Canyon of the Sphinx (8 page)

Murphy took a deep breath, puffed
out his cheeks, and let his gaze move over the landscape. "Maybe," he
said. "But there's more you should know about this.
La Tierra Dorada de
los Jaguares
wasn't a city that just disappeared naturally over the course
of time. It was apparently a city that violently ended; one day it was healthy,
the next it was dead." He looked at her. "If your knack is to locate
tombs and other spiritual relics, then this may indeed be up your alley.
La
Tierra Dorada de los Jaguares
, if the legends are correct, is one giant
tomb filled with thousands of souls. That's about as spiritual as you can
get."

That brought new meaning to the
entire circumstance. Because the information from UIR had been so vague, none
of that was mentioned, and Kathlyn slapped her thigh as her true mission was
suddenly revealed.

"Well, now we're getting
somewhere,” she exclaimed softly. “Why in the hell didn't you tell me this
earlier?"

"You didn't ask."

He was joking. Murphy had a very
wry, low-key sense of humor, Kathlyn was coming to see. It was cute; she knew
Debra Jo thought so. She cast him an exaggerated look that suggested nothing
but frustration. He grinned shyly and looked away.

"Okay," Kathlyn nodded
her head, ready to get down to business. "Let's see what we can see,
then."

"Are you going to pull out
that crystal ball now?"

"Better than that."

He made a face. "Oh, I get
it. You're going to flip a coin."

She put her hands on her hips to
show him just how annoyed she was with his comment.  The well-shaped eyebrows
lifted dramatically. "No, I usually use a Ouija board right about now, but
I left my good one at home."

Murphy was trying not to grin.
"I think I have some sheep's knuckles somewhere."

She scowled. "Quiet,
non-believer. Watch and learn."

Closing her eyes, she took a deep
breath and cleared her mind.  It was in moments like this that she got the best
sense of things; The State, her team called it, when some fantastic intuition
took over and she could feel and hear things around her that a less-sensitive
person couldn't.  The State descended on her like a blanket, freezing her up as
if in a trance, while sensations came to mind that helped her make sense of
what was around her.

Her intuition was a strange
thing. It wasn't like she could communicate with the dead or divine the future.
On archaeological sites, it wasn't even as if she could smell gold or locate
lost treasure. Mostly, she became very sensitive around tombs or other sites of
death.  It wasn't so much that she could see the past like a clairvoyant, but
it was more that she could feel the emotions most commonly involved in death.
But sometimes she did see things, like flashes of a dream, yet it wasn't
something she could conjure up on demand. It just happened.

She first discovered this gift as
a young child. Her grandfather had died and she remembered standing in the
graveyard, feeling the processions of many funerals past moving around her. It
had been a frightening sensation, one she ignored over the years until it
became so strong that she could no longer deny it.  It was quite by accident
that her gift found a place in her chosen profession. Pieces of the puzzle
simply came together and one day, it all made sense. Archaeology and her talent
for sensing the dead mixed.  People paid a lot of money for Kathlyn's sixth
sense and for most it had paid off.

 But this expedition was a little
different. Murphy wanted her to help him find a missing city that had
disappeared over night in some mysterious circumstance.  Behind her, Mark,
Otis, Larry and Andy were watching her closely, so closely that Murphy himself
became intensely curious about why they were studying her so carefully.   Her
breathing was steady, her face a healthy pink, so it wasn't like she was about
to pass out or fall into fits. He didn't know what she was doing until she
suddenly spoke.

"I feel... something," she
said it so softly that they barely heard her.

Otis was the first to respond.
"What are you feeling?"

Her eyes opened and Murphy could
see that the pupils were hugely dilated. She looked out over the great expanse
of jungle across the gorge, a strange expression on her face.

"It's very murky here,"
she mumbled.

"How?" Otis asked.

"It just is," she said.
"There's no flow here, only a murky depression. It covers this whole area
like a fog. It's very strange."

Murphy had his hands on his hips,
chewing his lip as he listened. He leaned towards Mark. "What's she
talking about?"

"She's getting a sense of
the place," he whispered.

"Huh?”

"It's how she works,"
Mark grinned. "She just opens her mind and things come to her. Mostly
emotions, sometimes images."

"She's a psychic?"

"Not exactly," Mark
said. "It's kind of hard to explain. You just have to be around to see
it."

Murphy cocked an eyebrow. He
wasn't particularly pessimistic, but he didn't particularly believe in the
paranormal, either.  "I was only joking when I said something about a
crystal ball."

"She wasn't."

Murphy looked at Mark strangely, watching
the man's grin broadened. "Trust me, Dr. Murphy," Mark consoled him.
"She knows what she's doing. She's not a wacko."

Murphy just lifted his eyebrows. 
He didn't know what to think. Gradually, Kathlyn's pupils returned to normal
and she let out a sharp breath as if exhausted.  Shaking her head, she turned
to Murphy.

"You've got a good site
here, Dr. Murphy," she said. "Full of ghosts."

Murphy had no idea what she was
talking about. "Are you serious?"

Kathlyn could see he wasn't quite
sure how to take her. No one, until they knew her, really was. She smiled and
shifted her pack from one shoulder to the other.

"What I mean to say is that
I think you're on the right track," she said. "I get a strong sense
from this place. When we get back to camp, I’d really like to see the data
pertaining to the disappearance of your city. It might help me."

Murphy wasn't sure if he felt
better or worse. A bit baffled, he turned for the trail that led down into the
growth. "Let's go down here. You can see what we've been up to."

Kathlyn fell in behind him. Half
way down the steep trail, she slipped and ended up plowing into the back of
him. It was like running into a brick wall. Murphy came to a halt, stopping her
forward momentum, and politely made sure she was okay before continuing on. 
Down under the jungle canopy, it was smelly and steamy.  There were several
workers spread out over a twine-sectioned area, carefully probing the ground.
Dr. Levine was in the middle of it, smiling brightly when he saw Kathlyn and
her team.

"So you found us," he
called to her. "Anything like that Egyptian dig you've been stuck
on?"

Kathlyn looked around. "The
only thing similar about it is a bunch of sweaty, underpaid people, including
me," she quipped. "Other than that, it's night and day."

Adam picked his way over the grid
towards her. "Your site is probably much more exciting."

"If you call scorpions,
terrorist threats and a platoon of Marines armed to the teeth exciting, then I
guess it is."

Adam laughed. "No Marines
here. They wouldn't waste their time. But we do have snakes and poisonous bugs
and things that belong in zoos around here. Better watch your step."

Murphy took her attention.
"If you want to come over here, you can see some of the more excavated
areas."

Kathlyn followed him several feet
to the right, where the jungle seemed to narrow dramatically. It was difficult
to move freely. But there was a neatly roped off area, so perfectly precise it
looked as if it had been dug along a ruler. With her team behind her, they
crouched down to inspect the layers of strata marking the progress Murphy had
made. He was meticulous and brilliant, reminding Kathlyn very much of her husband. 
She almost wasn't able to focus on what Murphy was saying as thoughts of Marcus
flashed through her brain.

A shout distracted her. Kimberly
was coming down the trail, kicking dirt and rocks down as she shuffled.  She
went straight for Murphy.

"Chris!" she called.
"There are some people in camp, media people, asking about you and Dr.
Trent!"

Kathlyn looked up at Kimberly.
"Who are they with?"

"World Geography
Magazine."

"You're kidding,"
Kathlyn frowned. "Did you see their credentials?"

Kimberly nodded. "They have
those badges the media wear and a bunch of paperwork. I really didn't look too
closely at it. They seemed legitimate."

"Well, if they're from World
Geography, I'll know them," Kathlyn said. "What names did they give
you?"

"Kevin Valentine and John
Desroches."

Kathlyn glanced up at Mark.
"Figures it would be them," she said. "Will you please go talk
to them and find out what the hell they're doing here?"

Mark nodded. But before he could
move, Dr. Murphy was standing, his pale blue eyes cold. "This is my dig,
Dr. Trent," he growled. "Under no circumstances is World Geography
going to photograph anything of mine. I don't know what kind of deal you've got
going, but media involvement was never agreed to pertaining to your visit here."

He was seriously angry. Kathlyn
stood up, a bit shocked that the mellow man actually had a temper. Well, it
wasn't even so much a temper as she knew tempers given the levels her husband
could reach, but it was close.  More than his tone or words, the pale blue eyes
were positively icy. There was a lot of power behind his glare.

"I don't know anything about
this, I assure you," she said steadily. "These two guys are free
lance photographers, kind of hyenas in the business. I don't know why they're
here and Mark is going to find out." She glanced over at her colleague.
"Go. Hurry up."

Mark fled. Murphy stood there,
his jaw flexing and his huge ham-sized forearms crossed.

"I'm not sure what's going
on here, but I'm not an idiot," he said quietly. "You're a media
archaeologist. Do you really expect me to believe that these photographers just
showed up unexpectedly?"

"Yes, because it's the
truth."

He just glared at her. Taking a
step across the grid, he ended up standing up against her. "Look," he
rumbled. "I've worked hard on this, so hard that it's taken fifteen years
of my life to end up in the worthless pit of a jungle. I know this doesn't look
like much to someone who's discovered a pharaoh's tomb, but to me it's my
life's work and I'm not about to let some media-savvy princess take it away
from me.  If this is some kind of set up to get a story out of this, then you
can just get the hell back on that plane and return to Egypt. You're not
getting a damn thing out of me."

She wasn't scared of him in the
least. But for a man who exuded nothing but a calm, laid-back manner, he could
be exceptionally intimidating if he wanted to be. In fact, he could compete
with Marcus on that level. Kathlyn took a step back, simply to surrender. She
had visions of those big hands wrapped around her neck.

"I completely understand,
Dr. Murphy, and I can assure you that this is no set-up," she said.
"I would never do that, no matter what misconceptions you have about
me."

He didn't believe her; that much
was evident. "I think that's enough for today," he said after a
moment. "I think you should go back to your cabin for now. I've got work
to do."

"But, Dr. Murphy,
I...."

"Go," he turned away
from her, walking past Kimberly. "Please. Just... get out of here."

Kathlyn waved the doctoral
students out. Otis wouldn't leave until she did. Kathlyn felt very bad but knew
there wasn't much more she could say. The best thing to do was as Murphy asked.
Without another word, she left the site, struggling back up the narrow trail
and disappearing up over the rise. Murphy only turned to make sure she had
really left, catching a glimpse of her shapely legs as she vanished into the
growth. He was so mad he could hardly see straight.

Picking up a chisel, he went to
work.

***

“I’ll give you two seconds to
tell me what you’re talking about or I start wringing necks.”

Lynn knew that Marcus meant him.
He’d known Marcus for twenty years and had never, in all that time, had a
physical altercation with him. Mostly because he knew he would lose. But he
could see that, at this moment, the record was in danger of being broken.

“Would you just calm down a
minute?” he demanded, fully prepared to duck the fist that would come swinging
at him the moment he spoke the words. “I’m trying to explain my meaning. This
morning, Juliana saw Jensen leaving your tent at the crack of dawn. Marcus, you
know how crazy pregnant women are. All those baby hormones screw up the mind.
She thought… well, anyway, she sent me over to go ask you what Jensen had been
doing there. I went in your tent and you weren’t there. But these were.”