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“Ah,” José said. “Well, since I couldn’t be sure of your location, I thought I would follow Torres instead. If his men were tracking you, eventually he would lead us to you.”

“More of your contacts?” Ali asked, looking impressed.

“Indeed!” José answered. “It was difficult at first, as I knew he had reached Cajamarca but not where he was going next. Until, of course, the helicopters began arriving.”

“Of course,” Santiago said, impressed. “They wouldn’t be common for the city, and they would have to store them somewhere.”

“A few questions here, some sweet talk, a couple of bribes there…” José winked. “And I was able to get the flight logs.”

“And you found a pilot willing to fly to the middle of nowhere?” Ali asked. “That’s quite a feat.”

“Well, I know a guy for that,” the professor answered with a modest shrug.

Santiago’s eyebrows shot up. “You flew here yourself?”

“I told you,” Ali said smugly. “He’s a badass.”

“But I did not come alone. I have backup!” he added proudly.

“You do?” Santiago asked the man.

“Of course!” José answered. “Espadas de los Guardianes,” he added proudly, holding up a walkie-talkie. “It is a large and well-connected network.”

Santiago inwardly winced. There were no more Guardianes now, and it would be up to him to disband the Espadas as well.

But that was a task for another day.

“So, did we do it?” the professor asked. “Did we find Atahualpa?”

A smile tugged at Santiago’s lips. “Yeah, we found him.”

“Then the tomb, it is here?” José asked, spinning around as if an old Incan monument was hiding just beyond the bushes.

“It was.” Santiago held up the small golden temple. “Not anymore.”

“Ahhhh.” José bent to look at the relic. He didn’t seem at all surprised. As usual, Santiago felt like the professor knew a lot more than he was letting on. What’s this guy’s backstory?

“But you stopped the curse?”

“We stopped the curse,” Santiago confirmed.

“At least you leave with a discovery,” José said, admiring the statuette again. “You can make a thesis out of this.”

Santi preened a little.

“Look at that.” Ali grinned. “You finally found a treasure of your own.”

Santiago slipped his hand back into hers. “I certainly did.”

“That…was lame,” Ali said, but she was grinning.

Santiago shrugged, unrepentant.

“That’s just who I am.”

Lima, Peru

Citrus, salt, and spice hit the roof of Santiago’s mouth and he groaned with the sensation. After nearly two weeks in Peru, he was finally having ceviche de pescado, and it had been well worth the wait. He scooped up more of the lime-saturated fish on his fork, adding a few kernels of fat corn and a sliver of sweet potato for good measure. The combination was pure perfection.