By: Adrian D'Hage

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An eerie clue to the Inca Prophecy lies hidden in a tomb near the ancient city of Machu Picchu. The prophecy itself is concealed deep in the Amazon jungle, amongst the ruins of Paititi, the Lost City of the Inca. Disaffected CIA agent Curtis O'Connor and Guatemalan archaeologist Dr Aleta Weizman are convinced a mysterious crystal skull, discovered near the Inca Trail, will lead them to it.

Thousands of kilometres away, the Pope lies gravely ill in the Vatican and Cardinal Felici, a key contender for the Papacy, is anxious to return to Rome. At his luxurious villa on the shores of Lake Como, Felici is concluding a meeting with Professor Macchiarolo, one of the world's foremost experts on crystal skulls. What is hidden in Paititi that would attract the attention of both the CIA and the Vatican's espionage service? Is the prophecy connected to the cataclysm predicted by both the Mayans and the Incas? And is there a link to the Iranian heavy water nuclear reactor and the manufacture of deadly plutonium suitcase bombs? O'Connor is certain there is, and that both he and Weizman are now in mortal danger.

High in the Andes, in a portent of what lies ahead, an Andean Condor, the largest of the vultures, circles above Machu Picchu and the mists engulfing the Inca Temple of the Moon.

About the Author

Adrian d'Hage was educated at North Sydney Boys High School and the Royal Military College Duntroon (Applied Science). He served as a platoon commander in Vietnam where he was awarded the Military Cross. His military service included command of an infantry battalion, Director of Joint Operations and Head of Defence Public Relations. In 1994 Adrian was made a Member of the Order of Australia. As a Brigadier, he headed Defence planning for counter-terrorism security for the Sydney Olympics, including security against chemical, biological and nuclear threats. In October 2000 Adrian left the Army to pursue a writing career, moving to Italy to complete The Omega Scroll (Penguin 2005). Now into its sixth printing, The Omega Scroll was voted one of the top 50 books of 2006 (Booklovers Guide) and has been published in ten countries. His next bestselling novel, The Beijing Conspiracy, dealt with biological terrorism and what might happen if smallpox and Ebola are genetically engineered (Penguin 2007). His latest novel, The Maya Codex was published in August 2010. Adrian also holds an honours degree in Theology, entering as a committed Christian but graduating 'with no fixed religion'. In 2009 he completed a Bachelor of Applied Science (Dean's Award) in Oenology or wine chemistry at Charles Sturt University, and he has successfully sat the Austrian Government exams for ski instructor, 'Schilehrer Anwärter'. Adrian is presently a research scholar and tutor at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (Middle East and Central Asia) at ANU. His doctorate is entitled 'The Influence of Religion on US Foreign Policy in the Middle East'.

The First Decade of The New Millennium
1
Machu Picchu, Peru
A crystal skull lay at the feet of the mummified king. It glistened in the flickering light of the oil lamps hanging on the walls of the Inca tomb, deep inside the snow-covered Andes mountains.
Almost hidden in the gloom, the shaman sat cross-legged on the cold stone floor. Directly descended from the Inca Q'ero people, Carlos Huayta was short and stocky, his brown oval face weathered by the years, his eyes the colour of coal, his greying black hair tied into a ponytail. Huayta pulled his hand-woven woollen poncho more tightly around his shoulders. The bright red, blue and yellow diamond patterns identified the old man's birthplace: a remote village, high in the Andes to the north of Lake Titicaca. Huayta focused on the skull at the feet of the mummy and began to breathe deeply in a deliberate, practised rhythm as his heart rate gradually slowed.
Save for the visits of a select few shamans, the burial chamber of Pachacuti Yupanqui, the ninth ruler of the Inca, had lain undisturbed since 1472, when the ancients had brought their ruler to his final resting place and positioned him on a solid-gold throne, his hands folded across his chest. His death mask was intricately inlaid with gold, silver and jade. A silver necklace hung around his neck and gold bracelets adorned his mummified wrists. Beyond the body of the king, untold riches glinted from niches carved into the granite walls of the tomb: gold statues and figurines, silver chalices, vases full of emeralds, and priceless filigreed gold face masks and necklaces. An unassuming pottery urn stood in a niche in the furthest corner of the tomb, but Huayta knew that what appeared to be of little worth held the most valuable objects of all.
Huayta gazed at the crystal skull. It had taken modern science until the twentieth century to understand the extraordinary capabilities of crystal to store information, but the Inca had understood the power of crystal long before. Huayta pondered again the ancient Inca prophecy that had been passed down from shaman to shaman. When the Eagle of the North and the Condor of the South fly together, the Earth will awaken.
The crystal skull suddenly sparked into life and Huayta recoiled involuntarily as the images appeared in the eye sockets. The Alborz mountains in Iran were shrouded in mist, stretching from the borders of Armenia and Azerbaijan in the west to the southern edge of the Caspian Sea, and on to Turkmenistan and Afghanistan in the east. Mount Damavand, the highest volcano in the Middle East, soared above the range and clouds of sulphur billowed from fumaroles near the summit. The images faded to desert, and on to another instantly recognisable landmark, the golden Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. As it faded, another image appeared, and another . . . and then another; all of the landmarks irreplaceable.
An hour later, deep in thought, Huayta extinguished the oil lamps and made his way across the cold granite floor to the inner entrance that protected the tomb. He bowed towards the mummified remains of one of the Inca's most revered kings and backed slowly into a narrow tunnel hewn through the rock. Huayta reached behind the gold figurine in a niche above the tomb's entrance and activated the obsidian mechanism. The solid rock door slid soundlessly from the recess in the granite and locked into place. Huayta retraced his steps up the steeply sloping tunnel, extinguishing each oil lamp one by one, until he reached the outer rock door. Huayta waited until the stone slid silently across, sealing the entrance.

Early the next morning, a giant condor circled slowly over the Sacred Valley. Huayta watched from the Inca trail below as the magnificent bird, referred to by the Inca as 'son of the sun', soared effortlessly on the thermals. The condor's massive wings spanned over three metres and its black feathers, flared at the wing tips, glinted in the early morning mists. A ring of white feathers formed a distinctive collar around its neck. Huayta wondered if the appearance of the sacred messenger was another omen. Centuries before, a condor had been attacked by a swarming flock of falcons over the ancient Inca capital of Cusco. The condor had been forced out of the sky and had fallen into the city square where the priests had worked desperately to save it, but to no avail. The priests duly reported to the eleventh Inca king, Huayna Capac, that the loss of the condor was an omen of disastrous times to come. Not long after, the king received reports of light-skinned bearded foreigners landing to the north, carrying strange metal sticks that erupted with fire. The magnificent Inca civilisation would soon be annihilated by the Spaniards.
To Huayta, the modern omens were equally clear. Unprecedented wild weather had battered thousands of cities and towns around the world. In the last decade, hurricanes, cyclones, earthquakes, floods and tsunamis had wreaked deadly havoc. And Huayta knew that even worse death and destruction were coming. In December 2012, the fifth sun of the Inca would come to a close. Each of the previous four ages on the Inca calendar had ended in catastrophe. If the modern world was to avert another cataclysm, Huayta knew there was very little time to change course.
The shaman resumed his climb towards the Puerta del Sol, the Gate of the Sun, pondering a long-hidden artefact of immense power: the Golden Sun Disc of the Inca. Whoever was to discover and interpret the Inca prophecy would, he knew, first have to find the ancient disc. But the disc was well hidden, and fiercely guarded.
In a few days Huayta would turn sixty-seven, but he handled the steep path with ease. The mists had descended into the tropical forest, drifting through the leaves of chalanque, pisonay and tasta trees and enveloping the rocky Inca trail. Huge fern trees, colourful bromeliads, wiñay wayna orchids and pink passionflowers lined the path up to the mountains overlooking the Machu Picchu ruins. A raccoon-like brown coatimundi with a long ringed tail scuttled across the stones. In the queña tree above, a bright red-crested cotinga bird hopped from one branch to another.
Huayta reached the saddle where the ancients had built Intipunku, the defensive gateway to Machu Picchu, and he climbed further up the ridgeline to a quiet rock known only to a few. Above him to the south, the crest of Machu Picchu – the mountain from which the Inca city had taken its name – soared through the clouds. To the Inca, Machu Picchu was the old mountain, or the mountain of experience. Further south, the snow-capped summit of Salcantay towered over the surrounding Andes ranges. To the north, the mists clung to the granite pinnacle of Huayna Picchu, the young mountain, the mountain of learning and apprenticeship. In the ravine below, the sacred Urubamba River tumbled past the base of the cliffs.
Huayta's gaze came back to the ruins. Below him, the terraced agricultural areas gave way to the grassy main square. To the left, Huayta could clearly see the fortifications surrounding the Sacred Plaza, the Principal Temple and the Temple of the Three Windows. A group of university students had gathered in an area beyond the temples and Huayta delved into his shoulder bag, woven in the same diamond pattern as his poncho. He adjusted his binoculars and focused on the leader of the group.

Dr Aleta Weizman was in animated discussion with her students. Her long black hair tumbled over the tanned olive skin of her shoulders, partly covering the fine features of her oval face.
'It's generally accepted by archaeologists that Machu Picchu was built as a royal retreat and sacred centre for Pachacuti, the ninth Sapa Inca, or king,' Aleta explained, sweeping her arm to the west, where far below, the Urubamba River wound through the rainforest on its way to join the mighty Amazon. 'Just imagine!' Aleta's dark eyes sparkled with enthusiasm. 'For centuries there'd been rumours of a mysterious city, built high amongst the clouds in the Andes, never found by the invading Spanish. It was hidden here all that time until a young American adventurer, Hiram Bingham, discovered it in 1911. Now,' she said, her dark eyes still dancing, 'we'll take those granite steps beyond the north wall of the Principal Temple to the highest point of the ruins, the Pyramid of the Sun!'
The brilliant young archaeologist led the way past a polished stone in the shape of the Southern Cross and on towards the entrance to a small, exquisitely constructed sacristy where Inca priests and priestesses had sat to meditate, facing towards the stunning snow-capped peak of the sacred Pumasillo Mountain to the west. She climbed a series of staircases, each step carved from a separate but matching block of granite, the students following.
As she climbed, Aleta briefly reflected on where her life might be headed. Her marriage to Ryan Crosier, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Guatemala City, was in deep trouble, and this trip with her students had come as a welcome relief. But tomorrow, she would have to return and face reality. Soon she was to accompany Ryan on a trip to Washington for a biblical conference in support of Israel. Aleta shuddered. It seemed to her that religion, or at least Ryan's take on it, had all but destroyed their relationship. At least she had managed to keep Weizman as her professional name. Perhaps that was a portent of things to come, but she'd resolved to give her marriage one last try. She put the trip to Washington and the Israel conference out of her mind, and refocused on her charges.
'These beautifully constructed steps are an indication that this peak, the Pyramid of the Sun, was of great importance to the Inca,' Aleta explained as they reached the top. 'This is the space of the Apu, the spirit of the mountains.' She felt a surge of energy pulse through her body. Machu Picchu, she knew, was one of the earth's great energy vortexes: locations where the earth's electromagnetic energy was strongest. It was something Machu Picchu had in common with other sacred places like the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Mount of Olives and Uluru.
'The Inca constructed their buildings and sacred stones to align with the movements of the planets and the sun, and the stone you see in front of you is the famous Intiwatana Stone, or the place to which the sun is tied.' Aleta pointed to a massive granite block carved in the shape of the pinnacle of the Huayna Picchu mountain across the Urubamba Gorge. 'At the equinoxes, the sunrise and the Intiwatana Stone are aligned with the highest peak of the Veronica mountain range in the east. At the winter solstice, the stone and the sunset are aligned with the highest peak in the Pumasillo range, the snow-covered mountains you can see to the west.'
Below the snow line, mists swirled around the towering forests. Aleta shivered. The ruins had not yet yielded all their secrets. Somewhere quite close to Machu Picchu, a dark prophecy lay hidden.

ISBN: 9781921518201
ISBN-10: 1921518200
Audience: General
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Number Of Pages: 480
Published: 25th July 2012
Dimensions (cm): 23.0 x 15.5
Weight (kg): 23.5