Emma nodded. “Yeah, still there, still hopeful. Took every ounce of my strength and persuasion skills I had to keep her from coming along.”
Ben laughed. “Yep, that’d be Mom.”
They walked on in silence for another few minutes before Ben noticed that the swamp was drying and the ground was becoming harder beneath their feet. “This the right way?”
“I should be asking you, Tarzan. This has been your home for the last ten years,” Drake said.
Ben stopped. “No, it hasn’t. I stayed well away from here. For good reason.”
“The snakes, huh?” Drake asked. “Yeah, pretty badass. We saw one in the temple.”
“No, we saw a juvenile,” Emma said. “The adults are three times as large.”
“O-oookay.” Drake’s jaw clenched for a moment. “Nothing Ajax and Fergus can’t handle.”
Ben grunted. “I’m glad Fergus is there. Ajax is a little… impulsive.”
“He can be. But he’s matured… a little.” Drake didn’t sound all that convincing.
“Hope so; he was a damn hothead. Up here, that won’t just get him killed, but everyone killed, and eaten alive.” Ben sighed. “This is no Garden of Eden.” Ben gave his friend a half-smile. “Thank you for coming. But you’re insane for doing it.”
Drake winked. “Gotta tell you, buddy. We came for the money. I thought you were just a pile of bones somewhere in the Amazon Jungle.” He looked around. “Never expected to find you, and sure as hell never really thought all this was going to be real.”
“You and me both.” Ben nodded sagely and walked on for a few minutes. He half-turned. “You’re still invited for the ribs.”
They continued to push through heavy fronds dripping with moisture, trying to move fast but in silence. After another moment, Ben thought he heard and felt something. He held up his hand.
“Quiet.”
He turned back the way they’d come, staring into the darkness. He tilted his head, straining to listen, and then crouched to place a hand flat against the ground. This time, he closed his eyes, concentrating.
After a few minutes, he opened his eyes. “Goddammit.” He stood. “That big bastard is following us.”
“The Giganotosaurus again?” Andy asked. “Shit.”
“Good and bad news,” Ben said. “The good news is that the smaller hunters will head for the hills with a big theropod in the vicinity. The bad news is, there’s a big theropod in the vicinity. This is usually the time I run and hide — into a cave, or to a treetop.”
“How far back is it, you think?” Drake asked.
“Half a mile, less,” Ben said and shrugged.
“We can make it. I’m sure the temple is less than that. If there’s no smaller carnivores, then we can double-time it,” Drake replied.
Ben grabbed Emma’s hand. “Good idea.”
Drake pulled his longest blade and turned to the wall of green. “Let’s push it.” He hacked at a vine and then began to jog, thrashing away in front of him. Ben and Emma followed, with Andy lagging a little behind.
The four of them crouched just behind the last line of hanging vines. Before them was the temple, still imposing and draped in shadows within shadows. At the eastern horizon, a tiny blush of red indicated that sunup wasn’t far off.
Ben snorted softly. “Just like on the jungle floor all those years ago. Even the gargoyles out front; the monster snake in battle with the beast.”
“Same culture,” Emma said.
Drake rested on his haunches and had his binoculars up to his eyes. “All calm and quiet.” He handed them to Ben.
Ben scanned the entrance. “I’d be happier if there was someone waiting for us.”
“Think positive,” Emma said. “They’ve already made it to the base of the plateau and are waiting for us down there.”
Ben turned and grinned. “Yeah, I like it; that’s what happened.”
Behind them, Andy had his night vision goggles over his eyes, but was furiously scribbling something on a piece of notepaper with a pencil.
“See anything?” Ben asked him.
“Huh?” Andy looked up. “Oh.” He turned to the temple and stared for a few seconds, his mouth slightly open. He slowly shook his head. “Nope, no one and nothing.”
Ben looked up at the sky between the branches and saw something familiar that filled him with dread — the clouds were low and ominous, beginning to rotate like they were in the eye of a cyclone, even though the wind was still gentle. For now.
“Let’s get this over with.” Ben turned to the trio, and thought he saw Andy pull his hand back as if he had been about to touch Emma’s leg. Weird kid. Smart, but weird, he thought.
“Ready?” he asked Emma first.
She nodded. “When you are.”
Ben half-turned. “Guys?”
“Yo.” Drake’s eyes were gun barrels on the temple, and Andy nodded but still looked distracted.
Ben turned back. “Count of 3, 2, 1… go.” He led them out of the cover of the jungle and across the clearing. He ran hard, but not fast enough as to leave Emma behind. He needn’t have worried, as she kept pace with him easily and was probably fitter than he was now.
In another minute, he bounded up the huge stone steps and stopped just inside the heavy carved doorframe. Emma came in and flattened herself against the wall next to him. Drake came in on the other side.
Ben was breathing hard, waiting for his eyes to adjust. Drake and Emma flicked on flashlights.
“Where’s the kid?” Ben noticed Andy hadn’t arrived.
“What?” Emma immediately looked back out across the clearing to where they had come out of the jungle.
Ben followed her eyes. “Were there hunters there?” His stomach suddenly felt leaden.
There was no one and nothing in the clearing, and no man or beast still in the jungle they could see.
“Unlikely,” Drake said.
“What the hell happened to him?” Emma asked. “I don’t… I don’t even remember him running with us.”
“We go back,” Drake said. He moved to the entrance and looked out over the clearing.
“Wait.”
Ben had a mad thought. Impossible, but…
“Emma, check your pockets,” he said softly.
She frowned and reached a hand into one, then the other. From her right pocket, she drew forth a folded piece of paper. She looked down at it as if it was the strangest thing she’d ever seen. She held it out and lifted her querying gaze to Ben.
“What does it say? Read it.”
She quickly unfolded it, and Drake held his light over her shoulder. She began:
“Emma, Drake, and Ben, thank you. Thank you for bringing me here. My life’s love has been to immerse myself in the distant past. I used to just use my imagination to reconstruct the wonders of that time. But you have managed to take me there, for real.
But there’s still so much I want to see — must see.
I want to see a sunrise over a prehistoric ocean. I want to see the colors, the habits, and the behaviors of creatures long gone. I want to see the creatures that never even made it into our fossil record.
I’m sorry. Please tell Helen I love her and will miss her.
But don’t try and look for me. This is my decision. And I’m already gone.
Yours truly, Andrew Francis Martin.”
“That goddamn idiot,” Drake said. He bared his teeth and leaned around the doorframe again. “He can’t be that far ahead of us.”