The Axel Files: The Pakal Robbery
The Theft of The Century - “El Robo del Siglo”
On Christmas Eve, 1984, two Mexican veterinarian dropouts broke into the Museo Nacional del Antropologia. They stole over one hundred ancient Mayan treasures found in the tomb of K’inich Janaab’ Pakal, a discovery that rivals Tutankhamun in beauty, wealth, and cultural significance. The burglary became known as the El Robo del Siglo: The Theft of the Century.
The authorities’ incompetence and corruption led to the case going cold. The Museum didn’t even know how many artifacts were stolen. Four years later, the apprehension of an Acapulco drug dealer leads the police to arrest several suspects, including one of the thieves. Most of the relics were recovered, but not all. It is believed the second thief, who disappeared shortly after the robbery, escaped with the remaining treasures.
For forty years, nothing new was discovered about the second thief or the missing King Pakal relics. Until Gabriela Flores, a Mexican author living in Toronto, pitches a book about Mayan civilization to a local literary agent, Anthony Brizzi. In her meeting with Brizzi, Gabriela notices a glass display that houses what Gabriela believes are some of the missing artifacts from the Pakal Robbery. Gabriela is the niece of former Federal Police Subinspector Benito Pérez, a friend of Toronto private investigator Axel Webb. Gabriela hires Axel with her Uncle’s help to discover if the items in the literary agent’s glass display case are the missing Mayan treasures.
Before Axel can even get started, the literary agent is murdered. And the items in the glass display case go missing. The more Axel investigates, the darker and more dangerous the case gets with the additional murders of Gabriela and a mysterious man known as El Agente. Axel travels from Toronto to Ensenada, Mexico and Spain, searching for who killed his friend’s niece. Everything depends on finding the second thief and the missing Mayan treasures.
Genre: FICTION / Mystery & Detective / HistoricalChristmas Eve dinner at the Soto home is like every other Nochebuena. The family celebrates by enjoying a feast of enchiladas, tacos, flautas, empanadas, rice, and pozole. Laughter, excitement, and anticipation fill the house, except for Dante, who seems unusually preoccupied. Dante waits for everyone to go to sleep. He lies on his bed, fully clothed, waiting for time to pass. Dante turns his head and looks: the digital clock on the bedside table flips to 2:00 a.m. He gets up and quietly sneaks out of the house, not wanting to disturb his upper-middle-class family.
His friend and accomplice, Fernando Romero, is waiting with the engine running in a VW van. Dante gets in and looks in the back. There are no fancy second-story break-in gadgets, burglary tools, or explosives, just two large canvas bags and a screwdriver.
They arrive at the Museo Nacional del Antropologia, park the van, and hop the fence to the museum grounds. They use the screwdriver to take the cover off the air conditioning duct system. They crawl through the museum ducts until they get to the Sala Maya and the adjoining exhibit halls that house the vast collection of artifacts found in K’inich Janaab’ Pakal’s tomb. Soto and Romero did their homework. The museum has no electronic or video surveillance. Because it’s Christmas Eve, there are only nine guards on duty, but instead of checking each display room every hour like they are supposed to, they spend their time drinking in the break room.
The seven glass cases covering the relics are heavy but unsecured. Soto and Romero have no trouble removing the covers and stuffing the artifacts into the two canvas bags they brought. Amongst the treasures they steal are Pakal’s priceless jade mosaic funerary mask and a magnificent jade Zapotec Bat God Mask.
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Portuguese
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Already translated.
Translated by ANDRE DIOGO WEBER 2
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Spanish
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Already translated.
Translated by Antonio de Torre
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Author review: Antonio always does an excellent job. I recommend Antonio to anyone who needs a translation. - Jerry Bader, Author, Screenwriter |
