Canyon of the Sphinx (34 page)

She smiled brightly. “I’m ready
now.”

She began to charge off but
Marcus grabbed her. “Hold it, speedy. Let’s ditch the shorts and get some jeans
on. Last time we went to the site, you got all scraped up with the bramble.”

He had her by the belt loop. She
sighed heavily and released his grip, going after her luggage. “Are we in the
same hut, Dr. Murphy?”

Christopher waved his hand
towards the cluster of shacks to the north. “Same one. You know, The Four
Seasons Yucatan.”

Kathlyn took her bag and was
gone. Debra Jo followed, but not before allowing her gaze to linger on Murphy.
The last time she’d seen him was at the courthouse in Los Angeles. He’d been
polite, but distant. He was always polite and distant. But this trip, she intended
to change that.

Marcus, rather than stand alone
and awkward with Christopher, went back over to one of the trucks and collected
some of the computer equipment Debra Jo had brought with her. When he turned
around, Christopher was holding out his hands.

“I’ll take that,” he said. “I’d
be a terrible host if I let you schlep your own stuff around.”

Marcus handed it to him, having
nothing particularly meaningful to say by way of argument. He collected some of
the gear that was needed for the GPR and, in silence, followed Christopher
towards the shacks that served as guest quarters. They deposited the equipment
inside the room where Otis and the younger men were staying. By the time they
emerged, Kathlyn was standing outside, waiting to go.

“Come on, let’s get cracking,”
she smacked her hands together. “We’ve got about five hours of daylight left
and it’s going to take us a couple of hours to get to the site.”

Marcus looked at his wife a
moment, in her jeans, snug tee shirt, big black boots and worn duster. He’s seen
her like that so many times, but still, his heart jumped at the sight of her.
With the trials and tribulations they had suffered through over the past six
months, he was deeply grateful that things were returning to some semblance of
normalcy. Kathlyn was bouncing back admirably.

The usual crew trudged the two
hour hike to Site B; Mark, Debra Jo, Andy, Otis, Larry, and Marcus. Though
Kathlyn was glad to be back at work, she missed Juliana horribly. Lynn and
Juliana had decided to stay in Los Angeles until their baby was born, and
Kathlyn understood. There were no hard feelings, of course, but the two of them
were missed. It just wasn’t the same without them.

The machetes came out about an
hour into the trip. Even though the path was well traveled now, the foliage
grew in quickly. It was, literally, like a jungle. Larry and Andy were first
with the big knives, looking like they were exploring the Amazon basin in their
pith hats and netting. But they quickly tired and Marcus and Christopher hacked
through some of the more overgrown bramble to widen the path. When they tired,
Mark and Otis took over. Kathlyn took the machete from Otis at one point and
started hacking away next to Mark.

“Hey,” he swerved when she came
too close. “Do you know how to use that thing?”

Her eyes narrowed dangerously at
him but she continued to cut. “You’d better watch yourself. You never know when
this will fly out of my hand and sever an ear.”

Mark just grinned. Because of
everything that had happened, he had basically been separated from Kathlyn for
months. They hadn’t had a separation like that since they were both in college.
She was like family, and more. A best friend, sister, confidant… he had very
much missed her.

“As long as you don’t sever
something else,” he snorted.

“Watch it. There’ll be none of
that racy talk around here.”

“Racy?” Mark slashed at a huge
vine. “Who said racy? You could sever my hand or something.”

She stopped hacking and grabbed
him by the ear. “Keep your mind on your business, Dr. La Coste. If I have to….”

“Children,” Marcus stepped
between then and took the machete out of his wife’s hand. “Stop squabbling.
Kathlyn, get back and let someone handle this thing who knows what they’re
doing.”

Truthfully, she was very good
with a big blade. But the men, as they often did, liked to put her in her
place. Mark stuck his tongue out at her and she tackled him, shoving him into a
cluster of soft, wet leaves. He dropped the machete as he fell to his knees.
Kathlyn grabbed him around the neck, choking him with mock fury.

Christopher watched the two of
them battle it out. He reached down, picked up Mark’s fallen machete, and
resumed hacking next to Marcus.

“Does she always beat on him like
that?” he asked.

“Don’t let him fool you,” Marcus said.
“He loves it.”

He glanced over his shoulder,
grinning as Kathlyn twisted Mark’s ears and Debra Jo thumped him on the head as
she passed by. The poor man howled.

Out of the corner of his eye,
Marcus saw Christopher watching the exchange. His focus turned to Dr. Murphy
for a moment; in spite of the rocky points of his acquaintance with the man,
Murphy had never been anything but calm and friendly. He had gone out of his
way to include them on something he could have very well left them out of.
Marcus still didn’t trust him, because he could see by the expression on his
face that he was still in love with his wife, but it didn’t really matter.
Marcus trusted Kathlyn completely and knew that, no matter what Murphy was
feeling, she would never do anything inappropriate. In fact, he felt rather
sorry for Murphy.

 “But between you and me, I’m
really glad to see this,” Marcus said after a moment. “She hasn’t been herself
for months, so she’s earned the right to cut up a little. Mark really stepped
into it this time.”

Christopher flinched when he saw
Kathlyn shove Mark into the mud and grind her knee into his thigh. “And he
takes this abuse?”

“They’ve known each other since
they were fifteen years old. He’s learned not to fight back.”

Christopher understood the depth
of it now. It was rather comical to watch Kathlyn pound Mark, not enough to
hurt him, but enough to make it look like she was. Tomb-raiding,
ravine-swinging, maverick archaeologist Kathlyn Trent had the soul of a rowdy
four year old trapped in that mature, magnificent body. It was one more thing
to love about the woman. Smirking, he turned back to his machete duties.

“Help!” Mark called as the group
moved down the muddy path.

“You’re on your own,” Marcus
called back.

Kathlyn gave her victim one last
slap on the rear and took off after her husband. Mark, muddy but smiling,
picked himself up and followed.

It was good to be back.

***

Local volunteers for the Site B
excavations weren’t hard to find. Kathlyn and Marcus were not surprised to see
dozens of locals working the dig, just as the Egyptian locals worked Valley of
the Kings. It was good for the local economy, perhaps the only steady job these
people ever had.

What they were surprised to see
was how much actual excavation had been done since they had last visited four
months ago. Christopher and his team had methodically, and very cleverly,
mapped out an excavation development and had proceeded with a carefully laid
plan. Adam had a sector and Christopher had a sector. Together with their
workers, they had managed to clear a phenomenal amount of growth and years of
earth. As Kathlyn had predicted, a city was beginning to take shape.

Marcus went right for the sphinx.
Christopher went with him, eager to watch Burton’s reaction to the creature
with the pug-like head and feline body. As Kathlyn wandered at the northeast
corner of the site in an area where excavations were revealing a courtyard,
Marcus and Christopher hovered over the strange, beautiful image.

Marcus took a horse-hair brush
from one of the workers’ pallets. It was small brush, very delicate, meant for
fragile work. The sphinx itself wasn’t particularly large, about three feet by
two feet, apparently carved from some kind of black stone. It looked like
granite, but rock like that wasn’t indigenous to the area. Had it been more
porous, he would have thought it to be calcite or lava. He worked around the globular,
puffy face, down the thick neck, and finally to the inscription on the base
where the paws rested together. It was quickly becoming one of the most
fascinating things he had ever seen and he sorely missed Lynn’s opinion at this
point.

“Amazing,” he said, brushing at
the inscription. “I’ve never seen anything like this. You carbon dated it to
four thousand years ago?”

Christopher nodded. “Earlier than
almost anything in Mesoamerican archaeology. And, as I mentioned, the
stylization isn’t customary to the civilizations we know of. It didn’t take me
long to figure out that this is something completely different.”

“Have you come across anymore
inscriptions?”

“Not so far. The same inscription
is on every one of the statues we’ve uncovered this far.”

“How many total?”

“Eleven.”

Marcus turned back to the statue.
It wasn’t in pristine condition, that was clear; once uncovered from its mud
shroud, the elements had made quick work of it no matter how much Dr. Murphy’s
team attempted to protect it. They would have to analyze the rock to discover
what type had actually been used, and from what region. He bent over it to
study the faded lines around its chin and shoulders.

“Have you compared this to the
known records of ancient Chinese art?” he asked.

“I’ve put my researchers on it,”
Christopher said. “They’ve come up with some similarities, but nothing exact.
In fact, some of the similarities they found were not in Chinese culture, but
in examples of Indian artwork.”

Marcus stood back, scrutinizing
the image. “That wouldn’t be unheard of, given migration routes in the Asian
continent.”

Lost in the speculation of the
statue, they didn’t hear the approach of soft footsteps. Marcus glanced up when
a figure was nearly beside him, his face instantly alight with surprise.

“Tony!” he gasped. Marcus wasn’t
the gasping type. “What in the hell are you doing here?”

Tony grinned hugely. “Seems like
I’m back on duty for the Burton-Trent team, no matter where they are. They
called me out of Cairo and told me to stick with you and Dr. Trent until you
were back in Egypt.”

They shook hands, gladly. “That
seems strange,” Marcus said. “Why would they do that? I’ll be in Egypt in a
week.”

Tony’s smile faded slightly.
“Nothing to worry about, I’m sure. They just want me around.”

Marcus sensed something in his
tone. “What’s going on?”

Tony cast a glance at Dr. Murphy,
who was standing a few feet away, listening. Marcus waved his hand at him.
“That’s Christopher Murphy, in charge of the site. He’s okay. What’s up?”

“Probably nothing,” Tony tried to
sound casual. “It seems that SCU is a little concerned about Dr. Trent’s safety
and a call from Jobe McGrath to Washington prompted the military to send me
over here. Since the Marines are back on the dig in the Valley of the Kings,
you and Dr. Trent fall under that security shield. So here I am.”

“What about Kathlyn’s safety?”

Tony lowered his voice. “SCU got
a tip from that guy who testified against Jensen. Seems she vanished without a
trace and, based on what her ex-boyfriend says, they’re afraid she’s coming
after Kathlyn.”

Marcus wasn’t particularly
concerned. He was angry more than anything. “That woman can’t leave us alone.”

“True enough. She’s really got it
out for you, so just to be safe, my superiors thought it best that I hang
around. The fact that I’ve seen her and would know her on sight made me a
logical choice.”

Marcus nodded as if resigned to
the situation. “Glad to have you back on board.”

“Glad to be back.”

“Do me a favor, though. Don’t
tell my wife yet. I’ll do that.”

“Copy that,” Tony stepped back,
out of the way. “So go back to doing what you were doing. I’ll wander around
and find your better half.”

Marcus waved the brush he was
still holding off to the right. “Last I saw her, she was over in there
somewhere with Mark.”

Tony nodded and took off across
the dig.

***

Kathlyn saw Tony coming before he
reached her. She threw her arms up and hugged him fiercely around the neck.
He’d breached one of the Marine’s unwritten rules long ago, the one about not
getting too chummy with civilians. He’d been in the Corp long enough to be able
to handle his duties against his emotions effectively, or so he thought.

“What in the world are you doing
here?” Kathlyn exclaimed. “The last time I saw you was in Dallas.”

Tony’s grin threatened to split
his face in two. “You look a lot better now than you did then,” he said. “How’s
the leg?”

“Perfect.”

“Glad to hear it. I told you we’d
pull you through.”