Time Trial

During an Olmec ritual, a high priest sacrifices six captured beings he regards as gods. In the present-day frame, Remo and Chiun rescue an Edwards test pilot who later identifies himself as Mike Cooligan, then Smith sends them to investigate archaeologist Richard Diehl’s report of laser weapons in Guatemala. They meet missionary Sebastian Birdsong, are drugged by white flowers, and encounter the injured boy who names himself Po. At the Temple of Magic they free Elizabeth Drake and discover a spacecraft with a time module. During a later earthquake Remo strikes a control switch, carrying the group into Yaxbenhaltun’s past. Captain Kurt Cooligan’s crew had crashed there in 3114 B.C.; Remo, Chiun and Drake arrive about ten years after that event, when the king mistakes them for the return of Kukulcan.

Po is identified as the prophetic voice, and stops the priest Quintanodan from sacrificing Nata-Ah. The king recounts Cooligan’s earlier help to the city. Cooligan’s log confirms the 3114 B.C. crash and describes the crew’s later decision to aid the Maya. Quintanodan, an Olmec, strangles the king and steals six laser weapons before the Olmec attack the city. Remo and Chiun fight the attackers; Drake is taken through the flower fields, then rescued by Remo, who finds Cooligan’s remains. During a later battle, laser fire damages Bocatan until it erupts. Quintanodan dies in the volcano, and an earthquake devastates Yaxbenhaltun. Lizzie sends a vase through the module as a test but remains in the ancient world; after helping villagers, she joins Remo and Chiun through another tremor.

The three return to the present while Po remains with Nata-Ah. Smith dismisses their account when the surviving physical evidence fails. At Folcroft, the opening test pilot identifies himself as Mike Cooligan and says his newborn son Kurt is named after his father, hinting at a circular Cooligan family history. A newspaper epilogue reports Po and Nata-Ah’s tomb and statues resembling the travelers.