Canyon of the Sphinx (10 page)

"The bushes are full of
Common Lanceheads down here so we're going to have to assume this is
venomous," he said. "Adam, have them search these bushes and see if
they come across the snake. I want you and Kimberly to go get the anti-venom
and get the doctor on the radio. Move, people, move."

Kathlyn was scared as hell but
she refused to show it. Murphy was extremely cool and she didn't want to upset
him with hysterics.

"I shouldn't move around if
it's toxic," she tried to keep a level head, remembering what she could
about snake bites. Since Egypt was full of cobras and other reptiles, she had
been well-educated on them. "We need to get the poison out."

Murphy didn't mess around. He
reached out, unlatching her belt and ripping it off her waist. Then he wrapped
it tightly around Kathlyn's leg, immediately below the knee. He pulled and
pulled until the circulation to her lower leg was virtually cut off. It was
terribly painful, but Kathlyn remained stoic.  There were workers running about
looking for the snake and one of the old men helped Kathlyn brace herself as
Murphy secured the tourniquet.  Kathlyn looked at the sun-baked old man,
realizing he was the same one who had told her that snakes were good to eat on
their trip from the airport. He smiled timidly at her when their eyes met and
she smiled back.

"Todo el correcto,
falta," he said quietly. It will be all right.

"Gracias," she
whispered.

Murphy was done tugging. Pulling
out his pocketknife, he nicked the puncture wounds so the blood poured freely. Kathlyn
flinched and he looked up at her, apologetically.

"Sorry," he said
gently. "I've got to."

"I know."

His gaze lingered on her a moment
before his mouth descended on the wound, sucking hard enough to bring tears to
her eyes.  He sucked and spit, sucked and spit. But Kathlyn was growing weaker;
her limbs were tingling and her head was growing fuzzy.

 "Dr. Murphy?" she
asked softly.

He didn't stop. "What?"

"My mouth feels numb. I hate
to say this, but I think I'm going to faint."

He paused, his lips stained in
her blood, staring up at her. She was horribly pale, a white ring around her
mouth.  By this time, Mark had heard the commotion from his wandering in the
gorge and came racing up the path, his brown eyes wide.

"What happened?" he
demanded.

"Snake bite," Murphy
said. "It's venomous, whatever it is. She's reacting."

Mark went pale.
"Christ," he hissed. "We've got to get her to a doctor."

"No time," Murphy went
back to sucking on her leg. "Adam should have the anti-venom by now. I
don't want to move her until I can get as much poison out as I can and inject
her with the anti-venom."

Kathlyn's legs buckled and
between the old man and Murphy, they kept her from falling to the ground. Mark
rushed to help them.

"How long since the bite?

"About ten minutes,"
Murphy said.

"I'll suck," Mark
practically shoved him out of the way. "You hold her up."

Murphy didn't argue. He put both
arms under Kathlyn's arms and let her fall forward, against him, while he held
her vertical. Mark sucked and spit like crazy.

"Oh... God," Kathlyn
breathed. "I never thought I'd go like this."

Her forehead was against his
neck, clammy and sweaty. "You're not going anywhere," Murphy tried to
comfort her. "Do you think I want the world to know that you died on my
dig? Hell no. I'd have people from all over the globe hunting me down, blowing
up my car and torturing my family. It would be ugly."

His attempt at humor was rewarded
with a weak smile, but she was fading fast. "I wouldn't worry about the
world," she whispered. "I’d worry about my husband."

Murphy snorted. "I'd have to
move to Nepal and change my name to the Dalai Lama."

"He'd still find you."

"That's comforting."

In his arms, she was growing
increasingly limp. It was like trying to hold on to spaghetti. "Dr.
Trent," Murphy shifted his grip so he wouldn't drop her, his big arms
wound tightly around her. "Stay with me, now. Don't go to sleep."

"It's Kathlyn," she
mumbled. "And I can't help it. My limbs are numb."

He glanced at Mark, still sucking
furiously. He swore he saw tears in the man's eyes. "Call me Chris,” he
said softly. “No one calls me Dr. Murphy except my ex-wife, and she only does
that when she takes me back to court for spousal support."

Kathlyn muttered something he
didn't understand. Christopher was trying to stay cool, but whatever bit her
had toxin that was affecting her nervous system. It had to be a Lancehead, the
most poisonous snake in Central America.  Soon it would affect her breathing
and they'd lose her for sure. His pale blue eyes began to hunt frantically for
Adam, returning with the anti-venom. For the first time, he was feeling real
fear.

Adam was huffing and puffing up
the trail, leaping over rocks and vines like a madman. Kimberly was right
behind him with a two-way radio in her hands.

 "Here," Adam thrust
the disposable hypodermic of anti-venom at him. "The doctor says shoot her
up right now."

"My hands are kind of
full," Christopher stated the obvious. "You do it."

Mark had stopped sucking and
spitting. He stood up and yanked the needle away from Adam. "I'll do
it."

He stuck Kathlyn in the thigh and
plunged until the hypodermic was empty. "If she goes into anaphylactic
shock, we're in trouble," he said gravely. He didn't want them to see
howterrified he was. "And then there's the danger of cardiac arrest. We
need to get her to a hospital."

Debra Jo's red head emerged from
the jungle. She took one look at Kathlyn, limp in Christopher's arms, and her
face went white with shock.

"Oh my God," she
gasped. "It's true. I heard Adam shouting to his wife down in camp. What
the hell happened?"

"Snake bite," Mark took
the time to answer her, but then he was back at Christopher. "Like I said,
we need to get her to a hospital immediately."

Christopher shifted Kathlyn's
dead weight again. "The nearest hospital with decent facilities is in
Cancun and you know how far away that is. There's a clinic in a town about an
hour south of here. That's where our bush doctor is. It may be the best option
at this point."

Mark couldn't believe this was
happening. With all of the adventures he'd shared with Kathlyn over the past
twelve years, with all of the danger they had faced, this ranked among the top
two most terrifying incidents of all time. Debra Jo went to Kathlyn, limp in
Christopher's arms, and smoothed her hair back.

"Kat?" her voice was quivering.
"Can you hear me?"

Kathlyn could only twitched in
response. Her mouth was numb and her tongue useless; her ability to speak was
completely gone.  But she was semi-conscious, in a tingling, buzzing paralysis.
Debra Jo stroked her hair.

"Mark, she needs a
doctor," she insisted. "What the hell are we doing hanging around
here? We've got to get her to a hospital!"

She was right. Whatever toxins
flowing through Kathlyn were greatly affecting her.  Murphy sent Kimberly to
get their best truck started.

"We'll take her to the
clinic," he said. "Dr. La Coste, can you make sure that tourniquet is
tight? I'm going to lift her and I don't want that thing slipping."

Mark tugged on the belt.
"Her entire lower leg is purple. It's tight enough."

Christopher put those enormous
forearms to use and picked Kathlyn up, very gently. Everyone was running about,
making sure the trail was clear, making sure the truck got warmed up. Adam was
on the two-way, talking to the doctor in the little village of Aldea del Valle
and telling him they were on their way with Dr. Kathlyn Trent and a
life-threatening snakebite.

Adam drove the truck as
Christopher held her semi-upright and Mark supported her legs. Her breathing
was slow and labored, but at least with the anti-venom administered, she hadn't
gotten any worse.  As the truck sped down the muddy road in a southward
direction, Kevin Valentine and John Desroches sat in their old truck, eating
tortillas and watching the fleeing vehicle.

  “Where do you think they’re off
to in such a hurry?” John asked with his mouth full.

Kevin shook his head. “Beats me.
But I thought I saw La Coste in the front seat.”

“Do you suppose Trent’s with
them?”

“I don’t know.” Kevin put his
tortilla down and started the old truck. “But we’re going to find out what
they’re up to.”

***

Jensen was hunched over a table
piled with papers and various discs. There was organization to the chaos, as
there always was in her world. Meticulous, organized chaos. Everything had its
place, and every place had a plan. She was in Egypt where she wanted to be, all
part of the place and a plan thing. It made sense to her but it wouldn’t have
to anyone else.

It was a warm morning. A soft
breeze blew from the north, carrying strange smells on it. In the corner of the
tent, a television linked to a satellite dish blabbed the American late, late
news from the previous evening. Jensen’s attention moved back and forth between
the laptop computer and the television screen. The tent flap blew back and she
assumed it was the wind until she saw a figure standing there.  Dressed in
heavy jeans and a white tank top, Juliana strolled in to the larger
administrative tent that Marcus and Kathlyn used.

“Dr. Davis,” Jensen said
pleasantly. “How are you today?”

“Okay,” Juliana went for the dusty
futon that was becoming something of a legend.  Sitting on it, she stretched
her long legs casually. “How’s it going?”

Jensen removed her glasses and
rubbed the bridge of her nose. “It’s going. That’s about all I can say.”

“Any more of those mysterious
expense reports showing up?”

“No, thankfully.”

 Juliana nodded. “Really strange
stuff,” she said. “I could tell you that this is really just a normal, average
place, but you probably wouldn’t believe me.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, I mean that ever since
you’ve come here, weird things seem to have gone on. You know, the phantom
expense reports and all that.”

Jensen shook her head. “Something
else has gone on? Like what else?”

Something landed on the desk in
front of her. Startled, Jensen sat back, a blue satin blob on the desktop. 
Juliana stood up and walked over to her.

“Like mysterious panties
appearing in this tent,” her tone was suddenly very cold, very calculating.
“Care to tell me if they’re yours?”

Jensen just looked at them. She
wouldn’t touch them. “I… I don’t know what you mean.”

Juliana was usually the calmest,
most collected out of the entire group. Her nature was very sweet and her
personality funny and warm. But Lynn was right; those pregnancy hormones were
having unusual effects on her. She was turning into something of a tigress. She
slammed her fists against the table top, rattling a couple of pens to the floor
and giving Jensen a start.

“Don’t lie to me,” she snarled.
“I saw you leaving this tent yesterday morning. Marcus wasn’t in here and there
was no reason for you to be in here, either. Just what in the hell were you
doing?”

Jensen was sitting back in her
chair, as far away from Juliana as she could get without actually getting up.
Her dark eyes were hard.

 “I was looking for Dr. Burton,”
she said coldly. “When I discovered he wasn’t here, I left. Pure and simple.”

“Whose panties are these?”

“How should I know?”

“Because I’d wager you put them
here, just like you planted those phony expense reports.” Angry at Jensen’s
challenging glare, she swept a stack of papers off the desk in a furious
gesture and made Jensen jump again. “Look, lady, everything was fine until you
showed up here. Now things are twisting around and I don’t like it. What’s your
game? You looking to sabotage something? Are you looking to ruin Kathlyn? Well,
what’s the deal?”

Jensen remained cool. “I have no
idea what you’re talking about,” she said. “I came here to help the site
prepare for the upcoming audit.  I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Bull,” Juliana spat. “You’re up
to something, I know it. Those expense reports just didn’t suddenly appear, and
these panties just didn’t materialize out of nowhere. You’re the only common
link on both accounts.”

“Dr. Davis, I think you’re just a
bit unsteady,” Jensen said calmly. “I don’t know what I’ve done to create such
animosity between us, but if I’ve unknowingly offended you, I’m sorry as hell. 
These weird things, as you call them, are purely coincidental and you’re trying
to turn it around on me.”

Juliana stood back a moment,
scrutinizing her opponent. She was very convincing, but Juliana didn’t believe
her for a moment.