Trifariam, The Lost Codex (2012) (39 page)

Although her face remained calm, and she even smiled occasionally, her shaking arms gave her away. She was very nervous. Perhaps the emotion of having discovered Richard’s plans had given her some kind of hope she didn’t have before.

“When we find the object… we have to kill him. It’s the only way.”

Mary spun round towards him. “Kill him?!”

“Yes,” replied James, wide-eyed and very nervous. “What else can we do?! When we find the next fragment, we won’t be of use anymore. We have to keep on top of his plans. Until now, he was the one who was informing them of our movements, that’s how they knew where we were. With Richard out of the way, we could run away and hide. Nobody would find us!”

“But James, I… It’s just - ”

“You can’t do it, right?”

“We’re talking about taking somebody’s life. They’re big words.”

“Mary, if we don’t do it… they’ll kill us without a second thought.”

“Would you dare to do it?”

James took a deep breath. He felt a crushing sense of guilt at having thought about killing somebody. “I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see when the time comes. We have no choice.”

The alarm clock on the bedside table began to ring. It was half past eight in the morning and Richard could be waiting for them downstairs in the hotel suite. They had to hurry up. They couldn’t raise his suspicions even more.

C
oincidence or not, it was the same taxi driver who again took them to the ruins of Teotihuacan. James was at first extremely reluctant to get into the vehicle, he had a strong hunch that the taxi driver was part of Richard’s harebrained plan to take control of the first two fragments. Meanwhile, Richard hadn’t picked up on the worries that his friend seemed to have and he quickly sat down in the back of the taxi.

On the way to the complex, none of them uttered a word. If it hadn’t been for the background music to liven up the journey, anybody would have thought they were on their way to a funeral. James didn’t take his right hand off of Mary’s. He often squeezed it as if by reflex action, with that simple gesture transmitting all the affection he felt towards her. They could both see what was coming.

The taxi dropped them at the same place as last time.

There were many more people in the abandoned city than there had been the day before. They immediately made their way to the Pyramid of the Sun, making their way along the Avenue of the Dead as quickly as they could. On the way they came across a group of tourists who were obviously early-risers, led by a guide who apparently hadn’t yet woken up. Obviously they had chosen to look at the ruins as early as possible so as to avoid the throngs of people.

“It’s still open!” exclaimed Richard, unable to contain his glee as he pointed to the entrance of the well.

They slowly walked over.

“Do you think they’ll be working inside? Isn’t it weird that it’s open at this time?”

James spoke so quietly that it was a murmur only audible to Mary.

“Come on, get down there!” interrupted Richard with an air of superiority. “Nobody is watching us right now.”

James cast him the first look of the day and although he had seemed distant until then, he spoke to him with restraint. “And what if there’s somebody down there?”

“He’s right,” continued Mary. “Maybe we should wait until they take a break.”

“I don’t get you two. Yesterday in plain daylight, you were hell-bent on entering and yet today, when there’s nobody around, you don’t dare. What’s the matter with you?” As Richard asked the question he raised his voice, he seemed angry.

“Look!” exclaimed Mary. “The fencing and the sign that prohibited access have disappeared.”

How strange,
he thought. “Okay, let’s go in - but keep together. Something isn’t right.”

James was the first to descend and he didn’t do so until he could be absolutely sure that nobody was watching them. The archaeologist and the paleographer followed behind, taking the same precautions.

The tunnel was still poorly lit. Even one of the bulbs that had been working fine the day before had now blown. They couldn’t hear anything, only the crunching of the odd stone beneath their feet broke the eerie silence that enveloped the pathway.

When they reached the end, James stopped them from going any further by blocking their way with his right arm, while he put his finger to his lips, indicating that they should remain quiet.

In the anonymity given to them by the darkness, the trio looked at the magnificent cavern that opened up before them and which somehow seemed different to the day before. The vast quantity of latest generation computer equipment that had been set up first thing in the morning had drastically spoilt the magic of the place, creating an ambiguous blend of modernity and antiquity.

Suddenly they were hit by a waft of fresh air coming from the roof. Their hair stood on end. They had the feeling that somebody was watching them, it was as if their breath was blowing on their necks. They looked up, fearful of finding a strange face looking back at them who would reprimand them and demand to know what they were doing. They smiled when they saw that the breeze was coming from two enormous revolving fans that tried to keep the room temperature constant, preventing the powerful machinery from overheating.

“There’s nobody there,” remarked James in astonishment, keeping his voice down as he further entered the cavern.

The computers were switched on but the monitors had turned themselves off after being inactive for a long period of time; a good way of saving energy.

Something caught Mary’s eye; she walked over to one of the side tables, picked up one of the many plastic cups that contained a black liquid and smelled it.

“Is it coffee?” asked James.

“Yeah, but it’s cold. I think it’s been here for a few hours.”

“Isn’t it a little odd that they make enough coffee for an army and nobody drinks it? Something big must have happened here for them all to have left.”

Mary turned around looking for Richard to see what he thought, but he had vanished. She was just about to ask James when all her doubts faded away when she heard the paleographer’s voice behind her.

“Shit, look at this! They’ve left it open!”

Although they couldn’t see where he was at first, they followed the racket of his laughter.

He was standing in front of one of the four doors which had been locked the day before. The one with the triangular symbol was open!

They stood just behind him, in the doorway but without going in. Their eyes blinked for at least a minute which seemed to go on forever. What they were seeing was truly incredible.

I
t was a room adjacent to the previous one, of a similar size though perhaps a little smaller. It was around five hundred and forty square feet and set out in such a splendid way that there was hardly any free space. It was round and nothing like the previous one. While it had been dug out and carved to perfection, the one before looked like an old primitive cave. The ground was covered with a kind of grey stone where the pieces fitted together perfectly and with the precision of a fraction of an inch. The roof was high, about sixteen feet tall, and was complete with a rudimentary lighting system based on the use of oil.

James stood in the doorway, more out than in, looking on as he watched his friends carefully comb the chamber. A nauseating odor coming from inside tried to make its way out, and although his two friends didn’t seem to mind, he was extremely fastidious. He had already had to stop himself from retching twice.

“It’s incredible!” exclaimed Richard.” It looks nothing like the part outside.”

James eventually decided to go inside, but only after he had covered his nose and mouth with a white cotton handkerchief that he found in one of his side pockets. Obviously that place had remained sealed up for many years and, at last, somebody had opened it.

He first walked clockwise around the chamber, staring dumbfounded at all the engravings which covered the walls. He sometimes softly ran his fingers over them, stroking the delicate reliefs and often detecting the fine cracks produced after putting the various stone blocks together, ones that not even a pin could fit through. It immediately reminded him of the precision in construction possessed by the Ancient Egyptians.

The walls were full of planetary representations, the most common feature among them being the Sun. Mary flinched slightly when she saw a gigantic mosaic which represented our solar system with incredible accuracy. On the adjacent walls were more illustrations which had been chiseled, although in this case they seemed to be of other solar systems different to ours, and of which the trio had no knowledge.

The center of the chamber was a complete mystery. A huge altar towered over them, similar to the type used by the Christian community to celebrate the Eucharist. It was made of stone, or more specifically marble. The upper part was rectangular in shape and of significant thickness, around eight inches, which had been perfectly polished. The lower part consisted of just one thick slab of marble about 3 feet tall, which acted as the legs.

The altar was surrounded by a large number of pillars which formed a perfect circle; they weren’t very thick, but were apparently resistant nonetheless. The pillars rose up, twisting back on themselves up to a height of eight feet, where a gigantic circular piece of rock that gently rested on top of them and acted as the roof.

“What do you think could be on top of that block?” asked Mary, intrigued.

“I don’t know, but I don’t think the second fragment is up there. That would be too easy. James, get on top of my shoulders and we’ll check.”

James agilely climbed onto Richard’s shoulders while he was squatting and then proceeded lifted him up into the air as if he were a small backpack weighing a couple of pounds.

He quickly staggered over to one of the pillars and tried to stand on his tiptoes so that his friend could reach the ceiling more easily. Meanwhile, James had no qualms about clambering on top of the paleographer and showed no signs of being scared of the whole thing coming crashing down.

“You’re not gonna believe what’s up there.”

From that gigantic block that seemed to rest on the tallest pillar and reached up to the cavern ceiling, there was another seven feet, more or less. But in spite of the enthusiasm shown by his two friends, what had to be up there, judging by James’ tone of voice, was completely different from what they were looking for.

“What can you see?”

James kept quiet and looked in disbelief at what his eyes were showing, rubbing them several times as if it were an optical illusion.

“Tell us! What can you see?”

He eventually replied. “There seems to be four rectangular sarcophaguses made from marble with a number of engravings on each of their faces, but I don’t understand them. Maybe it’s inside one of them.”

“Impossible,” declared Mary, stood stock still. “Come down, the fragment isn’t there.”

“What?…How do you know?”

“The most recent findings in this area suggest that the city was led by a government of four kings or priests. This meant that they would be stronger in the event of enemy attacks, or if one of the kings was kidnapped. Until now, it’s just been a theory that quickly caught on in the archaeological community, even though their tombs had not been found. But now that they have, the theory could be correct.”

“Are you implying that these sarcophaguses are the tombs of the ancient monarchs?”

Richard was hoping for a clear and concise answer.

“Of course, it’s obvious. It all started when a vessel was discovered which depicted the four great leaders around a Teotihuacan divinity. They later found administrative structures which were divided into four parts, as if there were four individuals who made the decisions. And now we’re standing in front of four sarcophaguses hidden in a cave under the Pyramid of the Sun. They have to be their tombs. Anyway, we’re forgetting what the book says.”

“You’re right,” said James as he clambered down and dropped to the floor.

“The last four lines are the ones which refer to the precise location of the hidden object.” Richard read them out aloud again.

When he finished, he continued with his conclusions. “If what you’re telling us is true, we’re standing in front of the tomb of the ancient power, or the four governors that represented the law in the city. Everybody had to respect their decisions, no doubt one of them related to the ancient power mentioned in the book. Meanwhile, the four sarcophaguses could be their tombs,” Richard smiled. “Obviously the next part of the
Trifariam
is in this chamber.”

“What I still don’t understand is the meaning of the circular drawing with twelve squares and a symbol carved in each one.”

“They’re the runic symbols of the zodiac.” James turned towards his friend and gave him a quizzical look. “How could the most famous paleographer in the world not have realized that yet?”

Richard cleared his throat and couldn’t help but choke when he heard his friend’s words. “Damn! That’s right! I was so caught up in attributing it some bizarre meaning that I didn’t think about basic ideas. No doubt we’re standing before the natural cycle of the signs of the zodiac.”

What a lying son of a bitch!
thought James and he immediately pulled out a crumpled piece of paper which he showed to his two friends. “I realized last night. Look.”