Canyon of the Sphinx (11 page)

“You’re a liar,” she finally
said. “You’re a liar and….”

Jensen suddenly wasn’t looking at
her. She was out of her chair, looking at the television screen. Juliana wasn’t
done with her yet and tried to continue her raving, but she saw what Jensen
saw; a news report with Kathlyn’s picture looming in the background. Hurriedly,
she looked around for the remote and pumped up the volume.

“… is unknown at this time.
Southern California University in Los Angeles is standing by its ‘no comment’
policy at this time, but unconfirmed reports from Belize have Dr. Kathlyn Trent
undergoing major surgery at this hour. Again, recapping one of our top stories
this evening, Dr. Kathlyn Trent has suffered major trauma in the Yucatan
Peninsula and her current condition is unknown.  We’ll pass any new information
along to you as soon as it becomes available. Now, moving on to other news, the
stock market plunged today to….”

Juliana didn’t hear any more. The
remote was on the floor and she was flying out of the tent faster than she had
ever moved in her life. Racing through the compound, she heard panicked grunts,
not realizing they were her own. Tearing down the road that lead to the parking
lot for the Valley of the Kings, she screamed across the parking lot, past the
security shack and main entrance, and raced up the stairs leading to the tomb. 
By the time she reached the top, she was exhausted and close to passing out. Tony
was on guard and he caught her as she stumbled to her knees.

“Juliana,” he was concerned.
“What’s…?”

He didn’t even get the question
out of his mouth. Juliana was hysterical. “Marcus,” she gasped. “I need Marcus.
Where is he?”

“In the tomb, honey,” Tony said
soothingly. Jerking his head at another Marine, the man went on the run down
into the bowels of the tomb. “We’ll get him for you. What the hell is wrong?”

Juliana began to cry. Great,
heaving gasps are all that would come out. Tony was gravely concerned and tried
to comfort her.

“Slow down,” he said. “Just catch
your breath. Marcus will be here in a minute.”

“Kathlyn,” she could barely
speak. “Something has happened to Kathlyn.”

Tony’s eyes widened. “What?”

“I saw it on the news. The
reporter said she had suffered major trauma in the Yucatan.” She grabbed Tony’s
arms, squeezing them. “Oh my God, Tony, what are we going to do? What if it’s
true and she’s sick or dying?”

Tony hauled her to her feet. He
couldn’t wait for Marcus to get there and he half-carried her, half-dragged her
into the shaft that led down into the tomb. She was weeping violently,
struggling for every breath.  They passed through Chamber A and down the steep
steps of Stairwell B. By the time they reached Corridor C, they could see Marcus
heading towards them through Chamber D. Lynn, Dennis and Gary were with him.
They could hear Juliana’s pants from where they stood.

 “What’s going on?” Marcus
demanded.

Tony and Juliana emerged from the
corridor. Lynn took his wife from Tony. “Baby, what’s the matter? What’s
happened?”

Juliana looked at Marcus. “Oh,
Marcus,” she wept. “The news came on and the reporter said that Kathlyn has
suffered major trauma in the Yucatan. They said she was undergoing major
surgery. They said….”

Marcus didn’t let her finish. He
was racing at top speed back through Corridor C, up the stairs, into Chamber A
and out through the shaft. Dennis, Gary and Tony were struggling to keep up.
Lynn was still struggling with Juliana and there was no way they could keep
pace. Marcus didn’t want anyone to keep pace with him; at the moment, the only
thing he could focus on was blind panic and confusion.

The parking lot and the camp
passed in a blur. He was in the administrative tent, roaring for the Iridium
cellular phone and kicking over the desk when he didn’t find it fast enough.
Someone handed it to him; he thought it was Jensen but he wasn’t sure, nor did
he care. He started to dial it but realized it was already dialed and
connected. The voice on the other end was McGrath’s.

“Marcus,” Jobe said steadily.
“Call Mark on his cell phone. Do you hear me?
Call Mark
!”

“Jobe,” Marcus’ voice was
quaking. “What in the name of God has happened?”

“Mark said she got bit by a
snake,” McGrath said. He sounded horribly strained. “They think it was a Common
Lancehead, a poisonous snake that’s native to the area down there.  Christ,
Marcus, we’ve been trying to get a hold of you for hours. They’ve got her in
some little clinic down there but, Jesus Christ, I don’t like it at all. I’ve
called the White House in the hope that we can get her a military airlift to a
hospital in Mexico City. It’s a two hour ride by helicopter, but she needs to
be in a modern medical facility and not in some little jungle clinic.”

Marcus was as close to collapsing
as he had ever been in his entire life. The world was rocking and someone
steered him into a chair. “Oh, my God,” he breathed. “How long ago did all this
happen?”

“Less than a day, about fifteen
hours,” McGrath said. “Mark said the doctors down there succeeded in filling
her up with anti-venom, but it’s a bad bite, Marcus. She went into shock and
stopped breathing twice.”

Marcus put his hand over his
face. It was like the worst nightmare he could possible imagine. “This can’t be
happening,” he whispered. “Jobe, I’ve got to get on a plane for the Mexico.”

“I know.”

“Now.”

“I know; we’re already working on
it. But Marcus, there’s something else.”

“Oh, God, what?”

McGrath’s voice softened. “She
got bit in the leg,” he said hoarsely. “Mark said… he said the doctors think
they may have to remove it. Those snakes not only fill you full of venom, but
full of bacteria as well. Necrosis is a very real threat.”

The hand on Marcus’ face went
over his mouth to prevent a horrified moan from coming out.  He couldn’t
breathe. He thought he might vomit. But he forced himself to breathe, to calm,
feeling hands on his shoulders, rubbing him, trying to rub away the panic. It
was Juliana, weeping with every breath. She was feeling this almost as much as
he was.

“You get her out of that goddamn
hospital,” Marcus could hardly choke out the words. “You get her out of that
goddamn place and to a decent hospital. Nobody is cutting off anything, do you
hear me? I swear to God I’ll….”

“I know, Marcus, calm down. We’re
going to get you to her as fast as we can.”

“When does my plane leave?”

“Wait a second,” McGrath paused
for the longest thirty seconds of Marcus’ life. Then he was back. “The soonest
flight we can get you on leaves Luxor in an hour and a half. That’s pretty late
to book a flight, but we explained the situation and they’re willing to waive
the usual restrictions. That gives you twenty-five minutes to get to the
airport and to the boarding gate. If you miss that, you’ll have to wait four
hours.”

“I’m on it.”

Marcus turned off the phone,
letting it fall to the ground. He looked at Juliana and Lynn. He was so pale
that he was absolutely pasty.

“The kids,” he rasped. “I need
you to watch the babies. I’ve got to go be with Kathlyn.”

“Consider it done, man,” Lynn
clapped him on the shoulder. “What else do you need, Marcus? What can we do?”

“Nothing,” Marcus wasn’t thinking
clearly. “I’ve got a flight out of Luxor in an hour and a half. I’ve got to
make it.”

Tony was already running for the
motor-pool area to commandeer a car. Juliana stood beside Marcus, quivering and
sobbing.

“What did Jobe say?” she asked.

“Snakebite,” Marcus was almost
incoherent. Lynn had to take him by the shoulders and move him toward the door.
“She went into shock and stopped breathing a couple of times. The doctors think
she might lose her leg.”

Juliana swayed; Gary was standing
behind her and steadied her before she could topple. “Oh, God, no,” she gasped.
“This can’t be happening.”

Marcus couldn’t think.  Once
outside, he came to a sudden halt. “The phone,” he snapped his fingers. “I need
the phone. I need to call Mark.”

Gary found it back on the floor
of the tent and retrieved it. Marcus’ clumsy fingers dialed the number to
Mark’s cellular phone, barely remembering the sequence. Lynn and Dennis passed
a few words, deciding very quickly that Lynn should stay with Marcus while
Dennis would go throw a few things into a travel bag for him to take to the
Yucatan. In his current state, they would be lucky if he remembered his own
name much less anything else.

The cellular phone rang five
times. Marcus counted. At the beginning of the sixth ring, someone picked up.

“La Coste.”

It was Mark. Marcus felt as if he
was about to explode. “What in the hell is going on with my wife?”

“Marcus,” Mark sounded incredibly
relieved. “Where have you been? We’ve been trying to get a hold of you since
last night!”

“I’ve been here,” Marcus was
practically shouting. “I’ve been here the whole goddamn time.”

“We tried calling and calling,
but some recording came on saying the phone was no longer in service. Then we
tried the land lines and the phone just rang and rang. It was like a
nightmare.”

 Marcus couldn’t deal with that
now. “What’s happened to Kathlyn?”

“A snake bit her,” Mark sounded
frightened and exhausted. “She must have stepped on it. Bit her in her right
calf, just below the knee. Those big black boots she wears almost blocked it,
but not quite. It tagged her good.”

Marcus was shaking so bad that
Lynn had to practically hold him up. “How is she right now?”

“She’s resting,” Mark said. “They’ve
got a lot of fluids pumping into her, but her leg is swelled up like a balloon.
And she’s in a hell of a lot of pain.”

“Is she awake?” Marcus’ throat
was tightening and he realized it was because he was about to cry. He hadn’t
cried since childhood and it was a strong, uncontrollable feeling. “Can I talk
to her?”

“Hold on,” Mark said quietly. The
phone was brushing around and it was apparent he was moving. “Let me see.  Hey,
Kat? You asleep?”

The phone jostled again. The next
voice he heard was very weak, and very familiar. “Marcus?”

Marcus closed his eyes at the
sound of his wife’s voice and tears streamed down his cheeks. “Hi, sweetheart.
God, it’s good to hear you.”

On the other end of the line,
Kathlyn started crying. “Marcus,” she sobbed faintly. “I need you here.”

“I know,” he could hardly speak.
“I’m on the next flight out of Luxor. I’ll be there, I promise. You’re going to
be fine, sweetheart, just fine. Do you hear me?”

“It hurts like a son-of-a-bitch,”
she rasped. “I wish they’d just cut the goddamn thing off and be done with it.”

“Nobody is going to do anything
until I get there,” he wiped at his cheeks but fresh tears kept coming.
“McGrath is trying to get a military airlift to get you to a descent hospital
in Mexico City. In the meantime, Mark and Otis and Debra Jo are there to take
care of you, and they will. You tell them you’re hurting and they’ll have the
doctor give you something for it.”

“The doctor did give me
something,” she mumbled. “It’s not working.”

“Just hang on, sweetheart. I’m on
my way.”

“Don’t hang up,” she begged
softly. “Stay on the phone with me. Marcus, I’m so scared. I’ve never been so
scared in my whole life.”

Coming from a woman who climbed
mountains and scaled ravines for a living, her statement was saying something. 
“I won’t hang up,” he said. “Tony is going to drive me to the airport right
now. I should be there by tonight.”

“I wanted you to come with me,”
she whispered. “Guess I went a little overboard on the drastic measures.”

He laughed, hearing her humor,
knowing all wasn’t lost if she was still joking. Kathlyn was a fighter all the
way. “No stomping on snakes next time,” he pretended to be stern. “A fake
injury is just as good as a real one when you’re half a world away. I wouldn’t
know I’ve been duped until I got there. And I wouldn’t be mad all that long,
anyway.”

She didn’t say anything for a
moment and he was afraid he’d lost her. “How are the kids?” she sounded very,
very tired.

“They’re fine,” he said. “Lynn
and Juliana are going to take care of them while I’m gone. Don’t worry about
them.”

“Did my mom ever call?”

“No.”

“I miss my babies,” she said
softly. “Marcus, if anything happens to me….”

“Nothing’s going to happen.” He
didn’t mean to snap at her, but he couldn’t help it. “Don’t even say that.
You’re going to be fine.”

“But if I’m not,” she continued
softly, “I want you to do me a favor.”

He didn’t like this line of
conversation, but he humored her. “Anything, sweetheart, you know that.”

“Give up Egypt. Raise them back
home in California, some small town somewhere where they can go to school and
play football and go to the local diner on a Friday night and not have to worry
about scorpions and sandstorms and international intrigue. I want them to have
a normal life. Promise me.”