The Mayan Temple Read online

  THE MAYAN TEMPLE

  ORDER OF THE BLACK SUN - BOOK 30

  PRESTON WILLIAM CHILD

  CONTENTS

  Books by Preston William Child

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  1. CHAPTER ONE – THE VANISHING

  2. CHAPTER TWO – BIG NEWS FROM THE NORTH

  3. CHAPTER THREE – THE PERFECT GIRLFRIEND

  4. CHAPTER FOUR – THE HIDDEN KEY

  5. CHAPTER FIVE – THE RETURN OF MAMA MAY AND UNCERTAIN FUTURES

  6. CHAPTER SIX – HEADS IN THE CLOUDS

  7. CHAPTER SEVEN – THE ROGUE FLAME IN THE SUN

  8. CHAPTER EIGHT – SEEING CLEARLY

  9. CHAPTER NINE – THE NORTHERN LIGHTS

  10. CHAPTER TEN – REUNIONS ON CRACKED ICE

  11. CHAPTER ELEVEN – THE PERFORMANCE

  12. CHAPTER TWELVE – THE ALTAR

  13. CHAPTER THIRTEEN – THE CAVALRY COMES

  14. CHAPTER FOURTEEN - THE LOVELESS GIRL

  15. CHAPTER FIFTEEN - THE SACRIFICE AND THE SERVANT

  16. CHAPTER SIXTEEN – IN AN UNKNOWN LAND

  17. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN – THE BOOKS

  18. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN – RESTRUCTURING

  19. CHAPTER NINETEEN - THE LATEST ADDITION TO THE COLLECTION

  20. CHAPTER TWENTY – THE BUTLER'S LAST WISH

  EPILOGUE – THE ROCKING CHAIR

  Books of this series in order

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  About the Author

  Copyright © 2020 by Preston William Child

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication might be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  Publisher's Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author's imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

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  1

  CHAPTER ONE – THE VANISHING

  David Purdue hacked away at the thicket of vines surrounding him. No matter how much he managed to cut away with his machete, more and more tendrils slithered down to block his path. They wrapped around him, trying to entangle him but he refused to let himself be restrained. The only way to get out of such a mess was to press forward. So, Purdue would keep swinging his blade and keep walking forward until he was past all of the obstacles in his path.

  His life had recently come across far more obstacles than the vines draped in front of him. He had lost everything. His greatest enemies, the shadowy Order of the Black Sun, had stripped him of his wealth, his prized collection of artifacts, and had even taken most of his closest allies hostage. But he refused to give in, and was slowly building himself back up—preparing to strike back at the secret society for trying to destroy everything that he was.

  He wasn't sure if he was ready for war, but he would have to be. His opportunity to pull off a sneak attack against his unsuspecting enemies had passed him by. The Order of the Black Sun knew he was alive and they knew he was still acting against them. He had managed to survive their last few attempts to kill him but he knew how unyielding his enemies could be, and he knew how psychotic their leader was. Julian Corvus wouldn't stop coming for him, and now that Julian had gained immortality, he would never, ever stop. Purdue wouldn't be able to evade them forever, but Julian could make sure that the chase lasted forever.

  He needed to end this feud and retake his life sooner rather than later. The Black Sun still had his friends, Nina, Jean, and Charles hostage.

  Dr. Nina Gould was one of his closest friends, and he had been traveling the world with her for a long time now. They had a complicated relationship sometimes, but he cared about her more than most people.

  Jean-Luc Gerard was one of his more recent colleagues, but he had made a good impression during their search for a powerful spell book. He was an occult expert based out of the French Quarter in New Orleans, and Purdue knew that if their partnership continued that Jean would be essential in helping him with any further supernatural artifacts that he may come across. It had always been a weak point in Purdue's skill set, but Jean was the perfect person to help balance it out. He knew more than Purdue probably ever could.

  And lastly, Charles. He should never have even been taken prisoner. Since Nina and Jean had both actively helped Purdue collect artifacts, and Nina had been the one to nearly finish off Julian for good, it made sense that they would be taken hostage. But Charles was just Purdue’s butler. Sure, he was a close confidant and an essential part of Purdue's life, but he had never participated in anything that could be seen as hostile toward the Black Sun. The most he had done was help try and protect the artifacts when the Black Sun came to take everything.

  Now Nina, Charles, and Jean-Luc remained as the order's prisoners, but the fight had escalated, and Purdue knew Julian would want to use his hostages against him. If Julian hadn't killed them already, then they were in more danger than ever.

  Unfortunately, Purdue's hopes of having a good amount of weapons to use hadn't come to pass like he hoped. He had only been able to collect two useful artifacts that he could actually wield in the coming battles. He had an old dead witch's book of shadows that was full of magics that he was too terrified to use. He had also found a pearl on the ocean floor that could control the seas. They were very powerful relics—but still wouldn't be enough. The Order of the Black Sun had a stockpile of artifacts they had collected, including a great number of which they had stolen from Purdue's private collection. He knew those items well and understood that combined with the Black Sun's own relics, he was severely outgunned.

  He couldn't exactly match the Black Sun's numbers either. They had dozens, if not hundreds of operatives at their disposal. Purdue had about half a dozen allies left on a good day and the majority of those friends weren't looking to be drafted into a war that they had no real stake in. It didn't involve them, not really.

  The only exception was Purdue's longtime colleague, Sam Cleave. He wanted to free Nina and finally put an end to the Order of the Black Sun just as much as Purdue did.

  For some time, the Black Sun believed that he was dead—and he practically was. But that anonymity hadn't lasted forever. His enemies knew that he was alive now, and it was kill or be killed. The war was coming, and he had to be ready for it, and make sure that he had enough firepower to take on the order.

  That need had brought him to the jungles of Honduras.

  He had heard rumors about a very interesting place with remarkable power. That sounded like it had potential to be something useful to him, especially with his battle looming ahead of him. Any little discovery could make all the difference in the world.

  The locals said that a strange temple had miraculously appeared deep in the heart of the jungle. It seemed a little hard to believe, but Purdue had seen plenty of things that were supposed to be just as improbable. Those spreading the rumors claimed that this temple appeared one night out of thin air. It was not built. When he asked if it was possible that no one had ever found it before and that this could all just have been a coincidence th
at no one had explored that area—they all said it would've been seen.

  They were convinced that this temple was something new—but no building just appeared out of thin air, or grew out of the ground, or any of the number of ludicrous possibilities that were being thrown around by the locals.

  Based on the amount of vines and overgrowth that he was tearing his way through, it couldn't have been that well-traversed of a place. It certainly wasn't a popular tourist destination, that much was obvious. And now, with that temple suddenly appearing, no one dared to go near it, petrified that it had come to somehow try to harm them.

  Purdue wasn't spooked by it all. He was mostly intrigued.

  Some people were so afraid of the unknown but Purdue was the kind of man that would dive headfirst into it. It was amazing what could be found in the most unexplored places that people never dared to tread.

  Purdue swung his machete a few times, trying to break through some branches in his way. When they snapped and dropped to the ground, the branches brought down a shroud of greenery with them. It was like a curtain opened up and Purdue was now staring at an enormous monolith—the temple that everyone was raving about.

  “...the hell?”

  The temple was old, and made of dark slabs of rock. It must have taken so many years to build, generations even. It stood at least four stories tall and was an imposing sight among all of the natural wonders around it.

  Trees lay strewn about around the structure, having been completely uprooted from the earth. It was like a bomb had detonated in the middle of the jungle—or that an ancient temple had appeared out of thin air with such force that it decimated the wildlife around its entry point...but that didn't seem possible. Then again, he was already staring at something that was supposed to be impossible. The temple shouldn't have been there at all.

  Purdue began walking toward the peculiar temple. He was very glad to be out of all of the webs of vines and branches that had made his hike a very challenging one. Now he just had to watch his step around all of the toppled trees between him and the temple.

  “You there!”

  Purdue nearly leaped out of his own skin at the sound. He wasn't expecting anyone to be so far out, especially not this close to the place that everyone was so petrified of. According to everyone he'd spoken to, no one would dare get as close as he was planning to get, but here someone was.

  A bald man walked toward him with a red haired woman beside him. By the way they were dressed—with all of the excessive hiking gear—they looked like tourists. Maybe they were just exploring the mysterious haunted temple. But there was something unnerving about the way the bald man was looking at him, something behind the tightness of his expression.

  “I'm sorry if we startled you.”

  There was no 'if' about it. He was more than a little startled by those bastards' presence.

  “Not a problem,” Purdue lied.

  The woman peered at the machete in Purdue's hand. He didn't want to scare her so pointed the machete over to the tree line. “It wasn't an easy walk to get here. Had to cut my way through the forest.” He then acknowledged the downed trees around their feet. “This...I didn't do obviously.”

  “Obviously,” the bald man said, looking over to the temple. “You out here to look at this thing too?”

  “I am,” Purdue said.

  “Fascinating, isn't it?” The bald man held out a hand to greet him. “I am Lucius. This is Charlotte.”

  Purdue offered a smile but didn't receive one in return. There was something off about those two, but he couldn't figure out exactly what. Maybe they were just terrible at meeting people.

  “I'm David,” Purdue offered in return.

  “We know.”

  The thinnest of smiles barely graced Lucius' face, but suddenly his tightened expression seemed sharp.

  “We were hoping to bump into you, Purdue. Ever since that temple appeared, we've hoped that you would have to come and see it yourself just like Corvus said you might.”

  Purdue took a step back and tightened his grip on the blade in his hands. These weren't any kind of tourists at all. They were members of the Order of the Black Sun.

  “Like a fly in a spider's web. That's how he put it.” The red haired woman, Charlotte, was laughing now, giddy with how lucky they were to have found their prey.

  “Wonderful,” Purdue said, taking another step back and nearly tripping over one of the toppled tree trunks. “Just who I was hoping to see. I'm surprised that you and your friends haven't given up by this point. How many times do I have to beat you before you give up and stop bothering me? How many times do I have to make Julian look like a daft buffoon, aye?”

  “You have been making fools of us, yes,” Lucius said with some resignation. “What you did to Victor and Vincent needs to be answered for. Turning Sasha against us needs to be answered for.”

  “And you're here to make me pay for those imagined crimes, is that it? Hate to break it to you two, but you're on the wrong side. You work for a complete psychopath. Julian is unstable and you know it.”

  Lucius gave a shrug. “Perhaps getting rid of you might stabilize him.”

  There was a snapping branch behind him and Purdue turned around to find other people approaching him, surrounding him. More Black Sun operatives, looking to be the one to put an end to the order's greatest annoyance. Purdue had dealt with members of that group so many times but they had gotten so much more aggressive since Julian's induction as their leader. They weren't afraid to come at him head on. For instance, Lucius and Charlotte could have feigned innocence until the right time to strike but instead, they decided to come at him directly. That was Julian's leadership in action, setting an example for his followers—cutting down whatever was in your way without a moment of hesitation.

  But Purdue could also cut down whatever was in the way of his own goals—whether it was a thicket of vines or people trying to end him.

  “Julian is going to be so pleased with us,” Charlotte said.

  Purdue counted all of the enemies that were encircling him: twelve in total, counting Lucius and Charlotte. None of them were armed with any guns and only a handful drew knives or held branches or rocks. With his machete, he could probably take down a couple before being overwhelmed but that wasn't a guarantee and not even an ideal outcome.

  The best bet he had would be to get away from them, at least fall back until he could come up with a better plan to take out so many enemies. He looked past a particularly large grunt over to the old Mayan temple that loomed over them nearby. Making for the old structure was his best bet. If he could get inside, he could maybe isolate his enemies or at least fight them in a narrower place where their greater numbers wouldn't matter as much.

  “So were you ordered to bring me in dead or alive?” Purdue asked.

  “Corvus would prefer alive,” Lucius said. “But I'm sure he wouldn't be upset if we brought back your corpse.”

  “And how upset will he be when you don't bring back anything at all?” Purdue asked with a sly grin before breaking into a full sprint. One of the Black Sun operatives tried to intercept them but he knocked him out of the way and kept running. Purdue didn't bother looking back. He knew they were probably right on his heels. He just stared ahead at the Mayan temple that towered above. That strange building might be the only way he could save himself from this particular predicament.

  He reached an opening in the temple and made his way through it, into the dark. It took a few seconds for his eyes to start adjusting to the darkness, especially once he was away from the entryway and completely blanketed by the stone walls around him. The sun had no way to reach inside, making everything nearly impossible to see. That darkness would be helpful in keeping hidden from the Black Sun operatives, though, so he appreciated the lack of lighting inside of the ancient temple.

  A beam of light appeared, cutting through the darkness around him. Purdue stayed low, avoiding the ray of light, but then more streams of it illuminated
the room. Of course the Order of the Black Sun had come with flashlights. Perfect—there went his small advantage. They couldn't even give him that much.

  “Come out here, Purdue!” Lucius shouted. “All of this running and fighting has gotten tiring, hasn't it? You're not going to be able to hide forever. We've always found you in the end, haven't we? Let's just get this over with!”

  “I'm good, thanks!” Purdue called back and his voice echoed all throughout the temple, bouncing off the walls. “Why don't you tell me where you're keeping my friends prisoner and then maybe we'll negotiate!”

  “Your friends? You mean Dr. Gould? And Jean-Luc Gerard? Or your butler? They're all alive, I can tell you that much...but Corvus is growing impatient. If you don't end this soon, we're just going to have to end them instead. And you deserve to lose that much. You talk about us taking your friends...you have killed a lot of mine! Victor Moore!”

  Purdue hadn't killed Victor, not directly or intentionally at least. Victor had wielded a cursed sword that would kill its wielder if he lost possession of the blade. When Purdue had disarmed him, Victor dropped dead and that caused a whole stream of problems for Purdue in getting rid of that sword without dying.

  “Vincent! Torsten! Clive!”

  Those three tried to assassinate Purdue after Victor's death. They had their own ancient weapons that were imbued with power, and they would have been able to murder Purdue if not for one of the Black Sun's own, Sasha, betraying them and helping Purdue survive.

  “Your friends were all terrible, terrible bastards! Murderers and hitmen! My friends did nothing wrong to anyone! That's the difference!”

  Purdue's eyes were slowly adjusting to the darkness around him as he crouched down against one of the temple's walls. He did his best not to look at the lights coming from the Black Sun as they walked nearby, all while trying to make sure none of those beams of lights found their way to him. If he could just stay away from them, and stay shrouded by the dark, he might be able to slip past his pursuers. They could be searching for hours in the temple while he made his way out.