Part 11 (1/2)
”The guards the Corys talked about,” said Jay. ”They must have been chained to the pillars to guard the king.”
”Buried alive!” said Lila.
Now Jay understood. ”These must be the mukai-tochetin that the Kachaka chief talked about. They really were buried with the king!”
Toms picked up a golden vase. He immediately put it down in disgust when he saw the green dust it left on his hands. ”Eughh!” He slapped his hands against his pantlegs, stirring up a green cloud.
Now the kids noticed too. It was very dusty in here. A thick layer of green dust was all over everything. They'd left footprints in it. Everything they touched left a handprint-and left green dust on their hands.
”Wow,” said Jay, slapping the top of the king's coffin and raising another cloud of dust. ”Weird stuff.”
”The Corys talked about this dust too,” Lila remembered. ”They were wiping it off the artifacts in that video-” She stopped. The smell in this place was oddly familiar. She tried to remember where she'd smelled it before. Thoughts came to her; memories. ”Jay ...”
She looked at her brother. He'd scratched his nose and left a green smudge. Just then, Toms sneezed and wiped his face with his hand. That only drove more dust up his nose and he sneezed again, stomping his foot and raising even more dust.
”Jay!”
He was wiping off an artifact with his s.h.i.+rt sleeve. She could see the tiny particles dancing around in the beam of his flashlight.
”Jay, stop!”
He stopped. ”Huh? What's the matter?” Then he made a little face, rolling his eyes and teetering slightly. ”Whoa! Did we just have an earthquake?”
The Kachaka village! Jacob Cooper burst out of the jungle and recognized the small huts of gra.s.s and sticks, the ramshackle, plank structures, the busy people... .
He stumbled and fell in the gra.s.s, his head reeling. Why did I come here what for ...
He heard excited shouts and people approaching. Come on Coop gedup you G.o.dda meg sense to these peeble ...
With great strength he leaped to his feet again. ”Where da chief? Lemme talk gotta get him or here!”
The women and children took one look at him, screamed, and ran away, wailing, waving their arms, sounding an alarm.
Fierce anger coursed through him. Whatza matter widese peeble? I'll kill them! Kill them all! He ran after them, hands like claws, teeth bared. ”Stop you iddits! Whatzamatta wi'yu?”
He stopped. What in the world was he doing? Oh man, Lord, I'm losing it! Help me! He dropped to his knees in the gra.s.s, trying to think, trying to clear his head. Calm down. Control, control! You have to get ... you have to get ... what do I have to get?
Then he heard a familiar, angry voice. ”Doctor Jacob Cooper, the stupid American!”
He looked up. It was the chief, whose angry expression turned to one of fear the moment Dr. Cooper raised his head. The chief muttered, gawked at him, started backing away.
Dr. Cooper tried to speak clearly. ”Chief Yoaxa ...”
Yoaxa looked at the others who cowered behind him, staring at the weird animal that had burst into their village. He started hollering an explanation to them. Dr. Cooper couldn't understand it, but he easily heard the word mukai-tochetin used over and over again.
Jacob Cooper struggled to his feet. ”Please ...” His voice came out like a growl. ”I need ... I need ...”
”Go away!” the chief hollered. ”You are mukai-tochetin! I knew it all along!”
Some warriors came running with rifles, spears, and blowguns, ready to use them all.
That brought a new fit of rage Jacob Cooper could hardly control. ”You fools! Can't I make you understand!” he growled. He was clenching his fists, shaking them at these stupid people- He stopped, horrified, at the sight of his hands.
They were lizard green.
TEN.
Lila's voice trembled with fear. ”Jay ... I think it's the dust!”
He looked at her dully. ”Huh?”
She ran over and grabbed his arm. ”Listen to me! Remember what Dr. Basehart said? He said he learned a lot from my blood samples-and from my nose! You remember that?”
Jay had trouble remembering. ”Your nose?”
”Jay, I've smelled this stuff before! I smelled it coming from a shack behind Dr. Basehart's lab, and-are you listening to me?-I smelled it on an orchid near where we found the pit. This dust was on that orchid! I snorted it right up my nose, do you understand?”
He looked at her with impatience. ”What are you trying to do, scare me?”
She gripped his arm tighter. ”You feel afraid?”
He jerked his arm away. ”NO! There's nuddin wrong wid me!”
”Jay! It wasn't the slime from the carvies that made me green and crazy! It was this dust! Dr. Basehart had samples of it in his lab. He had that rag the Corys used to wipe off the artifacts! He had a sample from my nose-Jay, you should have seen it under the microscope! It was like hundreds of little spiky monsters, that's what this dust is!”
He looked directly at her now. She seemed to be getting through. ”It's the dust?”
She looked at him carefully, noticing the glazed look in his eyes and the way he tottered as if drugged. ”Jay, it's happening to you! The same thing that happened to me is happening to you!”
He got defensive. ”You look okay.”
She tried to keep from crying, but fear still brought tears to her eyes. ”I got better somehow, Jay. I don't know how it works. Maybe you only get it once, like the measles.”
Jay tried to listen to his sister. Her words were so garbled and there was such a rus.h.i.+ng noise in his ears. The floor still seemed to be moving. ”Lila ... Maybe we bedder ged ouda here.”
She looked all around. ”Jay, we can't. There isn't any way out. I mean, I can't see it, I can't find it.”
”We havetuh fine it.”
She grabbed his arm to steady him. ”Jay-”
He jerked away with a growl. ”Leggo! You don't touch me!”
He's losing it, she thought. He's going to do something really crazy if I don't- ”
Lila!”