Chapter 9

Tuesday

The promised helicopter arrived during breakfast. Once we finished eating, the Captain and I climbed into the helicopter, which flew us to Merida. A car awaited us at the airport and took us to a government office.

“How do we know that he killed El Gato instead of one of your men?” an official asked the Captain when we reached the office.

“Come out to the parking lot with us,” he replied with a smirk. By the time we reached the parking lot, there were more than a dozen people following us. The Captain went to the car and took out three large cardboard boxes that had been flattened. After folding them, he stacked them so the stack was about six feet tall. Taking a felt pen from his pocket, he drew an outline around the driver who had his back against the stack. Then he drew an outline of a heart in the chest.

Returning to our car, he took my atlatl and darts out of the car and handed them to me, nodding towards the boxes. I backed off about fifty feet, much farther than I’d been. Four darts in a row hit the heart or missed it by a couple of inches.

“Fine,” the grumpy government official conceded, turning, and heading back inside. Grinning at me, the Captain and I did the same--after retrieving the four darts and returning my atlatl and darts to the car.

Fifteen minutes later--after the official checked my passport--we left the building. Twenty minutes later we were inside a bank. The Captain had warned the bank Tuesday that I’d want to cash a check for one million pesos, so they had it available--half in smaller denominations. The bank manager stuffed it into four large manila envelopes and handed it to me.

“Thank you for ridding the area of that awful man,” he whispered as he shook my hand.

I waited until we were back in the car to give the money to the Captain. “This is about two months’ wages for my men,” he told me.

When we stepped off the helicopter, the soldiers were gathered around the makeshift helipad. When the Captain held up the four envelopes, they all cheered and shook my hand when I walked by them as I moved away from the helicopter.

Erica took me aside and asked, “Did you really just give the soldiers the reward for killing the cartel leader?” she asked.

“Yeah, they’ve been here protecting us and dealt with two attacks. Between the two attacks, six of them were wounded.”

“But you were there, too. You used your atlatl,” she protested.

“True, but I had the Tribunal watching my back,” I reminded her.

“You could have paid off all your student loans,” she insisted.

“I don’t have any. I had scholarships, and a good-paying job,” I explained.

“I guess that explains why you’ve been so generous. The local workers are all big fans of yours now,” she laughed.

Wednesday

The rest of the summer until the end of July was spent retrieving artifacts from the cliffs or sketching. With the search of the lake bottom finished, I was able to join the July class and get credit, something I’d have to do a lot of to get my PhD, although I had to get my Master’s degree first.

I found the studying for the class to be easy, so I spent a lot of time doing more dream sketches of Montabala. The more sketches I did, the more details I noticed and discovered about the ancient city. By the end of July, we had identified several more important features.

The draw where rainwater ran off, and where the attack took place, was manmade and lined with limestone. It, and several others, as well as three underground aqueducts, channeled rainwater into large underground cisterns. Some of the cisterns were located beneath the city, allowing the inhabitants to draw water as if they were wells. Others were outside the city, designed to be used for irrigating crops and watering livestock.

We located a well-preserved ball court, three smaller temples, a large plaza, and an astronomical observatory just east of the center of the city. A circular staircase reminiscent of those in old lighthouses allowed access to the dome at the top of the observatory. Like most of the buildings here, it was in remarkable condition.

One of the limestone-paved walkways in the city had jaguar paw prints imprinted into the limestone making it look like a jaguar had actually walked along there and somebody had preserved the paw prints. Someone had gone to great lengths to make some sort of mold of a jaguar’s paw prints and then press them into the wet limestone in the correct pattern to make it look as if a jaguar had taken a leisurely stroll along the walkway.

One section of the city was elevated about a meter above the rest of the city. Moss-covered stone steps along all four sides of the area allowed access. From what I saw in my dreams, and from the sizes of the buildings, the city’s wealthiest and most influential inhabitants had lived here.

So far, we have located several sacbeob (plural of sacbe). Those are ancient roads between cities or within cities. The sacbeob were constructed of rock with a gravel fill. Sometimes they were elevated up to three meters in flood prone areas. The top was covered with a layer of white limestone plaster. I wonder if they used to use the limestone sediment from the bottom of the cenote for that. Five of the roads went through the city and we’ve located four that extend towards the sites of other ruins in the Yucatan. They were probably ancient Mayan trade routes. The road leading to the fishing village I’d observed in a dream was one such road, although it went through three other Mayan cities along the way.

I can only imagine that an aerial view of the Yucatan in the heyday of the Maya would look like a modern aerial view with freeways and highways crisscrossing the peninsula.

The army has remained here at the site. After two attacks, the Mexican government decided that they should stay here and help guard the dig. The government was stunned by the amount of gold, jade, and silver figurines recovered here. In view of everything we’ve discovered, last week, Dr. Gonzalez said the government planned to make the city a tourist attraction to help defray the costs of the ongoing explorations.

Dr. Cooper has set up two of the crypts that had been empty. They now hold fake skeletons and costume jewelry made to look like the jade breastplates, as well as the jade rod, whistle, and the jade bead in the mouth. They also have “maize” made from colored acrylic, in both the mouth and in a shell beside the “skeletal remains.”

The locals are excited because it will provide jobs for some of them, and those already working here will continue to have work unearthing everything for several more years. They’ll also have to work to keep the jungle at bay, although they’re planning to plant grass in the open areas of the city.

Monday

The day before I left for home, a guy from the NGS named Dave Howard arrived via helicopter to speak with Tim. They sat off to the side of our dining area and talked for about an hour. They were also looking at maps and photos. They left for about half an hour and spoke with the Captain.

When they returned from talking to the Captain, Tim motioned for me to join them.

“The Society wants to do a television special about the cenotes of the Yucatan,” he began his explanation. Basically, Tim told them that he wanted me for his dive partner. They’d already discussed the project via email, and the NGS had reviewed my photos and videos from here and from the Ecuadorian site.

Dave was surprised to learn that I’d stayed to help defend the camp, and especially surprised that I’d successfully used an atlatl. He’d checked with the Captain to verify that I had, indeed, donated the one million Peso reward to the soldiers, and had given the cash recovered from the seven bodies to the local workers.

“After speaking with Dr. Parker and learning that you did the sketches for and worked as a consultant on the three ‘Perchance to Dream’ movies, I can understand that you probably have a sizeable bank account,” he admitted.

“When Tim told me that he wanted you as his dive partner, I checked with Drs. Parker, Watts, Gonzalez, and Cooper. They all assured me that you were a serious student of archaeology. The last three also assured me that you were an excellent diver. Tim says that he’s seen all of your certifications and that you’re both an extremely qualified diver and an excellent photographer. I’ve seen your photography and videography and I concur.

“I’m here to ask if you’d be interested in working with Tim on the NGS cenote special for television.”

“I’d love to, but I have classes starting in a couple weeks. I can’t do anything like that until Christmas break or next summer,” I replied. “For Christmas break, I’d need three days at the beginning to visit my family in California.”

I could see Dave thinking for several seconds. “Why don’t we do the first cenote during Thanksgiving break? Then you can take five days off at the start of Christmas break before we finish filming the last four cenotes,” he suggested.

Since I usually hung around school during Thanksgiving break, I agreed, making both men happy. Hell, I was happy, too. Another chance to dive!

“By the way, we’ll pay you our standard rate for divers,” Dave added. I agreed, although I had no idea how much their divers made. I was surprised when he handed me a check. “This is for your work here. I apologize for it being late, but you sort of fell through the cracks since you were brought in instead of scheduled to be here,” he explained. I glanced at the check and was surprised at how much it was. I’d figured that I was volunteering here like I’d been doing in Ecuador.

“We’ll make sure that you and your school are mentioned several times in any articles we do about Montabala, especially when they publish their preliminary findings later this year. You’ll also be cited as the photographer for any of your photos that they use,” he assured me.

Tuesday

I left a lot of new friends behind when I left Montabala today, although the interns had also finished the class and were leaving, too. Most of them were going to the Merida airport to catch their flights home. Tim drove me to the Cancun airport where I caught a flight home. He spent the entire drive chattering excitedly about the upcoming documentary.

Going through Mexican customs was a real bitch, and not because of the weapons. I’d asked Dr. Gonzalez if I could buy one of the clay funerary statues as a memento. He talked to someone from the government, and they donated a set of statues to the school’s museum: one jade, one gold, one silver, one stone, and one clay. They also gave me a set. In addition, they donated the artifacts from one of the crypts to the school’s museum, including the jade artifacts.

That’s what took so long in customs. Despite having all the necessary signed documentation for the artifacts, the customs officer insisted on calling the person who issued them to verify that they were legitimate. He finally apologized to me after his call. He barely gave the guns more than a cursory look since they were leaving the country.

I was tired when I stepped off the plane about two in the afternoon. Something about flying tires me. Customs was a bitch again. This time, both the weapons and the artifacts were scrutinized, despite having the proper paperwork for both.

Ray met me at the luggage area with six of their interns, although my guns, crates of diving gear, and artifacts were brought there from customs on an electric cart with a trailer.

“You made quite a name for yourself this summer, as a diver, for your sketches, and for helping to locate so many of the sites at Montabala, especially the hidden crypts,” Ray said as he hugged me.

“You’ve bulked up, too,” he added questioningly.

“You try hanging onto a chain ladder all day while recovering artifacts from a cliff,” I laughed. I’d wondered about that when I noticed that the arms and shoulders of my T-shirts had become a bit snug.

We quickly had the gear loaded into the truck waiting at the curb, which made the disgruntled cops happier.

As we headed back to school, Ray dropped a bombshell on me. “Imagine my surprise when I arrived at work one morning to find a gold statue of Ah Kinchil sitting on my desk,” he said, motioning with his hands to show a thirty-centimeter-high statue. “That sucker is heavy! Itzel told us what it was and how it showed up there. She also told us that the missing gold went to a good cause,” he chuckled.

“I wondered what happened to it,” I replied. I also wondered silently what cause the gold had been applied to. A few hundred kg of gold would go a long way to helping any cause.

I told him about the offer from the NGS to help with the television special about the Yucatan cenotes.

“This is just the beginning,” he replied with a grin. “The more your name appears in articles about the sites where you’ve helped, the more requests you’ll receive for help. Being known to the NGS will help, too. Their research teams are highly respected.”

We had to stop by Ray’s house so I could leave the guns there as they weren’t permitted on school grounds. I’d have to find a permanent solution to storing them soon.

At school, we took the artifacts to the museum where the curator signed for them. I left my set of statues, too, except for the clay one. We signed paperwork saying that I was putting my statues on indefinite loan to the school museum.

After that, the interns drove me back to my dorm room. I’d moved into graduate housing right before I left for Ecuador. Those rooms are more like a one-bedroom apartment, complete with a kitchenette. Instead, the dorm room they delivered me to was a two-bedroom apartment in the married student housing. I suppose it was a good thing since I could use the second bedroom to store my diving and camping gear. I could even use part of the second bedroom as a study.

Someone had moved my things from my old dorm room into this one. I had a sneaking suspicion that Ray’s wives had a hand in that since the bed was made, towels were hanging in the bathroom, and the clothes I didn’t take with me were neatly folded in drawers or hanging in the closet.

In the middle of the table was a stainless-steel statue of a jaguar that looked suspiciously like the gold one I’d helped dispose of in Ecuador. “Thank you,” I said to nobody in particular, hoping the Tribunal heard me. It was every bit as detailed and expertly crafted as the gold one had been.

I didn’t even bother unpacking my diving gear, although I’d have to do it tomorrow. While thinking about my gear, I realized that, with the remaining cartel money, I could now afford to buy the really expensive professional cameras that I’d drooled over before. I’d keep my current ones as backups. I also needed to stock up on flash drives and memory cards for my cameras and should probably buy another set of batteries and solar cells to keep everything charged.

I had been relieved to see my car in the dormitory parking lot when we arrived. Dr. Parker had assured me that one of his wives would occasionally drive it for me to keep the battery charged and to keep fresh fuel in it.

Now I had a tough choice to make. Did I want pizza or a cheeseburger for dinner? I’d missed both for the last two months. I opted for Tandy’s and their bacon cheeseburger because their milkshakes were made from real ice cream and they made their own onion rings.

On the way home I picked up some fresh food, as well as a few more frozen dinners. When I went into the second bedroom where my dive gear had been stacked, I damn near tripped over a huge pile of gold coins that hadn’t been there earlier. Actually, pile isn’t an accurate description. The coins were neatly stacked in one-meter-high stacks, each stack touching the ones all around it. Only the stacks around the perimeter didn’t touch other stacks on all sides.

“What the fuck?” I wondered, both about the appearance of the coins and about the impossible way they were stacked. I was afraid to breathe for fear that the stacks would collapse and then I would have that pile of gold coins. I swear that I heard muted laughter in the back of my mind.

Moving as close as I dared lest I knock down the stacks, I looked at them and recognized some of the coins as Double Eagles. I saw Eagles, Half-Eagles, Quarter Eagles, and even one, three, and four-dollar gold coins. I saw coins with Spanish and French writing on them, as well as writing I didn’t recognize.

I couldn’t even begin to count the coins, but there were thousands and thousands of them. I did some rough calculations about the gold they represented, estimating the weight of the original statue to be five hundred kilograms, or eleven hundred pounds--give or take.

If Ray’s gold statue followed the same proportion of dimensions as the original, then a thirty-centimeter-high statue would weigh about a hundred fifteen kg or two hundred fifty pounds.

The difference between the two made my head spin--eight hundred fifty pounds of gold. At fifteen Troy ounces per pound, that would be over twelve thousand Troy ounces of gold, a multiplication problem I had to do in my head twice. While I had no idea what the current value of gold was, I knew it was more than a thousand dollars an ounce, which meant that the gold value of the coins was worth more than twelve million dollars.

I had a feeling that the numismatic value of the gold coins stacked here would be worth well more than that amount.

Shit, if these were to be sold as collectible coins, I’d need to take good care of them. That meant I’d have to buy the little square plastic holders for the coins--one coin per holder.

I thought a Double Eagle was roughly one Troy ounce each, but the vast majority of the coin stacks were smaller coins than the Double Eagles.

The Double Eagle stacks seemed to be about a quarter of the stacks. After counting, as best I could, how many coins were in a stack of Double Eagles and two stacks of different coins, I did a very rough estimate and came up with roughly 30,000 coins besides the Double Eagles. Fuck!

To start with, I went online to order plastic cases to protect the coins. While they weren’t cheap, I wasn’t worried about the price. The time it would take me to put each coin in a separate case was a different story. I could spend years encasing these coins. Instead, I bought boxes of clear, soft, vinyl sheets that each had thirty pockets to hold coins. Even a Double Eagle would easily fit in one of the pockets. I also bought sheets that held sixty-three or eighty-eight coins since most of the coins were smaller that the Double Eagles.

I ordered the soft vinyl sheets from ten different companies, so nobody wondered why I needed sheets to hold nearly forty thousand coins. I paid for next day delivery when possible, and two-day delivery for the rest.

From four different online sources, I ordered a total of six books about U.S. gold coins. I wanted a rough idea of what I had and what they were worth before I tried selling any of them. Now I just had to figure out how to keep the coins safe until I could sort them into the plastic sheets and arrange someplace safe to keep them. Of course, that’s assuming that they have the correct coin alloys. If they were solid gold, they’d only be worth a bit more than gold bullion.

When I went back to the study, the stacks were gone! I guess that was one way to keep them safe.

Grabbing my cell phone, I called my parents and warned Mom that I’d be arriving at the beginning of Christmas break. I planned two travel days and three days at home. She was excited for me when I told her my plans for Thanksgiving break and during the rest of Christmas break.

With that, I showered and crashed for the night. Since Erica, Raelene, and Denise had told me not to be a stranger, I found each of them in my dreams and we enjoyed a night of dream sex.

Erica voiced my sentiment as we were finishing, “Not only was the sex great, but the energy boost in the morning will be appreciated. I was wiped out after traveling all day.”

That was when I found myself in front of the Tribunal again. “Am I supposed to do something with all the gold coins?” I asked before they could sidetrack me.

“They are a token of our appreciation. You do whatever we ask of you, even if you have reservations about doing it,” the spokesman replied. “To that end, we wish for you to purchase three large floor safes and a wall safe. Just leave them in your car and we will install them for you. To access them, you will only need to touch the floor or wall above them, and they will be accessible.”

“But I live in the dorms and can’t tear up the floor or walls,” I warned them.

“These will be installed in one of the dimensional pockets like you put the two statues into. When you touch the spot, they will appear as if they were installed in the floor or the wall. There is no need to lock the safes since nobody will be able to access them but you,” they advised.