Canyon of the Sphinx (43 page)

“You got mixed up in something
that does not concern you,” the woman said. “But… I think I can use you.”

“Use me for what?” Christopher
was starting to grow agitated. “Look, lady, I’ve had just about all I can take
of this. Somebody better tell me something that makes sense, and tell me fast.”

She made sure to hold the gun
where he could see it. “I just told you. You were taken by mistake. But I think
you’ll be useful. Very useful.”

He wasn’t getting any straight
answers. “So are you just going to give me the run around with your ridiculous
answers or do I have to guess at what’s going on here? So far, from what I’ve
gathered, you wanted Burton and not me.”

The woman’s face tightened. “I
sent these idiots for the big American archaeologist. They brought you. I will
admit, you are big and you are American, but I wanted the other one. They just
didn’t get me.”

“What in the hell for? And how
did you even know Burton was on my site?”

“Where Dr. Trent goes, so goes
Burton.”

Instead of becoming clearer on
why he was here, he was only becoming more confused. But it was a dark, ominous
confusion. He didn’t like the woman’s expression or the way she held the gun.
She was like a powder keg of psychosis, ready to explode at any moment.

 “What has Dr. Trent got to do
with any of this?” he asked.

A wicked gleam came to the
woman’s eye. She looked as if she was going to become insanely angry, but then
she erupted in shrill laughter. She scratched her cheek with the barrel of the
gun, as if it meant nothing to her at all. The more she laughed, the more
apprehensive Christopher.

“Everything, Dr. Murphy,” she
said after her laughter died down. “She has everything to do with this. What
she has done to me is purely evil. The woman and her entire empire have all but
destroyed everything I’ve worked for. And, as God so expressively put it,
Vengeance is mine.”

Because of his Pre-Med background,
Christopher knew something of Psychology. He could see what he was dealing
with, even though he didn’t know all of the details. The woman was out for
Kathlyn. Slowly, but surely, his presence here was starting to make some sense.

“So you’re trying to get to her
through Burton?” he asked, his voice calm and gentle.

 The woman stared at him. There
was something extraordinarily disturbing about the way her eyes twitched.
“Things must be squared away,” she said after a moment. “I mean, she’s got to be
made to pay. She’s got to know that she can’t run everyone’s lives the way she
does. She has to know there is punishment for her actions, which no one has
been brave enough to administer until now.”

He watched her toy with the gun,
almost seductively. Frankly, it gave him a bad taste in his mouth. “So… what?
You’re going to kill Burton?”

She looked at him as if he was a
moron. “Of course not. But she would pay handsomely for his return, don’t you
think?” She suddenly leaned forward in the chair, her dark eyes glittering at
him. “That would make it easy for you if I did kill him, wouldn’t it?”

His brow furrowed. “What in the
hell does that mean?”

She smiled, a very pretty gesture
had it not been so malevolent. “I heard all about you, Dr. Murphy. Looking at
you, I can see why. You’re gorgeous.”

“What did you hear?”

“That you and Dr. Trent had an
affair. If I were go get rid of Burton, that would clear the way for you,
wouldn’t it?”

His jaw ticked. “I don’t know who
told you that, but it’s a load of crap. Dr. Trent and Dr. Burton are both good
friends of mine.”

She lounged back in the chair,
casually. “My friends over there tell me differently.” She indicated the two
workers that Christopher had recognized. “Besides, my lawyers told me that
Trent and Burton were separated for over a month because of you. If that isn’t
a wide-open indication of an affair, I don’t know what is.”

Christopher was stunned,
confused. He hadn’t known about any separation, but he should have suspected.
After his blow up with Burton, Dr. Trent had left the site separately from her
husband. She wouldn’t even speak to him. He could only surmise that it was
during that period of time that they were separated and the thought left him
sickened. Far more went on as a result of his selfishness than he had known.

“I really don’t know what you’re
talking about,” he said after a moment.

She just giggled. “This is her
third visit down here, Dr. Murphy. Why do you think Burton is with her?
Certainly not because he’s an expert in Mexican archaeology.  He’s watching
over his wife to keep her away from you.”

He just looked away from her,
grossly off-balance. He could hear her snickering behind him and it infuriated
him.

 “Whatever you want from me, I’m
not going to do it,” he rumbled. “I’m not going to help you with anything.”

She got up, prancing around with
the gun in her hand. “Oh, yes you are,” she said. “You are going to be the
center of a trade. You know, like the baseball teams do. You for Burton. I
think I’m getting the better end of the deal.”

He looked at her then, struggling
to keep the shock from his expression. “What are you going to do with him? You
said you weren’t going to kill him.”

“I’m not,” she put the barrel of
the gun on her lips, getting red lipstick on the porcelain material. “But he’s
worth something to his wife. Even if you two did have an affair, she probably
wouldn’t pay your ransom. I know Burton wouldn’t let her. So you’re essentially
worth nothing to me.”

“Then what makes you think she’ll
trade her husband for me?” he asked the question as if she’d gone completely
insane. “You just said it – I’m worth nothing to her.”

“Perhaps,” the woman said. “But
it would be a very difficult thing on both of their consciences to have had the
opportunity to save you and they didn’t do it.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

 Her eyes grew hard “I did say
that I wasn’t going to kill Burton. But I never said that I wouldn’t kill
you
.”

***

Tony reached the site about an
hour and a half after Christopher had disappeared. He’d run the entire way, leaving
Kathlyn exhausted and watched over by Otis and the kids. She’d found them in
the jungle as they got within sight of the base camp, sobbing about Dr.
Murphy’s abduction. Tony had raced back to Site B as if his life depended on
it.

He found Marcus and everyone else
prowling through the jungle. He immediately yelled for everyone to stop and
stay put. If there had been an abduction trail, all of those people roaming
through the overgrowth had probably all but erased it.

 Pulling Marcus with him, they
went to the point of origin. The blood-stain was just a dark splotch on the
earth and the hat had been disturbed from Kathlyn holding it. But Tony crouched
down, inspected the site, and from there began to formulate his thoughts.

“This doesn’t look like a usual
rebel op,” he finally said. “They don’t work this way. They usually ambush.
This looks like a take-down.”

“What do mean?” Marcus said.

 “I mean that usually they pop
out of the jungle and just take whoever at gunpoint, without a struggle. They
don’t usually harm their victims first and then drag them away, unless Murphy
put up a fight.”

“Speaking of harm, are you sure
Kathlyn’s okay? I had no idea she had run after you.”

“She’s fine, just tired,” Tony
said. “Otis is taking her back to camp. She’ll be safe there.”

“She’ll want to come back here
and help,” Marcus said. “I don’t think Otis and the boys are strong enough to
make her stay put.”

Tony couldn’t worry over that
right now. He was more concerned with Murphy. “This just doesn’t have the
earmarks of a usual rebel tactic,” he said.

“So what are you thinking?”

Tony grunted. He stood up,
choosing his words carefully. “It could be a few things. Maverick rebels
looking for a ransom victim, pissed off farmers, a wild animal looking for a
meal, or… what if you’re a small woman trying to take down someone twice your
strength? You would have to disable him right off the bat or it wouldn’t work.”

Marcus’ dark eyebrow lifted in
horror. “You think Jensen has struck somehow?”

“I don’t think anything,” Tony
said. “I’m guessing like everyone else.” He pointed off to the southwest. “But
it looks to me like there is a path off to the south, unless that was made by
someone sweeping the area for Murphy’s body. It’s not an obvious path, but it’s
there. A body could have been dragged through it.”

Marcus looked off into the trees.
“I’m sorry we messed up your crime scene. My only thought was to find Murphy
out there in the jungle somewhere.”

“Understandable first reaction,”
Tony said. “And he may very well be out there. But we need to do this properly
and set up a sweep. Just like you archaeologists excavate in grids, that’s kind
of what we need to do. Search one area and, when that’s completely done, move
on to the next.”

Marcus nodded. He had sent
everyone out in a panic and hadn’t thought it through. He and Tony began
whistling loudly, calling everyone back in. Marcus gladly handed the search
over to Tony, who instructed everyone on what needed to take place. The group
was frightened and exhausted, but Tony was calm and detached, as his military
training had dictated. A plan of action was soon formed, but Tony made it clear
they were hunting for Christopher, not for those who may have taken him. If any
of the group was to meet up with unsavory characters, they were instructed to
run far, far away. Tony didn’t want any confrontations, and he knew the Central
American rebels would just as willingly take another captive.

Christopher was out there,
somewhere. They had to find him.

***

It was sunset.

Kathlyn stood at the edge of the
base camp, watching the trail for anyone returning. So far, they hadn’t seen
any sign that Christopher had been found or that the workers were returning
from Site B. She couldn’t raise Marcus on his cell phone and cursed the fact
that they had brought normal cell phones with them and not the Iridium
satellite phones that had reception almost anywhere in the world. Those phones
were with her other fancy gear that she hadn’t brought along.  Sometimes the
normal cell phones worked, sometimes they didn’t. Right now, they didn’t.

 They had also tried the
short-wave radio that was used to link the personnel of Christopher’s camp. But
they had learned very quickly that the two-way radios Christopher’s people
carried had limited range, mostly just a few miles, and the hills between base
camp and Site B cut out the range to almost zero. Sometimes they worked,
sometimes they didn’t. It wasn’t a very good situation, especially if someone’s
life was at stake. Kathlyn was thankful that she had been at Site A, just a
mile or so away from base camp, when the snake bit her. Had she been at Site B,
she would have certainly been dead.

So she intermittently tried to
raise Adam on the radio as she waited, though not very patiently. Otis had told
her in no uncertain terms that he would not take her back to Site B to help in
the search, nor would he allow her to go. Tony had instructed him on the care
and treatment of Dr. Trent before he left, implying severe bodily injury to him
should he fail. Though Otis knew he wasn’t serious, still, Kathlyn needed to be
kept safe. If there were rebels about, she was the last person they wanted to
fall into their hands.

Her cell phone rang just as the
sun made its final dip beneath the horizon. The number was blocked, but she
answered. Several people she knew had blocked numbers. She was surprised at
this point that her phone was actually working.

“Kathlyn Trent,” she answered.

There was a pause on the end of
the line. “Kathlyn, it’s Chris.”

She wasn’t prepared for his
voice. The sound of it shocked her.

“Chris!” she shrieked. “Where are
you? Are you okay? Everyone is out looking for you!”

“I’ve been better, but I’ll live.”
He sounded stressed. “I seem to have new friends. I’m sorry, Kathlyn, but they
have some demands…”

“Whatever they want, I’ll pay
it,” Kathlyn said quickly. “Who are they? How much do they want?”

On the other end of the line,
Christopher was a little taken aback at the swift reply. He hadn’t expected her
reaction, so willing to pay for his freedom without hesitation. He suddenly
felt very, very lucky that she was on his side. In spite of the horrid
circumstances, it made him feel better.

“I’m not sure they want money
right now,” he said. “They… they want to trade.”

“What kind of trade?”

“Me for Marcus.”

Kathlyn’s blood ran cold. “Over
my dead body are they getting Marcus. And whatever it takes, I’ll get you out
of this. Ask them how much they want.”

Christopher looked at the woman,
who was standing next to him with a gun pointed at his head. She had forced him
to make the call. Not strangely, she had known Dr. Trent’s phone number. It had
made an explosively weird situation even weirder.