Page 23 of Wicked Intention

Señor Ramos nodded. “Dire emergency only. And then the sky gods took the fire turtle into the heavens and disappeared. Most of the people went back to their village, but a group remained, certain the sky gods would return to the mountain, and they created another village. They waited for many years, but the sky gods didn’t reappear.”

“And the disk?”

“No one knows what happened to the Lost Disk of the Gods. There are those who believe it is hidden somewhere within this city. Others say that when word of the conquistadors reached the Huarona people, the shaman at that time led most of his people to the gateway, and they crossed to the world of the gods, bringing the disk with them. Which story do you think is true?”

The other kids called out their answers, but Zofia remained quiet. The disk was still in this world. It had to be, and someday, she was going to find it and give it to Señor Ramos so he could open the door to the gods.

Zofia satwith her legs crossed on the cot she slept on in her parents’ room at the inn, the sketchbook they’d given her open on her lap. She was supposed to use it to record the different buildings and images inside the ruins, but tonight, she was drawing a mountain with the carvings Señor Ramos had described.

Her father was using the communal bathroom, and her mom was writing in her journal, so Zofia went back to her sketch. The keyhole would have to be big enough to hold a man. She erased the top line and made a new one higher up. Next, she shaded in the circle in the middle of the keyhole, but she didn’t know how large she should make it.

And the fire turtles. She sighed. What did a fire turtle look like?

Zofia sketched out a pair of regular turtles instead—one swimming left and the other swimming to the right. “Mom, can we go to the mountains and look at the doorway to the world of the gods?”

Her mother put down her pen. “You mean,maywe travel to the mountains to look at the other Huarona village.”

She nodded. “And look at the doorway.”

That got her a frown. “Zofia, there is no doorway. There is a city with some cutouts in the mountain that might be for ceremonial purposes, but that’s all they are. You’re too educated to believe in ridiculous myths.”

“But Señor Ramos says—”

“Señor Ramos doesn’t believe the legends he tells. He shares them to entertain you and any other children on the site.”

Zofia felt her stomach sink. “But—”

That was as far as she got before her father walked in.

“Owen, Zofia believes Señor Ramos’ stories about the sky gods and the doorway to their world.”

“Zofia,” the disappointment came through clearly. “You know better than that.”

“But the Lost Disk of the Gods—”

“There’s no evidence there ever was such a thing.”

“We could find it in the city,” she said, but her voice wobbled.

“If a disk existed, it would not have been a key to another dimension.” Her father sighed, shared a glance with her mother, and shook his head. “What kind of archaeologist are you going to be if you believe myths over fact?”

Chapter Nine

Trujillo, Puerto Jardin

27 Months Earlier

FINN TAPPED his fingers against the steering wheel and tried to get his adrenaline under control. The streets were congested, and Silva had given him another challenging meeting time. It was an effective strategy because once again, there’d been no opportunity to do recon or to get any of his teammates in position.

Horns blared somewhere in front of him, and Finn checked the clock. He wasn’t going to make it, not with this traffic. He looked around, spotted a side street with empty curb space, and inched his way forward until he could turn off the main thoroughfare. It would be faster to run the remaining distance than to drive. He couldn’t be sure Silva would refuse to meet with him if he was late, but Finn wasn’t taking the chance.

It only took a few minutes to cover the distance at a jog. His destination surprised him. It wasn’t a café.

Silva always conducted business in a restaurant.

Did this mean Torres was present?

Taking a deep breath, Finn ran through possible scenarios. The house was behind a thick stucco wall. The wrought iron gate was open, allowing him to see that the architecture was mid-century modern. Another location that hadn’t been in their intel reports. Either the reports were half-assed, or Torres kept changing his organization’s habits. Either way, Finn didn’t like it.

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