Canyon of the Sphinx (39 page)

“That’s not necessary,” she fired
back at him. “I can squeeze in there right now and tell you if…”

She could see by the look on his
face that he was only going to let her back in there over his dead body.
Furious, she snatched the shovel that Tony had propped against the mud and took
a huge swing at the side of the hole. A large portion of the dirt collapsed.

“Fine,” she snapped. “We’ll do it
your way.”

Marcus cooled down, knowing he
would get nowhere if he butted heads with her. At least he had managed to pull
her out before she could hurt herself. Now they could properly examine whatever
entry or opening she happened to see, calmly and scientifically. He had never
gotten used to her maverick tactics. He emitted a whistle between his teeth,
signaling to Tony and Murphy when they looked up.

“We’ve got something,” he said
simply.

Tony climbed back up to the test
hole while Murphy practically flew. He took the shovel from Kathlyn, who was
angrily scooping up the dirt, and began clearing away the debris at an alarming
rate. Marcus had to work to keep up with him.

Kathlyn stood back, watching them
shovel. She forced herself to calm down, knowing Marcus had pulled her out for
her own safety but wishing just once he wouldn’t act like she didn’t know what
she was doing. She had gazed into the dark hole and witnessed a corbelled
entryway with blackness beyond. There had been nothing threatening that she
could assess, which is why she entered the hole to further examine what
appeared to be an opening to the pyramid. After all this time, Marcus still
didn’t trust her instincts. They had kept her alive long before she met him.

 Marcus and Christopher were on
their stomachs now, switching their shovels for trowels and big horsehair
brushes. Kathlyn watched them work and converse, consulting with one another,
and she suddenly felt very left out. She knew she shouldn’t have, since
technically, she had already accomplished her task long ago. She had located
the city. But ever since she had met and married Marcus, her usual ‘hit and
run’ tactics had turned into something more of an excavation and exploration
process. Murphy apparently didn’t want her for that. She would do the finding,
and he would do the exploring and excavating, now with Marcus’ help. Marcus
was, after all, a serious archaeologist. She was just a show.

Discouraged, and feeling the
slightest bit sorry for herself, she lowered herself off the slope and into the
courtyard area. A huge group of people were standing around, watching Murphy
and Marcus excavate the hole, but she walked past them without a word. Mark and
Debra Jo started to follow, but she shooed them off. She didn’t want any
company right now. She just wanted to be alone and let Murphy and Marcus have
their fun. She’d done her job. Her time was over.

Lost in thought, she never
noticed the shadow stalking her through the brush, nor did she feel the eyes
that had been watching her for days now. Her intuition always focused in one
zone, not the multitude of other areas it could have reached in to. She had
never once felt uneasy for her safety. It never occurred to her to do that,
even when she was in a dangerous environment.

A finger tapped her on the
shoulder and she turned around. Tony was standing beside her, his bright blue
eyes twinkling.

“And where do you think you’re
going?” he asked as a father would ask a child. “You’ll get lost out here.”

She wasn’t in the mood to be
teased. “I won’t get lost,” she said. “I just need some air.”

She continued on and he followed.
Hearing his footsteps, she came to a halt and turned around. “
Alone,
Tony. No offense, but I just want to be alone right now.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Not out
here. We’re relatively protected in the site because of all the activity and
people around, but there’s no telling what’s lingering out there in the jungle
for a lone woman.”

She knew he was right, but it
still frustrated her. They had reached the avenue of the sphinxes; Larry was
several feet away still going over the data from the GPR. The folding chair she
had opened that morning was to her right, so she plopped down in the seat hard
enough to rock it. Crossing her arms, she glared at him.

 “Fine,” she said. “I won’t go
anywhere. I’ll sit right here. But I want to sit here alone.”

Tony passed a long glance at
Larry, sitting in front of the computer with his ever-present pith hat on.
“Stanley Livingston is sitting over there, or didn’t you notice?”

“He doesn’t bother me like you
do.”

Tony just grinned. Kathlyn made a
face at him and looked away, preferring to pout alone.

 “Okay,” he turned around. “Just
scream if you need me.”

He walked two steps before she
called out to him. “You really don’t bother me, Tony.”

He kept walking. “I know.”

Kathlyn sat in silence while
Larry blended into the jungle, seen but not heard. All around her were sounds
of birds, of monkeys, and she reclined back in the chair, letting the sounds
soothe her. She knew she was being selfish, but she didn’t care. It was her
prerogative to be whatever she wanted to be at the moment.

 Marcus found her sitting in the
chair less than five minutes later. He had dirt on his face, in his hair, and
covering his worn blue shirt. He wore an expression of both concern and
irritation as he walked up on his wife.

“What are you doing here?” he
asked. “We’ve widened the hole enough to make entry. Murphy won’t go in without
you.”

She shook her head and looked
away from him, her green eyes trailing out over the jungle beyond. “You don’t
need me. You two go ahead.”

His brow furrowed. “Come on,
Kathlyn, this is no time for games. We’ve got a pyramid to take a look at.”

She looked at him, then. “I was
trying to take a look at it. You pulled me out.”

His expression went from
irritation to understanding. “So that’s what this is about,” he said. “You’re
pouting.”

She just shook her head. He knew
getting mad at her wouldn’t do any good, so he used the tactic he used much
more as of late; he catered to her.

“Sweetheart, I just didn’t want
you to get hurt, you know that,” he knelt beside the chair and took her hand in
his dirty palm. He pressed her fingers to his lips. “I’m sorry if I made you
mad. I didn’t mean to. Now, will you please come back?”

She looked at him, her lips
slightly pursed. He knew she was pouting no matter how much she would deny it.
He knew she could be a diva. But he loved her that way.

“You know what I realized
watching you and Chris as you enlarged that hole?” she said. “No matter how
much people want me around, professionally, they still don’t take me entirely
seriously. I fall into fits, divine the location of Chris’ city, but when push
comes to shove and we actually locate something of importance, he ends up
consulting with you. You’re the real archaeologist, Marcus. Not me. Sometimes…
sometimes I wish I had your reputation and not mine.”

His expression, and tone,
softened. “Don’t say that,” he said. “Murphy consulted with me because I
happened to be there, that’s all.”

She shook her head at him.
“That’s not true and you know it. When you first met me, you said I was a Media
Archaeologist. You were right. That’s exactly what I am. Do you think people
watch my shows to see how smart and serious I am? Of course not. They watch it
to see a pretty girl talk about interesting things. Once in a while I show some
cleavage. That’s all anyone cares about. But you… you’re revered. You’re the
most amazing intellect I’ve ever known and you have everything that I lack.”

He sighed heavily, reached out
and took her by the arms. Lifting her to stand, he put his dirty hands on her
cheeks and forced her to look at him. Cobalt blue blazed into sensuous,
brilliant green.

“Murphy consulted with me because
I happened to be there,” he said again, more firmly. “Kathlyn, you have the
brains to match your beauty and then some. You’re a phenomenal archaeologist.
I’m not sure where this self-doubt is coming from, but I don’t like it. I need
you over at the dig right now because I require both your knowledge and your
opinion. So does Murphy. You have more insight into things like this than I
could ever hope to have. I’m black and white, remember? You’re all the colors
of the rainbow.”

He managed to get a weak smile
out of her. “Do you really think so or are you just saying that because you’re
married to me?”

“I wouldn’t be married to you if
I didn’t think so.”

Her grin widened. “Okay. Thanks
for the pep talk.”

He kissed the tip of her nose.
That wasn’t enough for him so he kissed her lips, too, deeply.  “Come on,” he
took her by the hand. “Murphy is waiting, and probably not too patiently at
this point.”

Kathlyn followed him a few steps.
“Did you know that Chris and Debra Jo slept together?”

The change of subject almost gave
him whiplash. Marcus’ eyebrows flew up. “You’re kidding.”

“Not at all. But don’t say
anything, okay? It’s a secret.”

Marcus let out a whistle of
surprise. “So what happens when those two get married? Do I gain another
archaeologist or do you lose a team member?”

She laughed softly. “It’s a
little too soon for that question. I think it was opportunity sex.”

“What’s that?”

“Don’t tell me you’ve never had a
one-night stand.”

He shrugged coyly as they entered
the edge of the courtyard clearing. “In college. Once. I think I was drunk. And
horny. What’s Debra Jo’s excuse?”

“She was drunk and horny. So was
he, apparently. She said he’s hung like a horse.”

“Oh, Christ, I didn’t need to
know that.”

“He’s also into some pretty kinky
stuff.”

“Like wh-? Forget it, don’t tell
me. I don’t want to know.”

“He wanted her to cuff him and
whip his ass.”

“What?”

Kathlyn burst out laughing. “Just
kidding. I knew that would freak you out. But he kept calling himself
Trouser-Snake Jake.”

Marcus rolled his eyes and put a
hand up to stop her from saying any more. Murphy seemed like a normal, low-key
guy without any hidden weirdness. But the more Marcus tried not to think on it,
the more he inevitably focused on the thought. He started laughing. Because he
was laughing, Kathlyn started laughing. Then she smacked him on the arm to
quiet him as they drew close.

“Not a word, Marcus. Swear it.”

“I swear. Oh, look… there’s Dr.
Jake now.”

“Marcus!”

***

Christopher had no idea why
Marcus was wiping tears from his eyes when he ascended the slope with Kathlyn
in tow. The man didn’t look like he was crying, but there were clearly tears in
his eyes. Kathlyn looked strange, too, like she was choking. But she was
clearly breathing and she greeted Christopher with a little too much
enthusiasm.

All weirdness aside from the two
of them, there was a very real sense of excitement in the air. Marcus and
Christopher had managed to widen the hole to about three and a half feet in
diameter, big enough for the men to crawl through. Shining the MagLites inside,
they could see something of a shaped stone doorway with some kind of carved
corbel at the crest. That’s when Marcus had gone for Kathlyn, who seemed to
have disappeared.

They didn’t have any of Kathlyn’s
usual equipment for exploring in tight, unknown quarters. She had Motorola
two-way radio transmitter head-sets that would transmit a signal through just
about anything. It was back at SCU, with the rest of her gear that had been
shipped off of the Valley of the Kings site. She was also missing her essential
gear – her personal MagLites, a smaller battery powered light with extra
batteries, special nylon ropes used by rock climbers with a couple of
nylon-tipped grappling hooks, a measuring tape, several clean artists brushes,
a dental explorer, a notebook and two mechanical pencils, tracing paper, a
special electronic reference dictionary with software that catalogued ancient
cults, sects, anomalies and the like, and a digital movie camera. She was also
missing her voice-activated tape recorder. As she knelt down before the hole to
peer inside, the fact that she wasn’t entirely prepared had her uneasy.

“Okay, boys,” she looked to
Christopher, her husband. “What kind of equipment have we prepared for this
venture? I don’t have any of my usual stuff. I feel kind of naked.”

Christopher shrugged. “Anything
used for exploration is back at camp. All I can offer you is Maglites, a
laptop, a small video camera, chains, rope, flares.…”

She put up her hand. “I get the
picture. This isn’t the way I normally do things.”

“So what do you need?”

She ran through the list of items
she normally carried into unknown waters. Murphy glanced at Marcus, a look of
embarrassment on his face.

“I can only give you what I
listed,” he said, his voice soft and perhaps with some regret. “We’re not as
well supplied as what you’re used to.”