Chapter Two #3
“No. Raul is a local who spent some of his childhood growing up on one of the ejidos bordering the biosphere reserve. He left his father’s farm to work as a ranger for the reserve about ten years ago.
The higher-ups at Calakmul sent him along to help because he’s more familiar with the area than Bronko or KuTu. ”
Raul’s farming history would explain his strong arms and shoulders in spite of his thin frame.
“What about KuTu?” Juan looked in the direction of the lanky, slightly older guard who currently stood at the edge of the treeline staring into the shadows under the canopy.
“He looks like he is a Maya, but yet not. His face isn’t quite as round, and he’s slightly taller than most we know and work with. ”
Angélica grabbed a piece of wood and tossed it into the fire, kicking up a shock of sparks that twirled up through the air.
“Raul just told me that the state of Campeche sent KuTu. He’s a jungle specialist with a lot of knowledge about the Maya civilization and the history of this area.
Raul said he hasn’t worked with KuTu before, but after spending a couple of days with him clearing this spot, he believes KuTu knows as much about this forest as he does. Maybe more.”
“So, we have federal, state, and local watchdogs here with us.” Juan whistled under his breath. “It’s been years since I’ve worked somewhere dangerous enough to have such high-level help keeping an eye out for trouble.”
“This is a first for me.” Angélica brushed something off Quint’s shoulder. “How are you doing, Parker? Ready to pack up and head home yet?”
Before they’d left Cancun, Angélica had found several different slightly annoying ways to clarify that this site would be even harder to tolerate than the last. She’d even hinted that he might want to pursue a short photo assignment elsewhere while she took this exploratory trip to kick the dirt around and make some initial assessments.
What she didn’t understand was that Quint had done plenty of roughing it in his almost twenty years of being a photojournalist. Freezing cold and sweltering heat came with the job sometimes, but he just preferred more temperate locations, given a choice.
Something buzzed close to his ear.
Fewer bugs would be nice, too.
He glanced at the narrow, pop-up hammock tent he’d be calling his bed for a couple of nights.
Maybe more. Hopefully not, though. A mattress appealed far more than the rudimentary hammock zipped inside mosquito netting, but at least he wouldn’t be sleeping on the ground and snuggling up with the scorpions and cockroaches. Or those damned snakes.
He took off his hat and swatted at the air. “I’m not going anywhere, boss lady. Like I told you back home, I’m in this until the bitter end.”
She smiled—a real one that reached the corners of her eyes and chased away Quint’s worries about her keeping secrets … at least for the time being.
“Good,” she said. “Bitter endings taste better when they’re shared, especially with you, Prince Charming.” She turned to her father. “What about you?”
“I like sharing things with Mr. Prince Charming, too. Especially María’s cooking.” He aimed a wink at Quint’s direction.
“I meant how’s your leg doing after a day of breaking trail?”
Juan had ended up with a compound fracture a couple of months ago thanks to the son of a bitch who’d also put a bullet in Quint’s thigh. Both of their wounds had healed, but Juan’s had more of a lasting effect, requiring the use of crutches for weeks initially and now a cane over rough terrain.
“My leg is fine, gatita. Don’t think for a moment you can try to send me home.”
She sighed. “Listen, I don’t want either of you to go home.”
“Then stop asking how my leg is doing and teasing Junior Mint about his fear of snakes and scorpions.”
What? Quint didn’t remember complaining about either of those two pests to Angélica.
“I just don’t want either of you to get hurt again.”
Quint scoffed. “And you’re bulletproof?”
“No,” she said. “But I want to be here.”
She had him there.
“What makes you think we don’t?” Juan asked.
“Please, Parker has made his feelings about humidity and bugs clear since the first time I met him.”
“Yeah,” Quint said, “but you trump both those, boss lady, so I’m happy to be here with you.”
“Happy? Can you really say that?”
She was focusing on the wrong half of what he’d said, but … “Sure. Mostly. Overall. At least in theory.”
“I think his fingers are crossed behind his back.” Juan nudged Quint’s leg with his boot, chuckling.
“Parker,” she started, reaching out to smack something on his arm.
He caught her hand and lifted it to his lips. “Better in Hell with you than anywhere else without you, sweetheart.”
“I wouldn’t kiss my fingers if I were you, heartbreaker.” She tugged her hand away before his lips made contact.
“Why?” Juan wrinkled his nose. “What have you been doing with your fingers, child?”
“Eww. Nothing weird, Dad. Sheesh.” She stuffed her hands in her pants pockets. “I just applied some of Teodoro’s bug repellent goop that he sent along.” She winced. “I think he added some ground hot pepper seeds into the mix this time.”
“Hot damn.” Her dad grinned Quint’s way. “That’s better than a chastity belt.”
“Too bad you weren’t wearing that when you met your ex-husband.” Quint winked at her. “Might have saved me a sore leg.”
“I’d kiss it better later, but I want you to put on some of Teodoro’s goop as soon as you take off your pants.”
He chuckled. “You sure know how to romance a guy.”
“Giddy up, Romeo.” She pointed at her dad.
“You, too. This batch is better than Teodoro’s last. A little hotter on the skin, especially around the mouth if you’re not careful.
” She grimaced, pausing to wipe her lips with her shirt collar.
“But the repellent part is working like magic.” She gave two thumbs-up, although her grimace was still in place.
“I don’t know, gatita.” Juan yawned. “Last time, whatever was in that stuff made my earlobes swell up as big as cow bells.”
She snorted. “Like I told you then, Dad, your earlobes were normal size. You were just hallucinating.”
“I was having visions because of that goop.”
“Yeah, but your so-called visions only lasted for an hour. Besides, Teodoro swore to me that he changed the formula to reduce the chance of hallucinatory side effects.”
The squint Juan shot her said plenty about his trust in Teodoro’s newest concoction.
Quint tugged on her pant leg. “What’s the plan for tomorrow, boss lady?”
“We wake at dawn and start ground truthing using the map made with the old LIDAR data.” She rubbed her hands together.
“I added info from Mom’s notes to the site map, but there wasn’t much there drawing wise.
Most of what she’d heard about this place was gleaned from eavesdropping at functions and reading research papers about nearby sites.
There aren’t many details on this site because nobody has dug here before. ”
“Nobody ever?” Juan asked, sounding skeptical. “How can you be sure?”
“At least not on record,” she amended. “Two different archaeologists came looking for it decades ago, according to INAH’s files.
They used chicleros as their guides, but either they weren’t impressed enough to come back for a closer look, or they didn’t find anything that was interesting enough to get them funding for a more thorough search. ”
“Dr. Angélica,” KuTu called out from over by the communications tent.
When she looked his way, the guard waved for her to come over. “I’ll be right back,” she said to them.
“Actually,” Juan said, rising from the chair, “I’m going to go to my hammock.
We have a long day tomorrow and I have a feeling there won’t be much time for a midday siesta.
” He started limping toward his meager quarters, but then paused and turned back.
“Where’s that spicy goop you want me to put on? ”
“I already put it on your hammock, Dad. Remember not to touch your mouth or eyes after you use it.” As her father walked away, she looked down at Quint. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Are you going to keep sitting here by the fire writing a laundry list of all of the reasons you hate the jungle in your notebook?”
Quint froze. Shit! Busted.
“Or are you going to your hammock?”
He glanced up at her, but she was frowning toward the trees, clearly focused on something else. Whew! She must have been teasing him. Still, her spot-on guesswork was a reminder that he needed to keep working on smiling more and cursing less while she was around.
“It’s too dark to write.” He swatted away another mosquito. “I think I’ll follow in your dad’s footsteps.”
She held out her hand to help him up. “If you want, I’ll stop by your hammock as soon as Dad finishes with the spicy goop and give you a quick rubdown.”
Quint chuckled as she tugged him upright. “You know just how to sweet talk me up onto the rocks, siren.”
“Come on, smartass.” She led the way toward the two neighboring zip-up hammocks where they’d be spending the night, squeezing his arm lightly before she veered off to where Raul along with KuTu now stood waiting for her under the makeshift tarp shelter.
Quint quickly shed his shirt and pants, tossing them over the rope clothesline slung between his and Angélica’s hammock. He hurried inside his hammock, using his backpack as a pillow.
He’d just killed the last of the mosquitoes that had snuck in with him when he heard the sound of crackling leaves and snapping twigs. He shined his light out through the mesh lining.
Angélica shielded her eyes. “I have the goop,” she said loud enough to be heard over the high-pitched songs of the millions of cockroaches, crickets, and whatever other insects were out there partying hard in the night air.
What he wouldn’t do to have a cloud of bats stop by the campsite for a nightcap.