The Mayan Resurrection by Steve Alten Read Free Book Online Page A

been set up across from the parking lot, allowing the local villagers to sell their wares to tourists.
     
    She scans the tables, counting fewer than a dozen visitors among the vendors.
The park’s closing’s hurting everyone.
Approaching the first booth, she is immediately swarmed upon by children, all pulling at her skirt in an attempt to lure her to their table.
     
    ‘Jade necklace,
señorita
? Only ten dollars, American.’
     
    ‘Come,
señorita
, we have beautiful rings. Five dollars.’
     
    ‘
Señorita
, you must buy a silk hammock. We give you a very good price, eh?’
     
    ‘Okay, okay, tell you what, I’ll buy from the first person who can tell me where I can find the elder known as Ocela.’
     
    The children back away. ‘Don’t know this person,
señorita
. Maybe you should go, eh?’
     
    The children abandon Dominique for a Canadian couple and their teenage daughter. ‘Bandanna,
señor
? Two dollar.’
     
    Captain Magierski stares at his Palm Pilot as if he’s just hit the lottery.
     
    S UBJECT VERIFICATION CONFIRMED . O NE - MILLION WILL BE WIRED UPON PROOF OF V AZQUEZ CAPTURE , BALANCE DELIVERED WHEN TEAM ARRIVES THIS EVENING . D ISCUSS THIS WITH NO ONE . C ONGRATULATIONS AND THANK YOU FOR SERVING YOUR COUNTRY .
     
     
    Dominique moves from table to table, stopping occasionally to check out an obsidian letter opener or an ornamental jaguar. ‘Excuse me? How much?’
     
    ‘Thirty dollars,
señorita
. For you, twenty-three.’
     
    ‘I’m looking for a man named Ocela.’
     
    Eyes avert. ‘No man by that name here,
señorita
.’
     
    She looks up as an Army jeep enters the Mayaland parking lot, its tires skidding across gravel as it comes to a stop, blocking Dominique’s rental car.
     
    Captain Magierski scans the tables using a finger-size telescopic lens.
     
    Dominique ducks behind a shelf stacked with wool Mexican blankets, her heart racing as she peeks out at the soldier.
Something’s wrong, he’s definitely after me. Where the hell are those Homeland Security guys when you need them?
     
    Magierski jumps down from the jeep, striding toward the marketplace.
     
    ‘Psst! Over here!’
     
    Dominique turns. A curly-haired Mayan man motions at her from behind a fruit stand.
     
    ‘Come quickly!’
     
    ‘I know you, don’t I?’
     
    ‘Elias Forma, I’m a friend of Mick’s. You were at my home. Quickly—’
     
    Magierski pushes through a throng of children, moving from table to table. ‘The American woman, where is she?’
     
    Elias Forma shrugs.
‘No habla inglés.’
     
    ‘Maybe you
habla
this.’ Magierski raises his M-16, pushing the barrel of the gun into the Mayan’s face. ‘Now where’s the goddam girl?’
     
    Elias says nothing, his dark eyes returning the soldier’s glare as the other Mayans crowd around them, whispering.
     
    Magierski grabs Elias by his shirt collar and drags the vendor out from behind the fruit stand, tossing him to the ground. Cocking his weapon, he fires a circle of bullets around the terrified local. ‘Listen up, Dominique Vazquez, you either come out now or I’ll blow his fucking head off!’
     
    ‘Hold it!’ Dominique climbs down from the slanted roof of the fruit stand. She approaches the soldier, her hands out at her sides, her blouse unbuttoned to her navel. ‘All you had to do was ask.’
     
    Magierski’s heart pounds faster as he stares at her tantalizing cleavage.
     
    Dominique winks. ‘I’m into handcuffs. Do you have any?’
     
    ‘Definitely.’ He removes the shackles from his belt, snapping them around her offered wrists. ‘Looks like you and me are gonna spend a few hours alone together.’
     
    ‘Sounds like fun. Think maybe we can get a room at the hotel? I’m hot, and I want to get out of these sweaty clothes. If you’re good, I’ll let you handcuff me to the bed.’
     
    Magierski smiles. ‘Tell you what, how about if I—’
     
    Whomp!
Dominique’s right foot snaps off the ground like a cobra,