Chapter Ten
Backup
Sam woke up the next morning to an empty tent. After assuring himself that he hadn't slept in, he stretched and pulled on a fresh t-shirt. As he searched his rucksack, he found the document from the temple. He'd been so busy with feeling alive and Christine that he'd almost forgotten all about it.
T-shirt safely on, he opened the parchment carefully and read the first lines. The more he read, the more excited he became. It was a letter from a conquistador named Miguel Rodriguez who had found the temples back in 1699. He'd been searching for the ruby as well, and had come close to grabbing it before he'd been captured by the natives. And once he'd finished telling his story, he claimed to know the way through the temple, where the traps were and how to avoid them.
Sam frowned. He also claimed the ruby was guarded by many deadly traps. Sam looked back to his rucksack as though to check if the ruby was still there. There hadn't been many traps. More like two.
He remembered the sharp projectiles coming towards him and shuddered. His shoulder still hurt, but Jerry had done a good job cleaning and bandaging the wound. Trying to distract himself, Sam left the tent, but as soon as he stepped out, he jumped back. There was a tent right next to his, one that hadn't been there last he remembered. Just to make sure he hadn't gone crazy, he counted. Yup, there was one extra tent there.
A girl came out of it, a bottle of water in her hand. Sam stared at her stupefied, and as soon as she noticed him, her green eyes narrowed.
"Stop staring already!" she said and before Sam knew what was going on, she threw the bottle at his head. He didn't even have time to duck.
"Are you crazy? Man, that hurt!" He rubbed his forehead with his free hand.
She frowned in confusion. "You're not Tom?"
"No, I'm not Tom!" Did it always hurt that much to be Tom?
"Oh, my God, I'm so sorry!" She rushed to him and took his hand off to check the damage. "I thought you were Tom. He would've thrown something back at me by now..."
"Who are you anyway?" He pushed her hands away. Her eyes widened and he regretted his gesture because she really seemed sorry.
"My name's Angie. I'm backup. I...I'm really sorry. This is an awful way to meet new people, but you have to understand that you look very much—" she squinted and came a bit closer to him, checking every feature of his face. "You look just like Tom. How is this possible?"
"I know it's odd, but we do look exactly the same." Sam pocketed the document, trying not to feel very self-conscious, but she kept staring at him as though trying to decide whether to believe that he wasn't Tom or not. "Look, I'm not wearing sunglasses," he said to help her make up her mind.
She accepted the argument because she nodded, but didn't take her eyes off him. Awkward silence followed.
"So... You're backup, then? By the way, I'm Sam."
"Hi, Sam." She finally smiled.
Sam was stunned by the change. Even if he'd noticed at once that she was a pretty girl, when she smiled, she was gorgeous.
"Yes, I'm backup. Kay and I finally managed to find you last night. We didn't see the point in waking everyone up."
"You and Kay?"
"Yeah, she should be around here somewhere Let's go find her." Angie started off toward the center of camp.
Sam followed, trying to figure her out. She was fun and spunky, he could tell that much, but her obvious dislike for Tom got him wondering. He didn't feel like having a civil war inside the team. Jerry and Kyle were enough.
Speaking of which, Jerry sat on the grass next to the camp fire, a book opened in his lap. The fire was burning and cooking instruments lay scattered around it. Jerry had gotten up early to fix breakfast. Sam's stomach rumbled in anticipation.
"Good morning, Sam," Jerry said, not taking his nose out of the book. "I was trying to figure what we could eat around here. To save our food supply. I found a lot of things."
"Anything's fine. As long as you don't boil weeds and expect us to live off that."
"I didn't know you could cook, Jimmy," Angie said and Jerry raised his eyes from the book.
"You know Jimmy?" Sam couldn't help asking, but realized the stupidity of the question. Of course, if she knew Tom, there was a big chance she knew Jimmy as well.
"I'm not Jimmy. I'm Jerry." He closed the book, got up and came next to her and Sam.
Angie stared at him, her eyes wide, her mouth an O shape. Her gaze moved from Jerry to Sam and back. "You look just like Jimmy. This is too much of a coincidence."
"He does not look like me. Look at his wimpy physique." Jimmy stopped next to them, dropping a bucket of water on the ground. "Damn, you're up. I hoped I'd get to use this on you."
"Jimmy!" Angie squeaked and hugged him tightly.
"I'm glad to see you too, Angie. I should start lecturing you for being here, but it would just go in one ear and fly out the other," Jimmy said amused and Angie blushed.
Sam couldn't believe that she was so vicious about Tom but got along so well with Jimmy.
"Good morning everyone," Tom said, coming to them, but stopped upon seeing Angie. "Well, there go my good vibes for the day."
"Then maybe you should crawl back to the hole in the ground you came out of," Angie replied, looking away from him pointedly.
Sam stared from her to Tom who seemed ready to strangle her and raised his eyebrows. The dislike went both ways, obviously. What surprised Sam was that Jimmy looked as confused as he was. He pointed from Tom to Angie, frowning and shaking his head as if he couldn't understand anything.
"Wait, what happened to you two?"
"Forget it Jimmy. It's dead and buried. At least for me," Angie said.
"I wish I could bury you," Tom mumbled and Sam glared at him, shocked. He was used to Tom being nice, playful and getting along with everyone. He had never seen him so nasty.
His attention was distracted by a blond girl who came over to them and posted herself next to Angie.
"Good morning, everyone," she said in a clear, pleasant voice.
Sam shook his head in disbelief and almost felt like pinching himself to make sure that she was real. He had never seen someone as radiant as that girl. She didn't have Christine's flawless features, but the glow around her made her one of the most beautiful girls he'd ever seen. Had Herrison only recruited fashion models for the agency?
"Everyone?" Tom asked feigning offense. "Don't I get any special recognition?"
The girl laughed and hugged him. "Nice to see you again, hotshot."
Sam raised an eyebrow, making a table inside his head: Angie got along with Jimmy, Tom got along with this girl who was Angie's friend, but Tom and Angie wanted to kill each other. Why?
"You must be Sam."
Sam jumped and focused on her. "Yeah, I'm Sam."
"I'm Kay." She turned to Jerry and Jimmy, not seeming surprised at all that they were identical. "You must be Jerry and Jimmy. I'm not sure which is which."
"You're not surprised," Angie noticed and Kay smiled widely at her. "And you're not sad anymore either."
"Why should anyone be sad when it's such a beautiful day?" Kyle asked coming towards them, his arms full of firewood. "No annoying rain."
Sam's mouth fell open as Kyle dropped the wood next to the fire and wheeled around, grinning broadly. There was something very different about him, as if someone had turned on a light behind his eyes. Sam had never seen him smiling so honestly. No sarcasm, no bitterness, no repressed pain. Just honest to God happiness. What the heck had he slept through?
"Why are you standing there, doing nothing about breakfast, Jerry? And what have you got there?" Kyle asked, going to Jerry and grabbing his book. He gave it back to him after reading the title. "Well, it is helpful. As long as you don't boil some weeds. Though, if it's pot, I don't mind. Damn, they grow pot in Columbia, not Mexico..."
Sam had to shake his head to take in what was happening. Kyle was talking to Jerry?
"Are you high?" Jimmy asked in disbelief.
"Not literally," Kyle answered. "So, what are out plans for today? By the way, Jerry, did you hook up with Tina yet because I made a bet with these guys and I don't want to lose." He indicated Jimmy and Tom.
Jerry's jaw dropped. It was obvious that he found it just as hard to believe. Neither he nor Sam had ever seen Kyle so lively.
Jerry turned red and clenched his fists, obviously putting all his will power into not yelling at Kyle and Sam felt like laughing. Kyle's bubbliness was infectious.
"Oh my God! Really?" Angie asked and Sam's attention turned to Kay who was smiling and nodding. Angie turned to Kyle, taking him in from head to foot. "Wow. You weren't kidding." She bounced over to Kyle and gave him a hug. He hugged her back, laughing, and it was obvious that he knew who she was.
Sam started feeling frustrated that he had no idea what was going on, but all that flew out of his mind once he noticed that Kyle was paying no attention to Angie. Even if he was hugging her back, his eyes were fixed on Kay. Sam had never seen that look on his face, or on anyone's face for that matter. It was happiness like he had never seen before, it was longing and tenderness. In one word, it was love.
He opened his mouth to ask, to make sure he hadn't gotten everything all wrong, but he didn't have to. Kyle let Angie go, went to Kay and kissed her full on the mouth. Jerry gasped and turned away, but Sam couldn't. It felt as if he was seeing Kyle for real for the first time. And it was obvious that his brother and Kay knew each other before, he'd probably left her behind when he'd come home. No wonder he'd been so miserable.
"Why didn't you tell us?" he asked, not sure if he was shocked, angry or happy for Kyle.
"Why? To make you feel sorry for me? To give Dad another reason to yell at me? To make Mom all emotional? No thanks!" Kyle turned to him, holding Kay's hand. "I..." he hesitated as if there was something more to the story, but he gave up and smiled. "It doesn't matter anymore."
"Of course it matters!"
"No, Sam, it doesn't. Not anymore."
Sam bit his lip, feeling a bit uncomfortable under Kay's gaze. It felt as though she wanted his approval. The thought flattered him, but he knew he had no word in this. He felt just as if this was supposed to happen all along, that Kyle was incomplete without Kay. They seemed so natural to him, he felt so safe and at peace with himself and he couldn't understand why. So he just half-smiled at them, told everyone to go pack up and went over to Carlos to set their travel path for the day. They spent almost half an hour checking their surroundings.
"So there's no shorter way to get back?" Sam asked finally admitting defeat.
"Not that I can see, senor."
"Get back? Wait, you mean we came too late?" Angie asked joining them next to the map. "As far as I know, there's more of us to come."
Sam turned to her. "That could be a problem. We have no way of letting them know not to come."
"They're already here," Angie said impatiently. "We're just all scattered through the jungle."
"How did you find us?" Sam asked the most logical question.
"We followed the general direction we knew from Herrison's updates and then just followed the path of cut vegetation. But that won't work for long. The plants grow back very fast around here."
Crapsticks. Sam wanted to get out of there and go home, but he didn't feel like leaving his teammates in danger. Even if he'd been voted leader just by his small group, he felt responsible for everyone. "This is beyond our power. We should leave clues to show the others that we're out."
"You're not out."
Sam whole body tensed and he closed his eyes, hoping he'd imagined Snitch Gravel's mocking voice. His heart raced and it was suddenly very hard to breathe. He had to pull himself together so he forced himself to turn around.
Snitch Gravel stood leaning against a nearby tree, his hands in the pockets of his trousers, wearing the same elegant suit as before. All around him, men kept popping out of the vegetation. A lot of them. And they spread out, trying to surround them. Fortunately, they weren't pointing any guns. If it came to hand to hand fighting, they had more of a chance.
"I have to say, I am a little disappointed. I was expecting at least a little security. No traps, no guards... the only thing you did right was make the camp a little harder to find by not setting it up in front of the temple." Snitch Gravel pushed himself off the tree.
Two men flanked his sides. One also wore a black suit with a black shirt and tie and a bad imitation of Snitch Gravel's goatee. The other wore used clothes, had a bandana on his head and an eye patch looking like a mockery of a pirate.
Sam guessed the two would probably stand by their boss and not join the fight, which also improved their odds. The little training they had undergone played inside his head, in slow motion, helping him realize what was to be done.
"Hold your position. They will most certainly charge at us. Use their impulse against them. Try to immobilize and hold your ground," he said, not taking his eyes off the attackers.
No one argued, they just lined up, knees slightly bent, arms raised to protect their torsos in a standard combat position.
"Look at them! They think they can fight us!" one of Snitch Gravel's men called out. General laughter broke out in their ranks.
Sam tightened his fists, taking in a big breath, trying to ready himself for what he knew would follow. And indeed, it took mere seconds for Snitch Gravel's army to come hurtling towards them.
His group stood waiting patiently until the men reached them. Kyle broke the ranks and rammed himself into a couple of charging men. They both fell over and Kyle jumped over them, continuing his way towards Snitch Gravel. Sam wanted to call after him, but didn't get to. The fight had started.