Free Heart of Fire by Linda Howard Page A

case that the friar's Amazons were really this Anzar tribe."
    "Dad ran across a reference to the 'Stone City map.' He tracked that reference down and found another thread. It took him three years to actually find the map. He had it authenticated, and it dates back to the seventeenth century. It doesn't give the name of the country or even the continent, but it's quite detailed, with landmarks and distance notations."
    He snorted in disbelief. "There aren't any landmarks in the jungle, none that last. The vegetation swallows everything up. 'Dust to dust' takes on real meaning here; you can almost watch it happening."
    She ignored him. "The map refers to the Queen's Heart and pinpoints its location."
    "So you think this Queen's Heart is some huge gem that's been sitting in the jungle all this time, and the map will take you right to it."
    "It will," she said confidently. "Dad plotted out the course and encoded it."
    "Say you actually find this place; I don't much think it exists, but let's say it does. What do you do then?"
    "Photograph everything, document it, bring the proof back. My father was called a crackpot; his reputation was ruined by this theory, and so was mine. I'm going to prove that he was right. I don't care if there actually is a huge gem of some sort guarding a tomb; I want to find this city and prove that the Anzar existed. I love what I do, Mr. Lewis, but unless I can clear my father's reputation I'll never be anything but Crackpot Sherwood's equally loony daughter."
    "Call me Ben," he said automatically, rubbing his chin while he considered the situation. "Even if there is some sort of lost city out there, what if it didn't belong to this Anzar tribe? What if the Anzar weren't really Amazons— and I gotta tell you, sweetcakes, the Amazons are way down on my list of possibilities—but just your ordinary, isolated Indian tribe that died out several centuries ago?"
    "It doesn't matter. A lost city is a lost city." She had to make an effort to keep her voice brisk. His lazy speech cadences were contagious. "All I have to do is bring back proof of it."
    "You know you're likely chasing a rainbow."
    She shook her head. "My father did meticulous research. He wasn't a treasure hunter; he was a truth hunter. He didn't care if the myths he investigated were real or not; he just wanted to prove it one way or the other."
    "But Kates is betting on finding a fortune in gold or gems. How did he get involved, anyway?"
    She hesitated, then sighed. "Rick. He had all of Dad's old papers. I was at his place going through them when I came across the Anzar information. I admit, I was so excited I couldn't hide it—"
    "Wish I'd been there."
    She didn't let the lazy comment distract her. "Rick asked me what I'd found, and like a fool I just blurted it out. He grabbed the papers from me, but he couldn't read the instructions because they're in code. He got a little sarcastic then, asking me what made me think this told how to find lost treasure when I couldn't even read it. I told him I could read it, that Dad had taught me the code. I refused to tell him what it said, though."
    "Bet that livened things up."
    She smiled at the understatement. "I tried to interest several of my colleagues in the project. Everyone just laughed. I could tell what they were thinking; they were comparing me to Dad. An expedition like this takes a lot of money, and I couldn't do it on my own, but I couldn't find a backer. Not even the foundation I work for, and the Frost Archaeological Foundation is the biggest. Basically, they patted me on the head and told me to go away. I was so disappointed and depressed after being turned down by everyone I knew that I called Rick and told him there wouldn't be any expedition. I don't know why, except that I think he really loved Dad too, so he deserved to know. The next thing I knew, Kates was in on it and we were making plans to come down here."
    "They didn't try to talk you into giving them the map and