The mayan prophecy (Timeriders # 8) by Alex Scarrow Read Free Book Online

with me last night … we’re all caught up in this thing – whatever it is.’
    He grinned again: a there-and-gone flash of a smile that stirred Maddy’s heart. The same boy-like grin that Liam flashed from time to time, when an exciting possibility, a crazy idea, occurred to him.
    ‘This is real!’ he whispered. ‘I … I was thinking, even this piece of paper was fake. A delusion.’ He laughed – a short shrill bark that sounded like madness, bottled, with a cap screwed tightly on. ‘To be honest, I’m not sure whether I’m relieved or, or bloody terrified by this.’
    ‘There’s something going on, Adam … something’s happening, or already happened long ago. And it’s as much a mystery to us as it is to you.’ She looked at Liam and he nodded. They’d agreed this earlier. Adam could know everything, if that was needed. They’d deal with the consequences of that later.
    ‘Yes, Adam, we
are
time travellers. It will become a viable technology in the not-too-distant future. It
will
become possible and that’s when everything starts to become messy.’
    ‘We were recruited by an agency to make sure things stay right,’ added Liam. ‘To make sure any other troublesome buggers with time machines don’t go messing around and changing the course of history.’
    Adam frowned. ‘You mean … like, sort of Time Police, or something?’
    Maddy nodded. ‘Yeah, sort of like that. Only … things have become a lot more confused than we can handle. We’re …’ She pursed her lips in thought for a moment, then looked at her watch. ‘Look, there’s a lot to tell you, and most of it can wait for later.’
    ‘Aye,’ said Liam. ‘We’re here because of something you said to Maddy last night.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘You were telling me and Becks –’
    ‘Becks? The other girl?’ He frowned. ‘Your friend seemed … quite intense. She nearly broke my finger.’
    ‘Oh, now she’s a whole other conversation,’ said Liam.
    Maddy was keen to stay on topic. ‘Adam, you told us how you managed to break the code. It was because of that weird pre-Aztec writing you discovered?’
    ‘Right.’ He nodded eagerly. He gestured at the sheets of paper tacked to the corkboards on his walls. ‘Yes, that. Although it’s not Incan. It’s closer to Mayan if anything. Although the tribe wasn’t strictly Mayan. More like an offshoot of –’
    ‘The tribe.’ Maddy jumped on that. ‘The tribe … you said their name? What was it again?’
    ‘Uh? Their name?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Well, they didn’t have a name as such. Just something I called them. The Windtalkers.’ He shrugged. ‘Seemed like as good a name as any.’
    Maddy shot a glance at Liam.
See?
    ‘Who were they? What can you tell us about them?’ asked Liam.
    Adam shook his head. ‘Not much. Professor Brian was following rumours about a tribe. It was his pet thing, you know? His hobby. His obsession. To discover a lost people, a lost tribe, and make his name studying them. Apparently some Spanish conquistador bloke encountered a tribe in the Nicaraguan jungle once upon a time. Not called
Nicaragua
then, of course. I think it was referred to as the Spanish Main back then. Anyway … the conquistador said he saw a golden city. Said they had magicalpowers or something. Said they were way more advanced than any of the other tribes he’d encountered.’ Adam laughed. ‘It’s the classic “Lost City of Z” cliché. Very
Indiana Jones
.’
    ‘This was the tribe? The one you called the Windtalkers?’
    He shrugged. ‘I dunno if it was the same tribe who did that cave painting. Might have been.’
    ‘And so?’ Maddy urged. ‘What? Did your professor find them?’
    He looked at her. ‘No. But I found that cave with the symbols on the wall. That’s all. That’s all. But see, that on its own is a pretty significant find. I think the symbols display the structure of a written language, not like the usual thing of pictograms depicting discrete