“Who knew you were so funny,” Riley said. “Not me, that’s for sure. Or anyone else. Ever.”
“Just greasing the wheels,” the former soldier said. “I’ll go across first.”
“No, you won’t,” Decker said. “I’m going first.”
Selena pulled her head back and stared at him, wide-eyed. “And why you?”
Decker pushed his hat up and wiped the sweat from his eyes. “Because I am obviously the team leader, and that’s what team leaders too. We don’t let our team members do anything we wouldn’t be prepared to do first.”
“All good,” she said. “Except I am clearly the team leader!”
Riley sighed. “Have you two not organized this yet? I thought you settled all this a long time ago?”
“We have,” Decker said. “And…”
“I’m the boss,” both he and Selena said together.
“In that case I’m assuming command,” Acosta said. “In the absence of any sanity, Doctor Felipe Acosta to the rescue! Now get out of my way… I’m going in!”
“Pepe, no!” Selena said, taking hold his elbow. “Please! Let Mitch go first.”
But Decker was already on his way, brushing past Acosta and pushing down on the boards with his right boot to test their strength. He spent another minute pulling on the wooden support towers and guide ropes. They were old and frayed but seemed firm enough. When he stood on the first board, the entire structure groaned and creaked and swayed a little from side to side.
Selena gasped. “I don’t think this is a good idea, Mitch. The heat from the lava must have severely damaged this bridge over so many years.”
“It’s hundreds of feet down,” he called back, peering over the side at the flowing magma so far below him. “Any damaging effect it might have would be too greatly reduced by the distance, no matter how long it’s been here.”
“It’s still crazy,” she said. “We need to find another way over.”
“There’s no other way!” he yelled, and the others followed him across the old bridge. On the other side, the shaken team took a few seconds to get their breath back and searched for the next part of their escape route.
“Any ideas?” Charlie said.
“Here!” Selena yelled. “Look at this carving in the rock. It’s showing us the way out.”
Riley stared at it, confused. “Eh? Just looks like a tangled mess to me. What does it all mean?”
Selena said, “As I said before, the Maya believed the universe was divided into three separate realms, heaven, the earth and the underworld. Each of these different kingdoms was connected by a giant tree with its roots down in the underworld and the trunk in the earth and then the canopy and leaves up in the heavens. It’s best to think of these realms as three separate, existential planes. This part here is clearly the trunk and it’s showing us to go this way.”
Riley scratched his head. “I’ll leave the thinking part to you, Lena.”
They followed the path until they saw light. Moments later, they marched out of the underground cave system and into the diffused lighting of the forest floor. All around them insects and birds chirped and cried out in the sweat-streaked humidity. It was another world. Through the canopy, a stormy sky bubbled with dark gray clouds.
“We made it!” Charlie said. “I don’t believe it.”
“We didn’t all make it,” Decker said. “We lost a man. We need to get Atticus back. Let’s get moving!”
“I agree, but…” Diana collapsed down on one of the boulders either side of the entrance and sighed deeply. “The heat is too much for me. In Porto we have a drier heat. This is like trying to walk through a bowl of caldo verde.”
“Eh?” Riley said.
“Hot soup.”
“Ah – gotcha!”
“I blame Camaxtli,” Acosta said.
“Eh?’ said Charlie.
“The Maya god of fate Camaxtli, who brought fire to our world…”
“No more Maya gods,” Diana said. “Please.”
“All right,” Decker said. “We wait here for a few minutes to let everyone get their breath back and then we get back to the lake.”
“And pray Danvers hasn’t trashed the plane, right mate?” said Riley.
Decker looked at him, horrified. “I never thought of that!”
“C’mon,” Selena said. “We really must get going. Think of Dad.”
And then they were on their way.
*
Riley Carr knew all about jungle. Making corporal in the Australian SAS was no cake walk. Selection to get into the training program lasted three weeks. 130 men sign up to selection and 104 of them go home bruised and disappointed. After this section of the course follows another 18 months of courses which must be passed before they join a squadron with the rank of junior trooper.
This is called the reinforcement cycle. Here, Riley got the hard stuff. Heavy and light weapons training, parachuting, combat survival, demolitions work, urban combat, patrolling techniques, medic training, signals training, ingress training. Then he was posted to a sabre squadron where he specialized. Some specialized as medics, others as signallers or even linguists. Riley chose to be an explosives expert.
Here in his sabre squadron, he started a three year cycle of further training and operations. This was a time of developing the skills already taught, advanced conventional warfare training and clandestine ops. Explosive ingress techniques, confined-space assaults, building clearance and close quarter battle techniques.
With all these years of reinforcement training under his belt, Riley Carr, the young man from an isolated outback station, was finally badged as a full member of the Australian SASR. He finally won the world-famous tan beret and winged dagger insignia badge and joined the regiment, one of only ten percent of the original cohort to do so.
After these years of training, Riley was confident there wasn’t a building, ship, plane, train or oil rig he couldn’t break into and clear. And he was more than
