“Maybe they are a warning that the site is cursed,” her father said.
Angélica groaned. “Of course you’d go there, Dad.”
Warnings and curses were his favorite go-to reasonings, same as “religion” was the easiest answer for the unknown. Honestly, though, until she was able to find more glyphs somewhere in the site to prove him wrong, her father could be right.
“A warning for what?” she asked him, trying to keep any tone out of her question.
His brow lined. “A statement from those who resided on the inside of the wall to stay out and mind your own business or be killed for interfering. You know, the old head on a pike billboard.”
Dr. Fernel frowned over his computer screen at Juan. “Or it could be a warning to those on the outside to stay out because of whoever was being jailed inside the wall.”
“Give me an example of what you’re thinking,” Angélica’s father said.
“If this were some sort of holding tank for the losing warriors of a recent battle,” Dr. Fernel said, “they were most likely not happy with the idea of being sacrificed, so you might not want to drop in on them.”
There were a lot of “maybes” being thrown around tonight, but Angélica needed more concrete answers to give to INAH on her next check-in. She focused on the LIDAR image on the screen. “Can you show me a horizon type of view of that image? Something that would allow me to see the height of the structures?”
Dr. Fernel nodded. “I need to fine-tune this with the new data, but I should be able to soon.”
“Good. Tomorrow, let’s split into groups and focus our energy on clearing a path to some of these other structures abutting the outer wall.”
Dr. Fernel pointed at his computer screen. “But if these are all of the same types of structures around the wall, as they appear to be, why not go for the unique building in the middle first?”
She stood up from the table. “Archaeology is not treasurehunting. Going for the big prize right away is the mark of an amateur. We’ll spiral inward eventually, but first, I want to take a look around the perimeter and see if we can find any other clues to the site’s purpose. Glyphs,stelae, additional caches. There has to be something telling about this site somewhere, dammit. The Maya were proud of their ability to write and record their achievements. Why can’t we find anything here bragging about who ruled when and what battles were won?”
“Maybe they didn’t want anyone to know,” her dad offered. “Not then, and not in the future. Maybe it was that bad of a place.”
Pedro nodded. “Maybe they hoped the jungle would swallow it up for good.”
Angélica shook her head at the two of them. “Don’t be putting any horror ideas in the crew’s heads, especially Esteban’s.” The boy was skittish as hell when he went inside the temples and often ended up getting hurt while trying to run away from his own shadow. “If this site is going to have any potential for ecotourism in the future, I’d like to get a handle on what we are dealing with so that we can dig deeper responsibly.”
Quint blew out a breath. “So, we’re talking about more machete work tomorrow, boss lady?”
She nodded. “Except for Daisy, Dad, and Dr. Fernel.”
Daisy rose from the table. “What will I be doing instead?”
“What you do best,” Angélica said with a smile. “Finding clues to help us figure out what in the hell we’ve stumbled into.”
Chapter Twelve
Worried Thoughts from a Good Demon
The vultures have returned.
This time there are nine riding the air currents overhead.
Nine!
The same number as levels in the Maya Underworld.
Does that number of birds have any significance? Or is it just a coincidence?
I’d like to lean toward a coincidence, but I ran into an owl feather this morning on my way to the latrine. Or, rather, it ran into me. The damned thing hit me in the shoulder. I couldn’t see any owls in the trees, though.
At least I think it was an owl feather based on size and color. When I showed it to Pedro, he thought it might have come from a Great Horned Owl, which Raul said are common here.
Pedro joked about the god of death sending me a message.
