Abby went back to work on the stone relief. “I noticed this while you two were dealing with the snakes.”
“What is it?” Gage moved closer.
“I don’t think this panel is carved into the wall. I think it’s been put here to block whatever’s behind it. I think we might be able to move it aside.”
He examined the thick stone panel. A close look showed Abby was right. “So let’s get it out of the way.”
“What about Paulo?”
Gage smiled. “I don’t think he’ll be coming down here anytime soon.”
Mateo came forward to help. It was tough going, but Gage could feel the stone begin to move. They pushed and shoved. With a last great heave, the heavy panel slid off to one side to reveal another room.
Abby shined her light through the opening. “Oh, my God. Gage! Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!”
In the beam of the headlamp, gold glittered everywhere. Mayan gold. Stacks of it. Trinkets and coins, calendars and figurines, jade masks, inlaid skulls, gold-and-silver medallions. There were tiny golden statues and jeweled rings and long, thin golden earrings.
“Plunder,” he said. “Whoever did this must have been raiding tombs for years to collect so much.” He glanced around. “From the way it’s piled up, I’d say it was stored here after the house fell into ruins.”
“I can’t believe we found it!” Abby’s gaze traveled around the room. “King was right,” she said softly, her words tinged with reverence. “There must be millions of dollars’ worth of gold in this room.”
“You know we can’t keep it,” Gage said. “This is national historical treasure. It’s protected.”
Her eyes ran over the mounds of gold. “I know.”
“I need to call Victor Alamán—and pray he can get his men here before the others find out what we’ve got.”
Grabbing his gear bag, Gage pulled out his sat phone and made the call, then waited impatiently for Victor’s assistant to put him through.
“It’s Logan,” he said. “We’ve found it. Unfortunately, there are a dozen men here who believe it’s theirs. As soon as they find out what we’ve got, they’ll come after it. If you want your share, you’d better get your men down here ASAP.”
“I will take care of it,” Victor said.
Gage ended the call and stuffed the phone out of sight in his pack. “They’re on their way. We need to move the stone back in place.”
They ran to the panel and started shoving, trying to slide the carved relief back to cover the opening. The panel was almost halfway there when Paulo’s light hit Gage in the face. The beam slid past him, shined over the panel, into the half-exposed room beyond. Gold glittered in the beam of light.
“Stop right where you are!” Paulo jerked his pistol. “Move over there!Vamos!Get out of the way!”
Gage silently cursed.
He eased Abby behind him, and the three of them moved away from the treasure room. He could feel Abby trembling. Santos appeared at the top of the stairs, then Tomás. All of them had pulled their weapons.
As the men descended the stairs into the chamber, Paulo shined his light into the treasure room. Gold glinted, piles of it.
“Dios mio!” Santos exclaimed. “We are rich!”
“The gold belongs to Don Arturo,” Paulo reminded him. “It is not yours, but you will be well paid for helping him find it.”
Santos swung his assault rifle toward Paulo. “We take the gold. We are the ones who found it. We take the gold and disappear. You go with us, or we leave your body here to rot in the bowels of these ruins. You choose.”
“What about the men from the village?” Paulo said. “If we bring out the gold, they will kill us to get it.”
“Then we get rid of them first.” He panned the gun toward Gage, Abby, and Mateo. “We get rid of all of them.”
“You shoot us, and they’ll hear the shots,” Gage said. “They’ll know you found the treasure.”
Santos’s lips thinned, tugging the ugly scar at one corner. “Upstairs.” He motioned with the rifle. “And keep your mouth shut about the gold.”
