“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, folding her arms.
“Well, given your rather paltry résumé, I wouldn’t have taken you as being bold enough to sneak into my camp and take the photos right from my tent.”
“Don’t act like you know anything about me. You’re not as smart as you think you are.”
“Oh,” Vautour said, making an amused face, “but you think you know me?”
“I know you’re a shitty father,” Miri spat back.
Vautour glanced at Rafa and then glared at her. “Is that what he told you? My gâtéson?”
“Fuck you, Dad,” Rafa said.
But Vautour narrowed his eyes at Rafa. “After everything I’ve done for you?” his dad asked.
“You did those things for yourself,” Rafa spat back.
“I also know you’re a crook,” Miri interrupted. “We already alerted the Brazilian authorities that you’re here.”
“You broke our deal,” Vautour said, glaring at her. Miri could practically see the veins pulsing in his neck.
“We’re not going to let you steal from this place. These artifacts,” she said, turning and waving her hands around the room, “they don’t belong to you.”
“Nor to you.”
“I’m not here to take anything. I only wanted to study this place. Learn about the people who lived here so maybe we can find out what happened to them and protect their legacy,” she explained. “I want to save it from people like you.”
Vautour sighed as if he was bored.
“Dad, don’t do this,” Rafa pleaded. “If you ever loved my mother…if you ever lovedme…please, just go.”
Vautour stared at Rafa, his face softening as if recalling memories deep inside him, before turning away and throwing up his hand.
“Find somewhere to put them,” he commanded of his team.
The room broke out in commotion as Vautour’s men ran atthem. Rafa struggled to get away, but Hunter punched him right in the gut. Rafa hunched over, crying out in pain as Miri tried to flee, but there was no helping it. The guide who’d been on the boat with Hunter and Kevin, Sérgio, grabbed her by the arm and led her into a different area of the temple. Two men carried Rafa close behind. They took them to a room covered in stone, with just a sliver of a window in the wall opposite the door.
But as Sérgio placed her in the room, he whispered in her ear, “Open your eyes, senhora. Look for the moon.”
She looked at Sérgio and tried to see his face, but it was too late. He was already gone, and seconds later the other men were tossing Rafa into the room as well, closing the door behind them. Rafa landed on the stone floor like a pile of bricks, moaning as he held his stomach. She rushed over to him and examined him for bruises and scrapes.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
He groaned. “I’m beginning to think being around you is dangerous for my health, Pringles,” he said while eking out a smile.
She smiled back at him and kissed him on the cheek before helping him assess his injuries.
“We really got ourselves into it, didn’t we? Do you think we’re going to die in here?” he said, raising his head and scanning the room.
“Not if I can help it.”
She stood up and surveyed the area, feeling her way along the wall. Pressing against the doorway where they entered.
“I don’t think that one’s going to budge.”
“I know, but Sérgio said something to me,” she said, scouring the room for a sign.
“What do you mean, he said something to you?”
