Hollow Bones by CJ Lyons

Author:CJ Lyons
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Lunch was sumptuous, and Maria ate with what her mother would have labeled unladylike gusto. Michael didn’t seem to mind; she caught him watching her several times during the meal. And his father smiling at both of them.

After the plates were cleared, Dr. Carrera insisted that Michael return to the wheelchair. Michael rolled his eyes but cheerfully obeyed.

“Maria, let me show you the sights,” he said, steering the chair into a tight 360 that made Helda jump back.

“Only the house, Michael,” his father cautioned. “No further than the courtyard.”

Michael and Maria left the dining room, the wheelchair humming as it crossed the terrazzo floors leading down the hall to the rear of the house and out into a courtyard in the center of the U-shaped complex. There was a pergola style roof overhead, supported by columns covered in beautiful exotic flowers, a cheerful fountain at the center, and a view of both the mountains and the lake. The far side opened onto a garden, and beyond it she could see more of the large clinic building. It was three stories tall but very long and sat at an angle to the main house. Despite its cheerful yellow paint and many windows, all with wrought iron scrollwork covering them, it seemed forlorn. Maria was glad when Michael positioned her with her back to it.

“This is where I do my best work,” he said. “I missed it so much during the months I was trapped inside.”

“I’m sorry you were so ill,” Maria said cautiously. She’d been lucky; she’d never been seriously sick, and neither had her parents or any friends. Once she had a teacher who left school early in the year because she had cancer—the kids had a fund-raiser and made T-shirts and a video for her. That was the closest brush she’d ever had with mortality. Until seeing Prescott killed.

“And I’m sorry you’ve had to witness such awful things since you arrived here. I wish I was healthy enough to take you on a true tour of our secluded paradise.” He waved a hand to indicate the mountains looking down on them.

“I just hope Professor Zigler will still let me work with him. I discovered the most amazing thing, analyzing his satellite images. I still can’t believe that there’s an entire temple hidden by the jungle. And no one’s ever found it before.”

He looked at her, confusion in his eyes. “The temple? It’s not far if you take the trail through the mountains on this side of the river.”

“But—I thought it was lost.…” She stumbled over her words in her confusion.

“Not to us. Or the Maya who live here. The jungle has overtaken it, so it’s hidden from outsiders. But we’ve always known about it.”

She frowned. Why hadn’t the doctor told anyone? An educated man like him would understand the potential, the importance of such a discovery.

“Please, don’t frown,” Michael said, spinning his chair again and making a clownish face until Maria smiled once more. “There, that’s better. I wish my father would let me take you there, to the temple.

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