by R. D. Brady
Bullets whipped through the air around her. One grazed her thigh. The sting made her flinch, but she held on.
She looked ahead. Oh crap. I’m too low.
Slamming into the boardwalk with a grunt, she grabbed on to the planks, sucking in a breath. That’s going to leave a mark.
The kids ran to her. They grabbed onto her arm, trying to pull her up.
Laney shook her head. “No. Just grab the rope.”
Eddie held onto the rope and Laney climbed up. She lay down of the boardwalk, trying to get her breathing under control.
“Laney?” Elena asked from above her.
She sat up. “I’m fine, sweetheart.” She took the rope from Eddie. “Thanks.”
He gave her an abrupt nod.
Laney felt heat from behind her. One side of the hut was engulfed in flames and spreading quickly. She’d planned on taking them over one at a time but there wasn’t going to be time for that.
Maybe I can lower them down from here. She peered over the edge. The rope fell short by about thirty feet. Too long a drop for the kids.
“Of course. Why would this be easy?” she muttered.
She pasted a smile on her face, hoping the kids couldn’t see her pulse beating away like a majorette. “Okay. So, we’re going to take a little swing.”
“Laney?” Elena asked, her voice catching.
Laney put an arm around her. “It’ll be okay.” She spied the other rope, swinging only four feet away. She looked around for a pole or something to pull it in. "Eddie, do you have any kind of hook we can use to pull that rope in?"
He nodded, dashing into the hut. He returned seconds later with a boomerang.
“That'll work." She took it from him. "You two hold onto my hand, okay?"
They grabbed on and Laney leaned out, stretching the boomerang towards the rope. She hooked it on her second try.
"Pull me back," she said. They yanked on her arm. When she was steady on the boardwalk, she gripped the rope, blowing out a breath.
She tossed the boomerang back into the hut, and turned to Eddie. Spying some rope hanging from the doorway, she grabbed it, splitting it in two.
She looked at Eddie. "I 'm going to wrap this around you and you're going to swing over to Jen. Can you do that?"
He scoffed. "I am a Guardian. Of course I can."
She smiled at his bravado, but the tremor that ran through his body told her the real story. He was terrified.
She looped the rope around his shoulders, securing it in case his hands slipped. She knelt down, taking him by the shoulders, looking into his eyes. "I'll follow you with Elena. You show us how it's done. I'll count you down."
He swallowed hard but stepped to the edge.
Laney squeezed his shoulder, then stepped back. "One, two, three, go!"
Eddie jumped, and Laney’s stomach leaped into her throat. He sailed across the space, his body aimed right for Jen. Time seemed to slow. Finally, Jen reached out and grabbed him, the two of them falling to the planks.
Laney released her breath. One down, one to go. She turned to Elena. "Okay, little queen, our turn."
Her face unnaturally pale, Elena nodded but didn't say anything. Laney took the other half of the rope she'd cut and secured Elena to the rope. She glanced back at the hut, the fire crept over the wall they stood in front of.
The center of the hut groaned. Laney knew it was about to collapse, sending flaming projectiles at everything around it.
“Grab on now,” she yelled, wrapping her arms around the rope.
Elena leapt on her, her legs around her waist, her arms around her neck and shoulders.
Laney stumbled under the weight. Oh God, please help, she prayed as she straightened.
With a deep breath, she backed up as much as she could. With a run, she plunged from their perch, driving her legs towards Jen. Elena screamed and tightened her grip.
Aiming towards the other hut, Laney strained to keep her legs up. She closed her eyes, her arms aching, her hands burning.
Her fingertips began to pull free. No! she screamed silently, willing herself to hold on.
It seemed like forever. She knew she couldn’t last much longer.
Just as she knew they weren’t going to make it, she felt hands on her calf. Her eyes flew open and she looked down into Julian’s face. He was stretched out his full height, two tribesmen holding him to the platform. He reeled them in, as Jen continued to take shots at the armed men below.
Julian pulled them onto the boardwalk. Laney sagged against the hut as he pulled Elena off of her. Elena threw her arms around her grandfather, sobbing.
Laney bent her head, breathing deep, willing her legs to work, and her stomach to return to its normal position.
Jen placed her hand on her shoulder. “Tarzan’s got nothing on you.”
Laney knew her grin was wobbly as she tried to keep the emotions at bay. “Told you.”
Jen hauled her up with her good arm. “We need to move.”
“Okay. How?”
Jen pointed to a rope that had been attached to one of the railings. “Down.”
"Oh good, more ropes.”
Peering over the edge, the battle below glared back at her. Tribesmen and camouflaged men were locked in a deadly battle. Most were gunfights, but a few had devolved into hand-to-hand combat.
The tribesmen used the forest to their advantage. They disappeared behind trees only to reappear above an attacker, leading men towards unseen traps in the forest floor. The Shuar might be outgunned, but they were doing an amazing job in spite of those odds.
A flash of movement at the outskirts of the battle caught her attention. She squinted trying to make out the figure. "Jen, over there." She pointed.
Disgust peppered Jen's voice. "Warren."
Warren darted his head out, taking in the battle, before ducking back again. He wasn't even fighting. Just hiding, waiting for it to be over. Coward.
Jen tapped her on the shoulder, drawing her attention back. "No time for him now. He'll have to wait."
Laney nodded. Jen was right. One of the tribesmen was already climbing down, Eddie on his back.
Julian gestured for Laney to go.
She shook her lead. “Elena and Jen first.”
He didn’t argue, just leaped onto the rope, Elena on his back. Jen followed right behind him. Jen pursed her lips as she made her way down. Laney worried her wounded arm might be too weak for the climb. But Jen made it down without a problem.
The last tribesmen tapped Laney on the shoulder, nodding towards the rope. She grabbed the equipment backpack and quickly climbed over the side. Lowering herself to the ground, her arms felt almost numb. Laney dropped the last few feet.
Jen stood hidden by some trees at the base of the rope, covering her descent. As Laney’s feet hit the ground, Jen yelled out. “Laney!”
Laney whirled around in time to see a gunman line her up in his crosshairs.
CHAPTER 25
Laney went to dive out of the way, but Jen tackled her faster. The forest floor next to her was chewed up by gunfire. Jen rolled Laney away from the carnage. Laney sat up, pulling her gun as soon as they stopped.
The gunfire had cut off, at least the gunfire aimed directly at them. She followed the trail of the bullets with her eyes. A camouflaged man sat against a tree, a knife sticking from his throat.
Laney got to her feet. "Thanks."
Jen nodded, her face pale.
"Oh, no. Your arm. Are you okay?"
"I'm good."
Laney nodded, knowing Jen wasn't telling her the truth. But there wasn't much she could do about it now, anyway.
The remaining tribesman jumped to the ground next to them. Gesturing for them to follow him, he disappeared into the trees. Jen sprinted after him, Laney on her heels.
Out of the corner of Laney’s eye she saw what could only be described as a behemoth. The man was over six-foot-five. He had a military haircut, and a wicked scar ran from the corner of his eye a
lmost to the tip of his mouth. The man picked up a tribesmen above his head and threw him against a tree.
For just a second, her eyes met his. The violence, the predatory look on his face, set her trembling. Her legs became weak. Everything about the man screamed in charge and powerful. She struggled to shove the image of him from her mind as she ran, but he stayed, lurking at the edges.
Heart pounding, she followed Jen and the tribesman deeper into the forest. Sprinting full out, she could just make out other members of the tribe ahead of them. At one point, Laney tripped over a log and the tribesman behind her grabbed her before she could hit the ground. There was no time to do more than nod her thanks.
Hours later, Laney wasn’t sure how many, they reached a river and began to follow it up stream. She was surprised by the choice. The ground was soft, their foot prints clear. In fact, they were following a trail led by other people passing this way. What was Julian's plan? They were leaving an obvious trail.
During the attack, Laney had focused on doing what needed to be done, but now the adrenaline was long gone. The horror of the last day was seeping in. And the image of the man she'd seen came back full force. He was powerful; maybe not superhuman, but powerful. And he was after them. It was easier to think they would succeed when the enemy was faceless, or better yet, Warren. But that man had been no weakling.
Jen dropped back to jog with her. “Who the hell are those guys?”
Laney shook her head, trying to clear it. “I don’t know. But they’re not South American. So far, I’ve heard two Jersey accents and one Southern. This group’s from the States.”
“You know the guy in the ridiculous safari outfit?”
Laney pictured the Safari's R' Us man. He hadn't been at the battle. “Yeah. What about him?”
“There was something familiar about him, but I couldn’t place him. I realized a little while ago who he is. Dr. Brandon Deveraux, III.”
“Why do I know that name?”
“Probably because it’s emblazoned across every introduction to archaeology text in the States.”
“Holy crap!" A picture of the intro text she'd had back in undergrad slipped into her mind. "That’s right. Why’s he here? He’s an armchair academic.”
Dr. Brandon Deveraux was known for writing all his texts without leaving the comfort of his office. In fact, Laney would be shocked if he’d ever been in the field.
Jen nodded. “There’ve been some rumblings about how he’s resistant to some of the newer discoveries. Alternate archaeologists have really been pushing hard lately to get older sites included in our understanding of civilization's development. Your uncle’s work, for example, is really making people reconsider what we think we ‘know’ about civilization's development.”
“And that means all the textbooks will have to be rewritten.”
Laney knew that in academia, textbooks were where the money was made. An introductory textbook could easily cost a student $150. If a textbook was the gold standard in the field, then all intro courses would employ it, which meant the author would make millions. And once too many old copies were floating around, a new edition came out. It was an absolute gravy train.
Jen continued. “But if these new discoveries are incorporated into our history, an alternate timeline will have to be accepted. And Deveraux won’t be writing those texts.”
“I get that. But it still doesn’t explain why he’s here. What does he hope to accomplish?”
Jen dropped her voice. “The cave of Etsu Nantu. If it’s what we think it is, it’s the complete history of a technologically advanced pre-historic civilization. And if he gets there first, he gets to write that history. He'll be in high demand everywhere.”
Laney looked at Elena sleeping in the arms of her grandfather ahead of them, as a chill stole over her. “Or he and his friends can keep that information from ever being released. Maybe even destroyed. But I don’t understand who the men with him are. Deveraux doesn’t have access to this kind of fire power.”
“Whoever they are, they seem committed to finding the cave, no matter who gets in their way.”
Laney swallowed. “And to them, we're all just another obstacle to be removed.”
CHAPTER 26
About an hour upriver, Julian put up a hand to stop the group at a rock outcropping. Nana appeared from the cave a few feet up and ran down towards them. Laney smiled as she wrapped Elena and Eddie in her arms.
Julian walked up to the threesome, completing the hug. Pulling back, he spoke with Nana. Although Laney was too far away to make out the words, she saw Julian gesture towards her.
Nana nodded before walking over. “So I hear we have you to thank once again.”
“It was a team effort.”
Nana raised an eyebrow. “So you didn’t fly across open air, in the middle of a gunfight, on a flaming rope, to save my grandchildren?”
“Flaming? The rope wasn’t on fire.” Laney looked at Jen, who didn’t meet her eyes. “Jen?”
“Actually, it was.”
Laney stared at her in shock.
Jen shrugged. “It was at the top. You were already with the kids when I noticed it. There didn’t seem to be any point in telling you. I knew what you were going to do. So I-”
Laney held up a hand. “Hold on. Let me get my breath back. I’m flashing through images of Elena and myself plummeting to the ground.”
She took a deep breath, but she knew Jen was right. Even if she’d known, she still would have taken the same action. It was the only way to save them. But it was still a shock.
She swallowed it down. She'd deal with that fright, along with all the other ones from the past twenty-four hours, later. “Okay. Now, could you tell me why we’re leaving a trail a blind man could follow? Is this the cave of Etsu Nantu?”
Nana smiled. “That’s what they’ll think. This is the Tayos Cave.”
Laney paused. “The Tayos Cave? As in Neil Armstrong?”
Nana nodded. “He was a nice man.”
Laney stared at her, stunned. Back in 1976, the late astronaut, Neil Armstrong, was part of an expedition put together by Stan Hall to find the source of the Crespi collection. The Hall expedition started and ended at the Tayos cave. They explored it fully, but hadn’t succeeded in finding the Atlantis artifacts.
The group had believed, however, that the tunnel system attached to the cave, if explored further, would lead them to the cave of Etsu Nantu and more importantly, the library of ancient knowledge. Other searches had been planned, but due to one reason or another, had never materialized.
Laney stared up at the cave entrance. “Is there a chance they’ll find their way to the library from here?”
Nana shook her head. “No. It’s too far and the way is,” she struggled to find the right word, “booby-trapped.”
Jen nodded. Laney looked to her for an explanation.
“The tunnels underneath Ecuador have been known for hundreds, if not thousands, of years,” Jen said. “They’re believed to stretch from Peru to Ecuador and even into Chile. When the Conquistadors came, the Incans showed them storehouse after storehouse of gold. They told the Spaniards, whom they believed to be gods, the treasures were from the tunnels underneath the ground. Since that time, treasure hunters have searched through the tunnels. But very few have returned to share their tales.”
Laney swallowed a lump in her throat, picturing Indian Jones-style traps. “They were all killed by the traps?”
Jen shrugged. “A large number probably were. But the tunnel system is also extensive. And from the reports of the few survivors, each tunnel looks identical to the next. It’s a safe bet that many simply got lost, wandering around until their death.”
Laney shivered at the image. Okay. Note to self: stay out of the tunnels.
Jen looked back at Nana, gesturing towards the cave. “How do you know they’ll think this is the cave?”
“They'll follow our trail here. And then they'll investigate the cave. The cave itself
was inhabited by people at least a thousand years ago, much later than the knowledge-bringers. Hopefully, the gunmen will waste a lot of time figuring that out. The real cave of knowledge isn’t so easy to find.”
Laney nodded. A red herring. It was a good idea. It would give them time to get away and plan. “So where are we going? Back to Cuenca?"
Nana shook her head. "No. We continue to the cave."
Laney stared at her, not believing the words.
"They'll track us. We'll lead them right there," Jen argued.
Julian walked up. "We'll cover our trail. Leave Guardians to prevent them from following."
Jen shook her head. "That's a huge risk. Surely the court will understand that they need to give us more time."
Nana’s voice was weary. “And if they don't? For all we know, the judge is in the oil company’s pocket. They could have even orchestrated this whole thing to prevent us from getting them that report. I cannot risk our tribe’s entire existence on the hope that the court will understand. They have demonstrated too many times in the past that they don't."
Laney knew that the Shuar had spent decades fighting off one corporation after another who wanted to take over their lands. And Nana was right. The courts were turning more and more in favor of the developers. Was it possible that they could lose the cave if they missed the deadline?
Nana looked Jen and then Laney in the eye. "This isn't what you signed on for. We can have members of the tribe take pictures of the site. That should be enough for documentation. There’s no reason for you two to risk your lives further."
Laney glanced at Jen, who nodded back at her. She faced Nana. "We're not leaving you. And if you think the court won't understand gunplay necessitating an extension, then they certainly aren't going to be satisfied with a couple of pictures. We're in this."
Nana shook her head. "This isn’t your fight. If something were to happen to-"
Jen cut her off. "And how do you think we'd feel if something happened to you or Elena or Eddie? We’re in this, Nana."
