– the word actually means “talking knots”. They had a very advanced mathematical system using different kinds of knots in strings to store numbers. I thought everybody knew that, but apparently not.’ He laughed a little at his own pun.
Macy gave him a scathing look. ‘Bite me. Oh wait, you can’t.’
But Nina was now fixated on something else. In the heart of the palace atop the painted city was a small oval space . . . and in it was a mirror image of something she had already seen. ‘The third statue – that’s its other half,’ she said. ‘It’s in this city – wherever that is.’
‘Southwest of here?’ Osterhagen mused. ‘In mountains – that would be the Andes in northern Peru. The eastern mountains and the edges of the Amazon basin in that region were among the last conquests of the Incas before the Spanish invasion, the farthest reaches of the empire. A good hiding place.’
‘Not good enough,’ said Nina. ‘They must have thought the Conquistadors were going to find it, so they moved again, all the way through the jungle to here. Somewhere they could finally be sure it was safe.’
‘Until now,’ Eddie cut in impatiently. ‘If we don’t get moving right now, half the Venezuelan army is going to roll up and catch us.’
Osterhagen began to protest. ‘But we have to—’
‘No, we’re going. No more arguments.’ He unshouldered his AK-103 for emphasis. ‘Nina, I’ll give you a hand packing up those statues. Kit, Oscar, get everyone else back to the Jeeps – we’ll catch up.’
Kit had also readied his rifle. ‘Don’t take too long,’ he said, ushering the others out.
‘We won’t, don’t worry.’ Eddie crouched beside Nina to help return the statues to their case.
‘Another five minutes wouldn’t have killed us,’ she objected.
‘Those two arseholes tied up outside would have if they’d had the chance,’ he countered. ‘I don’t think their mates’ll be any different. Especially not with millions of dollars at stake.’
‘Oscar said we’ll be miles away before they get here.’
‘Yeah, and Oscar said he was going to order those soldiers to surrender, and look how that turned out.’ The two IHA statues were back in their foam beds. ‘What about the one you just found?’
Nina hesitated, aware of the hypocrisy of what she was about to say; she had been on the verge of castigating Macy for the same thing not ten minutes earlier. But she justified it – at least, to herself – as a case when the IHA’s global security mandate trumped normal considerations. ‘We take it,’ she said, taking out a penknife and cutting away part of the foam to make a space for the third piece. ‘I don’t know what it’s going to lead to, but I think it’s important.’ A glance back at the recess. ‘And that khipu might be too – it was with the statue, so there could be a connection. I don’t want to risk these soldiers getting it.’
‘If they wanted it, they’d have swiped it already,’ Eddie pointed out.
‘But they don’t know what we know about the statues.’ She swept the dirt from the niche, exposing the rest of the khipu. It was longer than she had first thought, folded over itself several times. ‘There should be some Ziploc bags in my backpack. Can you get one for me?’
He did so, and she gently slipped the khipu into the plastic bag, squeezing out the air before sealing it shut. ‘Okay,’ she said, placing the bag in the case and closing it, then putting the case in her pack, ‘I’m ready.’
‘About time. Come on.’
They hurried back into the open, passing the temple and descending the steps into the plaza. The soldiers were still tied to the tree, the other expedition members heading for the main gate.
Not as quickly as Eddie wanted. ‘What is this, a fucking afternoon stroll?’ he growled. ‘Oi! You lot! Shift your arses!’
His shout spurred them on, but not by much; Nina and Eddie caught up while they were still short of the gate. ‘Some of us are injured, you know,’ Cuff whined.
‘You don’t run on your lips, do you?’ said Eddie, devoid of sympathy. ‘Oscar, how’re you managing?’
The Venezuelan’s face was tight with ill-concealed pain; unlike the American, he had suffered blows that were affecting his movement, his torso badly bruised by the soldiers’ kicks. ‘I’m okay,’ he grunted. ‘When we—’ He broke off, looking round at a noise.
Eddie heard it too – or more accurately felt it, a subsonic thumping inside his