“Any chance you got a winch?” Rafa asked.
“Nah, man. Sorry,” Red Sox responded. “Not much out this way, though. Where are you headed?”
Miri hesitated for a moment before answering. “To an eco-hotel downriver from Caracaraí.”
“Well, hot damn. If that isn’t a coincidence. We’re heading that way ourselves,” Red Sox said.
Well, thatwasa coincidence. Miri glanced over at Rafa, noticing his eyes narrowing at the men in the truck. Clearly his wheels were spinning.
“I looked. There aren’t any ferries that go up that way from here,” Miri said.
“We chartered a boat. Got a local guide waiting to take us upriver past Caracaraí. If you want, you can come with us,” Nationals said.
“What are you doing out here?” she asked.
“Boys’ trip,” Nationals said with a wide toothy grin. “A little private Amazon tour.”
“Where are you from?” she asked.
“Boston, originally. Though this one had to go and move to DC. Traitor,” Red Sox said, tossing a sarcastic glance at Nationals. “By the way, I’m Hunter and this is my buddy Kevin.”
Kevin waved two fingers in a salute near the brim of his baseball cap.
“So what say you? The river’s not too far, but we gotta get going before the boat decides to take our money and ditch us,” Hunter continued. “We’d planned to make it to Caracaraí by midday tomorrow, so we can drop you off on the way.”
“I say heck yes,” Logan said.
“Hold on,” Miri said, turning to her crew. “We can’t leave our equipment.”
“Toss it in the bed,” Kevin said. “You can squeeze in in the back seat here,” he said, pointing to the extended cab.
“Sounds great,” Logan said, rushing over to the van to start unloading the equipment.
“Sweet,” Hunter said, throwing the truck in park and hopping out to help.
“What do you think?” Miri whispered to Rafa as the others started loading the truck.
Rafa rubbed the back of his neck, turning his face so the others couldn’t see him speak. “I don’t know. Something about this feels off. A littletoocoincidental.”
“I was thinking that, too,” she said. “I guess it’spossiblethese guys are just your everyday Good Samaritans.”
“Is that really a thing? An everyday Good Samaritan?” Rafa asked, cautiously eyeing the others. “I mean, we haven’t seen a single vehicle the entire time we’ve been on this road. What iftheseare the bad guys Quinn was talking about?”
“Or what ifthisis a sign that weshouldn’tquit now? It’ll get us to base camp sooner than if we wait for the pickup tomorrow.”
And it would save the expedition the quadruple payment.
“All this nonsense about bad guys is getting to us, that’s all.”Right?She continued, “Besides, there’re four of us and only two of them.”
“Are you saying you can take them?” he asked, raising his brows.
“Are you saying that you can’t?” she retorted with a playful smile, trying her damnedest to bring a little levity to the situation.
“I don’t know, Pringles, but I really don’t want to find out the hard way,” he said, clearly not buying what she was selling. “I’ve got a bad feeling, is all.”
She’d be lying if she said she didn’t share the sentiment. But she’d played it safe her whole life and look where it got her: on a fast track to the archaeologist’s graveyard. The place where nobodies like her went to wither away cataloging artifacts in a crustyold basement while other archaeologists—realarchaeologists—explored the world.
Archaeologists like Corrie.
