Expedition to the Unknown

Chapter 3

Claire peered out the passenger-side window as a long peninsula jutting out into the ocean crept into view below. Wisps of thin clouds were casting faint shadows on its muted hills. In the seat beside her, Thad was busy with his thesis research. Behind them, sat Jorge and Molly, both second year grad students. Jorge was going for his doctorate in social anthropology and Molly in evolutionary anthropology with a second understudy in computer sciences. Just now, Molly was preaching to Jorge about her upgraded search engine for the department. But Claire wasn"t listening. For the last three hours, she had been fighting persistent background nausea, and it was getting stronger.

Thad turned a friendly smile toward Claire, nodded over his shoulder and pursed his lips.

Claire took a deep breath and leaned over and peeked at the open document on his laptop. “How"s it going?”

“All right I guess,” he muttered. “Just can"t find a lot of data to draw conclusions from.”

“Perhaps your subject matter is a little too obscure.” she said. As his advisor, she had warned him about tackling the migrations of the South Pacific peoples during their Neolithic period. “Why don"t you shift your argument away from why they left and focus on their arrival and cultural myths?”

Thad shook his head. “It"s been done to death.”

“Yeah, but there"s always something new to discover,” she suggested.

Thad sighed. “That"s what Molly said.”

“She"s right,” Claire pointed out. “So you"re working with her then?”

Thad shrugged. “Yeah. Ms. Tech-Head offered to help me dig through the web, so I took her up on it.”

Claire shook her head. Though Thad wouldn"t ever admit it, she knew he liked Molly, but seeing how she was Noah"s niece, knew better than to spit into the wind. “I"ll leave you to your t*****e then,” she said, opening to the first page of an article she had been working on over the last two weeks for Anthropology Today.

They landed at Chavez International Airport four hours later, and after playing twenty questions with the customs agent, Claire and her team pushed through the terminal"s front doors into the oppressive heat of Lima"s afternoon sun. Claire looked right, then left before seeing Owen standing next to a red mini-van that was ready to fall apart at any moment. Behind the mini-van, sat a bus boasting painted trees and plants on its side panel. Two smiling bronzed men in pressed tan shorts and button-down shirts stood in front of it.

“Ya made it!” Owen said walking toward her with an outstretched hand.

“That we did,” Claire said, shaking hands with him while glancing toward the van. “Those our taxis?”

Owen pushed his wide-brimmed canvas hat back off his forehead and took her pack. Handing it to a middle aged man coming up beside him, he said, “At your service. This is Manny here, yeah. He"ll be looking after ya gear and such.”

Clair took in Manny"s rugged brown complexion and toothy smile. But behind the beaming grin, she felt an air of suspicion. “Hi, Manny.” She put her hand out, and as he shook it, his dark, brown eyes burrowed into her.

“Welcome to Lima,” he said, turning toward Molly, who had quietly drifted beside them. “And who is this pretty moça?”

Claire put her arm around her feisty grad student. “This is my queen of tech, Molly.”

“Uma rainha,” Manny said taking Molly"s hand. He bowed with such graciousness, Claire couldn"t decide whether he was playing along or truly meant it. Molly blushed and Thad rolled his eyes.

Claire aimed a down-boy stare at her RA. “And this is Thad. Thad, come around and say hi to Manny.”

Manny turned and gave Thad a long, measured gaze. “O meu Deus. Owen, look at him! He and my Ernesto could be irmãos.”

Molly tapped Claire, and motioned her out of earshot of the men. “You okay?”

“Yeah, just a little upset stomach is all. I"ll be fine.”

Molly frowned. “You"re not a very good liar, but you"re the boss. Anyway, my Spanish isn"t very good and my Portuguese is worse. So help me out here, I get the reference to Uma rainha, but what is irmãos?” She said, murdering the pronunciation.

“Brothers,” Claire said.

“Hey, Claire,” Owen called over. “Where"s da rest of ya gear?”

“Inside. The rest of our equipment"s coming in on a cargo plane later tonight.”

Owen looked back at the porters and nodded at the terminal doors. “Rammy, Hector, would ya go fetch their gear for me?”

The men left and ten minutes later the gear was loaded into the bus. Claire climbed into the mini and sat in the midsection beside Owen with Thad and Jorge behind her. Molly sat up front, riding shotgun with Manny. Claire thought of asking about air conditioning but dismissed it because she doubted the rust bucket had it. Besides, they needed to start getting used to the heat if they were going to get through the next few months in the forest.

“Sweet as, Manny,” Owen said, pulling the mini door shut. “Let"s get a leg on.”

“Excuse me?” Claire said.

“What?”

“Sweet a*s?” Claire said. Foreign men, they"re all the same, doesn"t matter where they come from!

Foreign men, they"re all the same, doesn"t matter where they come from!Owen shook his head. “Yeah, what about it?”

“You might refer to women like that in your country, but I"d appreciate it if you didn"t do it with us.”

For a moment the man looked at her as if she just stepped off another planet, then laughed. “Oh … I said, "sweet as". Means everything"s under control; real good.”

Claire c****d an eye. “Under control?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Slang,” Manny put in.

“Right,” Claire said, eyeing them dubiously.

The city of Lima sprawled out before them like a quilted tapestry. White-washed stucco and cinderblock buildings hugged an endless maze of cobbled and semi-paved macadam streets. Here and there, open-air markets sprang up, and with them echoed the staccato come-ons of shopkeepers hawking goods and produce to the meandering masses. They drove for what felt like an hour, and Claire wondered if they"d ever get out of the city. “What"s that smell?” she said, fighting the persisting nausea.

Owen chuckled. “Cuy. Roasted Guinea Pig. I assume you"ll be passing on that one, eh?”

Claire nodded her head as the mini bounced over a bone-jarring pothole. Very funny, mister, but I"ve eaten stranger things.

Very funny, mister, but I"ve eaten stranger things.“Easy, Manny. I"d like ta keep my teeth in my head,” Owen said. He turned back to Claire as she took a deep breath. “Queasy?”

She swallowed hard and tried to smile, but failed miserably.

Owen reached into the pocket on the back of the driver"s seat and pulled out a crumpled paper-bag. “Here,” he said, flattening it out and handing it to her. “Sit tight. Almost there.”

“You said that a half-hour ago,” Claire grumbled, loosening the collar of her shirt. What is going on with me? I"ve flown a thousand times. The heat? And there"s no way I"m blowing lunch in front of you.

What is going on with me? I"ve flown a thousand times. The heat? And there"s no way I"m blowing lunch in front of you.“What ya need is a spot of coca tea. Straighten ya right out.”

Claire looked at him as if he"d lost his mind. “I"m not drinking anything.”

“Ya funeral,” he said, and tapped Manny on the shoulder. “Hang a right.”

The mini turned, and a minute later came to a large open space where ancient, brown adobe buildings stood in decay.

“That"s the Pachacamac Ruins!” Molly gushed, looking out the passenger window.

“Yeah, yeah,” Owen said.

“Oh my God, I can"t believe it,” Molly said, and proceeded to grill Owen and Manny about everything they knew about the ruins and whether they could arrange a visit to it after the expedition.

Despite how Claire felt, she couldn"t help craning her neck as well. The mini passed around the ruins and turned down a long four-lane street leading toward a poor excuse of a highway. But at least they were no longer in stop-and-go traffic.

The highway veered toward the ocean, following a long curving coastline dotted with grassy bluffs that were bursting with red flax. Here and there, clusters of palm trees swayed in the breezes. A deep blue ocean piled waves upon a long crescent beach as a rambling stucco villa with terracotta-tiled roofs came into view.

Owen pointed toward it. “Ya digs for da night.”

Manny pulled off the highway and drove down a cobbled road bordered with pink and red lupines. At the end of it was a broad loop that slid under a vaulted Porte Cochere that was supported by polished wood timbers. Owen jumped out, opened the back of the van, and set their bags on an empty luggage cart.

Behind him, Thad, Jorge, and Molly piled out, leaving Claire alone. She watched them stretch their backs, then pried herself off the seat and stepped out. As she eyed the ocean between the tall grasses, Owen came up behind her.

“Pretty nice, eh?”

“Yeah, real nice,” Claire muttered, and she could just imagine the look on Noah"s face if he knew they were booked in a five-star villa.