The Vivero Letter

The Vivero Letter
Desmond Bagley

Action thriller by the classic adventure writer set in South America.Jeremy Wheale’s well-ordered life is blasted apart when his brother is murdered. The killer was after a family heirloom – an antique gold tray – which sets Wheale on a trail from Devon to the tropical rainforest of Yucatan. There he joins the hunt for a lost Mayan city. But in the dense cover of the jungle a band of vicious convict mercenaries are waiting to strike…

DESMOND BAGLEY

The Vivero Letter

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_51aa750f-8ed5-50ad-90fa-163819e793a5)

Harper an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by Collins 1968

Copyright © Brockhurst Publications 1968

Cover layout design Richard Augustus © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2017

Desmond Bagley asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008211172

Ebook Edition © April 2017 ISBN: 9780008211189

Version: 2017-03-13

CONTENTS

Cover (#uad83112b-3105-5ac3-92aa-8f341ea72808)

Title Page (#ufd74eae9-6bac-5c40-9b9d-b2cbc9b5eab4)

Copyright (#uabc3701c-266b-5b68-94b9-72c730d2f956)

The Vivero Letter (#u63fae4ba-ffad-58f2-b817-f6c8d7940cbe)

Dedication (#u114e33da-d285-521e-9c4d-517b59eb0dda)

Acknowledgements (#ue7ed11c3-c34c-56dd-9fb6-1212a26a0eec)

Chapter One (#udc8d9fdf-d7bc-574d-9e8c-74312c3c9a44)

Chapter Two (#ua801b03b-3ead-537c-b3e0-325efcf271d3)

Chapter Three (#uc41cda10-5938-5118-9791-d43b84c2a6f8)

Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Postscript (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

By the Same Author (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

THE VIVERO LETTER (#ulink_fbdad47e-7f8e-55e6-a4c1-f6e2b4796ae7)

DEDICATION (#ulink_97309152-5621-5f0b-9778-b67c43f70e87)

To that stalwart institution the British pub, particularly the Kingsbridge Inn, Totnes, and the Cott Inn, Dartington

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (#ulink_001e9750-fd83-5089-adec-1bf9c0bafa65)

I would like to thank Captain T. A. Hampton of the British Underwater Centre, Dartmouth, for detailed information about diving techniques.

My thanks also go to Gerard L’E. Turner, Assistant Curator of the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, for information on certain bronze mirrors, Amida’s Mirror in particular.

Theirs the credit for accuracy; mine the fault for inaccuracy.

ONE (#ulink_17443000-2bd7-51c5-a201-42f5c7354f4c)

I made good time on the way to the West Country; the road was clear and there was only an occasional car coming in the other direction to blind me with headlights. Outside Honiton I pulled off the road, killed the engine and lit a cigarette. I didn’t want to arrive at the farm at an indecently early hour, and besides, I had things to think about.

They say that eavesdroppers never hear good of themselves. It’s a dubious proposition from the logical standpoint, but I certainly hadn’t disproved it empirically. Not that I had intended to eavesdrop – it was one of those accidental things you get yourself into with no graceful exit – so I just stood and listened and heard things said about myself that I would rather not have heard.