“We should warn the others to steer clear of that area for now,” her dad said. He paused to slowly move his ankle in one direction and then the other, grimacing all the while. “We kept a safe distance from it, detouring around to reach the structure.”
“Which took an extra fifteen minutes of swinging the machete,” Quint added. “You want to feel my big muscles after today’s workout, sweetheart?”
“But of course, my Burly-Girly,” she joked back.
“And then we got to spend an extra ten minutes picking ticks off each other,” her dad grumbled.
Quint grunted. “I’d swear a cluster of the little sons-a-bitches set up a roadblock to keep humans away.”
She scratched her neck. Thinking about all those ticks made her itchy. “We can note those trouble spots on the map back at the camp.”
“What did you find today,gatita?”
Quint squeezed her hand. “Did you have any luck with the Jackson Pollock look-alike rubbings?”
“And were there any scorpions involved?” her dad asked.
“No scorpions, thankfully,” she told him. “As planned, first Esteban and I completed a few more stone rubbings. Those will require additional study back at INAH to analyze and compare with other carvings at some surrounding sites. Then, Fernando and Pedro traded places with us and began clearing the tunnel entrance, stabilizing the opening per what we had discussed over breakfast.”
Her father had laid out a plan, involving logs strategically used as braces, which Fernando and Pedro had collected while she’d been busy rubbing charcoal on rice paper most of the morning.
Her dad pulled out his handkerchief. “How far back does the rubble go in the tunnel?”
“They made it about four feet in and then hit a wall.”
He dabbed at his neck. “You mean a problem or an actual wall?”
“An actual wall blocking the way.”
“Like the foundation layer of the big wall above the tunnel?” Quint asked.
“We’re not certain, but the layout of the stones in the tunnel look different.”
“Different how?” Juan asked.
“They weren’t as cleanly cut as the big wall’s stones, and the stacking array seems less architecturally stable. Pedro thinks it looks like someone built it in a hurry.”
Pedro also believed they were looking at the frontside of the rush-built wall based on the curve of the underground blockade. Same as how a dam was built on a curve to hold large amounts of water behind it, this underground wall seemed to be strategically set up to hold back significant weight.
Rather than tell her father about this additional theory, she told Pedro and Fernando to let her father take a look at it first and see if he came to the same conclusion.
“You’ll have to take a look at it tomorrow, Dad, if your ankle is up to the trip back to the site.”
“My ankle is fine,gatita.”
“It doesn’t look fine with the way you’re limping.”
“Stop being a mother hen. Leave that job to Teodoro.”
“Fine.” She aimed a raised brow her dad’s way. “But why did you go against our usual process when it comes to excavating that mound?”
He sighed, stuffing away his handkerchief. “I knew there was a reason you sent everyone else ahead. You didn’t want to walk with me, you wanted to chew on me.”
“I don’t want to chew on you, you’re too old and crusty. I just want to know your reasoning for not following our normal procedure.”
“I don’t know. I had this overwhelming urge to see what was on the other side of the slab,” her dad explained. “Dr. Fernel seemed as excited as I was at the prospect, so we went for it.” Her dadthumbed toward Quint. “You should know,gatita, that loverboy here resisted moving the slab at first.”
She looked at Quint. “Why?”
