Charlie Thorne and the Lost City

by Stuart Gibbs

  * * *

  Dante and Milana raced through the rain, heading for the lake.

  Dante was trusting Milana. She had an innate sense of direction unlike any he had ever encountered, so whatever way she chose had a far better chance of being right than his choice.

  They knew Ivan and the Castellos were still out there somewhere. All the Castellos. Even though they had taken down the brothers in ways that would have laid out normal people, the Castellos weren’t normal. The pain would have already passed for them, which meant they were probably back on their feet and ready for another fight.

  But what really frightened Dante were the opponents who weren’t human. He had heard the sounds of their attack, the shrieks and howls. And since he didn’t know about Oz and his men, the only one he could imagine they had attacked was Charlie.

  So even though they should have been silent, lying low from their enemies, he and Milana were calling Charlie’s name, trying to figure out where she was, or if she was even still alive. The storm was so loud, with the water rattling the trees and pounding the ground and the wind roaring and the thunder rumbling, that their voices were swallowed up. They could barely even hear themselves, but still, they kept yelling, desperately hoping for a response from Charlie but staying alert for the likely possibility that someone else would attack them first.

  Which was exactly what happened.

  THIRTY-SIX

  Oz fled through the city, feeling as though he had been plunged into a nightmare.

  Only minutes before, everything had been going better than he could have ever imagined. First, the thermal activity around the lake indicated a wealth of natural resources that could be exploited. Probably natural gas, but there was a chance of oil pockets in the area too. Sure, it was remote, but at the rate the Amazon was disappearing, nothing was going to stay remote for long. He could stake a claim to the land rights and sell them for a fortune down the road.

  And then they had come upon the remains of the city. A freaking lost city, hidden in the rain forest. He and his men had barely seen any of it, but they could already tell it was big. Bigger than Machu Picchu for sure.

  A lost Incan city was a gold mine. Maybe even a literal one. The place looked as though no one had ever found it—which meant no one had looted it yet. There was bound to be some gold around, as well as plenty of other priceless artifacts. He could rob the place dry.…

  Or perhaps he could simply announce to the world that he’d found it. It had been decades since anyone had discovered a lost city anywhere on earth. The news would catapult him to fame. He’d end up with a huge book deal, do the talk show circuit, rake in money from speaking fees. That wouldn’t be a bad life.…

  But now it had all gone sideways. What on earth are those creatures? Oz wondered. In all his time in the Amazon, he had never heard of anything like them. They were so frightening-looking, so vicious, and… There was something eerily human about them, he thought, and the idea alone sent a chill through him.

  Now he was running as fast as he could, knowing it was a bad idea, knowing he was going the wrong way from his canoe and supplies and backup ammunition, plunging farther into the lost city where these things lived. There could be hundreds more of them here. Thousands maybe. But he didn’t have any other options. He had to get away from the ones that were chasing him and pray that there weren’t others ahead.

  There was a scream from close behind him. Jose.

  “Jose!” Oz yelled, unable to keep the fear out of his voice. “Are you all right?”

  There was no response, only the sound of the storm.

  Oz chanced a look back, but he didn’t stop. He couldn’t see anything but rain.

  He slipped in the mud, almost went down, but managed to steady himself at the last instant. That had been close. If he fell, the creatures would be on him in a second. He couldn’t risk another look back. So he kept on running, alone now. Jose was gone.

  Something large suddenly loomed to his right. A mountain, it seemed… only, there were no mountains in the Amazon. Which meant it was another human construction of some sort. He ran closer to it, spotted a gap at the base, and ducked through it.

  Which brought him into the temple. Only, he didn’t know what it was, because now it was too dark to see and he didn’t want to alert the creatures by turning on a light. For now it simply seemed safe. At the very least, it was a place where he could keep his gun pointed at the door and make a stand against anything that tried to come in.

  His heart was pounding a mile a minute and he could barely breathe from his exertion. He hadn’t run like that in years. He leaned against the wall to steady himself and discovered that it was coated with something disgustingly slimy… but he also felt something surprisingly hard and smooth underneath. Not like rock exactly.

  Despite his fear of the creatures, he couldn’t help but give in to his curiosity. He wiped the slimy stuff away, revealing what lay beneath it.

  A bolt of lightning flashed outside, followed by the accompanying crack of thunder, and the light flickered through the room, illuminating the wall for a sliver of a second. But that was enough. Oz had seen the color of the metal.

  Gold. The room was lined with gold.

  If he could get out of here alive, he’d be rich beyond his wildest dreams.

  Oz allowed himself only a moment to imagine the wealth, the yacht and the private jet, and all the mansions he could buy, then focused on the situation at hand. He had to escape from this horrible place.

  But he had a plan now. The creatures were just a bunch of stupid animals, armed with rocks and sticks. He was a human being with a gun and plenty of ammunition. He quickly slapped a new clip into his weapon, keeping an eye on the entrance to the temple.

  Outside, it seemed that the heart of the storm had passed. It was still raining, but the rain was no longer coming down in sheets, and the roar of it was no longer deafening.

  In fact, Oz could hear something just outside the entrance of the temple. The sounds of the creatures sniffing around and chattering softly to one another.

  Stupid animals, Oz thought to himself. They had given their position away. Now he knew they were there. He raised his gun, ready to blast them the moment they came through the door.

  Suddenly, there was a clatter from inside the room itself, to his side. He swung that way, fearing one of the creatures had found another entrance, and unleashed a burst of gunfire.

  Another flash of lightning illuminated the room.

  It was empty. There was no creature where Oz had been shooting. Only a rock the size of a grapefruit, tumbling across the floor.

  Oz realized that one of the creatures must have thrown it into the room to make noise and distract him. They weren’t as stupid as he’d thought. In fact, they weren’t stupid at all.

  Oz wheeled back toward the entrance to the room, but it was too late. The distraction had worked perfectly. The creatures were already through the door, the sound of their attack covered by the boom of thunder.

  Before Oz could shoot, they were upon him.

  * * *

  Charlie had been running for too long before she realized her mistake. The flowing water she was following didn’t lead to the lake at all, but instead to a creek that was now so swollen, it was several feet deep. In theory, the creek would lead to the lake, but it passed into underbrush too thick to follow through. She would have to retrace her steps.

  Charlie cursed herself for being so stupid. Of all the times to make a mistake, this was the worst. There were enemies with guns all about, not to mention the creatures. She had almost nothing to defend herself with and was soaked to the bone.

  So this time, she didn’t act in haste. Rather than just turning around and running back the way she had come, she took a moment to analyze the situation.

  Her eyes fell upon a shrub in the creek. Normally it would have been on dry land but was now partly submerged by the rising waters. It had oval leaves and bright-red berries, and she recognized i
t from her time with Segundo, learning about the rain forest. It was a plant that could come in handy. She stepped to the edge of the creek, snapped off a small branch, then reached out over the water for another.…

  And heard a call of alarm behind her.

  It wasn’t human.

  Charlie spun around and saw the creature that had made the noise. It wasn’t trying to hide. Instead, it was out in the open behind her, looking at her with what Charlie took to be concern.

  She realized it was the creature that had first confronted the men with the guns. And it had been wounded worse than she’d realized. It was bleeding from its leg where Oz’s bullet had struck it and was obviously in pain.

  This Charlie could handle. She had a small emergency kit in her backpack, along with a few other things.

  But the creature had to let her do it.

  The rain was starting to let up, and the sky was lightening slightly. Charlie held up her hands, palms out, showing she was unarmed, and spoke in as soothing a voice as she could muster. “Hi,” she said. “I’m Charlie. And I’m not going to hurt you.”

  She took a step toward the creature, which tensed.

  “You don’t have to fear me,” Charlie said. “I can help you.”

  The creature stayed where it was, keeping its eyes locked on her. It no longer looked as threatening as it had when first confronting the men with the guns; instead, it looked small and meek and bedraggled.

  Charlie realized it was a female.

  “You’re a girl,” she said, not so much because it was a brilliant observation, but because it seemed her voice was calming the creature. “Cool. We girls need to stick together. How about if I call you Eve?” She took off her backpack, slipped the piece of the plant she had collected inside, and dug out the emergency kit. “I can stop your bleeding, Eve. I wish I could do more, but hopefully that’s all you need.”

  Eve kept her eyes locked on Charlie as Charlie approached. The creature was obviously tense and wary, looking like she might bolt at any moment, but she stayed put.

  Charlie removed some medical supplies from the emergency kit, then tore off a tiny strip of gauze and held it out to Eve. “I’m going to put some of this around your leg. But it won’t hurt you. See?”

  Eve tentatively reached out and touched the gauze, then plucked it from Charlie’s hand. She looked at it curiously—and then ate it.

  Charlie winced. “That is not what you’re supposed to do with gauze.” She looked up from Eve, taking in the forest around her, wondering how far she had run in the wrong direction and thus how far she was from everyone else. Including the other creatures.

  The forest was no longer deafening from the pounding rain, but the storm was still quite loud, with water coming down through the trees and thunder rumbling. Charlie couldn’t hear anyone else, but she knew they were all out there.

  She knew she should be trying to regroup with Dante and Milana, but she was worried about Eve. If she didn’t do something to stop the bleeding, the poor creature might die.

  Charlie tore open the package of sterile padding and unwound a longer strip of gauze. “This isn’t food, Eve. I have to put it on you to make you better. Which means I need to touch you. Is that okay?”

  Eve cocked her head curiously at Charlie, but let her approach. Charlie reached out and placed the sterile padding on the wound on Eve’s leg.

  Eve flinched but didn’t run.

  Charlie wondered how long it had been since a human had been this close to this species. Generations, perhaps.

  Eve had a musty smell, like a wet dog, which made sense given that she was soaked. The hair on her leg was short and wiry, like that of a chimpanzee. She watched Charlie with fascination, although Charlie had the sense that Eve was focused on everything else around her as well.

  Thankfully, the wound in Eve’s leg wasn’t deep. It looked to Charlie as though the creature’s thigh muscle had been grazed, but if the bleeding was stopped, she would be all right.

  Charlie quickly wrapped the gauze around Eve’s leg to hold the padding in place. Eve made a whimper of pain but remained still. The padding slowly saturated, turning red, but the flow of blood appeared to stop.

  “There you go,” Charlie said cheerfully. “Not exactly good as new, but I think you’re going to be all right.”

  Eve suddenly leapt up, so quickly Charlie thought the creature might be attacking her, but then she turned toward a stand of trees, on the defensive, her hair raised and teeth bared.

  A second later, Paolo and Gianni Castello emerged from the forest.

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  Dante and Milana were almost back at the lake when a creature bounded into their path.

  It was an unsettling sight for both of them, not only because the creature looked so much like a link between primates and humans, but because it had obviously been in a fight recently. There was blood on its teeth and matted in its fur.

  Dante raised the gun he had taken from Paolo Castello. The creature appeared dangerous and primed to attack, and his first instinct was to shoot it before it could do that.

  But then Charlie’s words came back to him. When he’d said that he could handle the creatures if they caused trouble, Charlie had replied, “That’s what I’m worried about.” And then said that she didn’t want to start a war with them. She only wanted to leave them alone.

  So Dante ignored his instinct and didn’t shoot. Instead, he held up his hands, the gun in one of them, trying to show that he wasn’t threatening.

  Beside him, Milana followed his lead, doing the same thing with the gun she had taken from Gianni.

  The creature relaxed slightly. It was still on guard, but it stopped baring its teeth and the hair on its neck lowered. Then it made a short, high-pitched yip.

  It was only now that Dante noticed the other creatures surrounding them. They had been lurking in the forest, having gathered so quietly that Dante and Milana hadn’t even noticed them. At least two dozen were visible, which meant there were probably even more close by. Dante realized that if the creatures had attacked, he and Milana would have been easily overwhelmed.

  But they didn’t attack. They just watched Dante and Milana closely. The first one made some more noise, a bit of communication that the others seemed to completely comprehend. All of the creatures backed away, then quickly vanished into the trees.

  Dante and Milana stared after them, at once amazed by what they had seen—and relieved by what they had avoided.

  And then something bit Dante in the neck.

  Or that was what it felt like. The bite of a very large insect, like an enormous mosquito. He reached up to swat the bug away and realized he hadn’t been bitten all.

  There was a tiny dart sticking out of his neck.

  “Milana!” he yelled. “Run!”

  But it was too late. A dart hit her in the neck too.

  Dante turned to see who had shot him, but his vision was already going blurry. His mind was clouding. His strength was ebbing.

  His knees buckled under him and he collapsed in the mud.

  * * *

  Esmerelda understood everything now.

  She had seen the creatures from a distance as they surrounded Dante and Milana, then watched them disappear into the forest.

  She had spent enough time studying Darwin and his writings to recognize what they were. “They’re the treasure,” she told Ivan as they hurried through the lost city. “They’re proof of evolution!”

  “So there’s no actual treasure here?” Ivan asked gruffly. He still had the dart gun he had shot Dante and Milana with at the ready. His intent had been to use it on Charlie, whom he needed alive, but it had been useful against her CIA handlers as well. “I thought you said there’d be gold.”

  “Those things are worth more than gold!” Esmerelda exclaimed. “If we could get one back to civilization and show it to the world, we’d make a fortune. We’d go down in history just like Darwin did.”

  Ivan gave her a sideways gl
ance. “I’d rather have the gold.”

  “This is better. We found a missing link and a lost city. That’s guaranteed fame and fortune.”

  Ivan thought that over. He had no interest in fame, and he wasn’t sure she was right about the fortune. But he had another way to cash in. A guaranteed way. The girl was somewhere close by, and when he delivered her to his superiors, they would be pleased. Very pleased. It would be a great coup, finding Pandora, and he knew he would be well rewarded for it. A sizable chunk of money would be placed in an untraceable foreign bank account for him. Maybe it wouldn’t be millions, but it would be enough for him to give up the spy game once and for all, get a nice place on the beach somewhere in Central America, and live out his days in ease.

  Plus, the girl was the target of the mission. She was what Russia wanted, and he remained loyal to his country.

  And yet…

  Esmerelda was right about how significant it would be to reveal what they had found. Perhaps he couldn’t take the credit for finding the missing link or the city… but Russia could. Back during the space race in the 1960s, Russia had been at the forefront of science. Now that was no longer the case. So it would be quite a triumph for Russia to reveal not one, but two major scientific discoveries.

  “All right,” he agreed. “You can try to catch one of those things if you want. But my priority is the girl. Once I’ve got her, I’m not going to wait around.”

  “You won’t have to.” Esmerelda looked to the dart gun in Ivan’s hands. “You might want something more powerful than that. These creatures look dangerous.”

  Ivan shook his head. “I need the girl alive. And if you’re really interested in making history, a living missing link would be much more of a sensation than a dead one.”

  Esmerelda realized he was right. She had already been imagining the fame she would receive if she brought the body of one of the creatures back to civilization.… But a live one would make headlines all over the world. She would become as well known as any great scientist before her—and all her father’s hard work and struggle would finally be vindicated.