The Angel Expedition

Chapter 3 - Heaven's Angel

September 30th.

"Thank you all for coming today. For those of you that don't already know, my name is Donovan Carlisle, and I will be your Captain on the expedition to Peru. Just a brief background about me- I have known Mr Emrys for 32 years of my life and I am very happy and proud to be leading you on this expedition."

Donovan looked around the small, beige meeting room within the grand Emrys & Emrys building. He had booked it out for the day so that he could give his crew their first and final briefing before they set out on their dangerous adventure. He succinctly observed all of the faces staring up at him from the large oakwood table, Larry's being the only one he recognised, before pacing up and down in front of the group, the whiteboard behind him bearing various plans and coordinates that he had prepared to present to them before they had arrived for the meeting.

"I hope you're all prepared to set off tomorrow," he continued as he paced. "We have a thirteen-hour flight in the morning, setting off at precisely 8 o'clock. Once we land at the coordinates on the left side of the board behind me, we will walk to the Amazon River where we will board a rowboat that Mr Emrys has kindly arranged for us. The boat will take us to the coordinates that I have written here," he pointed to two sets of long coordinates and paused to make sure that they were definitely correct. "I trust that you've all marked these on your maps–"

Suddenly, the door opened just as he wiped the coordinates from the board, and Evangeline Emrys entered the room quietly, taking a seat next to Larry. She looked run-down. Her skin appeared cold and tired, her ginger hair was frizzy and tied back into a messy bun, and her clothes were creased and colourless, yet somehow, she still looked beautiful.

"Ah, Miss Emrys," Donovan announced loudly to the room as if they hadn't noticed her yet. As beautiful as she looked, he would not allow his thoughts to disrupt his authoritative demeanour. After all, Mr Emrys had left him in charge, and he wanted her to know it. "How kind of you to finally join us."

"Sorry I'm late," she replied harshly, narrowing her eyes to accentuate her bitterness. How dare he be so rude. "I was visiting my father in hospital." She stared at him, forgetting briefly that they were not alone in the small classroom-type room, and tried to search for more reasons to hate him. Perhaps his clothes. No. She loved a man that dressed smart.

He stopped to consider his response, tucking his hands into his navy suit trousers, and smiled slightly to himself before turning his back to them to write something else on the board. "Ring next time," he told her as the whiteboard pen began to squeak. The sound filled the room unnecessarily, as if he were putting more pressure on the pen as he wrote, its high-pitched short sounds making everyone shuffle uncomfortably. Everyone except Evangeline, who just scoffed aggressively.

"He had a heart attack, you know," she spat, daring to break the silence.

"I am aware," he replied firmly, tensing his jaw.

"Oh, yeah," she chuckled with a slight shake of her head. She couldn't believe his attitude. How on earth had they managed to get along when they were younger before she'd been sent to boarding school? "I forgot- you just don't care. How many times have you visited him? Once? Twice?"

He paused again, considering his answer once more, before he turned to her calmly and placed both of his palms flat on the antique mahogany desk that was in front of him. He leant forwards, shifting all of his weight onto his hands. He didn't want her to know the truth- that it was simply too painful for him to see the man that had raised him since he was nine years old, now in a hospital bed being fed through pipes. He understood that people deal with pain, worry, and anxiety in different ways, but Donovan did not want to deal with any of it at all.