Canyon of the Sphinx (5 page)

Marcus just looked at her. Jensen
could see a faint tick in his jaw. "This conversation is over for
tonight," he turned back to his desk. "We'll start fresh tomorrow and
figure out what in the hell happened."

Jensen left without another
word.  Crossing the compound, she was smiling.

CHAPTER
THREE

The plane set down in Cancun,
Mexico in the late morning. Being January, the weather was gorgeous and the sea
breeze was balmy. Disembarking the AirMexico jet they had taken from San Juan,
Kathlyn and her team stepped out in to the warm tropical sunshine. It was
slightly humid. After the dry heat of Egypt, the temperate climate felt
wonderful.

The airport sat well away from
the city.  It was a small airport with a worn tarmac and the old-fashioned
portable stairs that they rolled up to the side of the plane.  The pilot had
come out as Kathlyn was disembarking to shake her hand and tell her what a fan
he was of her programs.  With loads of carry-on luggage, they made their way
across the tarmac to the small terminal to collect the rest of their baggage.

Once inside, there were vendors
everywhere trying to sell timeshares and tours. Poor little kids were hanging
around trying to sell them candy and gum. Mark and Otis acted as Kathlyn's
bodyguards as they moved through the terminal. Debra Jo walked behind them
while Andy and Larry brought up the rear. For this occasion, the doctoral
students were dressed in khaki pants with enough pockets to carry every item
they owned. They wore long sleeved shirts and pith hats with netting to protect
against bugs, and Andy carried a huge bottle of insect repellant in one of his
trouser pockets. They looked like they were ready to explore the entire Amazon
basin.

The people from UIR were supposed
to meet them by the baggage claim but Kathlyn saw no sign of them as they began
to collect all of the baggage from the round-about conveyor belt. Andy and
Larry stacked it nicely by the exit, taking turns watching the stuff while the
others collected and stacked.  Kathlyn grabbed her own personal bags and stood
with Mark, keeping her eyes peeled for Dr. Murphy and his gang.

They weren't long in waiting. A
young, sinewy man with wide brown eyes walked up to them, smiling an infectious
gap-toothed smile.

"Dr. Trent," he thrust
out a surprisingly large hand. "I'm Dr. Adam Levine, Dr. Murphy's
associate. I'm so pleased to finally meet you. Welcome to Mexico."

Kathlyn shook his hand.
"Thanks," she said. "We've got a lot of gear here; I hope you
brought a truck."

Adam nodded. "Three of them,
actually." He grinned like an idiot. "I'm really thrilled to meet
you.  I'm sort of in awe right now, so you'll have to excuse me."

Kathlyn waved him off.
"Don't be. It'll just make the reality of it that much more of a let-down. 
So how far out is your site?"

"About four hours to the
southwest. We're near the Belize border."

"On a nice, bumpy dirt road,
I'm going to guess."

Adam snorted. "Dirt if we're
lucky. Mud is more like it."

Kathlyn smiled knowingly. She'd
seen a lot of roads like that and worse.  "Did Dr. Murphy come with
you?"

"No," Adam shook his
head. "He had some things he needed to take care of. He'll be waiting for
us at the camp."

There was something in Dr.
Levine's tone that suggested he was lying. Maybe it was that he suddenly seemed
ill at ease with her question, or the fact that he wasn't looking her in the
eye when he answered her. Whatever the case, Kathlyn suspected she knew the
problem; Murphy didn't want her on his site. She was used to that sort of thing. 
Marcus had been the same way, but he hadn't been so discreet about his
displeasure. He had positively been an ass. Most old-school archaeologists had
a problem with her methods and her flash, but it didn't bother her like it used
to; especially when she had the last laugh by producing results.

Kathlyn bent down to collect her
gear but Adam was all over it, slugging it over his shoulders. Kathlyn
suspected he would have picked her up, too, if he could have managed it just so
her feet wouldn't touch the ground.  Emerging from the baggage claim into the
moist tropical sunshine, they were met at the curb by a slender woman with long
dark hair and flashing hazel eyes who introduced herself as Adam's wife,
Kimberly.  Kimberly was much more in control of herself around Kathlyn than her
husband was, but she was very sweet and helpful and put Kathlyn in the air
conditioned cab of one of the old trucks while several airport workers loaded
up the gear. In little time they were set to go and the convoy of three dirty
trucks pulled out of the airport loading zone.

As soon as they got away from the
airport, the landscape turned rural and primordial. It was like the airport was
a little beacon of civility in the midst of a raging jungle. Dr. Levine sat
next to her and Mark, driving the old truck and chattering nervously.  Kathlyn
plopped her sunglasses on, leaned back, and tried to enjoy the ride in spite of
Dr. Levine's yakking.

As Adam talked about their work
and Dr. Murphy's incredible brilliance, Kathlyn's mind wandered to Marcus and
the children. She missed them before she even got on the plane at Luxor,
holding the kids tightly and trying not to cry. But the boys didn't want to be
held and they raced around the airport terminal until Marcus ordered them to
sit quietly, and sit they did.  The baby had just chewed on her fingers and
drooled like crazy, gazing up at her mother with her big cobalt blue eyes. 
Kathlyn still held that picture in her mind. But her biggest ache was for her
husband, a gaping hole in her heart without his presence beside her. She felt
incomplete somehow, yet she understood his reasons for not coming and she
agreed completely with them. But that didn't ease the longing.

Her mother hadn't called her back
and she wondered what the woman could possibly be doing not to return a call.
She wanted to get her on a plane to Egypt as soon as possible so that Marcus
could join her. The Iridium cellular phone at her side suddenly vibrated and
she jumped, fumbling with the buttons.

"Dr. Trent," she
answered.

"Well?" came a familiar
voice. "Did you make it?"

Kathlyn smiled, hearing Marcus'
voice.  It brought her tremendous comfort. "Yes, my love, I did.  I'm in
the middle of the Mexican Riviera and loving every minute of it. There's no
desert!"

On the other end, Marcus laughed.
"You mean to say you prefer a tropical paradise to sand storms and
scorpions? What's the matter of you, woman?"

"Oh, I don't know,"
Kathlyn said casually. "Just fickle, I guess. So how are you?"

"Ready to crash for the
night. Aren't you tired?"

"No. I slept on the
plane."

"No jet lag?"

"Not yet. But call me
tomorrow and see if I don't sing a different song."

"All right," Marcus
yawned. "I'll let you get down to business, then. I just wanted to check
in and make sure you were okay."

"I'm glad you did." The
familiar pangs squeezed her heart. "I miss you, honey. I love you. Kiss
the kids for me."

"I love you, too," he
said. "I'll try to... uh, hold on a second."

Kathlyn heard him mumbling
something in the background. She could tell by the tone of his voice that he
wasn't pleased. After a few moments, he came back on the line.

"I gotta run, sweetheart.
I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"What's wrong?"

"Jensen's here. She needs to
talk to me about something."

Kathlyn didn't know why, but a
serious stab of jealousy rocked her. "What in the hell is she doing there
so late? Doesn't she ever sleep?"

Marcus sounded impatient.
"Couldn't tell you. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Love you."

The phone went dead. Kathlyn sat
there a moment, tremendous anger blossoming in her chest. Frustrated, she shut
down the phone and put it away. When she looked up, Mark was staring at her.

"What's up?" he asked.

Kathlyn shook her head, looking
out of the window.  "Jensen needed to talk to him," she said. She
suddenly looked at Mark. "It's the goddamn middle of the night in Egypt.
What's she doing wanting to talk to my husband in the middle of the
night?"

Mark tried to remain objective.
"She's preparing for an audit. Maybe she's just a workaholic and can't put
her work down once she gets started."

"But she’s bugging my
husband in the dead of night."

"So? Who else should she
bug?"

"Hey, whose side are you on?"

"Are you worried?"

Kathlyn cooled. "Of course
not. I trust Marcus implicitly. But if any woman is going to bug him in the
middle of the night, it's going to be me, and it isn’t going to be to discuss a
damn audit."

Mark grinned. "Spoken like a
true wife." He patted her arm. "Don't worry about it. Marcus can
handle himself. If Jensen Elder has any notions of making a play for him, which
I'm sure she doesn't, then I feel sorry for her."

"Why?"

"Because Marcus won't be the
one to worry about.  I'd worry about you coming down on her like the wrath of
God."

Kathlyn's irritation was soothed.
He was right. She gave Mark a lop-sided grin. "You know me too well, my
friend."

Mark laughed. Dr. Levine had
fallen silent during the phone call and now sat quietly driving the truck down
the bumpy road. Listening to Kathlyn Trent's personal crisis made him realize
that she was, indeed, a human being like all the rest of them. She had always
seemed so surreal to him, just a beautiful face on the television screen. Her
comment back at the airport about the let down of reality made more sense now.

The road was growing
progressively worse and the jungle far more dense. The air smelled of rotting
leaves. Adam slowed the truck because the ground had big holes in it that were
playing hell with the vehicle suspension. Kathlyn held on to the top of the
truck, getting the guts shook out of her, laughing when Mark bounced so hard he
hit his head on the roof. Adam apologized several times, trying to avoid the
worst of it.

The road eventually leveled out
and they found themselves in the thick of the steamy jungles. At one point,
they came across a fallen tree and the convoy came to a halt. Everyone,
including Kathlyn, leapt out to help move the log so the trucks could pass. 
Debra Jo saw some sort of colorful snake that sent her and the doctoral
students jetting back into the truck like scared rabbits. Kathlyn, Mark and
Otis watched the snake slither back into the growth as one of the Mexican
workers turned to them.

"Bueno comer," he said,
grinning with missing teeth.
Good to eat.

"Qué clase de serpiente es
él?" Kathlyn asked.
What kind of snake?

The worker rubbed his stomach and
smacked his lips. "Buen."
A good one!

"What did he say?" Otis
looked at Kathlyn

She smiled. "He said it is
good to eat."

Kathlyn had a working knowledge
of Spanish and French. The Spanish she had acquired a few years ago while
working on a dig just south of Mexico City. The French was from seven years of
it in high school and college. She could also speak passable Italian. But her
husband's country, Egypt, only spoke Arabic and she always felt a little lost.
After four years, for some reason she hadn't picked much of it up. She had left
all of the translating duties to Marcus. Now, she felt a little more at home in
a country with a language she could understand.

Back in the trucks, it was
another three hours before they reached the encampment. Nestled deep in the
heart of the borderlands, it was a collection of tents and plywood units. It
was humid yet the air itself, because of the elevation, was cool. Kathlyn and
her team disembarked the trucks, looking around the camp curiously.  Adam said
something to the native workers hovering nearby and they flew about in a
frenzy, unloading Kathlyn's gear. Apparently, three of the plywood houses had
been set up for Kathlyn and her team. Kimberly took Kathlyn to a small unit and
showed her inside.

 There were two beds, one for
Kathlyn and one for Debra Jo. A small table sat against one wall under the only
window, which wasn't really much of a window; it was a screen with shutters
that locked out any unwanted element. But it was relatively clean and a curtain
in the corner blocked off the view of a portable toilet.

"I know it's not much, but
it's better than what most of us have," Kimberly smiled apologetically.
"The shower is just down here to your right; women from six-thirty to
seven-thirty, and men from eight to nine.  But Dr. Murphy is always in the
shower by about four a.m., just so you know."

Kathlyn smiled. "Thanks a
lot, Dr. Levine. You can let Dr. Murphy know that I'm ready to get to work as
soon as possible."

"I will," Kimberly
said. "And it's just Mrs. Levine. Kimberly, really. I'm not an
archaeologist; I'm just married to one."