"Señor, there is a legend in our village about what you are looking for. They say it is cursed, many people have looked for La Alma del Taino, and many have never come back. They say its resting place is dangerous. Please. Be careful."
"I will," I promised him, touched by his concern. "Take care, Pancho."
"Vaya con dios, señor Hawkins."
CHAPTER EIGHT
Branches sliced and stabbed at me through my thin shirt, drawing blood as I stumbled through the tropical rainforest for the third straight hour. My wounds weren't enough to worry about, but my jealousy of Mercury's machete had grown with each fresh cut. The only tools I had were my hands, a multitool, and an increasingly foul mood.
When I first started following her, the going had been slow. Jaye had to hack through the jungle for some distance before she came across a narrow but navigable path. I had all the grace of a rhinoceros, and following her in the thick growth had been difficult. Twigs snapped under each footfall, and I continuously rubbed up against branches, causing trees and bushes to shake. I had to stay well behind her to avoid giving myself away. Once she made it to the path, tracking her became much easier. But with the more open terrain, it forced me to follow her at an even greater distance.
I wound along the trail, following the shorn palm fronds and vines that lined the trail for over an hour. The cut vegetation was all I had to reassure myself that I was on her tail. Occasionally, the trail would open up a bit. I made better progress when that happened, but sometimes I moved too fast. More than once I got close enough to hear the regular swish and thwack of her machete. Each time I'd have to force myself to stop for a while and let her increase her lead again. This game of cat and mouse continued all the way through the first hour as we wound our way up the mountains and hills.
The path we were following ended in a small clearing. Shattered boulders and large rocks slashed across the trail, forming a natural barricade. Uprooted trees lay half exposed under some of the larger boulders, and a clear path of destruction continued down the mountainside. It was here, in the jumbled mess of a rockslide, where Jaye decided to take a break, and it was here I nearly gave myself away.
I had been moving at my faster pace, listening for the sounds of her clearing the brush but hearing nothing. As I came up the path, I suddenly saw her reclining on a large flat rock alongside the path. She was reaching into her bag with her back to me. Reacting on pure instinct, I ducked into the dense jungle alongside the path. Her silence had lured me into a false sense of security, and I'd have to be more careful going forward. I circled around her, pausing every few feet to watch her for any signal she had seen or heard me. If she had, she didn't make any outward sign of it. Relieved, I continued circling her, slipping through the trees and branches until I made it to the collection of boulders and stones laying across the path. I slithered my way up to one of the higher rocks to watch her.
Jaye took a swig from a water bottle before pulling some equipment from her backpack. She neatly laid her gear out on the rock near her. It wasn't much. A small orange GPS device laid on a well-worn topographical map. Next to the map was a plain manila folder bursting with papers it could hardly contain. Sitting on the rock above all of this was a cheap handheld compass.
Mercury spent some time consulting her GPS and her folder of papers. After making several notes on the map, she picked up the compass and took a few bearings before returning all the gear to her bag. She took one last drink from her water bottle and then slung it all over her shoulder. She yanked her machete free, its blade wedged halfway through a nearby fallen tree branch. With all of her gear ready, she took off again. But instead of clambering over the fallen rocks to continue on the path, she turned left and headed directly up the mountain.
"Where are you going?" I thought to myself. "And what's up with all those papers in the folder?"
Blatt's letter to me was only a page or two, at most. She had reams of information at her disposal. I had none. For the second time since meeting Jaye Mercury, I felt completely outclassed. She was much more prepared than I was and appeared to have magnitudes more experience. I couldn't help but wonder why Pruitt hired me instead of her.
I gave her a five-minute head start before sliding off the rock and following her. Within feet of leaving the trail, the speed of my progress plummeted. Thick thorny vines slashed at my limbs. Other branches and plants seemed to move on their own, as if to bar my progress. Jaye Mercury hadn't left much of a path, and silently I cursed her for not taking the effort to chop down more of the offending vegetation.
Worse than the cuts and scrapes was the foul air. The heavy rainforest blocked any vestige of wind. It was also humid enough to make me suspect the native peoples had developed gills to breathe. Rotting vegetation made the thick air even more unpleasant, and it forced me to use my mouth to breathe. But still I followed her. I was going to have that idol, one way or another.
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Sweat. It poured from me like a fountain. Cramps threatened to seize my calves as I climbed up the impossibly steep grade. My mouth hung open as
