Solomon's Throne (38 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

T
hey checked out of Mrs.
Pandey’s guest house in the mid afternoon, telling her they would try to come back after they had explored the area, and they thanked her profusely for her hospitality and help. The drive to Kulem took two hours, over marginal roads that were still better the bests roads they’d traveled in Africa. In Kulem they found a guest house off of the main road, this one a lot more run down. Mac booked them two rooms, but warned them when he came back to the car. “One bathroom for all the guests, and this time it’s full up. No dinner, no breakfast. Looks like even getting coffee is going to be a pain.”

“We’re giving up caffeine for the next week anyway,” Rei pointed out. “Might as well start now!”

They drove to a local market and stocked up on high energy, light weight foods. They bought fresh fruit for the first day or two, but purchased dried fruit, dried beef, a nut paste that they assumed was similar to peanut butter, and roasted nuts. They bought paper goods too, reminding Rei of one of the less pleasant aspects of being in a cave for a week with two men. They stopped at a quiet side street and sorted their packs out. Lightweight sleeping bags. Memory foam pillows that squished down to the size of a large sausage. LED flashlights with lots of extra batteries. Whistles. Lightweight jackets, caps and gloves. A couple of changes of clothes and the few toiletry items they thought they might be able to use, even with limited water. Chamois for drying off in the event they were blessed enough to clean their bodies. A first aid kit. An extra bottle of ibuprofen. The bottles of water.

“I think that’s the best we can do,” Mac said. “Lift it up and make sure you can carry it.”

Rei lifted hers and put it on her back. She grimaced. “It’s ok standing here. But I don’t know if I can carry it for a week, even figuring it’s going to get lighter as we eat the food.”

Gideon took her pack and moved some of the water and heavier items to his. “Try it now,” he said.

She put it on and nodded. “Not gonna be fun… But this is ok. And we have the Advil, right?”

They stopped at a street vendor for a quick bite of grilled chicken on na’an, and went back to the guest house. Their rooms were next to each other, and the Quinns stopped while Mac unlocked his door.

“We haven’t seen our friends…” Gideon observed. “That makes me a little nervous.”

“I’ve been thinking about that, too. At this point, I assume they want us to lead them to the prize. So they’re probably following us, and not pushing an encounter,” Mac said.

“Not much we can do about it, I guess,” Gideon said. “Just be on the look out.”

“Yeah, and there’s this,” Mac said, and entered his room. His suitcase was there, on the bed. He unzipped the large compartment, and then peeled back a section of the lining. He handed Gideon a large knife, one of two hidden there. “I had no idea how to get guns,” he said, “But I had a lot of knife training in boot camp. I assume you did?”

Gideon nodded. “Hopefully they couldn’t get guns, either… the old ‘knife to a gun fight’ problem. But I feel better having this, anyway. Thanks, Mac.”

Mac handed him a leather sheath that would slip on his belt. “Better get to bed. I think we’re not going to sleep all that well for the foreseeable future.”

They woke with the sun and were on the road in thirty minutes. They stopped at another street vendor and grabbed some buttered na’an, and decided a last coffee wasn’t such a bad idea. There wasn’t much traffic on the road, and they didn’t spot anyone following them, but Mac thought the monks could have stuck a GPS tracking device on the car. As soon as he said this, Gideon asked him to pull over, and they all looked under the vehicle for anything odd, but found nothing.

“Guess we’ll find out soon enough,” Rei said. She was the only one without a weapon, but since she didn’t know how to use one anyway, that was probably for the best.

They drove the seven kilometers to the parking area used by the local tour company. They had purposefully gotten there well before the first scheduled tour, and backtracked down the rutted, bumpy, distinctly Africanesque road until they found a break where they could enter the woods. They drove parallel to the road, back towards the car park, until they found a clump of dense bushes, behind which they parked the SUV.

“At least it’s black,” Gideon said as they tried to cover it with vegetation. “I’m sure the rental company would be thrilled to know what we’re doing with their vehicle…”

“No problem. They have your credit card number, right?” Rei teased.

They put on their packs, covered the rest of their belongings in the cargo area with empty bags and strewn clothing, and hiked to the lot. From there, they followed the path that led to the lower tier of the falls. In twenty minutes they were looking up at the steep hill they were going to have to climb to reach the top.

“Oh my gosh,” Rei said, craning her neck. “I didn’t know it was going to be that high! It didn’t look that steep from the bottom.”

“I definitely don’t think we can go straight up it,” Gideon said. “For one thing, when the train comes, or when the first tourists come, they’ll be able to see us up there.” He looked around. “I think we can go back this way, and then cut around the side. If we do what we did at Lions Head, and try to angle up, it’ll be a lot easier.”

“Easier. Not easy,” said Mac. “But I think that’s all we can do. You’re right about being visible… no way to stay under trees all the way up to the top.”

“I’ll take easier any day,” said Rei. “Lead on, honey.” She adjusted her pack and tightened the strap across her chest.

Gideon took them back the way they had come for a few hundred yards, and then turned off the trail and started angling up the side of the hill that made up the base of the falls. It was still rough going, and the men kept Rei between them as they went single file so that they were able to help her, or catch her, as the need arose. None of them had on hiking boots, and their sneakers tended to slip and slide on the rocky parts. They clung to trees, went down on all fours, and worked up a sweat as they made their way ever higher.

As they came around the back side, they realized their only choices were go almost straight up, or go a long way out of their way towards the river feeding the falls, and then angle back.

“Can you do it?” Gideon asked Rei, looking at the shorter, steeper option.

“I think so. I’d rather do that than have to go all the way up there and back again. I hope we don’t need to be on the other side of the river, though… I hadn’t thought of that!”

“Me neither,” Gideon said. “I guess we’ll cross that bridge.. Uh, river… when we get to it.” He once again led the way, this time heading for the top.

It was very slow going. Twice they all started to slide downhill, and had to catch themselves on saplings. They rerouted to the side as much as possible, but it came down to crawling on their hands and knees, and pulling themselves up with anything they could hold onto. Rei was about to call it quits when Gideon slipped over a ledge and out of sight. He leaned over and gave her a hand.

“This is it! We made it!” he said.

When all three were up at the top, they leaned against a large rock in the shade and drank from their water bottles. They were sweaty and dirty, and Rei realized how long a week was going to be without a bath, when they were starting out in such a state.

“Ok, boys. Let’s find our bishop’s mitre,” she said. She left her pack where she’d been sitting and walked out in the open where she could get a better view.

She found herself standing on a large, gently rounded rock, looking out across the falls. She was able to see down them a very long way. After a second of vertigo, she enjoyed the view and the sound of gently falling water. She understood now what Father Eduardo was saying about not coming in the rains, though. The rock on which she stood would be under water, and the sound would be deafening. The men joined her.

“So, anyone see a big hat?” Gideon asked, looking around.

They finally decided that they must not be in the right location to see a hat in the rock formations, and debated the best way to change perspective. Going straight down would be very dangerous, and could probably only be done successfully with rappelling equipment. They could go back the way they’d come and angle over to come out by the third tier. But looking at the falls from this angle, Gideon realized one thing. All of the tier ledges were on the opposite side of the water. The side they were on was a sheer drop to the bottom.

“We’re going to have to cross the falls. We either have to go all the way down, cross the railroad tracks at the bottom, and go up the other side, or figure out if we can cross the river up there somewhere,” he said as he pointed back to the river.

“The water is low right now,” Mac said. “But we have the problem of the packs. We really can’t get them wet…”

“And the current,” Rei said. “I don’t really want to get swept down there.” She glanced down the steep falls.

“Right,” Gideon agreed. “We’re already at the river, so let’s check that out first. If we have to go all the way down and back up the other side, this whole day will be shot.”

They turned and edged along the side of the water, not close enough to be on the slippery rocks. After several hundred feet the rocky shoreline began to give way to trees and scrub, and the ground was firm but not rock. Further along, the river turned to their left, and the sound of the falls was diminished to a distant purr. Ahead the river turned again to the right.

“Maybe after that curve,” Gideon pointed. “If it’s this narrow up there, and we can get far enough from the falls to feel like we won’t be swept over, we can give it a try.”

They trudged on, growing sticky in the humid, still river bed. The bugs were biting their exposed skin, and their packs began to grow heavier.

“Our shoes are going to be wet going back,” Rei said, to no one in particular. “But I’m not going in there barefoot.”

The water in the river was moving and seemed fresh, but the color was dark from the shadows and the dark soil and pebbles that made up the bottom. Rei had visions of leeches and crawfish and all sort of creatures, and was regretting her vote to cross the river rather than go down the falls to the tracks.

They rounded the next bend, and the water in the river was only fifty feet wide. It was obvious where the high water mark was in monsoon season, but for now the water lazily moved downstream, and a crossing looked promising. Gideon took off his backpack and set it on the ground. He went into the woods, and came out with a brown, dry branch about five feet long.

“I’ll go in, see how deep it is and how strong the current is. If it’s not deep, I don’t think we have anything to worry about. If it’s deep… Well, sometimes there can be a strong current along a river’s bottom. So we’ll see.”

“Be careful!” Rei said, and she kissed him quickly.

“Yep,” he said, and he walked to the edge of the water. The bank was muddy, and his shoes sunk in, making a disgusting sucking sound. He grimaced and started poking the water in front of him, judging depth. He took his first couple of steps in the river, barely deep enough to cover his shoes. He poked and prodded, stepped, and repeated. Slowly the water level rose up his pants, and then over his belt. On the next poke of the stick the entire thing disappeared.