Andrew took off his backpack, rummaged in it, and then pulled out a handful of glow sticks and his notebook. He cracked them and dropped them around the perimeter on the floor. The room lit up with a neon white glow that cast a ghostly light around us, revealing carvings like those under the Iglesia San Antonio.
To the left, the wall revealed a tale of rural life. The opposite one exhibited a world atlas with ships crossing the ocean and sea monsters lurking beneath them. The wall behind us, which our new friend was leaning against, showed a jungle crowded with animals, snakes, and hunters. The wall in front of us replicated the same structure we saw in the church, only no angels floated above it. Instead, two figures rested side by side in the dead center, their eyes closed, hands folded over their chest.
But most startling was the distinct outline of a hidden door with a hollow round slot to its right side. Excitement rushed from my toes to the top of my head like bubbles in a glass of freshly poured champagne.We finally found it.At the realization, relief flooded my limbs. We’d discovered it first. We’d won the race and beaten the Russian oligarch’s minions.
“Augustine’s final resting place must be on the other side.” Andrew stepped forward and ran his palm over the stone, studying it. He hummed at first as if he wasn’t sure what he was looking at, and then he made one positive scoff. He dug the dirt out of the opening and shone his flashlight inside. Then he crouched and opened his journal.
I dropped my own backpack on the ground and moved away, pulling my phone out of my pocket.
“Moments like this make me thankful I picked this job because sharing history with the world is one of the greatest feelings.” Andrew flipped the pages. “You might finally meet the Royal Family at the opening night.” He looked at me. “Just don’t swap me for an eligible monarch.”
“No promises.” I grinned and snapped a picture of him. The light of his flashlight illuminated his handsome face and it looked like a still from a new Indiana Jones movie. I chuckled. This would be my favorite picture: Andrew knelt at the wall, wearing a Fedora and a dazzling smile, holding his journal in his left hand.
“Okay,” Andrew said, rising to his full height. “If I’m correct in solving Augustine's encrypted notations, you need to place your arm with the bracelet inside here. You’ll feel a bar that you’ll need to turn.”
This was it. This moment was the reason I had agreed to go on this mad caper. I examined the bracelet. After so many days of wearing it, it felt like a part of my body.
Pulling my sleeve to my elbow, I looked at the dingy hole.Righty tighty, lefty loosey, right?Augustine was famous for hiding valuables in places with elaborate locking systems. He could have made unlocking this door extra tricky. Barbed wire fear swirled and burned in my gut, and my heart hammered hard in my chest.
“Clockwise?” I swallowed. “Or counterclockwise?”
The crease between Andrew’s eyebrows deepened as he chewed on this answer. “Well…”
That word.
I grunted, dropping fists on my hip. “Seriously?”
“Sorry.” He shook his head. “Clockwise. Turn it clockwise.”
“Are you sure?” I said dryly.
“Yes.”
I shone my flashlight into the hole, and I went rigid. An army of bugs kept running in and out of the light, some small and some sort of big. They didn’t look like scary bugs, but…
I glanced at Andrew. “What if there’s a bloodsucking spider that bites me?”
“Here… I’ll do it first.” Andrew’s chest pressed to my back, the warmth of his body instantly seeping into me, and I wanted to relax into him. He pushed his hand into the orifice, and moved it side to side, up and down as far as space allowed, then he pulled his arm out with a few spiders and other bugs taking a free ride on his sleeve. “See, nothing besides these little guys.”
I closed my eyes and rolled my shoulders. Keeping my back straight, I took deep breaths in and out, feeling the air passing through my windpipe. I could do this. I could insert my hand inside the insect-infested opening. I had often crawled under our old trailer dominated by disgusting spider crickets to fix a busted water pipe or drag out a rotting rodent. This was not so bad.
Just bugs. Little, yucky creepy-crawlies.
A quiver shot down my spine.
Isodidn’t want to do this.
“Okay.” I cringed, turned away, and guided my right wrist inside, palm facing down. My skin prickled as creatures started using my arm as their unfamiliar territory to explore. A cold sweat broke over me. “Oh, my Lord. This is disgusting.” My left hand curled into a fist, nails digging into my palm.
I was shoulder-deep when my fingers grazed the outline of a rock or metal bar in the dead center of this hellhole. “I found it,” I said through my clenched teeth. A bug ran up my neck. “Now what?” I said, impatiently.
“Now imagine a split bearing. There are two halves—one at the bottom and the second at the top—with a diameter big enough to fit the bracelet. Try to move your hand from side to side until you feel the bracelet setting into the bottom one.”
I did what Andrew said until the bracelet caught on something, and I lowered my wrist into it. “I think I got it.”
“Good. Can you reach the handle?” Sweat glistened on Andrew’s face and neck. I wasn’t sure if he was nervous, worried, or both.
I nodded, my fingers wrapping around the cold bar.
