“But isn’t Dr. Quinn the expert on the Cidade da Lua? How are we supposed to find it without him?” someone called out.
Oof. Talk about a punch to the gut. They doubted she could handle the situation without a more experienced lead. But Corrie trusted her for a reason.
And Miri had the medallion. All the experience in the world couldn’t have been better than that, right?
If only she knew how to use the medallion to find the landmarks.
“Dr. Quinn isanexpert,” she continued, “but I think you’ll be surprised. I happen to know a few things about the MoonCity as well.” She smiled and puffed up her chest, then paused as if waiting for the team to cheer her on. Crickets.
Okay, so maybe knowing “a few things” wasn’t all that impressive.
“I mean, I know a lot of things,” Miri continued, her voice shaky and hurried. “More than Dr. Quinn, in fact. And I was handpicked by Dr. Mejía. And I’ve been on a bunch of digs. Like to Guatemala, and Belize. Oh! And I did this really cool field study in Greece. And another in Italy. I mean, I wasn’t really digging, but…”
Faces turned from concerned to skeptical.Sigh. The regurgitated résumé was probably unnecessary.
She scanned the cabana, looking for support, but none came. “Anyway, there’s more. Yesterday, Felix, Logan, Rafa, and I were, well, perhaps they’ve already told you, but we were attacked.”
More gasps, now some murmuring. Okay, so maybe theyhadn’talready mentioned it. Shit. This wasn’t going at all how Miri had imagined it.
“Hold on a second. Please, please let me explain,” she said, pumping her arms to try to calm them down. “Yesterday after we all split up, a couple of men found us on the side of the road and offered to help. But we eventually realized that they weren’t there to help us. They were there to stop us. They’re working for Pierre Vautour, and it appears he has another team out here looking for the Cidade da Lua.”
“Isn’t that the guy who was behind that whole debacle with Drs. Mejía and Matthews?” someone asked.
Miri nodded. “Yes, that’s him. Some of his cronies attempted to steal our equipment and they…they…”
How was she going to explain this without scaring everyone off?
“They pulled a knife on us,” Logan blurted out.
The group clamored again as rapid-fire voices shot at Miri.
“A knife!”
“I didn’t come out here so I could get stabbed.”
“Where’s Dr. Mejía when you need her?”
Ouch. Their comments were valid, though that last one stung a little.
“Listen, listen,” she said, trying to regain their attention. “I get it. You all thought you were going on an expedition led by Drs. Mejía and Matthews, and now you’re stuck in the Amazon with me. I’d be disappointed, too. But we’re going to be an effective team, I can feel it—”
“Searching for a place that no one knows ever even existed and, even if it did, no one has seen in hundreds of years,” someone responded very matter-of-factly.
“Yeah, and possibly getting killed while we’re at it,” another pointed out.
The team peppered her with questions, standing and shouting over each other with demands for more information and assurances. Miri’s attention shot from one person to another as she tried her damnedest to answer their questions only to be met with more pressure and inquiries. Control was fleeting.
“Dr. Jacobs?” Anissa said, lightly tugging on Miri’s arm.
Miri slowly rotated her head toward Anissa, trying to wake from her fog, before her gaze flashed over to meet Rafa’s. Despite what she’d planned to tell him later, she hoped he’d at least give her a supportive smile, but all he offered was an apologetic twist of his mouth.
“I’m sorry…I just…” she said, shifting her attention to Anissa before shaking it off and then turning to address the group again. “Listen!”
Her commanding voice silenced the team.
“I need you to trust me,” she continued. “We may be strangers, but we’re here for the same thing. We all want this expedition to be a success, and we can’t do that without a little trust. But, again, I get it. This isn’t the expedition you signed up for, and if you want to leave, I totally understand. You’ll be bound by the NDA you signed, but you’re free to leave if that’s your choice.
“But for those of you who are up for an adventure, we start tomorrow morning. I want to be packed and ready to leave by seven a.m. As you are already aware, we don’t know where exactly we’ll be going and there isn’t going to be an official trail to follow. So we’ll pack light and hike in and out from camp each day until we find what looks like the right way and then we’ll load up for a longer trek.”
