The Crystal Skull

Prologue

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In the silence of the night, nothing was heard but the noise of the engine, the propeller lashing the air with relish, as if biting from the dark. Underneath, the jungle appeared as an army with spears raised to prick anything that would have disturbed its peace. Bloodthirsty mosquitoes attacked, but unable to penetrate the uniforms, they only sucked at hands and legs; not even they ventured to face the anti-bullet vests or helmets.

The soldiers found a clearing where the moon could rest its rays peacefully, without anything else filtering its light.

“We meet here in two days; take a good look at your watch. In exactly two days, I will come to pick you up,” said the pilot to the captain.

“Take care not to be late as usual. Maybe again you’ll find a willing chick and forget about us. It wouldn’t be the first time that it’s happened to us!”

"John, you know me, when it comes to work, I do it!"

“There’s no point in arguing now, I have known you for too long. Do your duty like we do ours, you understand?” John’s blue eyes flashed at him mysteriously. The pilot only had to read the shining in his eyes to realize that John felt a misgiving. John tried wiping it with the sponge of reason, but he couldn’t do it.

They entered thickets shadowed by the leaves, guiding themselves according to the GPS and looking through the infrared glasses. As they entered further into the wilderness, they could hear the night noises. Scared monkeys shouted in final desperation at the encounter with the jaguar; birds of prey searched the darkness. The traffickers were trying to hide their traces in the forest sounds.

A breeze of wind wanted to smooth the soldiers’ way with the freshness of harsh life; here you were either prey or predator.

Near a tall banana tree protecting its fruit in the palms of its huge leaves, John saw the eyes of a snake, cold like the breath of death. Bending and dancing in the meager light, he tried to scare it away with a dance that only the Mayan people had understood.

From the thickets spread over the mountains, noises came which did not belong to that place. A few gunshots, followed by heart-breaking shrieks, heralded death which would even scare the snake.

“Did you hear that, Captain?” asked one of the soldiers.

“Yes, they are not too far,” he replied. “Come on, finish as soon as possible.”

“Yes, they are not too far,” he replied. “Come on, finish as soon as possible.”

A stab of pain tore through his guts; he looked bravely at the small creek of blood that had cut its way through the anti-bullet vest. In fact, it was not the pain that troubled him, but the fact that he had been hit, despite his training.

“Apply plan B,” he said in his firm voice, hiding his pain and confusion behind the order. After making sure that his subordinates were safe, he leaned against a coffee tree. He wished so much that it was simply a dream; that he would wake up from it with a strong coffee. But the only voices he heard were Steve’s and Alex’s.

“John, wake up, we have just a little more!”

Amid the play of shadows and light, he saw the face of a beautiful young girl that had gathered the earth power in her eyes. Being bright and merry, she suddenly became sad, streams of tears crossing her bliss. Unclear words and a weight on his chest tried to bring him back to life, but everything was vague.

He woke up. He was in a hospital room; nearby, Alex was sitting in a chair, a magazine on his chest, sleeping. Outside, the sun was cutting its way for the new day, slowly shaking mist from every corner of the sky.

He sat up on the bedside, but the pain made him give a smothered moan.

“You finally resurrected,” Alex’s voice was heard. “What on earth are you doing, cannot stay still?”

“I want to go to the bathroom. Why does it seem abnormal to you?” asked John.

“After a week of being unconscious, it is something abnormal.”

“Are you kidding me?” said John.

“Do you think I feel like joking?” Alex replied. “Let me help you.”

Supported and dragging his feet, John managed to get to the bathroom, but the way back to bed seemed to be infinitely longer.

“What happened, Alex?”

“Don’t you remember anything?”

“I don’t know if I remember or if I was delirious.”

“Really, you don’t remember that the Mayan people saved you? Their priest, a little drunk and doped, with an unclean knife, operated on you on a blanket in the heart of the jungle.”

Seeing that John had lost even the faint color he still had in his cheeks, Alex shortened the story. “After finishing his job, he put a crystal skull on your chest, and for four days performed a ritual known only by him. It is hard for me to say where he got so much power.”

“Didn’t he speak anything at all?”

“Didn’t he speak anything at all?”

“Yes, but only he knew what he was mumbling. He only spoke Spanish when we managed to get you on the helicopter.”

“What did he say?” asked John.

“Rubbish.”

“Tell me!”

“That he saved you by taking the good luck of your soul mate. When the doctor here checked you, he congratulated him on the operation. It is true you were left with quite a big scar. Now, don’t get upset,” Alex said. “Plastic surgery can make it smaller.”

“Just that?”

“Isn’t it enough?”

“The priest said more, Alex. That girl exists. I saw her, and my mistake has caused great suffering in her life. That my happiness is gone doesn’t matter, but it is not her fault that I have been a creep; we might meet one day. If she recognizes me, we both will change our luck. I don’t want surgery. This scar is the reminder.”

“You’d better sleep. You are not all right yet, and I’m sure it is the effect of the herbs you took in the jungle,” said Alex.

Hiding a rebel tear, John closed his eyes and turned his back on Alex with difficulty.

“You will see nothing is true,” Alex added. “If you want, I can play the wizard too; I can even get myself a broomstick. As a bonus, I’ll call a few cute nurses as helpers.”

With his eyes closed, John saw the skull that had spoken to him, “If you help me, I will give you back good luck and bliss; believe me, otherwise you would have died. Better have ten to fifteen empty years than being a dead man and a wrecked person. Don’t forget me. Come back to the jungle. We have an important mission together.”