“Not yet. We talked it over and we’ll give you some help against the Jaguar people. Mebbe against the slavers if the bones fall right for us.”
Itzcoatl slowly reached up a hand and gently pushed away the muzzle of the gun. “We mean you no evil. Not to any of you. We want very much that you remain to help us. That you all help us. This is why you are the waited ones. The ones we have heard of in our stories.”
“I WANT TO TAKE another look at the old base,” Ryan said. “If there were grens and those chemicals, mebbe there was something else we missed. Never took a good look around the far side, behind that main building.”
“Can I come, Dad?”
“Possibly.”
Both Jak and J.B. were suffering from mild stomach upsets.
“I don’t fancy walking around the jungle this morning,” the Armorer stated. “Don’t like the idea of diving into the bushes and trying to find some big soft leaves.”
“Nor me.” Jak was sweating with the bug, lying on his back on the floor, massaging his stomach. “They all right, Mildred?” Ryan asked. “I think so.” She hesitated a moment. “Don’t guess it’s cholera or typhoid of any of those tropical nasties. Much more likely to be a touch of good old Montezuma’s revenge.”
“Never heard of that one,” Ryan said. “That a predark sickness?”
The woman laughed, showing her fine strong teeth. “Just a fancy name for the shits, Ryan. They drink plenty of water, they should be fine.” She paused again. “Unless, of course, the thing’s already in the water. Still, it’ll stop them from dehydrating. That’s the main thing. Think it might be better if I hang around the village for today. Keep an eye on them. Just in case. I reckon it’ll soon be over.”
“I’ll come with you, lover,” Krysty said. “Like to walk off those bad memories from last night.”
“I’ll stay behind, as well.” Doc looked a little tired, his skin pallid.
“You got the bug, Doc?” Mildred asked.
“I believe not, thank you. And if I have, then I might take the liberty of treating myself.”
“Three of us, then,” Ryan said. “No need to take any food. Only be gone a couple of hours.”
Dean had stood and clapped his hands excitedly, then the delighted expression vanished from his face, like a carnival mask being ripped away.
“What’s wrong?” Jak asked, sensitive to the changing moods of the others. “Nothing. Come on, Dad, let’s go.” The boy’s cheeks were suddenly the color of water-sodden parchment.
“I’m” Dean’s dark eyes showed sudden horror. His whole body tensed, and he pressed his thighs together. “Gotta go, Dad. Get off without me. See you later.”
And he was gone, hobbling down the steps of the hut, leaving the wood-beaded curtain swinging and whispering behind him. Ryan watched his son as he made a desperate stumbling dash toward the outhouses. “Sure he’ll be all right, Mildred?”
“Sure.”
“Not some disease that’s going to”
She held up a hand. “I told you, Ryan. You and Krysty get going right now.”
“And remember about keeping a weather eye open for any bushes with suitable large, soft leaves,” Doc said, cackling.
IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL MORNING.
“That dreadful humidity that was so overpowering near the redoubt seems much better down here by the lake,” Krysty said. “Lovely summer day. Reminds me of the best of times when I was a girl back in Harmony ville.”
“Be nice to go back and visit there sometime.” Ryan stretched, looking at the jungle around them. The stepped, four-sided pyramid still loomed against the bright green of the trees, a doleful reminder of the previous night.
Krysty nodded, hooking her left arm through his right, striding out, hair flowing free across her broad shoulders.
“Think the others are going to be all right?” he asked. “Felt sorry for Dean, taken short like that.”
She smiled at him. “Mildred isn’t worried, so I’m not worried. They’ll be fine. Nice to have the forest to ourselves. Just the two of us.”
“It is.”
The sun was a little way up on the eastern sector of the flawless blue sky. A flock of green-and-yellow parrots flew noisily into the trees at their approach, and one of the diminutive pigs that seemed to inhabit that part of the jungle darted across the trail a few yards ahead of them.