by Rai Aren
Rick texted Sofia.
The buzzer went off inside Rick’s apartment.
Sofia checked her phone. There was a text message from Rick.
Looks ok so far. I’m coming back. He sprinted back to his building.
She showed the message to Luis, then quickly texted Rick back, Bien.
Luis nodded, then took a deep breath.
She answered on the intercom. “Quién es?”
“It’s Javier,” a young man’s voice answered in Spanish. “I’m here to speak with Sofia.”
“Come up,” she replied and buzzed him in.
Sofia paced the room nervously.
There was a soft knock at the door. “It’s Javier.”
Sofia called out, “Un momento.” She wanted to wait until Rick arrived.
A moment later, she heard Rick in the hallway speaking to Javier.
“Hola, my name is Rick,” he said, holding his hands out. “Don’t be frightened.”
Javier stepped back away from him.
“It’s ok. I’m a friend of Sofia’s. This is my apartment you’re meeting her at. We needed to take some precautions, you understand.”
Javier swallowed hard. “Si, si,” he said, in a shaky voice, clearly jumpy.
Sofia opened the door.
“After you,” Rick said, motioning him inside.
Javier entered the apartment looking skittish and scared. His inquisitive dark brown eyes darted around the room, looking for danger and trying to get a sense of who was here. He’d obviously taken a bit of a beating, too. His eye was blackened and there were bruises on his arms.
Rick closed the door behind him and locked it.
“I’m Sofia and this is my brother Luis.” She could tell how nervous he was. He had the look of someone desperate and completely out of options. In her line of work, she’d seen many a soul look exactly this way.
“You have nothing to fear from us,” she said in a calm voice.
Javier nodded, but was still clearly tense.
“Let me get you something to drink,” Rick said. He grabbed a bottle of Coke from the fridge and handed it to him.
Javier took it, his hand shaking a little.
“Have a seat,” Rick said, pointing to a chair in the living room.
He sat down, leaning forward, somewhat hunched over.
Rick sat down in the chair next to him, while Sofia and Luis took the sofa.
Javier took a long sip. His shoulders were tense and he stared at the floor, brows creased, looking like someone who was expecting to be jumped at any moment.
They were all quiet for a few moments.
“So,” Rick said, breaking the ice, “you might know where Diego Torres is?”
“Si,” he replied, setting the soda bottle down on the coffee table. “I saw an older man, held prisoner in the jungle, outside the city.” He described the man to them.
Sofia and Luis nodded quickly, their eyes growing wide with hopefulness.
“That sounds like our padre,” Sofia said, the emotion clearly evident in her voice.
“He was tied to a tree.” Javier then hesitated a moment. “He appeared injured slightly. Not bad, but I think they might’ve roughed him up a bit.”
Luis squeezed his eyes closed, fighting back tears at the thought of his father held prisoner and injured somewhere out in the jungle.
“He was held by a group of men. I could not tell how many there were, but they were armed. I am certain they’re somehow connected to those foreign operators, Ares, that you mentioned in your article. They’ve been spotted snooping around everywhere, asking questions about our historical artifacts and archaeological locations. I do not trust them.” Javier’s throat felt parched. He reached for the Coke and took a long sip.
“Neither did our padre,” Sofia replied, thinking that was exactly what got him captured.
Rick listened. Hearing about the capture of their father brought memories flooding back to him. He felt his heart beat faster. He could again feel the fear and anxiety of being taken prisoner. Not knowing if you would live to see another day. Completely at their mercy.
Javier continued, “I ran as fast as I could, I was trying to get back to town, but I was grabbed not far from the prison camp. One of the men must’ve spotted me. He was questioning me about what I was doing out there, how I’d found them. If it had something to do with where the metal library was, and what I knew about the Tayos Caves system. I said I didn’t know what he was talking about. I struggled and managed to escape.”
“How?” Rick asked.
“My knowledge of the jungle,” Javier replied, offering no further explanation on that point.
Rick didn’t press him on that particular point. “Where is this prison camp?” he asked.
“It is on the way to the Cueva de los Tayos, east of the city, inside the rainforest.”
Rick nodded. “The Tayos Caves site. I know of it. That’s almost a four-hour drive from here, then across the Rio Santiago.”
Javier shook his head. “No, not that far. They were located in the jungle between the E40 highway and the river.”
“So, not all the way to the Tayos Cave entrance?”
“No, but they were almost directly north of it.”
Rick thought about that for a moment. “That is, if they haven’t moved since then.”
Luis looked to Sofia and whispered in Spanish, “If they’ve moved, how will we find Papa?”
Sofia touched his arm, but kept her eyes on Javier. “At least we have this information. It’s a lot more than we had an hour ago.”
Luis let out a heavy sigh.
Javier spoke, acknowledging their worries, “They might be on the move. It’s possible they could even be underground, inside the cave system by now, since that is what they seemed most interested in.”
Rick frowned. That would be unfortunate, he thought to himself. It would make finding them a whole lot more difficult and dangerous.
“And that was two days ago?” Rick asked, silently calculating the odds of their father’s survival.
Javier nodded, his big brown eyes conveying his fears about the time that had passed and what it could mean for their missing people. “I made it back to town, but my friends didn’t. I’ve been searching for them ever since, but there’s no sign of them.”
Sofia frowned.
“I can only think that they have ended up where your father was held. If so, I need help to rescue them.” He stared at the bottle in his hand. “I... I do not have anyone else to turn to.”
Sofia thought of something. “So, wait, all this time, are you telling us that you did nothing to help our father?”
“I had no idea who he was,” Javier said, “and I did want to help, but I was alone. I needed to find my friends first, so we could make a plan. My friends and I know the jungle, we have an advantage there.”
“Why not just call the police?” Rick asked.
“I did,” Javier replied, “but they did nothing. I don’t know for certain, but I think they might have been... influenced by these men from Ares. They seemed dismissive of me. Said my friends and I should know the dangers of the jungle. As if that explains away what I saw.”
Sofia sat back, satisfied enough with his explanation for the moment. “I’ve been wondering about that. Others have gone missing in the last few weeks, shortly after those people arrived in the area, and it seems like nothing’s being done to locate them, either, same with our father’s disappearance.”
“Si,” Javier said, nodding. “I know of others who’ve gone missing in some of the villages leading out to the Cueva de los Tayos.”
“We need to do something,” Luis said.
Sofia nodded. “I know.”
Rick listened.
“Those people you wrote about—Ares,” Javier said, looking at Sofia, “I believe they are as dangerous as you speculate. And more.”
CHAPTER 7
Rick realized the math was definitely adding up to Ares being a
t the center of all of this.
“We have to get our padre back,” Sofia stated, her anger now growing white-hot, thinking of her father in the hands of these mercenaries.
“I hope he’s still alive,” Luis said, his sense of desperation growing.
Sofia squeezed his hand.
“They also stole something from me,” Javier said, a deep frown on his face. “A compass. I need it back. It’s extremely important.”
Luis looked to Sofia.
She nodded.
Luis pulled it out of his pocket. “Is this the compass you’re looking for?”
Javier’s eyes went wide. “How did you get it?”
Luis pointed to Rick. “We have him to thank.”
Luis told Javier about being grabbed a few hours ago, dragged into an alley, and the beating he took before Rick came to his rescue.
“They were asking me a lot of questions about the compass,” Luis said, looking at it. “What did I know about it and how did it work?” He shrugged his shoulders. “I figured if it was that important to them to find out, I should relieve them of it.”
“May I?” Javier asked, reaching out his hand.
“Not so fast,” Sofia said, holding her hand out and then taking the compass from Luis. “I’d like you to explain this to us first. Why were they so interested in it?”
Javier lowered his hand, disappointed. “It’s not an ordinary compass. It belongs to my people. It has great significance to us.”
“What kind of significance?” Rick asked.
Javier looked at him warily. “Historical significance.”
Rick sensed there was something the young man wasn’t telling them, but he let it go.
Sofia looked at it. The symbols on the back were very unusual. “We thought it was broken. It doesn’t seem to tell direction.”
“It’s not broken,” Javier said. “It’s just... old.”
Sofia thought for a moment, then handed it back to him. She had no reason to keep his stolen possession from him.
“Gracias,” he replied, relieved, reverently running his fingers over it. He then tucked it away in his pocket.
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Luis said. “Let’s make a plan to rescue our padre.” He looked to Javier. “And hopefully your amigos.”
Javier nodded. “That is why I came to you. I was hoping we could help each other, since we have a similar problem, I think.”
“How can we go there, though?” Sofia asked. “It’s a restricted area. We need permits, those take time...”
Javier raised his hand and cut her off. “I can grant you access, as long as you’re with me.”
She looked at him, surprised. Then it dawned on her. “You’re one of the Shuar people?”
He gave a small smile.
“Well, now,” she said, “that does explain a lot.”
Rick knew what she meant. The Tayos Caves System was a protected and restricted area. It was inaccessible without gaining permission and permits from the indigenous Shuar people, whose territory the caves belonged to, and who considered them sacred.
Rick replied, “Well, well, you do know a whole lot more than you were letting on.”
“I had to be sure I could trust you,” Javier said. “I am a member of a small, hidden sect of the Shuar people. We help guard access to our land and protect our people’s historical artifacts.”
Sofia let out a long breath, thinking how this night just kept on revealing surprises.
“Hang on,” Rick said, “is that what you were doing out in the jungle at night, and how you just happened across an armed prison camp?”
Sofia listened intently.
Javier nodded. “My people and I, we help to protect our land, day or night. Many intruders would come and try to take from us that which is sacred to our people.”
Rick realized something. “I’ve been trying for weeks to find not only a guide, but men I could hire for my own expedition out to that region. No takers. I couldn’t figure out why. I had every intention of getting the proper permits, doing everything by the book.”
Javier frowned. He stared at Rick for a moment before replying.
Rick could tell he was sizing him up. Trust doesn’t come easy in these parts. He knew that better than anyone.
“That’s no accident,” Javier said, finally. “We put the word out that it just isn’t safe to go out there. Because it isn’t. People are going missing. We need to keep the area clear of any more potential victims or... intruders.”
Rick understood the implication of what he said. “Look, I’m not here to steal anything from anyone, I promise. I was only trying to uncover a very old mystery...”
A flash of anger crossed Javier’s face as he cut Rick off, “Perhaps we don’t need you to uncover anything,” he snapped.
Rick felt taken aback, but then he realized that Javier had a right to feel as he did. He bit his tongue. He sensed there was a lot Javier was still keeping to himself, but he wasn’t going to press him on it after what he’d just said. Maybe, if the fates were smiling on him, his dream of locating the metal library could still come true, somehow. But for now, he’d stay quiet about that desire around Javier and just see where this journey would lead.
But first, they had a lot more pressing matters to deal with.
“So,” Rick said, sidestepping the issue, “do you have any suggestions as to how we should proceed to mount a rescue?”
“Si, what should we do?” Luis asked, desperate to do something to help his father.
Sofia spoke up, “From what you’ve said, these people are armed and we might be outnumbered.”
Javier shook his head. “We will not win in a direct fight.” He thought for a moment. “The best we can do is try to free the prisoners without them seeing us. Stealth and knowledge of the jungle will be our best weapons. They cannot match my knowledge of the area. I can get us there and get us back.”
“What about enlisting the help of the other Shuar people in the area?” Rick suggested. “They could help us with transportation, with supplies, with...”
“Absolutely not,” Javier quickly replied, cutting Rick off again. “I do not want my people put in harm’s way. This situation is far too dangerous. Myself and my missing friends, we are part of a secret sect of the Shuar, as I told you. We have taken an oath to guard our people’s history and sacred places and artifacts. The responsibility is ours. I will not put innocent people in danger.”
“I understand,” Rick said, letting the matter drop. “We’ll figure something else out.”
They were all quiet for a few moments.
Sofia spoke up, there was something she needed to address. “Rick, you’ve done a lot for us already. You do not have to do this.”
Luis’ eyes went wide. He looked at Rick, scared about what he might say.
Javier leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers.
Rick saw them all staring at him intently. The faces of people he’d never met before today. For a moment, he wondered the same thing. But then he realized he had come to this place for a reason, and like it or not, this is how it was playing out. Strange as it seemed, he sensed he was on the journey he was meant to take, but like before, it was unfolding in the most unexpected of ways.
Rick looked at Sofia and Luis. He could see the fear in their eyes, the well of emotions and longing just to have their father back safely. He thought of his own father, the closeness he’d longed for, and now there was no possibility of ever having that. It had long slipped beyond his grasp. But he could help these two recover what they held most dear.
He then looked at Javier, who continued to regard him with thinly veiled suspicion and mistrust. He wondered what the young man wasn’t telling them, but his instincts told him he was an honorable person.
In spite of the scars Rick bore, both physical and psychological, and the bad memories that had haunted him since the Mato Grosso, he was going to try to do whatever he could to help these young people. Once a pris
oner himself, he would’ve given anything at that time to have a rescue party, even one such as this, come and try to free him. But he’d been alone. No one came for him. These people weren’t alone. That made all the difference in the world, and that was good enough for him.
He finally answered Sofia, “I was once in your father’s shoes and no one came to help me. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”
She was startled at his admission, but then gave him a soft smile.
Luis fought back tears.
Javier tried to mask his surprise at Rick’s response, wondering what had happened to him.
“Let’s do it,” Rick said, clapping his hands together.
CHAPTER 8
That night, the four of them stayed up for hours in Rick’s apartment planning their daring rescue mission. As per Rick’s suggestion, Javier had also stayed overnight, along with Sofia & Luis. Javier slept in a sleeping bag on the floor, while Rick, being older, took the sofa.
Being familiar with the area, Javier was going to drive them there in his pickup truck. The plan was to sneak up to the prison camp, try to free the prisoners somehow, and then hightail it back to the truck. They were relying heavily on Javier’s knowledge and expertise in the jungle and his familiarity with the route they would take.
Rick knew it was a massive risk. He tried not to think about how abysmal their chances of success really were.
To mitigate the obvious risks and challenges, they tried to think of every eventuality that they might face, and what they’d need for gear. They intended to head out into the rainforest the very next day.
Early the next morning, Rick made them coffee and a simple breakfast of empanadas, toast, and fruit. His cupboards were going nearly bare after all of his impromptu guests.
