“Is there a temple?”
“I think I see something below nearly abutting the wall, but it’s mostly shrouded by trees. I need to climb down to check for sure.”
“Absolutely not,” Juan hollered, nailing her with a fatherly glare.
“What? I wasn’t going to encourage him.” She meant that, too. She didn’t want anything to happen to Quint. And if the distance to the ground was twice as far as this side, he might not be able to climb back up.
Why was the wall taller on the other side, though? A defensive wall would be taller on this side to keep enemies out, not the other way around.
Quint took off his camera, zipped it in the bag, which he secured in his backpack. Then he eased backward several feet, his arms shooting out for balance for a second as his boot heel caught on a rock and he tilted a little.
“Quint!” Angélica took a step toward the wall, her hand raised as if she could catch him.
“What are you doing, Junior Mint?”
“Don’t worry. I’m not trying to take flight.” He glanced down at them. “I’m giving the welcoming committee some room.”
“What does he mean?” Raul asked her.
Quint must have heard, because he answered, “There’s a snake up here, checking me out with its tongue.”
“What kind?” Bronko pulled his pistol out, wiping something off of it with a cloth. “Remember, if it’s a yellow beard, they can launch quite a distance.”
“Not that kind.”
Angélica licked her suddenly dry lips. Maybe KuTu was wrong about the vultures protecting Quint. “Parker, get your ass down here.”
“Sorry to bid youadieu, Mr. Snake, but the lady has spoken.” Quint lowered to his knees and leaned down toward them, dangling his pack. “Think you can catch this, Raul? I brought my old camera along for backup, but I’d rather not break this one.”
“Sure.”
Quint let the pack fall.
After Raul had set the pack down safely, Quint joked, “Now catch me.” A few grunts later, along with some help from Bronko and Raul, he was back on the ground, checking out a small scratch on his forearm. “Juan, do I get any points for making it back in one piece?”
Her dad grinned. “How about twenty?”
Quint snorted. “Seems like making googly eyes with a snake should be worth more.”
Angélica grabbed his arm, checking out his scratch. “It’s not too bad. No blood, so that’s good. We can clean that up back at the camp to be safe.” Now that he was safe, she returned to the whole point of today’s scouting trip. “Can I see the pictures?”
He extracted his camera from his pack and turned on the display, handing it over.
Trees, trees, and more trees filled the screen. He hadn’t been kidding about that. Nor about the distance to the ground on the other side.
Her father joined her, his reading glasses already in place. “Hmm. We’ve been looking at that view from the underside of thecanopy all day.”
“Just hit this button to move back through the shots.” Quint showed her with the first one.
She clicked to another picture. More trees, some standing taller than the rest. “There could be a mound underneath those,” she told her father.
She moved through the next few pictures.
More trees, dammit.
The next picture was different, though.
Her dad sucked air through his teeth. “Look at the broad head on that snake.”
