The Indian took her hand then and placed the relic firmly in her hand. She looked down at it, hearing the angry roar of thunder in the sky again and she looked back up to see that they had disappeared into the thick of the rain. It was hard to see anything now.

Rollie was back in a few minutes, soaked to the skin and dripping as he entered their bungalow.

"Whew! Raining to beat all hell out there!" he exclaimed, pulling his shirt off.

"Rollie! I had some visitors while you were gone…" he heard Angie say as he looked up after removing his wet jeans as well.

"What?"

"Yeah, Heckel and Jeckel were here. Dressed in full ceremonial head-shrinking outfits, painted up and telling me to give this to Lucinda." She was shaking slightly as held out her hand, the relic- the Avatar, that Michael had wanted so desperately! The palm-sized piece of gold that she passed over to Rollie was why Michael had killed a man and why that man had tried to kill him.

"No! You think they found it in Luce's room? They took it? Why not just keep it and take it back to old king what's his name?"

"Um, I think the one who took it has to put it back…" Angie said, looking at him standing naked in front of her, "Hey, you're dripping all over me!"

"Sorry, caught me after my strip-" he said, rolling the relic over in his hand.

She made a face, a forlorned one as Rollie bent over and kissed her quickly, "Gotta cover up here, can't be enticing you right now, what, with your ribs like that!" He grinned and she pouted. He walked over to the bathroom as she sat back down on the bed, rubbing her ribcage and wondering when it would stop hurting.

"Okay! So, what are you going to do with that thing? Give it to Michael?" she called out as she saw him grab a towel and dried off.

"No! I am doing exactly what those two head shrinkers told you to do with it. We give it back to Luce and she goes back to the tomb and does whatever. I assume they have recovered the remains of the king?" he asked, disappearing behind the partition where the sink and toilet were secluded.

Angie shrugged.

"No matter," he replied, "we will give it to her in the morning and let her decide what she wants to do with it."

Angie heard him drinking some water; "You taking your pills?"

"Yes, I am taking my pills," he responded from the bathroom as if she was nagging him.

"Whatever," she replied, making a face and turning off the light near the bed, "I'm going to bed."

"Be there in a sec," he said in reply.

The storm was in raging in nature's raw anger outside as the raindrops hit the window, reflecting inside against the bedcovers from the artificial light over the porch door. Angie pulled the covers up over her head, thinking about poor Lucinda's plight since getting into Costa Rica. She knew what Lucinda was going through with Michael's charade and use of her for his own schemes. She suddenly saw a flash in her mind's eye of Loubar, standing there above her after he had hit her, just hours after she had made love with him, letting him touch her and react to him as Rollie. She shuddered suddenly, and felt Rollie crawling into bed behind her. She jumped when his hand slid over her hip.

"Hey? You okay?" he asked, softly, but concerned.

"Oh…uh huh…" she replied, lying. She didn't turn around but felt him kiss the nape of her neck.

"You know I cherish you, Ange," he said, thinking back to the crude remark that Michael had made down in Lucinda's bungalow.

She took her foot and moved it back, wrapping it around Rollie's leg, running it up and down his calf. He felt her soft skin against him and smiled. They fell asleep entwined like that without speaking again that night.

Morning came, uncharitably early as the sun rose bright and red against a drenched rain forest basin. The phone rang in the Tyler bungalow at 6:00 A.M. sharp.

"You missed the wrap up session after the production meeting last night, Rol!" Syd said, his voice quite animated on the phone.

"Uhhm," Rollie said, trying to get his eyes opened.

"Well, don't just lay there enjoying that nice new wife of yours, get on the SET!" he shouted.

"Yeah Syd, right away!" Rollie said, waking up fully then.

Angie stirred beside him, hearing Rollie talking and by the sound of it, they had missed something.

"We had a 6:00 A.M. call that we didn't make," Rollie said to her, "guess I forgot all about seeing Syd after the production meeting last night. We were a little busy…"

"What about the Avatar? You giving it to Luce this morning?" She asked, rising and grabbing her side, twisting her face in pain.

"Yeah, you bet. I don't want your friends coming back to see us," he replied, getting up and yawning.

There was a sudden rapping on the door and as Angie opened it a crack, Lucinda pushed her way in, smiling, and barging in without thinking.

"Lucinda!" Rollie said, grabbing his jeans and turning around as Lucinda rolled her eyes.

"Goodness! You act like I have never seen you like that!" she said, chuckling as Angie frowned, turning her head around to Rollie who closed his opened mouth in surprise.

"We'll talk later," Angie told Rollie, threateningly, as he took off for the bathroom to finish dressing.

"You'll never believe it!" Lucinda announced, forgetting Rollie for the moment. She wanted Angie to guess and Angie was in no mood for a game.

"Luce! Just tell me!"

"Syd has found a new leading man!"

"Oh, great! Who?" asked Angie, excited for Lucinda.

"Syd says he's big! That I am going to be sooo surprised! I can't wait. Come on! Let's get some breakfast!" Lucinda replied, rushing Angie around the room as she tried to get dressed.

"Uh, Luce. There is one thing…" Rollie said, cautioning her as he came out of the bath area, "some nice little Indians paid Angie a visit last night and left this for you." He held the Avatar in his hand and Lucinda's mouth opened in astonishment.

"Oh my God!"

"Yep, the little relic that 'could'…" Rollie replied, handing it to her as she held it next to her heart.

She looked down at the mizo and scolded it as if it was alive; "You have caused nothing but trouble!"

"I'll say!" Angie replied, "but they gave me a message to give to you- you are to take it and put it back in the arms of the Demon King. I took it to mean as soon as possible."

"Oh, that's exactly what I intend to do, you know. But when? We are due on set right now! I doubt that Syd will let me go off for a couple of hours to save mankind from the demon king, right?" Lucinda said, musing about that scene in her mind.

"Sure he would, right after he replaces you with any actress that can spit tobacco while climbing around in an ancient temple!" Rollie commented from behind them.

"Come on, let's get going. We can grab something to eat on the way to the set. Maybe we can squeeze a time out from Syd later today?" he said, as he escorted them out the door. Lucinda had deftly placed the Avatar inside her bra this time. She could certainly feel if anyone went searching there!

As Rollie and Angie checked the gag schedule at the trailer compound, they noted that "on location" was penciled in with jagged penmanship. They were able to find out from one of the road crew that indeed, the shooting today was on location at the ruins near the Bolsaque Tomb. Since the archeologists had pulled up stakes for the time being due to the Nicoya Indian revolt, Syd had squeezed in a favor with the local government to try the location shooting now.

"Great!" Lucinda said, wrapping her slick, brown hair up in a pony-tail. I can hit two birds with one stone today!"

"Lovely!" Rollie said, to Angie who only shook her head. She had no desire to go back to the Tomb. Her ribs hurt just thinking about it. They were taken out by jeep and arrived on the location set soon after. Looking around, Angie could see a head pop out every now and then from the jungle forest line in the distance. The Nicoya were watching.

Luce stepped out of the jeep and ran up to Syd, dancing in front of him as he chuckled, " I knew you would be eager to get here and see your new leading man. I hear Hollywood is giving poor Roddy a proper send-off. His fans are crying their eyes out…"

Lucinda lowered her eyes for a reverent moment and then looked around, "So, where is he?"

"Over there, yeah- taking a look at his marks," Syd replied, hands on hips, "you wouldn't believe the time I had with production getting him in here at the last minute."

Lucinda looked up, putting a hand to her forehead to protect her eyes from the sun that was already beating down on the movie crew as they set up in the clearing of the ancient ruins.

"Is that who I think it is?" Angie asked, making a face as she came over to Lucinda. Lucinda's mouth was opened but not out of awe.

"SYD!"

Rollie was placing his vapor canisters over close to the actor who was still stepping through his marks with the camera operator, a make-up girl still trying to fix the drooping hair that came across his forehead.

"Andrew Dice Clay…oh my- I thought they banned him in Hollywood," Rollie said in a whisper as he stopped for a moment, putting a canister in his belt as he grinned at Angie and saw the steam coming out of Lucinda's ears.

Syd walked over sheepishly toward the rather horrified group and smiled; "Production says he is making a come-back. A new and gentler actor. No comedy, just serious acting…they say he will be like a phoenix rising from the ashes."

Lucinda folded her arms across her chest and sighed; "Will I ever make A-list?"

"Sweetie, you are in our book," Rollie said, hugging her.

Lucinda smiled, wanly and watched as Clay flipped around on his mark, a bullwhip in his hand, snapping it on the ground and laughing obnoxiously.

"Oh heavens! I will not have a love scene with THAT!"

"We've had a bit of a re-write, love," Syd said, hearing her, "the Dice-man, he doesn't want to get this movie over a PG-13, so we cut them out."

"What?" Angie asked, baffled, "Maybe he has turned over a new leaf?"

An explosion of explicatives interrupted them all as Lucinda rolled her eyes and looked at Syd; "you can take the boy out of the New York City but you can't take city out of the boy!"

The bullwhip had just snapped around Clay's thigh and sliced a long cut into his flesh.

"I'm outta here," Lucinda said with a determined look to her face, "cover for me. I'm getting down in that tomb and put the Mizo back. That will make all of our friends watching out there in the jungle happy!"

"Luce, wait!" Angie said, pleading with her but she had darted through the wave of crew and camera set-ups as Rollie watched her disappear.

"Rollie, do something. Don't let her go down there alone!" Angie said, punching him slightly in the stomach.

"Hey, okay- okay! You will have to stall if they start without us!" he warned her as she grinned.

"Fine with me!" she waved after him as he went after Lucinda. She looked over to the whimpering Clay who had just spied her and winked at her as she crouched down, finishing the canister positions.

Lucinda could see that the she would have to creep around the side of the temple-mountain to the entrance that they had come out of the day before. The crevice to the actual Tomb had been covered up by the ton of dirt that Juan had placed over it. Rollie called after her, seeing her ponytail dart out as she disappeared inside the temple.

"I'm on the move!" he said, signaling to Angie through his transmitter as she adjusted hers in her ear.

"I read you loud and clear, " she replied, laughing.

Angie could begin to make out what she thought was a breeze through the jungle, a wave of air rustling against the edge of tree line. When she realized that it was not a breeze but a line of Nicoya with spears raised, she took a hard swallow and broke into a run toward the mountain-temple. Although her sides were splitting, she darted inside the tunnel to warn Rollie.

"We have another "little Bighorn' getting ready to swoop down on the location," she told him through the transmitter.

She got no response so she grabbed the torch that she found at the edge of the tunnel and made her way back into the depth of the caverns, calling out for Rollie and Lucinda.

Rollie had caught up to Lucinda, and with her determined expression seen by him, it only made him acutely aware of her seriousness about the task at hand.

"Where did they put his body?" She asked, raising her hands up.

"My guess, back where he originally was laid to rest…" Rollie replied as he tried to reach Angie on transmitter, "I'm not getting anything from Angie!" he added, readjusting his earpiece.

They made it to the steep little steps going up slowly and then entered downward, into the grand cavern. There was a trickling water sound, as if an underground spring was nearby but they could see the stalagmites dripping from the ceiling and kept heading toward where the actual tomb had been.

Angie had made it to the steps and paused. She stopped to rest, gasping, her chest was on fire. As she started up the steps slowly, she heard a grating noise behind her and turned, jumping in shock as she faced Michael Sanchez. He was armed, but had the weapon holstered as he motioned for her to be quiet.

"Keep quiet, Angie," he warned her as he put his hand near the base of her neck and guided her up the steps and down into the grand cavern. She didn't know what to expect from him and just kept walking, hoping they would run into Rollie and Lucinda. She thought about trying to break from him, but he had the gun and she wasn't sure which side of his bread he was buttering today, probably both!

"Hey? Why don't you just let me call Rollie and you can have the blooming Avatar!" Angie said, stopping for a moment. She felt his hand tighten around the side of her neck as he pushed her forward and placed his lips near her ear;

"Be quiet! Listen to me, okay. If you ever trusted me or even if you never did, this is the time to do it!" he told her in a harsher whisper. There was a sound, a low, guttural rattle. Michael quickly pulled Angie with him against the back of a large stalagmite, hiding out of view. She could feel his heart beating ferociously in his chest against her back as he held on to her. What would Michael fear? She wondered and if he was afraid of something, could it be harmful to Rollie and Lucinda?

Lucinda and Rollie had made it through the tunnel to where the dirt had filled up the crevice and buried Angie alive the day before. But a new tunnel, the walls barely holding, had been carved out of the packed dirt, a niche made in the wall. In that niche was Bolsaque as Lucinda had remembered his skeletal remains. The skull stared at her, the jaw opened wide as if he had been gasping for air as they buried him alive. The arms were crossed over his chest, the hands over each other, the bony fingers curled, waiting to hold the Avatar.

"Well, go on- give it back to him, let the evil stay right here!" Rollie said to Lucinda, grinning. She smiled back at him and stepping gingerly forward, seeing the unstable earth in places shifting and sliding toward the cave's floor and trying to avoid it. Her arms trembled as she held the Avatar, the golden winged bird toward Bolsaque.

Rollie heard the sound of rattling, growing stronger as if something very deep below them was starting to wake up.

"Hurry up, Luce. This place gives me the creeps!"

"Okay, okay!" she said, pulling her hands back for a moment and then with renewed effort, took the Avatar in a firmer hold and slowly, carefully started to place it inside the skeletal king's hands.

NO!" shouted a familiar voice from behind them as Rollie turned, startled and Lucinda stopped, grasping the Avatar back into her own hands. She turned around, flushed as Michael Sanchez appeared, holding on securely to Angie's neck with his hand.

"Give it to me Lucinda! Don't make this hard. Just give me the damn thing and I am out of here. I don't want to hurt Angie, really!" he said, in a threatening tone as Rollie bristled.

"That's it! You are going down, you bastard! You don't threaten my wife, you hear?" Rollie told him, and walked toward him, his anger at its peak as Michael pulled out his revolver, waving it at him.

"Whatcha going to do, Michael? Shoot me, shoot us all, bloody hell- why not the entire movie crew outside as well! All for a piece of gold?" Rollie asked, still moving toward him.

Michael, seeing his freedom in Lucinda's hands, his life restored, swallowed hard, and took his safety off, aiming at Rollie.

"Don't you shoot him!" Angie screamed, squirming in Michael's one armed grasp. Unable to control her fighting him, he swiftly took the butt of his revolver and hit the base of her skull, sending her to the ground in immediate unconsciousness.

Rollie lunged at him and Michael fired, hitting his target and sending him crashing to the ground as Lucinda screamed. Rollie felt his chest, still standing as Michael rushed past him and toward Lucinda who was standing with a Nicoyan warrior dead at her feet. In his hand, was a dart blower.

"Don't move, Lucinda. If you move, the poison will move through your body faster!" he shouted at her, as Rollie turned, seeing the Indian that Michael had killed. He could see that Lucinda had a dart sticking in her neck, hanging precariously into her skin, not going fully through the muscle layer. Michael pulled a knife from the inside of his jacket, swiftly reaching her and without warning, sliced her neck open around the dart, exposing the tissue beneath the skin as the subcutaneous fat oozed out slightly. Seeing the blue stained poison mixing with that layer, he cut deeper as her fists clenched in heightened pain. He had exposed the wound down to her muscle layer and seeing no infiltration of poison, breathed suddenly. He cut the jagged dog-eared layer of skin and fat off in a single motion as Lucinda cried out. Bending over her, he took his mouth and began to suck the wound of her neck, spitting out blood and tissue for any residual poison.

Rollie stood frozen in his tracks. He watched this angry man, that he was sure had shot him, perform this graphic display of saving Lucinda, then suddenly step back and fell down suddenly. He was going into some sort of nerve palsy as he began to twitch and contort on the ground.

Lucinda was crying and holding her neck, a trickle of clean blood dripping down her collar. Angie stirred from the cave floor and sat up, rubbing the back of her head. Near her, on one side was the body of the dead assassin. On the other side, was Michael Sanchez- now very still and barely breathing.

"Rollie?" Angie cried out, trying to stand and spinning around as her head throbbed. He caught her, turning around to Lucinda who had not shown any effects of the poison as she stood looking down at Michael. She still clutched the Avatar in her hand. She didn't understand why the Indian had tried to kill her when she was putting the Mizo back in the hands of Bolsaque where it belonged. She didn't care at this moment as she stooped over Michael and touched his face.

His eyes moved slightly, his mouth trying to say something. Angie and Rollie stood close to Lucinda as they watched her put the Avatar in his hand. He could not even grasp it or hold it as it rolled out of his open palm.

"I'll take that!" said a voice coming closer to them. A tall man, muscular and swarthy, approached them. He stepped up, another man coming into view beside him. This man bent over and picked up the Avatar, handing it over to the tall man.

"Sorry Michael. This close and no prize…a pity! I do hold grudges, you know. I gave you this chance to buy your freedom and look what you did with it! You got my nephew killed! That wasn't in the plan, was it? But then, neither were these pesky little Neanderthals shooting darts, poisoning people and some even, using modern weapons to kill with- my poor, dear Janas. A pity, really…"

Rollie and Angie stood there, silent as Lucinda touched Michael's face. His eyes had turned toward the man speaking, the recognition of the voice evident.

"Well," said the man, sighing, "all's well that ends well…I'll be leaving…with the operation successfully moved and this little prize, I can mourn my poor nephew in some comfort."

His aide asked him something aside that they could not hear and he turned back, looking at the four of them- the aide having drawn his weapon.

"No, Antonio- I think Michael is having his own death rattle now and the others are of no consequence. I tire of all the wet works these days. Let us depart this place!"

"Si, Senor Toya…" replied the aide, Rollie able to hear him say the tall man's name. So, he thought to himself, this was Roddy's uncle, the infamous Toya. The man that Michael had tried to shut down. The man that Roddy had tried to double-cross, his own flesh and blood.

Rollie held on to Angie, kissing her forehead as the two men left the cavern. Michael was stirring slightly, moving much better on the cave floor as Lucinda held his hand. She smiled as he looked up, trying to focus.

"He doesn't appear to be in the throes of a death rattle," Rollie said, suspiciously as he checked Michael out. As he walked around to the other side, he noted a small injectable amp still suspended from Michael's thigh. It had been out of their view.

Michael was moving all of his extremities now, trying to sit up and with a slurred tongue, said; "Adrenaline…"

"No wonder!" Rollie commented.

"Hey! Why didn't you give that to me!" Lucinda asked, frowning.

"Had to look like I was dying…only had the one amp in my pocket," he said, straining and added, "we all had to look realistic."

"What about that poor guy? How'd you get him to die willingly?" Angie asked, still rubbing the back of her head, not impressed.

"Netupa! Despierta!" Michael said to the dead dart blower lying still on his back.

The little assassin jumped up, grinning. Michael had shot blanks. He had staged the entire scene for Toya and his man!

"You're kidding! You cut me! You sliced me open so that you could fool that Toya guy?" Lucinda asked, incredulously.

"It worked! He thinks I am dead. That's what I wanted more than anything else. The Avatar was always for him, not for me. Once the archeologists had found Bolsaque, Toya's operation down in the tomb city was a goner. I spent a considerable amount of time trying to spin this yarn about the priceless Avatar- so much that he had to have it. We had Roddy in place, knowing that Toya considered him loyal. Janas was our big problem, with Roddy trying to keep her busy as well as Juan. They got greedy. Juan wanted everything for himself. It was a nightmare trying to sift through this mess!"

Michael was slow to rise as Lucinda kept staring at him, her hurt evident; "You couldn't have just hired me to play the part of your wife? You know, I have worked for Rollie and I am good, damn good!" she said, ready to slap him again.

"Yes, you were good, but you were even better, not knowing!" he said, shrugging his shoulders.

"As for you two, I really didn't expect you here at all! That was some sort of fill-fate and quite a complication for me!" he said, as he looked at Rollie and Angie, shaking his head.

"Yeah, I'll bet!" Rollie replied, feeling his wife's goose-egg.

"What about the Nicoya tribe. Aren't they going to be upset that there is nothing to protect them from the evil of Bolsaque?" Angie asked, suspiciously.

"Oh, but they saw the great Bolsaque walk out of here. His spirit entered Toya. He walks on Earth now, with the Mizo in his hand. His evil is contained to human form only," Michael said, spinning his tale to deaf ears.

"You told them that!" Rollie said, laughing bitterly- "and they believed you?"

"You don't see them in here, do you, causing a riot? They are very satisfied that Bolsaque has human form again. Apparently, he is not a threat to them now. As a spirit without form, his evil was immense. Kept contained in a single body with the Mizo in hand, they feel, that is a fair exchange for protection."

"Give me a break," Angie said, rolling her eyes, "Rollie, you coming? We have a movie to make out there in the real world!"

She started off, Rollie behind her. He looked at Michael strangely and asked him; "It's over, is it?"

"I'm dead. That little relic freed me from what I owed Toya. Someday, maybe if you want to listen- I might stop by and tell you about it," Michael replied, pulling the amp out of his thigh.

"Yeah, maybe you could start with who you really worked for?" Rollie asked, then shook his head.

"Oh, if I told you that, I'd have to…"

"I know, kill me…" Rollie answered.

Michael grinned, sheepishly as Rollie joined Angie, making their way back out of the caverns. Lucinda stood there, looking at him as the little Indian that had shot her with the dart smiled at her and she made a threatening face at him, making him scurry out after Rollie and Angie.

"Netupa is afraid of you, because you held the magic in your hand without feeling the evil," Michael said to her, rubbing his thigh.

"He deserves a good swift kick!" she mumbled as Michael grinned, "Oh, no- not like you gave me!"

"Well, maybe not as strong but he did almost kill me!"

"He was very precise with that dart, you know. He blew it just so that it would make contact through your skin but not into your blood stream."

"You mean? You didn't have to cut me like that?"

"It had to appear real. I certainly took the most poison into me but with Toya looking on from behind us, I had to go through the real signs of poisoning."

"Once again, you have used me to help yourself," she said, tightening her lips as she fumed, "but I will get the last word here!"

"Be my guest…" he said, "but try to hurry. Being dead and all, I have a plane to catch."

"You have no idea what all this did to me, do you?"

"I can imagine and in truth, I am sorry. I won't try and explain it any better. I will make it up to you, Lucinda, one day when you least expect it."

She stared at him, his eyes, the ones that she had fallen in love with, suddenly gazed downward, and she knew that he had some remorse. She hoped that Mira would be able to forgive him one day for all his sins. She certainly would not have been able to do that.

"You going to see Mira?"

"Maybe one day…after the smoke has cleared away. There may be nothing to come back to," he replied, a far away look to his eyes as he then focused back on her and stroked her cheek with his finger.

"Hey, I am still pissed at you but what the hey!" she said, and lunged forward, kissing him passionately as he grinned in mid-kiss and returned it with enthusiasm.

"I was faking the entire time," she told him, pulling away as she started to go, leaving him in his death tomb.

"So was I…" he replied, not turning back to see her go.

"Liar…" she told him, disappearing up the cavern side to the steps at the top of the ceiling.

"Tease," he replied, smiling.

Lucinda made it down the steep steps and literally ran the rest of the way. She emerged from the entrance, smiling as Rollie and Angie stood waiting for her.

"Come on, I have to get myself fixed up here. Don't want to scare the Dice-man with my vampire puncture wound!" Lucinda said, as Rollie walked arm in arm with Angie and Luce.

There was suddenly a series of explosions that shook the location and caused the crew and actors to head for cover as Rollie turned with Lucinda and Angie, back to the source of the explosions. The temple, with the underground tomb of Bolsaque literally imploded inward, the ground shaking terribly for a few minutes.

They looked, but there were no signs of Michael.

"Oh, what did he do?" Lucinda remarked, her eyes tearing.

"I wouldn't shed a tear, Luce!" replied Angie, still sore and angry at Michael, "I have a feeling that somehow, he is going to come back again to haunt us all."

"Yeah, a phoenix from the ashes, " Rollie added, "and not a bad F/X man, I must say!"

Syd was barking orders on the set, calling the local authorities about an earthquake on his shooting location. Lucinda walked by the Dice-Man, who was calling his agent telling him to get him the hell out of there, and she shuddered, heading for her trailer. Angie and Rollie walked into the F/X trailer and suddenly embraced, the events of their latest movie job, a disaster- which was becoming the norm.

Out of the high, sacrificial exit of the temple, a lone man in parachute jumped and spread his arms out looking down at the valley below him. Even without a parachute, and plunging to his death- he would have been free. He smiled, thinking of fate and Mira Sanchez. He could hear Tom Petty singing in his mind; "…Well, I'm free…free-fallin'…".

FINE