Rhea shifted uncomfortably. They’d been on the plane for several hours now,
and her rear end was protesting. As she glanced over at her friend in the seat next to her, she wondered how Ashley could possibly manage to sleep through all the turbulence their little commuter plane had suffered. But somehow, her lab assistant had slumbered through it like a baby.
As though sensing Rhea’s stare, Ashley yawned and opened her eyes. “Hi.”
Rhea smiled. “You’ve been out a long time.”
Ashley stretched her arms above her head. Her layered blonde curls bobbed around her ears as she tilted her chin up and opened her mouth in another wide, unladylike yawn. “We almost there?”
Rhea glanced out the plane’s tiny window. The glass was hazy with age, and moisture from the warm air outside had collected along the edges, blurring the view outside. “Yeah. We’re flying over the jungle now. I think the airport is just a short ways ahead.”
There were only ten other passengers on the small plane—ten passengers and one pilot. Rhea had never liked flying. And when she found out her company had booked passage for her and Ashley on something smaller than a 747, she’d almost refused to go.
Providian Pharmaceuticals had one of the largest drug research labs in the world. She knew they could afford to send her and her lab assistant to the Amazon on nothing less than the best airfare, and secure them with the most luxurious lodging available.
But as Rhea stared out the foggy glass at the wispy billows of humidity rising up from the treetops of the mighty rainforest below, she couldn’t help but wonder if they hadn’t. The world below them was totally unlike anything she’d ventured into before. And she wasn’t too sure if the realization was exciting or scared her to death.
This trip was important. And Rhea couldn’t help but feel a small measure of self-pride in the fact that she’d been chosen to go—chosen over Lydia MacDonald. Rhea giggled.
