Burial Ground

V

12:03 p.m.

Sam reluctantly allowed herself to be guided away from the ancient burial site. There would be limitless time to study and excavate the chullpas and purunmachus in the years to come. For now, the lure of the lost fortress ahead kept her moving. She could feel it out there, calling to her, drawing her with its promise of mystery. What wonders would they find inside its fortifications? Was the golden headdress really an anomaly, or were there indeed more treasures that would unlock the secrets of a culture long thought extinct? She imagined the National Geographic features to come, the articles she would be able to place in every industry journal, the documentary that would chronicle their expedition and bring the elusive Chachapoya to the forefront of the world of anthropology.

She hadn't been this excited since the days when she had explored the uncharted wilderness with her father as a child. His enthusiasm had been contagious, and for a long time it had more than compensated for living out of tents, isolated from the life that normal children led. She could thank him for her love of history and its misunderstood societies, for granting her glimpses of the professional adventures to come, but at the same time she felt she owed the world a debt on his behalf. He had been a good man and an even better father. It was the decisions that he had made along the way that couldn't be taken back...or forgiven. He had discovered ruins that made front page news around the globe. However, plundering the sites of their artifacts left them incomplete when the scholars arrived in his wake, like playing Scrabble without the vowels. And he had never seen anything wrong with it. To him, that was part of the job. He and Leo invested their money into finding and securing the treasures, which were the payoff for their hard work. Now, instead of those artifacts of inestimable cultural value filling displays in museums, they rested on the shelves of wealthy businessmen, or they'd been melted down and sold, or they simply sat in crates in the dusty warehouses of antiquity dealers. It fell to her to make amends, and she would start right here and now. Nothing would leave these sites without being properly logged and catalogued. This she swore.

Leo had promised her that the ruins would not be pillaged. While she had always known him to be a man of his word, she was prepared to go to war with him if he so much as thought about reneging.

Protecting the sites was an imperative, the more immediate of her concerns, but what about the descendents that had managed to remain hidden in the jungle for so long? How would they react to having the spotlight of the scientific world shined into their faces? Would that even be in their best interests? Was there a way to announce their discovery without flooding the rainforest with researchers who would insist upon poking and prodding them, and sharing the wonders of modern technology, and diseases for which they had no antibodies, and religions hell-bent on the annihilation of mankind?

They had seemed unconcerned, as though a band of strangers passing through their village was a common occurrence. Was it possible that others had stumbled upon their fortress before Hunter, and yet word had somehow never managed to leak?

Let them pass. They are dead already.

Those cryptic words echoed in her head, summoning a sudden uneasiness that had nothing to do with the dark storm clouds rolling toward the mountains from the east. Thunder rumbled in the distance. Indigo lightning strobed. Rain was a foregone conclusion. They needed to reach level ground before the storm overtook them. The already treacherous stone ledges and muddy paths would be downright lethal with a deluge racing down the slope.

They rounded the mountain and now faced west into the dense gray clouds trapped between them and the opposite peak. The valley below mocked them from out of sight with the grumble of waterfalls and the whistle of the wind across the sheer cliffs.

Somewhere out there, obscured by the clouds and shrouded by vegetation, were the crumbled remains of a vanished society, the link between the ancient dead in the traditionally accepted Chachapoya range to the south, and those still living in the jungle.

Her heart rate accelerated and her body became electric with nervous energy. She wanted nothing more than to barrel through the others and sprint ahead toward the discovery of a lifetime.

The first raindrop slapped her backpack. A moment later she felt another spatter of coldness on her shoulder. This time they were all within easy reach of their ponchos, and used the rare advance notice to don them.

"This must be just like going to Disneyland for you," Merritt said from behind her.

She couldn't help but smile.

"You have no idea."

They reached a point where the path widened and he caught up so he could walk beside her. Trees rose from the downhill side of the path to block their view of the cloud-cloaked valley and smothered the roar of the waterfalls. The timing was perfect as the rain pummeled the upper canopy, which absorbed the brunt of the storm for them.

"I don't know." He offered a lopsided grin. "I'd like to think I'm something of an expert on Disneyland."

Her smile broadened.

"So what do you think we'll find over there?" he asked, nodding to the right.

"That's half the fun. I don't really know. We could discover an amazing fortress that would make Machu Picchu pale by comparison, or we could find that whatever was once there has deteriorated and fallen to ruin in the bottom of the gorge."

"You don't really think that's the case. I can see it in your eyes. You're just downplaying your expectations. You know there's something truly astonishing hiding behind those clouds."

"I hope so. Otherwise we've come all this way for nothing."

"What will you do with all of the artifacts you find?"

It was a loaded question, she knew. He'd made no secret of how he felt about protecting the heritage of his adoptive home.

"Everything will be documented and catalogued in situ. Only once we've done so will I allow any relics to leave the site."

"And what will become of them from there?"

"I imagine the museum in Leymebamba will happily clear space for them." She read his next question in his eyes and answered before he could ask. "There will be no looting. You have my word on that. Like I said, we aren't grave robbers."

"What about Leo?"

"He promised that nothing would be taken, and I fully intend to hold him to it."

Merritt nodded, but he still looked troubled.

"You don't believe me?" she asked.

"No. It's not that." He paused to formulate his words. "How well do you know Leo?"

"I've known him all my life. Granted, we don't see eye-to-eye on this particular issue and haven't been on the best of terms for the last several years, but I trust him. Despite all of his glaring faults, I've never had a reason to doubt his integrity."

"But what about his motives? I mean, what exactly are we doing here?"

"We're searching for the ruins that Hunter discovered. I suppose that by doing so we're recreating his final days so that Leo can give himself a measure of closure. Hunter's death broke my heart, but I won't even pretend to understand how Leo must feel."

"I can't help but think there's more to it than that."

"How so?"

"Look at it objectively. We all know Leo's son died, but there were four other men in his party that no one seems to want to talk about. What happened to them? And no one's even mentioned why Rippeth took off in the middle of the night. He's a hard man with serious military training, not the kind of guy who tucks tail and runs when things get rough. The fact that he and the other men are even here speaks volumes about Leo's perception of the situation. Think about how much money has been invested into this expedition, and for what? Leo's a businessman. What's the return on his investment?"

"He's only human. He needs to know what happened to his son and he has the financial means to do so."

"But haven't you noticed how he and Colton have withdrawn from the rest of us? They're definitely plotting something."

"You're being paranoid."

"Am I?" He sighed. "Maybe I am, but I've got to go with my gut. Something's just not right here. There has to be another reason for this trek, and only Leo and Colton know what it is."

"I already told you they promised not to plunder the ruins. What else could there possibly be?"

"I can't put my finger on it, but I think it has something to do with the missing members of Hunter's group and the whole reason their expedition was launched in the first place."

"Leo would have told me if he had an ulterior motive," she said. "He's never been one to tiptoe around the truth, even knowing the kind of argument that might result. Believe me."

"You're certain he told you everything?"

The tone of his voice betrayed his doubt.

"Do you know something that I don't?"

He didn't immediately reply. When he finally did, he spoke in a voice so soft she wasn't sure if he had meant for her to hear.

"I know we're following a game trail, and I haven't seen any sign of the animals that could have made it."