“No drinks for you, blue Bunyan.” Pedro picked up several more branches. “Not until you find some big treasure that wins us a trip out of here.” He tossed those branches on the pile, too. “Now come over here and lift some rocks for us, show off your big muscles to the scorpions and cockroaches hiding underneath.”
Quint shook his head. “No can do. I’m saving my big muscles to show off to the boss lady when she gets here.”
He bent forward and peered up the old road, looking for Angélica’s auburn hair or Juan’s sunhat, but there was still no sign of either García. What was taking them so long?
After breakfast, Angélica and her father had left with Teodoro to check on Fernel and get some pain medicine for Juan—his ankle remained a little swollen this morning. Angélica had tried to convince her father to stay back at camp today and rest, but he’d refused, saying that he would not let his daughter go inside any ruins without him.
“I sure wish Pedro and Fernando were going to be joining us on the other side of the wall today,” Daisy said, watching the two men work.
“Why is that?”
She shrugged. “The more the merrier, especially when it comes to going over that wall.”
Quint agreed, but with Fernel recovering from yesterday’s bite-fest, Pedro needed to stay close to camp in case he had to fly the archaeologist to the hospital in Cancun. Per Teodoro’s latest report on Fernel, the geoarchaeologist was improving, but it was best to keep him at camp under the shaman’s watch for the day.
With Pedro and Fernando staying busy on the outside of the wall, that left Bronko, KuTu, and Raul to join the rest of them near the center of Site 5. Oh, and Esteban, of course, whom Angélica planned on having work on stone rubbings outside of the bat-hotel while she dug deeper on the inside.
“Are you helping Esteban today with his charcoalmasterpieces?” Quint asked Daisy. “Or will you be going inside to hang with the bats, same as the rest of us?”
“I don’t know for sure. Angélica told me that she wants me there today with you all, but she didn’t specify what I’d be doing.”
“Well, you are the best finder at the site, so maybe she’s hoping you’ll work your magic and pull another glyph-covered artifact out of thin air.”
Or it could be that Angélica wanted Daisy to be there as a channeler, in case her mom needed to come forth and warn her about anything.
Either way, Quint was glad to have Daisy along. Something about having her near felt comforting in a way he couldn’t explain. Like a good luck charm.
He glanced down at the ring he was wearing, the one his aunt Zoe had sent to help him. Might as well try to stack the odds in their favor before they crossed to the other side of that wall. Maybe there was a patch of four-leaf clovers nearby he could roll around in.
“The jungle speaks to me,” Daisy said. “Because I know how to listen.”
Something about those words sounded familiar. “Where have I heard that before?”
“It’s a Rudyard Kipling quote. My kids were big fans ofThe Jungle Book.”
“The actual book or movie?”
“Both, but mostly the old cartoon movie. Baloo was one of their favorites.”
He grinned. “Mine, too.”
“I was a fan of King Louie, even though he wasn’t in the actual book. Louis Prima’s singing makes me want to jump up and dance around.” She stood and pretended to walk and bounce about like King Louie had in the movie, making monkey noises while hopping and clapping. “Bring me that red flower, Man-cub,” she said in a deeper voice.
Quint laughed. “You are definitely the jungle VIP.”
The spider monkeys in the trees overhead barked and shook the branches, showering them with leaves.
“Hey, King Louie,” Pedro called when the commotion died down, looking their way with a banana-sized grin. “Stop monkeyin’around. You’re riling up your followers.” He pointed up at the canopy.
Daisy returned to their rock, winded. “Whew! Being a monkey is hard work.” She pulled a handkerchief from her back pocket. “What do you think is in store for us today?”
He shrugged. “Knowing Angélica, she’s going to want to go inside the structure full of all those bats.”
“Right, the one Juan was telling us about at supper,” Daisy said, nodding with a smile. “He’s pretty excited about it, too. When he walked me to my tent last night, he said he’d have gone inside if Angélica hadn’t made a promise to you to stay out until you were there with them.”
Quint shrugged. “Lucky for him I did, or he’d have been front and center for bat-a-palooza.”
Even though Angélica had told him about not going inside in spite of her dad’s insistence, this additional confirmation that she’d followed through on her promise to wait for him had Quint’s heart bebopping like King Louie and his primate pals. Not exploring the ruin had to have been tough, what with her curiosity about this site keeping her up at night, not to mention the added pressure since talking with her mom. The need to find something soon that would let them all go home early while keeping her job safe from poachers undoubtedly henpecked her waking moments.
