“Yeah, yeah, sorry, boss. Won’t happen again.” Ajax reholstered his gun.
Behind Ajax, Drake saw Andy fist pump. Drake turned to the entire group. “Like I said, I’ll be going for Emma and Ben. In six hours, I hope to be back. You can wait for me or not — your choice. Fergus will take it from here.”
“Ah, shit.” The redheaded soldier shook his head.
“Whatever; long as we get to bug out,” Ajax said.
“I’m staying too,” Andy said.
“What?” Helen rounded on him. “No, you’re not.”
The young paleontologist tilted his head. “Helen, you know they’ll need my expertise. Besides, you’re the only one of us with medical experience, not me. You need to look after Juan. Without you, he’s dead.” He shrugged. “Sis, my mind’s made up.”
“Your funeral,” Ajax said.
Fergus didn’t look happy, but gathered himself in. “Boss, six hours, be there, or we gotta be on our way.”
Drake saluted then turned to Andy. “You don’t need to come. In fact, best if you don’t; you might just slow me down.”
“Don’t you worry about me; you provide the brawn and I’ll provide the brains. Together, we might just find her.”
Drake chuckled. “We got six hours, Mr. Brains; so let’s go to work.”
He and Andy melted back into the undergrowth.
CHAPTER 31
Ben jerked upright, spun one way then the other and quickly rubbed his face to full wakefulness. He tried to judge the time by the lengthening shadows — it had to be late afternoon. He only had tonight, and maybe a few hours tomorrow morning to find a way off the plateau and back to his own time, and maybe also find Emma if she was here.
He felt the breath catch in his throat at the thought that she might actually be on the plateau right now, somewhere out there, maybe even looking for him. He wanted to yell. He wanted to cup his hands on each side of his mouth and call her name. But he knew instead of bringing Emma, he would only bring the hunters. Making noise invited death.
Ben tried to get in her head, to think like her — if she were here, she would search for him. But where would she start her search? He smiled; she would be trying to think like him, just as he was trying to think like her. Would she start at the last place she had seen him? He knew both of them didn’t have too many times they could guess wrong — he either found her, or he missed her, and this time, it’d be forever.
He decided. As good a guess as any, he thought.
Ben struggled to his feet and worked hard to stifle his groans. The salve had worked to keep his wounds clean and they were already scabbing. But the pain on and in his chest was like being wrapped in white-hot iron cables.
He waited a few more seconds until the throbbing eased. He needed to find her, and quickly. She’d been here before, but there was much she didn’t know. He’d found out things about the plateau that he needed to tell her and warn her about.
CHAPTER 32
Ajax watched as Fergus had lain Juan down at the trunk of a tree. The guy was like a boneless sack, and though he still breathed, raggedly, he was just dead weight.
The big soldier peered between hanging vines and three-foot-wide tongue-like fronds that dripped with moisture. Helen and Camilla crowded in behind him. The light was fading fast, and he knew that in less than an hour, it’d be dark.
He looked back at the even darker portal that was the open doorway of the temple. He didn’t want to go back in there, as every Special Forces alarm was ringing in his head. But then again, he didn’t want to be out in the open in this godforsaken place either.
He knew it was a Morton’s Fork decision — two choices, both of them shit. But one at least had a chance of escape, so…
“See anything?” Helen whispered.
“Nothing,” he said without taking his eyes off the ancient stone building.
Fergus had his binoculars up to his eyes. He half-turned. “Okay, stage-1, we go in, clear the main floor, and then do a quick recon. Stage-2, we secure the environment, defend our position, and lay low until Drake gets back.”
“Nah, not happening,” Ajax said. “We’re not waiting. We don’t know how long it’s going to take us to kill those snakes, or to climb down, or to even make sure we’re climbing down the right tunnel.” His mouth turned down. “My gut feeling is we won’t be seeing Drake, or anyone else again.”
“Drake asked for six hours; he’s still got five more. We can give him that.” Fergus lowered his glasses.
“I second that,” Helen said. “We wait.”
“I vote for leaving now,” Camilla said. “Look.” She pointed at Juan. “He needs emergency help. I’m sorry, but we cannot wait.”
Ajax snorted. “Yeah, well, I gotta tell you, lady, your buddy is pretty much a freaking corpse already.”
Camilla’s mouth snapped shut and her eyes blazed.
“We’re taking him back,” Fergus said.
Ajax’s grin fell away. “You mean you’re taking him back. You’re in charge, so you can be in charge of him.” He turned away. “We’ve been paid, so I don’t plan on putting my life at risk for some asshole I don’t know from Adam.” He jerked his thumb toward Juan. “Just remember, these two nobodies muscled their way in on our little adventure. Serves ‘em right.”
Camilla gathered herself up. “I’ll have you know—”
“Shut the fuck up, you whiny bitch.” Ajax rounded on her. “Or I’ll leave you both right here.”
“Hey, what’s your—?” Fergus grabbed Ajax’s arm.
“Don’t.” The big young soldier just scowled. “I am not in a good mood right now.” He motioned to the three civilians. “As far as I’m concerned, they’re expendable.”
The Venezuelan woman looked like she’d been slapped. Ajax scoffed and then turned left and right, scanning the undergrowth for movement. “Can’t see any of our leaping lizard buddies, so we go hard and fast for the front door. Helen, you’ll be going in first, me next, then you two can bring sleeping beauty.”
Fergus’ jaw clenched, but he seemed to bite it down.
“On my ready.” Ajax pulled his M4 and held it tightly. “3, 2, 1, go.”
Helen took off across the clearing, Ajax following with his gun up, and Fergus and Camilla dragging the now limp form of Juan.
In just a few minutes, Helen got to the doorway, paused, and then darted in, followed by the rest. Fergus lay Juan down and snapped his flashlight onto the barrel of his M4.
“I’m taking right flank.” He started to scan the temple’s main room to the right side.
“Yo, got it.” Ajax did the same at the other side.
Helen and Camilla tended to Juan, but there was nothing they could do now, as they couldn’t even get the near-comatose man to sip water.
Both of the Special Forces soldiers met at the dark entrance to the downstairs rooms. Fergus crouched.
“I still think we should wait for Drake and the others. If he comes back with Ben, I want to be here for that.”
Ajax nodded. “That’s fine; I’ll head on down. But while both of us are here and armored up, the first thing we need to do is clean those fuckers out of the caves, right?” He raised his eyebrows. “You gotta admit, it’s certainly gonna make it easier for everyone, if when the guys arrive and if they’re short of time, that they don’t have to try and fight the dragon then, huh?”
“Yeah, there’s that.” Fergus stared down into the dark. “We can’t use explosives.”