"Are you quite done Miss Hunt?" Sam finally spoke as he pulled tight the last knot of the cord. He stood tall next to her before reaching for Jelani.
"Stop whining and help me get Jelani on the stretcher."
“That’s it? You have nothing to say for yourself.”
Alex puffed much like the lions did the night before. She wasn’t impressed with how calm Sam was in the midst of her fit of rage but she looked across at Jelani whose fever had spiked out of control; instantly riddled with guilt as she watched him lying there so helpless and innocent in the situation. Jelani didn't think twice about helping her get her father back. He depended on her now. She needed to swallow her pride and focus on getting him to the hospital and fast.
“You lift his feet,” she grudgingly spat. She conceded for Jelani and her father. Not because Sam ordered her.
With Jelani safely secured on the make-do gurney, Alex gathered her bag and whatever supplies she could find from the car. There was a small emergency kit and a couple of bottles of water in the cubby and much to her joy, a small compass.
"Hold on Jelani old friend. We'll get you out of here in no time,” she whispered next to her injured friend.
With newfound excitement she spread open the map in the sand and pinpointed the road she suspected they headed out on when they left the airport. She was right. The river lay to the West, but she had no idea how far along the river the village was.
"I'm going to need to speak to Jelani, Quinn. Will he wake up?"
"No way of knowing right now I'm afraid. We can try.”
Alex knelt next to her friend. ”Jelani, can you hear me? It's Lakicia."
She waited, but he lay very still.
"Jelani it's me. I need your help to get us home. Can you hear me?"
He groaned the faintest of groans.
"Jelani! Quinn! He can hear me!"
She tried giving him a sip of water, but he was frail and lay with his eyes still closed.
"Jelani, I’m so sorry. I know you’re in pain but I need you to please point out the village on the map. Do you think you can help us?"
She held the map up and lifted his arm, unfolding his limp forefinger and placing it on the river on the map. She watched as her friend forced his eyes open with all the physical strength left in his frail body.
"I got you Jelani. I got you. Help us find our way out of here my friend so we can get you to the hospital."
He moved his hand left, ever so slightly and pointed to a spot by the river.
"It's there? Excellent! Okay, rest my friend. We're going to get us out of here, okay? Just hang in there a little longer."
Alex raised his weak hand gently against her cheek.
"Hang in there, Jelani. Don't give up. Fight!"
"It looks like we are all set then? Let me check your wound and then we can head off,” Sam interrupted.
"I'm fine. Let's just get out of here.”
"Alex, I need to clean your wound. We can't afford for it to go septic. It's fine if you're upset with me, but Jelani, your father... heck yes, even I depend on you."
"Of course you depend on me. You won't last beyond that bush over there. Just because you made one Bear Grylls experimental thingumabob and a couple of fires doesn't mean you'll find your way to the village. So I guess I'm babysitting YOU, Sam Quinn."
She stormed off in the opposite direction of the sun, noticing Sam had finally changed his clothes. It was screaming never-been-worn-before and she was certain the price tag was still attached, but he looked far more than a relic hunter than a doctor.
"Okay, Alex, please wait? I'm sorry if I told you to stop whining. It was chauvinistic of me."
"You think that's why I'm pissed?" Alex looked back at Sam where he was dragging the stretcher behind him.
"Well, what then?"
She ignored him not sure why she suddenly had wayward thoughts about how kind he really was. Watching him drag the injured body of a man he just met, confused her to the point where she herself wasn’t even sure why she was angry. It was ridiculous. She had a concussion. That was it. The concussion made her act that way.
"Well, I'm waiting. You're storming off like a bull is chasing you. Do I look like a bull?"
"Oh, so this is funny to you? Well, let's see then shall we? You're a DOCTOR! I asked for an archaeologist, and I landed up with a DOCTOR! Clearly to hold my hand and keep an eye on my stupid condition. What if we never had the accident huh? Would I even have found out?"
"Can you slow down please Alex? I can't keep up. Jelani might be as thin as a stick, but he is nonetheless heavy to haul about on my own. Is this our first fight?"
"First fight? Have you completely lost your mind? Couples fight and last time I checked we are NOT by ANY stretch of the imagination a couple!"
"Ah come on Alex. I'm just playing with you. I'm sorry, okay? Wait. Just stop for a minute, please? Let me explain."
Alex was in her full mind to explain a thing or two to him but decided to stop under the shade of a large thorn tree.
"You deceived me, Quinn. Where I come from it's wrong to lie to people."
"I wasn't telling a lie though Alex; merely not volunteering any information upfront."
"That's hiding the truth. Same thing as lying."
"In my defense though, Alex, Professor Keating didn't flat out play open cards with me either, you know? He gave me the assignment, and I took it. No questions asked. The fact that you have an illness was only disclosed to me just before I got onto the plane. Heck, I thought you were a bloke! Besides, I owe him."
"What do you mean 'you owe him'?"
Sam finally caught up with her under the tree. He shuffled restlessly under her questioning gaze; wiping his face before answering.
"I have a very old-school and controlling father okay? I come from a long line of physicians, and he insisted I carry the tradition and pursue a medical profession too. But it isn't my passion in life. Never has been. From as far back as I can remember I've been interested in artifacts and ancient history. I spent hours at the museums. I read every journal there was and by the age of fourteen stumbled upon a National Geographic with your folks on the front page. I was hooked. I knew this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life and I started following your parents' discoveries all over the world. Becoming a Doctor was never on my wish list. Archaeology is down to the core fascinating, but my father didn't want to hear anything about my dreams. It would have placed shame on the sacred family legacy, so I succumbed to his demands. But last year, I lost my best mate in a cycling accident. And suddenly life as I knew it, changed forever."
His demeanor softened as they sat under the shade of the tree; revealing another layer Alex didn't expect to see.
"I realized I was lying to myself; that I am fulfilling someone else's dream and not my own. Life is too short to not go after what your heart desires."
"So you enrolled in archaeology."
"Not quite. My father would disown me. I met Professor Keating at a benefit some time back, and he offered to teach me in the evenings. Night school so to speak, except, it was at his house and one-on-one with one of the country's most respected archaeology professors. In exchange, I would be his wife's physician and see to it that she got the best treatment possible under my supervision."
"Melanie. She died last year of colon cancer. It was awful."
"Yes, Melanie. She fought a good fight right till the end."
Alex caught herself scratching the beginnings of a heart with a stick in the sand in front of her. But she stopped and quickly wiped it clean with her foot.
"And that's it, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So when your father's situation came up, Keating approached me. I couldn't say no. He's still teaching me at night, even long after his wife passed. Yes, quite possibly because he'd kill two birds with one stone but is that so bad? The guy cares about both you and your father, and I happened to be available and experienced on both levels. Ok fully experienced in the medical
field and somewhat experienced in the treasure hunting field, but you get the drift."
Alex was annoyed but somehow Sam always seemed right about everything. So he wasn’t perfect and where she lacked he made up for it and vice versa.
“You still have lots to learn about relic hunting, but I suppose you're right. I easily would've done the same, had I been in your shoes. But get this straight Mr. Quinn. I don't do well with liars. No more secrets. If we're going to do this expedition together, we can't be keeping anything from each other. I need to know that you have my back and that I can trust you. I have a sneaky suspicion things could get very messy and out here that means you end up dead."
"Deal,” spitting into his hand and holding it out for her to shake.
"Okay, that's pushing it a tad too far. I think you've been in the bush too long. Let's get on with it. We have a long walk ahead of us, and before you know it, the sun will be at its highest."
The next two hours their conversation took on a much lighter tone as they got to know each other. Sam told her about his controlling father and his childhood. How his mother sneaked adventure books into his room. How she managed to sign him up for scouts without his dad ever finding out about it. About his best friend who got hit by an oncoming drunk driver while out cycling and how much he missed him. How the two of them grew up together chasing the same dreams. He shared stories about their regular secret escapades in the nearby woods on an imaginary quest finding make believe hidden treasures and ancient relics. How he was like a brother to him and how his death left an empty void.
Several times through their conversations Alex found herself wanting to hug him and tell him it'll all be okay. Somehow, he had touched the tender side of her and she decided to let him in; just a little.
She found herself pondering how terrible it had to be for him growing up in a home where no one ever supported his dreams. Her parents never once forced her to follow in their footsteps. On the contrary, they tried nudging her out of it. 'Perhaps you should find something safer to do in life. Like a teacher or curator,' her mother always said. Ironically, now that she thought about it, it was the very thing from which her mother ran. Her mother’s own parents practically disowned her when she went off on her first expedition. They insisted she become a teacher too, but she defied her father and left on a study group through the university. Good thing it was too. It's where she later met her husband. They seemed to have hit it off from the get-go. Alex recalled how her father insisted they were soulmates even though he didn’t really believe in that stuff.
The thought of having a soulmate perplexed her too. Could it be that in the entire universe there was only one person who’d be destined to spend your whole life with you? One soul. Kindred spirits. Thinking the same, finishing each other's sentences, picking from each other's plates.
In her head she concluded that the soulmate theory was just that. A theory.
Chapter Six
3 Years ago - Izzy Hunt
"Charles! Hurry. I think we found something. Look!"
"Bleeding blazers, Izzy. Can it be? Eric, hand over the camera. Quick!"
"Be careful Charles. We don't know in what condition it is. Here, perhaps the margin trowel will work better. Ca-a-a-reful."
Izzy’s breath was caught somewhere between her lungs and her throat. She watched as her husband meticulously scooped away the spoil from what looked to be an ancient weapon.
"Is it a piece of a sword, you think?"
"Hmm, hard to tell at this stage but it's too short for a sword. Unless the blade broke off or something."
"Ah then maybe a knife? It was one of the most popular weapons back then. Do you realize this could very well be it, Charles? Finally! I mean, if this weapon is from Rhapta then that means it would have to be somewhere here. If we find it, we would be unlocking an immense amount of lost history. A piece of history that the world doomed was buried forever. Do you know what that means?"
Charles Hunt chuckled. "Of course I do Izzy my dear but let's just see first shall we?”
When Izzy first heard about the city that vanished into thin air, she was roughly fifteen years old. She recalled how her father sat in his chair clicking all sorts of funny sounds with his tongue. He read it in the paper and mumbled inaudible words to himself.
'Sweetheart' he said. 'Perhaps you'll be the one to find the lost treasures one day. Then I can finally go on retirement and take your mother on that boat trip she's always nagging me about.'
Little did he know, that his one single sentence would set Izzy on a course of a life-long adventure. Determined, she made it her quest in life to get them that boat trip. She was so intrigued and fired up she spent hours in her room planning her perfect exploration. Fantasies of climbing through chasms and secret chambers in her quest to find the lost city of Rhapta were her normality. She as much as lived at the library doing copious amounts of research while plotting her course. Now, years on, both her parents have passed away, and she never managed to get them that boat trip they always dreamed of. She silently wished her father were still alive to see just how close she was to finding Rhapta.
"Well, what do you know?”
Charles sat back, hands on knees and cap in hand staring at the ground.
"Blimey Izzy, it’s an ancient weapon indeed. Pinch me. I must be dreaming."
They were at it so long that the excavations almost became mechanical. Like breathing. Something you just do without thinking about it. Day in and day out in the treacherous African sun. None of them ever thought of quitting. They all just kept going in the hope and anticipation that someday... one day... they’d find the lost city of Rhapta.
"We need to keep digging, Charles. If we found a weapon, then we might have hit the spot. There must be more." Izzy tried to contain her excitement.
"Easy there trooper. You can't rush these things. We have to clean this up very gently. Eric, peg this off but be careful not to step just anywhere."
"Yes sir."
Izzy relished in how Charles always succeeded in keeping her rational. She was one who could charge like an African wildebeest without a second thought of the consequences. He on the other hand seemed to have the patience of Noah when he had to build the ark. There was no way she would have seventy-five years worth of patience in her to complete any task but Charles did. He had been at it since they first met in his final year at Uni. Those were her tumultuous years when her father rejected her impulsive decision about her switching majors. Somehow, through the daunting teenage years and breakout parties, she managed to receive a scholarship to Cambridge. Something her father boasted about for years as the first in a line of family members to ever study at a University.
It was love at first sight with Charles. During hazing she was meant to carry his books around and call him 'Master Charles, The Helper of the Cows.' It was a joke playing on the real Charles, Prince of Wales' tribal name given to him during his then recent trip to Tanzania. Quite apt now that she thought of it. As soon as they dipped the corners Charles would take his books from her and carry them in secret. They would sit for hours under the trees in the garden deciphering the myths and new clues found by the earlier researchers in Tanzania.
"We should just do the dig ourselves,” he joked one day.
"Sure, I mean why not? If they can do it, we can do it better, right?"
"Indeed Izzy, I feel it in my bones. The two of us will find Rhapta as sure as eagles fly. Together as one team, we will go down in history for the greatest discovery yet!"
And with that, he somehow managed to persuade the Chancellor to sponsor a small group of them to fly to Africa in the hope of making the discovery. It was sure to have the University go down in history for discovering the world's most coveted lost ancient city.
The next couple of years Izzy found herself flying back and forth alongside Charles who, soon after graduating went on to become the Uni's top archaeologist. It was kind of unavoidable for Izzy to not go with him on all his expeditions, b
eing his steady girlfriend and all. The girls envied her having the privilege of being by the infamous Charles Hunt's side. Izzy grinned as her mind wandered back.
"And that smile Izzy? What's going through that pretty head of yours?" Charles asked still carefully brushing and cleaning off the relic.
"Oh nothing Charles. I was just thinking back on our journey together."
"And what a journey we've had, my love. But the best is still to come. I can feel it in my bones."
Izzy laughed. "You always say that Charles. But this time, I think my bones agree."
They both sported a laugh so loud and infectious that the excited crew soon laughed with despite not having the foggiest clue as to why they were laughing. That set Charles and Izzy off into another laughing episode. They always laughed when they were together. It was the one thing they took most pride in with their marriage. Laughter was good. It somehow cleansed their souls of all the sadness that came with them battling to fall pregnant.
Thirty minutes later the relic was fully excavated from the soil and completely unscathed.
"It's a beaut, Izzy! I am almost certain it dates back about 1800 years or so. I can't be sure until we run the tests, but it looks as if it is ivory.”
"I would agree with you, Charles. There are striking similarities to it being ivory. I mean it's not impossible knowing that they mainly traded in ivory and tortoiseshell. But see these jagged edges. That must have been hand carved. They would have needed their tools to be able to slice the meat from their hunts - Baboon, Hippo and so on. Their skins are quite tough."
"You're a walking encyclopedia Izzy; you know that? I love you!" Smacking a kiss full on her forehead with excitement.
"It's how you got me into all this remember?"
"Ah, you love finding treasures, Izzy. You might have started out researching, but I saw that twinkle in your eyes when we first went to Egypt. You have that hunger in you. Never needed any persuasion from me to go on any of our relic hunts. Excavating is one thing, but chasing! You're a natural my love. You have that instinct no textbook can ever teach you. How many students have you seen come and go huh? They all think they have what it takes. After the fortunes, if you ask me. But, patience, ha! That's the one thing this job of ours tests you at the most. And that daughter of ours, let me tell you. She has it in her too. Chip off the old block."
The Alex Hunt Series Page 6