“So that’s north.” She absentmindedly pointed in that direction, then turned the maps so they aligned with the cardinal directions, mumbling to herself. Her head snapped up and she stared at Shane with excitement back in her eyes.
He smiled. “Figure it out?”
“I don’t know. I figured something out.”
“Yeah? Want to share?” He scooted closer to look at the maps.
“Okay, bear with me—I’m still working it out in my head.”
“Will do.”
“The Mayans built their pyramids in much the same way the Egyptians did—almost perfectly aligned with the sun or some other celestial marker. At Chichen Itza, the temple is aligned so perfectly that during the equinoxes it looks like a serpent is slithering down the steps of the temple.”
“Okay, I’m with you so far.”
“If you look at the position of the temple on the map, it matches up with this symbol on the text which I’m pretty sure means life. Which makes sense because the temple was the center of Mayan culture and their day-to-day life. The sun or enlightenment symbol on the text matches up with this building right here.” She tapped the spot on the imagery.
She looked at him expectantly, but he wasn’t connecting the dots. “You lost me. Why is that significant?”
“What if the burial chamber isn’t in the pyramid? What if it’s here?” She shook her head, grinning. “I still think the text describes the path to enlightenment, but I think it’s anactualpath instead of an esoteric way to enlightenment. Why else would they draw the text in the same pattern as the city? And if it’s an actual path it would lead to the source of enlightenment. Right?”
“It makes sense to me. Does that mean you still want to follow this path?”
Kinley nodded. “Yeah, I do.”
“All right. Let’s go.”
Shane plotted the coordinates of the location in the city Kinley was so excited about and sent them, along with their current position, to the team on standby in Flores to keep them informed of their progress. He’d send them an update when they stopped for the night.
If they could maintain a decent pace throughout the day, they might be able to make it before nightfall the day after tomorrow. If he was alone, he could probably make it there by sundown tomorrow, but he needed to set his pace based on Kinley’s capabilities.
Checking one more time to make sure the Jeep wasn’t too visible and that everything was packed up, he looped the compass over his head, programmed the coordinates into the GPS, and hung that around his neck as well.
After finding their heading, he looked at Kinley. “Let’s go.”
It took him a bit to get back into the rhythm of land navigation, but once he found his groove, he set a steady pace using a machete to clear a path for Kinley to follow.
“Why do you use the compass if you have the GPS?” Kinley asked.
Dropping the compass to his chest, he folded the map and stuck it in the cargo pocket of his pants. “Habit and a precaution. If we lose satellite coverage because the canopy becomes too thick, I don’t want to waste a lot of time orienting our position.”
He sipped water from his hydro pack, then held the hose out to Kinley. “Drink.”
His dick stood up like it had been called to attention when she wrapped her lips around the valve and sucked on it. Yeah…it was going to be an uncomfortable hike.
They set off again, Shane in the lead hacking a path through the jungle while Kinley followed. Every time he glanced back to check on her, she was only a few steps behind watching her feet or him, in which case she’d give him a happy smile.
God, he missed this. Not the sweltering, wet heat of the jungle, but setting an objective and finding the way there through the unknown. His mind and body were in tune and focused in a way they hadn’t been in longer than he could remember. Ever since he’d blown out his knee, it was as if he’d been looking at life through a fogged-up lens—the center was in focus, but the edges were hazy. Now it was like looking at everything in high-definition Technicolor.
About two hours into their hike, Kinley had slowed down, increasing the distance between them. They entered a small clearing—he could have stretched his arms out and almost touched the trees on either side—and Shane decided it was as good a place as any to rest and refuel.
Using the machete, he made sure the ground was clear. “Set your pack down and sit on it.”
Wet tendrils of hair stuck to her temples.
“Let me see your back,” he said after she’d dropped her pack to the ground.
She turned around, revealing the back of her soaked shirt.
