to twist around to face it, there was no way she was going to be able to grab the edge.

Fortunately, Angel saw what was going on and reacted immediately. As Kasey reached the top of her vertical journey, Angel reached out with both hands and snagged the strap of Kasey’s backpack. The sudden transfer of weight pulled Angel down, slamming her against the edge of the wall. Kasey swung back and hit the stone with an audible grunt, but within seconds, Miranda and Isabella joined the effort and, working together, easily hauled Kasey up.

On the floor of the ball court, Bell was slow to react. He jerked the gun around toward Bones, giving Maddock the opening he’d been waiting for. He sprang at the archaeologist, tackling him.

The gun flew from Bell’s hands and went skittering across the floor. Maddock heard a faint huffing sound as some of the Serpent Brothers launched darts at them, but didn’t feel any stings. Pushing away from Bell, he dove after the gun, sliding on his belly across the floor, caught it and brought it up ready to fire from a prone position, even as one of the warriors charged toward him, war club held high.

Maddock squeezed the trigger twice and the warrior went down.

The rest of the warriors, along with Scano and Carina, were scattering, but Maddock knew the pandemonium would not last. Eventually, the warriors would launch another volley of darts which were almost certainly tipped with poison. He spun around without rising, and scrambled on all fours toward the ball return gutter.

While he had been going for the gun, Bones had gone after Bell, scooping the treacherous archaeologist up, carrying him under one arm like a sack of dog food. He hesitated though as he stared into the dark gap at the bottom of the wall. “You sure about this?”

Maddock wasn’t at all sure. He knew that there was room enough for the skull-balls, which were a bit larger than the size of an actual human head, and that somewhere inside, under the pyramid, there was some sort of mechanical system for lifting the balls up to the launcher, but whether there was room enough for a person was anyone’s guess.

If he was wrong, instead of lifting them to safety, the stone machinery might very well grind them to hamburger.

“If you’ve got a better idea, let’s hear it.” Maddock didn’t wait for an answer, but plunged headlong into the gap.

He crawled a few yards through a claustrophobic gap before falling out into a trough that looked remarkably like a gutter at a bowling alley, except for the fact that it was tilted down at sharp angle. The stone was smooth, but provided enough resistance that he did not slide down to the end of the trough where something that looked sort of like an enormous upright stone screw was slowly turning. There were two more troughs leading away from the sloping floor, and similar screw-elevators at the end of each. Maddock assumed that the screws would lift a recovered ball — or anything else they picked up — up to one of the three launchers, but there would be no need for them to follow that route because there was also a raised walkway behind the screws, and a passage leading out.

He got his feet back under him and started down the trough toward the relentlessly turning screw. A glance back revealed Bones emerging from the gap, dragging along a stunned Charles Bell. After the earlier revelations of treachery, to say nothing of the fact that Bell might be infected with a deadly and highly contagious pathogen, Maddock had no idea why Bones had elected to bring the archaeologist along, but figured his partner had his reasons and didn’t question them.

“Bones. Down here.”

The big man nodded in acknowledgment, and climbed out into the trough behind him.

Maddock stepped up onto the spiraling screw and was immediately lifted up and rotated around toward the walkway where he was able to easily step off. Bones, with Bell now thrown over his shoulder, followed suit.

“Go!” Maddock shouted, urging Bones on as he swept the area behind them with his light and the business end of the pistol. There was no sign of pursuit yet, but he knew it was only a matter of time. “I’ll cover you.”

Bones hastened into the passage, and after giving him a few seconds’ lead, Maddock headed after him. The passage became a narrow staircase, sandwiched between walls of cut stone under a flat ceiling, and rising up to what he hoped would be an exit on the balcony where the others were already waiting.

He was almost right.

As he climbed the stairs, he could see a pale blue glow silhouetting Bones. The steps ended at a T-junction, with a passage where the glow was even stronger, and as he stepped out into it, he saw that the stone floor was dotted with large patches of phosphorescent blue lichen, glowing so brightly that he could see the full length of the passage.

Something about the luminous shapes nagged at Maddock, triggering a primal avoidance instinct.

“I think we’re inside the pyramid,” Bones said. “Which way?”

Maddock wasn’t sure there was a right or wrong answer, but before he could decide, he heard an urgent voice — Angel’s voice — echoing down the tunnel.

“Dane! Bones!” She was standing at the mouth of the passage to the right. “Here.”

“Go! But watch your step.” Maddock kept watch on the opening to the staircase, his gun at the ready, until Bones was clear. Then he turned and headed after Bones, careful not to step on the glowing blue spots.

The passage opened onto the balcony overlooking the ball court, at the base of the great pyramid at the center of Xibalba. As he neared the exit, Maddock saw that the blue light was even brighter outside. The balcony was completely covered in the blue lichen, a dense carpet upon which he would have to walk if he wanted to leave the pyramid. Bones had already stomped through it to join the others. If there was some hidden danger here, they were already deep into it, but as Maddock took a tentative step onto the glowing substance, his feeling of dread deepened.

He forgot all about that when he realized that someone was missing.

Bones had laid Bell down on the balcony floor, just a few feet from the exit, and both he and Miranda were kneeling over her father. Angel was also kneeling, only she was next to Kasey, who sat with her back against the side of the lowest tier of the pyramid, holding a hand to her head.

“What happened?” Maddock said. “Where’s Isabella?”

Kasey looked up, her face twisted in a snarl of rage. “Gone. She sucker punched me and took my backpack before I knew what was happening. She’s got all my demo gear. My night vision goggles, too.”

“I guess she wanted to make sure we couldn’t destroy Xibalba,” Angel said.

“Right now, all I care about is getting out of Xibalba.”

“Dane!” Bones called out.

Maddock felt an ominous chill. Bones never called him by his first name. He turned slowly to where Bones and Miranda were tending to Bell. The archaeologist hadn’t moved.

“What’s wrong? Is he…?”

Bones shook his head and spoke in a low voice. “He’s still breathing. Barely.” He looked up, meeting Maddock’s gaze. “You think Isabella was right? If he’s got it… I mean, we’ve been with him this whole time.”

Bell gave a rattling exhalation that wasn’t quite a cough, and Maddock realized he was trying to say something. “Dar… ”

“Dart,” Bones said, sounding only slightly relieved. “He must have gotten hit by a blowgun dart. Probably tipped with curare or some kind of paralytic.”

“Mira… ” Bell said, “Don… Don’t. Go.”

Tears streamed down Miranda’s face. “I won’t leave you, Dad.”

Bell’s eyebrows came together in a frown. In the blue light, his skin had the pallor of someone already dead.

“Atropine,” Miranda said, looking up at Maddock. “That might help. Do you have atropine in your first aid kit?”

Bones’ diagnosis was probably right on the mark. Curare compounds had been used for centuries in Central and South America. The poison was a powerful paralytic, which strangely did not affect the heart. It did however paralyze the muscles of the diaphragm, and without treatment or artificial respiration, death by suffocation was almost a certainty, especially for someone like Bell, whose pulmonary system was already badly compromised. Maddock didn’t think atropine or any other treatment would reverse what was happening. He could tell that Bell knew it, too.

“Go,” Bell rasped again. “Dead… Shadow.”

“No,” Miranda said. She spoke with an urgency borne of desperation. “We’re here. The cure is here. You just have to stay with us.” She turned her gaze to Maddock again. “This lichen or whatever it is. It’s the cure, isn’t it?”

“No… Cure.” The effort seemed to take the last of Bell’s energy. His eyes rolled back and he was still.

“He’s not breathing,” Miranda cried.

“I got this,” Bones said, as he began repositioning Bell flat on the lichen-carpeted stone. He tilted the archaeologist’s head back a little, clearing his airway, pinched Bell’s nose shut with one hand, and bent over to administer a rescue breath, mouth-to-mouth.

“Stop!” Maddock shouted, so loud that his voice echoed throughout the chamber. He grabbed Bones’ shoulder, pulling him back.

“Maddock,” Bones warned, instinctively going on the defensive and fighting against the restraining grip.

“He’s infected. He’s got the Shadow. You heard what Isabella said.”

“Maybe he does,” Bones growled, a fierceness in his eyes that Maddock rarely saw directed at him. “And maybe he doesn’t. But he’s going to die for sure without CPR.”

“He’s already gone, Bones.” Angel said from behind them. She and Kasey had both moved closer, ready to interfere if the confrontation escalated.

“No,” Miranda said. “Curare is a paralytic, but it’s not fatal if we can keep him breathing.”

“Miranda, he’s infected.” Maddock softened his tone, knowing how much his words would hurt, but did not let go of Bones’ shoulder.

“And this is Xibalba. The cure is here.”

“It’s not a cure,” Maddock replied.

“You son of a bitch,” Miranda said, almost screaming at him. “Whatever he did, he doesn’t deserve to die.”

Maddock knelt beside them, drawing back Bell’s pant leg to reveal the bandage covering the wound the man had sustained in the City of Shadow. He carefully peeled the gauze pad away to reveal the scabbed-over wound. “Look.”

There were faint specks of blue light shining out of the scab, and a corresponding line of the same substance on the bandage.

“It’s not a cure,” Maddock said, again. “We have to go. Now.”