The Venus Disc

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.