Child of The Sun God - Plot

Plot

Four heads of state are rendered comatose and paralysed in surprise attacks. The perpetrators' modus operandi is a poison dart fired from a blowpipe – however, such a dart is known to have been used only by the Amaztecs, an extinct civilisation of indigenous South Americans. At WIN Headquarters in London, historian Dr Aston informs Shane Weston that the Amaztecs, originally peaceful, rejected the wisdom of their Sun God, the benign Quetzalcoatl; under the rule of the God of Darkness, Huitzilopochtli, they regressed to the level of savages and practised human sacrifice. Aston reveals that the Amaztecs believed children to be sacred and Weston secretly has his brain impulses recorded and transmitted to the McClaine cottage, whereupon Professor McClaine transfers the expert's knowledge and experience to Joe via the BIG RAT. Although the criminal organisation responsible for the attacks is willing to provide an antidote in exchange for £10 million, Weston has other ideas.

Travelling to Ecuador, the McClaines and Sam Loover and overfly the Andes in search of a temple, which reconnaissance indicates to be the focus of a resurrected Amaztec culture. Parachuting into the rainforest, Joe is kidnapped by hunters, who have received warning from their High Priest that the boy is a threat to the Lord of Evil. Without his mask, the Priest reveals himself to be a leader of the syndicate that is holding the world to ransom; using electronic gadgets to convince the natives of his divinity, he has them produce the dart poison in the name of Huitzilopochtli. Moments before being sacrificed by tribesman Ataka, Joe invokes the right of "trial by entombment" – should he escape the catacombs of a mountain, he will have proven himself to be the "Child of the Sun God". Proctl, an Amaztec elder who yearns for Huitzilopochtli's tyranny to end, reminds the Priest that the killing of a child is unlawful and that Joe "dropped from the Sun" in a manner befitting a man-god.

Suspicious of the boy, but safe in the knowledge that no child has survived the trial, the Priest grants Joe his wish. Once entombed, Joe's position seems hopeless until he stumbles across an underground river. Despite nearly drowning when the caves are flooded by rainfall, Joe makes his way back into the open and rushes back to the temple, arriving just as the Priest declares Proctl banished from the tribal lands for heresy. Proctl declares that Joe is the Child of the Sun God and the boy pursues the fleeing Priest to a cave, where the two operatives trade gunfire before the Priest, forgetting a ravine behind him, loses his balance and falls screaming to his death. Later, the four world leaders are injected with the antidote and make a full recovery, while further evidence uncovered by Joe in the Priest's hideout results in the arrest of everyone else in the criminal organisation. Weston remarks that it must feel wonderful to wake up from a coma but is alarmed when Joe points a loaded blowpipe at him in jest.