She noticed, not for the first time, how his tall, rangy body was lean and muscular without being overdeveloped. It was the mountain biking that kept him so fit, she supposed, doubting that a man such as he would spend a lot of time lifting iron in a gym.
His face, while not classically handsome, was well-proportioned and pleasant to gaze upon. You could almost see his compassionate nature in his ice-blue eyes, while his unruly black hair gave him an almost impish appearance.
She smiled. All in all, not too shabby, she thought, feeling a tingling warmth begin to spread in the pit of her stomach.
Then she sobered as she began to wonder just what this… what… this connection that seemed to have grown between them over the past weeks would lead to. After all, he lived and worked in Atlanta, Georgia, half a country away from her Austin, Texas, home. There was simply no place else in the world where he could do the work that he obviously loved with all his heart.
She pursed her lips. Could she… would she be willing to leave Austin and move to Atlanta if he asked? Shaking her head, she realized that she just didn’t know.
On one hand, there were several top-notch universities in or near Atlanta. Emory University, for example, had a very well-known archaeology and anthropology department, as well as a medical school that was one of the best in the country. She knew she would have no trouble getting a job there if she wanted it, especially if their present expedition resulted in a cure for the plague sweeping the country.
On the other hand, she had a life and friends and a very satisfying career already set up in Austin, and she loved the city with its eclectic nightlife and many activities centered around young professionals such as her.
Girl, she told herself firmly, turning her gaze from the mesmerizing good looks of Mason to focus on the jungle around them, you are getting way ahead of yourself. One romp in the hay, or rather in the river, and you’re already making plans and picking out china and drapes for your love nest with a man who may not have the slightest interest in anything other than a fling with the only available woman in a thousand miles.
Better to wait and see what develops, if anything, and not to get her hopes up too much. There would be plenty of time later to figure out just what they might or might not mean to each other.
She closed her eyes, leaned her head back, and let the gentle swaying of the boat lull her to sleep, to dream of blue eyes, coal-black hair, and muscles like iron.
It took several hours for the chopper from Mexico City to finally arrive at the clearing where Bear and his team were anxiously awaiting it.
They’d had time to take a much-needed three-hour nap, bury Blade, and pack up all of their equipment in waterproof duffle bags in case they had to jump into the river at their destination.
Their weapons were locked and cocked, they were fed and rested, and they were all ready to “kick some ass and take some names” as the saying went.
The chopper barely had time to settle before the team was aboard and Bear was signaling the pilot to take off by whirling his finger in a circle over his head.
He slipped a pair of earphones on so he could talk to the pilot over the roar of the blades. “How long until our destination?” he asked.
The chopper leaned to the right and the nose dipped as the pilot applied full throttle. “About an hour and a half if we cut across country and don’t follow the river,” the man replied in heavily accented English.
Bear considered his options. It would be far smarter to follow the river so that they might come upon their quarry in an isolated area where there would be no witnesses to the interception. However, the doctor had at least an eight-hour head start on them and he had no idea how long it would take the party to reach Tehuantepec by boat. He also didn’t know if they had a motor on the boat or were relying on the current alone to propel them downriver.
He doubted there was a motor, as he’d seen no signs of any storage of gasoline or oil in the village that would be needed to keep it running. Plus, all of the other boats had contained only oars and primitive paddles with no sign of any mechanical aids to navigation.
Still, to be on the safe side, it would be better to head straight for Tehuantepec, deplane there with their Zodiac, and then head upriver to catch the doctor and his party unawares if there was no sign they’d already reached the city.
He leaned forward and tapped the pilot on the shoulder. “Head across country on the most direct route to Tehuantepec and kick this pig! We need to be there yesterday!”
The pilot turned his head and raised his eyebrows. “Qué?”
Bear had forgotten about the language differences. “Go as fast as you can,” he said.
The pilot nodded and grinned, “Sí, I will kick the pig as you Americanos say.”
Back at the lab at the excavation site, Shirley Cole had called a meeting of all hands. When they’d gathered around the table in the dining room and had all gotten settled with their cups of coffee or soft drinks, she stood and addressed them.
“First of all, I’d like Joel to give us an update on our communication problems.”
Joel adjusted his yarmulke and stood, nervously twisting his hands together. One-on-one, he was perfectly able to carry on an intelligent conversation, but his inner geek really manifested itself when he had to address a group, even a group of people as close to him as the Wildfire Team was. “I don’t know what to say. I’ve run diagnostic protocols on all of the computer communication gear, and they all say the computers are working perfectly.”
“But it can’t be the computers alone, Joel,” Sam Jakes interjected crossly. “None of our smartphones or sat-phones are working either. How do you account for that?”
Joel spread his hands and shrugged. “I don’t know. The only thing I can think of that would cause all of our devices to malfunction at once is either a major weather phenomenon, such as massive sunspot activity or a violent electrical storm in the area, neither of which is occurring, or a deliberate blocking of our signals by a jamming device of some sort.”
“Bullshit!” Jakes growled. “We’re a thousand miles from the nearest outpost of civilization, and even the Mexican military units have all pulled back to Mexico City, so who in the hell could have a jamming unit out here in the boondocks — a freaking Indian?”
Joel shrugged again. “It would have to be one of us, I guess.” He glanced around as their eyes widened in shock. Spreading his arms, he added, “It’s the only thing I can think of that makes sense.”
“Are you insinuating that one of us is deliberately blocking all communication with the outside world?” Lionel Johnson asked incredulously, his voice so low that they had to strain to hear it. “Why would anyone here want to do that?”
Shirley Cole stood up and said, “Thank you, Joel.” As he sat down she asked gently, “And I suppose that there is nothing you can do to overcome this ‘jamming’?”
He shook his head. “Not unless I could find the unit itself and disable it.” He hesitated, and then he added, “And I don’t have the faintest idea where to start looking for it. With the newer units, it could be located anywhere within half a mile and still keep our devices from working.”
“But no one has answered my question,” Lionel exclaimed, his eyes downcast on his feet. “Why would one of us want to do such a thing?”
Shirley Cole looked around the room, from one face to another. “I can only think of one reason,” she said. “The jamming didn’t start until we realized we had a potential cure for the anthrax infection that is sweeping the world. For some unknown reason, one of us does not want that information to be relayed back to the CDC, to Dr. Williams, or to the Mexican authorities.”