Published Jan 08, 2009
357 Pages
5 x 8 Black & White Paperback
Genre: FICTION / Action & Adventure
30 June 1520 - after looting the Aztec treasury, Hernan Cortez and his band of “not yet” Conquistadors make a run for it in the dead of night. The enraged Aztecs pursue and in the battle that follows, half of the largest treasure ever amassed in the New World goes missing—never to be seen again.
The dream of archeologist Catana Perez, her obsession actually, is to prove that the lost treasure wasn’t lost—it was hidden. That it might be guarded was never a consideration.
A Conquistador’s sword launches Catana on a quest. With each new and astonishing discovery, she and her team plunge deeper into the sad and terrible truth behind a centuries old mystery—and horror that no one could have predicted—except perhaps Catana’s new colleague, a beautiful psychic whose visions take on a life of their own.
Catana was on her knees examining the trench for sign, when it struck her that she’d already spotted the equivalent of a neon arrow with flares. Trembling, she looked over to the pile of breakdown Calvas was sitting on, praying she hadn’t lost her mind.
She hadn’t.
It had imprinted on her brain like a subliminal advertisement. Under the withering beam of her headlamp it stared back like a reproachful child. Etched into a piece of rock was the sign of the Cross.
Catana was shaking as she moved closer, hushing Calvas, telling him to move. Leaning close to the rock with the cross, she swallowed twice. First, because her mouth had gone dry-the second time because she could barely breathe. But there was no mistake. No trick of reflection or refraction, of fungi or geology. The holy cross of Christendom was carved into a sheath of rock that once, was high up on the wall of the chamber. Carved below the cross were two initials, S and C.
S and C. Santiago and Cortez. The “Kilroy was here” of the conquest. The closest thing to a calling card any of Cortez’s men ever possessed, and one of the few things they willingly left behind other than death, destruction and bastards.
