He reached inside and pulled it out, laying it gently on the sun’s face, and slowly unwrapped it. It was a thin, circular stone plaque covered in Incan carvings. For a moment the two men stared in wordless, breathless silence.
“Is this what I think it is, Luis?” Hawke said, but he already knew the answer thanks to the clear picture in the center of the plaque — mountains, suns, rivers… this was a map.
He nodded. “I am certain it must be,” he said, his eyes widening with anticipation. “Just look at the image in the middle — this is without a doubt a map.”
“Yes, but is it the map?”
Luis ran his fingers over the top of the three-dimensional relief map and nodded once again. “It must be — look where we found it!”
Hawke agreed. “All right — let’s get it out of here before there’s any trouble and then we can set about translating it when we’re back in the light.”
“What the hell is going on down there?” Scarlet called down. “Are the five of you playing strip poker or something?”
“Drole,” Hawke shouted up. “Very drole. We’re on our way back up.”
“About time.”
Hawke tried to help Luis but climbing ropes was a one-man venture, and after much huffing, puffing and whining and two false starts the young Colombian finally reached the top and was pulled over the edge by Reaper and Lexi. Hawke tied the plaque to the bottom of the rope and then climbed up a moment later. When he reached the top he pulled the rope up and brought the ancient plaque out of the pyramid tomb for the first time in centuries.
He laid it down on the side of the pyramid and they looked at it for a few moments, the light from their flashlights illuminating the small stone carvings on its surface and making it look like a picture of the moon with its mountains and craters.
“Is that it?” Scarlet said. “Looks like a dinner plate.”
“This is no dinner plate,” Luis said. “This is the Map of Paititi.”
Lexi looked at him suspiciously. “How can you be so sure?”
“I can’t be one hundred percent sure, I admit… but what else could it be? Besides, here — these are clearly the Andes, and this must surely by the jungle to the north. This here is Inti! He is marking the exact location of the Lost City! I admit it… I am converted. Now I believe!”
“If you say so,” Scarlet said. “Looks like a pig’s breakfast to me.”
But Luis wasn't listening. He was just staring at the map with incredulity. “If we hadn’t opened the tomb ourselves I would feel like someone is playing a joke on us. This map is almost identical to all the other maps that have ever existed but with one important difference — the depiction of Inti is on the other side of the mountains on this map… on the eastern slopes, not the western side. This proves once and for all the Lost City is not Vilcabamba!”
“Hang on,” Scarlet said, chewing on some more coca leaves she’d found. “Do you mean that it’s just a straight-forward sodding map and we don’t have to decode, translate or otherwise bugger about with it?”
“Looks that way,” Hawke said, taking the map from Luis. “I see what you mean about old Inti being on the other side of the mountains — and it looks like it’s very specific as well. He’s standing right on top of a mountain beside a tributary of the Amazon. I think we can definitely use this map to find Paititi!”
He shone his flashlight over the outer chamber once again. “Time to get out of here I think.”
“Wait — what was that noise?” Lexi said.
Reaper shrugged his shoulders. “The wind.”
“No — I heard it too,” Lea said.
And then the battle started.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
In the darkness of Inti’s tomb, the muzzle flashes of Kruger’s small army illuminated the walls as they marched on the much smaller ECHO team. “Get those bastards!” Kruger yelled. “I want that damned map and the man who brings it to me gets a bigger cut.”
The deafening sound of the skirmish rang out in the enclosed space as bullets traced and criss-crossed in every direction. Chunks of plaster tumbled out of the support beams and Hawke watched with increasing unease as the granite blocks in the ceiling came under fire.
“If those clowns detonate a grenade in here we’re all getting flushed out in a hurry.”
Corzo screamed with depraved joy as he unloaded an entire magazine in five seconds, the bullets spitting out of the muzzle and ripping into the masonry over Hawke’s head.
“Kill them all!” Saqqal yelled. “And get that damned map!”
Rajavi stormed forward and unsheathed a savage pesh-kabz knife. From Iran, the pesh-kabz blade was designed by ancient Persians and Afghans to tear into chainmail armour. Traditionally a thrusting blade, its length and width meant it could be used almost as a short sword in the right hands. Judging by how Rajavi was manipulating it, his were the right hands.
The massive Iranian strongman waved the pesh-kabz in Hawke’s face and beckoned him to come forward. In response, Hawke unsheathed his kukri and took a step toward him. The blade of the savage kukri flashed in the low light. It was a one-handed killing machine carried by Gurkhas for centuries and had gotten Hawke out of many tight situations.
The other man’s response was instant, lunging forward with the pesh-kabz. He slashed it in Hawke’s face, but the SBS man was ready and took a step back, swinging his head to the left at the same time.
Hawke’s opponent wasn't easily deterred and upon Saqqal’s orders he moved in closer to the Englishman and struck out again with the blade. Hawke dodged the second attack and this time brought up the kukri blade in a sweeping arc which slashed through Rajavi’s arm from the cho or notch at the bolster all the way to the tip of the blade.
The Iranian screamed in pain at the wound which the weight and width of the blade had ensured went all the way to the bone. He dropped his knife and staggered back. Blood poured down his arm in spirals and ran off his elbow.
Hawke struck like a cobra, lunging forward and seizing the advantage. When he reached the man he raised the heavy blade and brought the handle down on his head hard, striking his skull with the buttcap of the knife. Anyone else would have been knocked out in a flash, but Rajavi was like a man of steel. With his arm bleeding wildly, he shook off the head strike and lashed out at Hawke, knocking him several yards across the chamber floor.
Chaos reigned in the chamber now and they were all engaged in hand to hand fights for their own survival. Lexi was on a high ridge above the entrance to the chamber fighting a CGF rebel while Lea, Scarlet and Ryan were taking their frustrations out on rebels closer to the pyramid. Luis was keeping back, but now the young Colombian academic called out as Saqqal approached him and raised a blade to his face. “Help!”
From out of nowhere, a grenade blasted Luis and Saqqal off their feet and slammed them against the side of the pyramid where Luis narrowly avoided cracking his skull on the granite side. As he flew through the air like a Frisbee, he released the map and it crashed into the dusty floor with a smack.
Saqqal’s eyes lit up like they were on fire. “There it is!”
Luis scrambled forward to retrieve the ancient map and snatched it up in his hands, but now Saqqal grabbed his knife and approached him once again while all around them the fight raged on.
“Give me the stone, or I will kill you.”
“Help!”
“No one can hear you… they are all fighting for their lives. How will you defend your own life?” He flicked his fingers to indicate that Luis should hand over the stone. “One more chance.”