Panama Pursuit Read online

  Ben rubbed his hands together. “Maybe they found some more crystal skulls today. I have to pee, I’m so excited.”

  We all laughed.

  Sofia made her way to the centre of the long row of tables. She remained standing as she looked over the people in the tent. A few of the kids were still chattering quietly, so Sofia put a finger to her lips and kept it there until all we could hear was the buzz of insects bouncing against the tent screens outside.

  “Thank you,” she finally said. “We have two new teams with us today, so please join me in welcoming the delegates from England and the United States to Camp Gatun.” Sofia pointed at our table and at the table behind us, where the American boys sat.

  Everyone applauded politely, so I doubt they knew we were pals with the artifact thief.

  “Now,” the camp director said, still looking at us. “I’d like each one of you stand up, state your name, and say something interesting about yourself.”

  “Oh, no,” Eric groaned quietly, “I hate that kind of thing.”

  “Let’s start with... you,” Sofia said.

  And wouldn’t you just know it—she picked me to go first.

  I gulped and stood up. “Umm... hi,” I said. “My name is Cody, and I’m from Sultana. Sultana is in Manitoba—which is in Canada, by the way.”

  Sofia nodded. “Thank you, Cody. Please tell us something interesting about yourself.”

  I could have told her stuff that was so interesting it would have made her whole family faint. But I didn’t think this was the time to explain my time travel adventures. So instead I said, “My friends and I recently explored a float plane training base from the Second World War. It was very interesting.”

  A murmur of approval rumbled through the tent. I guess anyone interested in history would think that was cool.

  “Rats!” Eric griped. “That’s what I was going to say.”

  I sat down quickly, relieved to get that over with. Fifteen minutes later we had all completed our introductions and mini-speeches. It was time to see some artifacts.

  “We have made tremendous finds in the last three days,” Sofia began. “Most notably, the discovery of crystal skull fragments by the Italian team.”

  A cheer went up in the far corner of the tent.

  “Gee,” Eric said, “I wonder where the Italian team is sitting.”

  “Hush,” Rachel said.

  “Maybe one of the Italians swiped the broken skulls,” Eric said, “to take back to Athens.”

  “Athens is in Greece, you dummy,” Rachel whispered.

  “I don’t care where they live,” Eric fired back. “They’re still suspects, as far as I’m concerned.”

  Sofia continued. “And we remain optimistic that those stolen exhibits will be returned before the authorities arrive.”

  “Someone stole the crystal skull you found?” one of the American boys asked.

  “My apologies,” she said. “I forgot that some of you weren’t present for last night’s discussion. Let me quickly review what we know so far about the site. The pottery fragments, projectile devices, and other trinkets found here at the dig confirm that this site is at least five hundred years old. We believe that there was once a community of twenty or thirty families—likely of Chocoan background—living here on the shores of Lake Gatun.”

  The camp director paused and looked at our table and the table where the American team sat as she spoke. A bunch of us nodded.

  “And we found two skulls buried beneath the floor of one of the ancient homes. The skulls were broken and shattered along their internal crystalline fault lines. One skull was in three pieces, the other in seven. They appear to have cracked as the artisan worked on the final details.” Sofia took a sip from a water bottle. “They were... they were both beautiful, and now they have both been stolen.”

  Chapter 5

  “BUT WHO WOULD want busted skulls?” asked another voice behind me. “Especially if they weren’t even finished.”

  “The fact that they weren’t totally finished makes them even more valuable, in a way,” Sofia said, sounding a bit more composed. “For almost two hundred years people wondered where crystal skulls came from—Mexico, Colombia, Cambodia... no one knew for certain. Finding two unfinished skulls, right here in Panama, might have proved that any real skulls originated in Central America. It would have been an amazing archaeological find.”

  Sofia looked like she didn’t want to talk about the skulls anymore. She took a deep breath and began lifting the lids off of boxes and pulling out various objects. She explained what each find was and how it was made. Arrow-heads, bits of cookware, trinkets—she seemed to have a little bit of everything.

  Ben kept craning, twisting, and fidgeting in his chair. He really wanted to know if any more skull fragments were discovered, and he was growing impatient with the tiny muddy objects we could barely see from where we were sitting. When Sofia didn’t pull a skull from the last box, Ben snapped. He jumped up and raised his arm.

  “Yes?” the camp director asked. “Ben, is it?”

  Ben nodded. “So, I guess you didn’t find any more crystal skulls today, huh?”

  “No, we did not.”

  “Oh,” Ben said. “But do you reckon there might be more out there?”

  The tent grew eerily silent as we waited for the camp director’s answer.

  “Finding the pieces of two broken crystal skulls was like finding a needle in a haystack,” she said, “or winning a lottery. Yes, there may be another crystal skull around here somewhere, but I think our chances of ever finding it are... are miniscule.”

  One of the team leaders from across the room stood up and asked. “Do you think the missing artifacts have been smuggled out of the camp, or could they still be here somewhere?”

  After a minute of contemplation, Sofia said, “The overland construction road is in such poor shape, I don’t think anyone could have used it. So, yes, it is possible the pieces are still on site.”

  “Who would do such a thing, anyway?” someone yelled.

  Sofia placed a finger to her lips again, but this time she had to keep it there a long time. Finally, everyone had calmed down enough for her to speak. “I have no idea, but because potentially priceless artifacts have gone missing, we have requested a full police investigation. They will hopefully arrive on one of the morning canal shuttles.”

  I watched her closely as she spoke, and it seemed like she was staring at our table a lot. I’m not sure if she knew that Bruno and her prime suspect, Rudi, were brothers, but if she believed Rudi was guilty, there was no way she was going to be helping us.

  Eric elbowed me and said, “I think I’ll add her to my list.”

  “Huh?” I said.

  “My suspect list. She knows those broken skulls are worth a lot of dough, so maybe she swiped them. She has access to the whole camp... so you never know.”

  “Once the police arrive at Camp Gatun,” Sofia said, now glaring at the five of us, “I will leave the matter to them.”

  •

  “She can’t possibly think Rudi stole those crystal skulls,” Rachel said. “He’s a respected scientist and famous archaeologist.”

  “We know that,” I said, “and so does the camp director, but I suppose she had to believe an eyewitness—at least until someone figures out what really happened.”

  Twenty minutes had now passed since the camp director gave her report. We were back in our tent again and sitting around the table. The single bare light bulb hanging above us cast an eerie glow on our faces. Bruno was still with Rudi, and we were alone. As anxious as we were about clearing Rudi’s name and finding the artifacts, we weren’t sure where to begin or what to do next.

  “I suppose we could go from tent to tent,” Rachel suggested, “and talk to the other teams. You
know, interview them and ask if they’ve seen anything suspicious.”

  “We’ve already seen lots of suspicious stuff,” Eric said. “I say we start with that.”

  “Do you really want to follow around the Italian team,” Rachel asked, “to see if they lead you to the skulls?”

  Eric shrugged. “Why not? That’s better than doing nothing.”

  “I wish we knew more about detective work,” Anna said.

  “A detective would probably begin with the prime suspect,” Ben said. “The most suspicious person.”

  Eric said, “I can’t think of anyone more suspicious than that guy hiding in the jungle spying on us.”

  Ben nodded.

  “There’s no harm in going down to the dock and seeing if he’s still around,” I said.

  “Bruno did say we should gather information,” Eric added. “And that’s what we’d be doing.”

  Anna and Rachel were quiet for several minutes. All we could hear were the billions of jungle bugs making noise outside.

  Ben finally shattered the silence. “It’s not like we’re going to arrest anyone or do anything dangerous. We’d just be snooping around.”

  “But how can we do that?” Anna asked. “It’s far too dark to see anything outside.”

  Ben suddenly grinned mischievously. He looked outside the screened tent windows and lowered his voice. “Wait till you see my flashlight.”

  Rachel frowned and said, “Uhmm... I hate to tell you this, Ben, but we all have flashlights.”

  “Not like mine, you don’t.”

  “Okay, but how’s a flashlight going to help us find the thief or the skulls?” Rachel asked.

  Ben’s feelings didn’t seem to be hurt by Rachel’s comments, and he laughed easily. Still grinning, he stood up and walked over to his backpack. We waited for him to dig something out.

  Ben returned to the table with an object in each hand. “Did I mention that my dad’s an engineer?”

  “Yeah,” Eric said. “You told us on the boat.”

  “Oh, okay,” Ben said. “Anyway, my dad asked me to test this stuff under what he called ‘real life conditions.’ ” Ben placed his binoculars and his flashlight on the table next to Anna’s student workbook.

  The flashlight looked bigger than most flashlights, but it still looked like a flashlight. The binoculars I had already used. Sure, they were nicer than Eric’s, and more powerful, but they weren’t spectacular either.

  Eric immediately picked up Ben’s flashlight and turned on the switch. Nothing happened. “Jeez,” Eric complained, flicking the switch off again. “It doesn’t even work.”

  Ben stood up and pulled on the chain dangling from the light bulb above us. Click. The light went off, and our tent was thrown into darkness. Our eyes slowly adjusted to the tiny amount of light trickling in from the rest of the camp.

  “Why did you do that?” Anna asked.

  “So that I can demonstrate the NightHawk IR,” Ben said.

  “The what?” I asked.

  “You’ll see.” We heard Ben fumble in the dark with his binoculars. He pushed them into my hands and said, “Take a look outside—outside the tent.”

  “Huh?” I said. “At what? It’s too dark to see anything out there.”

  “Trust me,” Ben said. “Look down the hill.”

  I pressed the binoculars to my eyes and aimed them into the night. Nothing. “I’m not getting the point in doing this,” I said. “It’s all black.”

  “What about now?” Ben asked. “See anything?”

  “HOLY COW!” I cried. “I can see for hundreds of metres. The trees, the trails, the dig—it’s all clear as day.” I lowered the binoculars and looked around the tent. But nothing had changed. The lights were off, Ben’s flashlight was off, and we were all still in the dark.

  “That’s impossible,” Eric said, already reaching for the binoculars.

  “No. I swear,” I said. “I could see everything out there.”

  “Lemme try,” Eric said.

  I passed him the crazy binoculars and he looked around Camp Gatun.

  “WOW!” Eric said. “These are amazing. I really can see everything. It’s all kind of greenish, but it’s super clear.”

  “So how do those things work?” I asked, indicating the binoculars now pressed against Eric’s face. “Do they detect the heat given off by surfaces?”

  “No, it’s not a thermal image,” Ben said. “The NightHawk flashlight is an infrared searchlight. It shines a powerful IR beam that can’t be seen by humans at night—or during the day, for that matter. But with the special lenses built into these binoculars, you can see everything that you shine the spotlight on. In other words, you need both—the spotlight and the IR glasses.”

  Eric passed the binoculars to Rachel so she could have a turn.

  “I have to admit,” Rachel said, “these are super cool, Ben.”

  “Thanks,” Ben said. “My dad didn’t invent infrared searchlights—they’ve been around for years—but he did develop these binoculars.”

  When Anna was done testing the gadgets, Ben clicked on the light over the table again.

  Eric snatched up the flashlight and turned it on and off a few times. “This is wild,” he said. “It doesn’t even look like it’s on—even when it’s on.”

  “Yeah,” Ben said, “that’s what makes it so much fun. We could light up half the jungle at night and see everything, and no one would know.”

  I nodded. “So we could actually sneak up on a bunch of thieves hiding out in the night, and they wouldn’t have a clue we were there.”

  “And then,” Eric said, getting excited, “we could walk right into that camp and take back those missing artifacts. We’d be heroes.”

  “Then they’d have to free Rudi,” Ben added.

  Anna said to Rachel. “If the person they saw on the other side of the canal really is somehow involved in the artifact thefts, he may still be there.”

  “And if he’s still there,” Eric said, “we need to find him before he vanishes with the skulls... forever.”

  Rachel sighed. “Okay, you can count me in. But I’m not agreeing to anything unless we have a plan—a real plan.”

  I nodded.

  Eric shrugged. “Sure, whatever.”

  “So, what’s the plan?” Rachel asked.

  “Well what about this?” Ben said. “It’s still pretty early right now—only about seven o’clock, I think—and we’re allowed to do what we want until the nine o’clock curfew. So why don’t we take the NightHawk, go down to the dock, and look around?”

  “And then what?” Rachel asked.

  Ben shrugged. “I guess that’ll depend on what we see across the canal.”

  Rachel frowned and looked at Anna. “That’s not much of a plan.”

  “You gotta be reasonable, Rach,” Eric said. “The next phase of our catch-a-thief mission will depend on what happens during the first phase.”

  Rachel laughed. “You make it sound like we do this all the time.”

  “But you’re still in, right?” I said. “Because we need you.”

  Rachel smiled at me.

  “Then let’s go.” Eric said, slamming his binder shut and jumping up. He wobbled on his feet and grabbed the plastic chair for support.

  “Hey,” Rachel said, “are you all right? You look kind of green.”

  “Yeah,” Eric said, “I think I just stood up too fast.”

  We stuffed Ben’s NightHawk in Rachel’s small backpack and left the tent. The area around the tent city was still pretty busy. We saw some kids kicking a soccer ball under a light, while others played board games or read inside their temporary homes. We ignored the activity and made our way into the darkness of the dig site. We didn’t know if we w
ere allowed to wander through the ancient village at night, so to play it safe we didn’t turn on our normal flashlights until we were clear of all the tents.

  At first we thought we could get away with only using my flashlight, but we kept stumbling and tripping on the trail, so Rachel pulled out her flashlight too. But even with two flashlights, it was still pretty tricky trying to navigate the windy jungle path.

  “Ouch!” Eric cried. He had been making up the rear, and it sounded like he’d tripped and fallen.

  “You okay?” I asked, swinging the beam of my light on him.

  “Sort of,” he said, still on his knees.

  Rachel shone her light on his face. “Did you break something?” she asked. There was real concern in her voice.

  “No.” Eric got up slowly and brushed the jungle crud from his legs. “I just don’t feel very good all of a sudden.”

  We studied Eric’s face with our flashlights. Whoa! His lips were purple and his forehead was shiny with perspiration.

  “You look terrible,” Anna whispered.

  “I think I may have eaten too much for supper,” Eric joked weakly.

  “That’s very possible,” I said. “I don’t think those cooks have ever seen a person eat six enchiladas.”

  “Are you going to barf?” Rachel asked.

  “I hope so. I think I would feel a lot better if I did.”

  “We have to get you back,” Ben said. “We can ask the camp nurse to come by our tent to take a look at you.”

  “Not yet.” Eric pushed Rachel’s light away from his face. “I want to see what’s happening on the other side.”

  “Don’t be a dummy!” Rachel said. “If you faint down by the water, we don’t want to carry your sweaty carcass all the way back to the tent.”

  “But I want—”

  Anna cut him off. “I will take Eric back to the tent. You three go and see what you can see.”

  That settled it. Anna took Rachel’s flashlight and led Eric back up to the tent city, and we continued toward the dock.

  Ten minutes later Ben stopped and whispered, “Turn off your flashlight now. I’ll use the IR light so that no one can see us coming from the Balboa or the dock.”