[b]Caleb "Cal" Mercer[/b]
[hr]
Cal lingered a pace back, hat tilted low as the chatter eddied around him.  The stock-exchange baron, -Gibbs, was it?-shone like a polished coin, his words rattling against the glass in bright, eager clinks: Standard Oil, textile empire, rare antiquities for the parlour display.  Cal’s lips twitched; he had seen men buy tiger rugs and think it made them hunters.

Next to Gibbs, young Takács shifted from one boot to the other, eyes alight with the academic hunger Cal remembered from Siamese temple digs: the kind that could note the curvature of a glyph yet miss the cobra at ankle height.  And somewhere off to the side, that razor-thin doctor scribbled neat hieroglyphs of his own, measuring the world in angles and theories as if a charging beast might pause out of courtesy for a diagram.

Cal cleared his throat, “Gentlemen,” he drawled, “I’ve no doubt Omon has scrolls and baubles enough to christen a dozen museums and set a fair few society pages aflutter.”  He tapped the brim of his slouch hat back, eyes sharpening to the emerald sea below, “But the maps we’re about to walk off the edge of weren’t left blank for want of curiosity.  More likely something down there obliged the last curious souls to stop drawing.”

A grin crept across his face as he loosened the leather thong on his Webley revolver and let the walnut grip wink in the light.  “So by all means, chase your prestige, your glory, your footnotes in the annals of civilization.  Just remember: ruins have teeth, natives may not care for polite introductions, and the ferns out there grow big enough to hide things that’ll pick their teeth with our bones.”

He settled the revolver back, knuckles resting easy on the rail.  “Stick close when the scouts say tread left instead of right, keep a piece of iron within arm’s reach, and most of us will live long enough to toast each other with whatever vintage passes for champagne in these parts.”

Cal’s grin tilted wry.  “Fail that, and at least Reverend Jacob will have plenty of souls to shepherd on short notice.”