Less than ten miles away, Michael Patton and his assistant, Jorge Lopez,
were setting up their camp just south of a trail leading to Uaxactun.
     Michael Patton began writing a letter to his good friend Leo Goodman:

     "Ever since late August when Jorge came back to camp and told me that
Watkins had murdered Raul for not killing me - I have scarcely dared to move
from my hiding spot.  Because I have no way of knowing which of the
researchers are in Watkins' pay,  I can't risk showing myself to anyone.  I
will not return to Tikal until I can be sure that whatever happens to me, you
will know all the clues I now have as to the location of the lost Jaguar
City.  Perhaps you could get there before Watkins.
     By my calculations, the date on the new Stela fragment from near Temple
IV records the eighth Katun anniversary of the earlier date 9.9.14.12.4 9 Kan
17 Ceh.
     That very date, 9 Kan 17 Ceh, appears on the jade jaguar pendant.
     Now this date, Leo, deals with a Venus event.  I believe that on that
date, 9.9.14.12.4,  which I equate to be October 28 A.D. 627, Venus rose in a
line made by the location of the Jaguar City - itself recorded on both the
pendant and the Stela fragment by the glyphs.  In order to firmly establish
that alignment, a third point is necessary.  The third point is none other
than Temple IV at Tikal.
      As you know, the temple was built some 160 years after A.D. 627, but
the Venus event is recorded on the later Stela.  So, the Maya must have
remembered the event and re-marked it with that Stela.
     There's more proof:  if you recall the Stela fragment in Maler's
photograph in the Peabody Museum catalog,  there is a "count forward" test
with an interval of 3.0.10.14.0 or 435, 880 days.  If you take my fragment
date and add 435,880 days to it, you arrive at 12.18.5.8.4 which equates to
December 4, 2002.  A 'cracked earth' event is predicted for that day, which
of course, is tomorrow.  Soon, we will know how good the Maya were at
predicting.
     I must be at the temple tomorrow to make the critical sighting.  As soon
as I take the sighting, I plan to leave the Petan by a secret route that
Jorge and I have arranged with Clarence Macomber.  No matter what happens to
me, I know that Jorge will deliver this message.  Please see that he is well
rewarded."

     Michael read the letter aloud to check for mistakes and then sealed it
in an envelope and gave it to Jorge, who placed it in his shirt.  Neither of
the men noticed the chiclero crouched in a nearby tree.

     Tamika felt fuzzy as she awoke.  She vaguely remembered Manuel had
injected them with something before she faded into unconsciousness.
     She sat up now and looked over at Declan.  He had tried to fight and
ended up with a bluish-black bruise on his forehead.  Tamika reached forward
to stroke the spot and he slowly woke from unconsciousness.  He immediately
sat up and looked around.
     "Where the hell are we?"  he asked.
     "I think we're in the temple - Temple IV to be exact.   By the way,  we
have a friend over there."
    They didn't know it, but they were looking at the badly decomposing body of
Raul UC.
     "My guess is that he starved to death."  She looked away in disgust as
she realized that she was hungry.
     Declan was up looking for a way out; although, he knew that there
wouldn't be one.
     "We're stuck in here, aren't we?"  She knew that he had been trying to
spare her feelings.