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indication of where the man had stepped from the
path, but he was unable to find a footprint or even a single bent
twig or blade of grass.
    Knowing it was no use, he called out the
shaman’s name into the jungle anyway. “Tanis, Tanis!” Then he
listened forlornly for a response he knew would never come.
    There was no hope of finding the little man,
but Pauley was embarrassed to go back into camp without him. He
continued to look, expanding his search off the path.
    After a couple hours, he could faintly hear
someone yelling his name. From off to his right a minute later,
someone else called for him. Soon, Pauley was able to see Armando
coming towards him, weapon high and alert for any trouble.
    Pauley stood up and walked toward the
approaching man. When he was close enough, he simply stated, “I
lost him. The shaman is gone.”
    Armando called out loudly to the rest of the
search party members, letting them know Pauley had been found, and
they all headed back to camp.
    Manon was waiting when they arrived. Darkness
was quickly approaching. Pauley repeated his news.
    “I lost him. The little guy just disappeared
while we were walking together. I searched for him, but never found
a sign.”
    “Tell me you got the cure first,” Manon said
apprehensively.
    Pauley reached into a pocket and pulled out
the green bottle. He swirled it around, and an inch of liquid could
be seen circling the bottom of the bottle.
    Pauley started to relay the conversation he
and the shaman had had, including the dosages.
    “Hold on,” Manon said. “I want to record
this.”
    He went over and set up the recorder on the
tripod. When it was recording, he interviewed Pauley, preserving
all of the information.
    Without the use of the tents imprisoning
Pauley’s infected brother, the five remaining men shared two tents
between them. Two people slept in each tent, and the fifth man was
assigned to watch duty. The night was hot and muggy. The jungle
noises seemed nearer and eerier than they had on previous nights.
At one point Manon looked up and saw the dim shadow of a hairy
spider crawling on the outside of the tent against the thin
moonlight. The men slept poorly.
     
    ~ Chapter X
~
     
    At the first sign of light, a howler monkey
started his angry cry in the trees above, and the men were all
quickly out of their tents. The men huddled around a bright fire,
boiling water to stir instant coffee into. Coffee was the one
luxury Rock had allowed on the expedition, mainly because it was
his addiction, but this morning the five men were thankful. Rock
had forbidden Pauley and his brother to bring cigarettes and, from
experience, the rest of the crew knew better than to try to sneak
any alcohol.
    Armando was the first to offer anything more
than a good morning. “We need to get out of here. What do you think
Manon?”
    “I think I am not in charge,” the cameraman
answered gloomily.
    “Well,” Armando replied, “you are the only
employee of the network here. The rest of us are just contractors.
The network is paying us, so we work for you now, but I say we bug
out as soon as possible.”
    Manon looked up at Armando. The scratches on
his face from the encounter with Rock the day before were red and
very swollen. Pus bulged just beneath the skin and thin red veins
spider webbed from them in all directions. The flickering firelight
cast peculiar shadows on his ruined cheeks.
    “We have a lot of responsibility, the least
of which is to our employer,” Manon began. He pulled out a
recording device, stuck a miniature audio cassette tape in, and hit
record. “Whatever we do potentially could have disastrous effects
on the rest of the world. We have a lot of things to worry
about.”
    Manon poured hot water from the tall silver
pot on the fire into an aluminum drinking cup and spooned a large
scoop of instant coffee into it.
    As he stirred, he continued with his
thoughts. “The biggest problem of all, in my opinion, is the
spiders. The species in this