. no, wait. I want to keep Chase in my sight. Bring them with us.’ Pachac issued orders, and the rebels pushed their prisoners forward at gunpoint.
‘We can’t let him take the statues,’ Kit protested.
‘Don’t worry about being separated from them, Jindal,’ said Stikes. ‘You’ll be coming with them.’
‘Why do you want him?’ asked Pachac.
‘I’m a wanted man after the fiasco in Venezuela,’ replied Stikes. ‘An Interpol officer will be a useful hostage if the police get too close.’
Eddie narrowed his eyes, puzzled. Stikes’s answer was a little too glib, too rehearsed. And it didn’t even hold water; taking a cop as a hostage was a bad idea, because it ensured that the other cops trying to rescue him would be particularly determined and ruthless. The mercenary had some other purpose in mind for Kit.
Pachac seemed equally doubtful, but was apparently willing to accept the explanation. ‘Then what about the gold?’ He waved a hand at the silent ruins as they climbed through the tiers towards the temple. ‘We are the first people to find this place since the Incas left. There must be more gold than just the Punchaco. I must have it. I need it for the revolution.’
‘Revolution?’ muttered Zender with contempt. ‘You are a drug dealer, nothing more. A common criminal.’
Pachac rounded on him, face twisted with anger. ‘I am the Inkarrí!’ he snarled. Zender flinched, but stood his ground, almost nose to nose with the terrorist leader. ‘I will give back my people the land and power that were stolen from them by the Spanish. By people like you! Bourgeois puppets of the ruling class! The revolution will sweep you away like garbage.’
‘There will not be a revolution,’ Zender countered. ‘This is the twenty-first century! Communism is dead – even the Chinese have rejected Maoism. People want jobs, and money, and homes where they can raise their children. They do not want drug-dealing psychopaths like you!’
Pachac was silent, the veins in his thick neck standing out as his fury rose . . . then with a roar he snatched something from his belt. A metallic snick – and he drove his knife into the official’s stomach. Zender screamed as the blade slashed deeper into his abdomen.
Eddie lunged at the Peruvian, but was seized by other rebels and dragged back. Macy turned away in horror as Pachac pulled out the knife, then clamped both hands around Zender’s throat, spittle flying from his lips as he hissed abuse in Quechua, the Indian language. He squeezed harder and harder, forcing Zender to his knees.
Zender convulsed, trying to force Pachac’s hands away, but the muscular revolutionary’s grip was too strong. The official’s mouth opened wide in a futile attempt to draw air through his crushed windpipe, tongue writhing like a panicked snake. A choked gurgle escaped his throat . . . then his eyes rolled grotesquely up into his head and his entire body sagged into the limpness of death.
Pachac let go. The corpse slumped to the ground. He wiped off his knife, then folded it shut. ‘So that was your speciality?’ said Stikes. ‘Callas told me about it. Capa . . .’
‘Capacocha,’ Pachac told him, returning the knife to his belt. ‘An ancient Inca ritual. One I will be proud to bring back.’
‘Couldn’t you have just stuck to playing pan pipes?’ Eddie asked, disgusted. The Peruvian’s expression made him think that he might also receive a demonstration, but then Pachac turned away and continued towards the temple entrance. His followers shoved the prisoners after him, leaving Zender’s body behind.
‘Where are the statues?’ Stikes demanded as they entered the little square with the fountains.
‘Over here,’ said Osterhagen, leading him to where the team had left their equipment.
Stikes opened the case to find the statues inside, the set now complete. ‘Excellent,’ he said, snapping the lid shut and picking up the box. He looked at Eddie. ‘So I’ve got the statues, I’ve got Jindal – that only leaves your wife.’
‘And the gold,’ said Pachac impatiently.
‘And the gold, yes. But—’ He broke off as his walkie-talkie bleeped. ‘Yes? Have you found her?’
‘Sir!’ said one of his men urgently. ‘We haven’t – but we found two of Pachac’s men dead. Their weapons are missing.’
Stikes immediately understood the implications. ‘She’s not trying to escape – she’s going to try to rescue her friends! Everyone get back up here – we’re on the level above the plaza.’ The case under one arm, he strode back to Eddie. ‘Been giving her survival lessons, have you?’