CHAPTER 240

Their helicopter had returned. It hovered in the brightening pink sky and gently lowered until it touched down a couple of hundred feet away. Marty Guitierrez was on board. Before disembarking he turned to several other men in the helicopter with a grim expression on his face and said, "uno momento."

The men in the helicopter looked impatient. They stirred in their seats. Some of them even began to get up.

Marty put both of his hands in the air and pleaded, "por favor."

The men grumbled and looked to one another.

Marty repeated, "por favor."

He received heavy glares, but the men settled back in their seats.

Marty got out of the chopper and walked toward the campsite.

Dr. Levine ran to meet him half way. "Marty!" She almost plowed him over as she grabbed both his shoulders. "Marty, we found it! It's absolutely magnificent!"

Marty cracked a weak smile. He scarcely seemed enthusiastic. "That's great, Rich." He looked past her at the dark mound in the sand. "Can I see it?"

Dr. Levine snatched his wrist with a huge grin. She was so excited that Marty's lack there of was not registering with her. Like an eager child she ushered him to the specimen.

Marty gagged and threw up a little in his mouth over the stench. His hand clapped over his nose and mouth. He almost lost his glasses, though he shoved them back up his nose. As Marty collected himself he lowered his hand, waving flies away from his face.

"Jesus, Rich. You spent the whole night hunched over this thing?"

She nodded with pride.

Marty frowned as he began to study the remains of the creature. "My God." A deep thought ensnared him, and he began to tug at his short beard. His face was troubled.

For the first time Dr. Levine realized Marty was not indulging in the thrill of her discovery.

"What the hell is the matter with you, Marty?"

He turned to her. His eyes were hollow. "I'm sorry, Rich."

She didn't understand and gave him a confused look. "What do you mean?" Then she noticed several men exiting the helicopter, some with gas tanks on their backs.

"Marty, what in god's name did you do?"

The still murky dawn was quickly lit by the jets of three roaring flame throwers firing to life.

"No!" Dr. Levine yelled as she jumped to run at them.

Marty caught her arm and started to drag her back.

She screamed, "Marty, you son of a bitch! How could you?"

Arby and Kelly had sprung from the camp site and were shoving at Marty.

Arby shouted, "hey, what the hell, man!"

Marty was trying to keep Dr. Levine from running toward the flamethrowers while Kelly was making a vicious effort to pry his hands off of the doctor's wrists with her nails.

She yelled, "hey, let her go!"

Meanwhile Arby kept shoving him in the back and shouting.

Marty burst back at them, "it wasn't me! It was the pilot! There was nothing I could do. My hands were completely tied."

Dr. Levine finally broke from his grip, but it was too late. The men with flamethrowers had raided the camp. Jets of fire rolled against the carcass and it was soon engulfed. Black smoke and orange fire erupted into the pink morning sky.

"Son of a bitch!" Dr. Levine turned to Marty. "You should have stopped them."

"I don't run this country, Rich! You knew the Costa Rican government was trying to put a lid on this. As soon as the pilot saw what he saw it was over. I'm lucky they even let me on the chopper."

At the camp two other men not wearing gas tanks were overturning equipment, pulling film from their cameras, and throwing notebooks onto the burning carcass. All the while Diego was following after them arguing in Spanish, but the men ignored him entirely.

Dr. Levine stood and watched the efforts of the last six months being destroyed in a matter of moments, but it was more than that. The specimen was priceless. It was conclusive proof of the existence of a "Lost World," and now it was burned to hell.

The fire crackled and between the smoke and flames a blackened skeleton showed itself. The body shifted, curling the neck, and lifting the prehistoric mouth toward the sky. Fire thrust through its teeth like a Medieval dragon, and then the bones collapsed back among the flames.

Dr. Levine continued to watch with a debilitating feeling of dismay.

"God damn it."