As powerful as it is
mysterious, the Venus Disc with its golden chain, not only cures sickness
throughout the village, but heals injury and prevents aging in its lord.
Manipulating the disc triggers transference to Xibalba, and thus, a vanishing:
invisibility in the earthly world.
Needing a ruler for their
Yucatan village of Witz Balam, the ancestors attract a wanderer who is on a
vision quest. They select him as first Lord of the Disc and name him King Smoke
Jaguar. Virtually immortal, the king rules for centuries until disaster
strikes, leaving him and his priests and nobles, crushed, trapped, buried at
the foot of the great temple pyramid.
After a millennium, an
illegal drug processing operation takes over the site. With the only access by
small plane, pilots are hired. Carter Boyle is one of them. He is a likable
rogue of dubious values, but gets caught in a betrayal and is locked up at the
ruins. Though wounded and miserable, he gets lucky. In an escape attempt, he
uncovers a subterranean passage under the floor of his cell. Exploring the
passage, he stumbles onto the ancient—yet still living—King Smoke Jaguar.
Spotting the Venus Disc and seeing only gold, Boyle rips it free and throws it
around his neck—not realizing that in doing so, he becomes its new lord. After
a vicious fall down the passage's damp steps, the disc's healing magic saves him
from certain death. He soon learns its invisibility trick along with the often
horrifying consequences of manipulating it.
While it is true the Venus
Disc wards off death, it also enhances the traits of its lord. In an
enlightened king, that can be extraordinary. Not so with Boyle. The ancient
artifact reinforces his corrupt moral code and enables him to become a silent,
unseen killer bent on revenge.
Eventually, Boyle faces off
against protagonist Hector Perez, Smoke Jaguar's 24-times great grandson and
now the disc’s rightful owner. When Hector learns he is heir to an ancient
throne, he fights to claim the disc and rebuild Witz Balam, which has since
become the archeological dig of the century.