Stone stood ten paces away, his pistol trained on her. His hand was rock steady. Rose began to cry.
“Please,” she whispered.
“It’s like you said to me.” His voice quavered. “I have no choice.”
He squeezed the trigger.
24 The Temple
Sunset came early to the Canyon of the Three-Headed Serpent. Cloaked in shadow, they rode along the deep, winding gorge until it split into a trio of box canyons — the ‘heads’ of the serpent. They dismounted. Hawk took out his spyglass and looked around.
“Someone is already here.” Hawk said as he peered at the oasis in the center canyon. “I see camels, packs, a few people milling around.”
“It’s got to be John Kane,” Stone said. “I can’t believe they got here ahead of us.”
“Their guide must have known a shorter route,” Hawk said. “I did the best I could.”
“You got us here safely. That’s the most important thing.”
“Is that the Head of the Serpent?” Trinity pointed to the rim of the canyon at a stone formation that resembled a cobra poised to strike.
“It doesn’t touch anything,” Alex said.
“The setting sun is striking it,” Stone said. “Follow the shadow.” He pointed at the place where the shadow touched the opposite wall of the canyon down at the base. A group of people were gathered there. Just then, a cheer rose up from Kane’s people.
“Looks like they’ve broken through,” Hawk said. “Saves us the trouble of finding the way in.”
“May I borrow that?” Stone asked.
Hawk handed him the spyglass. Stone had exceptional eyesight. With the spyglass, he could clearly make out three people standing in the shade of a palm tree. There were two men and a woman.
“I see John Kane and Magda Fischer.”
“The movie star? Really? Give me that back.” Hawk reached for the spyglass.
“Wait a moment. I’m trying to get a look at the other man, but he’s got his back to us.” Just then, the fellow turned around. Stone recognized him immediately.
“Cripes, it’s Professor Ratliff! That duplicitous crumb.” Stone shook his head. “He knew more about this place than he was letting on.”
“Maybe we’ll get a chance to give him some payback.” Hawk’s eyes twinkled as he put a hand to his tomahawk. “Now we need to figure out how to get inside with all these people around.”
“Wait until nightfall, slip past the guards. Disable them if we have to.”
“You think you can do that?” Hawk asked.
“Yes,” Stone said simply.”
“Let’s get on with it, then.”
“You don’t have to go inside with us,” Stone said. “You did your part getting us here.”
“I’m not abandoning you. And who knows, there might be gold down there.”
As darkness crept in, Stone and Hawk scouted out John Kane’s camp. Kane had brought only a small group along. A couple of people were seated by the fire and two big men guarded the entry to the temple. Everyone else had gone inside.
“How about I kill the men by the fire, you eliminate the guards?” Hawk asked.
“I’d prefer to disable them if we can. I try not to kill unless absolutely necessary.”
“You think you’re the Lone Ranger or something?” Hawk asked. “Because I am definitely not Tonto.”
“I wouldn’t dream of calling you that. Let’s get the others and put our plan into action.”
When night fell, the group crept up to the mouth of the box canyon. Two men sat by a campfire, two more guarded the entrance to the temple.
“Are you sure you’re all right with this?” Stone asked Trinity.
“We’ll be fine. Come on, Constance.”
Trinity and Constance rose and stumbled into the firelight. The men seated there were shocked to see them, but that did not stop them from casting hungry eyes on the ladies.
“Can you help us?” Constance said. “We were touring the desert and got separated from our guide.”
“A tour way out here?” one man said.
“The guide got lost,” Trinity said. “Please, we don’t know what to do.”
“We will be happy to help,” the first man said. “Why don’t you come inside our tent and rest for a while? We’ll get you some water.” He turned to his friend and grinned.
The women were not fooled but they played along. They turned and walked to the tent. Behind them, the men picked up coils of rope and crept up behind them.
A shadow sprang out from the other side of the tent. There was a flurry of punches and grunts. Next thing Stone knew, the men were on the ground and Hawk was tying them up with their own rope.
“What was that commotion?” one of the guards said.
“Go find out,” his partner said.
“Mister Kane told us not to leave our post.”
“Who exactly are we guarding against? There’s no one out here. Besides, you won’t be going far.”
The first guard drew a revolver and reluctantly stalked toward the flickering fire. He cast a long shadow across the canyon floor. Now that the second guard was alone, Stone made his move.
Like a breath of air, he swept silently across the intervening space, and drove a punch into the unsuspecting man’s temple. It was a blow that would have rendered most men unconscious, but this bruno was a mountain of a man. His knees wobbled, but he remained on his feet.
Stone followed with a side kick that buckled the guard’s knee. The man grunted, drew his sidearm. Stone gave him a chop to the wrist just below the base of the thumb and the weapon fell to the ground. Another well aimed punch to the temple and the goon was out.
Behind him, there was a commotion near the fire. A shot rang out. Constance screamed. Stone turned and drew his Webley but before he could make a move, Hawk sprang up out of nowhere and struck the man a heavy blow with the flat of his tomahawk. The man staggered. Hawk plunged his Bowie knife into the thug’s hamstring, then caught the man in a chokehold before he could cry out.
“Consider yourself lucky my boss is keeping me on a leash,” Hawk said as Kane’s guard lapsed into unconsciousness and slumped to the ground.
“Nice work,” Stone said. “But did you really have to stab him?”
“No.” Hawk flashed a wolfish grin. “But if you won’t let me kill, at least let me draw blood.”
“Fair enough. Let’s bound and gag these men and stash them in the tent.”
“And then?” Trinity asked.
“Then we enter the temple.”
25 The Ritual
They descended into darkness. The tunnel sloped sharply downward. The air grew cooler as they moved along. Dust coated every surface.
“This place gives me the creeps,” Alex said.
They came to a spot where the passageways diverged. They examined both passageways and saw no obvious differences between the two.
“Which way do we go?” Trinity asked.
“We could try one, and if it doesn’t lead anywhere, try the other,” Alex suggested.
“I prefer to make an educated guess whenever possible,” Trinity said. “If anyone actually bothered to look into the passageways, they would see that the passage on the right is a dead end.” She shined her light down the tunnel. Fifty paces away it terminated in a blank wall.
“It’s the one on the left, then,” Constance said.
She led the way down the tunnel on the left, followed by Alex and Trinity. Stone was about to step through when something caught his eye. There was something different about the section of floor just ahead of where Constance walked. It was sunken ever so slightly, only a fraction of an inch.
“Constance, stop!” Stone shouted.
It was too late. Her foot touched the sunken space and the floor gave way under her weight. A split second later, a door slammed down, missing Stone by an inch. He and Hawk were now stuck on the opposite side of the door. The immediately tried to raise it, but to no avail.