Found in the Lost

by Tarina Deaton

  “You also don’t expend this much energy in a day either. Your body’s telling you it needs fuel.” He swung his pack around and pulled a snack bar from one of the pockets. It was the equivalent of Mary Poppins’ carpet bag for backpackers. “Here. This one has more calories—it’s still a few hours until lunch.”

  Shane’s head tilted back and Kinley followed his gaze, but only saw the jungle canopy. “What is it?”

  “Shhh. Listen.”

  All she heard were the trees swaying in the light breeze that didn’t reach them on the ground, the insects, the birds, and the occasional monkey calling out. Nothing that hadn’t been making noise two minutes ago.

  She cocked her head, straining to hear anything else. Then the whir of rotor blades reached her.

  “What is it?” she whispered. Silly question—he couldn’t see any more than she could.

  He didn’t make her feel stupid for asking, though. “Don’t know. The Leonidas team is still in Flores—I checked in with them this morning.” He looked back at her. “Whoever it is, they’re headed the same direction we are.”

  The bite of food in her mouth turned to thick paste and she drank water to help swallow it. The picture of Christine being shoved against the car flashed through her mind.

  She’d been so selfish, so caught up in the adventure and idea of finding the answer to the riddle, she’d forgotten about the danger they might be facing.

  Shane tilted her head up with a finger under her chin. “Hey. Don’t do that. It could be a coincidence. There are a lot of places that helicopter could be going.”

  Kinley swallowed hard. “What if I’m making the wrong decision? What if by not going to the authorities, I’ve put Christine in even more danger?”

  Shane pulled her into a hug, his arms around her shoulders. She wrapped her arms low around his hips and rested her head on his chest. Why didn’t he smell like he’d been trudging through the jungle for hours after having hot monkey sex?

  “Paige has a team back in Charleston looking into it and tracking down the information we were able to give them. They’ll find answers faster than the local authorities will. That being said, we can turn back anytime you want to.”

  “Am I completely deluded to think we can do this?”

  “No, you’re not,” he said.

  “What are we even going to do if we find anything?”

  “Well, I don’t know what the proper procedures are, but we take pictures and send them back to Leonidas. Our IT person is scary smart and she’ll be able to figure out who should get them.”

  She nodded her head. That made sense. Or maybe it was complete bullshit, but she wanted to be convinced.

  “Can I ask you something?” Shane asked.

  Her stomach flipped for reasons that had nothing to do with her worries. “Of course.”

  “What do you want to get out of this?”

  Did he mean the two of them this? Or finding the ruins this? “What do you mean by this?”

  “Finding this temple or whatever it is.”

  Ah, so not them this. She hid her disappointment by turning her face further into his chest. “People don’t take me seriously. They take one look at me and assume I couldn’t possibly know what I’m talking about. How could I? I’m too pretty to be smart.” She couldn’t hide the bitterness in her voice.

  “Has someone actually said that to you?”

  “That or some version of it. Christine sent out an email to the team letting them know I’d translated the Lago Azul. One of the PhDs responded that there was no way I could have deciphered it because I didn’t have the education or experience. He didn’t realize I was in the cc line.”

  “That guy’s a dick.”

  She huffed out a small laugh. “Yeah. Which is why I want to prove him wrong. My translations are going to be important—I just want the chance to prove it.”

  Shane didn’t respond for several moments. Had she shared too much? Did he think she was too ambitious and out of her league?

  “Here’s what we’re going to do,” he said. “We’re going to get to that temple or house or whatever it is and you’re going to translate the hell out of it and then we’ll find that PhDick and you can shove it in his face.”

  Kinley laughed and pulled away. “I like that plan.”

  “But.” His face grew serious. “If I think the threat is too high, we’re going back to the village and I’m calling the team in to get us. Okay?”

  “Okay.” Her pride wasn’t worth her life.

  “You ready to go again?”

  Hitching on the straps of her pack, she shifted its weight higher on her hips. “Let’s do it.”

  They repeated the same routine as the day before, stopping for lunch for about forty-five minutes before setting out again.

  Late in the afternoon, Shane stopped in another small clearing and looked around. “We’ll camp here tonight.”

  “Isn’t it kind of early?” Kinley asked.

  “Yes, but we’re about a quarter mile from the edge of the ruins and I’d rather get there at full light than as it’s getting dark.”

  Several hours later, Kinley was wide awake in the dim light cast by the chem light Shane had snapped earlier. Her mind wouldn’t shut off, even though her body was exhausted. She kept visualizing the layout of the city based on the LIDAR imagery and trying to picture where they would enter. Realistically, she knew the jungle would have overtaken the ruins decades ago, but still she envisioned reaching the ruins as they would have been thousands of years ago when they were still in use.

  Shane pulled her back against his front, but she stopped his hand from traveling to the juncture of her thighs.

  His head lifted from behind her. “You okay?”

  She glanced up at him. “Will you get angry if I say no?”

  “Angry?”

  She could hear the confusion in his voice. “Not angry…upset.”

  He turned her onto her back. “Kinley, I’m not going to be anything other than horny and disappointed if you don’t want to have sex.”

  “It’s not that I don’t want to, I do. It’s just…”

  “Just?”

  She took a deep breath. “I felt funky all day and I know I stink and need a shower.”

  A wide, teasing grin spread across his face. “So you’re saying you have a serious case of swamp ass?”

  “Of what?”

  “Swamp ass. When it’s hot and your ass is sweaty and kind of ferments in your drawers.”

  “That’s disgusting and entirely too accurate.”

  Shane chuckled as he laid back down and pulled her close to his side. “It’s worse when it’s a barracks full of guys.”

  Kinley wrinkled her nose. She didn’t even want to imagine.

  “Try to get some sleep,” Shane said. “Plenty of time tomorrow to worry about tomorrow.”

  Chapter 11

  Shane eased his arm from under Kinley’s head. She snuffled a little, but didn’t wake up. Not that he expected her to—she was exhausted.

  He shoved his feet into his boots and laced them tight. Grabbing the GPS and night vision goggles that had been an unexpected surprise, he eased out of the tent and crouched outside after zipping it closed to make sure Kinley stayed asleep.

  Adjusting the head strap for the NVGs, he switched on the power and infrared illuminator. The jungle lit up like the Las Vegas strip. Maybe not quite as bright, but he could see as well as he could during the day.

  Twenty minutes later, a bright spot appeared ahead of him and he slowed his pace, taking care where he set his feet. The jungle would probably cover any inadvertent sounds he made, but it was better to be careful than not.

  A few meters later he hit a break in the jungle and crouched down, taking in the scene before him. Someone had cleared a large swath and set up camp. Four large tents circled a fire and he could see at least two people walking around.

  Through the jungle overgrowth, Shane could make out the silhouette of a larg
e pyramid rising above the camp. He pictured Kinley’s excitement and regretted not sharing the initial moment with her, but he needed to know what they were walking into before he led her there.

  The building Kinley wanted to explore was on the far side of the pyramid, away from the camp. They could circle around and approach from the north without being seen. He had no way of knowing whether the people in the camp were friendlies, so it was best to avoid them.

  Shane stood on the edge of the deep ravine with his hands on his hips, cursing to himself. Damn it. They were going to have to backtrack and edge around the campsite in order to access the far side of the pyramid.

  “It’s not that big of a deal,” Kinley said. “What’s a few more hours of walking?”

  He gave her a tight smile. He hadn’t told her about finding the camp so she didn’t know that it was a little bit of a big deal.

  Fifteen minutes later, he paused to take another bearing to get them around the pyramid.

  “Oh my god,” Kinley whispered.

  “What?” He looked up in time to see Kinley pushing through a fall of vines. Shit, they’d gotten closer to the pyramid than he’d thought. “Kinley, stop.”

  “Look! It’s right here!” She glanced back at him just as a shot rang out, echoing through the jungle.

  Kinley let out a short scream. Grabbing the back of her shirt, Shane yanked her to the ground, praying they didn’t land on a fer-de-lance. He’d rather be shot than be bitten by a viper.

  “Stop shooting! Who’s there?” a voice called out, then repeated the question in Spanish.

  “That’s Christine,” Kinley whispered.

  “Are you sure?”

  She nodded.

  “Call out,” he said.

  “Christine?” she shouted. “Dr. Banks?”

  “Kin…Kinley? Is that you?”

  “Yes! It’s me!” She tried to push up, but he held her down. He didn’t want someone taking another shot at her.

  “Oh my god! What are you doing here? I thought…never mind. Come down!”

  Kinley looked at him with wide, questioning eyes.

  “I have a bad feeling about this,” he said in a low voice.

  “What else are we going to do?”

  He could evade without her, but there was no way he would risk it with her. “Hang on.” He pulled out the satellite phone he’d shoved in his pocket before they left the campsite, leaving everything else there with the intention of returning. Sending their position to the team in Flores, he zeroed the device, deleting all the information on it and shoved it into a tangle of brush next to them.

  “Okay. Stay behind me.” Standing up, he held his hands in the air and picked his way to the edge of the clearing.

  An older blonde woman stood between two men. “No. No need for that. Come on.” She said something to the two men with guns. They lowered them and slung them over their shoulders and walked back toward the tents.

  She waved at Shane and Kinley to join her.

  He still had a bad feeling in his gut—something was off.

  Once they cleared the edge of the jungle, Christine jogged to Kinley, pulling her into a hug. “I’ve been so worried about you. The driver came back and said you weren’t at the hotel and your room had been ransacked.”

  “Someone attacked me and I had to run,” Kinley said.

  Christine gasped and held Kinley away from her by the shoulders, scanning her from head to toe. “What? Are you all right? What happened? How did you get here?”

  “We hiked,” Kinley said. “Through the jungle for the past two days.”

  She looked between Kinley and Shane. “Oh my dear. You poor thing. Did the man who attacked you get your notebook?”

  Shane saw the moment it clicked with Kinley. How did Christine know Kinley had been attacked by one man and that he’d been after her notebook?

  Kinley eased away from Christine and closer to Shane. “No. But—I don’t understand. How did you know they wanted my notebook? Why were you with those men?”

  She looked between them. “What men?”

  “In the black SUVs—at the hotel the night I was attacked. A man shoved you against the car. The same man who tried to give me a ride to Carmelita. I thought they had kidnapped you.”

  Christine’s entire demeanor changed. Until that moment, Shane would have said she was an attractive older woman, but a hardness entered her face, emphasizing the pinched quality of her lips and eyes. “Well I wish I had known that before. I would have played up that angle.”

  “What?” Kinley asked.

  “I wasn’t kidnapped, silly girl. That was a lovers’ quarrel. We hit a wall with the translations. I wanted to wait for the driver to pick you up like we planned, but after three months in this godforsaken jungle Armando was impatient.”

  Kinley shook her head. “I don’t understand. Where is Dr. Biert and the rest of the team?”

  Christine rolled her entire head. “Ugh. There’s no team. It’s just us.”

  “But the emails. The invitation from the Foundation…”

  “Dummy accounts. Fake. I knew you needed a little incentive. You wouldn’t have come if you knew it was a private endeavor. You’re too invested in the peer review process.

  “Don’t get me wrong, the Foundation plans on uncovering the city—eventually—but with a different team. They had the audacity to give the lead to someone else. To a man, of course. I’ve worked my entire life for this moment and they were going to hand it to someone less experienced simply because he has a dick between his legs. It’s bullshit.

  “Armando agreed to fund my little project for eighty percent of whatever we discover. It’s priceless and I can live comfortably on twenty percent of priceless, so what do I care?”

  She shrugged and turned to the camp. “Come along.”

  He was no psychologist, but that woman was batshit crazy.

  “What do I have to do with this?” Kinley asked when they reached the tents.

  “My dear girl. When you sent me that email telling me you deciphered the Lago Azul text, I couldn’t believe it. It was like Kinich Ahau himself was smiling down on me. The inscriptions in the temple are the exact same as the text. You, my dear, are the key to finding the treasure of Aapo.”

  “That’s…that’s a myth.” Kinley glanced at Shane. He wanted to find a way to reassure her, but couldn’t figure out the best way to do it.

  Christine leaned close. “But it’s not. We found the burial chamber. And you’re going to figure out how to open it.”

  Kinley’s mind jumped from one thing to the other as they followed Christine toward the temple. She searched blindly for Shane’s hand and some of her fear disappeared once hers was engulfed in his, along with a reassuring squeeze. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her.

  Christine and her team had cleared patches along the base until they’d found an entrance. Much of the temple was still covered with plants and trees staking their claim in whatever small crevice they could find.

  One thing bothered her more than anything else she’d learned in the last ten minutes. “Why did you have us attacked on the road from Flores if you intended on sending a driver for me?”

  Christine stopped and faced them, a look of derision marring her complexion. “What are you talking about?”

  “The tour van we took from the airport—it was attacked by bandits on the way to Carmelita. Our driver was shot and almost killed,” she said.

  “We had nothing to do with that,” Christine said.

  “Really? Because he was one of the ones who attacked us.” Shane pointed at one of the men ahead of them on the path. “How’s the head?”

  The man snarled and took a menacing step forward.

  Christine stopped him with a raised hand. “Is that true?”

  “El Capitán’s orders. He wanted the notebook without the difficulty of the girl.”

  Christine’s eyes narrowed and she pursed her lips.

  “Let’s go.” She spun on he
r heel and marched toward the temple entrance.

  Kinley looked at Shane. He winked at her. Winked! She gaped at him.

  Pulling her close, he put his mouth to her temple. “Easiest way to get the upper hand when you’re outgunned and outnumbered is to sow discord and discontent.”

  What? Upper hand of what? Of who? More importantly, what was he planning?

  “Let’s go!” Christine shouted from the entrance.

  “Vamonos.” The man behind them pushed her between the shoulders. Shane resisted and tried to turn to face the man.

  “No,” she said under her breath. “Come on.”

  Shane went reluctantly, but herded Kinley ahead of him and placed himself between her and the man behind them.

  “Not you.” Christine pointed at the two guards. “Go back to the camp.”

  The men exchanged glances before shrugging and leaving them.

  “Dickheads,” she muttered. “Follow me.”

  Kinley ducked her head to follow Christine through the entrance. Glancing behind her, she saw Shane hunched at the waist, his wide shoulders brushing the sides of the tunnel as they walked.

  “You okay?” she asked.

  “Dandy.”

  She smiled at his surly tone. In any other situation it would be hilarious. With her mentor losing her mind and men pointing guns at them, it was only mildly amusing.

  Whoever was funding the operation had run lights through the tunnel and the dim light cast deep shadows on the walls. After a few yards they entered a small chamber about ten feet square. Tunnels led in each direction and Christine turned left. At the next chamber, she continued straight and ascended steep, rough-hewn steps.

  Kinley didn’t think to count the steps until they’d already climbed a dozen or so. Numbers were important to the Mayans and she knew the number of steps would be significant. In the chamber at the top of the steps, Christine turned right, then straight through the next chamber followed by a right, left down some steps, then left down more steps until their path dead-ended in a chamber much larger than any of the others they’d passed through.

  “Oh my god,” Kinley whispered in awe.