“Look.” He pointed with his machete.
The cave entrance wasn’t large, and it was mostly obscured with vines, but it was definitely a cave.
Avril quivered with excitement. “That’s it. Get the vines cleared away.”
Another few minutes of hacking, and they stood at the entrance. Inside was filled with impenetrable darkness.
“Ion lights,” Galen called out.
The bright lights were flicked on.
Nik and Nera followed the security agents in. At first, there was still vegetation, but that soon gave way to a simple rock tunnel. Nik brushed at cobwebs hanging from the roof.
“Niklas.”
Nera’s voice had him looking at her. She nodded at the walls. He shone his light on them, and his breath caught.
They were incredibly faint, worn away by time, but there were images etched into the walls. He dusted one with his gloved hand. “Oh, my God, these…these are definitely Inca.” Damn, maybe they were on the right track to discover the Lost Inca Gold.
Shouts from ahead reached them. Nik and Nera hurried on. The tunnel widened out into a sizable cavern, not huge, but there was room enough for all the team members.
Solomon kicked at something on the ground. “This isnottreasure.”
The cavern was empty.
There was no glint of gold. No rows of fabulous artifacts. Nik shook his head. Treasure hunting took time and effort. Expecting to find something incredibly valuable the first time you tried to achieve it was a surefire path to disappointment.
But he also knew it paid to look beneath the surface.
He circled the cavern. Avril’s shoulders were slumped and she was studying her Sync again, muttering to herself.
On closer inspection, the cavern wasn’t entirely devoid of items. It was filled with bones.
He crouched and studied the yellowed remains. Some were very old. He touched a nearby pile. And some were fresher, with rotting flesh and tendons still stuck to the bone.
“Something lives in here,” Nera murmured. She was standing with her hand on her laser pistol at her hip.
He agreed. He was pretty sure they didn’t want to be here when whatever it was returned. He spied a skeleton sitting up against the cave wall. It still had the tattered remnants of clothing hanging off it. As he got closer, he realized the skeleton’s legs were missing. He winced. Whatever had dragged the man in here, it had eaten his legs and left the rest of him intact. Gruesome way to go. Alive as something ate your legs.
Then Nik spotted something else. His pulse tripped. There was an old leather satchel beside the skeleton’s remains.
He crouched and opened the bag. He pulled out a very old-fashioned, leather-bound journal. He opened it.
He stared in disbelief at the sketches and notations. “Oh, my God.”
Nera peered over his shoulder. “Oh, my God is right.”
“What did you find?” Avril and the others crowded around him.
Nik stared at the name on the page. “This was George Edwin Chapman. He was Blake’s partner, the one who never returned from the mountains.”
Solomon whistled. “Guess we know why.”
“This journal is filled with sketches of the treasure.” Nik touched the fragile pages. “They found it. He talks about the gold. We need to get this preserved before the pages deteriorate.” He gently flipped through to the last few entries. “Jesus.”
“What?” Avril asked.
Nik looked up and caught Nera’s gaze. “He said he found the treasure in a cavern near here, but then was attacked by a giant beast. It dragged him to its lair and…” Nik shook his head. “The diary entry ends there.”
