The conversation moved into the medical tent. Gomez was given the envelope from Ursini's pack, and he shared the contents with the team - a letter of introduction, a memo outlining the nature of Ursini's true mission, and a map showing the camp, the river ford, and a battle site. According to the memo the team were there to retrieve a mummy from a temple, but to beware of a "level 3" threat in the area.
The doctors didn't know what any of this meant, though they provided some background. A battle had indeed taken place near the river ford about a week prior, and shortly after the Bolivians arrived - three officers and 20 soldiers. The soldiers usually leave in three groups every morning and return around dusk, leaving two guards behind. After the initial altercation as the Bolivians took over part of the village, they had mostly ignored the villagers and Caduceus personnel.
Two tents were allocated to the team. Upon leaving the medical tent, Sergio told Ralph that he found four sticks of dynamite and a pistol in Ursini’s belongings. Ralph took the dynamite and Sergio later gave the pistol to one of the villagers. Ralph and Colt also checked out the camp’s radio, which was destroyed by the Bolivians. However, there was a log book that included the radio frequency, which Ralph memorized. Colt offered his pen and pad to write it down but Ralph refused. "Never put anything in writing," he said, tapping his forehead with his finger as he turned and left the tent, leaving Colt a bit bewildered.
The party met in one of the two tents assigned to them and debated their next course of action. At this point it was about Noon. Per the doctors in the camp, the Bolivian patrols usually come back at dusk, meaning the party still had a good six hours or so before they returned. A major point of concern was the two Bolivians who escaped their initial battle - if they were to return to the camp, they could identify the party as the people that killed some of their team. The doctors told them there were 23 Bolivians - so knowing they had already killed five, that meant there were still 18 more. Ralph felt that killing the two guards in the camp would at least reduce their numbers further, but they weren't sure how the Caduceus medical personnel would react. Besides, if the two survivors of the original battle had truly run off, then the Bolivians would be none the wiser. But if they killed the guards, the jig would be up. Ultimately they decided to take the radio and look for a place to set it up so they could call Caduceus HQ.
One of the mules was loaded up and and the party left the village using a very small trail heading west. After about 200 meters they found an old abandoned hut up against a tall tree that was missing most of it’s branches. It was high enough that they could attach the radio arial to it and reach above the canopy.
Maddie created a sling of sorts out of an article of her clothing and used it to help climb about 20’ up the tree. There she was able to fasten the arial and extend it to rise above the treetops. As she was getting ready to come down, a monkey jumped to a branch about 20’ above her. The monkey appeared to have something metallic on its arm, which it waved about before launching a stream of fire into the air. Guns were drawn as the monkey screamed. As Maddie slowly began to descend she spoke to the monkey in Spanish, telling it she meant it no harm.
However, the words that came out of her mouth were not Spanish, but instead some other language none of the others had ever heard before. The monkey, however, seemed to understand, its eyes growing wide. Holding out its arm to her it said in the same language, "You. Take off."
Maddie climbed back up, covered the metallic object with a cloth and tried to slowly pull it off the monkey. She felt the object reach within her and drain a certain amount of energy, and it almost seemed to respond to her will and come loose. The monkey leapt to another tree and scurried off gratefully. The object was an arm-bracelet of sorts, designed like a snake. The head was that of a cobra with two jeweled eyes, which rose up about where the monkey’s wrist had been. It was from this snake hood that the fire shot out.
"What was that language you spoke to the monkey?" Colt asked.
Maddie looked confused and a little concerned. Colt was clearly the oldest member of the team and she had always been taught on the farm to respect her elders, especially men. "Um, Spanish."
Colt shook his head. "I don't know what that was, but it certainly wasn't Spanish."
Vivienne looked on, her brow furrowed in concern. Ralph simply shrugged and got to work connecting the arial to the radio. It fired right up, and after setting it to the frequency they'd seen in the camp radio tent, they reached Caduceus. After confirming that Ursini was dead, the person on the other end fetched someone named Quentin Shapiro, who appeared to be the same Shapiro who signed the letters Ursini was carrying.
"You’ve probably guessed by now, but Caduceus does more than just provide humanitarian aid," Shapiro said. "Our teams also seek out threats against humanity, and deal with them. Ursini was supposed to explain this to you."
Shapiro went on to inform the team that they were in fact in Bolivia to fetch the mummy, and emphasized that the mummy was to be kept alive, which was a bit confusing to team given that mummification is process done only on those already dead. He also told them that there were wards protecting the temple, one of which may have been broken, and that the wards are usually arrayed in some kind of occult pattern. Caduceus could sent a plane to get them out once they obtained the mummy.
While Colt and Ralph spoke to Caduceus, Vivienne compared the map they took off the dead snake-person and the one from Ursini’s envelope and realized they showed the same geographic features. Maddie found that she could sort of understand some of the symbols on the snake-person’s map now (she couldn’t previously) and believed they were directional. It appeared the Bolivians and snake people might be seeking the same temple.
Leaving the radio behind, the party entered the jungle heading due north, believing that would connect them to the main trail leading to the battle site. This proved to be correct and they came to the ford in the river. The bodies and destroyed vehicles from the battle were still littered about, and they noticed that there were absolutely no bugs nor carrion feeders of any kind here, even though the battle happened almost a week ago. There was a trailhead on the other side of the river which seemed to lead to the spot marked on the map, so they crossed and the ford and headed toward it.
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