‘El Doraaaa-do!’ she sang, showing him a blow-up of the painted city, the Punchaco – and the final piece of statue – at its heart. Mac chuckled at her unrestrained enthusiasm. ‘The number of huaca markings on the map before you get there is exactly the same as the number of strings on the khipu up to the point where they turn northeast. They left Cuzco, headed along the Andes, thought they’d found a safe place to hide the empire’s greatest treasures . . . then had to move again to avoid the Spanish. But they left some of the treasure behind. And now . . . we can find it.’
Eddie gave her a genially mocking look. ‘What, you mean you haven’t already? I thought you were supposed to be good at this archaeology lark!’
She pouted. ‘Well, we have only just had breakfast. At least give us until lunchtime!’
It took rather longer than that, the process of calculating all the directions and distances represented by each thread of the khipu and then relating those to known huacas throughout Peru dragging on through the day. But Osterhagen’s knowledge of the country and its culture proved an enormous asset, even though he was at times on the verge of falling asleep at the table and had to be prodded awake by the two women. The Incas had illustrated on their map what were now known archaeological sites, and the German’s wealth of experience allowed the group to skip long sections of the trek, narrowing the possible location of the lost city each time.
While Nina, Osterhagen and Macy worked in the lounge, Eddie made a phone call from the bedroom. ‘Hi, Nan.’
‘Edward!’ came the delighted voice from across the Atlantic. ‘It’s so wonderful to hear from you. How are you, my little lambchop?’ His grandmother sounded somewhat stronger than the last time they had spoken, if still a little breathless.
‘I’m fine, Nan. I was going to ask you the same thing.’
‘Oh, I feel a lot better, thank you. I still have to wear this silly mask, but hopefully not for much longer – oh, excuse me.’ She stifled a yawn. ‘I’m a bit tired.’
‘Sorry, I forgot about the time difference!’ England was five and a half hours ahead of Venezuela, making it past ten o’clock in Bournemouth. ‘I’ll call back another time.’
‘No, don’t be silly, Edward. It’s never a problem staying up to talk to you. Where are you ringing from?’
‘We’re in Venezuela, but probably won’t be for long. Nina’s on the trail of something.’
‘Venezuela!’ Nan said, alarmed. ‘Is it safe there? I saw all that trouble on the news.’
‘Yeah, we saw some of it too,’ said Eddie, smiling to himself. ‘But everything’s okay now.’
‘Oh, I’m glad. You do lead an exciting life. But when are you going to be in the newspapers, or on television? Everyone saw Nina in the Sphinx last year, but you were only in the background. Why didn’t you say something?’
‘I’m not much of one for publicity. Nina isn’t either,’ he added, ‘but she sort of gets stuck with it. Besides, who wants to be famous? I’d rather be rich.’
‘Well, you’d better get to work on that. And while you’re at it, some great-grandchildren for your old nan would be nice. Before I pop my clogs.’
‘Plenty of time for that, Nan,’ Eddie insisted. ‘But I’ll see what Nina thinks once we find what she’s after.’
At that moment, Nina burst into the room. ‘Eddie, Eddie!’ she said in excitement. ‘We’ve found it! Come and see!’ She rushed back out.
‘She doesn’t waste time, does she?’ said Nan, amused. ‘So, about those great-grandchildren . . . ’
‘Eddie!’
He sighed. ‘I’d better go, before she drags me out. But I’ll call you again when I get the chance.’
‘That’ll be lovely. Will you be coming back to England? I’d love to see you again.’
‘Yeah, soon as I can. I’ll take you for another walk down to the sea.’
‘I can’t wait. Talk to you again soon, Edward. Love you.’
‘Love you too,’ he replied. ‘Bye.’
‘Goodbye, love.’
He hung up, then went into the lounge just as Mac and Kit entered. ‘We were summoned,’ Mac told him wryly.
The three men joined the archaeologists at the table. ‘So, what’ve we got?’ Eddie asked.
‘This is where we’re looking,’ said Nina, tapping a map of Peru. The area beneath her fingernail was in the Amazonas region, south of the border with Ecuador, on the eastern flank of the Andes. ‘Leonard worked out that one of