Alpha Threat (18 page)

After several hours the troop came to a garden-like open area with a small lake fed by a beautiful waterfall on one end.
 
It was about ten o’clock in the morning but this idyllic setting was too good to pass up.
 

“Randall, let’s stop for a while.
 
We can bathe and enjoy the water.
 
We haven’t had a bath in weeks and I’m tired of washing myself from a bucket.
 
We have the time.”

Randall could see Dana was clearly enamored with this oasis-like place in the Amazonian jungle.
 
Why not stop at least for a while and enjoy some downtime.
 
They were technically ahead of schedule as if any research expedition could ever be considered ahead of schedule.
 

“All right,” Randall huffed, acting as though he thought he wanted to keep moving.
 
But the cool, clean water did look very inviting.
 
“We can stop for a few hours but then we need to keep moving.”
  
Inside he was already wondering how the water would feel.
 
“Manolo, let’s stop for lunch and some rest.
 
Tell everyone to just break out what we need but be ready to go again in two hours.
 
I want to make another several miles before we set camp for the night.”
 

“Yes, Dr. Randall,” answered Manolo.
 
“I get lunch ready too.”
  
He hustled off barking instructions to his men.
 

There was no stopping Dana.
 
In her excitement she started scouting about the lakeside looking for a secluded place to bathe away from the immediate camp.
 

Dana Finley didn’t look like the stereotypical university scholar.
  
She was one beautiful lady.
 
At twenty-nine she still held her teenage figure very well.
 
Her once long blonde hair had been cut short for the expedition and made her look even younger than her age.
  
At five feet six inches her athletic build made her a very sexy-looking university professor, and Randall loved it.
 
She possessed the wonderful Scandinavian beauty that came from her parents.
 
Born in Washington State, she and her brother, Dane, grew up in the outdoors.
 
Trekking through the jungles of Brazil came natural to her.
 

Dana had met Randall when they were freshmen at Princeton.
 
Dana was the demure young lady with enough natural good looks to drive all the guys crazy.
 
Randall was a studious, somewhat shy guy from Chicago.
 
But his love for sports caused a happenstance meeting between the two at one of Randall’s Kappa Sigma frat parties.
 
He invited her to come to one of his lacrosse games and they had been together ever since.
 

Even though Randall spent many, many days and nights in Princeton’s libraries it never stopped him from playing the sports he loved.
 
He excelled at baseball, basketball and lacrosse in high school but concentrated on lacrosse at Princeton.
 
He played for Princeton all four years of his undergraduate time.
 
He also played freshman baseball but gave it up due to the sheer number of games each season.
 
His six foot one lean frame showed his love and dedication to sports even though he had little time to participate over the past two years.
 
But he kept fit at the gym and by running each day.
 
The Finleys could have been a cover couple on any fitness magazine.
 

Randall saw that Manolo had everything in hand so he decided to follow Dana.
 
He walked about forty yards from the camp where he found her standing barefoot in her underwear on a small sandy beach on the lake.
 
She was struggling with the back catch on her bra.
 

“Need some help there, lady?” he called, startling Dana, who turned seemingly ready to pounce.
 
He grinned and stepped back, throwing up his hands in defense.
 
“Whoa, who’d you expect?
 
Who can find us out here?”

“Isn’t this fabulous?” she asked excitedly as her startled look turned to glee.
 
Randall stepped behind her and unsnapped her bra.
 
“I can’t wait to get into this water,” she said, dropping her bra on a small bush and using her thumbs to pull her panties to the ground.
 
She flicked them over to the same bush and stepped into the water up to her ankles.
 
She turned.
 
“You are coming in, aren’t you?” she asked.
 

He stood there marveling at her.
 
She was beautiful.
 
She looked like she had not aged a week since their marriage.
 
She looked so happy… and so naked!
 
He felt himself getting excited.
   

“Hell, yeah, I’m coming in,” he cried as he began to shuck off first his boots, his shirt and then his pants.
 
He hesitated a second, realizing he was out in the wild jungle, and then dropped his shorts, hanging them on Dana’s clothing bush.
 

Dana was now in the water, waist deep.
 
“Ooohh, looks like somebody’s getting a bit excited,” she cooed.
 
“C’mon in, big guy.
 
The water’s nice and cool.”
 
She slowly sank down to her neck.
  

“See any piranha?” Randall asked just to pick at her.
 

“What!
 
You mean there are piranhas in here?” she gasped, popping up out of the water like a cork, her small white breasts heaving.
 

“Just kidding,” Randall laughed, although the sight of her naked in the water did have him wanting to steal her away into the bushes.
 
“They usually inhabit the rivers where there’s more food, not these smaller ponds.”
 

“Damn you.
 
Get your ass in here and quit scaring me.”

The water did feel fine.
 
Neither had bathed properly in over two weeks.
 
A bath was a washcloth and a bucket of water.
 
This was a real treat!
 
About fifty yards away, they heard several big splashes and laughing.
 
It sounded like Manolo and his guys were enjoying the water as well.
 

Dana and Randall swam around for about thirty minutes; half cleaning, half playing in the water.
 
Both were giggling and playing like two kids.
 
Sometimes the jungle was great!

They both helped each other out of the water, clearly refreshed.
 

“I see shrinkage,” she giggled as she noticed Randall coming out of the water.
 

“Oh, and I see little miss iron nipples,” joked Randall, reaching over and tweaking Dana’s hard left nipple.
 
They continued to giggle and laugh as they redressed and returned to the campsite.
 
The simple swim did wonders for both of them.
 
They were refreshed and ready to tackle the jungle again.
 
The rest of the group had returned from their swim and were busy setting out lunch.
 

Manolo was smiling ear to ear.
 
“This water is very fine; yes, Dr. Randall?”

“Yes, Manolo, it was great!
 
What’s for lunch?”

“Ah, only the best for all of us,” answered Manolo, cutting fresh fruit.
 

As they all ate, no one was aware of their visitors; several men dressed in black uniforms… watching.
 

After lunch, the group packed everything up, said goodbye to their watery oasis and set themselves back on track.
 

“We need to make only a few miles before we make camp for the night.
 
I need to check in again with Ben,” Randall told Manolo as they began following what looked like an old trail.
 
“This trail must be one used by the locals, although not lately.”

“This trail very old.
 
Not used in very long time,” remarked Manolo, looking around intently for any trace of any type of trail use.
 
“I not sure where it goes or where it comes from.
 
It started from nowhere.
 
This very hard to understand. ”

“Interesting,” said Randall.
 
“Comes out of nowhere and goes wherever.
 
Let’s follow it for a while and see where it takes us.”

“Yes, Dr. Randall,” answered Manolo quietly, although now it was clear he was becoming a bit more concerned with the jungle around them than before.
 

After a few hours along the trail, the group came upon a small clearing about ten feet in diameter.
 
Many people would have missed the marker but not Randall.
   

“Wait a minute!” yelled Randall as he stopped, stepping off of the trail and approaching the low, vine-covered stone column.
 
“What have we here,” he asked rhetorically as Dana and a few of the others walked over to see what he was so excited to see.
 
It was clearly a man-made marker of some kind.
 

“Is that what I think it may be?” asked Dana, leaping over Randall to get a better view.
 
“It is definitely an old marker of some type and it has been here quite a while.”
 

Both were now kneeling in front of the small rock column a little less than three feet tall.
 
Randall and Manolo cleared the vines so they could get a better view.
 
What they thought was a single stone column was actually made from several stones stacked together.
 
There was one very interesting characteristic to the stone, though.
 
The rocks that made up the column were finely chiseled and fit together very tightly.
 
Several faded symbols or letters were chiseled in the stone.
 

“I swear if I did not know any better this looks very
Incan
.
 
But this is not an area that the
Incas
were known to roam; too far inland,” said Randall, trying to make some kind of meaning out of their finding.
 

“Wait a minute,” added Dana.
 
“This has to be a modern marker of some sort made to look old.
 
None of the indigenous tribes in this area have the skill to make this.”
 
She ran her hand across one of several indentions on the stones.
 
In her mind she was definitely having a hard time envisioning where this originated.
 
Her curiosity and knowledge of the area were clashing and there was no immediate answer that made sense.
 

“The stone cuts are very specific.
 
And the fit between the stones is remarkable,” said Dana inquisitively.
 
“You can’t even get a piece of dental floss between those stones.”

“I have never seen anything like it,” said Randall.
 
“Manolo, where are the cameras?”

Manolo turned to one of his men and within a minute the Finleys’ camera bag was produced.
 
Dana took one of the three Nikon D700s from the bag and began taking pictures of the stone column.
 
She was very thorough in her recording of this seemingly unexplainable monument.
 
She paid particular attention to the faint markings, hoping to be able to decipher them later.
 
Randall simply sat there in front of the stone making notes in his notebook, trying ever so hard to make sense of what they had found.
 
The two Finleys were truly perplexed by their find.
 

The remainder of the group now settled into the small clearing, put down their packs and sat down.
 
Randall turned to Manolo and told him to make camp over on the other side of the clearing opposite from the column.
 
He also told him to send a few men out to see if there was water nearby.
 
Then he turned his attention back to Dana and the column.
 

As Manolo and his men began to set up camp, the men in black continued to watch.
 
In the jungle there were more men in black moving silently about them.
 
The men waited as a predator waiting on its prey, sizing up the group.
 

After a few minutes one of Manolo’s men ran back into the clearing.
 
He excitedly reported something to Manolo.
 
The man’s arms were waving and he was pointing into the jungle.
 

“What’s he saying?” asked Randall.
 

“He says there are people out there.”

“Where…tell him to show me… are they natives?”
 
Randall was clearly excited as well.
 
They could be scouts from the tribe the Finleys had been looking to contact.
 
Dana stood listening intently.
 
She checked her camera.
 
She thought maybe she could get a few pictures of these people.
 
The other men were mumbling to each other and backing away from the stone, hiding in the jungle bushes at the edge of the clearing.