We landed in the late afternoon on the Congo itself. I was surprised to soon see a motor boat cut out from the shoreline and head out toward us. I glanced at Flint, but he didn't seem to be alarmed by the boat's approach and then I saw why.
The boats occupants were Tyre and Galloway. I might have known these two would show up again. Tyre had traded in his Dick Tracey fedora for a weather beaten hat straight out of Indiana Jones. One couldn't deny the fact that the man liked his hats. Galloway, in true typical American fashion, was wearing a baseball cap with John Deer emblazoned across it in green lettering. A little less obvious might have been helpful, but Galloway wasn't going to pull off being anything other than what he was, which was a rowdy country loving southern boy rebel at heart.
Tyre on the other hand, he pulled off secret agent man rather well, I thought. He had no accent not even so much as an inflection of speech. His features were slightly Eurasian in appearance, which had me placing him in the northern Europe region as a place of origin, but in truth I had no idea.
He must be a lover of American film cinema, if his stylish get ups were anything to go by. When the boat reached us they moved out of it onto one of the pontoons and then, surprisingly, began to switch places with us.
I overheard Flint ask Tyre, "The competition arrive yet?"
"Several members, most notably the CIA, but they're not who you have to worry about. The homegrown boys know we're here and they're closing in fast." Tyre responded.
How did that bit of information regarding the CIA being added to the list of tomb robbers not surprise me?
I stepped down into the boat and Galloway called out, "Good luck, you two!" Flint waved and we moved off from the plane, as it roared back to life.
I looked at the little plane rather fondly as it took off. I'd had love expressed toward me in that little plane and now as I glanced at Flint's strong features in the evening shadows, I just hoped I'd get to experience a lifetime to go along with this new found love. I prayed that it would be so.
Flint pulled the boat alongside the muddy bank and pushed me into the shallows, as he quickly followed after me, letting the boat drift away down the river. Together we slogged up the bank and started walking out over the barren plain with nothing in sight.