Excavation

Sam helped the boy up. They followed her as she slowly trudged back toward the distant exit. Ahead, the two torches that framed the golden alcove, the Incan’s Temple of the Sun, could be seen flickering from their notches in the wall.

As Maggie drew abreast of the cave, she slowed and stopped, studying the golden altar and the webbed mass of golden filaments above it.

Sam drew up to her, but his eyes were still cautiously watching their backtrail for any renewed sign of pursuit. He mumbled as he joined her, “If that was Incan Heaven back there, I hate to see their idea of Hell.”

Maggie nodded toward the golden temple. “I think it’s right here.”

Denal hung back, keeping as far from the shining room as possible.

Sam stepped beside her. “I know. It’s hard to believe the Incas would feed their children to those monsters.”

“No, Sam. You don’t understand. Those monsters are their children.” Maggie turned toward Sam. She ignored his incredulous look. She needed to voice her theory aloud. “They told us the temple takes their children, turns them into gods, and sends them to janan pacha.” Maggie pointed back toward where the last of the beasts still cavorted and whined at the entrance. “Those are the missing children.”

“How…why…?”

Maggie touched Sam’s shoulder. “As I tried to tell you before, I saw Pachacutec without his king’s robes. His body was hairless, pale, with no genitalia. His body looked just like one of those beasts. Like that big creature I shot. One of the pack’s leaders.”

Sam’s brows bunched; his eyes shone with disbelief. He glanced to the temple. “You’re saying that thing actually grew him a new body?”

“As well as it was able. As Sapa Inca or king, it gave him the body of a pack leader.”

“But that’s impossible.”

Maggie frowned. “As impossible as Norman’s healed knee?” she asked. “Or his repaired eyesight? Or his ability to suddenly communicate with the Incas? Think about it, Sam!” She nodded to the temple. “This thing is some biological regenerator. It’s kept the Incas alive for hundreds of years…it grew their leader a new body. But why? Why does it do that?”

Sam shook his head.

Maggie pointed once again toward the beastly caldera. “That’s the price for eternal life here. The children! It takes their offspring and…and I don’t know…maybe experiments with them. Who knows? But whatever the purpose, the temple is using the Incas’ children as biologic fodder. The villagers are no more than cattle in a reproductive experiment.”

“But what about Denal?” Sam asked.

She glanced to the boy. He was unchanged…mostly. She remembered his reluctance to enter the tunnel. “I think the temple needs more malleable material, earlier genetic cells, like from newborns. Denal was too old. So it did to him like it does to all its experiments. Once finished, it instilled some mental imperative to cross to the next caldera and implanted phobic blocks on returning. You saw Denal’s inability to enter here, just like the creatures’. I suspect those beasts we found at the necropolis two days ago had migrated from the caldera through other tunnels, perhaps looking for another way out, and became trapped down there. I think the beasts are allowed to go anywhere except into the villagers’ valley. That is forbidden.”

“But why?”

“Because the temple is protecting its investment from its own biologic waste products. It can’t risk some harm coming to its future source of raw genetic material. So it protects the villagers.”

“But if these creatures are a risk, why doesn’t it just destroy the experiments once it’s done with them? Why let them live?”

Maggie shrugged. “I’m not sure. Maybe the neighboring caldera is a part of the experiment, some natural testing ground for its creations. It monitors how they adapt and function in a real environment.”

“And what about the way they burn up when I stabbed them?”

“Spontaneous combustion. A fail-safe mechanism. Did you notice how Denal’s guards had spears made of the same gold? A blow from one of these weapons, even a scratch, must set off some energy cascade. It’s just another level of protection for the villagers.”

Sam stared at the temple, horror growing in his eyes. “It still sounds crazy. But considering what happened to Norman, I can’t deny that you might be right.” He turned to Maggie. “But, if so, why is the temple doing all this? What is its ultimate goal? Who built it?”

Maggie frowned. She had no answer. She began to shake her head when a new noise intruded into the tunnel.

…whump, whump, whump…

Sam and Maggie both turned toward the tunnel’s other end. It was coming from the valley beyond.

“C’mon,” Sam said excitedly. He led them at a fast clip toward the bright sunlight.

As they reached the end, squinting at the late morning’s glare, Sam pointed. “Look! It’s the cavalry!” Circling through the mists overhead was a dark shadow. As it descended farther, the green-black body of a military transport helicopter came into sight. “It’s Uncle Hank! Thank God!”