Canyon of the Sphinx (48 page)

Christopher conceded. “I can sense
that. But I’m still sorry for causing all of this.”

“No need. She wouldn’t have
missed it. Neither would I.”

They both watched as Kathlyn
struggled to lift her head, leaning it against her husband’s shoulder for
support. In spite of the fact that her husband was holding her, Christopher did
what came naturally to his compassionate nature. He put a big hand on her
forehead out of concern.

“Hey, tough cookie,” he said with
a twinkle in his eye. “Are you waking up?”

Three months ago, Marcus would
have flattened him. Now, he just smiled as Kathlyn opened her eyes and gazed at
the two of them.

“What are you guys doing here?”
Her voice was a whisper. “Where’s Mike?”

Marcus glanced over at Tony who, along
with Mark, was taking Mike out of the temple through the entrance. Mark was
still slapping him on the back of the head. “He’s no problem anymore,” he said
quietly. “Don’t worry about him.”

“But he was going to…”

“Not anymore, sweetheart. It’s
over.” He wanted to change the subject. “You had an interesting little spell in
here. Do you remember anything about it?”

She blinked, her irises a normal
size now. “Yes,” she said slowly. “There was a man. An Asian man. He thanked me
for finding his people. He said they had been waiting a long time.”

“I’ll bet,” Christopher said.
“Four thousand years is a long time to wait for peace.”

She put her fingers to her
temples. As was usual after one of these episodes, her head was killing her.
“There was so much more, but I just can’t think right now. I feel like my head
is going to explode.”

“No need,” Marcus said. “We can
talk about this later. Can you walk?”

She nodded and he carefully set
her on the ground. She hadn’t taken three steps when she suddenly stopped and
looked at the dark stone altar. She lifted her hands to touch it but Marcus
stopped her.

“Hey,” he said gently. “Remember
what happened the last time you did that.”

She smiled weakly. “I was just
thinking; the Asian man I saw was the one who did the sacrifices here. And the
people who were so willingly sacrificed believed that they were doing what they
had been chosen for.”

Marcus put his hand on her
shoulder. “And what was that?”

She put her palms together, as if
in prayer, and lifted her folded fingers to her lips thoughtfully. “Chosen to
help their people survive. He sacrificed those people for a purpose; to make
offering to the cat-things that eventually killed them. I get the feeling that
they thought if they appeased them, like offerings to the gods, then the beasts
would spare them.”

“But they didn’t. The courtyard
outside is evidence of that.”

She nodded. “That was the result
of the battle. The beasts were just animals; they didn’t care about sacrifices
or prayer. All they knew was blood and feasting. They had been bred for killing.”

Christopher was the most pensive
of all of them. He wanted to ask her a thousand questions but didn’t want to
strain her. “There are many instances of Mesoamerican tribes feeding beating
human hearts to animals, particularly jaguars, to appease the gods. That’s not
a new story. Did you ever get a sense of how the people of the lost city came
to the Yucatan in the first place?”

“No,” she shook her head. “Just
that they were here. An entire group of people in a strange land, trying to
survive.”

Christopher thought on that,
their presence, the cultural differences that surely must have existed those
centuries ago. “Survive is an understatement. It’s possible that the people of this
city were undoubtedly aware of the ritual human sacrifices but because they
really didn’t understand the language or culture, thought the Mesoamericans were
doing human sacrifice for different reasons. Consequently, it’s possible that
their sacrificial ritual was fed by fear and ignorance.”

Kathlyn nodded. “They ended up
sacrificing their people to appease the cat creatures, not the gods. They knew
the other tribes used the beasts for war and thought that by worshipping those
beasts, it would satisfy their blood lust so that when the time came and they
were finally attacked, the beasts would spare them.”

“But it didn’t work that way,”
Christopher was coming to see the big picture.

“No, it didn’t,” Kathlyn agreed softly.
“But they treated the sacrifice victims like heroes. That’s who they buried
under the images in the canyon of the sphinx. I told you that they were
tombstones.”

“Tombstones for those who were
sacrificed. We sleep at your feet. To them, death was the honorable sleep.”

“Exactly.”

It was all blindingly clear, at
least most of it. As Christopher had hoped those months ago when he first met
the lovely, colorful Dr. Trent, she had solved the great mystery of the
overnight disappearance of the great city, La Tierra Dorada de los Jaguares.
But there was still much more of the story to be told. He was looking forward
to discovering all of it.

They helped Kathlyn out of the
temple. Outside, they heard what they thought were the distant sounds of
helicopters. Tony and Mark were standing in the moonlit courtyard with Mike,
Jensen, Otis and Larry as a massive AH-1W Super Cobra flew in low over the
jungle, heading straight for them. A second one appeared shortly, flying a
sweeping pattern over the dig. It was extremely loud, the sounds of the rotors
echoing off of the ancient temple like the beat of native drums.

Christopher, Marcus and Kathlyn
watched with surprise as the military bird landed in the courtyard. A few
Marines jumped off, took Mike from Tony and Jensen from Otis, and threw them
inside the belly of the copter. Tony said something to Otis and then jumped
into the aircraft after them. With a wave to the group, the helicopter lifted
off and thundered back over the jungle. The second copter finished its sweep
and abruptly followed. With that, the two state-of-the-art military craft disappeared
as if they had never been.

It had been fast and final.
Kathlyn turned to her husband in astonishment.

“What,” she said slowly, “was
that?”

Marcus just shook his head; he
was never surprised by what Tony did. “I suspect that was Tony’s phone call
from a few hours ago.”

“He called in the Marines?”

“You’re a national treasure,
remember? Maybe he figured we needed their help. Frankly, I’m very glad he
did.”

She thought about it and realized
that she was, too. “But why did Tony go with them?” she asked.

“Probably to take care of that
hand. He got it worse than I did.”

Kathlyn walked silently towards
the rest of the team, now standing in the center of the courtyard and looking
at her. She smiled as she approached them, the people most loyal to her. There
were a few missing, but they would all be together again very soon. She was
excited about the prospect. But before they would be able to be together again,
she had to tie up the loose ends.

 She turned to Christopher.

“I think my job is done here,”
she said softly. “It’s not exactly El Dorado, but I think it’s pretty good. Thanks
for inviting us. It was certainly a wild ride.”

He smiled at her. “I can’t tell
you how thankful I am for your help. You’ve really been a God-send.”

“I was glad to do it.”

He lifted a disbelieving eyebrow.
“I could definitely see that when you were passed out in your husband’s arms.”

She shrugged. “It goes with the
job. Speaking of jobs, I think you’ve got a heck of a lot of excavating do to
here.”

Christopher’s pale blue eyes
gazed across the gray-lit landscape. “Thanks to you, now we have a better idea
of things. All of those unsettled souls hopefully won’t be unsettled much
longer.”

“You may want to have a Buddist
monk come out and bless the site. It may help.”

“Buddist?”

“These people weren’t
Mesoamericans, remember?” her eyes twinkled. “Bronze Age Chinese worshipped a
supreme deity named Ti, but I doubt there are any Ti priests around. You’ll just
have to make due.”

“Good advice.” His eyes lingered
on her moon-lit features a moment. “So I guess this is it.”

“It is.” She extended her hand to
him. “It’s been a thrill, Dr. Murphy. Thanks for letting us tag along.”

Christopher took her hand. Then he
glanced at her husband. “May I have your permission this time to hug your
wife?”

Marcus’ lips twitched, thinking
of that night so long ago that almost cost him everything. “Go ahead. But not
too hard.”

Christopher gave her a squeeze.

“And not too close,” Marcus put
in.

Christopher didn’t let her go. He
dipped her backwards, as if he was dancing with her. Head hanging upside-down, Kathlyn
began to laugh.

“Hey, what did I say?” Marcus
tapped him on the shoulder.

“Not too hard and not too close,”
Christopher pulled her up and released her. Then he turned to Marcus with his
arms outstretched. “How about you? You want some of this, big boy?”

Kathlyn thought she was going to
die of the giggles. She and the rest of her team walked up ahead, heading for
the path that led back to base camp and listening to Marcus threaten
Christopher within an inch of his life.

This time, they too were
laughing.