by Paula Wynne
Roy started the car and they rumbled onto the track for another five minutes. ‘Ana-Mariá doesn’t show a homestead on here so we have to follow the map’s symbols. Remember, she would have walked to
the grotto.’
‘She may have had a horse.’
‘Possibly, but let’s assume not.’ He drove around a hill and pulled the car under a shaded copse of trees. ‘If she needed to walk to get the rizado, it could have taken her a few hours.’
He tapped the map in her lap. ‘I think we’re somewhere here. Come on.’ He jumped out of the car.
Kelby followed him and placed the map on the bonnet. Together they leaned over it.
‘That’s Torcal behind us.’ He turned the map so Ana-Mariá’s mountain range was behind them. He suddenly leapt onto the bonnet and climbed onto the roof. ‘As a kid, I wanted to be the king of the castle’ He grinned at Kelby.
‘You’re still a kid. Get down.’
‘No, I have a bird’s-eye view from here.’ He bent over and grabbed the map from her hand. ‘Right, I think we’re looking for this forest.’
‘You know,’ Kelby stopped to think, ‘I don’t recall seeing any woodland along the way.’
‘Yeah, Spain has deforestation issues.’
Beside her head, Roy’s feet shuffled as he turned his body direction. ‘Nothing that way.’ His feet inched around again. ‘Nothing over there. Wait …’
Kelby’s head shot up. ‘What?’
‘Hmm, not sure. There’s a small rocky outcrop over there, but I don’t see a huge forest as the map indicates, only a bunch of trees.’
‘Maybe Marina’s ancestors chopped it down for firewood.’
‘Yeah, possibly. As most were.’ He leapt off the roof and landed on both feet like a gymnast.
Kelby stared at him, waiting for his verdict. ‘So?’
Roy flicked his thumb. ‘We’re hiking that way. It’s the only bit that looks like on the map.’ He tapped the grotto in the middle of the map. ‘More importantly, I see something that looks like a heart-shaped hill.’
Kelby glanced at the map, her eyes widening. ‘Of course. I hadn’t noticed it before.’
‘Nor me. But it’s clearly visible on the ridge. Come on, let’s go find the grotto.’
83
After striking west and climbing a hillock, Kelby followed Roy along a rugged trail, enjoying time outdoors and being away from work. Even more important was being in the sun with this adorable man. Despite being in a place she’d never been before, in a country she didn’t know, she felt much safer than at home.
They strode through a thick copse. The green canopy reached high, hiding the blue sky and sunny day. Suddenly, the wood broke and they stepped up to a shallow pond. Kelby looked at the map and back to the pond. ‘This must be it. The map shows a pool surrounded by bushes.’
Trees grew around the pond, some even spreading their roots into the clear shallow pool. They stepped across a path of rocks to the other side of the pond. From here, the entrance within the trees, was concealed.
A calming peace settled over Kelby. Soft background sounds soothed her. Water gurgled around the rocks. A sudden breeze rushed through the branches. Now and then, the occasional tweet of birds in the woods stabbed at the silence. A pair of pigeons cooed in the towering treetops.
‘Is that it?’
Kelby noted the disappointment in Roy’s voice. She watched him shade his eyes and glance around in each direction.
Staring at the rocky wall above the pool, Kelby said, ‘There’s got to be more to it than this.’ She loved the sun warming her back. Tempted to lie back on the small stretch of grass beside the pond, she yawned. ‘Annie said the waterfall was inside the cave, but I can’t hear anything.’
‘It has to be here somewhere.’ Roy took a few steps back and held out his hand to guide her. Kelby clung to his fingers as she balanced her way across the water. On the other edge of the pond, he stopped. ‘Listen. What’s that sound?’
‘Can’t hear anything.’ Kelby slumped on the prickly grass with an overwhelming feeling of wanting to dip her toes in the water. ‘Hang on, there is a distant sound. Like rushing water. It’s a bit hollow.’
‘Maybe it’s behind this rock wall.’ Roy shoved his sunglasses to the top of his head and used his hand to shade his face while he examined the area.
A lazy glance took Kelby’s attention to the rock face behind the pond. On the far edge, she spotted something and pointed. ‘That looks like a little waterfall, but not the one I imagined from Annie’s friend.’
Long grass grew along the edge of the rock face. About two metres above the ground, sheets of water cascaded into the pool, looking as though they came out of a mirror.
Roy ambled towards it, muttering, ‘Maybe the vegetation is hiding something.’
The solid chunk of rock behind the pool loomed over them with a menacing glare. Half way up the rock wall, a cavity appeared. To Kelby it looked like an eyelid. As she stepped closer, the hole gaped, as though the craggy rock monster had flicked one eye open to peer at its intruders. ‘Roy! There’s a cave in the rock.’
His head swung back and nodded. ‘Yeah, you’re right. Maybe it’s our grotto. Let’s take a look.’
They headed around the pond towards the rock wall. Looking up, Kelby had no idea how they were going to scale the rock face.
As they neared the slab of limestone, a shadow beckoned. María’s grotto had woven its spell on her just like the girdle book had
Kelby’s pulse quickened. If only Gary had left notes. If they found rizado she wanted to prove someone had killed her brother.
Roy suddenly darted forward, yelling, ‘Look!’
For a moment Kelby watched him scrambling over boulders surrounding the mirror waterfall. Then, she darted to him, breathless with excitement.
Roy bent down and fondled a mossy creeper. It was spread over the rocks around where the water cascaded into the pool. ‘See this?’
Kelby bent down alongside him, trying to balance on the slippery rock. Beside her, Roy ran his fingers along the frizzy leaves and down the stem. Kneeling on the bank, he fiddled around the base of the stone. For a moment, he tugged at something, and started chuckling.
Kelby watched in fascination. ‘What are you doing?’
With a triumphant yell, Roy yanked the plant out of the ground. He leapt up and threw his free arm around Kelby, hollering at the sky, ‘I think we’ve found the rizado!’
84
Although Zelda had tipped him off that Kelby was home recuperating from her car accident, Barker hadn’t been able to find her.
The cat incident had forced her underground. He had searched her house again with no sign of her or her security guard. Then he’d called Zelda, demanding more information. Despite her snooping on Jimmy’s calls, she hadn’t found anything. Kelby had disappeared.
A loud buzz brought Barker out of his thoughts. He grimaced at his phone. ‘Yes, Gorden, what can I do for you?’
‘The tables have turned.’
‘What?’
‘I know you’re after rizado, but Jurgen has Olaf on the case too.’
‘Why?’
‘He doesn’t think you’ll find it.’
Barker put his phone on loudspeaker so he could sip his camomile tea.
‘He knows your source.’
For a moment, sparks fused Barker’s anger. He had seen this coming. When he’d told Gorden about rizado, he realised Jurgen would stick his kraut nose into his plans. But he had expected to find it before that happened. He took another sip of camomile and said in his calmest tone, ‘What’s Olaf going to do that I can’t?’
‘Think this through. Olaf has resources that belong to the devil.’
‘What tag is he implementing?�
��
‘Two.’
At that level of priority, Jurgen had taken over. ‘Why did you let him get involved? You know what happened to Wade.’
‘Wade was another story. He knew about the lab’s body count.’
Barker stared at his phone.
‘Besides, he threatened to take MG’s secrets to the press. We couldn’t let him stop our research.’
‘You shouldn’t have snuffed him.’ Barker wondered whether he shouldn’t have got Gary the job at MG. ‘Well.’ he continued, ‘I couldn’t tell you this before, but Wade was the source of the sample.’
‘What?!’
‘He had an accident on that training thing he did in Spain. He came back with a small scar on his arm and said it had slit open and someone had given him this stuff which healed the wound. It sounded like puffery to me, but we got our scientists onto the sample he brought back.’
‘Did you find out where he got it?’
‘No, as much as Olaf tried, he couldn’t find a thing. We had people there doing the same route Gary did, but nothing.’
‘Did he go with anyone? Maybe they know.’
‘Tried that too. We offered his cycling mate the world to let us in on the secret, but he played dumb.’
Barker sighed; he had liked Kelby’s brother. The guy had been young and energetic and ready for anything.
‘You there?’
Barker heard the panic in Gorden’s voice. ‘Why are you telling me this?’ He didn’t trust the runt. He wouldn’t be surprised if Gorden was playing Jurgen. And vice versa. Cheats, he hated. Playing them at their own game, he loved.
‘I think Jurgen will order Olaf to go straight to a three, so I wanted to see what you could get first.’
‘Let me get this straight. You want me to find rizado before Olaf does.’
‘That’s what I said.’
‘Why, Gorden? Don’t you trust Jurgen to share it with you?’
Silence. Ah, ha. As he suspected.
‘If you want me to beat Olaf and Jurgen, you need to come clean.’
‘About what?’
‘Where are your scientists doing the rizado tests?’
Silence again.
‘Gorden, think about this. You work with Jurgen because you have to. Your new drugs have to pass through his agency. Whether you want to get rizado onto the market or stop it doesn’t matter to me. I will find it anyway and do what I want with it.’
‘Your point?’
‘Jurgen is a powerful man. Possibly more powerful than you. You said a few minutes ago that Olaf has the devil’s resources. Those resources don’t come easily, even to paid thugs. They come from Jurgen, buying in whatever is needed to get the job done.’
Barker waited for his words to sink in.
Losing sight of Kelby, he hated. Keeping people at his fingertips,
he loved.
‘If you give me everything you have on rizado, I will find it quicker. And you can tell Jurgen to go fuck himself.’
Barker enjoyed hearing Gorden clearing his throat. The fat runt was squirming. He had him where he wanted him.
Another ace in his game plan.
If he found out their rizado secrets, he could decide where to take the stuff when Kelby found it. If they were genuinely interested in keeping it on the market, he could name his price. If they weren’t, he’d suck them dry of information and find a buyer. Even if it meant taking it to the black market.
Gorden hesitated and said, ‘Okay.’
Barker smiled inwardly. It was about time Gorden revealed his part in the closely guarded conspiracy.
85
Kelby’s hand clutched her mouth to stop herself inhaling the pond’s fishy smell. ‘This is rizado?’
‘Maybe.’
‘But I thought rizado was a herb. Isn’t this moss?’
‘No. Moss grows best in damp places. But it’s a simple plant with no root.’ He dangled the weedy thing in the air, his usually spotless fingers caked in mud. ‘See, this has a root. It’s a herb, smell it.’
Kelby leaned over and inhaled deeply. The herb’s pungent scent filled her head with crazy thoughts of staying right here in this secret grotto with him.
‘Remember rizado’s full name in the journal?’
‘Yes, Marina said rizado meant curly.’
‘Uh, huh. It also means frizzy, see the leaves.’ Roy spread the tiny fronds apart and rubbed each one between his fingers. ‘Feel it.’
Kelby followed his example and groaned, ‘Eeuw. It’s sticky as hell.’ She bent down and wiped her fingertips on the grassy bank.
‘The rest of its name is pícaro. That’s Spanish for “rogue”.’
‘You don’t expect herbs to grow on rocks.’
‘Exactly! Marina searched to see if there was anything like rizado growing anywhere else in the world. And there isn’t.’
Kelby dipped her hands in the pond to get rid of the awful stickiness. She glanced at her hand in the cool water and cried out, ‘Yuck!’ Yanking them out, she pointed to a slick of slime clinging to the rocks. ‘Look!’
Frowning, Roy leaned over and ran his hands through the water. Each time he lifted a wad of the algae, most of it slipped through his fingers, leaving a frothy slime in his palms.
With both hands leaning on the pond’s stony bank, Kelby angled closer to get a better look. Shoulder to shoulder with him, she asked, ‘What’s that?’
‘I’m sure it’s plankton.’
‘I thought plankton only lived in the sea.’
‘No, they can thrive in any surface water.’ He held her gaze. ‘Some rare varieties make the water green because of the chlorophyll in their cells.’
Kelby flicked a piece of slime off his palm.
‘They get their energy through photosynthesis and need a well-lit surface layer. The organic pigments give it colour.’
‘So?’
‘The pigmentation nutrients are the medicines! It’s the colour in the plankton that has the most potent medicine.’
Kelby nodded thoughtfully, ‘Okay, what’s this got to do with rizado?’
‘Maybe the rizado has fed off the plankton for centuries. And phytoplankton is such an important source of oxygen,’ his voice rose with excitement, ‘¡Por dios! By God, of course! It could also protect human life!’
‘What do you mean?’ Kelby coughed to force the huskiness out of her throat. She wasn’t sure if he could sense the air prickle as much as she did. Being up against him and discovering a secret that could change the world, turned her insides to mush.
‘Phytoplankton bypasses the body’s essential energy currencies, so you feel a lift almost immediately on ingesting it. This is probably rizado’s secret.’
Kelby’s eyes were glued to him. The combination of his presence, the herb’s heady scent and their incredible discovery was impairing her attentiveness. ‘I don’t get it.’
Still fondling the slimy plant, Roy explained, ‘The plankton releases key nutrients into the water, so maybe the rizado can only live in this one pool.’
‘What if it was planted into another plankton source?’
‘Not sure if it needs these conditions to thrive. Scientists say that phytoplankton is one of the world’s most important plants. They’re even saying it’s the future for pharma.’
‘Why?’
‘Because it provides the earth with over ninety per cent of our oxygen.’ He shifted on his knees. ‘And it’s got every mineral needed by us mortals. It’s a power house of healing.’
Kelby sat up straighter with a sharp intake of breath.
Roy said, ‘It could even cure cancer!’
86
Kelby stared at Roy. ‘Cancer? This slimy green stuff could fight can
cer?’
‘It’s got to be tested first, Kelby,’ Roy said, ‘But plankton contains hundreds of potent phytochemicals that work in synergy to protect the body’s tissues. So it’s possible.’
The corner of Kelby’s mouth tugged into a smile as she watched him use slimy green fingers to count the benefits.
‘It cleans the blood and removes toxins.’ He tapped another finger. ‘It also enhances oxygenation and circulation.’ Another slimy finger flicked up. ‘It reverses abnormal cell division that can lead to cancer.’ Roy stopped talking and waited for his words to sink in.
‘How do you know this?’
He slipped off his shoes, rolled up his trousers and waded into the middle of the pond. ‘I did my thesis on the use of traditional herbs in modern medicines.’
Kelby raised her eyebrows. No wonder he raved about herbs. None of the doctors she had encountered before, had approved of natural treatments.
Kelby focused on the undiscovered plant resting in his palm. This could help sick people. Those who spent so much time living in and out of hospital. They needed to find a way to make sure it reached the right people. Not just those who wanted to make money from it. It could mean a breakthrough in medicine.
Roy stood and ambled around the pond, calling over his shoulder, ‘It’s like a whole food medicine.’
‘Food medicine?’ Kelby tried to absorb the medical facts. This kind of techno jargon wasn’t her bag.
‘Yeah, because it contains hundreds of vital nutrients. They work together to alkalise the system, nourish the cells and strengthen the immune system.’
After a few paces, he dropped to his knees again and dangled his hand into more green sludge. Kelby followed and used a broken twig to poke at the algae.
‘I’ve read that if we took one teaspoon of phytoplankton a day it would save us from degenerative diseases. And yes, it could be the cure for cancer!’ He threw his hands in the air and shouted with joy, ‘¡Cáspita! Imagine what rizado could do!’
