Excerpt: The Lamanai Codices

"Hello, Eliza," Dr. Lancaster said flatly. "I'm afraid I have to ask you for a favor."

"Sure, what?" Eliza ran a hand through her short brown hair, noticing that the professor was sitting dead still at her desk with both hands resting flat on the desktop.

"Would you mind terribly taking the largest book you can find and, very quietly and very slowly, using it to crush the venomous snake that is seriously considering sinking its fangs into my face at this moment?"

Eliza, to her credit, did not scream or run. The snake was indeed, now that she looked, curled up just in front of Dr. Lancaster on the desk and weaving its small head very slightly back and forth. As far as she could tell, it didn't have a rattle, but she wasn't about to indulge her interest in exotic reptiles. She leaned forward onto the balls of her feet and slowly looked at the shelf next to her, which fortunately held a copy of Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. She slid the book out of its spot and, padding forward as silently as some jungle cat, she raised the book over her head and dropped it down on the snake with a loud, satisfying thud.

Dr. Lancaster released a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "Please, Eliza, would you mind leaning on the book with as much of your weight as--"

Eliza pushed down on the book as hard as she could and some wet popping sounds emerged from underneath it. Dr. Lancaster winced and rolled her chair back as far as it would go, bumping into the bookshelf behind her.

"I'm glad you finally found a use for Proust," Dr. Lancaster said.