9 Ways to Fall in Love

by Caroline Clemmons

  “Is there a time line? Over.”

  He wished there were. “No. Have him as close as he can get without being noticed, and I’ll radio when to move in. Over.”

  “Received. Over.” The radio clicked. “Take care. Over.”

  Tino smiled. Ginger may come across as hard as nails but she had a heart.

  “Will do. Out.” He turned the radio off and stowed it under the tree root. The next thing was to get back to the excavation site, talk with Isabella, and get inside the dig to wait for Miguel to contact Martin.

  His mind conjured up the inside of the dig as he worked his way to the compound. There wasn’t a place to hide in there other than behind the altar and that would not hide him if Miguel came in through the tunnel. And how would Miguel let Martin know he was there waiting?

  *~*

  Tino spotted Isabella when she exited the shower tent and dropped her clothes off at her tent. She continued toward the dig entrance. He had to detain her. He moved in the shadows of the tents, drawing her attention. From her cautious approach, she didn’t know it was him.

  Just as she prepared her body to strike at him, Tino whispered, “Come, I need to talk to you.”

  He grasped her hand and led her into the jungle nearest them.

  Once they’d traveled over twenty yards into the trees he stopped. “You must be careful. Better yet, you should pack and head out of here tomorrow.”

  He couldn’t see her face due to the dark jungle and cloudy sky, but he felt her indignation.

  “You know I won’t leave until I’ve figured out what’s written on the tablets and the altar wall.”

  He gripped her hands and drew her nose to nose with him. “Mi pichón, your Dr. Virgil Martin is involved with the people I am here to stop. I overheard a conversation today that does not mean good things for this dig or the people connected to it. Even you.” His next words would not make her happy but he had to voice them. “Take your findings and decipher them at home where it is safe.”

  “I can’t go yet. I have some more glyphs to copy before I can finish the translation.”

  He leaned, pressing his lips to hers trying to convey in the kiss his fears for her.

  Tino moved out of the kiss but remained nose to nose. “Promise you will hurry and find your answers so you can leave?”

  She nodded and asked, “What about you?”

  He shrugged. “I need to get into the altar chamber without being seen so I can follow the tunnel to the narcos’ cave and learn more.”

  She shook her head. “No. That’s too dangerous.”

  He kissed her again, this time not as gentle. His tongue slid between her lips; tangling with hers, seducing her, and showing her life was worth living not throwing away.

  Tino drew out of the kiss. He leaned his forehead on Isabella’s. “I made a vow to my family to stop drug traffickers.” His heart didn’t ache as much when he thought of his family since meeting Isabella. She’d begun to fill the cracks of sorrow and guilt. He kissed her nose. “I will be very careful because I have a certain doctor I want to look up when this mission is finished.”

  “If anything happens to you, I’ll go after the drug traffickers myself.”

  The venom in her words left little doubt in his mind that would be the case. “I promise nothing will happen to me.” He held her head in his hands. “It is you I worry about. Do not try to find out what is going on. Just stay with people you trust and know. I will meet up with you again. I will never, nor would I want, to forget you. And when I am free of my obligation, I will come looking for you.”

  “Promise?”

  Warm tears slipped along his hands. “I promise.” He kissed her salty lips, sealing his promise and memorizing her taste, then took her hand and led her back to the compound.

  “Go to your tent or the artifact tent. I am going into the dig.” Tino squeezed Isabella’s hand and let go.

  She clutched his shirt sleeve. “Let me go in with you. If I go first and run into anyone it won’t be suspicious. But for you to walk in and be seen, they’d wonder what you’re doing here when Virgil asked you to leave.”

  “I do not know who could be in there. It could be the narcos waiting for Martin.” He loosened her grip on his clothing. “I will not have you walking into a trap.”

  “But it’s okay for you to walk into one?” She flung her hands in the air and stomped away from him. “Men!”

  She gave in too easily. His feet wanted to follow her to make sure she did what he asked but, at that moment, Raul, the man Martin had thrown out of the camp, emerged from the dig. He glanced right and left, then hurried across the compound straight for Martin’s tent.

  Tino moved closer to the dig and waited in the shadows as Raul hurried back to the dig entrance, Martin jogging at his side. He counted to sixty and followed, creeping along the edge of the walls and listening to the movement and voices coming from ahead of him. Light glowed in the altar chamber.

  “This room is exceptional, Virgil. Just as you said it would be.” There was no mistaking the authority in the voice of don Miguel.

  Tino stopped and knelt behind a small outcropping of a stone support in the doorway between the main chamber and the altar chamber.

  “It has been kept in pristine shape by the layers of dirt and debris shielding it over the years.” Awe filtered through Virgil’s words. “It was last used for a virginal sacrifice to the moon.”

  “How fitting that we will use it in the same manner.”

  Don Miguel’s excited tone plucked at the hairs on Tino’s nape.

  “I’ve been thinking about our agreement. There are too many people employed here to pull this off. We should wait—”

  “We have a deal. You found this altar and offered me this opportunity to fund your dig. You also promised me the translations of the moon god ceremony. Unless you want to pay for your funding with your life, you will carry through with our deal.” Miguel chuckled. “If this goes well, I would be more than happy to continue to fund any other endeavors you want.”

  “But all the workers, the specialists…”

  “You will find a way to make this work. At the full moon.”

  The grinding of rock on rock meant Miguel and Raul had left through the tunnel. Tino shot to his feet and hurried into the area the workers cleared that morning. His dark colored clothes blended into the shadows. Martin talked to himself and scuffled around in the altar room for ten minutes before the light went out and he hurried back through the dig and out the entrance. The man, so caught up in his troubles, hadn’t even glanced around as he walked out.

  The full moon. That was less than a week away. They talked of the sacrifice Isabella was deciphering. He didn’t like the tone of Miguel’s voice. What sinister act was he up to?

  Tino stopped in the altar room long enough to slowly scan a penlight over the altar wall. His occupation had enough gore, pain, and suffering; he didn’t like to witness it outside the job. Yet, staring at the woman on the altar, following the path of her tears to the pool of blood on the ground, he shuddered. His gaze caught on the full moon hovering in the background, shedding tears too.

  It couldn’t be… Did Martin and Miguel plan to sacrifice a woman on the full moon? No, it would be… Exactly what the doctor would do for research and the madman with money would do for kicks. He had to find out who they planned to sacrifice and how to stop it without hurting his mission.

  *~*

  Isabella watched Virgil leave the dig site. She knew he had entered with the man they’d caught sneaking around, and she also saw Tino follow them all in. What had happened to Tino? Did they capture him?

  She stayed along the edge of the compound and made her way to the tell covering the dig. This wasn’t what Tino had asked her to do, but she couldn’t just go to sleep and forget she saw him enter and only Virgil come back out. She slipped into the dig and pulled out her LED light. She kept the beam on her feet as she crept across the entry. Flashing the beam to the left, she
noticed the workers had started clearing the room adjacent to the altar room.

  She pivoted and walked into the altar chamber. The tang of burnt kerosene hung in the air along with the sharpness of tobacco. Someone other than Virgil, Raul, and Tino had been in this room. A meeting perhaps? That would explain Raul retrieving Virgil. But what were they meeting about? And where was Tino?

  Her blood pumped at an accelerated pace and adrenaline flexed her muscles. The beam of her flashlight lit on the rock connecting this room with the tunnel Tino talked about. Had Tino been found and taken through that tunnel? She swallowed and stepped closer. If he was safe, he’d be furious with her. If he were hurt or a captive, he’d welcome her help. Wouldn’t he?

  She thought back to the day he’d snuck up on her in here. Which side had he shoved the rock to move it back in place? Isabella stood on the left side of the rock, put the flashlight between her teeth, braced her feet, and shoved on the boulder.

  The grinding of rock on rock pumped her adrenaline and she pushed even harder. The boulder moved smoother than she’d imagined it would. Cool air rushed across her face and a chill crawled up her spine. She slipped through the opening, ran the beam of her light over the boulder, and found a stick wedged into a hole in the rock. She leaned her body into the stick and once again listened to the rock slide into place.

  Darkness wound around her, disorienting her. No one would know what happened to her if for some reason she lost her way in this tunnel. Doubt crept into her head as the cool air fluttered her loose hair.

  “I can do this!” she whispered and swept the light around her. Steps led downward. Apprehension tightened her muscles. Tino was somewhere in this tunnel. She would find him, and they’d get out undetected. She descended the short flight of steps.

  The thick, musty air clogged her lungs as the damp darkness folded around her. Suffocating. She had to follow this tunnel. Fear for Tino squeezed her chest like a giant fist. Her head pounded in frustration. Her eyes ached from searching the weighty darkness beyond her small beam of light. This was the only direction Tino could have gone.

  Sticky cobwebs clung to her face. Would there be cobwebs if Tino and others had come this way? She scraped the clinging fibers from her face, thinking of it as hair and the soft globs that were spiders as blobs of hair gel. If she let her mind stray to the soft-bellied arachnoids, her feet would stall.

  Her palm slid along the slick, cool, dirt wall. She fought the urge to turn around and run back to the chamber. Tino needed her. Her toe struck a rock. Her breath rumbled in her lungs as loud as the howler monkey’s cry. As a child, the darkness had never frightened her. But then she’d always been wrapped in familiar blankets, not creeping through a moist oppressive tunnel.

  Counting her steps and keeping her light beamed to the ground in front of her feet, Isabella heard the voices before she noticed a faint glow. She doused her flashlight and crept closer. Angry male voices spoke in rapid Guatemalan. A word here and there was recognizable. Her heart stopped when Tino’s voice responded and the thunk of something hard against—she cringed.

  Silence.

  A tear trickled down her cheek. She had to help him. Isabella pressed her back against the wall and sidestepped toward the light. The voices laughed and conversed, but she didn’t hear any more from Tino. The tunnel opened wider. She dropped to her knees, kept along the wall, and crawled to a spot behind a pile of pack gear.

  Tino lay curled in the middle of the room. His hands and feet were tied. She choked back a gasp at the sight of blood seeping down his face and the bright gash on his temple. Fear and outrage couldn’t win out. She had to keep a level head and find a solution.

  Isabella scanned the chamber. Another dark tunnel veered to the left. Two men sat on the ground at the far entrance of the chamber playing cards. She either had to wait and see if they left or give them a reason to leave. The latter would get rid of them faster.

  Isabella focused on the pile of gear in front of her. Rope and metal rigging rings. She pulled out her army knife and, with trembling fingers, cut loose a dozen rings, setting them carefully to the side, and picked out anything else that would make noise. Her nerves calmed as she formed a plan.

  Crawling backward, placing her knees and feet slow and quiet, and sucking in any grunts, she dragged the rope back through the dark cave, until only a faint light could be seen from the chamber. She switched on her light and searched for something to anchor the rope. A section of the tunnel twenty feet from the chamber had adequate protrusions on the sides to tie the rope across the tunnel at about shin level. Urgency hummed through her body, spinning her mind and tangling her fingers as she tied the knots. She had to hurry. If more men arrived, this plan wouldn’t work. And it might not work even with just the two men. There was no guarantee they would both run into the passage.

  She sent up a prayer to all the deities she’d learned about and looked for a spot to secure the fishing line. A tree root, head-height, had the qualities needed. She removed the fishing line from her pocket and threaded it through the loop.

  She crawled back to her spot behind the gear and, starting at one end of the fishing line, she tied the metal rings and buckles in various groupings and lengths. Careful not to clang them together, she crawled ten feet into the tunnel and set them down. Back behind the gear again, she slowly rolled the line back onto the spool until taut.

  Isabella pulled out her Army knife, flipped open the blade, and stabbed it into the ground next to her, making it accessible. Inhaling deeply, she prayed her plan would work, and pulled on the fishing line.

  A dull clanging and sharp pings echoed down the tunnel as the metal hit rocks. The men jumped to their feet and stared at one another. Isabella reeled in more line, causing the jingling again.

  The men sprinted into the tunnel, running past her hiding spot and into the darkness. She didn’t wait to hear them hit the ground. Shooting to her feet, she grabbed the knife, and hurdled over the gear, slicing through the ropes securing Tino. His head rolled loose on his shoulders, but she managed to get him to his feet.

  “Come on. There’s only one way we can go.” Isabella draped his arm over her shoulders and supported much of his weight as they hurried to the dark tunnel. She glanced over her shoulder and spotted their footprints. Inside the tunnel she leaned Tino up against the wall. “I’ll be right back.”

  He reached for her, but she evaded his grasp and hurried back to the chamber, unbuttoning her vest. In the middle of the chamber, she swept the ground with her vest, walking backward toward their escape route. Their shuffling exit was erased. She slipped her vest on and hurried to Tino.

  “Come on,” she whispered, once again slipping under his arm to give him support. She traveled another twenty feet before flipping on her light. Tino’s weight gradually lightened as he started supporting himself.

  “Shamutz!” A pile of dirt and rock blocked the tunnel. They couldn’t go back. By now his capturers knew Tino was missing and were probably scouring the tunnels. It would only be a matter of time and they would come down this one. She trained the light all the way to the top of the pile. Isabella thought she saw a hole.

  She faced Tino, shining the light on him. The sight of his bloody head twisted her stomach. “Oh, I forgot about the gash! But we need to keep going.”

  “I am fine. But I am not happy you did not listen to me.” Tino grimaced and grasped her hand. “You were safer staying at the compound.”

  “When Virgil came out after you’d followed him in, I couldn’t stand the idea you might have been captured. So I moved the rock and followed the tunnel. And see…” She scrambled to the top of the dirt pile. “You did need help.”

  “Where are you going?” Tino grabbed her ankle.

  “It looks like we can dig a hole and keep going.”

  “Let me do that.” He crawled up beside her.

  “If we both work at it, we can be out of here faster.” She pulled her folded hat out of her vest and used it to scoop th
e dirt. Tino used his hands. They soon had a hole just large enough they could slither through.

  “You go first,” Tino motioned to the hole.

  Isabella grabbed the light she’d wedged between two rocks to light their work area and held it in her mouth as she slithered through the hole. She slid down the other side of the dirt mound and studied the pile for debris to fill in the hole once Tino came through. He had to wiggle a bit more than she did, but he soon slid down beside her.

  “Help me shove these rocks and sticks into the hole we made.” Together they jammed the hole full then set off down the tunnel.

  “We have no way of knowing where this tunnel will lead us,” Tino said, glancing at his watch. He flicked the instrument with a finger. “My GPS doesn’t work underground.”

  “I thought that was a fancy watch for a jungle guide.” Isabella continued exploring the walls of the tunnel with her light. “From the dampness seeping in, I’d say we’re getting close to either a river or a lake.” She stopped and extracted two energy bars from her vest.

  Tino took the bar and smiled. While he was angry with her for not staying in the compound, he had to admire her ingenuity and gutsiness. “Now I see why you were so adamant about your survival vest the first night I met you.”

  She smiled. “If you use your head it has everything a person needs to get out of trouble.”

  “Which reminds me. How did you get rid of the guards back there?”

  “I lured them down the tunnel and tripped them.” She took a bite of her bar and continued walking.

  He shook his head and followed. “I have studied the maps of this area. If we are getting near a water source then we must be headed toward the Usumacinta River.”

  “That’s the one we traveled to get here, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “But I thought there was a lake around here too?”

  “It is farther north.”

  Tino finished the bar and wished he had something to drink. “You do not happen to have any water in that magical vest do you?”

  To his surprise, she pulled out a small flask.