Chapter 52 Chichén Itzá

52 Chichén Itzá

"Hey, have you heard anything about the VIP?" A man on his thirties asked the woman by his side.

"I've probably heard the same things as you, that he's a big shot archaeologist called in here by Walter Works himself to decipher the carvings." She replied as she tinkered with the equipment on her heavy looking backpack. It was a machine similar to Phlox's recycler, but instead of recycling it had different purposes ranging from communication to navigation and utilities.

"I could care less if its a big shot or not, all I want is to get done with everything here and go back to my wife." He sighed as he took a sip out of a suspicious canteen that contained some sort of liquid, but certainly not water.

"Don't say things like that! Can't you see it's a red flag?"

"Yeah, right... I can't believe an engineer like you would believe in such things." for new novels

They were both trained combatants who belonged to the Mapple corp, they were tasked with the protection of the VIP who was supposed to arrive on site weeks ago so they had been idle most of their stay at Chichén Itzá and were very resentful towards Uriel before even meeting him. They thought Uriel believed himself to be some type of 'rockstar' and didn't even consider the possibility that the reason he didn't come before was because they hadn't found him yet, all they knew was that since their asset was not on site they were the laughing stock and were treated like errand boys.

"I'm a medic you know, a pretty respectable one at that, why do I need to be on watch duty?" The man sighed and then took another gulp from his suspicious canteen. It wasn't long until they noticed a group of people on their way to the archaeological site, judging by their attire and equipment they had to be from the Mapple corp too so they quickly stood up to keep appearances, yet everyone in the group ignored them except for a single young man who seemed to be of college age who waved at them with a smile.

"I'm sorry professor, but I was under the impression that I was brought in here to translate, not to share my research." Although Uriel had a lot of blank spaces in his common sense and knowledge of modern society, he wasn't as naive as to share his research without putting up a fight.

Noticing professor Schlieman's intention, Nika glared at the man in silence until he couldn't take the pressure anymore and apologized for his 'mistake'. After that short interaction, Schlieman muttered an excuse and went out to do his business leaving them free to settle in the camp.

It was getting late already and despite the excitement of being inside one of the most important archaeological sites in the world, Uriel decided to call it a day. There was no point in rushing to the investigation and he wanted to do it with daylight to fully appreciate the sight.

After spending a couple days in the luxurious zeppelin, sleeping in a regular tent was disappointing for Uriel who expected a lot more from the Mapple corp. Still, he wasn't going to complain about something like that because every single Mapple corp employee had similar if not worse accommodations. What bothered him, though, was the presence of Nika on his tent.

Dutiful as ever, Nika wouldn't part from Uriel and slept on his same tent. Uriel didn't appreciate it in the slightest, it was one thing to know she was able to pop in his room at any time she wished but what truly bothered Uriel was that ever since Nika was assigned as his bodyguard he lacked all sense of privacy. Even when she wasn't around, he still felt someone was staring at him because of the unsettling nature of her trait. To add insult to injury sleeping by the side of a beauty like her made him really anxious and he had trouble sleeping. However, the next day he realized it wasn't as bad as he had expected.

'At least now she didn't hide in the shadows under my bed.' He yawned as he got up in the morning. Nika didn't snore or did anything to upset him.

By the time Uriel came back from washing himself, Nika was already awake and waiting for orders, her sleeping bag already rolled and placed in a corner. Instead of bossing her around or asking her to roll his sleeping bag, Uriel knelt down and did it himself. He wasn't that used to camping and he wanted to enjoy every part of the experience, but Nika took it as him being responsible.

"so, when will you be visiting the ruins?" She asked in a hurry to go back to civilization as soon as possible.