Life Blood ---XXI---Page No--69

a strong feeling he's the one who just threatened one of the women I filmed."

"Well, if that happened, then let me say welcome to the

paranoid harassment of the Guatemalan high command." He

sighed against the morning sound of birds chirping all around us.
"Unfortunately, I gather they've assumed you're documenting the
operations of Children of Light in some way, doing a movie." His
eyes drifted off into space, as though seeking a refuge. "You see,
my project up here in the Peten is to carry out pharmaceutical
research with as few distractions as possible. But in Guatemala
City, I have what is, in effect, a hospice for girls in trouble—which
is also called Niiios del Mundo, by the way—that's connected with
my U.S. adoption service, Children of Light. However, any time
Niiios del Mundo takes in an orphaned or abandoned infant and
tries to provide it with a loving home through adoption in the
States, the government here always threatens to hold up the
paperwork if I don't give a bribe, what they call an 'expediting fee.'
So if you were to probe too deeply . . . Let me just say it's not
something they'd care to see lead off 60 Minutes."
        It sounded like more BS, but I couldn't prove that. Yet.
        "Well, why don't you just clear that up, and then I'll take Sarah
 and—"

"But I've only now initiated her treatment. Surely you want to give it a chance."

I looked out at the rain forest. This was the place she'd come
to once, and—though I'd never admit it to Alex Goddard—it was the
place she'd announced she wanted to return to. But something
devastating had happened to her mind here. What should I do?
        The fact was, I didn't trust Alex Goddard any farther than I
could throw him. I had to get Sarah and get us both out of here as
soon as possible, though that meant I'd have to neutralize him
and the Army, and then use my limited American dollars to try to
buy our way back to Guatemala City.

"But come." He turned his gaze toward the south. "Let me

show you the thing I'm proudest of here. It's just up there." He was pointing toward a dense section of the rain forest, in the opposite direction from the river and up a steep incline.

I couldn't see anything but trees, but then I still had the feeling I'd stepped through the looking glass and found Sarah trapped
there. The next thing I knew, we were on an uphill forest trail,
headed due south.

"I think it's time you told me what's going on back there in the village," I said. What was it about this place that had seized such a claim on Sarah's mind?

"Baalum is difficult to explain to someone encountering it for the first time." He paused. "Much of it is so—"

"I think I can handle it."

"You have every right to know, but I don't really know where
to start."

"How about the beginning?" Why was he being so ambiguous?

"Very well." He was taking out a pair of gray sunglasses,

as though to gain time. "It actually goes back about ten years ago,
when I was prospecting for rainforest plants up here in the Peten
and accidentally stumbled across this isolated village, which
clearly had been here since classical times. I immediately noticed
a huge mound of dirt everybody said was haunted by 'the Old
Ones,' and I knew right away it had to be a buried pyramid.
They're more common down here than you'd think. So I struck a
bargain with the village elders and acquired the site. But after I
unearthed it and began the restoration, I became inspired with a
vision. One day I found myself offering to restore anything else
they could find—which eventually included, by the way, a
magnificent old steam bath—in exchange for which they would
help me by undertaking a grand experiment, a return to their
traditional way of life."

"So you deliberately closed them off to the modern world?" It
told me Alex Goddard could control a Mayan village just as he
controlled everything else he touched. It also confirmed he had a
weakness for the grandiose gesture. Would a time come when I
could exploit that?

"I told them that together we would try to recreate the time of
their glory, and perhaps in so doing we could also rediscover its
long-lost spirit, and wisdom. On the practical side, they would help
me by bringing me the rare plants I needed to try and rediscover
the lost Native American pharmacologies, and in return I would
build them a clinic where families can come for modern pediatric
and public-health services. So Baalum became a project we
share together. I call it a miracle."

That still didn't begin to explain why it felt so eerie. Something
else was going on just under the surface. What was he really
doing here?