Treasure of the Jaguar Warrior - Mystery of the Mayan Calendar Page 18

  While her mother held the light overhead, Jessie spent the next three hours removing a bullet and stitching up the damage it had caused. They were some of the most brutal hours of Jessie’s life. When she set the last stitch, she sat back and watched the old woman who had been mashing ingredients all night long apply a poultice that she spread on a banana leaf to his feet.

  “I am so proud of you,” Gloria said, wiping a tear from her eye. “You saved his life.” She hugged her daughter close. “My little doctor.” She sniffed.

  “I wouldn’t be one without your sacrifices, Mom,” Jessie said. “You made this miracle possible many years ago.”

  Jessie sat down beside the woman in the corner in order to keep watch over her patient while her mother sent news to the crew outside.

  Jacques still remained with the man for hours after that, and when the Sun arose so did the chieftain, speaking of how he had been healed by the great jaguar spirit.

  “You performed a miracle there,” Jonathan said when Jessie emerged from the hut. It was only then that Jessie learned that if the chief died, so would she. No pressure, she thought. . . . Now, she just prayed infection wouldn’t set in.

  After Jessie and her mother had eaten, the coya came outside again. “My son has granted you permission to be taken to the sacred water, the heart of the mountain.”

  “Thank you.” Jessie was elated.

  “We don’t wish to anger the gods. He asks that you keep someone here in exchange for the safety of our village. She looked at Jonathan as she spoke.

  So they would take them . . . provided they left a hostage. This wasn’t good news. Jessie turned to the group with a worried expression

  “I’ll stay,” Gloria said. “I am, after all, the liaison.”

  “Thank you,” Jonathan said.

  “You just take care of my baby,” Gloria said.

  “I will,” Jacques who was standing on the other side of her whispered into her ear, “I’d rather see this world end than have Jessie hurt.”

  Gloria nodded, taking heart.

  “What did you say to my mother?” Jessie asked as they followed the Machguenga warriors to the rafts at the water’s edge.

  “I promised to take care of you.” He smiled.

  “Hmm?” Jessie questioned the secrecy of it.

  “Hmm?” Jacques said. “There is no, hmm.”

  They paused to see Jonathan by the cars shaking his head. “No!” he said. “We can’t fit the make-up bag.”

  “Then I’m not going,” Patricia said.

  “That actually works for me,” Jonathan said. “You stay with Gloria, and we’ll continue filming when we get back.”

  “Wait?” You are going after that treasure aren’t you?” Patricia said. “So that’s what this whole secrecy thing was really about.”

  “Keep your voice down,” he warned.

  “Or what?” she said. “I’ll have you know that you can’t treat me this way. You can’t drag me all the way out here and then drop me. This is the biggest story of my career, and you’re not going to stop me from getting it!”

  Patricia, baby,” Jonathan said, trying a different tactic. “That’s not it. I just worry about your safety.”

  “You’re not worried about Jessie’s. Is that it? You want her.”

  “Let’s give them some privacy,” Jessie said, stopping in her tracks.

  Jonathan looked up to see them and shook his head. Patricia followed his gaze, her eyes narrowing on Jessie.

  “She’s the one who got us in,” Jonathan said patiently.

  “And I’m the one who made this all legit,” Patricia said. “Remember what you said when you asked me to come?”

  Jonathan sighed.

  Patricia wasn’t done though. “If you don’t take me, I’m going to make sure that the whole world hears about it.”

  Jonathan rubbed his chin. “Fine, but the make-up bag stays, princess!” With that, he stomped away.

  Chapter 17

  Well this is awkward, Jessie thought. She sat in the middle of the raft with Patricia who was determinedly giving her the cold shoulder and casting looks toward Jonathan that could kill. Jonathan, on the other hand, kept sending looks to Jessie that said . . . can’t you help me out here?

  After her almost sleepless night, this was more than Jessie wanted to take, and she sent him a glance that said . . . you invited her, you deal with it. The warriors escorting them were watching this all with expressions of . . . . What? Gods aren’t supposed to behave like this, are they?

  Patricia sniffed beside her. “What kind of makeup girl are you anyway?”

  Oh! Jessie looked at her, then at Jonathan with a look that said . . . you deal with this, or you fish her out of the water!

  Jacques popped up at that moment, sitting between both women. “How goes the battle?”

  “You had to ask,” Jessie said under her breath.

  Jonathan saw him and lifted his head in acknowledgement, and then chuckled, shaking his head as if in warning.

  “You could have at least stuck up for me,” Patricia said.

  “What?” Jessie asked. “Stuck up for what?”

  “Me! My bag.”

  “Your makeup?” Jessie asked in disbelief.

  “You haven’t done your job as my assistant at all. . . . I had to do my own this morning.” Patricia threw her nose in the air. “I’ll make sure you never work in this industry again.”

  Jacques was sitting in the middle looking from one to the other.

  “Jessie was busy,” Jonathan said, coming to her defense. “She made this all possible.”

  “Oh,” Patricia said. “So you stick up for her and undermine me?”

  “For your information, you ungrateful selfish little fop,” Jessie said, earning big worried glances from both men and a wide eyed stare of outrage from the busy bee.

  “I was doing my job!” Jessie hissed.

  “Hmm,” Patricia huffed. “I didn’t realize your activities at night were part of your job description.”

  “What?” Jessie gasped. “I am a doctor. I was doing surgery all last night in order to save a man’s life.”

  “Is that what they call it now?” Patricia said, flipping her hair.

  “You take that back, right now!” Jessie warned.

  “Or what?”

  Jessie went or what all over the diva, pulling her hair back and slapping her. The busy bee could pack a sting of her own, however, and slapped her back and pulled her ponytail.

  Jessie pushed her away.

  Patricia fell back, losing her balance. Rather than let go of Jessie’s ponytail, she hung on for dear life.

  “Augh!” they both screamed as they went over the edge.

  “There are things in this water that maybe you don’t want to be swimming with,” Jonathan said as he fished them each out of the drink, separating them on either side of him.

  Jacques was laughing so hard he couldn’t contain himself.

  “It’s not funny!” Jessie shouted.

  “Who are you yelling at you crazed lunatic?” Patricia asked. She was dripping wet and looking quite fresh with mascara running down her cheeks and pond scum in her hair.

  Jessie shook her head as she wiped the green slime from her own eyes.

  “Ladies, please.” Jonathan held up his hands like the two fighters needed a time out.

  “Next time we have to save the planet, leave your girlfriend home,” Jessie grumbled.

  “What is she talking about?” Patricia asked. “Does she think this stuff about the Mayan calendar is real?”

  “Yes, Patricia,” Jessie said. “I do.”

  “Well, when you told me she was desperate for work and you felt sorry for her, I had no idea what you were really saying,” Patricia said. “But I think she needs professional help, not yours.” She wound her finger in a circle next to her ear doing the international signal for crazy.

  “You said what?” Jessie narrowed her eyes on Jonathan. “Desperate?”
So help me. . . . You had better set the record straight right now!”

  Jonathan sighed, looking at Jessie like, you of all people should know why I can’t, while Patricia glared at her. . . . And Jacques? Well, Jacques was nowhere to be seen. Jessie turned to watch the shoreline. It was so like him to leave her to face the music alone. So help me, she thought, if he’s asleep again I’m going to kill him!

  Jessie was never quite so grateful as when she was finally able to get off the raft. The warriors looked even more relieved to give the gods their space than she was. Jessie walked as far as she dared up the hill just to be alone for a minute and gather her wits.

  Jessie watched as Jonathan talked with Patricia who had now seen herself in a small mirror she carried, and from the looks of it she was incensed again on a whole new level. Jonathan shook his head and slowly climbed the hill toward her.

  “Have you seen Jacques?” he asked when he was closer.

  “No,” Jessie said. Now that she had calmed down a bit, she was getting worried. “Have you tried the knife?”

  “Tried the knife?” He looked at the knapsack he carried. “There’s a way to make a phone call on it?”

  “No.” Jessie laughed. “But if you take it out, he just might show up.”

  “That’s right. He’s connected to it.” Jonathan removed the thick box he’d made to store the knife in from the knapsack and opened the lid. They watched as the ghost like form of a jaguar appeared in front of them. He had his mouth open panting.

  “What is he doing?” Jonathan asked.

  “Scenting, from the looks of him.”

  Jacques chose his human form and then stood looking at them. “They have been here, but I can’t see them. Earl must be using that stuff made from scorpions and tar on me.”

  Jonathan looked at her expectantly.

  “Oh,” she said. She’d become so used to her mother interpreting between them that she almost forgot he couldn’t hear Jacques. “He says that Earl is here, but he’s using some type of magic to keep him from seeing him.”

  “But he can smell him?” Jonathan asked.

  Jacques nodded.

  “Is he here now?”

  Jacques shook his head, pointing to where a small stream trickled down the side of the hill.

  Jonathan nodded then checked his watch. “It’s getting close to ten o’clock. We’re cutting it a little closer than I would have liked. With Earl ahead of us, I think it’s best if you two ladies stay here.

  “Oh, no!” Jessie said, looking down on the princess who was pouting. “Besides, you need me to interpret.”

  Jacques wrote, we will be fine, in the dirt then smiled.

  “Jacques and I can make better time, not to mention defend ourselves a little better, without worrying about protecting you two.”

  Jessie wanted to argue that one, but he had a point. What did she have in the muscle department next to Thor and the Invisible Man?

  Jonathan turned pleading eyes to Jessie. “Please help me out here.” He sighed. “I can’t take her with me. We’d have CNN or Sixty Minutes out here by next week, and then we really would have hell on Earth. . . . Please.”

  “I’m not doing her makeup or her hair,” Jessie said.

  “That’s fine! Just stay here and stay safe, so Jacques and I can save humanity. And then you two can have at it again. I’ll watch. Hell, I just might help.” Jonathan smiled. “Truce?”

  “Fine,” she sighed, sounding like a child.

  “Okay, come back down, make pretty, and we’ll be back soon,” Jonathan said as he jumped-hopped down the hill.

  Jessie went down a little more slowly, and the boys, Jacques, Jonathan, and the four warriors went off to save the planet, leaving the women to kill one another with sulking glances. “Be good,” Jonathan called out with a wave as they followed a stream back into the jungle.

  Patricia continued to wipe the mascara from under her eyes with tissues that she had kept in her boot.

  “That’s resourceful,” Jessie said. “I didn’t think to bring tissue.”

  “I went on another documentary about Sasquatch being spotted in the Blue Mountains,” Patricia said. “I learned the hard way to pack my own toilet paper.”

  “I’m sorry about that back there,” Jessie said. “I’m not sure what came over me.”

  “I’m afraid I know what came over me,” Patricia said and then smiled. “I’m a little jealous.”

  “Jealous?” Jessie asked.

  Patricia nodded. “I’m in love with the big galoot.” She sighed. “Although I’m not sure how he feels. I guess I’ve been feeling like a third wheel and an outsider, and I didn’t take it well. . . . I’m sorry too.”

  Jessie nodded with a smile of understanding. “Well, don’t take my word for it, but I’ve heard the way to his heart is through his stomach.”

  “I’ll have to bake a sweet potato pie then,” Patricia said half laughing. “Thank goodness they weren’t filming that one!”

  “Oh, I don’t know. People probably would have paid good money to see us wrestling on a raft in the Peruvian jungles. Just think of those ratings.”

  “I guess it was pretty funny.” Patricia laughed then looked at her and asked,“There is no documentary is there?”

  “Honestly, I don’t know,” Jessie said. “I mean, there might be film in that camera.”

  “That’s too dang funny!” Patricia chuckled. “Are you really a doctor?”

  “Yes,” Jessie said as she watched Patricia as she tried to take off makeup that was not coming off only smearing.

  “The only problem with stage makeup is that it just doesn’t want to come off,” Patricia said, reaching for another tissue.

  Jessie pulled out some lip gloss and a small bottle of lotion from her wet bag. “Here let me help.”

  Patricia handed over her wet tissue. Jessie dabbed some lotion on it, voluntarily working to repair her face.

  “I guess Jonathan won’t want anything to do with me after this one.” Patricia sighed.

  “Yeah, I guess we both gave them reason to run,” Jessie said.

  “I meant after he’d seen me like this; although you are right about the way we were acting too.” She smiled. “Do you remember the look on his face when he pulled us out of the water?”

  They both started chuckling until Patricia’s eyes opened wide.

  Jessie stopped dabbing. “What’s the matter? Did I get some in your eyes?”

  “No,” Patricia said in a whisper. “Look.” She pointed. “It’s Earl.”

  Jessie turned to see Earl Hebert standing behind them with three other men. He wore a strange feathered headband and markings on his bare chest. All the men were dressed like him with blood smeared on their bodies. Although they all carried guns and knives, only Earl had his drawn on them.

  “I’m so happy that you finally made it.” He waved the pistol as one of his men dragged a man who was bound and bloodied with several wounds . . . no doubt, the missing shaman and source of the blood. His eyes looked almost lifeless as the man dropped him at their feet. “It seems I am in need of a new sacrifice.”

  “Ahhh!” Patricia screamed.

  Jessie was too scared to scream. She’d never looked into the eyes of a soulless man before. Even though she’d seen him the other day, she’d never have known him. No wonder he’d worn the sunglasses. He looked maniacal, his pupils strangely dilated—all of the men’s eyes were like that.

  Earl noticed how she looked at them. “Thanks to a little Mayan magic, I can see the jaguar as well as you can.

  “Bind them both,” he said. “I shall offer one to the gods and keep the other for myself.

  Jessie didn’t know which version would be worse.

  ~*~

  Birds flew from the tress above, screeching over the intrusion. Jacques stopped and listened. He’d heard something. He felt something. He could almost taste the fear.

  “What is it?” Jonathan asked. “Is it Earl and his men?”

&n
bsp; Jacques shrugged.

  “You don’t know?” Jonathan asked. “Are we getting close?”

  Yes, Jacques nodded, we are. That he could sense, as well as the pull of the stone which had become harder to resist the closer they got. He knew now that when the knife was placed, he would be trapped within the stone forever.

  Jacques continued to walk past the warriors who had stopped until he stood looking over the entrance to his prison. He had thought when the old woman had thanked him for his sacrifice that it was for what he’d already been through. He now understood it was about what he had yet to do. He would be imprisoned in the stone for eternity.

  “Is this it?” Jonathan asked as he joined Jacques near the edge of a small pond.

  Jacques nodded again, pointing to a cave on the other side of the bright aqua blue waters, the source of the stream they had been following.

  Jonathan glanced at his watch, only a half hour left. The Sun was almost directly overhead. “Let’s do this,” Jonathan said, looking over his shoulder at the warriors who still stood several yards back. “They say they will not go any further. That the god Kuklkan guards the entrance. . . . I don’t suppose you’re friends?”

  Jacques looked at him and shook his head. He remembered the giant serpent from his first visit. He had fought with it . . . and lost. He remembered being dragged beneath the water, only to be transformed into the stone when he touched the sacred rock.

  “Of course not,” Jonathan said. That would be too easy.” He took the hunting knife that was strapped to his leg and waded through the pool. He entered the cave, like a knight prepared to fight the mighty dragon.

  Jacques shook his head with a smile. “The man knows no fear.”

  When the water rippled toward Jonathan, Jacques lifted him out of the water as a dark shadow slithered below the surface.

  “Hey, I think I could have taken him,” Jonathan said with a note of false bravado as he took in the sheer size of the giant anaconda below him. Jacques set him down on the rocks that created a bank along one side of the cave.

  “That is one big snake!” Jonathan said as he replaced his knife. “Thanks, Grandpa.”