the Source (2008) (17 page)

Chapter
35.

The following morning, the Discovery reached another of the landmarks featured in Falcon's book. Zeb looked at the distinctive sugarloaf-shaped mound, rising above the skyline of forest trees, and consulted her compass. 'We should head in that direction,' she said, pointing to a channel where the water was rougher.

Juarez ran to the front of the boat and used a long pole to sound the depth of the swirling river. 'Okay, Senor Hackett,' he shouted to the wheelhouse, then pointed downriver to where the water frothed white. 'Mind the rocks.'

Ross studied the geological map on his palmtop computer and felt a frisson: they were entering a part of the jungle where the on-screen information was extrapolated but not known. They were now in true terra incognita where the earth's crust was probably ancient pre- Cambrian rock, unchanged for billions of years. The model supported his hypothesis for Falcon's garden and gave him hope.

Zeb came over to him and pulled him away from the others. 'From here this river gets more and more wild until it comes to what Falcon warns is La Boca del Inferno, the Mouth of Hell. He's written PELIGRO, danger, then told us to rush into the Mouth of Hell to pass beyond El Velo de la Luz, the Veil of Light, whatever that means. Perhaps the Mouth of Hell is a waterfall.' She thumbed through the translation. 'Yes, he talks about one here.'

Ross nodded. 'But what's the Veil of Light? We've got to warn Hackett.'

Hackett and the others agreed that the Mouth of Hell probably was a waterfall.

'What do we do about it?' asked Mendoza.

'Go carefully,' said Hackett, grimly. 'And where's Sister Chantal? I haven't seen her all day.'

'She's tired,' said Zeb. 'Catching up on some rest.'

'You'd better warn her it'll get pretty bumpy soon.'

When Ross and Zeb knocked on the door, they heard, 'Come in.' Once again Sister Chantal was lying on her bed with the blinds drawn. 'Sister,' said Ross, 'we've got to ask you about the directions. About La Boca del Inferno. It's important.'

'Come closer,' she said, in a faraway voice.

Ross stepped into the room. 'I also need to ask you about El Velo de la Luz. Father Orlando Falcon said there was danger. Do you know why?'

'Come closer,' she said. 'Let me see your face.' A fine sheen of perspiration beaded her forehead and her eyes seemed focused on a point beyond his face. 'You're here,' she said, with a smile. 'I knew my sacrifice would be rewarded.'

'Sister, are you okay?'

'I'm fine,' she said. She touched his cheek. 'Everything's fine now you're here, Father Orlando.'

Chapter
36.

The knocking woke Torino from a deep sleep.

'What is it?'

He roused himself from his bed and saw Feldwebel Fleischer standing in his cabin doorway. 'Father General, I have Cardinal Prefect Guido Vasari on the radio in the wheelhouse. He is calling from Rome and demands to speak with you.'

Demands? thought Torino. 'What time is it?'

A faint smile. 'In Rome it's nine in the morning, Your Excellency. Here it's two.'

Torino clambered out of his cabin and made his way along the deck. The wheelhouse, lit up like a lone lantern, made the vast river and the chattering forest fringing its banks seem even darker. The close, warm night was black with only the faintest glow from a cloud-obscured moon.

In the wheelhouse, the soldier piloting the vessel handed him the radio. Torino wiped the sleep from his eyes. 'I need privacy, please.' He waited for the soldiers to leave, then put the radio to his lips. 'Cardinal Prefect?'

'Father General, where are you?' Vasari sounded angry. 'You haven't called in for days. I had to be patched through to your men by the Minister of the Interior.'

'I am on the Amazon and it's the middle of the night.'

'I don't care what time it is. You are to return immediately.'

'Why?'

'When we sanctioned this venture you expressly told the Holy Father and me that your scholars had translated the final section of the Voynich. You said you had directions to this garden. However, when I requested a copy from the scholars in your office, they knew nothing of any directions.'

It was Torino's turn to be angry. 'Cardinal Prefect, you have no right to question me or to pry into matters of the Society of Jesus. The Jesuit order is not under your jurisdiction.'

'It is, however, under the Holy Father's. He's as concerned as I am. You said you could find Father Orlando Falcon's Garden of God, and do it discreetly because you had a map. We thought you knew where it was. It's becoming increasingly obvious that this garden is a myth, a personal obsession of yours.'

'It's not a myth.'

'Even if it does exist, how do you expect to find it without a map?'

'By following Dr Kelly, who does have one.'

'Following him? Can't you see that Dr Kelly is only doing this because he's seeking a miracle to save his wife? You are a senior officer of the Holy Mother Church, a man of God. You set an example for Rome.'

'But what if Dr Kelly finds something? I can take it from him, claim it for the new Vatican. I have the legal authority and the soldiers to enforce it.'

'You're talking about a direct confrontation, a very public one. The very thing we agreed we must avoid. Father General, this madness must stop. You will jeopardize the Church's reputation and the new Vatican project. You and the soldiers must return immediately.'

'Since when has the Superior General of the Society of Jesus taken orders from a cardinal?'

'These aren't my orders.' Vasari was almost apoplectic with fury.

'They come directly from--'

'I can't hear you, Cardinal Prefect, the radio's breaking up.'

Vasari was screaming now. 'You must come back, Father General. That is a direct order from the Holy Father.'

Torino listened to him for a moment longer, then turned off the radio. He rose and called Fleischer. 'Feldwebel, I want there to be total radio silence from now on. No incoming or outgoing calls.'

'But, Father General, the security protocol is to call in our position every two days.'

'In that case, change it. The Holy Father demands total discretion. There are those who want to stop my mission and no one must know where I am.' He handed the radio to Fleischer. 'Tell the Peruvian authorities you'll not be receiving any more calls, and that you'll only call in if there's an emergency. When you've done that I want this radio temporarily disabled.'

'Yes, Father General.'

'Good. Wake me at dawn.'

So, Cardinal Prefect Guido Vasari was sabotaging his mission, he thought. No doubt he was already pouring poison into the Holy Father's ear. That was the trouble with the Roman Catholic Church today: the leaders had no vision. But when he found the Garden of God and presented it to the Holy Father, they would understand. Then they would recognize him as the saviour of the Holy Mother Church.

Chapter
37.

They heard it first: a rumble like distant thunder. Despite Falcon's warnings and Hackett's vigilance, the Mouth of Hell still took them by surprise. As the Discovery turned into a narrower, winding stretch of river the rough waters appeared calmer. Juarez leant over the prow and lowered the sounding pole, expecting the water to get shallower, a sign that rocks, rapids and a waterfall were imminent. But the water wasn't shallower. It was deeper.

Much deeper.

And the current was stronger. So strong that he had to grip the sounding pole to keep it in his grasp and trust in the harness he was wearing to avoid falling in. The current hauled the boat along and as Hackett struggled to slow it, the rumble became a roar. They turned a tight bend but even when they straightened and looked beyond the giant trees that lined the river they couldn't see anything. There was too much spray.

Then the waterfall was before them, and Ross heard Hackett mutter, 'Bollocks.'

It wasn't the drop into Hell they had expected but above them. The stretch of river ended abruptly. The Discovery was heading straight for a towering cliff from which water cascaded into the river. But that wasn't the only reason why Hackett was swearing. Between the boat and the waterfall there was a whirlpool as fierce as any Ross had ever seen. This was the Mouth of Hell and Ross understood now why Falcon had so christened it. At that moment, it appeared that anything caught in its vortex would be sucked into the underworld.

'What do we do?' Juarez shouted.

'Pull into the bank,' yelled Mendoza.

'Too many rocks,' replied Hackett, 'and I've got no control of the boat, anyway.'

'So what do we do? Jump off?' Zeb pointed to the two rowboats at the back. 'We could take those.'

Hackett laughed. 'If the Discovery's engines can't escape it--'

'Go faster,' ordered a voice behind them.

Sister Chantal was standing by the wheelhouse, frail and dishevelled. Her eyes were red-rimmed but clear.

'I've got it on full throttle. I can't go any faster.'

'Not backwards,' she said. 'Forwards. Go full speed towards it.'

'Sister, are you mad?' said Mendoza.

'If you want to live, do as I say. And do it now.'

'No way.'

'Do it,' said Ross. 'The direction tells us to rush into the Mouth of Hell.'

Hackett shook his head in disbelief. 'Have you seen that cliff? It's solid rock. If we manage to get past the whirlpool and avoid getting crushed by the waterfall we'll smash into the rock.'

'Go forward,' insisted Sister Chantal, 'as fast as you can. Head for El Velo de la Luz.'

Ross pointed at the cliff as the sunlight caught the waterfall, causing it to sparkle like a curtain of blindingly brilliant diamonds. 'El Velo de la Luz, the Veil of Light. Aim for the waterfall. Full speed ahead.' Hackett hesitated. 'Unless you've got a better idea?'

Hackett changed gear and steered the boat straight for the Mouth of Hell and the waterfall. 'Everyone, get under cover and hold on to something firm. This isn't going to be fun.'

The engines roared and the boat shot forward as though surfing a wave. Ross stood with the others in the galley as she sped towards the whirlpool's boiling waters. For one sickening moment, it appeared that the Mouth of Hell would swallow them whole but as the Discovery entered the whirlpool centrifugal forces pushed her to the outer lip, then threw her into the waterfall, where she was deluged. The jolt threw Ross to the floor, smashing his left hand. The pain was excruciating as he scrabbled to his feet. From their wide-eyed expressions he could tell that the others were as terrified as he was. To his surprise, Mendoza's eyes were closed and he was crossing himself. Even Sister Chantal looked frightened. Then everything darkened and he braced himself for the impact.

It never came.

Instead the sound fell away, became muffled, as if someone had closed a door. He moved to the deck. They were no longer under the waterfall but in a tunnel inside the cliff. The river evidently didn't end in the whirlpool and the cliff face, but continued into the rock. He guessed that this area of the jungle was riddled with subterranean rivers, the lower ones fed by the whirlpool.

As if on Charon's ferry to the underworld, they travelled down the dark waterway. No one spoke. Ross's main fear was that the river would descend deeper and spill them into an abyss.

They emerged, eventually, into a small pool. When Ross looked back he saw they had come through a ridge of rock that curved round on both sides as far as he could see, resembling the edge of a large crater. The contours were disguised beneath trees and thick foliage but from this angle its shape was clear. Ahead, a narrow stream meandered into the jungle.

'Let me see your hand,' Hackett said. Ross winced as the doctor felt it. 'Looks like you've fractured your wrist. It's nastier than it looks and could take a while to heal.' He went to his cabin and returned with a black medical bag. 'Ideally, you'd have an X-ray to find out if you need surgery and then we'd put it in plaster, but that's not an option here. If I put it in a tight bandage and you limit the use of the hand, it should be okay for now.'

'Senor Hackett,' said a voice from the wheelhouse.

'What is it, Juarez?'

'The radio's not working. I can't find anything wrong with it but it's dead. Probably got damaged back there.'

Hackett was bandaging Ross's hand and wrist. 'A buggered radio means we're stuck out here with no means of communicating with the outside world. We're on our own. Be grateful you haven't broken a leg.'

Zeb was studying Falcon's directions and a copy of the Voynich translation. 'We've got to carry on down that stream, but even I can see it's too narrow for the Discovery.'

Ross pointed to her two dinghies, each about eight feet long. 'How about those?'

Hackett nodded. 'Three to a boat. And whatever we need to take with us.' He turned to Juarez and Mendoza. 'Why don't you two get them down and start transferring supplies and equipment? Take the guns and machetes, too.'

'I'll help,' said Zeb.

Sister Chantal was sitting in the galley, eyes closed. Ross rested his good hand on her shoulder. 'You okay?'

She opened her eyes, focused on him and smiled. 'Yes,' she said. 'I'm fine.' He studied her anxiously. Falcon's directions were even more cryptic from this point.

For the next hour and a half they transferred all they needed from the Discovery to the two dinghies. Ross, Sister Chantal and Hackett would travel in one boat, Mendoza, Zeb and Juarez in the second. Finally, as they were boarding, Hackett returned to the Discovery. He had a key in his hand.

'What are you doing?' asked Mendoza. 'You've already battened down the hatches and locked the doors.'

Hackett inserted the key in a black box by the wheelhouse and turned it. 'Arming the alarm.'

Zeb laughed and Ross couldn't restrain a smile. Hackett had been so stoic in handling the attack by the bandits and negotiating the Mouth of Hell that Ross had almost forgotten his obsessive habits. Genuine crises seemed not to faze the Englishman, but minor concerns elicited disproportionate anxiety.

Zeb got into her boat. 'Nigel, I can understand you closing her up to keep out animals, but an alarm? Who the fuck's going to steal her out here?'

'You can't be too careful,' said Hackett. He sounded hurt.

'But who the hell's going to hear the alarm out here?' said Zeb.

'It's a deterrent, and it's my boat,' he said.

Zeb returned to her notes and the Voynich translation. 'Our guiding priest warns us that this waterway is filled with dragon-like creatures.'

'Crocodiles,' said Sister Chantal.

'Makes sense,' said Hackett calmly.

'Shit,' said Zeb.

'Juarez, you know about Amazon crocodiles,' said Hackett. 'They shouldn't trouble us in the boats, should they?'

'No,' said Juarez, with reassuring confidence, as the two boats set out in convoy. Then, after a pause: 'But we must be careful if there are many of them.'

Ross shifted uncomfortably on the small seat. The wooden planks that formed the boat's hull seemed thin and insubstantial. 'How many crocodiles might there be in an infested river?'

'Two or three,' said Juarez.

Ross relaxed a little.

'Hundred,' clarified Hackett.