Curses!

He told her.

'And you're sure you're not hurt?'

'Absolutely. Just a few bruises.'

'Thank goodness. Did he get your wallet?'

'No, I don't think that's what he was interested in.'

She frowned at him. “What then?'

'I had the impression he was trying to kill me.'

She continued to stare at him, then decided not to pursue it. “You couldn't see him at all?'

'No, I couldn't see anything. He jumped me just when the lights went out. It was pitch black.” Tentatively, he tried standing up and found that he felt better; the queasiness was receding. “I'm okay now.'

She stood too, and for a moment they looked at each other, then embraced without speaking. Beside them the pitted serpent columns gleamed in the starlight.

'I got scared,” she murmured into his shoulder.

'Well, no wonder. I was a little on edge myself.'

She didn't respond except to burrow a little deeper into his shoulder.

'That was a pun,” he pointed out. “On edge?'

'Not funny.'

'No, it wasn't,” he said softly. “Sorry.” He stroked her smooth, fragrant hair and held her a while longer. “Feeling better?'

He felt her head nod against his chest. “Come on,” he said, “let's head back.'

* * * *

On Julie's insistence they stopped to report it to the khaki-clad official who seemed to be the Chichen Itza security force and custodial squad in one. At the moment he was busy stacking the chairs and trying to shoo off a knot of people standing around enjoying a smoke after the performance. The brief interview was not highly successful from Gideon's point of view, partly because his rudimentary Spanish was barely up to its demands, and partly because the official's priorities differed from his own; most of the time was taken up with an admonitory lecture about watching the show from unapproved areas. He took their Mayaland address, however, and promised to file a report with the proper authorities. Gideon would no doubt hear from them in due course.

* * * *

'About trying to kill you,” Julie said on the walk back to the hotel, “are you really sure that's what he was trying to do?'

'No,” Gideon said truthfully. “But he almost brained me with some kind of heavy chain. And he was trying like hell to kick me over the edge. At least that's the way it felt.'

'But why? What possible reason could he have? You don't suppose...” She stopped walking. “That threat? The one you said couldn't mean anything, that was just so much bluster?'

He shrugged. “Maybe I was wrong.'

'Did you get a look at him at all? Would you recognize him if you saw him again?'

'No, I couldn't see, I couldn't hear. The whole thing caught me by surprise, and it couldn't have lasted more than five seconds. Most of which I spent trying not to roll over the edge.'

'But you must have been able to tell something. Was he big? Small? Skinny? Fat?'

'I just don't know; he seemed pretty strong, but there really wasn't any way to tell. I never got my hands on him.'

They began to walk again, preferring not to fall too far behind the group of people that had been ousted by the guard. Gideon's ear was beginning to ache, his ribs to pulse with pain. The adrenaline-generated anesthesia of danger was starting to wear off.

'I know what you're thinking,” she said. “You're thinking it was somebody from the dig.'

That's what he was thinking, all right.

Julie jerked her head. “Gideon, I just can't make myself believe it was any of those people. The threat—all right, maybe. But to actually attack you...with a chain—anyway, how could they even know we were going to the sound-and-light show? We didn't tell anybody.'

'No, but any of them could easily have been following us. They could have trailed us to the show, and then when I went up the stairs they might have sneaked around to the far side of the wall, climbed up, and edged their way along it during the performance. And the whole crew went to the show last week. They'd know just the moment when I'd be blinded—'

He sighed. “Would you say this lacks a certain plausibility?'

'Just a little.” She turned her head to look up at him. “Gideon, don't get angry, but isn't this beginning to sound just the tiniest bit paranoid to you? You can't even be sure it was an American. Maybe it was someone who never saw you before. Somebody nutty, or a wino or dope addict who was spending the night up there.'

Gideon thought it over. “I suppose it could have been.'

'Isn't that a more reasonable explanation?'

Gideon put a hand on either side of her waist. “Yes,” he said with a smile, “it is.'