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Back Jungle Up Save as PDF
Chapters (63)
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  63. Author’s Note

Vern finished for me. “—from when I was a real piece of shit.”

Everyone got a chuckle out of this.

“Anyhow,” I continued, “the boss assured us they hadn’t abducted Gina. That set us off on a different trail, which brought us face-to-face with you lot.”

“Can’t be a coincidence,” Rix said.

I agreed.

Farah said, “So, these horrible people that took her, they are looking for Paititi as well?”

“That’s been my working theory for going on seven minutes now,” I said.

Holland said, “We haven’t seen any signs of people or any signs of previous excavation at any of the sites.”

Andy said, “Yeah, but we’ve only been to two of the six target sites. They could be at any of the other four.”

“We’ll be on the lookout,” Rix said. “And we’ll have the Bolivian soldiers help us with a recon tomorrow.”

Holland nodded.

I saw Andy’s eyebrows furrow, and I asked, “What are you thinking?”

His face went flat. Like he’d been called on to bring his souffle up to the front of the Home Economics class. “Oh, um.”

“Andy,” I prodded.

“Okay,” he said, letting out a trapped breath. “If these guys are willing to take a doctor by force from a small village, they’re unlikely to be academics. Odds are they’re archaeological mercenaries, and all they’re interested in is stealing and selling the artifacts.”

“Okay,” I said. “I’m with you so far.”

I glanced at Vern. From the look on his face, he was having the same epiphany Andy had.

I wasn’t there yet myself.

“There have been over a hundred expeditions that have searched for Paititi,” Andy continued, “but only one that was anywhere even remotely close to where we are now. And that expedition team disappeared in the jungle, never coming back.”

I finally saw the light. “So these archaeological mercenaries must have some pretty good intel.” It took me another half a second. “The same intel that you guys have.”

“The lidar scans,” Vern said, shaking his head. “I bet that dipshit Roth was showing them off to every Tom, Dick, and Harry.”

Farah said, “The jaguar.”

“What jaguar?” I asked.

Andy explained, “The picture the satellite imagery company sent to Roth. It was a golden jaguar half buried in the ground. The coordinates of the artifact were included in the photo, down to the centimeter. It’s about a quarter mile from here, and we only got out to it yesterday.”

“And?”

Farah said, “And it was gone.”

31

31

base camp
august 19, 5:03 p.m.
days since abduction: 14