Plaza: An Archaeological Thriller

Shane M. Brown Plaza: An Archaeological Thriller

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Chapter 1

Libby blamed her father.

His love of nature and the endless camping trips with her sister when they were kids. Butterfly nets, ant farms, insect catchers, kiddie microscopes, television documentaries after bedtime when her mother thought she was asleep. Bug books with stickers for every species they found on their daily insect hunts.

From a young age Libby proudly presented strange specimens to her mother for the shrieks they would invariably elicit. Then her father would dash out, wonder in his eyes. 'Whatcha got, Libster?'

She'd sit beside him on the couch watching wildlife shows, absorbing his awe about the wonder of nature and the variation in life. Twenty-five years later, it was a rare month that passed when they didn't find time to continue the tradition. Not this month, though.

Her sister Deborah, two years younger, hadn't shared Libby's enthusiasm. Life led them in different directions, and today they couldn't possibly be more different. While her sister was at home, pregnant with her first kid, Libby was preparing to land a hot air balloon onto some of the most isolated jungle canopy in the world.

This was where the best insects were to be found, and Libby was an entomologist. Hot air ballooning was the easiest way to get here. It proved close to impossible on foot. The inflatable raft hanging under the balloon gave her three-person team access to some of the most wonderful places in the world.

The best way to describe the balloon-raft was to imagine a large white water raft hanging under the balloon in place of the traditional passenger basket. The balloon itself was elongated like a football. The raft could settle onto the jungle canopy, providing them a large trampoline-like platform to work from.

Right now, from where she was sitting, Libby stared over the raft’s edge. She scanned for gaps in the jungle canopy. It was too dark to see the jungle floor. About seventy feet down, she estimated.

'It's a thick canopy,' she said to Joel. 'We'll have to make a hole to get the gear down.'

She discreetly snagged the anchor rope while Joel was busy with the GPS. Something must have given her away, perhaps something in her voice, because her long-standing research companion looked up and pointed a finger accusingly.

'Don't even think about it,' he warned.

'Don't do what?' shrugged Libby innocently.

'Not this time, Libb. We're not properly anchored yet.'

Libby winked and tumbled backward out of the raft.

Joel dived across the trampoline, trying to catch her, but he was neither close nor fast enough.

Libby shrieked as she fell. Her back crashed into the canopy. Foliage collapsed under her weight like spider web under a stone. Greenery flashed in her peripheral vision. She plummeted five, ten, fifteen feet and then — whack — the rope from her climbing harness arrested her fall.

'Whoooop!' she shrieked in delight, spinning on the end of the rope, hanging in the darkness, looking up through the hole her fall had made. 'Gravity, I love you!'

Joel scowled over the side. 'I hope you get sap burns. Right, you can anchor us then.' He threw down another rope to her. 'And do it properly this time. The sat-link indicates a wind change this morning. I don't want to be caught off guard. I'm not in the mood for getting dragged across the treetops behind a loose blimp again.'

Libby yelled up, 'That was just one time. Where's your sense of adventure, Jo-jo?'

She couldn't see him, but he called back from somewhere on the raft. 'Canopy skipping a hot air balloon for three weeks isn't adventurous enough?'

'Well, no.'

He reappeared above her holding the starboard canopy tethers. Libby looked around for a good strong limb to attach the tether.

She called up through the canopy, 'Wake up Perry. We need him.'

In place of Joel's shaggy dark hair and long unshaven face, Perry’s bald head looked down over the raft's edge. 'I'm awake already. Who could sleep through all your yelling. I'm dying for a coffee. Are you going down to set up camp?'

'I'm doing the tethers. Breakfast comes next.'

Perry looked confused. 'Aren't we tethered yet? What are you doing over the side? Ah…you pulled another canopy dive. No wonder he's throwing things around up here. He hates that, you know.'

'Oh, calm him down for me, Perry. He needs to relax a bit more.'

'Tell him yourself. Here he comes.'

Joel's skinny legs appeared on the opposite side of the raft, descending at a pace that hardly disturbed the foliage as his weight pushed through it. Perry tossed more tethers over either side of the raft. Libby snatched hers, but already knew she needed to move again. There was nothing nearby worth tethering to.

'I got nothing here to tether,' she called to Joel. 'I'll go down a bit.'

Joel didn't answer; either he was still genuinely annoyed or focusing on their tricky task. He descended lower too. They both needed to find pretty strong tree limbs further down to tether the raft in place. They generally avoided going too far down the ropes before they tethered. It proved hard to get back up, even if Perry threw down the skinny aluminum ladder.

She started to call out to Joel, but stopped. Let him sulk. They could hardly blame her for being excited. Fifty feet under her feet was ground that she might be the first human to ever touch. The quicker they set up base camp, the quicker they could start with the sampling. The biodiversity in this region was staggering. After only four nights in the field, they had forty-three insect species that none of them recognized. They couldn't be sure until they were back home, but it was certainly looking like an excellent haul. The area's isolation previously prevented deep penetration, even with a balloon-raft, but that had changed with the Plaza dig. Ethan's site provided the perfect staging point to launch the raft. Instead of short sorties from the jungle’s edge, they had a clear area to launch from right in the middle. As soon as her research allowed, Libby was returning to the Plaza to work as a site volunteer.

'Hey,' called Joel, pointing. 'There's something stuck in your hair.'

He didn't sound annoyed any longer.

Libby flicked the big floppy leaf from her hair and watched it spiral down, down, down to the dark jungle floor.

It was right about then, as the leaf hit the jungle floor, that everything stopped making sense.

Perry screamed. But not from the raft. The frantic shrieks were coming further off from Libby's right.

'Christ!' Joel yelled. 'Perry! Perry, what is it?'

'Help me!' yelled Perry. 'Oh, God noooooooo!'

Libby heard a shredding sound, like meaty tearing. She tried to orient herself on the sound, scissoring her legs midair to turn on the spot. Where was Perry? How had he gotten out of the raft so quickly?

There. She spotted him. Twenty feet behind the raft the foliage thrashed wildly. Perry couldn't have climbed right over there without a harness. Something had snatched him from the raft and dragged him across the canopy in total silence. What could do that? Nothing: that was the answer. Nothing could move over that much canopy so quickly and quietly.

There was so much canopy that Libby couldn't even see clearly. Then suddenly she made out two moving shapes, joined together, one Perry and one obviously much larger than Perry.

'Something's up there!' yelled Libby. 'Something's got him!'

Perry’s terrified shrieks abruptly cut off.

'Shit,' swore Joel. 'I see it. I see it! Christ — it's eating him!'

Joel had swung himself to a branch to get a better angle on Perry. 'It's right above you, Libby!'