The Mystery of the City of Incas: Pen and Quin: International Agents of Intrigue

By KS Mitchell

When Penelope and Quintus Grey Reyes travel to Machu Picchu over Christmas break, they expect plenty of history in the Lost City of the Incas, but they get a mystery instead. A Peruvian
girl, Mayra, asks the twins to help solve the disappearance of her great-uncle nearly 100 years ago - a great-uncle who just happened to guide explorer Hiram Bingham to Machu Picchu for the first time in 1911.

As the twins trace the footsteps of the missing man, they learn not everyone wants this mystery solved. Meanwhile, their grandfather is arrested for returning ancient artifacts to Machu Picchu that are found to be fake, and Pen and Quin are certain this new mystery is connected to their own.

When Supay, the Inca god of death, appears on a doorway, the twins wonder if they should abandon the mystery, but their search leads them on a twisting train ride back to Machu Picchu
that nearly brings an end to their search and their lives.

When the trail leads to a nearby mountain and a dangerous path, the twins are close to solving both cases, but can they finish the case or will they also disappear in the City of Incas?

• Language: English
• Publisher: vinspirepublishing
• Release date: Nov 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215214244

Book preview

The Mystery of the City of Incas

When Penelope and Quintus Grey Reyes travel to Machu Picchu over Christmas break, they expect plenty of history in the Lost City of the Incas, but they get a mystery instead. A Peruviangirl, Mayra, asks the twins to help solve the disappearance of her great-uncle nearly 100 years ago - a great-uncle who just happened to guide explorer Hiram Bingham to Machu Picchu for the first time in 1911.

As the twins trace the footsteps of the missing man, they learn not everyone wants this mystery solved. Meanwhile, their grandfather is arrested for returning ancient artifacts to Machu Picchu that are found to be fake, and Pen and Quin are certain this new mystery is connected to their own.

When Supay, the Inca god of death, appears on a doorway, the twins wonder if they should abandon the mystery, but their search leads them on a twisting train ride back to Machu Picchuthat nearly brings an end to their search and their lives.

When the trail leads to a nearby mountain and a dangerous path, the twins are close to solving both cases, but can they finish the case or will they also disappear in the City of Incas?

Pen and Quin: International Agents of Intrigue

The Mystery of the City of Incas

KS Mitchell

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Copyright

Copyright ©2023 Kimberly Mitchell

Cover copyright © 2023 Elaina Lee/For the Muse Designs

Formatting and Interior Design by Woven Red Author Services

First Edition

Printed and bound in the United States of America. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system-except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine, newspaper, or on the Web-without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, please contact Vinspire Publishing, LLC, 107 Clearview Circle, Goose Creek, SC 29445

All characters in this work are purely fictional and have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

ISBN: 979-8-9880122-5-2

Dedication

For my girls, Abigayle and Allyson. May you have many adventures together and always have each other’s backs.

1

The train whistled long and low as it rounded another curve on the tracks. Quin leaned over and pressed his nose to the window to catch the view, one so incredible he thought about pinching himself to see if he was dreaming. The Urubamba River ran parallel to the train tracks, its water reflecting the green mountains that rose steeply on either side of the river.

Quin couldn’t believe only two days ago he’d been home in Boston celebrating Christmas while falling snow laid a soft blanket of white over the Grey Reyes manor that sat on a hilltop overlooking the city. He loved Christmas, and he loved snow, but when Abuela and Abuelito surprised Quin, his twin sister Pen, and their older brother Archie with a trip to Peru during the Christmas school break, the three siblings had jumped at the chance to go.

Pen looked up from her laptop in the seat across from Quin. She grinned at him and set the laptop down to join him at the window. Can you believe how green these mountains are? It feels like we’re in the middle of a jungle. I keep expecting to see monkeys.

Quin laughed. More like alpacas, but I know what you mean. I’ve never seen mountains like this, so tall but covered in trees. He scanned the hills across from the train for any sign of alpacas or llamas. The animals were common in Peru, and they had already seen some before boarding the train. A vendor at the train station in Cusco sold Quin a pair of woolly red socks with tiny black alpacas stitched in them. Quin thought they would be great to wear when he got back to Boston, where the old wooden floors in the Grey Reyes manor never seemed to warm up.

It feels so strange, Pen said, leaving the window and plopping back down in her seat. A few days ago, we were opening Christmas gifts and building a snowman, and today we’re on our way to an ancient Incan site. Did you know Machu Picchu was named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in 2007?

Wow, someone’s been on the internet. I thought Quin was the studious one.

Archie slid into the empty seat opposite the twins and tossed bags of peanuts at them. He handed out sodas and asked, What else did Google teach you, Penhead?

Pen rolled her eyes and pushed her straight black hair out of her face. I’m not going to tell you if you’re just going to make fun of me. And my grades are just as good as Quin’s. Almost.

Quin snorted but decided not to answer that. Pen was smart, but she didn’t always see the point in studying when all the information she might need was at her fingertips. She carried her laptop and smartphone everywhere. Archie sat next to Pen and leaned in to see what she was reading on her computer. His hair, as black as Pen’s, landed in wavy curls around his ears and reminded Quin how similar his twin sister and big brother were. If Archie weren’t five years older than Pen, people would mistake the two of them for the twins. Quin pushed his own brown hair out of his eyes and adjusted his glasses. Lately, he’d felt strange about how different he was from Pen and Archie. If he and Pen weren’t twins, and if he didn’t have his mother’s dark brown eyes or his father’s nearsightedness, he would have wondered if he were adopted.

Do you think Abuelito’s handed over all the artifacts yet?

He asked the question out loud to take his mind off his inner thoughts. It was Christmas break, and he was in Peru on his way to see Machu Picchu. This wasn’t the time to feel mopey and wonder how he fit into his own family.

Pen picked up her phone and checked the time. The ceremony doesn’t start until lunchtime. It’s only ten. She yawned. They’d caught the train from the station in Cusco around seven that morning.

Quin nodded. Right. I forgot. What do you think Abuelito will say? Sorry for stealing your artifacts and keeping them for so long?

He didn’t steal them. The explorers did. Abuelito’s doing the right thing returning all the artifacts to Peru, Pen said.

Quin nodded. I didn’t mean he stole them. I just meant it seems awkward.

Pen shrugged and nodded. Yeah, maybe that’s why he and Abuela sent us off to Machu Picchu. That and the boring ceremony they have to attend. I’m glad we’re not there.

Quin agreed with his twin, but he still felt bad for Abuelito. His grandfather was the director of the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City. As museum director, he’d decided to return some Incan artifacts in the museum to the government of Peru. When the twins asked him why over the Grey Reyes traditional Christmas dinner of turkey and tamales, he smiled sadly. I couldn’t verify that these artifacts weren’t stolen before they came to the museum. It’s not right to keep someone else’s historic artifacts, especially when the conquistadores took so much away from our lands.

The return of these artifacts was the reason Abuela and Abuelito were traveling over the holidays. They had decided to take their grandchildren, so the twins and Archie had the chance to see Machu Picchu, even though their grandparents had already visited the site years ago. So, while Abuelito apologized on behalf of the museum and handed the artifacts back in a solemn ceremony in Lima, Peru’s capital city, the twins and Archie wound their way through the Andes on a train to see what some people called The Lost City.

Quin didn’t realize he’d mumbled the words The Lost City out loud, but Pen looked up from her screen and asked, Did you know Machu Picchu was never really lost? The Incas knew it was there the whole time. It was just the explorers that didn’t.

Quin nodded. He’d read the same websites as Pen, the ones detailing how Machu Picchu was so well hidden in the mountains that it wasn’t discovered until American explorer Hiram Bingham found it on an expedition in 1911.

Hey, I’ll be back, Archie said, hopping up and slipping his phone into his pocket. We should be there soon. Think I’ll use the bathroom. He left the compartment and Quin shook his head and caught his twin’s eye. More like call his latest girlfriend before we lose cell phone service.

Pen giggled. Wonder who the lucky girl is this time. Their 18-year-old brother studied at MIT, but he seemed to spend most of his spare time dating.

Speaking of cell phone service, I haven’t gotten even one text from the message I posted on our website. Pen had created a website over the summer to advertise their services as international investigators. Before leaving Boston, she’d posted that the twins were accepting inquiries in Peru.

Quin groaned. Can’t we just have a vacation for once? We just solved a mystery at Thanksgiving. Besides, we’re going to Machu Picchu. Isn’t it one of the most remote places on Earth?

Pen laughed. Maybe it was remote before Hiram Bingham followed his guide there over a hundred years ago. It’s definitely not now. Millions of people visit Machu Picchu every year.

Quin looked out the window at the tall green mountains, some so high he had to duck his head and look up to see their peaks. Feels remote to me. But seriously, Pen, let’s just have some fun this trip. No mysteries.

You don’t have to worry about that, Pen said. Nobody’s contacted us.

Good. Quin sat back in his chair, relieved, as the first buildings of their stop came into view. The Lost City of the Incas is enough of a mystery for us.

2

The train rolled slowly into Aguas Calientes, the small town at the foot of Machu Picchu. Brightly painted buildings two and three stories high sat on each side of the tracks, shattering the image in Pen’s mind of a small village mimicking Machu Picchu tucked into the hillside. Aguas Calientes may have been small one hundred years ago, but now it was Machu Picchu Town and buzzed with tourists, restaurants, hotels, and plenty of Wi-Fi.

The train stopped in front of Machu Picchu Station, sandwiched between the buildings with green hills directly behind it. Pen, Quin, and Archie stepped off into a crowd of other passengers and those greeting the train. Many people held signs with names on them, probably tour guides meeting organized groups. Local vendors held out their wares, including wooly alpaca socks and sweaters and traditional Peruvian blankets. Pen stopped to admire the bright colors of one blanket. Es de alpaca, the seller said. Made here in Aguas Calientes. It was a girl maybe a few years older than Pen dressed in the bright, traditional clothes of the Incas. Her hair was the same color as Pen’s but neatly braided into twin braids.

It’s beautiful. Pen slid her hand across the fuzzy alpaca wool. Maybe after the hike? She pointed toward the mountains.

The girl nodded. Estoy aquí.

Archie smiled at Pen and the girl. We should find the bus. The seventh wonder of the world awaits.

New wonder, Pen said. Why are you smiling? She loved Archie, but he teased her so much she sometimes felt self-conscious. In fact, she felt that way a lot lately, wondering what the other kids at school thought about the way she wore her hair straight and long, or if they cared that she and Quin had solved several mysteries, or if they thought it was weird, she was best friends with her twin brother.

It’s nada, Archie said. It’s just, you did exactly what Mamá would do. She’d stop and admire the blanket and promise to come back.

Well, I will, Pen said, suddenly annoyed at the comparison. Their mother was a world-renowned archaeologist, and Pen adored her, but she didn’t think she and Mamá were similar at all. For one thing, Mamá did not approve of Pen and Quin’s sleuthing. There are enough mysteries in history, she always said, laughing at the rhyme. Let’s leave the dangerous ones to the police.

Pen wondered what her mother and father were doing right now. The invitation to Peru hadn’t included them, and Adam and Maria Grey Reyes didn’t seem upset, which meant her parents and abuelos had already had a secret conversation before Christmas and agreed to send the kids on the trip.

What will you do without us for a week? Pen had asked as they got ready to head to the airport.

Whatever we want, just like before you kids were born, her father said. Then he’d reached down to the snowy ground and pressed snow quickly into a ball before tossing it at his wife. She shrieked and batted it away. Pen rolled her eyes and got into the taxi with her brothers and grandparents. Parents are weird. It also bothered her that her parents didn’t seem to mind that their children were going away for the week.

The bus station was a short walk away and they followed the crowd to it, pushing past other vendors who held out woven shirts, blankets, socks, and trinkets to the tourists. Pen looked back at the girl with the blanket. She was handing a blanket to someone and accepting money. Her cheeks were rosy, and she caught Pen’s stare and smiled. Pen half waved to the girl and turned to the bus. Maybe she’d try her hair in braids like the girl.

The bus rumbled away from the village and up a curvy mountain road. Quin had the window seat, but Pen still had a good view of the green mountains as the bus wound back and forth up the mountain. Thirty minutes later, the bus stopped at the top of the mountain.

Entradas, the bus driver called out. Tickets.

The tourists filed off and Pen dug into her backpack and grabbed her phone. She pulled up their tickets so they could be scanned. Abuelo had helped her purchase these online. When Abuela and I first visited in 1977, we had to pick up our paper tickets at the tourism office, he said and laughed. Ah, como cambia el mundo.

Pen wished Abuelito had come with them. Normally, she loved having adventures with just her twin alongside her, but she bet Abuelito had a lot to say about Machu Picchu. She looked up to get her first good look at the ancient site, but a low mist obscured most of the mountain.

Good thing we came today, a man ahead of her said. It’s supposed to rain the rest of the week.

Pen, Quin, and Archie started walking up the road with the rest of the crowd. The road quickly changed into steep stone steps, and as they ascended, Pen glanced at the green mountains around them. It was cloudy and cool, and the hovering mist gave the site a spooky, otherworldly appearance. Through it, she caught glimpses of gray stone walls and the points of green mountains all around.

The Grey Reyes siblings reached a long, rectangular stretch of grass. One side of the rectangle dropped steeply into the valley and the other had a stone wall just a little taller than Pen. Above them, she could see another rectangle and another like a giant staircase for a god to step up to reach Machu Picchu.

The agricultural terraces,