Viper's Nest Read online

  She pushed at the stone, gently at first, and then harder as it began to move forward – and suddenly it was gone from her hands, dropping down into the chamber, where it landed with a quiet thud.

  For a second there was nothing, and then a waft of hot, stale air hit her face. ‘Amber? Jade?’ she called. ‘Is anyone there?’

  Her heart sank as the silence swallowed up her voice. She tried again. ‘It’s me. Cate – Cate Carlisle. Please, can anyone hear me?’

  She felt a wave of despondency wash over her and her eyes filled with tears. After all this, she was too late and four young people were dead because of it.

  Then she heard a male voice, croaky – faint but alive. ‘We’re here, we’re all OK. Whoever you are, thank you.’

  Cate felt her knees go weak and she clung to the wall for support. She swallowed hard, desperate to answer, too choked to talk.

  Behind her she heard a grunting, shuffling noise as someone dragged themselves along the soft earth floor and a few seconds later Ritchie was in the passageway, standing up with obvious relief, brushing the dirt from his hands and knees. He shone his torch around, picking out the chamber, the drawings, and then finally Cate.

  ‘Jeez, Cate,’ he exclaimed. ‘I was getting worried. Thank God you’re OK. But what the heck are you doing here in the darkness? Put your torch on.’

  Darkness? Cate was puzzled, then remembered she had her night-vision lenses in.

  Ritchie played his torch around the chamber. ‘And what is this place? Wow! Look at those paintings!’

  He looked again at Cate and saw her face, and then within a few strides was at her side, shining his torch up at the hole, listening to the muffled cheers that were coming from the other side of the wall.

  ‘You’ve found them! Oh my God, Cate. You’re a legend.’

  He flung himself against the wall, pushing his head through the hole. ‘Amber, Jade – it’s me, Ritchie. Please tell me you’re OK.’

  ‘Hey, Ritchie,’ Cate heard Amber reply. She sounded frail and weak. ‘Boy, am I glad to see you. Please, please, get us out of here.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘Help is on its way. I rang my Uncle Jack.’

  CHAPTER 19

  Cate stared at him in horror. ‘You did what?’ she whispered, trying to keep the panic from her voice.

  ‘I rang Uncle Jack.’ Ritchie looked puzzled. ‘He was really worried about me – and you, Cate. He’s already sent Novak down to look for you. He said I was to follow you into the cave and not let you out of my sight.’

  Cate closed her eyes. His men would be on their way now, catching a plane, maybe chartering a helicopter. How long did she have before they got here? A couple of hours, maybe three. Or would they just call some local thugs, get them to head for the site and find her before she had a chance to escape?

  And what about Ritchie? Could he really know nothing of his uncle’s crimes? Or was he bluffing, playing the innocent whilst leading the criminals right to her door.

  Should she run now, get away from here, from Ritchie? But she couldn’t just leave the students now they were so close to freedom.

  ‘Hey, guys.’ The voice coming from behind the rocks sounded concerned. ‘What’s up? Talk to us. Please.’

  Cate took off her rucksack and shoved it through the gap. ‘Give me a leg up,’ she said to Ritchie. ‘I’m going in.’

  Willing hands grabbed her as she wriggled through the hole, trying to ignore the sharp shards of rock that ripped through her jeans and cut her arms. Then she was in the chamber, seeing four pale, exhausted faces wreathed in smiles – and suddenly Jade was in her arms, her face wet with tears.

  ‘We thought we’d be here for ever,’ Jade sobbed.

  ‘You did,’ corrected Amber, her eyes shining as she kissed Cate for about the twentieth time. ‘Mad, I know, but I never gave up hope. I have to say, though, I didn’t have you on my list of potential rescuers, Cate.’

  ‘Thor Jarson.’ The blond man put out his hand and shook hers. His English carried only a trace of a Scandinavian accent. ‘This is our sixth day here. We have some food and water,’ he gestured behind him to a pile of bottles, ‘but it was very worrying.’

  The last of the four, a short, black-haired boy, was standing back, gazing at Cate with an anxious look on his face. ‘I’m Stefan,’ he said at last. ‘Stefan Vilander. We didn’t get lost down here. This rock fall was no accident. We have been the victims of a most dreadful crime. And all because of this.’ He gestured around the chamber and then Cate saw why. The prow of a ship, elegant and slender, carved in the shape of a serpent, rose up proudly to the ceiling of the chamber.

  The timbers of the boat were mostly rotted, but there was no mistaking the distinctive sweeping outlines, the deep hull, the oar holes still visible between the tar-plugged timbers. Around and within what remained of the boat were piles of helmets, green with age, steel swords, daggers and axes.

  ‘A Viking longship,’ she breathed. ‘Unbelievable.’

  ‘It’s beautiful, no?’ said Stefan, watching her closely.

  Behind him, Ritchie was being pulled through the gap by Thor and Amber.

  ‘Amazing. I agree,’ Stefan continued. ‘This longship will change how we see our past for ever. But because of this boat and the treasures in it, we were taken from our beds at gunpoint. Somehow these people found out we had discovered something important and made us bring them here.’

  Cate forced her gaze away from the ship and looked at Stefan. His green eyes were blazing with anger, his thin face taut and rigid.

  ‘How did you find all this?’

  ‘Amber found the place by accident. We knew immediately what it was and how important, that it was a world-changing discovery. We were supposed to keep it quiet, to tell no one until our professor came, but somehow word got out.’ He made a resigned gesture, his gaze flickering towards Jade. ‘Then, on Tuesday night, men came for us. Four of them, armed with guns. They had explosives, sledge hammers, pickaxes. They made us get dressed, took our phones from us, and then forced us at gunpoint to show them the hidden chamber. The entrance was blocked so they simply stuck down some explosives and blasted their way through – they didn’t care what damage they might do.’

  The group fell silent now. Cate offered Stefan some water and he took it, his hands shaking as he put the bottle to his mouth.

  She looked at Ritchie. ‘We should be getting out of here,’ Cate said. ‘These guys need to see a doctor and we need to call the police.’

  ‘They said they were going to kill us,’ said Stefan, ignoring Cate. ‘They were going to take the treasure. Their boss already had a private collector waiting for it, somewhere in China, willing to pay millions of dollars for it. That Columbian, the one with those metal piercings in his chin, he was truly evil.’

  Cate stared at him. Gabriel, it had to be Gabriel.

  Stefan continued. ‘The others were terrified of him. They did exactly what he said. And he was clearly following orders from someone else. He mentioned his boss a few times. Said how pleased he would be at this haul.’

  Jade started crying, her sobs echoing around the chamber like an ancient wail. ‘I really thought we were going to die down here.’

  Ritchie put his arm around her, soothing her as if she was a child.

  ‘So what happened? How come you’re still here? Where are they now?’ he asked nervously, as if he expected armed bandits to jump out at him from the shadows.

  There.’ Thor gestured to the wall of huge boulders, recently broken and mixed with red earth and roots. ‘They worked for a few hours, taking things from the chamber, piling them up in the cave. Then they loaded everything up into boxes,’ he explained. ‘They were in a kind of frenzy. Coins, they kept saying. Jewels, gold. They were disgusting. Swearing, howling, laughing. Like a pack of baying animals falling on their prey. And then there was a rockfall.’

  ‘The explosives they used must have disturbed the ground above us,’ Stefan said. ‘There was th
is huge rumble, the whole place shook. They were on one side of the wall, we were on the other and it all happened so quickly. Within seconds we were trapped here, buried alive.’

  ‘We thought that after they’d gone they would at least tell someone where we were. We honestly couldn’t believe that they would leave us here,’ said Amber.

  ‘But then, as the days passed, we realised,’ said Jade between sobs. ‘That they had just left us here to rot. All we could do was hope that people would come and look for us, woudn’t give up on us.’

  ‘Do you know who their boss is?’ Ritchie turned to Stefan. ‘Whoever it is must be truly evil. He must have known about the accident, that people were trapped. How could he leave them to die down here like this. It’s inhuman.’

  Cate stayed silent, watching Ritchie’s face.

  Stefan gave a wry smile. ‘We had a long time to talk in here, to tell each other everything. We wondered who else could know about our discovery. Jade admitted that she was so excited that, when she was emailing her weekly round up of news to the twins’ very generous sponsor, she just happened to mention that they may have found something amazing. And when he emailed back asking her to tell him what it was, well, Jade couldn’t keep it a secret any longer. He was her sponsor and he had a right to know and she thought she could trust him. After all, he is one of the most famous men in the world.’

  Cate watched Ritchie as he put his hand to the wall and leaned against it heavily. Horror, shame and pity was written all over his suddenly pale face. In that instant, Cate knew Ritchie was innocent. There was no way he could have faked that reaction.

  ‘What are you saying?’ he whispered.

  ‘I’m sorry, Ritchie.’ Amber was sobbing now. ‘Really sorry. The only person who knew about the Viking ship and all the treasure, apart from us, was Johnny James. Your Uncle Jack.’

  There was a silence. Then Ritchie turned to look at Cate, his eyes confused and frightened. ‘You knew. That’s why you were asking all those questions about Uncle Jack. Why didn’t you tell me?’

  Cate shook her head. ‘I couldn’t, Ritchie. I wasn’t sure. Not until now. And if I had got it wrong, it would have been a terrible accusation to make.’

  She looked at the faces around her. They were exhausted, which was hardly surprising, considering the nightmare that each of them had been through.

  Cate had a sudden desperate urge to feel fresh air on her face, the wind in her hair, and to look up at the night sky. ‘Look, guys,’ she said, ‘this can all wait. Please. Let’s go. We know how unstable this place is – we don’t want to get trapped again.’

  But just then they heard a sound. Ritchie had suddenly frozen. He was leaning back against the wall, his head turned towards the open hole. He looked at Cate and she saw the fear in his eyes. ‘They’re coming.’

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Stefan whispered. ‘Who’s coming?’

  There was a silence. Cate looked at Ritchie, unable to bring herself to tell them what was happening.

  ‘Friends of my uncle,’ Ritchie said slowly, almost robotically. ‘I told my uncle we had found a passageway. And he’s sending people to find us.’

  ‘Brilliant.’ Stefan spoke into the darkness. ‘We finally get rescued and now we are at risk of being killed all over again.’

  For a few seconds Cate was almost paralysed with fear. She thought about what a terrible place this would be to die, down here in the darkness, breathing in stale air, seeing the fear in the faces of her friends, as they too faced their death. She shook herself. She couldn’t – no, she wouldn’t – let that happen.

  ‘Come on,’ she said sternly. ‘We’re not dead yet. We have to find a way out of this.’

  She bent down and started picking up rocks. ‘Here! Let’s disguise this hole to the passageway with stones. It’ll buy us a little time.’

  Suddenly galvanised, the boys sprang into action. The three of them picked up pieces of rock, until slowly, painfully, the hole was filled once more.

  ‘Now, switch the torches off,’ Cate ordered. ‘If they see light we’re finished.’

  Stefan was standing next to her. He smelled badly of sweat and fear. Cate wondered how soon it would be before she too was in such a state.

  She was grateful for her night-vision lenses and wondered what it must be like for the others to be in total darkness.

  Cate could hear voices now, getting louder, the sound slipping through the tiny cracks between the replaced stones. She put her hand into her rucksack and felt for the old map, unfolding it in front of her.

  The men were very close. Cate could hear their footsteps, loud, aggressive, angry.

  ‘The place is empty, Novak. They must have gone already.’

  ‘Of course they haven’t gone.’ An Eastern European accent. ‘They’ll be in here somewhere. Hiding. Like rats in a drain. We just have to find them.’

  ‘I thought we were here for treasure.’ Another man, another accent – Californian this time. How many men had Novak brought with him? ‘Not to hunt down a bunch of teenagers.’

  ‘You do as you’re told. We pay you enough,’ said Novak menacingly. ‘I’ll find those kids, even if I have to blow the whole place to smithereens.’

  Ritchie moved towards Cate, his hands held out in front of him like a blind man. ‘This is all my fault,’ he whispered. ‘It’s up to me to sort it out. Let me go out there, distract them, lead them away from here. They won’t kill me – I’m Johnny James’s nephew.’

  Cate sighed and reached for his hand. ‘They nearly killed you on the Pacific Highway. I don’t think they’ll care about you now, either.’

  The voices were fading as the gang moved away from the wall.

  Cate spread the map out on the floor. ‘Thor,’ she whispered, ‘put your torch on. It’s not that strong, we should be OK with it on. I want you all to see this.’

  ‘What is it?’ Stefan asked as the dull light flickered over the parchment.

  ‘An old map of the entire site of El Tajin, dating back just a few years after it was rediscovered and before the renovation work started. I reckon we’re in this pyramid here.’ She stabbed her forefinger at the triangular shape. ‘And here’s the entrance that you found, Amber. Which means that right now, we’re just about here.’ Cate pointed at the blue lines. ‘What do you think these are?’ she asked no one in particular.

  ‘Streets?’ Thor guessed.

  ‘I thought that,’ said Cate, ‘but it seems odd that some of the important pyramids don’t have streets leading to them. That big one there for example – it has no blue lines near it, but this smaller one does.’ She paused, running her hand along them, noticing how each blue line seemed to end up in one of the several rivers that bisected the site.

  Next to her Thor let out a quiet yelp of excitement. ‘It’s showing the drainage system. It must be. At one point El Tajin held thousands of people. They would have had to build a water network and they were easily capable of building one underground. It makes sense. There are thermal springs in the jungle and they probably tapped into those.’

  ‘That’s it.’ Amber was crouched down next to them, tracing a blue line that ran right through the centre of the pyramid. ‘According to the map, a drainage channel runs straight under this chamber. Now all we have to do is find it.’

  ‘Did any of you hear any running water?’ Cate asked hopefully.

  ‘No,’ Stefan said apologetically. ‘Not me. Anyone else?’

  There was a dull thud and above them the roof shivered and shook.

  ‘It’s started,’ Cate said quietly. ‘They’re going to blow this place apart.’

  ‘Ritchie!’ Novak’s voice was muffled. ‘Why are you hiding? Your uncle just wants to know that you’re safe. He wants to help you. And your friend.’ He paused then tried again. ‘I’m not sure what Cate has been telling you, but I’m sure it’s lies. She’s a spy, Ritchie, a spy. She works for the bad guys. She snoops and she lies and she turns friend against friend. Go on, ask her. She’s
even turned you against your own uncle.’

  ‘Don’t!’ Cate put her hand out to stop Ritchie as he began to scramble to his feet. ‘Don’t listen to them. You’ll be sending us all to our deaths.’

  He looked at her in the torchlight, his eyes narrowing. Finally he nodded. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘I’m with you. Now come on, let’s find this drain.’

  ‘We looked,’ Jade said despairingly. ‘We spent ages searching this chamber from top to bottom for an escape route. If there’s a drain we’d have found it.’

  ‘We need a divine miracle. Or a water diviner.’ Ritchie made an attempt at a smile.

  Another dull thud rocked the room and a shower of dirt and small stones fell from the roof, rattling on to the Viking ship. A small boulder fell from the ceiling, narrowly missing Cate, where she was standing staring open-mouthed at Ritchie.

  ‘Genius,’ she said, reaching into her pocket. ‘That’s what you are. A genius.’ She pulled out the heat-seeker.

  ‘Thor.’ She turned to the Norwegian. ‘You said something about thermal springs? Just how warm was the water? Over thirty-six degrees by any chance? As warm as the human body?’

  ‘Warmer,’ said Thor. ‘Sometimes up to seventy degrees. I’ve seen drawings of whole families in steaming baths.’

  ‘Well let’s just hope it’s not further than three metres down,’ said Cate to herself, switching on the wand and moving it methodically over the sandy floor as the roof creaked and groaned above them.

  She moved urgently back and forth across the chamber, dodging the debris that was coming down in an almost-constant stream now from the walls and ceiling.

  They felt another explosion and this time the loose stones they had put back into the wall began to wobble precariously. Any minute now they would fall and expose their hiding place to the men who wanted them dead. As she came up against Ritchie he whispered into her ear, his voice suspicious and confused.

  ‘How can you see in the dark? And that thing in your hands – where did it come from? The same place you got your laser that I’m not meant to ask you about? Is Novak right, Cate? Are you some kind of spy?’