By R. L. Keller
Admiral
Harriman Nelson hung up the phone in his office at NIMR with a combination of
bemusement and bewilderment on his face, not quite sure how to handle what he'd
just heard. He turned his chair to gaze
out the big window to the ocean beyond and absentmindedly reached into his
shirt pocket for the pack of cigarettes that lived there. He growled softly as fingers hit nothing but
cloth – he'd recently given in to Dr. Will Jamison's nagging and, while not
giving up smoking, had at least agreed to leave the pack in his desk. Uttering a few unkind mutterings about
Seaview's CMO, and someone Nelson considered a very good friend and a very
trusted and valued employee, he lit up, blew a
mouthful of smoke irreverently in the direction of Med Bay, and went back to
watching his beloved watery view as he contemplated the recently ended phone
call.
It
had been from one of his oldest and best friends, Admiral Jiggs Stark, head of
ComSubPac. That friendship had recently
been tested when it came to light that actions Stark took early in his career
had ended up affecting the life of Seaview's current captain, Cdr. Lee Crane. Nelson had been unaware of Stark's involvement
in the death of Lee's father and, when those revelations came
to light, Nelson had used all the pressure he could bring to bear to make Stark
admit to Lee what had happened, and why.*
As
mad as he'd been at the time, it hadn't taken him long to calm down – although
he'd let Jiggs stew in his own juices for a few weeks before allowing the topic
to drop. Lee, once the truth had finally
come out, had accepted Jiggs' explanations with his usual calm and hadn’t said
another word on the subject except to spend some time with his mother,
explaining to her what had happened so many years ago. Nelson suspected that Lee's best friend, and
Seaview's XO, Lt. Cdr. Charles P. Morton, better known to his friends as Chip,
hadn't been quite so fast to let Lee totally ignore what had happened.
Nelson
had known that Chip was angry when the full story started to come out. But he'd chalked it up to the fact that they
were all worried that Lee had, first, disappeared, and then had turned up
injured. He'd realized just how angry
the younger man was the night before Will released Lee from Med Bay. He'd stopped in to check on Lee before
heading home and ended up standing quietly outside the partially open door of
Lee's hospital room, shamelessly eavesdropping on the diatribe going on
inside. Both men were speaking softly so
Nelson wasn't able to hear the entire conversation. But he could hear the power behind Chip's
words, a sign of just how emotional the blond was. He ended up walking away without
interfering. He could hear enough of
Lee's part of the conversation – when Chip would let him get a word in edgewise
– that Lee was allowing his best friend to get the rant out of his system, but
was also carefully reminding Chip that Stark hadn't had a lot of options at the
time.
Nelson
took a long, slow draw on the cigarette.
He'd kept a close watch on both young men over the next weeks. Lee had gone east to welcome his mother home
from Africa and tell her the truths that had been buried for so long. Will hadn't been happy letting Lee out of his
sight even that short time – Lee was still recovering from the injuries he'd
received. But he had only been gone a
few days. Now, four weeks later, Lee was
back on full duty and everybody seemed to have put the incident behind
them. Oh, Nelson had seen a few hard
looks cross Chip's face. But they left
as rapidly as they came – usually because Lee could be seen making a quiet
comment.
Nelson
made a quiet comment of his own, not nearly with the underlying humor that Lee
used toward his XO, and took another long drag on the cigarette. The one person who apparently hadn't returned
to normal was Jiggs Stark.
Nelson had, over the last few
weeks, heard rumblings from several directions that Jiggs was acting
very…un-Jiggs-like, for want of a better term.
Loud, blustering, overbearing. These were all terms, along with a few less
polite ones, used with frequency about his old friend. But in most cases they were also said with a
fair amount of respect as well. Jiggs
didn’t get to his position of power by being a ‘yes-man’ and sucking up to his
superiors. He’d earned every promotion
he’d ever gotten with hard work, knowledge of and competence with procedures,
and an unflagging sense of duty. He
wasn’t always easy to get along with and work around, but no one questioned his
abilities to do what needed to be done.
But lately, if the rumors
were to be believed, Jiggs was apparently questioning himself. Nelson hadn’t noticed it, the few times
they’d spoken since the night in Med Bay when Jiggs had finally confessed the
whole story about what had happened so many years ago. But he’d called Jiggs this morning to discuss
some joint war games that the Navy wanted Seaview involved in – one of what Nelson
considered the necessary evils of maintaining relations with the regular
service. Among other things it allowed
Nelson to ‘raid’ the ranks for men to serve on the giant submarine. What Nelson had been too busy to notice
before, he paid special attention to now – subtle hints in Jiggs’ speech
pattern, a barely noticeable pause or two that did, in fact, hint that Nelson’s
friend was not the gung-ho, ‘damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead’ leader that
was Jiggs’ usual persona.
The buzz of the intercom
interrupted Nelson’s ponderings and he glared at it a moment before punching
the button. “Yes, Angie?” he got out
fairly pleasantly.
“Admiral Bench on line three
for you, sir,” came the calm voice of his PA. “He didn’t say what he’s calling about – just
said that it was personal.”
“Probably a personal invite
to some stupid meeting at the Pentagon,” Nelson muttered, but he told Angie to
put the call through, and reached for the phone as it rang mere seconds
later. “What’s up, Matthew?” came out
with only a minor growl.
“Harriman,” another old
friend of his started without preamble, “have you talked to Toby Wild in the
last three weeks?”
The question caught Nelson by
surprise. Wild had attended Annapolis
with he, Jiggs, and Matt Bench, but had put in his twenty years and retired to
pursue his passion for archaeology.
Nelson hadn’t heard from him for almost a year, and that had been a
quick dinner in Los Angeles one night when Toby was giving a guest lecture on
Mayan architecture at UCLA. There was a
muttered oath at the other end of the line when Nelson related that, and he sat
forward slightly. “What’s up, Matt?”
There was a long sigh. “Maybe nothing,” Bench admitted. “You know how Toby gets.”
Nelson snorted. “Oh, yeah,” he agreed.
“He called almost a month
ago,” Bench continued. “Had a burr up
his six about one of the crystal skulls.”
Nelson allowed a phrase to erupt that he was fairly sure most of NIMR’s
personnel didn’t know that he knew.
“Yeah,” Bench agreed. “However,
it wasn’t the skull that was his primary focus.”
“Oh, really,” Nelson
muttered, unbelieving. Nelson had had
his fill, over the years, of crystal skull legend and lore. Most of the stories told of thirteen skulls,
carved from solid quartz crystal, which originally came from Atlantis and were
scattered around Central America, to be re-united in the end times – whenever
that was. There were Mayan legends about
crystal skulls that claimed they didn’t make them but were used by Mayan
priests in ancient rituals. But Nelson,
along with a great many other people, had serious doubts about the legends.
Nelson’s thoughts were
interrupted when Bench continued. “Toby
has apparently uncovered evidence…” Nelson snorted and his friend sent him a
humorless chuckle before continuing, “that the story
behind the most famous of the skulls, the so-called Mitchell-Hedges skull, is a
cover-up.”
“Not a whole lot of people
actually do believe that story,” Nelson grumbled, and Bench agreed. The story went that archaeologist Fredrick
Mitchell-Hedges had been studying the Lubaantun ruins in what is now southern
Belize. His stepdaughter supposedly
found the skull in 1927 on top of one of the pyramids on her 17th
birthday. This particular skull had an
articulated jaw, and it was found approximately three months later. The problems with that agenda started because
the announcement of the find, and the first pictures, didn’t appear until the
1940’s, although both Mitchell-Hedges and Anna stood by their stories until
their deaths. Testing in 1970 proved
that the skull and jaw were indeed carved from the same piece of quartz
crystal. And no metal tool marks could
be found on it. That was doubly
important because the skull was carved without regard to the natural axis of
the quartz, something almost unheard of by modern carvers because of the
crystal’s propensity to fracture if not handled carefully. Each piece of the puzzle just added fuel to
the mystery surrounding this particular crystal skull, and spilled over to
speculation about the others so far found.
“So,” Nelson got back to business, “what does Toby think he’s
discovered?”
It was Bench’s turn to
snort. “I suppose we shouldn’t be so
skeptical. He has made several important
discoveries.”
“True,” Nelson was forced to
agree.
“Anyway, I don’t know how
much you know about the excavations at Lubaantun.”
“Next to nothing beyond its
connection to the skull,” Nelson admitted.
“Got an earful,” Bench
growled, and Nelson chuckled softly.
Bench muttered something decidedly impolite, Nelson chuckled a little
harder, and Bench got back to the story.
“One of the idiosyncrasies of the site is, as opposed to so many of the
Mayan sites, there’s been almost no carved stones
discovered there. Toby called them
something.”
“Stalae?” Nelson offered.
“Sounds about right,” Bench
told him. “How the blazes did you come
up with that?”
“Haven’t a clue,” Nelson
admitted.
“Apparently Toby’s been
studying the very few found there, now housed at the Peabody Museum at Harvard,
and he’s convinced that he’s found a reference to a so far undiscovered site southwest
of Lubaantun.”
“Somewhere I read that, from
satellite imagery, it’s estimated that the jungles may be hiding up to four
thousand so far undiscovered ancient sites of one sort or another in Central
and South America.”
“That
many?” Bench’s voice was
incredulous.
“I’ve been known to be
wrong,” Nelson admitted.
“When?” Bench muttered.
Nelson just chuckled. “So, Toby
took off three weeks ago to look for this place. He took a satellite phone with him and said
that he’d check in. I haven’t heard a
thing and I can’t reach the number he left me.”
“Surely he didn’t go by
himself,” Nelson sputtered.
“Told me that he was taking
at least two of his students with him, and I gathered that he was picking up
one or more locals as guides although he wasn’t specific about that,” Bench
told him.
“How long did he think he’d
be gone?”
“Not sure he knew,” Bench
admitted. “But we have mutual friends at
the university. They haven’t heard from
him, either, and he’s due back for lectures in just under a month. They called me, and I’m passing the
buck. Buried in budget
hearings.” That last came out a
snarl.
Nelson sent a commiserate
mumble. “I suppose you’re expecting me
to go down there and find him?”
“You have more resources to
do that than I do,” Bench told him.
“Harrumph,” Nelson
muttered. But he understood why Bench
had called. The three men, along with
Jiggs, had watched each other’s backs all through Annapolis, and beyond. You didn’t just ‘forget’ those kinds of
friends, no matter what. “I’ll see what
I can do,” Nelson told his old friend.
“Appreciate it,” Bench told
him with feeling, and they both hung up.
Nelson went back to staring
out the broad window, another cigarette lit totally by habit. He didn’t necessarily have the time, either,
to go crawling through the Belize jungles.
But, if push came to shove, he could find the time. Seaview wasn’t scheduled out for the next
three weeks, having just gotten back from a milk run to re-supply the
sealabs. Nelson had planned on spending
the time in the lab but there wasn’t anything that couldn’t be postponed. Almost unbidden his other ‘problem’ reminded
him of its presence and, as he sat pondering the separate issues, a slightly
evil grin started to appear on his face.
He let the thoughts that had come coalesce a bit further before reaching
once more for the phone and dialing an internal NIMR extension.
“Jamison,” sounded
officiously in his ear.
“That bad a
morning already?” Nelson asked
Seaview’s CMO, and a major force at Med Bay when
Seaview was in port.
Will snorted. “As if you didn’t know,” he grumbled. “I ordered that stubborn, bull-headed captain
of yours here first thing this morning for his final check-up before totally clearing
him, and he still isn’t here.”
Nelson glanced at his watch –
it was almost 1020 hours. “Oops,” he
muttered. “But I thought that you’d
released him to full duty.”
“Under supervision,” Will
admitted. “The last cruise was
easy. I know he’s still getting
the occasional headache – especially if he overworks himself. And we both know how likely it is that he
won’t overwork, given the opportunity.”
Will wound down and sighed heavily.
“He’s probably just fine,” he admitted.
“But with his track record…” His
voice trailed off.
Nelson gave him a sympathetic
murmur. “So, you wouldn’t advise he
spend a week or so prowling through the Central American jungle?” he asked
carefully.
There was an immediate
growl. “NO, I will not authorize
him cleared for ONI to ‘borrow’,” Will practically shouted.
“Actually,” Nelson admitted,
still carefully as he could tell the doctor was now totally ticked, “It’s not
ONI who wants him. It’s me.”
There was a long enough pause
that Nelson was giving serious consideration to how far off his own next
physical was, and if Will would have time to calm down by then. “I’m coming over,” Will finally muttered, and
the phone was slammed down.
Nelson squirmed slightly,
stabbed out the cigarette, and emptied the ashtray. This did not appear to be a good time to
antagonize his CMO! He told Angie that
the doctor was on his way over and to send him in as soon as he arrived.
He didn’t have a long
wait. Will stormed through his door,
slamming it shut behind him. Nelson
decided that the best defense might be to try and sidetrack him, at least momentarily. “So, what happens if Lee shows up while
you’re over here?” he asked, plastering a grin on his face as he relaxed back
into his chair.
“Harrumph,” Will muttered with a glare.
Nelson almost laughed, so well had the doctor copied Nelson’s own version. But it did, apparently, have the desired
effect, and Will settled heavily into one of the chairs in front of Nelson’s
desk. “Told Esther to watch the front
door for him, and if he came in to toss him in an exam room and sit on him ‘til
I get back.” Nurse Esther Hale, USMC
(Ret) had become Will’s not-so-secret weapon when it came to dealing with
recalcitrant senior officers. But Will
finally sent his boss a small grin, in the face of Nelson’s continued broad
smile. “What’s up?” he asked his boss.
Nelson spent some time
explaining his second phone call before sending Will a sheepish smile. “But that’s not the total explanation,” he
admitted. Will sent him the expected raised
eyebrow. “I think I have another
problem. Well,” he admitted, “not me. But I have this feeling that I need to step
in and…” He hesitated, not sure how to
explain the feeling he got from the earlier call. Will, sensing Nelson’s sudden unease, didn’t
push.
“Had a call from Jiggs
earlier,” Nelson started, and then paused again. He wasn’t sure now that he could explain to
Will. He barely had a grasp of things
himself.
Will relaxed and helped – he
could see that Nelson wasn’t sure how to continue. “I gather that you finally let him off the
hook for what happened with Lee’s father.”
Nelson nodded. “Lee was right – he really didn’t have any
other choice, given the circumstances.”
Will nodded. “However…” Nelson paused, and again Will didn’t
push. “I’m not sure Jiggs has let
himself off the hook.” Will raised both
eyebrows, and Nelson smiled. “You know
Jiggs – old Navy to a fault.”
“Oh, yes,” Will agreed. “And irritated to his limit
that he can’t bluster his way past Lee’s quiet confidence.”
“That’s one way to put it,”
Nelson agreed. Both men chuckled
softly. “But I’ve gotten little hints,
from people who have dealt with Jiggs in the past six weeks, that…” Again he hesitated, and shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s like…almost like he’s lost confidence in
himself. Like… Oh, I don’t know,” Nelson finished with a
flip of his hand.
“Like he’s afraid to make a
decision that might have that far-reaching, detrimental effect on someone
else?” Will asked softly. He’d seen it before. Men – and women – who’d been forced by
unthinkable situations to make decisions they found it hard, later, to live
with. Somehow, however, he’d never have
thought that would be a problem for the gruff admiral.
“It’s a little weird,” Nelson
admitted.
“So…?” Will prodded gently.
“So,” Nelson started,
stopped, and shrugged again, “I have this hair-brained idea to take Lee and
Jiggs with me to go track down Toby.
Maybe, if they spend some time together…” His voice trailed off again.
“Lee’s ability to ignore him
will totally destroy Admiral Stark’s ability to give orders?” Will offered with a grin.
It broadened in the face of Nelson’s glare.
“Not what I had in
mind,” Nelson growled. “However…” his
voice and a heavy sigh admitted that possibility.
Will shook his head. “Not likely,” he told his boss. “But, if he is having a few issues at the
moment he might be unwilling to be around Lee that closely for awhile.”
Nelson sent him a sheepish
look. “I sort of thought that I wouldn’t
tell either that the other one was coming until it was too late to turn back,”
he admitted.
“Help,” Will muttered softly. “And
just how do you plan to manage that one?”
“Haven’t quite got that
worked out yet,” Nelson admitted. “And
there’s also another piece of the whole mess.”
“Chip,” Will guessed. It was
Nelson’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “His
continued mutterings have not gone unnoticed,” Will admitted.
Nelson sent his CMO a fond
smile. While Will always claimed to be
nothing more than a simple Internist/Emergency Medicine Specialist, his skills
went far beyond. He wasn’t always
obvious, despite Lee’s mutterings that Will was a pushy mother hen who spent
way too much time getting into people’s – namely Lee’s – face about health
issues. But Will watched over his
charges with an eye to any and all problems that could affect their ability to
do their jobs both physically and mentally.
“Caught a few of his rantings, I gather,” Nelson said.
Will rolled his eyes. “Hard not to,
unfortunately. Lee, bless him,
obviously understands Chip’s need to get it out. It’s actually been kind of fun to watch. But the rants have gone on a bit too long to
be healthy for either young man, at this point.” Nelson nodded. “Chip needs to finally let go of that anger –
for his own good,” Will ended with a frown.
“So, I add Chip to the
party,” Nelson told him.
Will nodded. “And hope that you can get Admiral Stark back
in one piece.” He cringed. “Chip seriously ticked…” He didn’t finish the thought but both he and
Nelson shuddered. “Sounds like I’d
better go as well,” Will volunteered himself.
“When do we leave?”
Nelson shrugged again. “As soon as I can figure
out a way to shanghai our going-to-be-reluctant traveling companions.” He shot Will a look. “You sure you want to come along?” Will, while an extremely competent doctor, wasn’t always adventuresome when it came to leaving
NIMR or the boat.
Will met the look full
on. “You want to deal with three
potential powder kegs on your own?” he countered.
“Two,” Nelson corrected. “Lee won’t be a problem.”
Will nodded. “I agree.
But I was counting you!”
* * * *
Three days later found Will
in decidedly unfamiliar territory – in more ways than one. Even the intervening days had had their share
of uneasy moments.
It started within an hour of
leaving Admiral Nelson’s office. He’d
returned to his own office, sat down at his desk, and started a computer search
for where he was apparently headed. His
plan was to put together a list of supplies he’d want with him to cover
whatever potential disasters could possibly befall the travelers. It was a long list! And he’d had to hurriedly turn off the
computer screen and bury the list on his desk when Lee finally made a grumbling
appearance just before 1200 hours. Will
immediately recognized Lee’s ploy – arrive at lunchtime and Will
would hurry the exam so that Lee wouldn’t be tempted to skip the meal. Will, however, was far too familiar with
Lee’s efforts to circumvent the doctor and, maintaining an easy smile and
affable countenance, put the continuing-to-grumble younger man through a thorough
exam, gently pushing Lee to make sure he, Will, was comfortable that the head
injury Lee had suffered in Chile was completely healed. About halfway through the exam Lee, always
extremely perceptive, started to give Will a puzzled look, obviously wondering
why the doctor was being so insistent. A
bit of a light bulb, so-to-speak, went off when, almost finished, Nurse Hale
popped her head in the room and notified both men that Admiral Nelson was
requesting Lee’s presence in his office.
Lee sent Will a particularly penetrating look but Will was smart enough
not to accept the challenge. He simply
finished what he wanted to do and sent the younger man on his way.
He never did fully hear what
had transpired in Nelson’s office; Nelson had merely called him and told him
that both Lee and Chip had been told that they were headed for Belize, Will in
tow. Chief Sharkey would take them to
Punta Gorda, on the southern coast of the Central American country. They would take a local bus to the Mayan site
of Lubaantun, and there they would be met by a local guide who had information
on Dr. Wild’s proposed path. He’d
obviously told Lee something along the lines of using Lee because he was –
unfortunately, from too many ONI missions – familiar with making his way
through that kind of environment. Nelson
did say that he’d asked Will to go in case Wild had run into medical
issues. Will didn’t learn how Nelson had
coerced Chip into going until they’d reached the port city and were off-loading
their bags. Will started to gather up
his packs and the blond beat him to them.
“I’m your official packhorse
for this trip, Doc,” Chip told him, almost cheerfully. Will had sent him a look, but Chip gave him
an almost imperceptible shake of his head as he flashed a quick glance at Lee.
“What he means is,” Lee nonetheless
interpreted, “the Admiral didn’t trust me out without a keeper.” Lee’s voice was light, and Will could easily
read the sparkle in his eyes no matter that the words were a complaint.
Will decided
to egg it along. “Obviously I’m along
because he knows better than to turn you two loose on your own.” Chip glared at him, but Lee’s instant
chuckles had even the blond smiling.
“Okay, packhorse,” Will continued. “But I’m not so helpless that I can’t carry
some of my own gear,” and the three of them sorted everything out. Will’s backpack wasn’t much smaller than the
other two men’s were, but Lee and Chip made sure that they got as much of the
heavy items as they could and left Will the lighter stuff.
As they sorted out who got
what, Will saw Lee take two smallish handguns out of a cleverly hidden
compartment in the bottom of his duffel bag, and he and Chip hid them carefully
in their backpacks. Lee saw him watching
and sent him a quick smile. “Belize gun
laws are a little...restrictive,” he said by way of explanation. He glanced at Chip. “Do not, under any circumstances, get caught
by officials with that in your possession.
It's unmarked and can't be traced back to NIMR.” Neither Chip nor Will questioned where Lee
had gotten the guns. It was usually
better not to know such things. Once
everything was repacked they caught the local bus to San Miguel, as Nelson’s
instructions had said. From where they
were dropped off it took them about twenty minutes to
walk to the archaeological site.
* * * *
In the meantime Admiral
Nelson had his own plans to make. He
knew that dragging Jiggs out of his office was going to take more than a little
effort, not to mention a fair share of underhanded guile, so he started by
putting together his own list of supplies for both men that he dispatched
Senior Rating Kowalski to quietly put together.
Normally he’d have had Chief Sharkey do it but he was too afraid that
the talkative COB would blab something to his passengers during the trip down
in FS1. There was going to be explosion
enough when the two groups met – he didn’t want any premature fireworks. He called Matt Bench back, knowing that the
man had connections up the wazzoo, and Bench happily arranged for a private
flight for Nelson and Jiggs to Belize City. Nelson called one of the local tour companies
and set up that they’d be met and driven to the Mayan site, everything timed so
that Nelson and Jiggs would get there approximately an hour before Will and
company. The tour company could, and
did, supply Nelson with two locals who would help schlep supplies and had
knowledge of the terrain.
Nelson also called in a favor
from a friend at NASA and had several satellite photos of southern Belize faxed
to him. A quick glance didn’t
immediately offer any suggestions as to Toby’s intended target, but Bench’s
comment that he’d said ‘southwest of Lubaantun’ at least gave him a direction
to start. He’d just have to hope that
they ran into locals who had seen Toby, and that they were somehow able to pick
up his trail. The person at the travel
agency assured him that the local guides would do some canvassing prior to
Nelson’s arrival amongst their friends in the business to see if they could
pick up any leads.
That part organized, Nelson
set about hijacking Jiggs. That’s about
what it was going to take. He decided
that a frontal attack, without letting Jiggs know that he was coming and thus
have time to build up a defense, was the wisest move. He made sure that he had everything else in
order, loaded his car with the supplies, and drove to San Diego.
He was immediately concerned,
and understood why the rumors were beginning to circulate, when Jiggs seemed
almost happy for an excuse to get away from his high-profile, high-stress, job
as ComSubPac and head off to Belize on a moment’s notice. Oh, there was the expected outburst of “I’m
far too busy to just up and traipse off into the jungle after Toby.” But Nelson could also read the almost relief
in Jiggs’ eyes when he listed off all the meetings that he didn’t dare miss to
go off on Nelson’s wild goose chase.
“Wild archeologist chase,” Nelson corrected him, and smiled as Jiggs
glared at him for the horrible pun. But
there wasn’t the expected force behind the glare and it was a slightly nervous
Nelson who got Jiggs pointed south.
He was even more nervous as
he waited in front of one of the pyramids at Lubaantun. Jiggs was continuing to put up objections but
they lacked any real emotion and strength of will. The two guides, Antonio Lohayza and Cesar
Espata, meeting them right on schedule, had actually had a bit of luck. One of their buddies had been contacted by
Toby for information on the territory due west of Jalacte, which was a village
southwest of Lubaantun. The guide hadn’t
been able to tell Toby much – he’d never been to that area. But at least it did seem that Nelson et al
would be headed in the right general direction.
“What the hell…” Jiggs
sputtered next to him, and Nelson looked up from the satellite picture he’d
been studying to find Lee, Chip, and Will had joined them. From the expressions on the two younger men’s
faces they were having something of the same reaction. Once more Nelson took
the offensive and waved the men over, at the same time telling Jiggs somewhat
offhandedly that, “Great, the rest of our party is here right on
schedule.” He was actually glad that the
glare Jiggs sent him this time was full of honest indignation. But he just ignored it and welcomed his
officers, introducing them to the guides and getting them caught up with what intel he had. He saw
Lee give Will a look that said only too clearly he’d settle with his CMO later
for his part in the conspiracy. But he
also knew his young captain well enough that any actual fireworks would be
minimal, and no doubt laced with the kinds of banter most of the two men’s
‘battles’ usually turned into.
It was Chip’s reaction that
both surprised and worried Nelson. And
he saw both Will and Lee send the blond a look.
The brief one Chip sent Nelson had the Admiral believing a few stories Sharkey
had told him but that he’d thought the COB had embellished. Chip was the absolute master of the poker
face, and maintained a calm exterior aboard Seaview that went a major league
way to keeping the crew calm in those moments of absolute chaos that could, and
unfortunately did, break out every so often.
The crew knew better than to tick him off, particularly by not following
proper procedures and protocol, but even then he was fair with discipline
aboard the sub, and never vindictive or cruel.
But Sharkey had shuddered a few times when relating some of Chip’s
not-so-controlled moments. Nelson had
never given it much consideration because, as long as things were running
smoothly, he stayed out of that end of running the boat. John Phillips had never mentioned a
problem. Curley Jones, Seaview’s first
COB, hadn’t had any issues bothersome enough to make Nelson aware of them. And Lee was perfectly capable of reining Chip
in. If anything, Chip’s occasional
tantrums were usually directed at his long-time friend, and Lee dealt with him
just fine.
But this… A glance at
Lee had Chip bending to the supplies for a moment; when he stood back up his
face was totally back under control. Almost. And Nelson
was quick to notice that the focus was not himself –
although Nelson knew that he wasn’t totally immune – but Jiggs. And another quick glance showed that Jiggs
was perfectly aware of Chip’s animosity.
The blond would bear watching!
Nelson knew that Lee had arranged to arm both himself and Chip surreptitiously,
as bringing firearms into Belize was strictly forbidden. Nelson had also carefully packed a weapon,
but his was for firing tranquilizer darts.
The two guides were both legally armed with small rifles since their
jobs took them into territory occupied by not always friendly animals. They both also carried serious-looking
machetes for getting through thick areas of underbrush in the forest and had
extras for Lee, Chip, Nelson, and Stark.
Oh, Nelson admitted quickly, Chip would never do anything to actually
hurt Jiggs. But… Nelson would keep an eye on things. And he could tell that Lee and Will were
thinking pretty much the same thing.
It didn’t take everyone long
to settle down, go over the rest of the intel, and
take off. Nelson smiled to himself as
Lee instantly made the acquaintance of the two guides and started an easy
conversation about the territory they’d be headed into. He caught Will watching the younger man as
well, a smile semi-controlled on his face, when Lee’s eyes swept the party
several times as everyone prepared to leave the mostly touristy site of
Lubaantun and head off into the wilds of backwoods – so-to-speak – Belize. Lee was quietly but efficiently taking charge
of the expedition just like he took charge of everything around him. It was never heavy-handed. It was just Lee’s way. Nelson watched him start to get the group
organized, no matter that it was Nelson’s ‘party.’ He did glance at Nelson but the Admiral
merely took the opportunity to go over the maps of the area with Lee and show
him the satellite maps. The two guides
were included in that conversation.
Neither had any personal knowledge of hidden Mayan sites in that area
but admitted that they hadn’t, actually, been there.
As they were ready to head
out, Nelson took a good look at the group.
He wasn’t at all surprised to see Chip immediately pitch in to get the
group organized into what he felt to be the best line of march. Lee had already set himself the job of
walking forward with the guides. Then Nelson and Stark.
Nelson sent Chip a quick grin as his XO nudged him verbally into Chip’s
chosen order. Nelson did, quickly, tell
Jiggs to fall in with him – he saw Chip all but ignore Jiggs and assumed that
the younger man was still trying to get himself under control and didn’t want
to risk any conversation with Stark at this point, obviously unhappy with
Nelson’s subterfuge in setting up this adventure. Chip did send Nelson a quick nod,
acknowledging Nelson’s dealing with Jiggs, before sending Will after Jiggs and
giving himself the tail position. It
caused Nelson another hastily buried grin – Chip had everyone in his sights,
where he could keep tabs. As always,
Nelson felt himself blessed that he’d been able to snag the young man away from
the regular Navy and have him as XO – on the boat or not!
The hike started relatively
easy. Lubaantun sat on a ridge so for
the first part they headed downhill, the terrain fairly easy and open. Once they reached the valley they followed a
tributary of the Columbia River into the deepening tropical jungle, keeping to
a generally southwest heading. They
tried to follow animal trails where they could,
assuming that Wild and his party would have done the same thing as the walking
would be a bit easier. They were,
however, aware of the animals that had made the trails in the first place,
keeping an eye out for the more hazardous ones – namely peccary and jaguar –
and alert for the creepy-crawly ones, like venomous snakes. Nelson kept them entertained with bits of
Mayan culture and civilization, asking questions of their guides to fill in his
less-than-complete knowledge. The guides
seemed happy to be included in the conversation; Nelson got the feeling that
they were probably most often ignored by the people who hired them – a shame as
they obviously had a great deal of local information to share. It made the journey, at least this early part
of it, go so much more companionably.
For
everyone but Jiggs Stark. He was absolutely furious. Well, at least he thought that he should be,
after being out-maneuvered by his old friend.
He wanted nothing so much as to sputter and shout at Nelson, and demand
to be returned to somewhere civilized so that he could
make his way back home. However… He’d been
forced by recent incidents to take a good look at himself, and he wasn’t overly
happy with what he’d seen. When push
came to shove he could fall back on old platitudes of, ‘he’d done what needed
to be done at the time.’ But had
he? Had he really had no other choices
when making decisions that affected the people under his command? And, as he’d risen in rank,
had he given enough thought to those men and women, or had he simply assigned
them to the ranks of ‘they’re there to do their jobs as ordered.’
For awhile after that horrendous
trip to NIMR after Nelson’s return from Chile almost seven weeks ago he’d tried
to put the whole trip, and the story behind it, out of his mind – if he ignored
it, it would crawl back into the hole he’d relegated it to so many years ago. But it wouldn’t crawl away. It kept coming back to haunt him whenever he
had a decision to make. And, as
Commander of Submarine Forces, Pacific, that was a lot of decisions. He absolutely hated that he was becoming
indecisive and hesitant. That was so
totally not him! He tried to
bluster his way through the daily routines but he was having more and more
trouble. He was sleeping less, drinking
more, and had actually grasped at the straw Nelson dangled in front of his face
as a way to get away from all the frustration.
Now that he was here all he wanted to do was sputter at Nelson, but
found that he didn’t want to go back home, either.
He absolutely hated
traipsing through anything that didn’t resemble a military base, let alone be
walking through a jungle on the lookout for snakes and spiders. He for sure didn’t want to be around the
other men in the party. Putting up with
Harry was one thing. The two
strong-willed men had always surprised those around them by being friends
instead of bouncing off of each other like same ends of a magnet. Oh, they butted heads all too often. But they’d still always shared a friendship
and respect for each other despite their occasional arguments.
But he’d always had a problem
with Crane that had absolutely nothing to do with how the man’s father had been
killed. Crane… Jiggs huffed at himself. He wasn’t used to men of lower rank not
instantly doing as he ordered. That was
their place, dammit! He practically
growled out loud. Crane… He was forced to take a deep breath. Crane didn’t disobey. Not really.
He simply didn’t take orders blindly.
While it galled Jiggs no end to be…not challenged, he was forced to
acknowledge. Merely
required to explain his reasoning behind the orders. And if Crane had a different interpretation
of the existing conditions, negotiation was required. It drove Jiggs crazy! And Harry to chuckles every time it happened,
which ticked Jiggs off that much more.
He didn’t understand how Harry, a man as dedicated – and stubborn – as
he was, could accept Crane’s challenges so easily. And yet… When push came to shove, Jiggs was forced to
admit that Crane didn’t challenge without reason. His decisions were based on taking care of
those charges, both mechanical and human, placed in his command to the best
outcome possible. And if it meant going
toe-to-toe with whomever stood in his way to accomplish those goals, so be it.
Jiggs had watched Crane today
take quiet control of the two groups of men once they met up. It wasn’t done with outright orders so much
as it was with confidence in his ability to master the challenges presented to
him. He’d carefully stayed out of Jiggs’
face, leaving that chore to Harry; oh, Jiggs had seen the looks passed between
the two – Crane calm and Harry almost amused, which further irritated
Jiggs. But he was forced to admit that
nothing Crane had so far done was in the least incorrect. And, he was forced to admit as well, Crane
was in no way challenging, or even bringing up by look or word, the events of
their last meeting. He’d accepted Jiggs’
explanation and that seemed to be the end of it. Jiggs suddenly wished that he could be that
forgiving, and sent a quick nod Crane’s way that no one else needed to see.
But there was a grunt – of
some sort – behind him and he glanced back to catch Morton glaring at him. The younger man’s eyes changed immediately to
studying the surroundings but Jiggs got the feeling that he’d seen Jiggs’ small
gesture. Heaven only knew how he’d
interpreted it, but apparently it wasn’t totally how Jiggs had meant it and he
was once more instantly ticked. But a
loss of concentration caused him to stumble.
Crane halted immediately and Nelson turned to offer him a hand, which he
waved off. He mumbled something about
needing to pay more attention, which Harry grinned at, and everyone continued
walking.
More mindful of where he was
putting his feet, Jiggs still let the blond run through his mind. He’d never known how to read the man. He was always correct in his address, the few
times Jiggs had run into him before he’d left the regular Navy to join
NIMR. Been usurped right out from under
Jiggs’ nose, actually, and Jiggs had wasted no time yelling at Harry for that
maneuver. Harry hadn’t even bothered to
apologize – he’d just given Jiggs an incredibly smug look. Jiggs had Morton pegged for an upper echelon
supply position – the man could organize a herd of cats! But Jiggs could also appreciate that Harry
had seen the same thing, and knew that Harry valued the man for more than just
those skills.
Jiggs had been surprised,
that night in NIMR’s Med Bay, to see the level of emotion Morton had
exhibited. Somehow he’d always thought
that the man was…well, not without emotions, Jiggs admitted. But sort of…just there. In the background. Some of what he’d seen that night could be
easily explained because of his friendship with Crane. Jiggs knew, of course, that the two had been
friends since Annapolis. He’d harassed Harry
because of it, telling Harry that they’d be his ruin someday because it would
interfere with their ability to command.
He’d had to admit he was wrong, and suffer Harry’s insufferably smug
look once more. But he’d still,
obviously, not gotten Morton’s character right.
Something else you’ve screwed up, you old goat, Jiggs told
himself. Where had he gone so wrong,
reading people? Or, he had to admit, had
he just stopped trying – the higher in rank he rose, the less he had to care
who he ticked off. Whatever it was, he
knew that ‘something’ had to be done. He
just had no idea what!
Chip was thoroughly and
totally torqued! He understood why
Admiral Nelson was worried about his old friend Toby Wild and wanted to go
after him. He understood why Nelson had
included Lee – the man, because of ONI, was familiar with traipsing through
jungles. And he could easily understand
why Nelson had then included he and Jamie. With Lee, both were likely to come in
handy. For entirely separate – or not so
separate, actually – reasons. But why
did Nelson have to include that idiot Stark?
Well, Chip was forced to
admit, Stark wasn’t an idiot. Chip
could, and did, think of a long list of other names for the man, however. While Nelson kept himself in good physical condition,
Stark didn’t seem in shape for anything more strenuous than sitting behind his
desk and bellowing orders. He certainly
didn’t seem up to this type of covert mission – which was exactly how Chip was
now treating the hike. As much as he
detested Lee’s continued involvement with ONI, the Navy’s intelligence agency,
Chip was willing to accept that it made sense, from a strategic point of view,
to treat the search for Nelson’s friend as exactly that. Stark would only slow them down, and that
wasn’t even taking into effect that the man was a jerk and would cause nothing
but tension within the group.
Chip shrugged. On the other hand, except for some initial
grumbling, directed at Nelson when the others had first walked into the
clearing in front of the entrance to Lubaantun, Stark had pretty much kept his
mouth shut. Chip didn’t expect that to
last – Stark, when he was anywhere Chip had encountered him, rarely shut
up! But he also knew that Lee was fairly
adept at countering the overbearing admiral’s frequently snide commentary. Nelson had been known to put Stark in his
place, the times he’d been present when Stark had tried to badmouth Seaview’s
crew. Chip was willing to keep his mouth
shut. For now. But they weren’t on the boat, or doing
anything even remotely ‘navy.’ Stark
better watch his mouth; if he didn’t he, Chip, wouldn’t hesitate to watch it
for him!
Lee knew that Admiral Nelson
was up to something. Heaven only knew
what, and he wasn’t about to ask. Lee
was pretty sure that Jamie was in on it, whatever ‘it’ was. But Lee had, over the last few years since
coming to NIMR, gotten fairly adept at rolling-with-the-flow, as it were,
around Nelson. Lee had quickly given up
trying to figure out how the older man’s genius mind worked and had
concentrated on merely trying to keep everything around him as under control as
possible. It was rarely an easy task,
but Lee did the best that he could.
Lee wasn’t thrilled with
Stark’s presence – the man had an uncanny knack for plowing through any
situation without regard to how anyone else was already handling it. Stark simply didn’t seem to believe that
anyone below the rank of admiral knew their six from a hole in the ground when
it came to making decisions. At least
Nelson always seemed to be able to keep the man from being a total jerk. And in this case Nelson had even sent Lee a
couple of almost conspiratorial glances when Stark wasn’t looking, indicating
to Lee that he need not worry about Stark’s presence – that Nelson had things
in that direction under control. Lee
wasn’t about to let his guard down – Stark had proven in the past just how
easily he could create absolute chaos.
But Lee did have faith in Nelson, and that went a long way to easing
some of Lee’s anxiety over just what, really, was going on.
Lee did know that he’d have
to keep an eye on Chip. He was a little
surprised that his long-time friend still held such animosity toward
Stark. On the other hand it was that
same long-time friendship, and the fact that Chip still saw himself in the
big-brother role to Lee, that was no doubt behind Chip’s continued contempt for
what Stark had done. Lee had tried to
get Chip to let it go – that Stark really didn’t have any options. But Chip was ticked that, once he learned who
Lee was, and especially since Lee had come to NIMR, Stark had still continued
to keep the whole affair a secret. It
had done no good to point out to Chip that, because of the continued need to
keep the long ago action under wraps, Stark hadn’t really been in a position to
come clean. But Chip remained indignant
and Lee continued to let him rant, hoping that Chip would eventually get over
his anger.
Now, with Chip and Stark
stuck together for who knew how long, Lee would need to be vigilant. He knew Chip well enough to not fear for
Stark’s continued health. But they were
off-boat, in totally civilian circumstances.
His friend would bear watching.
Lee called a halt for the day
just after 1800 hours. There was still
some daylight left. But here, even
though the jungle had not completely closed in as yet, it would get dark
early. They’d reached a fairly flat,
open spot near one of the small streams that meandered through the area. After a quick consult with the guides, who
Lee had continued to kibitz with all afternoon, it was decided to set up camp for
the night. A small, well-banked fire was
started, and Jamie assigned to boiling a pot of water to fix the MRE’s –
military ‘Meals Ready to Eat’ pouches that both Lee and Nelson had deemed the
easiest way to carry food for the trip.
The guides carried some local supplies of fruit and staples, and all
shared with the rest. Bedrolls were
spread out under several tarps close to the fire for protection from nocturnal
prowlers. They were carrying several
light tents, but all agreed that with the weather being mild there wasn't a
need to set them up. The jungle quieted
from the daylight cacophony of birds and monkeys into the softer, nighttime
rhythms of insects and rustlings in the brush, and everyone called it an early
night. Lee garnered quick smiles from
the guides as he assigned a rotating night watch between he,
Chip and them. Nelson tried to add
himself to the rotation but Lee waved him off, telling him he’d keep Nelson and
Stark in reserve for later in the hike, depending on how things went and how
long they were out here. Stark had grumbled
something under his breath and Chip frowned, but Nelson snorted and sent Lee an
easy grin, which Lee readily returned.
Another day’s hike brought
them close to the small village of Blue Creek.
The guides told them that there were about forty or so families living
there, mostly farmers of mixed Ketchi Indian and Mopan Mayan descent. They said that it was a fairly peaceful
place, but there had been minor disagreements occasionally with five Mennonite
families that held land close by. Nelson
wanted to check to see if anyone had seen Wild’s
party, but didn’t want to stir up any trouble, so they decided that the entire
party wouldn’t enter the village. The
guides assured Nelson that a good many of the villagers spoke English as well
as their native tongues, which would be helpful, but Nelson took Antonio with
him while the rest of the party set up camp for the night on the outskirts of
the village. They returned with both
food for the evening meal, and news – Wild had indeed passed through the village
nearly three weeks previous. No one
seemed to know quite where he was headed, or had heard anything about him
since. But at least Nelson knew that
they were on the right track for the time being.
Nelson and Stark speculated,
sitting around the fire, just what might have happened to their friend. Antonio and Cesar knew of no hostile natives
in the area. There were occasional
skirmishes between the armies of Belize and Guatemala over where the actual
border was, and stopping people from wandering back and forth. Lee raised an eyebrow and Cesar explained.
“Belize has imposed a fee for
crossing out of the country,” he told them in excellent English. Both guides spoke with an accent, but Cesar’s
was slightly less noticeable than Antonio’s.
Lee figured that it was because Cesar was a few years younger than
Antonio, who was close to Lee’s age, and had probably learned English a lot
easier.
Nelson nodded at Cesar’s
comment. “That would definitely cause
issues – not agreeing on an exact border.”
“Could Wild have run afoul of
the army?” Will asked.
It was Antonio’s turn to
supply information. “I checked before
you arrived,” he answered Will but looked at Nelson. “There was no word of any trouble with
Americans anywhere in southern Belize.
“Thankfully,” Nelson told him
with feeling, and sent him a nod. “I’d
checked as well. What I do wonder about
is the satphone.”
“Even out here in
nowheresville,” Chip said, “it should work just fine.” He immediately realized how that had come out
and sent an apology to the guides.
They both smiled. “With the exception of the scattered
villages,” Cesar told him, still a broad grin on his face, “you would be very
correct. Nothing much
out here but jungle.”
“But Belize is actually one
of the worldwide centers for satphones,” Nelson added. “The whole country has good coverage.”
“Unless the phone was damaged
or lost,” Lee speculated.
Nelson nodded. “Always a possibility,” he agreed.
“I don’t suppose either you
or Matt gave any consideration to the fact that Toby simply doesn’t want to be
found?” Stark muttered at Nelson.
Nelson sent him an indulgent
smile. “Actually, I said much the same
to Matt.” He shrugged. “He said that Toby had specifically told him
about the trip so that someone knew where he was. Well,” he amended, “sort of, anyway.” Stark grunted. “But he told Matt that he’d stay in touch at
least once a week. When Matt heard
nothing after that, he first called the university to see if they’d had any
calls, and then called me.” His only
answer was a muttered ‘harrumph’ from the other admiral. He caught the other three Seaview officers
have to quickly bury grins. Even Chip
had a half grin on his face ever so briefly.
Nelson didn’t even bother to hide his own smile, almost more to that bit
of relaxed attitude from his XO toward Jiggs than Jiggs’ own opinion of the
situation.
What he did do was pull out
the satellite photos of the area and, using a flashlight, study them once
more. He was a bit surprised when Lee
also pulled out his light but held it under the map, shining up. Nelson sent him a raised eyebrow.
Lee shrugged. “Sometimes it helps,” he offered. Nelson grunted but went back to studying the
map.
“Here,” Nelson said softly,
and pointed to what looked like a small abnormality in the otherwise thick
jungle more north than south of their present location. Lee looked from Nelson’s left, still holding
his flashlight under the photo, while Stark came closer to look from Nelson’s
right.
“I don’t see anything,” Stark
snarled. But Lee was nodding. He took a small twig and pointed it out. Stark stared harder – mostly at Lee. But Nelson was still smiling softly and Stark
went back to looking at the map.
“Jungles shouldn’t have straight lines,” he finally muttered.
“Precisely,” Nelson told him. “It’s faint.
But that’s exactly what it looks like.”
“You think that’s what Dr.
Wild found?” Lee asked.
Nelson shrugged. “With Toby, who knows?” he admitted. “But it’s just as good a place to start as
any.”
Lee took the map and showed
it to the two guides. There was some
quiet discussion between the three before Lee looked at Nelson. “It’s not exactly south-southwest of
Lubaantun. More due
west.”
“Which could have been Toby’s
way of hiding where he was going – the archaeology world is just as cutthroat,
if not more so, than a lot of fields of research.”
Lee nodded. “Antonio says that there’s a lot of uncharted
jungle right in that area.”
“I have never talked to
anyone who has been there,” the guide added.
“Could be anything hiding out there.”
“Oh, goody,” Will muttered.
Chip, sitting next to him,
nudged his shoulder. “Where’s your sense
of adventure, Jamie?” he teased the doctor.
“I get quite enough of that
on the boat, thank you,” Will growled at the blond, to a combination of grins
and grimaces from the other Seaview men.
“We can’t exactly go walking
through the jungle yelling Toby’s name,” Stark grumbled to Nelson. But Nelson saw Lee give the other admiral an
almost quizzical look, probably from the lack of Jiggs’ usual bellowy bluster.
“No,” Nelson agreed with a
sigh. It was starting to appear like
this was becoming more and more a fool’s errand – at least as far as finding
Toby. It was a little too early to make
assumptions about the rest of his somewhat harebrained idea.
“While the jungle can cover
tracks all too quickly,” Lee offered, “if he went through there, there should
still be some sign at least three weeks later.”
There were nods from the guides.
“We’ll just have to hope that we pick up some kind of indication.”
Nelson nodded. “We’ll use the line,” he indicated the photo
Lee still held, “as a focus, and try to find it. If we run across some other indications of
Toby’s presence we can adjust from there.
Who knows?” Nelson grinned. “Maybe we’ll find an ancient site all on our
own.” His sudden enthusiasm was not
exactly met with equal opinion from the others.
Lee and Chip both frowned before quickly regaining a neutral expression,
and Will momentarily looked skyward as if seeking
divine intervention. Nelson’s grin
turned slightly sheepish, remembering times when his forward charges had caused
‘issues’ of one sort or another.
He decided that it might be
advantageous to change the subject, and turned to the guides. “It looks like, from the map, that we’ll be
headed into the Columbia River Forest Reserve.
Or right close to it. Will that
be a problem?”
“No, Admiral,” Cesar told
him. “As long as we are just hiking, or
passing through, there should be no problem.
Antonio,” he glanced at his partner, who was nodding, “and I have the
proper documents, if we are stopped for any reason. While it is not exactly where we thought that
we would be heading, it should still cause no problems.”
“Thank you for that
foresight,” Nelson told them openly.
They both smiled broadly. With a quick look at each other, Antonio
continued. “We are quite used to sudden
changes in tourists’ plans.”
“But Admiral,” Will asked,
“if that’s where your friend headed, why did you find information in the
village that he’d been this way?”
Nelson shrugged. “More misdirection, perhaps?” he
offered. “I’ve spent a lot of time
studying those satellite photos. There’s
just not a lot of jungle in the direction Toby indicated that hasn’t been at
least sporadically explored. Jalacte,”
he named the village close to Guatemala’s border, “has been a fairly busy
trading point for a long time.” The two
guides nodded agreement to that statement.
“It just makes more sense that, if Toby found information leading him to
an as yet undiscovered Mayan site, one, it would be near Lubaantun, as he
indicated; and two, it would be out in the booneys.” He sent a sheepish look at the two
guides. “Sorry. An American expression
meaning in the middle of nowhere.”
The two locals grinned and nodded.
“While heading through the village of Blue Creek would take him to some
pretty wild territory,” he cringed at the bad pun as Lee and Chip both grinned
and Will snorted. He glanced at Jiggs,
who seemed to be studying his hands and appeared not to have heard the bit of
silly, “it takes him further and further from Lubaantun. The area to the west gets into heavy,
unexplored jungle much more rapidly.”
“And the villagers said that
they didn’t actually know which direction he headed, once he left?” Lee
requested confirmation. Nelson
nodded. “Then one direction is just as
good as another, and this one makes more sense.” With that they all settled in for the night,
a guard rotation in place.
Nelson gave a brief thought
that Jiggs might be withholding information – his non-reaction to Harry’s pun
was unusual. But Nelson shrugged it
off. Everything about Jiggs’ reaction to
things of late was ‘off’ – this was just another example. Nothing that his old friend had said or did
gave any indication that he had any knowledge of Toby’s recent actions. Until or unless there was, Nelson was willing
to chalk the whole thing up to more of Jiggs not being Jiggs.
* * * *
The following morning the
party turned north, and about noon of the day after entered the town of San
Antonio where they found rooms and showered and rested until taking off again
the next morning. Nelson checked in with
NIMR – he wasn’t surprised to find that Angie had things well in hand, although
Chip and Will seemed a bit disappointed not to have a good reason for calling
off the trip. Lee, as usual, accepted
the information without comment. Jiggs
seemed equally disappointed that ComSubPac was getting along without him as
well, about which Nelson carefully controlled his expression. While Jiggs was being far too quiet this trip
it didn’t seem advisable to tick him off and give him the opportunity to head
home; especially as they were, actually, at a point he could catch a local bus
and do just that.
Apparently the two guides
hadn’t been idle. Not only had they acquired
a good supply of fresh food, they’d gathered a bit of intel
in the process. It seems that there had
been a small party of foreigners seen in the region at about the time Toby
would have come through. There wasn’t a
lot of information -
it was a small group of four or five, no real nationality identified except
‘foreigners’, and no real idea of where they’d gone. They just appeared, one of them had purchased
supplies without indicating why the group was there, and they all disappeared
again. It was some validation to Nelson
that they were on the right track – but not much.
Leaving San Antonio the next
morning, Nelson pointed the group north and slightly west. More study of the map had indicated that a slightly circuitous route might make for some
slightly easier walking as they headed into more dense forest. It also seemed like the heavier cover decided
to prove its reason for existence. While
so far the group had enjoyed fairly good weather, halfway into the morning a
light drizzle started to fall and gradually turned into a steady rain. The heavier forest had its advantages – the
thick canopy overhead did collect a fair amount of the moisture. But no one complained about stopping a bit
earlier than they had been, getting a carefully banked fire going and tarps
tied up to give even more protection over the small tents they also set up this
time.
With
a little extra cooking time the guides produced an exquisite-tasting stew using
dried meat that re-hydrated as it cooked in the liquid made thick with fresh
vegetables they'd picked up in San Antonio.
Belly's full and mugs of strong coffee in hand, peace prevailed around
the fire, each man in his own thoughts.
Suddenly
the quiet was broken by the cry of a jaguar, way too close to the camp. Even the two guides jumped at the sudden
invasion of the quiet evening. Nelson
glanced around sheepishly as the others were doing the same. “This is his territory, after all,” he told
the group.
“They
are pretty shy and should not bother us,” Cesar told everyone.
Antonio
looked thoughtful. “Unless
this one is old, or injured. It
would look for an easy kill,” he said seriously.
“No
sleeping on watch tonight,” Lee told him, and everyone nodded.
“Just
see that you get some sleep,” Nelson told Lee firmly. He knew his captain only too well. Lee was just as apt to stay up all
night. Not because he didn't trust any
of the others. It was just that he
tended to want to personally see to the safety of those around him.
As
both Chip and Jamie also sent him stern looks, Lee nodded. “Yes, sir,” he answered quietly with a
sheepish grin of his own. It changed to
a frown when Jamie snorted softly and Chip continued to stare at him. “What?” he grumbled at his long time friend.
But
it was Nelson who answered. “Your track
record speaks loudly at such times as this,” he told Lee with a slight grin.
Lee
continued to frown, but anything that he might have answered was interrupted by
another scream from the large cat, thankfully sounding a bit further away this
time. Everyone let out a soft sigh and
then looked around at the others, nodded, and made ready for an early bed.
* *
* *
Will
was not overly pleased. He kept his
thoughts to himself; he knew that it would only cause discord within the small
group if he spoke what was bothering him.
But he kept even closer watch on his impetuous young captain than he had
been.
The
heavy rain of yesterday had abated somewhat overnight but there was still a
steady drizzle in the air. The small
game trail that Antonio had found the previous day, headed for the most part in
Nelson's chosen direction, was muddy enough to be slick, and everyone was
having to watch their step. But it
hadn't kept Will from noticing Lee reach up almost absentmindedly to rub his
right temple every so often. Those who
didn't know him well would probably not even have seen the quick, light,
gesture. But to Will it was apparent
that Lee was fighting a headache.
Will
suspected that, even after being admonished to get enough rest the night
before, Lee hadn't slept well. Will had
to admit that he hadn't, either, since the jaguar had continued to make it's
presence known nearby. So he was willing
to cut the younger man some slack. But
he would keep an eye on Lee just the same.
He was, for the most part, comfortable that Lee had recovered fully from
the traumas he'd suffered in Chile. This
trip wasn't what Will would have recommended for his
continued good health. On the other
hand, Will snorted softly to himself, the man could create havoc fixing
a kitchen sink! Will chuckled silently. Well,
he was forced to admit, that isn't quite true. Lee Crane was no klutz. But in any given situation, no matter how
innocuous it seemed on the outside, the young man would make sure that he put
himself between whoever was with him and whatever danger, however remote the
possibility, that he could perceive happening.
Will
realized that he wasn’t the only one who was watching Lee closely when, the
next time that Lee made the quick gesture to his temple, there was an almost
growl from behind him. He glanced back
and found Chip frowning deeply. He sent
the blond a nod to show that he’d seen the potential problem, but then added a
very quick shake of his head to warn Chip to keep quiet. At least for now. Lee was still moving comfortably, carrying
his backpack with an ease that Will envied.
Now was definitely not the time to challenge the man.
He
was still turned slightly so didn’t see exactly what happened directly in front
of him. But he heard the after effects, and
figured that anyone within fifty miles probably did as well. Quickly turning forward again he had to
immediately stop or he’d have stepped on Stark, face down on the muddy
trail. He heard – and prayed that he was
the only one who did – Chip’s sarcastic mutter of “All hail the Mighty Lard of
the Jungle.” He sent the blond an
uncovered grin before immediately controlling his expression and turning
forward again. Given the volume of
Stark’s opinion relating to a variety of topics Will assumed that the admiral
was unhurt. He shared a very quick grin
with Nelson – carefully over Stark’s back – and wondered briefly if his boss
had heard Chip as the two offered the other admiral a hand getting back to his
feet. The expression on Stark’s face
made Will quickly let go of the arm he’d grabbed once
Stark was once more standing.
Not
so Nelson. With a barely contained grin
he started wiping off some of the clumps of mud stuck to Stark’s clothes. “Gotta be more careful, Jiggs,” he teased his
old friend, “and watch where you’re putting your feet. Lee can tell you all about the hazards of
face-plants in the mud on jungle trails.”
He sent his young captain a look that Lee returned with slightly lowered
eyes at that reminder of one of Lee’s slight miscalculations.** “Did you hurt yourself?” Nelson once more
addressed Stark.
“I’m
just fine, Harriman,” came out in a growl so harsh that Will found himself
taking a small step back even though the comment itself caused him to send Lee,
the absolute master of that phrase, a slight grin. Nelson didn’t even bother hiding a quick
smile, and there was a soft snort from Chip.
Stark briefly stiffened but gave himself a shake. “Let’s get moving,” he ordered.
Nelson
sent him another teasing grin but nodded.
“By all means,” he agreed, and the men once more started walking. Will kept an eye on Stark but the admiral
didn’t appear to have injured himself with his misstep.
Nelson
found himself having to watch where he put his own feet as he worried about his
old friend. While the initial outburst
had been ‘typical Jiggs’, the almost immediate backing off was definitely
not. Nelson had been prepared to spend
several minutes needling Jiggs so that the focus would be on him and not a ten minute
outraged diatribe on what they were doing out here in the first place. It worried Nelson to see Jiggs this
unbalanced – he was much more used to the man blustering his way through
whatever stood between him and what he thought was the right way to handle
whatever situation he found himself in.
His acquiescing so easily – on everything this entire trip – was
beginning to unnerve Nelson ever so slightly.
He
also wondered if there had been ‘something’ that happened between Will and
Chip. As Nelson turned at the sound of
Jiggs’ fall he’d seen Chip’s lips move.
And the expression on the blond’s face had not been
pleasant. He made a mental note to ask
Will when he had the chance. So far Chip
had been fairly under control. But
Nelson was all too aware that he still needed to be watched.
But
his attention was refocused as Lee suddenly called a halt and turned slowly in
a circle, listening intently. “Lee?” he
finally broke the silence that had fallen while all the men watched the strange
maneuver.
“Not
sure, Admiral,” Lee finally said. “I
just…” He gave himself a shake and
finally looked at his boss. “Thought I heard something.”
He shrugged. “Guess not.”
Nelson
sent the younger man a grin even though Lee’s body language said all too
clearly, to anyone who knew him well, that he was still highly alert about
something. Nelson had learned to trust
that sense, be it sixth or sixtieth, that Lee had the ability to tap into. Now he decided to see if he could get Lee to
relax a bit – he’d also noticed the several seemingly offhand movements to his
temple. He was somewhat surprised that
Will hadn’t yet commented on them and wondered if maybe that’s what Chip had
been muttering about. “I don’t think we
need to worry about the jaguar. Jiggs’
outburst has to have scared away anything within ten miles.”
Lee
grinned broadly but quickly controlled it as there was a snorted ‘something’
from the other admiral. “Yes, sir,” Lee
still said, the smile evident in his voice, and once more the group moved
forward.
Nelson
noticed that Lee still remained on alert, evidenced by his carefully controlled
body movements. But he didn’t stop again
until about an hour later, when the trail they’d been following opened into a
small glade. Very evident in the opening
was the remains of a campfire. “We’re on
the trail of someone,” Nelson observed helpfully. It earned him another muttered snarl from
Jiggs, and he egged it on by smiling broadly as everyone walked up to the
banked ring protecting the fire pit. Lee
and the two guides gave the entire area a going over but whoever had made the
fire hadn’t left any other evidence.
They did decide that it was a good place for them as well to spend the
night, and quickly set up camp.
As
Lee was finishing his meal Chip, sitting at his left, gave him a nudge. “What?” Lee challenged the blond, but
softly. Nelson was entertaining the
group – well, mostly the guides as everyone else had heard them before – with
tales from his earliest years in the Navy.
“That’s
my line,” Chip sniped right back although he, too,
kept his voice low. “What’s got you on
edge?” Chip had been keeping close tabs
on his friend. While Lee had quit making
the small movements to his temple Chip could easily read the signs of tension
in Lee’s body.
Lee
didn’t even bother denying it. “There’s
someone out there. Or something,” he
amended. “I can feel them.”
“Any idea where?” Chip easily accepted Lee’s
statement. He’d learned early on not to
discount Lee’s ‘feelings.’
Lee
shook his head. “But we’re being
watched,” he said with conviction.
“Lee?” Nelson had noticed the quiet conversation
going on between his two young officers and, with the end of his current story,
decided to see what had them both so intense.
However, also knowing them so well, he came at it sideways. “Time for a story from
you?”
It
caused Chip to hiccup to bury a snort, and Lee to frown – he wasn't much of a
storyteller. At least
about himself. “No, sir,” he
answered, keeping his voice controlled. “Just discussing how much further to your straight line in the
forest.” While he was on edge, he
had no wish to worry everyone else. Not
yet. Not until he knew for sure that
there was something to actually worry about.
Nelson
didn't believe his captain for an instant.
Lee's body language was far too determined, and Chip wasn't far
behind. He also knew that Lee was far
too good a reader of maps not to already know the answer to his question. But Nelson had no wish to screw up whatever
was behind Lee's attempt at subterfuge. “If we make as good progress as we have been, another two days. However, I suspect that the closer we get,
the harder it's going to be getting through the forest. I don't think that we'll be able to count on
any convenient animal trails.” While he
didn't challenge Lee openly, he did point a bit of an eyebrow at the younger
man.
Lee
merely nodded. He was pretty sure Nelson
wasn't buying what he was trying to sell.
It was a bit of a game the two played on occasion – each knowing that
the other wasn't coming clean about 'something', and trying hard not to be the
first one to give in. “And if we don't
find anything to indicate that your friend's been there?”
Before
Nelson could even open his mouth to answer there was a muttered snarl from
Stark. Nelson sent a quick look the
other admiral's direction before answering.
“Guess we cross that bridge when we come to it,” he admitted. Looking around, he added, “Getting late. We'd better turn in.”
“Yes,
sir,” Lee agreed. “I'll take first
watch.” This time the snarl came from
Chip.
“I'll
stay up with you for a bit,” the blond added, surprisingly softly for how stiff
he was holding himself. Lee knew better
than to argue, and merely nodded.
Nelson
sent the pair a penetrating look but both younger men met it with ease. And Nelson got sidetracked anyway by the
groan Jiggs couldn't bury as he stood up.
At his raised eyebrow, Stark muttered an “I'm fine.” He frowned when all four Seaview officers had
to bury smiles. “Guess I stiffened up a
bit from when I tripped, once I sat down,” he added almost under his breath.
“Understandable,”
Will jumped in before Chip could make a comment, as he appeared ready to
do. Will had a
feeling that it wouldn't be anywhere close to politically correct. “I'll grab you a couple Ibuprofen from my
pack,” and he headed for his small tent.
Nelson goaded his old friend just enough to take the pills when Will
returned, and the three older men settled in for the night. Nelson sent Lee one more
quick look but when Lee met it openly, Nelson surrendered and followed
Stark into the tent they shared. Cesar
assured Lee and Chip that he would take over the watch shortly after midnight,
and he and Antonio also crawled into their shared tent.
Lee
and Chip were both silent for the next bunch of minutes, each deep in their own
thoughts. They'd gathered enough wood
when they first set up camp, laying it out close enough to the fire to help it
dry out even more, so that they could easily keep the small fire going all
night. The rain had let up, at least for
the time being, but the forest around them was extremely damp.
Eventually
Lee got up, stretched, put another piece of wood on the fire, and started to
walk toward the forest on the far side of the fire, away from the tents. He was stopped by a flat, solid, “No,” from
Chip.
Turning,
he sent the blond a frown. “No, what?”
“No,
you're not going to 'just take a look around'.”
Busted, Lee told himself. Chip knew him too well. But he still tried to talk his way out of
it. “What makes you think that's what
I'm going to do?” Chip just stared at
him, not even bothering to answer, and Lee surrendered. Sort of. “I wasn't going far.”
“I
would prefer that you didn't become cat food.
Or worse,” Chip muttered.
Lee
couldn't resist. “What's worse than cat
food?”
Chip
finally surrendered as well. “Leaving me to deal with two admirals all by myself.”
Lee
snorted, then got thoughtful. “Might be worth it,” he teased his old
friend, but snickered at the glare Chip sent him.
It
was Chip's turn to get thoughtful.
“Still out there?” he asked so softly that it was basically just
mouthed. Lee's nod was equally
subtle. “Damn,” Chip buried in a covered
cough. But he sent Lee a raised
eyebrow. “You seem more relaxed,” was
his observation.
Lee
shrugged and sat back down. “For
whatever reason, I don't sense active hostility. But I don't know why,” he added in an almost
puzzled voice.
Once
again, Chip trusted Lee's 'feelings.'
“Works for me,” he told Lee.
While they both remained alert for any signs of trouble they, and their
watch, remained quiet.
* *
* *
Apparently
it stayed quiet for the guides as well after they took over. Chip wasn't too sure how much sleep Lee got,
but once he was assured that his friend was no longer so on edge about who or
what was or was not keeping tabs on them he crashed hard. So hard, in fact, that he was mad at himself
when he finally woke up and discovered that Lee wasn't in the tent. He glanced at his watch – it wasn't that late. But he hurried out only to find Lee standing
by the fire, coffee mug held in both hands.
It was raining hard again and Chip was happy that they'd brought so many
of the light but extremely effective blue plastic tarps. He walked up to the fire and poured his own
mug of coffee, and was just about to ask Lee if he still felt that they were
being watched when Jamie came out of his tent and headed immediately toward the
smell of coffee. The two younger men
shared a quick grin.
“Not
quite up to Cookie's morning standards,” Chip warned the doctor. He and Lee both decided that they didn't want
a translation of the mutterings the older man made before drowning them in a
long pull on his own full mug of the dark brew.
Chip was once more gearing up to softly question Lee when Nelson emerged
from his tent about the same time the two guides did. The coffee pot was quickly emptied, and Chip
watched Lee start making another batch.
He'd barely set the pot on the fire when Stark practically crawled out
of the tent he shared with Nelson and they all had to listen to the other
admiral's opinions about empty coffee pots.
Nelson pointing out all too cheerfully that if Jiggs hadn't been the
last one up there might have been some left from the first potful only turned
Stark's expression darker, but at least he momentarily shut up. Chip had to turn his back – he was having a
hard time controlling his own face and knew that a smirk now would only make
matters worse. While he could care less
about Stark, Nelson, and especially Lee, would not be overjoyed. But he
listened carefully as Nelson started talking to Lee. The guides began fixing breakfast as Nelson
commented on the lousy weather, thinking that with the nice camp set-up they
had, it might be a good day to just stay hunkered down.
“No,
sir,” Lee respectfully but firmly told his boss, and Chip turned back
around. “I know that it’s not fun but we
need to keep moving.” Nelson pointed an
eyebrow at Lee, glanced at Chip as if to ask if the blond knew why Lee was
being so adamant, and then re-focused on Lee.
“The faster we find your friend,” Lee continued, although Chip could
read all too well that his friend was merely trying to present a logical
reason, “the faster we can get out of here and go home.” Chip figured that Nelson also read his
captain only too well as Nelson looked hard at the younger man for an extended
moment before finally shrugging.
“Point
taken,” Nelson told him, although Chip got the distinct impression that Nelson
was thinking back to Lee and Chip's quiet but intense conversation the night
before. He seemed ready to press Lee for
more but Stark interrupted him.
“For
once I agree with your boy, Harriman,” the admiral grumbled almost
begrudgingly. “We've come this far –
let's get this fool's errand over and done with.” Chip was mildly surprised that Stark didn't
even make the term he normally used for he and Lee sound as derogatory as he
usually did.
Nelson
momentarily took his gaze off Lee.
“You’re sure that you don't want to rest a day? You were really sore last night.”
Chip
had to quickly bury a snort and once more turn his back as Stark practically
snarled at that reminder of his oops the previous day, but not before he saw
Jamie have to bury a grin as he glanced at Chip. He knew that the doctor had heard his
extremely irreverent comment the day before.
He was just glad that apparently no one else had! “Better if I keep moving,” Chip heard Stark
admit. He turned back around and noticed
that even Lee was sending the older man an odd look. Nelson wasn't even trying to hide a smile.
“True,”
Nelson agreed.
Chatter
was light as they started breaking camp.
Chip did see Nelson watching Lee rather intently as they sat down to eat
a quick breakfast. But Lee was choosing
to ignore the looks, although he continued to stay alert to the sounds in the
trees around them. The heavy rain had
most of the animals seeking shelter of their own apparently, so Chip heard very
little. They left the tarp over the fire
for last, and packed up everything else using it for cover. Once it came down the rain quickly squelched
the fire and the group of men once more took off.
They
had a surprise waiting for them. Instead
of the forest becoming thicker, the trees started to thin somewhat. While they did indeed lose the game trail
they'd been following, the ground cover became more grass and fern fronds and
walking was actually a bit easier. Wetter, for sure, as everything was soaked without the heavy layer
of tree canopy over them. But
Chip felt better since he wasn't feeling so closed in, and thought that he
detected a little less tension in Lee's shoulders as well.
They
stopped to eat a quick lunch under a small grove of trees. Nelson looked around as he ate, a look on his
face that Lee and Chip were familiar with.
Something was piquing their boss' interest. It was not always a comfortable situation,
depending on what Nelson ended up getting them involved in because of it. The two younger men shared a look but it was
Stark who questioned his old friend.
Apparently he, also, was familiar with the look. “What kind of trouble are you about to get us
into, Harriman?” the admiral growled.
“What?”
Nelson sent Stark a totally innocent expression. “What are you talking about, Jiggs?”
“That
look,” Stark told him. “Every time I see it all hell's about to break loose.” Lee and Chip had to quickly bury snorts of
laughter.
Nelson
sent them both a bit of a chagrined look before turning back to Stark. “I was just postulating about why we're
suddenly in more open forest.”
“Any
number of reasons,” Stark muttered. “Old forest fire. Tree disease. Hell,
just luck of the draw,” Stark basically blew him off.
Nelson
nodded. “Agreed. But,” he added somewhat smugly, “it could also be that at one time this area was cleared for
farming. Meaning, there could have been
a Mayan village, or larger, nearby, and the forest is just now in the process
of reclaiming the land.”
“I
know of no ruins in the area,” Cesar informed the group.
“Your straight line on the map, Admiral?” Lee asked.
“One
can hope,” Nelson told him with a twinkle in his eyes. Lee and Chip shared another glance between
them, and Nelson sent them a slightly sheepish look as even Will chuckled.
“Your
enthusiastic approach to anything new precedes you, Admiral,” the doctor teased
his boss. “Although I think that this is
a first. Unknown Mayan ruins?”
Nelson
shrugged. “Always have loved learning
about new things,” he admitted.
“Harrumph,”
Stark snorted, and all four Seaview men grinned.
About
an hour after their lunch stop Lee left his forward position with the guides,
letting them set the course, and waited to walk back with Chip. The blond instantly recognized the set of
Lee's shoulders. “Your 'feeling' is
back,” he said softly, not making it a question. Lee just nodded. “I hope that you're not thinking about a
sudden lone ranger,” warning Lee not to leave the group.
“No,”
Lee confirmed. “Just think that an extra
rear guard is a little more appropriate right at the moment.”
“Understood.” Chip tried to listen for anything
that might have set Lee's 'feelers' quivering but all he could hear were the
sounds they'd been hearing from the beginning: lots of birds. He remembered reading, or watching, something
once about how birds would call differently if they were sounding an alarm. But as far as he could tell they sounded just
like they had been. And if that was
alarm-mode it was probably he and his group who they were upset about.
He
was concentrating so hard that when a new sound suddenly penetrated the area
all too loudly he jumped and stopped dead.
Lee chuckled at him but Chip saw several others jump as well.
“Howler
monkeys,” Nelson identified the new sound - low-pitched, guttural, loud, and
almost scary. “Wondered why we haven't
heard them before now.”
“We
hear them more often in slightly more open forest, like this,” Antonio told
him. “Not so much in the heavier parts
of the jungle.” He shrugged. “But they go where they want,” he added with
a grin.
“I
wish they'd give a guy a little warning,” Chip muttered.
Lee
chuckled again. “That was their
warning.” Chip sent him a glare but it
only caused Lee to grin more broadly, and the group once more continued on.
The
howler monkeys kept the group on edge most of the afternoon but, about an hour
before they’d been stopping for the night, the group
hit another section of thick forestation.
They left the monkeys, as well as the heavy rain, behind as they entered
the heavier cover. But by then everyone
was so thoroughly soaked that they took the first opportunity they found, in a
small glade, to set up camp for the night and get a fire going.
Chip
had continued to divide his attention between keeping an eye on Lee, who had
remained on high alert all afternoon, and trying to determine what was keeping
his friend that way. He’d failed
miserably at the latter, which ticked him off.
While he was perfectly willing to admit that Lee had much more
experience keeping himself alive in these kinds of surroundings, it still
bothered him that he couldn’t detect even one single thing that was different
from any of the previous days. He did
notice, as he and Lee and the guides got busy tying up tarps and setting up
tents, that the constant tension had taken it’s toll
on Lee, who wasn’t moving with his normally easy strides. He was also, off and on, closing his eyes
ever so briefly, another signal to those closest to him that he was fighting a
headache. Chip realized that both Nelson
and Jamie were aware of it as well, and geared himself up for the battle of
wills that he knew was about to happen.
He
didn’t have a long wait. The first round
was fired as everyone sat down to eat.
Before filling his plate, Jamie walked over to where Lee and Chip were
standing waiting their turn at the pot of stew the guides had produced and
tried to hand Lee several pills. Lee
merely glared at the doctor. To his
credit, Jamie did his best not to start an argument. “Skipper,” he said with an ever so slight
smile on his face, “ignoring that headache won’t make it go away. I know that you know what these pills are,
and I know that you know they won’t do anything other than take the edge
off. Please?” he added, and held his
hand a few inches closer to Lee. Chip
bent down, ostensibly to re-secure a tent peg but it was mostly to cover a
snicker. When he looked up, Lee was
glaring at him. But Jamie hadn’t moved,
and Chip sent his long-time friend a nod as Lee relented and took the pills,
quickly washing them down with a swallow from the canteen Jamie was holding in
his other hand. Nothing more was said on
the subject and everyone sat down to eat.
It
was Nelson who fired the second volley, as Lee got ready to assign the rotating
guard positions for the night. “It’s
time Jiggs and I took our turns,” Nelson interrupted him as he started getting
everyone sorted out. Lee tried to wave
him off but he spoke a little more firmly.
“No, Lee.” The tone of his voice
had even Chip sitting up a bit straighter. “Tonight you and Chip take a
break.” His voice softened ever so
slightly. “We can do our fair
share.” He grinned slightly as there was
a mutter from where Stark was sitting, next to him, but it was too low for Chip
to make out what the other admiral said.
However, the penetrating look Nelson was sending Lee never wavered, and
Lee surrendered. At
least outwardly. Chip got the
distinct impression, watching Lee’s body stay slightly stiff, that the battle
might not yet be over. However, the look
returned as everyone else headed for their tents. Lee hesitated just a moment and started to
open his mouth. But all that eventually
came out was a soft “Goodnight, sir,” and Lee crawled inside the small tent
that he shared with Chip. The blond let
out the breath that he hadn’t realized he was holding, sent a nod toward
Nelson, who finally smiled, and followed Lee.
* *
* *
Jiggs
thought that he’d barely gotten to bed when something shook his shoulder and he
snorted awake. The ‘something’ turned
out to be Harriman’s hand and he grumbled to his friend. “You couldn’t have brought along a few more
lackeys? That’s what the navy made
junior officers for, so we could get our sleep.”
Nelson
chuckled. “You’ve gotten too soft,
Jiggs. I remember when we could stay up
for three straight days and nights and still have enough energy to lick a pack
of Marines.” His grin broadened as Jiggs
merely growled something under his breath.
“You need to stay in better shape, Jiggs. Exercise more. It invigorates the soul.”
“My
soul is perfectly happy parked behind a desk,” came out waspishly. But Jiggs none-the-less crawled out and took
his post by the fire. It was just after
midnight; Nelson had stood his three hours.
One of the guides would relieve Jiggs at 0300. Thankfully. There was a nearly full pot of coffee on the
small fire, and Jiggs settled in for his turn on watch.
He
wasn’t quite sure why there needed to be a guard posted. Oh, he understood about the jaguar. Not to mention all the other jungle
wildlife. And he supposed that, as long
as there was an open fire, even nicely banked as it was, someone needed to keep
tabs on it. But why him! Harriman and his stupid trip! When they found Toby – IF they found Toby –
Jiggs was going to rip him a new one for causing this confounded mess in the
first place!
An
hour later, the coffee was gone and Jiggs was feeling restless. The rain had stopped, at least for the time
being. Everyone had laid wet clothes
close to the fire but under the tarps, to hopefully dry out by morning. Jiggs walked around, turning things over to
let the other sides dry better, then walked around the
small clearing. As boredom continued to set
in he walked a little further away, into the first few feet of jungle. Glancing back, he thought about grabbing the
rifle that had been left out for whoever was on duty to use if necessary. There was also a machete close to the fire,
to use for whatever. But he was only
going a few yards and wouldn’t need either.
The
night wasn’t quiet – not totally. When
Jiggs stopped complaining and actually listened, there was an almost
comfortable peacefulness to the night sounds.
A bird high overhead, a bush rustling as something
skittered further away into the dark.
Jiggs was reminded of summer evenings on his grandparents’ farm in
upstate New York. A city kid, the
country was an amazing place for a child.
He’d learned how to milk a cow – and decided rather abruptly that he
preferred his milk out of the bottles left on his doorstep by the delivery
guy! But feeding the chickens and
gathering the eggs was kind of fun. And playing hide-and-seek in the rows of corn with his brothers. Jiggs stood quietly, letting the memories of
a more peaceful time drain him of his anger and disgust at present
circumstances.
Two
things happened so fast that he didn’t even have time to think, let alone
react, until it was all over. First, the
sudden invasion to his pleasant memories by the realization that there was a
snake barely six inches in front of his right foot, coiling to strike. And second, a bare arm
swinging a machete materializing next to him that beheaded said snake, leaving
the head laying against the toe of his boot and the body writhing in its death
throes. Jiggs finally took a
breath and followed the arm back to its owner.
A
bare-chested Chip Morton glared at him.
“You shouldn’t have left the camp,” he practically growled. “And especially unarmed.” That came out in Morton’s best Command
style. Jiggs had never heard that
particular tone in Morton’s voice and for an oh-so-brief moment it took him
back to when he was a brand new ensign assigned to his first ship after
graduating Annapolis. He’d promptly gotten
lost and unfortunately been found, far from where he was supposed to be, by the
ship’s COB. Master Chief Hardy had not
been fond of Annapolis weenies, as he called them, in the first place, and a
small shudder ran through Jiggs’ body at the memory. It instantly turned to righteous indignation
at now, as an admiral, being given an order by a lowly lieutenant commander and
he tried to glare at Morton. But the
blond merely drove the point of the machete into the ground, all too close to
Jiggs’ leg for comfort, and stalked off back toward camp. Jiggs took another glance at the snake,
grabbed the machete, and quietly followed.
By the time he got back to the fire the flap on the small tent Morton
shared with Crane was just folding shut.
Jiggs felt another shudder go through his body; he was actually a little
surprised, given Morton’s current attitude toward him, that he’d come looking
for him once he apparently discovered Jiggs missing. Or that he hadn’t just let the snake bite him
– he’d certainly displayed that kind of anger towards Jiggs. With hands shaking far worse than he cared to
admit, Jiggs made another pot full of coffee and sat down once more by the
fire, the machete right next to him.
Chip
wasn’t sure what had disturbed his sleep.
He sent a quick glance at Lee but the dark head was settled firmly
against the small pack of clothes he was using as a pillow. Now wide awake, Chip moved carefully so as
not to disturb Lee and exited the small tent.
He glanced at the fire but there was no one sitting there. Looking around, he just got a glimpse of
Stark’s back disappearing into the edge of the jungle. Chip grunted softly, just as happy not to
have to deal with the obnoxious admiral for the few minutes he needed to relax
his mind before going back to sleep.
Five
minutes later Chip had calmed down from whatever had disturbed his sleep, only
to have his sensors start twitching because Stark had not yet returned to
camp. Chip had assumed that he was just
stepping off for a moment. As Chip
realized that both the machete and rifle were still in camp, and with Lee’s
recent ‘feelings’ beginning to ring loudly in his ears, he grabbed up the
machete and headed quietly in the direction Stark had gone.
His
choice of weapon had been an easy one.
He had no wish to wake the entire camp with an accidental shot if he was
merely over-reacting. But he almost
regretted it. He hadn’t gone more than
ten yards before finding Stark – and instantly realizing the danger that the
admiral seemed oblivious to. In less
than a split second Chip took in the fact that Stark’s eyes were skyward when
the danger was directly at his feet. If
Chip yelled, Stark would jump, enticing the already coiled snake to strike. Chip had no idea what kind of snake it was,
but he wasn’t about to take the chance that it was a harmless, non-poisonous,
variety. Silently he took one step
forward, to Stark’s right side. He only
meant to slap at the snake, knocking it away from Stark. But in the millisecond it took him to assess
the situation and take the step, the snake took aim on Stark’s leg. Chip swung harder and faster than he
originally thought he could manage and totally by accident caught the snake
right behind its head, severing it. In
the next millisecond the realization of what almost happened hit Chip and the
combination of adrenaline and emotion threatened to overwhelm him. He managed to mutter something – he wasn’t
sure later just what – but there was no way he was going to break down in front
of his personal nemesis. With a deep
breath he slammed down the machete and stalked back to camp. Once back at the fire he started to shake,
and crawled back into the tent before Stark could catch him.
“Huh?” Chip’s entrance disturbed Lee and his head
came up, although Chip had a feeling that Lee’s thoughts were probably still as
fuzzy and unfocussed as his voice.
“Everything’s
fine, go back to sleep,” Chip tried to say casually. While he knew he’d had little success keeping
the stress out of his soft order, Lee appeared not to notice the very unusual
tone in Chip’s normally so controlled voice and his head returned to his
makeshift pillow.
Chip
forced himself to lay totally motionless, both to avoid disturbing Lee any
further and to try to get himself back under control
as he let the last few minutes play back through his mind at a much slower pace
than it had actually happened. He
realized fairly quickly that he’d reacted totally on instinct – see danger,
neutralize danger. It went completely
against his nature. He was always the planner,
the one who thoroughly plotted his course in advance of moving forward. He was constantly on Lee’s case because he
thought his friend didn’t take enough time to assess a situation before taking
action that all too often put him in harm’s way. And yet, he had just done exactly the same
thing.
As
he worked to get his breathing back to a normal level from the temper-driven
high of the previous several minutes he was forced to admit that he’d been
driven to act entirely by instinct. While recognition of the danger had passed through his thoughts, if
ever so briefly, he simply did what he had to. And as he started to finally relax, almost
unbidden into his thoughts came the realization that Stark, all those years
ago, had probably done the exact same thing.
In a very stressful, life or death situation, he’d acted
instinctively. His focus had been to get
those around him away safely. Once Lee
knew the whole story he’d almost instantly understood and accepted Stark’s
actions. As he lay there staring at the
ceiling of the tent, Chip could admit that half a dozen times in the
intervening weeks Lee had tried to explain that to him. But he hadn’t been ready to hear it. With 40-40 hindsight, all Chip
could see was what he perceived as Stark’s inability to see that there had been
other options, when in actual fact decisions had to be made in the same kind of
split-second timeframe that Chip had just had to deal with. As badly as he wanted to stay angry at Stark,
he felt the disgust he’d hung on to since that night in Med Bay slipping away.
Sleep,
however, proved elusive. He tried to lie
as still as possible so as not to disturb Lee, but then got concerned that Lee
was too quiet. He very carefully
reached a hand out and gently brushed Lee’s forehead, breathing a soft sigh
when there was no sign of fever. The way
Lee had been pushing himself, Chip would not have been surprised if there was
more going on than a headache. Chip was
grateful that Nelson had thought to bring Jamie along – if anyone could get Lee
to behave it was the normally soft-spoken but underneath tougher-than-nails
physician. Chip smiled softly to
himself. And when that doesn’t work,
Lee’s navy training goes a long way to making him obey a direct order from
Nelson. Settling back down, Chip
prepared to endure a sleepless rest of the night, his thoughts still inundated
with things other than his own rest.
He
heard the soft sounds of Cesar taking over the watch at 0300 and another sigh
escaped thinking that, since he wasn’t going to sleep anyway, he might as well
get up and let the guide get his sleep.
But he figured that it would just cause a scene when it was
discovered. He knew that Jamie was
behind grounding Lee for the night and he figured that the doctor was keeping
his eyes on Chip as well. Then he ended
up creating a scene, of sorts, anyway.
Falling asleep shortly before time to get up, he awoke with a start at
the sound of voices and ended up crawling out of his tent at the same time
Stark did, only to discover that everyone else was up.
Nelson
immediately targeted the other admiral.
“Jiggs, did you cut yourself last night?” At Stark’s growled negative, Nelson pointed
to one of the machetes. “Cesar found
blood on that when he took over the watch.”
“My
fault,” Chip started to explain.
Jamie
all but yelled at him. “You cut
yourself?” and the doctor started his direction.
“Chill,”
Chip ordered him but he was barely meeting anyone’s eyes, keeping his head
mostly down. “I got up during the night,
took a short walk, and ended up accidentally killing a snake. Didn’t mean to,” he told the guides. “It was probably harmless. It just…startled me.” Out of the corner of his eye he saw Stark
send him a look, which he chose to ignore.
And he saw Nelson send a glance between the two, apparently noticing
Stark’s look. Happily, he chose to stay
silent about it as well.
“You
don’t know what kind it was?” Nelson asked Chip instead, letting him off the
hook – at least for the moment.
Chip
shook his head. “Didn’t
stick around to make its acquaintance.”
The comment dragged a quick snort out of Lee, and even Nelson and Jamie
half-smiled. Stark had his back to the
conversation, studiously ignoring it.
Chip was just as happy – that part of the story he’d rather not have to
get into.
“Did
it rattle at you?” Lee wanted to know.
“There’s a form of rattlesnake in these parts.”
“No
rattle,” Chip assured him. “That much I
know.”
“Where
were you?” Antonio, the older of the two guides, asked him.
Chip
took a second to get his bearings. “That
way,” he pointed. “Probably around the
base of that tallest tree you can just see.”
Antonio nodded and headed in the direction Chip had indicated. Chip headed for the fire and the coffee
pot. He was halfway through his first
cupful when the guide came back, an incredulous look on his face.
“Barba
amarilla,” Antonio told Cesar.
“Yellow
beard,” Lee translated.
“Fer-de-lance,”
Nelson translated the translation.
“Very
neatly beheaded,” Antonio continued with a nod.
“You have handled a machete before,” he told Chip, his voice holding a good
deal of respect.
“Got
lucky,” Chip mumbled.
“You
were very, very lucky, then,” Antonio told him.
“If you had been bitten you might not even have made it back to camp.”
“They’re
that deadly?” Stark broke his silence.
Nelson
nodded. “Nasty,” he confirmed.
Chip
shivered involuntarily then, to cover it, headed for where he’d left the
clothes he’d been wearing the day before by the fire to dry. He folded up the jeans since he’d pulled on a
dry pair the night before, but slipped the shirt over his head and put on the
light jacket. He heard Lee snicker
softly and sent the brunet a raised eyebrow.
Lee
obliged, although his comment was sent more toward Nelson and Jamie. “Our fastidious XO is looking a tad scruffy,
don’t you think?” Both older men
grinned.
Chip
sent his friend a scowl. “Have you
looked at yourself recently?” he muttered.
Nelson
decided that Lee was just trying to get everyone sidetracked away from the
snake – whatever was going on with that, and he had every intention of needling
Jiggs because obviously the group wasn’t being told the whole story. For now, however, he’d follow Lee’s
lead. “I have to admit, Chip, that your usual sartorial spiffiness is not in
evidence. And that’s not even mentioning
that Lee’s dark beard, from not shaving, does look a good deal better than your
blond fluff.”
Chip
sniffed, actually happy that the conversation had switched topics. But he did have a reputation to uphold. “Actually, I was thinking that Lee was looking
a little demonic.”
“You’re
just jealous because you could never grow a decent beard,” Lee cut him off with
a sneer. Nelson’s chuckles had both
younger men finally getting back to business as breakfast was eaten and the
camp broken down.
So
far, even in the thicker parts of the jungle, walking hadn’t been
difficult. But today that changed; the
rain held off but the jungle closed in and both guides were forced to use
machetes to cut their way through the undergrowth. Nelson, walking behind them, knew that they
were both being careful as well to watch out for wildlife, especially the
slinky type, and kept a careful lookout as well. Because of the slow pace all the men were
fairly close together, and Nelson held off trying to get answers out of Jiggs
about what had happened the previous night.
Chip
was walking as usual at the rear of the line, Lee again staying back with him
and listening intently to the jungle around the group. For a while Chip tried to tell what had Lee
once more on edge but all he could hear was the ‘thwack’ of machetes clearing a
path. He was trying so hard to keep from
walking on Jamie’s heels, so slow was the group moving, that it took him by
surprise that Lee had at some point disappeared. “Stop!” he called forward, then faced back
the way they’d just come. “LEE!” he
growled loudly.
“Where’d
he go?” Stark demanded.
If
I knew that I wouldn’t have yelled, Chip muttered to himself, but otherwise stayed
quiet.
“Chip?” Nelson took a shot at getting an answer.
Chip
sent his boss a quick flick of his eyes, but shrugged and returned to staring
at their back-trail. “He’s been
convinced that someone – or something – has been following us,” he finally told
his boss.
“The
jaguar?” it was Will’s turn to question the blond.
Chip
shrugged again. “He didn’t know what it
was.”
“If
it was a jaguar,” Antonio offered, “I doubt that anyone would have heard
anything.”
“Uhm,”
was Nelson’s agreement to that comment.
“How long ago did Lee disappear?” he again questioned his XO.
“Not
sure,” Chip admitted. “I just now
realized that he wasn’t behind me.”
Suddenly
there were several shouts coming from back down the trail, only one of which
sounded in any way like Lee. Everyone
ran in that direction, Chip in the lead.
If Chip hadn’t been so angry at Lee for disappearing in the first place he would have been more appreciative of his friend’s skill at traversing the thick jungle undetected and make his way to where he obviously came up behind the group of four men he now held at bay with a machete in one hand and a rifle in the other. Chip quickly glanced at Antonio and Cesar but both men were still carrying their weapons. All he could do was shake his head at Lee’s ability to so quickly disarm one of the group of strangers and apprehend all of them. As Nelson started demanding answers everyone – including Lee – started talking at once. Nelson yelled for quiet, then pointed at Lee.
“They’ve been following us, sir,” the younger man answered simply.
Nelson’s
glare settled on the stranger closest to him.
“Why?” was his loud demand.
But
it was a different man, one in the center of the group, who answered. “I’m Dr. Adam Abernathy, from the University
of Arizona. I demand to know why this
man,” he gestured toward Lee, “attacked us.”
His tone was one of outraged indignation.
“And
I demand to know,” Nelson’s voice was even louder and angrier, “why you’ve been
following us?” When no answer was
immediately forthcoming, his voice got lower and more threatening. “Well?” was accompanied by a look Chip had
only a couple of times seen on Nelson’s face – thankfully!
It
apparently undid one of the younger men in the group. “We got lost…” he started, but was cut off by
Abernathy.
“Shut
up, Williams, I’ll do the talking. I and
my students,” he indicated Williams and the man standing next to him, “are on
an expedition to track down an undiscovered Mayan temple. Our guide,” he waved a hand at the man
standing closest to Lee, “got turned around.
We were merely re-orienting ourselves when this man,” he waved at Lee,
“assaulted us.”
“Surely
it doesn’t take three days of following us to re-orient yourself,” Nelson
sneered, disgust dripping off each word.
“What you really mean is, you were following Dr. Toby Wild, trying to
horn in on his expedition,” Nelson growled.
A quick flick of Abernathy’s eyes was enough to affirm Nelson’s
assessment, but the man’s expression remained defiant although he stayed
silent. “Lee, who had
the rifle?” Lee nodded to the man
closest to him. Chip could only describe
he and the other as yet unnamed man as ‘muscle’. Both were American by looks, but nothing
about them even remotely suggested students.
Nelson glanced at Antonio. “I’m
aware of how difficult it is to obtain a gun permit in Belize for
non-residents. What is the penalty for
carrying a weapon without the proper permits?”
“Immediate
incarceration in Hattieville prison,” Antonio answered, shuddering
involuntarily. “It is very
primitive. The last person I knew of who
was so charged was there for over two months before there was even a hearing on
his case. Then he was fined ten thousand
American dollars for the gun alone, and more for the ammunition, and remained
in prison until his fines had been paid, at which point he was expelled rather
forcefully from the country.” Antonio
shuddered again. “He was lucky that he
had friends who could pay his fine or he might still be there.”
“We
certainly wouldn’t want anything like that to happen to Dr. Abernathy and his
group, now would we, Lee?” Nelson’s
sarcasm had Chip quickly burying a snicker.
“Of
course not, sir,” Lee answered calmly.
Before anyone could do more than blink he dropped the machete, unloaded
the rifle, and smacked the firing mechanism against the nearest tree trunk hard
enough to bend the weapon into an unusable piece of junk before once more
picking up the machete. “These should
fit your rifle,” he told Cesar, and held out the shells to the younger
guide. Chip saw the two ‘muscles’ tense,
but hold their ground. When Chip looked,
they were both staring at Antonio and Cesar, carrying their own rifles
seemingly casually, but obviously at the ready.
No one else said a word during the action, although Abernathy looked
ready to spit nails.
“Now,”
Nelson continued, “it would only be proper of us to offer you aid in returning
to civilization, where perhaps you might obtain a guide with more expertise to
aid you in your search. Cesar?” he sent
the younger man a glance.
“It
would be my pleasure to escort these men back to San Antonio. I do not wish them to have a bad experience
in my country.” Chip admired the young
guide’s quick uptake on getting rid of the group.
“As
it will only take a couple of days,” Antonio interjected, “I am sure that they
would like to reciprocate our help and redistribute what is in their
packs.” Chip saw Lee grin at how easily
the two guides jumped in to ‘take care of’ the intruders.
“A
very nice gesture, indeed, for your rescue,” Nelson chided Abernathy, “by
sharing what you won’t be in need of for your return to San Antonio.” While it was obvious that Abernathy and his
hired goons weren’t thrilled, there wasn’t much they could do about it -
especially as the student, Williams, happily assisted Chip and Nelson in
quickly sorting through the packs.
Nelson found a small handgun in one of them, which he tossed to Antonio
along with an extra clip of ammunition.
“No problem turning those in to the authorities when we get back?” he
asked the guide.
“Not
at all,” Antonio assured him. “I can
just say that I found them on the trail, in a discarded backpack. This is a very unforgiving part of the
country for people who come unprepared.”
He shrugged. “A
most unfortunate, but not uncommon, occurrence.” There was a snort from Stark – Chip had
almost forgotten the man’s presence, so much had he been concentrating on the
other group of men. He also gave an ever
so brief thought to just who Cesar and Antonio really
were. They had, until now, been nothing
but proper local guides. But they sure
had been quick to fall into Nelson’s chosen role for them with this new
development. It led to thoughts of how
quickly they had accepted and adapted to Nelson’s other changes in
direction. Chip shook his head – there
were some things he’d rather not have answers to.
It
appeared that Lee might be wondering the same thing, however, from the
expression on his face as Cesar headed the band of interlopers back toward San
Antonio, with him walking carefully at the rear of the group. But before Chip could ponder that issue he
had another one to deal with. “Just what
the blazes did you think you were doing, taking off like that,” he challenged
Lee, walking up to him and practically growling in the brunet’s face.
Lee
half-grinned as there were a variety of snorts behind the blond, but he answered
seriously as he knew anything less would just infuriate his friend all the
more. “Exactly what I did,” he told Chip
calmly. “Discover the danger, assess it,
and neutralize it.”
Before
Chip could blast him into the next time zone, as his expression all too openly
alluded to, Nelson entered the conversation.
“And you couldn’t possibly have let any of us know that ahead of time?”
he challenged.
Lee’s
expression was open as he shifted his gaze to his boss. “Didn’t want to take the risk of warning
them, sir,” was his simple explanation.
“Harrumph,”
Nelson growled, and Lee’s expression went ever so slightly sheepish. But he still met Nelson’s glare head on.
“You
were right when you said archaeology was a cutthroat profession,” Will broke the sudden silence.
“I don’t want to think what those thugs Dr. Abernathy,” and he made the
title sound decidedly disgusting, “had with him would have done if they’d
actually caught up with your friend.”
Nelson nodded, and seemed to get himself back under control. His glance at his CMO was much milder than
what he’d been sending his captain. “Are
you sure Cesar will be okay,” Will continued.
Nelson’s
soft chuckle confirmed Chip’s earlier thought, but he stayed quiet as it was
Antonio who answered. “He will be fine,”
the older of the two guides assured Will.
“He has our sat phone. By now he
has used it to call ahead, and someone will be coming to meet him. Do not worry that those men will bother us
further.”
“Doesn’t
mean that they were the only ones to try and poach on Dr. Wild’s possible
discovery,” Lee theorized. “We’d better
get back to tracking him down.” Reluctantly acknowledging that not so pleasant thought, the group
once more got moving.
With
one less guide, Lee and Chip took turns with Antonio whacking a way through the
thick underbrush. It was tough enough
going that they were trading off about every ten minutes or so. It was during one of Chip’s turns, as he
sweated and grunted through a heavy section of brush, that a stray thought hit
his brain and he chuckled softly to himself.
Or, thought to himself. Behind him he heard a snort but wasn’t sure
who had uttered it as he stopped, turned, and sent the rest a sheepish,
lopsided grin.
“You
find this amusing?” Nelson asked him, a stern look on his face slightly muted
by a sparkle in his eyes, as if he’d read Chip’s mind and knew what had caused
the blond’s odd reaction.
That
observation caused Chip to answer a bit more openly than he might otherwise
have. “Just finally getting a little
revenge on those mutant plants we’ve had to deal with on occasion.” It caused a shudder or two on the other
Seaview officers, but they also finally smiled as Chip went back to thwacking
branches.
But
another problem quickly presented itself.
It became apparent during Lee’s next turn with the machete – to those
who knew him only too well – that he was not at his best. Will wondered,
silently, if ‘something’ had happened while Lee was out of their sight. Nelson wasn’t so silent. “Lee,” he challenged his captain when Lee,
after an extra hard swing at an especially recalcitrant vine, stood still for a
moment longer than seemed necessary.
“I’m
fine,” came the automatic reply, although Lee kept his
back to the rest of the group.
“My
turn, anyway,” Chip stepped up to his friend.
He was just as worried as Nelson and Will but was trying to avoid the
confrontation he could see brewing.
Lee
shook him off and pointed up. “Looks like we’re just about to an opening of some sort. A couple more feet,” he assured the
blond. Chip looked doubtful but didn’t
argue. And Nelson and Will also remained
quiet as Lee took several more swings of the machete before he suddenly broke
through into the open. Sort of, anyway. The
group found themselves on a game trail.
Everyone heaved a sigh of relief as it seemed to be headed roughly in
the direction they wanted to go. Lee
started to once more walk back with Chip, but Chip wasn’t taking any chances
and kept Lee in front of him on what turned out to be a fairly wide trail. Lee sent him a nod and an ever so slight
smile, acknowledging Chip’s self-appointed role of not letting Lee out of his
sight again. The grin turned momentarily
hard as Lee muttered to himself about the ‘big brother’ Chip tended to be on
occasion, but it quickly went back to a grin as Chip pointed an eyebrow at
him. While Lee didn’t always appreciate
the position Chip had quickly established for himself all those years ago at
Annapolis, their strong bonds of friendship allowed for what could have become
a major conflict between the two – especially now as Chip served under him
aboard Seaview. Lee rarely fussed
because he knew the reasons behind Chip’s actions.
The
group hadn’t gone more than half a mile on the trail when it suddenly opened
into a small glade. The trail itself
took a sharp turn to the north, but the rainforest in the direction the men
wanted to go was once again a bit more open and everyone heaved another sigh of
relief. Nelson also decided that, since
they didn’t know what lay ahead, they’d camp here for the night and get some
rest after their less than pleasant day.
They should only be about half a day’s walk from their target of the
straight line on the map, assuming that the walking remained easier than it had
most of today.
Lee
expected to be instantly set upon by Jamie, after allowing the headache he’d
been fighting to momentarily interfere with his turn at whacking
underbrush. He wasn’t disappointed,
although once again the doctor came at him a bit sideways and merely offered
him pain pills and water as he and Chip started setting up tarps and
tents. A quick glance at Nelson, who was
intently watching the interchange, had Lee quickly and quietly downing the
meds. While he’d never openly admit it,
his head was really pounding. They
placed the tents as far to the side of the small glade away from the trail as
they could – it was apparently, from its width, a well-used path. A small fire was started in front of the
semi-circle of tents, and between them and the trail. No one complained about the early end to the
day’s hike, a quick meal, and even quicker retreat into the tents. Antonio volunteered for the first watch, with
Nelson and then Stark taking their turns.
A firm look from Nelson had both Lee and Chip refraining from any
argument to that schedule and the group quickly settled in for a good night’s
rest.
Jiggs
was roused from a restless sleep by a jaguar screaming way too close to his
tent for comfort. The smell of skunk, and the rumble of ‘something’ – a combination of snorts,
barks, and a multitude of running feet - were strong enough to feel like
they were shaking the ground. “What
the…” he growled. He started to get up
when an all too human yell, followed by a scream of pain, had him moving faster
than he had in way too long a time.
The
sight that greeted him outside the tent was every bit as chaotic as his
imagination had rapidly dredged up. A
herd of at least a hundred – and probably a lot more – peccaries was running at
great speed down the trail. The wild
pig-looking animals were fairly small – the adults were less than two feet high
at the shoulder and about four feet long, with lots of youngsters mixed
in. But the adults also possessed
nasty-looking tusks. As they came to the
small glade they fanned out before once more jamming into the trail on the
other side. Jiggs saw Antonio, along
with Crane and Morton, forming a line of defense between the fire and the
tents, yelling and screaming for all they were worth. A second glance showed Jamison kneeling next
to a fallen body right behind the other three.
The only one missing being Harry, Jiggs scurried to the body’s other
side just as what seemed to be the last of the herd thundered past, apparently
startled into running by the jaguar.
The
fallen body was indeed Harry. As Jiggs
reached his side, Jamison was running skilled hands swiftly over Harry’s
body. Harry was trying to push the
doctor away and sit up, and Jamison was just as insistent that he remain quiet
until the doctor could determine how badly he was hurt. Jiggs almost smiled at the power in the
doctor’s voice but the gentleness of his hands, and helped by restraining his
struggling friend.
“Jamie,”
came from behind him. Crane had
half-turned, dividing his attention between the trail and Nelson, as was Morton. Antonio was maintaining a watch on the trail.
“Nothing
so far life threatening,” the doctor answered, reaching for one of his bags.
“I’m
fine,” Nelson grumbled, once more struggling to sit up. Jiggs heard both Crane and Morton snicker
softly, and Jamison actually growled.
“Do
not even try that line,” the doctor spoke slowly and succinctly, and Jiggs
watched Harry change his glare to an expression of chagrin.
“What
happened?” Jiggs asked, hoping to sidetrack Harry while the doctor started to
treat the injuries he’d found.
“Me
being an idiot,” Harry muttered. Jamison
shook his head, but helped Harry sit up long enough so that he could check the
Admiral’s back. The light from the fire,
and the flashlight Crane was suddenly holding, showed bloody spots in several
places on Harry’s legs as well as one just above his belt buckle. Harry grunted as Will made him lay back down,
and Jiggs helped him off with the jeans he was wearing. Skin was gouged in four places that Jiggs
could see – two on Harry’s lower left leg, one on his right thigh, and the one
on his belly, all bleeding. Will
immediately grabbed a handful of compresses, and he and Jiggs held them in
place over the wounds. Jiggs noticed the
light from Crane’s flashlight wiggling slightly and realized that the
commander’s hands were shaking. He knew
that there was a strong personal connection between Crane and Harry and had
harassed his friend unmercifully because of it, saying that that, coupled with
the friendship shared between Crane and Morton, would be Harry’s ruin. So far he’d been proved wrong but he still
didn’t totally approve. The light
steadied and Jiggs looked up to find Morton now holding the flashlight, and
Crane knelt down next to Jiggs and helped hold the compresses firmly against
the open wounds. Will went back to
assessing the damage, starting to clean the wounds and putting on
bandages. Between grunts of pain and not
quite smothered oaths as Will disinfected the wounds, Harry started a much more
explicit explanation.
“Heard the jaguar. Smelled what
I thought at first was a skunk.” Jiggs
nodded, mostly to himself. That’s sort
of what the peccaries smelled like.
“Like a plebe, I was standing in front of the fire when the first of the
peccaries charged into the clearing. I think
I surprised it as much as it surprised me.
The quick look that I got, these were White-Lipped Peccaries. This particular variety isn’t exactly known
for backing down from anything.” Jiggs
just shook his head – leave it to Harry to pull that fact out of his
Nobel-prize-winning brain. “I was
watching it hightail down the trail when several more appeared.” Harry had to take a second to get his
breathing back under control as Will splashed a dose of antiseptic on the belly
wound and prepared to put in a few stitches.
“The next thing I knew, a couple of the beasts charged me about the same
time I heard yelling and was grabbed and hauled behind the fire.” Jiggs saw Crane send his boss an almost shy
look – he’d seen Crane do that before and it always threw him a curve. It was an unusual expression on a man in his
position of command. Harry tried to grin
at his young officer, but to Jiggs it looked more grimace. “Thank you,” Harry told Crane.
When
Crane didn’t answer, Morton did. “The
jaguar woke us both up. I wasn’t big on
tackling a skunk, but when Lee went charging out of the tent I figured that I
must be missing something.”
“Smelled
that particular smell before,” Crane finally muttered, and Jiggs sent him a
look. He knew, of course, that Crane still
ran missions for ONI – much to Harry’s disapproval. Jiggs was learning – if somewhat slowly – to
not underestimate the younger man’s eclectic list of talents. “Knew just how aggressive they can be.”
“They
have been known to kill jaguars,” Antonio added. “If one of their band
is attacked and injured, the rest will turn and attack the intruder. I apologize,” he added with genuine
feeling. “I should have insisted that we
make camp further away from that trail.”
Jiggs
watched Harry shrug off the statement, grunting once more as Will started in on
the first of the leg wounds. “If I’d
have kept the fire between me and them, this,” he waved a hand at himself,
“wouldn’t have happened.”
“Well,
now that it has…” Jamison started to grumble.
“I’ll
be fine.” Jiggs welcomed a more normal
sound to Harry’s voice. “A little sore,”
he continued, as Jamison looked ready to do some muttering of his own.
“A lot
sore,” the doctor corrected him.
“There’s no way you’ll be fit to travel for at least a full day. Maybe longer – you lost more blood than you
apparently think you did.”
“We’re
less than half a day from our target.”
Jiggs almost held his breath as Harry glared at the doctor. Harry wasn’t a man you argued with – and won.
“I
don’t give a rip,” Jamison glared right back.
“You’re not going anywhere until I say so.” Jiggs had to bury a snort of his own as the
doctor emphasized his point by smacking an antibiotic-laced bandage on the
gouge on Harry’s thigh that he was working on, causing Harry to suck in his
breath.
Lee
and Chip exchanged quick looks, and it wasn’t lost on Nelson. He wasn’t sure why he was so surprised at
Will’s stubbornness – he’d stood back many a time and watched the doctor put
his two strong-willed senior officers in their place. He sent his CMO a small nod of acquiescence
and looked at Jiggs. “You take off in
the morning with the others,” Harry told his friend.
Before
Jiggs could even sputter a reply, Crane stepped in. “No, sir. I’m not leaving you and Doc alone.”
“We
can’t afford to waste any more time,” Nelson countered.
“I’ll
stay behind,” Jiggs broke into the building argument. “I think I still know how to defend a
position.” Jiggs knew that last came out
in a sneer, and he expected Harry to laugh at him.
But
instead, Harry just shook his head at Jiggs.
“No, Jiggs. You have to go. Toby’s already been followed. He doesn’t know either Lee or Chip and might
have trouble believing or trusting them.”
Chip
had been watching Lee and thought that he knew what was going through his
friend’s brain. There was no way Lee was
going to abandon an injured Nelson, no matter how safe he might be or who was
left to guard him. So, Chip did the only
thing he could think of to do. As much
as it went against every bone in his body!
“How about a compromise,” he offered softly. “Lee, you stay here with Jamie and the
Admiral. It makes sense, with that
headache you’re still fighting.” Chip
knew that he was going to regret that jab but he was willing to use whatever
weapons he had at his disposal. “Admiral
Stark, Antonio, and I will take off first thing in the morning and see what we
can find. Between Antonio and GPS, we
shouldn’t have any problems meeting back here once we determine what that
straight line is – hopefully with Dr. Wild and his party in tow.”
Chip
wasn’t at all surprised at the looks instantly shot his direction at that
proposal and very carefully maintained a neutral expression. He could only imagine what was going through
Nelson’s and Jamie’s minds, but Lee’s thoughts were written only too plainly
across his face. There was complete
silence, even from Stark, until Nelson finally broke it. “Sounds like a workable solution to me,” he
said simply, although the expression on his face was one Chip didn’t see very
often – one of subtle doubt. Chip almost
let a small grin show, that he’d been able to surprise his boss that much. But he did at least partially acknowledge it
with an ever so quick tilt of his head.
“Now
that that’s settled, will you please lay still and let me finish putting
bandages in place?” Will muttered at Nelson, which effectively got everyone
back to the business at hand. Chip
caught half a dozen little looks sent his direction as he and Lee maintained a
watch, along with Antonio, until Jamie had Nelson settled back in his
tent. Lee’s look was long and hard as
the pair also settled in for what was left of the night, and Chip finally sent
his friend a grin. “While I could care
less,” he said softly, “the Admiral would be ticked if I didn’t bring Stark
back in one piece.” The statement
finally caused Lee to smile.
“Thanks,”
however, was all Lee told him. It was
enough, between the friends.
Chip
wasn’t sure how much Lee slept the rest of the night but he barely closed his
eyes. The jaguar made its presence known
several more times, always fairly close to the tents but behind them in the
forest, away from the fire. Chip
wondered silently if perhaps it had made a kill of a small peccary, that being
what had stirred up the herd, and also what was keeping the jaguar so
close. He hoped so – it meant the big
cat wouldn’t need to go hunting anything else for a while. He wasn’t sure if jaguars carried their kills
up into trees to eat, and wasn’t about to go find out.
He
wasn’t thrilled with his first look at Nelson when the older man crawled out of
his tent the next morning. Chip was just
finishing his second cup of coffee, and was glad that Jamie had been adamant
that his boss not be going anywhere for a while. Chip couldn’t remember the last time that
he’d seen the Admiral look so bad. He
was trying to put on a brave front but was noticeably in pain, and his hands
shook as he accepted the coffee Lee instantly poured for him. Chip had to quickly turn his back as Jamie
started fussing over their boss, and noticed Lee struggling to keep a grin off
his face as well. The pair might mutter
long and hard at the doctor when he got in their faces about medical issues,
but they both did honestly value Jamie for his skills as well as his
patience. And it was actually kind of
fun to see the doctor ‘aimed’ at someone other than them! Chip sent Lee a quick wink, and smiled when
Lee had to bury a snicker in a not well disguised cough.
Chip
understood only too well that Lee was struggling with wanting to be in two
places at once – watching over a damaged Nelson and continuing the hunt for Dr.
Wild. He wanted to reassure Lee that he,
Chip, had the second part covered, leaving Lee to only have to worry about the
first. The pair shared another quick nod
before turning to help prepare breakfast.
After
some discussion it was agreed to leave the tents where they were and for the
three leaving to only carry their bedrolls and one tarp – hopefully they
wouldn’t be gone long enough to need anything more than that. They decided to carry supplies enough for
three days, just in case, so everyone’s backpacks were lighter when they
left. They each carried a machete,
Antonio had his rifle as well, and Chip still had the small handgun hidden in
his pack. He had no idea if Antonio knew
about it or not, and wasn’t about to ask.
As Chip hadn’t been paying a whole lot of attention to the map Lee gave
him a quick catch-up, and both knew that Antonio was comfortable with that part
as well.
The jaguar let loose a rumbling snarl as the three men prepared to set out. “Don’t get eaten,” Lee ordered Chip, faux-sternly.
“You’re
the one it seems to be hanging around,” Chip sniped back. “Must be a female.” Jamie muttered something too low to be
understood, Nelson chuckled, and Stark gave his head a quick shake as he
started to follow Antonio away from the camp.
Chip once more took up his position at the tail end of the line.
Thankfully,
as they’d hoped, the walking stayed fairly easy. Not totally – the rainforest did once more
close in on them. But they were still,
with only a few turns to avoid major growths of underbrush, able to stay on a
roughly straight course, and about 1300 hours came to what they all assumed to
be the ‘straight line’ on the map.
Unfortunately it wasn’t in any way, shape or form an ancient Mayan
temple, but instead a simple escarpment of rock. Stark choked off what started out as a string
of expletives.
While
Chip secretly agreed with Stark’s opinion, he tried to remain objective. “I suppose that we’d better scout around,
just in case.”
“Harry will shave our tails if we don’t,” Stark muttered. He sent Chip a look that said only too clearly that Chip better not repeat that crack. Chip merely nodded, not committing himself to keeping the comment from going any further, and they started to walk around the base of the escarpment. Antonio commented that it was, indeed, a bit of a puzzle what such a wall of rock was doing here, seemingly standing on its own, while the ground anywhere near was for the most part pretty flat. He did say that there was some mountainous land not that far away, but still this escarpment was an anomaly. The tree cover kept them from seeing much of the top. Or, for that matter, much of the bottom. On general principles, Chip took a second to study what rocks that he could see. While he couldn’t be sure, the rock wall appeared to be a natural formation. Nothing stood out as being man-made, at least to his untrained eye. The sides were completely obscured so there was no way at this point to know how the ground was shaped beyond the wall of rock. The trio headed left, just because there wasn’t any pressing reason to go right first.
The
shot came without warning, and without any clear idea which direction it came
from except that it nicked Jiggs’ left shoulder. He dropped to the ground, as did both Chip
and Antonio. “Sir?”
Chip asked quietly.
“Just
a scratch,” Jiggs growled, although he was also almost whispering. “Did you see where it came from?”
“Not
a clue,” Chip admitted.
“I
think…” Antonio started, but was interrupted as another shot landed barely a
foot to his right. All three men
slithered as best they could to the left.
Chip had a good look at Stark’s shoulder but the admiral had apparently
given an honest assessment. At least,
Chip didn’t detect any major bleeding.
“That
way,” Antonio pointed toward the end of the escarpment that they’d been headed
for.
“You
saw someone?” Jiggs demanded.
“Unfortunately,
no,” Antonio told him. “But I am sure
that is where the sound came from.”
“Rifle.” Jiggs’ certainty of that came
easily through even that one word.
“Yes,” Antonio confirmed. “Very similar to mine, I think.” The guide’s rifle wasn’t monstrous, but sufficient for what he might need it for in the wild country he often found himself in.
During the brief conversation Chip had retrieved his
small handgun and tucked it into his waistband at the small of his back. “You two hang here,” he told both Stark and
Antonio. “I’ll backtrack a bit and try
to work my way around behind whoever’s taking potshots at us.”
“I’m in charge here,” Jiggs ordered.
“Fine,” Chip immediately acquiesced. “What’s your plan?”
Jiggs was severely tempted to smack the insolence out of the younger man’s voice. Fortunately, logic and leadership kicked in before temper. It almost surprised him – it had been far too long since he’d felt this comfortable in his own skin. “You’ve got twenty minutes before we follow you,” he ordered with a glare.
“Aye, aye, sir.” Chip kept his voice carefully neutral. He didn’t bother with a salute – he wasn’t
sure he could pull it off correctly, under the circumstances. Instead, he shucked out of his backpack, sent
Stark a quick nod, and took off.
Chip
wished immediately that he’d paid more attention to how Lee had been
maneuvering through the territory instead of trying to figure out what sounds
had been triggering Lee’s ‘ninja’ senses.
Well, he admitted to himself, that hadn’t worked out so well,
either. Unfortunately. He did the best that he could at keeping low,
keeping quiet, and keeping sufficient cover between himself and the escarpment
while working his way in a large semi-circle to hopefully come out behind
whoever was objecting to their presence.
As
he figured he was well past the line of rocks he carefully wiggled forward,
toward what should be whatever was behind the formation. The ground had risen slowly as he worked his
way around, which he’d been expecting.
What he wasn’t expecting was the sight of what gave the appearance of a
whole lot of dirt mounded against, and falling away from, the backside of the
wall of rocks, giving the whole thing the illusion of having been
man-made. From the amount of vegetation
growing on the mound it hadn’t been done any time recently. Probably at least a hundred years, he
was telling himself when, without warning, his head exploded and everything
went black.
* *
* *
As
each minute passed, Jiggs’ temper came closer to the boiling point. How dare Harry’s upstart XO challenge my
authority, he steamed silently. Probably
figures, after that mess with the snake, I’m an incompetent ashcan! He snorted softly. We’ll see about that. No way is a lowly lieutenant commander going
to give me orders. That’s what junior
officers are there for – to do what they’re told to do, and his fist
slammed the ground. Antonio sent him a
quick look as they hunkered down, trying not to give away their location and
still stay on the lookout for anyone who might try to sneak up on them. Jiggs took a deep breath, shook off Antonio’s
unspoken question, and worked hard to get himself back under control.
Ever
since he’d had to come clean about what had lead to Crane’s father being killed
he’d been questioning his ‘right’ to send others off to do things that he might
not want to do himself. What gave him
the authority to order others into possibly dangerous circumstances? Why was he so much better than they were that
he could make life or death decisions for someone else? And yet… Military life was different than other
professions. People who chose the
lifestyle expected to be given orders by superior officers. And the nature of the beast meant that they
were often asked to put themselves in harm’s way in the pursuit of protecting
others.
Jiggs
sighed heavily and gave his head a shake.
Why had he suddenly forgotten that?
Yeah, Harry had all but ripped him a new one for keeping quiet all those
years. But it hadn’t actually been any
of Harry’s business! What right did he
have to be ticked, even if Crane was one of his ‘golden boys’? The mission hadn’t involved Harry in any
way. Consequences be
damned. Jiggs had to physically stop
himself from once more driving his fist into the ground. It’s my job to make decisions for the
overall best outcome. I can’t be
responsible for each individual involved.
It doesn’t work that way! He
was disgusted with himself for having forgotten that!
Again
he sighed heavily. However, he
admitted, I’d better make sure Morton doesn’t get himself killed. Harry will make my life so miserable that I’d
have to retire. And damned if I’ll let
that happen! He glanced at his
watch. The twenty minutes were up and
there hadn’t been a sound from either Morton, or whoever had fired at
them. Time to go find out what the
blazes was going on.
He’d
almost forgotten about Antonio. When he
finally stopped condemning himself for his faults he realized that the guide
was watching him closely. Jiggs frowned. “Just an old man reminding himself what an
ashcan he can be,” he grumbled softly, causing Antonio to send him a quick
grin.
“Your shoulder?”
Jiggs
had almost forgotten that as well. “Just a scratch. The
bullet barely nicked me.” He
shrugged. “We need to go find
Morton.” Antonio nodded. They both tucked their backpacks, along with
Morton’s, under some brush and slithered off in the same direction Chip had
headed earlier.
All
was quiet as they slowly worked their way around to the side of the
escarpment. Jiggs was all too aware that
he wasn’t nearly as quiet as he’d like to be, emphasized by the glances Antonio
kept giving him. It only added to the
disgust Jiggs was feeling about himself and he vowed, once he was back on base,
to start taking better care of himself, exercising
more and getting into better shape. He
could only imagine what Harry would have to say when he found out – and Jiggs
had absolutely no doubt that Harry would find out. Nothing much – about anything – got past his
old friend. The man had friends everywhere. Now, if he’d just not have them in the
boondocks! Jiggs grumbled to himself as he followed Antonio as best he
could through the underbrush.
As
they started to approach the side of the…whatever…they’d found, the ground
started to rise and the underbrush grew denser.
Jiggs was letting Antonio take the lead.
He gave an ever so brief thought, now that he was back in charge of himself, that he should also be in charge of this portion of
the mission. But he’d caught the subtle
shift in relationships that had occurred when they’d apprehended Abernathy and
his trained goons. He wasn’t sure why
he’d been surprised – Harry always did have a talent for thinking outside the
box, so to speak, and throwing a curve into everything he did. Jiggs had never quite been able to keep up,
and there had always been that slight competitive edge between them. For a long time he’d thought that Harry had
snagged first Morton, and then Crane, out of his chain of command just because
he knew that it would torque Jiggs. Jiggs
did come to realize that Harry valued both for the same talents that Jiggs saw
in them – but he wasn’t about to ever admit that to
Harry!
Antonio
suddenly stopped his forward crawl and Jiggs had to bring himself back to the
present in a hurry. The guide was
staring ahead of their location and, Jiggs realized slightly belatedly,
listening intently. Jiggs tried to
detect what had alerted the man. He
didn’t hear or see anything at first – just what he’d been seeing and hearing
for far too many days now. But he was
just thinking that there was a slightly different rustling off to his left when
suddenly Antonio jumped up, yelled ‘something’, and fired his rifle. Jiggs thought that Antonio had fired into the
air, meaning to frighten more than injure, especially accompanied by the yell. But suddenly there were several answering shots
that were definitely not into the air.
Antonio was hit in the leg and Jiggs caught another round almost on top
of the first one on his left shoulder, this one deeper into his flesh, and
involuntarily he let out a string of epithets worthy of a master chief, ending
with a very loud “Who the hell are you?” as he flung himself one way and
Antonio the other.
There
was immediate silence. Jiggs had his
right hand clamped over his new wound, which was burning and bleeding, and was
watching Antonio inspecting what damage had been done to his lower left leg,
when there was a soft, questioning, “Jiggs?” that came from the same direction
as the shots.
Jiggs
felt his already worked-up temper flare even higher. “Toby?” he growled with all the power his
stars had earned him over the years.
There
was some muttering that Jiggs couldn’t make out. He shared a look with Antonio as they could
hear someone moving toward them. Antonio
had his rifle at the ready but maintained his silence, as did Jiggs, while they
listened to steps cautiously coming closer.
Again there was a questioning, “Jiggs?”
This time Jiggs recognized the sound of Toby’s voice, and sat up.
“Yes,
you old goat,” Jiggs snarled. “Stop your
shooting!” Moments later two people came
into view, both armed with rifles similar to the one Antonio carried. One was his old friend,
the other was a woman, probably in her mid-twenties, who Jiggs took to be one
of Toby’s archaeology students. “Who the
hell did you think we were,” Jiggs demanded, “to shoot first and ask questions
later?”
“We
were being followed…” the woman started, before Toby cut her off.
“You’re
hurt,” Toby blurted out.
“Ya
think?” Jiggs muttered, and stood up.
“What’s going on?” he demanded in his best ‘I am an admiral’ voice,
sharing his glare between the two. “And
what have you done with Morton? If
you’ve killed him…”
“Six
feet, blond…” the woman started. Jiggs
nodded. “I...ah…”
“He’s
back in camp,” Wild interrupted again.
“Come on, let’s get you there as well, and treat your wounds.” He sent Jiggs a look. “I’m sorry, but after we discovered who was
following us…”
“Some
dude named Abernathy,” Jiggs growled.
Toby
nodded as he helped Antonio to his feet, and then led the way back in the
direction he and the woman had come. “A professional adversary that I, unfortunately, allowed to
overhear my plans. But…” he sent
Jiggs a questioning look, “what are you doing here?”
“A
fool’s errand,” he muttered not quite under his breath before speaking a bit
louder. “When Matt Bench couldn’t reach
you by sat phone, and no one at Harvard had heard from you, he got worried.”
“When
I realized that we were being followed I turned it off, and then stomped on it
to totally break it. I was afraid that’s
how Abernathy was keeping tabs on us, even though we’d gone out of our way to
mis-direct him.” He sent Jiggs another
look. “And everyone else. We thought.”
“Blame
Harry,” Jiggs muttered.
“Harry? He’s with you?” and Wild looked around.
“Back
about half a day’s travel,” Jiggs told him just as the group entered a small
encampment. There were three others
already there, two men about the woman’s age by a small fire, and one closer to
Wild’s age puttering around the base of what was apparently the backside of the
escarpment. Jiggs could now see that it
looked like someone, obviously a very long time ago, had pushed dirt against
the rock wall – or maybe built the rock wall expressly for the purpose of
pushing dirt against it. He really
didn’t care one way or the other. There
was also a small mound of humanity, with blond hair, trussed up and gagged,
laying on it’s side, unmoving. “Morton,”
Jiggs yelled, and glared at Toby.
“I
gather that he’s with you,” Toby said sheepishly.
“One of Harry’s officers,” Jiggs confirmed.
“Oh,
sh…” the woman exclaimed. She sent Jiggs
a look of total embarrassment.
“I…ah…sort of cold-cocked him with the butt of my rifle when I caught
him sneaking up on us.”
“Why
didn’t you just shoot him like you tried to do with us?” came out of Jiggs’
mouth before he could stop it. She
turned bright red, opened her mouth but nothing came out, and instead headed to
untie the blond.
Toby
finally took charge. He introduced
everyone as he had Jiggs and Antonio sit down by the fire and, along with one
of the others, started checking and dressing the men’s wounds. “Gillian Brey,” he nodded toward the woman,
“Mike Dorsey and Phil Banks,” he identified the two younger men, “are students
of mine at Harvard. Dr. James Hill is a
colleague who’s been down here before with me.”
There was a groan from Morton’s direction and again the woman went
bright red as she checked his head. She
tried to help the blond sit up but apparently Morton wasn’t quite ready to
return to consciousness – he rolled over and was once more still. “I gather Matt called Harry?”
Jiggs
nodded as Toby taped a bandage in place on his shoulder. The bullet had gone straight through as had,
apparently, the one that hit Antonio.
“He called Harry to see if he’d talked to you. Once it was decided that you were missing,”
he sent Toby another glare, “he asked Harry to come find you.”
“But…”
Toby sent his old friend another puzzled look.
“How did you get involved?”
Jiggs
frowned. He wasn’t exactly sure himself
how he’d let himself be hornswaggled into coming along, it had happened so
fast. He was finally starting to
understand what had led Harry into dragging him along, but he sure wasn’t about
to admit that to Toby! “Long story,” he
finally said, almost self-consciously, and then covered it with another glare.
“How
come Harry’s not with you here?” was Toby’s next question, so Jiggs spent a few
minutes hitting the highlights of the trip so far.
“So,”
he finished, “did you find what you were looking for?” He didn’t particularly care but it was a way
to change the subject.
Toby
shrugged. “Not really,” he
admitted. “There’s something about
this,” he tossed a hand at the mound of dirt, now covered with brush, “that
suggests it isn’t natural.” He
shrugged. “But we’ve come at it from all
directions and can’t find a thing. There
doesn’t appear to be tool marks, or markings of any kind, on the rocks, and
we’ve found nothing to indicate that this is anything other than a mound of
dirt. We were just about ready to start
back when we discovered that we had been followed – again. We thought that we’d
ditched Abernathy, but…” He got a firm
look on his face. “We for sure didn’t
want him finding this.” He sent Jiggs
another apologetic look. “We really did
only mean to scare you off.”
“What
about him?” Jiggs waved a hand at Morton
just as there was another moan from the blond.
Ms.
Brey answered, still kneeling down next to Morton. “He got close to our camp before I heard
anything.” She didn’t quite turn so red
this time. “It was my turn on guard duty
– I whacked him before I really thought about what I was doing.” She looked down at Morton, then back up. “He’s really a naval officer?” Her expression turned almost sick.
“Lt.
Cdr. Charles Morton,” Jiggs confirmed.
He looked at Toby. “Harry’s XO aboard Seaview.”
Ms. Brey’s expression really did turn sick at that. “How hard did you hit him?” Jiggs growled at
her.
“Pretty
hard,” she admitted. “He scared me,
getting that close before I saw him.”
“I’ll
live,” was mumbled, and Morton carefully rolled over onto his back. “Lee’s never going to let me live this down –
taken out by a graduate student.” The
disgust was clearly evident in his voice although he allowed Ms. Brey to help
him sit up, and did send her half a smile.
“Sorry,”
she told him shyly.
Chip
tried to shrug, decided that wasn’t such a good idea right at the moment, and
looked around, noticing Stark’s and Antonio’s bandages for the first time. He sent the woman what he hoped was one of
his better command glares. Apparently it
lacked something in translation, although Dr. Wild did catch the intent.
“You’ll
have to blame me for their injuries, I’m afraid,” he admitted. “We searched you but you didn’t have any
I.D. We figured that Abernathy had
somehow managed to follow us, even though we thought that we’d lost him.”
“In
my backpack,” Chip told him, and looked at Stark.
“With
ours,” he said, tossing a hand toward Antonio.
“Tucked under some brush back where you left us.”
“I
will go get them,” Antonio offered. “It
is too late to start back to Admiral Nelson today.”
Everyone
agreed to that logic. There was some
concern as to the gunshot wound in his leg but he assured everyone that he was
okay to travel that short a distance. By
morning, he told them, he’d be ready to go.
Dorsey and Banks went with him to retrieve the packs. Jiggs would have liked to call Harry and let
him know what was going on. And, to make
sure Harry was mending okay. But since Toby had destroyed his sat phone that was out of the
question. Toby and company
started breaking down their camp that evening.
Jiggs could tell that he was still troubled by the enigma of the
escarpment but couldn’t justify staying any longer – especially now that Harry
and company had come looking for them.
His
own injury all but forgotten, Jiggs spent the rest of the afternoon and evening
ruminating over the events of the last nine days. He wasn’t quite ready to assimilate
everything that had happened – not just yet.
He did admit that, once again, Harry had been one step ahead of
him. He could cheerfully smack his old
friend upside the head! But he also
admitted that he’d probably buy him a bottle of Glenlivet instead. After telling him, in no uncertain
words, what he thought of Harry’s tactics!
When they were once more alone. Definitely not during however long it
took them to get home.
He
shook his head as he sat by the fire that evening. And Harry will no doubt just look smug,
like he always does when he outsmarts me, Jiggs admitted silently. He thought back to that night, in NIMR’s Med
Bay, when Harry had forced him to come clean about what had happened so many
years before. Harry had been fierce in
his insistence that Crane be told the truth.
And in retelling the tale, something inside Jiggs had caused him to
doubt decisions he’d made so many years ago.
Even when Crane seemed to accept what had happened,
Jiggs was no longer so sure.
He
glanced over to where Morton, obviously still suffering a significant headache,
was flirting softly with Ms. Brey. He
suspected Harry’s fine hand in whatever was going on there, as well, but it was
an enigma that he had no intention of tackling.
He’d never been able to figure Morton out and therefore had just
blustered his way through any time they’d been together. He did think that he had a better grasp of
Morton’s loyalties to Harry, and especially to Crane. There was still something…disquieting about
the man. Maybe he’d just spent too many
years around Crane, learning to ignore superior officers!
Jiggs
snorted softly to himself. And, he
admitted, at himself. Obviously
both younger men had spent too many years around Harry! He was going to be so glad to get back to San
Diego – he was more than ready for his own turf, his own chaos!
* *
* *
Epilog
“Hold
still, Admiral,” Will fussed, “or I’ll never get these stitches out.” They’d been back at NIMR almost a week, and
Nelson’s injuries from the peccaries were healed just enough to be itching
madly. Will had finally consented to
remove the several stitches he’d had to put in to close the most serious of the
wounds – the one just above Nelson’s belly button. But the man’s wiggling wasn’t making it easy.
“I’m
trying,” Nelson growled, but held himself as still as he could until Will had
clipped out the stitches and rubbed the area with an antibiotic cream that
would also ease the itching – at least for awhile. As Nelson sat up and started buttoning up his
shirt he glanced at the doctor, across the small treatment room washing his
hands after stripping off his gloves.
“Talked to Jiggs this morning,” he said casually.
Will
took the bait, turned, and pointed the expected eyebrow at his boss while he
dried his hands. “And…?” he encouraged.
Nelson
grinned. “Apparently I interrupted him
reaming out one of his sub captains for screwing up some part of the recent war
games.” He chuckled. “Gawd, was it good
to have the old, irascible, bad-tempered Jiggs back again.”
Will
grinned back. “I suppose that means
you’d better not repeat what Chip called him.”
It was Nelson’s turn to raise an eyebrow, and
Will obliged. “When Stark tripped that
day, Chip muttered something about ‘hail the mighty lard of the jungle’.”
Nelson
laughed so hard he had to momentarily hold his stomach. “No,” he admitted, once more under control –
sort of. “Missed that
one.” He still couldn’t quite
control his snickers.
“You
ever hear what happened with the snake?” Will asked.
Nelson
shook his head. “Jiggs refused to talk
about it. Chip?”
“Same
thing,” Will told him. “At least, as far
as I know. Lee, I understand, has asked
him repeatedly but he won’t budge.” He
grinned. “Of course, Lee also teases him
about how he got the concussion, so…” He
shrugged.
Nelson
chuckled again as he slid off the treatment table. “Poor Chip.
He’s constantly on Lee’s case about coming back hurt from ONI missions,
and he can’t get himself back in one piece, either.” Both men grinned. “I do, however, keep expecting a request for
leave time from him so he can fly back east.”
Will
chuckled. “He did hit it off with Ms.
Brey.”
“Hit
being the operative word,” Nelson told him.
“In
several different definitions,” Will agreed. He shook his head. “Whatever happened, mission accomplished?”
“I
think I just got lucky,” Nelson admitted.
“However
everything happened, I’m just glad to have everyone back to normal,” Will told
his boss with feeling.
“Amen,”
Nelson agreed, and each headed back to their offices.
finis
* see Jigsaw by R. L. Keller
** see The Code by R. L. Keller