Fault Line Read Online Free

looks safe, the ground is dry . . . ideal place for a camp.’
    Amber was looking at Hex’s low wall. ‘I don’t think we should camp on somebody’s tomb.’
    ‘Well, what harm would it do?’ said Hex.
    Amber shrugged. ‘We’re going to eat, drink, sleep and – er – do other things here. It doesn’t seem very respectful. It makes me really cross when people in the US put trailer parks on sacred Indian sites.’
    Paulo started tracing the wall. It ran for some distance in a straight line. ‘I don’t think this is a tomb. More like some kind of agricultural terrace.’ He came back and eased his bergen off. ‘There’s probably nothing sacred about it.’
    Hex took his bergen off too. It was a relief to put it down – and let the air get to the sweaty patch of material underneath it. ‘Who are these Maya anyway?’
    Paulo swung his arms to loosen his shoulders. ‘Lovely people. They lived in central America a few hundred years ago and were good at art, pyramids and bloody sacrifices.’
    ‘Damn,’ said Hex. ‘We forgot to appease them by throwing a sacrifice into their pool. They’ll hate us.’
    Amber reluctantly took her bergen off too. She didn’t look happy. She glared at Hex. ‘You mean you don’t know who the Maya Indians are? You must at least have seen them in a computer game.’
    Hex swiftly moved up behind her, grabbed her and made his hand into an imaginary knife at her throat. ‘Better than games,’ he hissed menacingly, ‘let’s appease the gods right now.’
    Amber shook free. ‘Get off me, you nerdy creep.’
    Alex saw her discomfort. ‘Amber, I’m sure that’s not a tomb. I think they’re a bit taller than that.’
    ‘Yes,’ chipped in Hex. ‘Pyramids, in fact.’
    ‘Well, aren’t you a mine of information?’ said Amber. ‘A moment ago you didn’t know a Maya from a moron.’ But she did look a bit happier.
    ‘How long until dark?’ asked Paulo.
    ‘About an hour,’ said Alex.
    They got to work. Having stacked their bergens neatly, they enlarged the clearing by hacking down the undergrowth. Paulo used the machete and Alex used the hunting knife he carried at his belt. They each found a pair of trees for their hammock and put up green nylon ponchos – waterproof sheets, to act as a roof. In no time the small jungle clearing looked like a proper camp – the hammocks in a circle, each with a bergen beside it and a mosquito net. A small fire in the middle threw up a plume of smoke.
    Alex was tying a piece of string to one of his hammock straps. He’d done the other ones already. ‘Hey, guys, you should do this.’
    ‘Why?’ said Paulo.
    ‘In case it rains. The water will run down the string. Otherwise it runs down the straps and makes a nice pool under your backside.’
    They took off their wet clothes. Underneath they wore black lycra shorts to minimize rubbing from the constant sweating. Li and Amber had lycra sports tops too.
    Li shed her shirt and trousers with visible relief. ‘Yuck. I don’t think I’ve ever been so filthy.’ She put her black jungle boots upside down on sticks to stop wildlife getting into them and then put her clothes on hangers made from twigs.
    Alex laughed. ‘There’s no point hanging those up. They’ll never dry.’
    ‘Is that the voice of Belize SAS experience I hear?’ teased Amber.
    ‘I don’t care if they don’t dry,’ said Li. ‘I feel better if I try.’
    ‘Leech check,’ said Paulo, walking up behind her. He carried a smouldering stick from the fire. Li stood still while he inspected her back and legs. A fat black leech was attached to her calf, pulsing as it sucked her blood. ‘Yes, you’ve got a nice big one here.’ He touched the smouldering stick to the leech. It shrank away from the heat and dropped to the floor. ‘OK, you’re clear. Who’s next?’
    Amber came forward for inspection. Paulo gave her the all clear and moved on to Hex.
    ‘Oh lovely,’ said Paulo. ‘That one’s huge. Hold