“Shit. You can’t do that. In the first place Tomas will never allow it. In the second place from what I hear, that mountain’s no place for a woman.”
“Oh really? And it is the place for a New York Fifth Avenue gallery owner? Get real, Brian. I’ve been to the top twice. Between Arthur Borland’s trip and mine there are three trails that we know aren’t the right ones. That will help narrow things down. I’m also in way better shape than you are and I’m pretty low maintenance. You don’t strike me as a chauvinist, so what is it that bugs you about my going? Are you afraid you’ll want to get in my pants? Is that it?” She smiled mischievously.
Brian answered sternly. “My girlfriend is tied to a table naked in the jungle somewhere. I don’t think getting in your pants is part of my agenda.”
“Sorry. That was insensitive. I’m just trying to loosen you up a little. It sounds like Tomas wants you to find the lost city and it sounds like he’ll keep Nicole alive if you do. I’ll help you. Even with no hanky-panky between us. Unless we decide otherwise, that is.”
She handed him the cell phone. “To use this phone, there’s a magic phrase. The phrase is, ‘Yes, Lynne, you can come along.’ Say it.”
He couldn’t help but smile. “Yes Lynne, you can come along.”
Yesterday Brian got the phone number of the San Ignacio Inn from Sam and memorized it.
“Do you get a good signal up here?”
“Off and on, actually. It’s the Guatemalan phone company so sometimes it’s great, sometimes it’s nada. You have to try and keep trying. Just dial 00 first then the area code and number.”
The phone showed one bar of signal. He typed in the number and heard nothing.
“It isn’t working.”
“Give it a minute.”
In a few seconds he heard a steady hiss then the phone ringing on the other end. The faint sound went in and out and he could barely hear it. Since it was almost midnight he didn’t expect to reach anyone but he would leave a message for Odette.
The call dropped before it was completed. “Dammit.” Brian’s frustration turned to desperation. “I have to try again. Dammit. I have to get through.”
“Let me try,” Lynne said. She took the phone and redialed. Before it connected she glanced at the open doorway behind Brian, a startled look on her face.
Brian whirled around and saw Tomas.
“Are we having a little chat? It looks like someone is trying to make a phone call. How naughty of you both. Lynne, I thought you understood that Mr. Sadler here is not a nice man. He’s a criminal actually, and certainly not worthy of your aid and assistance.”
Lynne kept the phone to her ear. She heard rings and then an answering machine. If Tomas continued talking she could shout a message into the phone. Instead he looked at her and said, “Put down the phone, Lynne. Right now.”
“One sec.”
“NO secs, Lynne.” He grabbed the phone from her. He glanced at the number on the screen and ended the call.
“Who are you calling in Belize, Lynne? Do you have friends and family there? People you like to call in the middle of the night?”
Suddenly Lucky appeared in the bedroom doorway behind Lynne, awakened from the sound of Tomas’ voice.
“What are you guys doing here?” he said angrily. “Lynne, are you OK?”
“She’s fine,” Tomas answered. “She was trying to help Brian make a phone call. I don’t know what that was all about but I’ve told you both Brian isn’t the type of person a nice girl like Lynne should be helping.” He put Lynne’s phone in his pocket and turned to leave.
“Give her phone back to her.” Lucky said.
“Tomorrow morning. For now we need to all get some sleep.”
“Give it to her now.”
Tomas took out the phone, quickly removed the back case and battery and took out the SIM card. He threw the phone on the desk and said, “For now, no calls.”
Lucky started toward him but Lynne held her arm out.
“Not now. Let it go. We’ll settle this later.” Lucky glared at Tomas as he walked out.
“Is there another phone?” Brian asked. “We were so close but I want to call in the daytime when someone will answer. I have to find out if tey’ve heard anything from Nicole.”
“There are no other phones,” Lucky replied. “The two Belizean workmen don’t have one so if you don’t either, that’s it.”
Lynne said, “Be patient, Brian. I’ll help you figure something out soon. Trust me.” Turning to Lucky, she said, “I’m going with them tomorrow. Up the mountain. I may be able to help figure out where Jack Borland’s ancient city is located.”
Late that night Brian lay in the bunkhouse half asleep, the snores of five other men all around him. At one time he dreamed he saw Lynne come through the doorway and go to the back of the room where Tomas slept. He spent the night wondering why she would have done that. Or if she even had.
Most of the next day was spent on logistics. The group calculated how long it would take to reach the summit. Lynne’s recent experiences were helpful – she told them it had taken four days.
Tomas seemed preoccupied all day. He spent most of his time sitting in a chair under a tree, lost in thought. In the afternoon a rain shower briefly cooled things down but fired up the humidity afterwards. At five Alfredo, who had become the de facto boss of the Belizean workmen, declared the party ready to go. They all sat down for a rum and Coke. Lucky joined them but Lynne never appeared.
A half hour later she came out of the office toting a backpack loaded to the gills. She dropped it with all the other packs lined up ready for departure in the morning.
Tomas snarled, “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m going with them.”
“No, you absolutely are not.”
Lynne’s pleasant demeanor vanished. She whirled around and replied, “Listen Mr. Rodriguez, or whatever your name is. Get off my back. This is a free country. Maybe not the good old USA, but nobody’s telling me I can’t go where the hell I want to go. I am going with them. Period. End of story.”
“And what possible interest could you have in climbing that mountain another time? I know you’re an anthropologist but you’ve tried twice before and failed.”
“This is none of your business. The mountain doesn’t belong to you. It doesn’t belong to me. You’re leaving tomorrow. So are we. And there you have it.” She turned around, cinched the straps of her backpack then headed to the icebox to fix a drink.
Tomas’ phone rang around eight pm and he talked for twenty minutes. Brian watched Tomas mostly listen. When he did talk, it was in whispers. Once the call ended Tomas walked to the bunkhouse, stripped to his shorts and went to bed. The others followed within fifteen minutes. They needed a rest before the arduous climb tomorrow.
The alarm on Tomas’ watch went off at five am. He roused the men and Alfredo started coffee. The sun was still behind the mountain but the darkness was quickly transforming into a half-light of dawn.
The men shaved and used the very basic outdoor shower. It was nothing more than a low partition wall to stand behind and a large plastic bag of water tied to a tree limb overhead. A hose attached to the bag could be turned on and off by the user. As crude as it was, the shower was much appreciated by every visitor to Jaguar’s Call. Lynne appeared around six and waited until the men finished showering. She was amused to see the guys sneaking glances as they prepared the packs. She hung her t-shirt and shorts on the shower wall. The shower had been constructed for men so the modesty panel only reached to one’s navel. There was literally no way to keep a woman’s breasts from showing to anyone who cared to look. Immodest as always, Lynne stood tall, raising her arms high as she washed her upper body. The men enjoyed the view and the beautiful woman showering naked five feet away.
After a light breakfast everyone loaded up. Alfredo and one of the other Belizeans went in front followed by Brian, Sam and Lynne. The other workman was in the rear. Lucky ki
ssed Lynne deeply and said, “Break a leg!”
Lynne laughed. “I sure hope you mean that in the show business connotation. Breaking a leg isn’t something I really want to do up there on the mountain!”
Tomas and Lucky watched them walk into the jungle along the same trail both Jack Borland and his son Arthur had used.
There wasn’t a moment of silence as they walked along the narrow trail. Spider monkeys howled and barked in the trees above them, infinite varieties of birds called their tunes and insects made a high-pitched buzz in an orchestral nightmare of sound. It would have been hard to talk to each other so the group didn’t say much as they climbed. The packs were heavy, the path was frequently overgrown with roots and vines and with the humidity they were quickly drenched in sweat.
They were slowed by having to clear the trail so often. Each time they reached a clearing they had to spend time ascertaining where the trail went next. But they moved upwards all day.
At five Alfredo said they must stop and make camp before daylight faded. As the tents were erected Alfredo and the two workers built a campfire and the guide began cooking. From now on Lynne and the five men would eat MREs, an acronym for “meals ready to eat” which are a variety of packaged foods used by the Army. Although nutritious and filling they aren’t gourmet fare but they serve a purpose because they are lightweight and don’t take up a lot of room.
Brian sat next to Lynne. “Back at camp you said you’d help me later. Got any ideas how we can find out anything about Nicole?”
“Sure I do, Brian. You can use my phone.” She reached in her backpack, pulled out an iPhone and handed it to him.
Brian looked at her, eyes wide with surprise. “You had two phones all along?”
“Yep! Doesn’t every resourceful anthropologist who comes to the jungle? What if one gets dropped in the river or snatched by a spider monkey? Or some jackass disables it by taking out the SIM card? You always need a backup plan. Now whether it’ll work is another thing entirely. I did charge it up but the battery will run down eventually. I’m going to keep it turned off most of the time because it’s the only contact we have with the outside world. My experience last time I climbed was that as you go higher there are patches when it works fine but most places where it’s dead as a doornail. Don’t ask me how my phone can drop calls on Sunset Boulevard in L.A. but yet I can use it in Guatemala on a mountaintop. It’s a mystery of modern technology.”
Brian motioned Sam over and showed him the phone. “Try to call Odette.”
Sam held the phone to his ear. “It’s ringing.” After a minute or so he said, “This is Sam. Put Odette on the phone.” He looked at Brian. “The reception is pretty bad but for now it’s working.”
Brian leaned forward with eager anticipation as Sam said, “Hey, baby. I don’t know how long we’re going to have a signal so let’s talk fast. I’ll call you back every day at five if I can get a signal. First, has anyone heard from Nicole?”
Brian began feeling lightheaded as Sam listened in silence for a long time. “OK, we’ll talk about that again in a minute but let me tell you about us right now.”
He glanced at Brian and said, “She’s OK. She’s there and she’s OK.”
“Thank you, God,” Brian said, slumping. “I just was so afraid she was going to die.” He used his sleeve to wipe his face as he unashamedly wept tears of relief at the good news.
Sam told Odette what had happened to them and where they were. He told her about the man with the pencil mustache who said he was Tomas Rodriguez, his threat to kill the farmer and his wife, the loss of their phones and that Tomas was on his way back down the mountain. Then he listened to Odette talk for another minute or so. At last he said, “This Tomas guy is undoubtedly the person who kidnapped Nicole. So make sure she stays safe. Hide her somewhere outside the hotel. If I know this creep he’ll waste no time trying to find her. He has to be coming there.”
Lynne pointed to her watch, indicating he should watch the usage on the phone. “I need to go to save battery, darling. I’m so glad to talk to you and I love you. Keep safe and see if you can arrange for Nicole to be there tomorrow. If we get through, Brian wants to talk to her.” Sam disconnected.
Brian was excited but apprehensive. “Tell me everything,” he said to his friend.
Sam told him Nicole had been kidnapped, killed a guard, escaped to Melchor, been rescued by the U.S. Embassy and was back at the hotel, desperately worried about Brian. She was upstairs in her room during the call and there was no time for Odette to get her.
Brian was impressed. “My God! I knew she was resourceful, but hell – she sounds like a Green Beret!”
Sam continued. “She’s still in danger, as we know. Odette said she’d tell Nicole right now about the kidnapper likely coming back to San Ignacio. I think Tomas believes he has to take her hostage again to get us to cooperate. Odette also said Nicole’s been in contact with Randall Carter at her office – do you know who he is?”
“I don’t know him personally but I know he’s the senior partner in the firm and one of the wealthiest men in Dallas. He might be able to help her.”
“The plan is we call every day at five and hope we can get through.”
He handed the phone to Lynne with a promise to keep every call very short. Minutes were precious with no phone charger.
That night was the same as the others they’d experienced on the mountain. They set up perimeter security and took turns on watch. Brian, Lynne and Sam slept in pup tents while Alfredo and the other two men lay on pallets on the ground. The noise was everywhere but each night sleep came a little easier. Brian compared it to Boy Scout camp when he was a kid. You had to learn to block out the extraneous noise to fall asleep.
Sometime in the middle of the night everyone woke as one when they heard the watchman utter a loud shout. As they rolled out of their tents they saw a five-foot snake on the ground, its head neatly severed from the body by a blow from the Belizean’s machete.
“Mexican python,” Alfredo told the group. “It’s not poisonous but they can inflict a nasty bite. Usually they eat iguanas or rodents but we’re better safe than sorry.”
The next day was an arduous repeat of the last. They started out early and made good time as they climbed. By noon the heat made it feel as if they were wearing blankets. Every step was a chore. When they stopped for lunch Lynne and Brian sat next to each other, away from the group. She consulted a small journal.
“I made a lot of notes the other times I climbed this mountain so I wouldn’t make the same mistakes again. In about a hundred yards we should come to a tree where I notched my initials and an arrow. From there I have a suggestion on where to go next.”
Brian replied, “We need to find an ancient stone stairway that’s very wide, very tall and leads to a narrow passageway between two cliffs.”
“What?” Lynne shouted. “How the hell do you know that? Dammit, Brian! We’re all on the same team here. Share your information with me. I’ve done this trip twice before. I need to have everything so we can find the ancient city. That and Jack Borland too.”
He laughed and said, “Ease up! How good is your sixteenth century Spanish?”
He pulled the manila envelope from his backpack, removed the copy of Governor Alvarado’s letter and handed it to her. He also had the English translation of the letter but he kept it to himself. He wanted to see if this college professor was as smart as he figured she was.
“My ancient Spanish isn’t as bad as you might think.” She began to read the letter as she munched on trail mix. “Don’t say anything for a minute. Let me see if I can get the gist of this.”
In a few minutes she said, “Holy shit! It’s a damn good thing you showed this to me now. We know exactly what we’re looking for. We have to find that stairway. What else do you have?”
“That’s all for now.”
She lashed out at him. “This may seem like a cakewalk to you buddy, but my life and my career are at stake here.
My time on this mountain’s running out and I have to go back to the real world before long. I’m a damned teacher at UCLA and I need something to put me on the map or I’ll be stuck as a second rate professor the rest of my life. I want to be an explorer. I want to discover new things. I’ll never get the funding to do things like that unless I make an impact.”
Calmer, she continued. “The English profs have to publish or perish, you know? They have to write books or get relegated to being someone’s assistant. It works the same way in anthropology except we’re expected to mount expeditions, spend some foundation’s money and come home with the glory. We have to be on the same team, Brian. We’re looking for the same thing for different reasons. We both want to find an ancient civilization. You want to find Jack Borland and maybe some gold. I want to find the Mayan city itself, to know how these people functioned. Help me and I’ll help you. Any way you want. What else do you have to show me?” She put her hand on his leg.
Brian pulled away. “What’re you doing?”
Lowering her voice she said, “Just being the red-blooded American girl I am. I’m not an anthropologist a hundred percent of the time. Are you a stuffy antiquities guy all the time? I don’t think so. I bet you like a little action as much as I do.”
“Lynne, you know that I’m involved with Nicole and she may still be in danger. What kind of guy would I be if I just hopped in the sack with you?”
She pulled back, indignant. “Hey, mister. Did anybody say anything about hopping in the sack? I don’t think so. I’m just interested in playing around a little. What we do after dark isn’t anybody else’s business.”
“I think you’re more interested in doing whatever it takes to get me to tell you everything I know about Captain Jack Borland’s expedition. And like I said earlier, that’s all I’m telling for now.” He stood, stretched and rejoined the others.
“About ready to get moving again?”
They donned packs and started walking. Brian could feel the rarified air – it was harder to breathe at this altitude and the hiking made him wheeze. He saw Sam struggling as well.
Brian Sadler Archaeological Mysteries BoxSet Page 41
