CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE JAGUAR TEMPLE CALAKMUL BIOSPHERE RESERVE

JAGUAR TEMPLE

CALAKMUL BIOSPHERE RESERVE

January 10

There was a pit in Roth’s stomach. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to survive the Jaguar Temple a second time. Ever since he’d been captured by that enormously strong man whose name literally meant killing people, he’d shoved his worry and sense of dread as deep inside himself as he could. He needed his mind more than anything. Still, he could feel it lurking there. It didn’t help that he was faced with the visual evidence of the powerful magic Calakmul had on his side—it was there in his unlined face and his physique, which was even more like that of a jaguar now that he’d been de-aged in Aztlán.

“So ... are you considering my offer?” Roth asked Angélica in a low voice after she’d led him away from a seething Jacob Calakmul.

“What?” Angélica said with a false laugh. They passed a servant who bowed meekly to her and continued on his way. Angélica was wearing the ceremonial garb he’d seen her in during the death game. Like she was a Maya princess. Gold jewelry decorated her throat, arms, and ankles.

“Everything I told Jacob was intended for you,” Roth said. “I didn’t know if we’d get the chance to speak privately.”

“You’re serious?”

“I don’t have time to joke around. The prophecy isn’t about Jacob.”

“And how do you know that?” She sounded incredulous. Of course she would be.

“I texted the pictures from the Dresden Codex to Suki’s phone, as demanded, so I presume you’ve seen them. But I didn’t text the translation.”

“We already know it,” she said dismissively.

“Are you sure you’ve interpreted it correctly? I have a grad student from UC San Diego who’s been helping me. She works with the Qualcomm Institute. Heard of it?”

“Yes,” she said, giving him a sidelong look.

“A professor there has pinpointed the location of this compound. Satellites have been repositioned to watch this place twenty-four seven. We know about the other temples lighting up.”

Angélica stopped midstride and looked at him in confusion. “Other temples?”

That surprised him. She didn’t know about them? Roth had assumed it meant that Jacob had more than one stronghold in the Yucatán. Was that not so?

Roth stopped and turned to look at her. “Chichén Itzá started glowing this morning. So did Uxmal and a few others I can’t pronounce. You didn’t know?”

There was something in her eyes now. Fear? Worry? This was new information to her. Did that mean Calakmul hadn’t told her? Or was it possible he didn’t know himself?

“Help get me out of here,” Roth said in a low, urgent voice. “It’s not too late to switch sides. You helped Lucas when that warrior wanted to murder him. I just don’t think you’re the kind of person who’d want to be responsible for so much carnage.”

“It doesn’t matter what I want,” she whispered. “It’s too late. The end times have already started. If I’m by his side, I might at least be able to influence him.”

“The end times aren’t what you believe they are. I saw the room with the obsidian mirrors. That’s how they got into the White House. To DC and other places. Help me get the other leaders out of here the same way.”

She shook her head firmly. “I’ve never been in that chamber. I don’t know how the magic works.”

“But they are the ‘smoking mirrors’ from the legends of Huracán, Kukulkán’s brother. The one who tricked him.”

“Yes,” she said tightly. “Mr. Roth, I’m risking my life by even speaking to you in this way. Jacob is not ... he’s not a man who forgives.” She directed him toward another corridor.

“No, and you know too much.” He’d noticed that she looked younger now, which matched what Suki had told him about their visit to Aztlán. “You know where Aztlán is. From what my daughter says, he was the only one who knew.”

She flinched.

“Someone will try to kill him now. Because they know you have that knowledge. You’re a liability to him.”

She made a face. “Someone tried already. His warrior chief. Earlier today. He’ll be executed publicly. I would be too if I helped you.”

Roth hadn’t been off the mark. He stopped in his tracks to buy more time. Calakmul’s plan was already crumbling from within. That’s what happened when a tyrant seized power—sometimes immediately, and sometimes not for years. The pattern could be seen throughout history, from Nero to Caligula. But how could he take advantage of that? How could he convince her to help?

“We need to keep walking, before someone sees us,” Angélica said. She motioned for him to follow, and he fell in step alongside her.

“The next guy isn’t going to be as nice to you as Jacob is,” Roth pointed out. “And anything Jacob gave you can be taken away by someone else. Besides, I’m guessing Jacob’s not the trusting type. You probably have to prove your loyalty every day.”

“Please, Jonathon,” she said, shaking her head. But her voice quavered a little, and he knew he’d struck a nerve.

“You can’t fault me for trying. I’ve told the US government everything I know. And they believe me. We tried to capture Jacob in the Situation Room. We know about the jaguar priests’ greatest weakness. How they are vulnerable when they begin to transform.”

She made a face and shook her head again.

“Look, you didn’t know about the other temples. I’m assuming he doesn’t know either? He would have told you.”

“Yes. But he’s been distracted. He’s been ...” She pressed her lips together.

“As hot-blooded as a twenty-year-old?” Roth surmised. “That’s the thing about Aztlán. I’m guessing it literally rewound your age, which means it also unwound the brain’s development.”

She looked at him in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“Sorry. I have a tendency to talk as fast as I think. I was in college for a long time because I’m fascinated by everything, including the field of neuroscience. The prefrontal cortex is in charge of executive functioning. Long-range thinking. Strategic planning. It doesn’t fully form in men until around age twenty-five. But it happens earlier for women. It’s always been that way. You must have noticed it, Angélica. His rashness. His temper. His emotional instability. You’ve been dealing with an earlier version of him. His hard drive has all the files. But his brain is using old code.”

He’d hit the mark with the technology metaphor. He saw her wrinkled brow, her guilty expression.

“You’re in the same position that Malintzin was in,” Roth said after they’d turned the next corner. There were stairs leading downward. Malintzin had partnered with Cortés during his invasion of the Americas. She’d even borne him children. Her name had come to mean traitor among the Mexican people. If she hadn’t helped Cortés, he never would have succeeded in deposing Moctezuma.

“He calls me that sometimes,” she said. “I hate it. She was a puppet to the Order of the Jaguar Priests.”

“And you aren’t?”

“Why do you think I hate it?” she asked sadly. “I know what I am.”

“So help me! We can both escape. You can start a new life. Leave this behind.”

“There isn’t enough time! The sacrifices start at midnight. The plague is already spreading. It’s not that I relish so much suffering, but a price should be paid for the centuries of injustice visited on our people. Still, I plan to soften Jacob’s fury after he’s won.” She looked away. “I don’t think the children deserve their fate. I begged him to spare them, but he says that our people’s children weren’t spared.”

“He’s not going to win. You know the man you have isn’t the president of the United States, right?”

“Yes,” Angélica said. “But it doesn’t matter to him. Anyone will do. As long as there is someone to kill.”

“You helped us before,” Roth said. “I can help you once we get away. I did a pretty good job of staying under the radar with your boyfriend.”

She gave him a half smile. “You did. Until Dresden. And your actions spurred him to expose himself to the world too soon.”

They started down the steps into the lower levels of the palace. Rods of stone topped with swirling orbs of kem ?m illuminated the way down.

Partway down, she stopped. She reached into her waistband and withdrew a small leather packet. It looked a little like a wallet with a pointed covering and a jade stone embedded in it.

“There are three darts in here,” she said. “The toxin works very fast. Paralyzation lasts for about ten minutes. After what Uacmitun did to me, I decided I need to carry my own protection. If someone is shielded by kem ?m, it won’t work. This is all I can do for you. You’ll have to find a way to get yourself out of that cell.” She handed the pouch to him, and Roth took it gratefully and stuffed it into his pocket.

She touched his wrist. “I didn’t agree with what Jacob wanted to do to your daughter. To subvert her against you. But I don’t think he could help himself. She showed too much promise, and he likes a challenge.”

“Thanks for this,” he said, patting his pocket. It was something.

Angélica motioned for him to continue down the stone steps. When they reached the bottom, they passed through a curtain of beads and entered a corridor. It was a dungeon of sorts, but instead of doors with iron bars, there were just open gaps shielded by webs of kem ?m.

Several warriors were standing guard. They addressed Angélica in Mayan, and she responded curtly and motioned for them to take Roth away.

He looked at her dispassionate face, her mask of indifference. She truly was Malintzin reincarnated. And Roth would do anything he could to help her make it out alive as well.

A warrior grabbed Roth by the arm, squeezing hard, and jerked him toward one of the doorways. He waved his hand over it, and the magic of his bracelet summoned the kem ?m to it. Then he shoved Roth into the dark, small room. The kem ?m filled in the gap, illuminating the man in a dirty suit who sat in the corner. A man who looked like the president.

“Mr. Roth?”

“Mr. Brower.”

Roth slumped down against the wall across from him. The cell was pretty narrow, about seven feet across and ten feet long. Roth watched as the warrior walked away, but he knew they were patrolling the main corridor.

“I’m sorry they caught you,” Brower said. “Did they bring you in through the White House too?”

“No, one of the Smithsonians. The one by FBI headquarters,” Roth said. “There’s an obsidian mirror in the White House?”

“Been there for years,” Brower said with a resigned sigh. “No one I know remembers where it came from. They took my watch, so I don’t know what time it is. And we’re underground.”

“It was late afternoon when I was caught. It’s probably five or six o’clock? I don’t know the time zone differences between the East Coast and Mexico.”

“DC is two hours ahead, but that doesn’t really matter right now. They’re killing us at midnight,” Brower said. “These barriers are like a force field. I flicked a little pebble at it, and it shot back at me just like you said it would. Not that I needed more convincing after what happened in the Situation Room.”

“Who else is down here?”

“British prime minister. German chancellor. Oh, and the king of Spain.”

“Wow,” Roth said, shaking his head. He gestured to Brower. “And you, Mr. President.”

“Our government, like others, has redundancy built in. I wish I’d taken your warnings more ... urgently. I’d convinced myself that a room full of trained special agents would be more than enough to take down one terrorist. We even used a nerve agent. Nothing worked.”

Roth draped an arm across his knee and gazed at the shimmering wall of kem ?m. Suki would have been able to wave it away with a flick of her hand, but the magic had never worked for him.

“The director showed me the photos from the Situation Room. Guess you’ve seen Jacob in jaguar form?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been more terrified,” Brower said. “I’m sorry you’re here. I wish I were the only one.”

“I’m glad you’re here,” Roth said.

Brower cocked his head.

“Because I’m going to need help getting the others out of here.” He fished in his pocket and removed the special pouch. “Got three poison darts. We’d better make them count.”