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Chapter 17

They arrived in Cusco after dark, courtesy of Rachel’s private plane The capital city of the Incan Empire was a study in red-brick Spanish architecture, built on grey Incan stone foundations At night, it was lit up in gold, the streets filled with tourists and locals, the

Julia pulled her cardigan tight around her as she stood on the balcony overlooking the courtyard of their hotel The building was over five hundred years old and used to be a monastery The sandstone walls, with its red tile roof so ubiquitous in Cusco, had been built on top of the foundations of an Incan palace Socompared to the rest of the city They were in the centre of a cultural capital, the belly button of the Incan world, the staging post of Spanish domination and now a must-see destination for the international traveller All that history; all those expectations froht of living there

“Take another photo of that piece”

Her grand room area of their s over thephotos and scanning the infores in randmother had time to decode while they’d been in La Paz was their next destination—Cusco Now the rest of the textiles had to be translated And fast Ti out for Alice

“Hey,” Ryan, their current bodyguard, interrupted the busy woo down for dinner or order in?”

“In!” the tomen shouted

They’d flown through dinnertih Julia still didn’t have much of an appetite Mainly, she was exhausted She looked at the twin beds behind her with longing Their soft, cool cotton sheets were calling to her But with only a balcony rail between the bedroo area below it, there was no way she could get any sleep

“Julia,” Ryan called “What do you want to eat?”

Another problem—she hadn’t checked out the kitchens and wasn’t sure if their standards met hers She was just too tired

“Nothing,” she answered as she looked out over the flickering lights of the city to the darkness beyond, where she knew green hills surrounded the to take a walk down to the hotel chapel I’ll pick up so on the way”

“Stay inside the hotel Don’t wander” He thought about it for a second “Maybe I should go with you”

“It’s just down there” Julia pointed “You can watch me from here”

“Okay, but if anything spooks you, coht back”

Julia let herself out of their roo down to the corner where the chapel was situated