by Nick Thacker
“I was almost on them. The other side of the river slopes upward, so they’ll be going slower. Since you’re here now, though, I guess we can take care of our other business.”
“It doesn’t have to be this way, Riggs. The Company —“
“The Company has given you everything. They stuck you with us because your daddy told them to. You didn’t earn this. You’re just a rich kid who talked the talk and —“
Joshua dove forward and punched Riggs. He swung cleanly through, snapping Riggs’ head to the side. Before Riggs could recover Joshua wrapped him up and pushed him back into the water. It was deeper than Joshua had expected, and both men disappeared beneath the surface for a moment.
When they came up, Riggs had the upper hand. Joshua felt the man’s hands around his neck, trying to hold him underneath the water. The river was shallow enough to stand in, however, and when Joshua caught his feet on the bottom he lunged upward. Riggs’ hold slipped and Joshua attempted to turn the balance of power back into his favor. He grappled for a moment with Riggs’ arms, trying to subdue him, but Riggs was a far larger and stronger man.
Riggs got an elbow free and slammed it across Joshua’s face. The pain exploded beneath Joshua’s skin, but he ignored it for the moment. He found an opening and tried to knee Riggs, but they were still in the water and the action was slowed enough to be nullified.
Joshua ducked his head down just as Riggs came at him with a left hook, and he pushed Riggs backward back onto the shoreline. Riggs’ body smacked against the soft, muddy ground and sank in just enough to hold him in place for a moment. Joshua took advantage of the small window of opportunity and landed a one-two punch on the man.
The punches were clean, solid and forceful, but Riggs hardly seemed to notice. He grunted and spat out a mouthful of blood, meanwhile bringing his foot and leg around Joshua’s. The kick tripped Joshua, but he was able to fall with his knee downward, catching Riggs in the groin.
This attack garnered a reaction from Riggs, and his eyes rolled back for a second as he waited for the pain to subside. Joshua tried to wriggle free, but Riggs had placed him in a hold, locking him in place on top of himself.
For a moment both men lay still. Joshua’s muscles ached with exertion, rock solid as they struggled to fight against the opposite force Riggs was providing. Joshua knew Riggs would win just about any hand-to-hand combat, but there was nothing he could use as a weapon. He tried to remember his training, searching in vain for something to use against his second-in-command.
He rolled onto his shoulder, attempting to focus all of his weight and strength in one direction. The move worked, and he somersaulted over Riggs and out of reach of the man’s grasp. Joshua stood up and turned around.
Riggs was already on his feet, now brandishing a huge knife in his right hand. Riggs spat again, then smiled. “This ends here, boss.” He hissed the last word, enunciating his hatred for Joshua with a single syllable.
“Why, Riggs? What’s in it for you?”
“It’s not that hard to figure out, Jefferson. There’s a lot of money involved, as always. The Company isn’t loyal to you, or me, or anyone else for that matter. They just want results.”
“We were going to get results. You know I wasn’t going to stop until we —“
“That woman, the doctor, is the result. Whatever they think we’re going to find out here can only be unlocked by her.”
Joshua knew Riggs was right. He had been given the same orders. Find Dr. Meron, find the lost city, and bring back whatever they could that might help their research. Something the Company had found in Amanda’s research linked to this area of the Amazon Rainforest, and they would do whatever it took to find it.
Riggs was also right about their loyalties. The Company would double-cross and betray anyone they employed to ensure they got what they wanted. It was a twisted, complex organization, willing to do anything and go to any lengths to accomplish their goals. Joshua grew suspicious of his own mission when he began talking to Julie. When she’d mentioned that his own brother had been with them — someone she would have no way of knowing otherwise — he’d tried to analyze all of the events leading up to his mission here.
Most of the interactions he’d had with the Company, as always, were through his father, Jeremiah Jefferson. The man was higher up in the organization, though Joshua had no idea how wide the web of hierarchy was spread. Usually, Joshua had regular phone calls with his father about upcoming missions and deployments. The Company chose to communicate with Joshua through Jeremiah, allowing both men somewhat autonomous decision-making when it came to the details of each mission.
That, too, was strange about this particular mission. Joshua hadn’t spoken with his father in months. His communication lately had been via email. The emails, now that he thought about it, were short and written in a tone that didn’t quite match his father’s.
He suspected now that his father’s email had been hacked, either by someone within the Company operating as a rogue, or by the Company itself, in one of the never-ending twists and turns that defined the organization’s power structure.
The most obvious sign of his being played, however, was the fact that his brother, Rhett Jefferson, was out here as well. Their father would never send Rhett, and from the conversations they’d had months earlier and before, Joshua was convinced their father thought less of his younger son than even Joshua had expected.
He remembered one of the last conversations he’d had with his father. The subject of Joshua’s kid brother came up, and Jeremiah Jefferson grew cold, his thick southern accent slowing down to enunciate his point. “Rhett is dangerous, not because of his experience and training but in spite of it. He doesn’t know where his loyalties should lie, and his only authority is money and power.”
Without overtly saying it, Jeremiah Jefferson had asked his eldest son to be wary of his younger brother.
“What’s it going to be, Jefferson?” Riggs asked, snapping Joshua back to the present. “You want to fight this out to its inevitable conclusion, or can we do it the easy way?”
Joshua assumed the ‘easy way’ would end in his death, as Riggs would undoubtedly not want to allow Joshua to rejoin their group. The Company would write it off as an unexpected expense, but nothing more.
Joshua sighed. He glanced over to a large pile of sticks and branches that had floated into a corner of the river. Over time the mess had compressed itself together, forming a nearly impenetrable wall that domed upward above the water’s surface. As he stared at the crop of broken sticks, he had an idea.
Riggs wasn’t going to make this easy, regardless of Joshua’s choice. He had no doubt he would lose in any sort of one-on-one combat, no matter how hard he fought. He couldn’t use a distraction to any effect, and Riggs wouldn’t fall for any type of gimmick. He was a hardened soldier, someone who had seen more combat than anyone on their team, a lifer who had killed more people than some of his men had ever even known.
Joshua sidestepped, inching closer to the water. Riggs matched his movements, stepping around to his right as well to keep Joshua directly in front of him. Soon, both men were standing at the edge of the water in inch-deep mud, eyeing each other in anticipation of the final battle.
Joshua waited until the larger man was standing opposite him, just in front of the mound of debris.
The nest.
He remembered reading about some of the more well-known predators they could expect to find in the jungle. The list of things that could kill them out here was nearly endless, but there were a few that topped the chart in Joshua’s mind he called ‘horrible ways to die in the rainforest.’
He recalled one of these predators in particular, and their typical habitat. They preferred slow-moving rivers, almost swamp-like, murkier water that allowed them to sneak up on their prey, and nesting in the large mounds of sticks and debris that were common alongside Amazon tributaries and rivers.
It was a long shot, but it was all Joshua had. He
jumped forward, hoping Riggs would take the bait.
He did, stepping backwards and onto the mound. It was a nearly involuntary reaction, a response to the sudden frontal assault.
Joshua stopped and waited. Riggs stood on the mound, warily eyeing his opponent.
Then it happened. Riggs was too heavy for the mound of sticks, and one of his feet broke through the ceiling of the dome. The interior of the mound was hollow, and Joshua saw and heard the splash of water as Riggs’s foot hit the river’s surface.
Riggs was surprised but unfazed. He cursed, trying to wriggle his foot free.
Come on, Joshua thought. There’d better be someone home.
Riggs pushed down with his free foot and pulled his leg out from the hole. Just as the sole of his boot lifted free from the top of the dome, the mound collapsed. Sticks, mud, water, and Riggs sloshed around in the river as Joshua looked on.
Riggs was just about to stand when something pulled him back. His upper body fell forward as his lower body was tugged backwards into the shallow water. He frowned as he lifted his head above the surface once more, and Joshua saw him make the effort to pull himself up and forward again.
His movement was betrayed yet again as the invisible force beneath the surface tugged on the man.
Riggs’s eyes widened as he realized what he was fighting against now. Joshua stared, calmly looking into the broken nest and the man struggling against his fate.
The anaconda was obviously upset that its home had been ruined, and it made no difference to the large snake that it was a human intruder.
Riggs pulled himself to the shore, digging his fingers into the mud and forcing his torso up onto the bank. Only then did Joshua get a good look at the snake that had wound itself around Riggs’s leg and lower body. The reptile was absolutely massive, over a foot wide at its thickest point.
The greenish-brown snake reacted to every motion Riggs made with an opposite one, using every ounce of the man’s strength against him. Whenever Riggs exhaled, the snake wound its way up his body and tightened its grasp on its prey.
Joshua had read that the anaconda was a member of the boa constrictor family, aptly named for its ability to “constrict” its prey by wrapping itself around its food to suffocate it. Sometimes growing to a weight of 500 pounds, they typically only attacked small-to-medium-sized mammals, only rarely striking out at full-grown humans.
Joshua had hoped this particular snake would make an exception, and it had. Even if the snake had no intention of consuming Riggs, the man would be crushed beneath the weight of the monster in less than a minute.
Riggs struggled for a few more seconds, then looked over at Joshua. His eyes were bloodshot, his mouth agape yet eerily silent. He seemed to be calling out to Joshua, crying for help. Joshua ignored him, staring onward at the horrendous scene unfolding in front of him. A small part of him felt remorse, but he was able to look past those feelings and remind himself of the truth.
As the snake finished the job, Joshua heard the snap of a branch and the rustling of leaves to his left. One of the men from his group appeared in the jungle. The man looked at Joshua, then down at the snake-wrapped Riggs. When his eyes came back to meet Joshua’s, Joshua was pointing his gun directly at him.
He fired two shots quickly, but the man was already moving. He ducked and fell to the ground, dodging the attack perfectly.
Joshua didn’t wait any longer. There was no way he was going to stay and fight off the rest of his men, now turned against him. He dove headfirst into the river, briefly considering that the giant snake may have had friends lurking nearby. He swam freestyle across the water and to the other side, not slowing down until he had pulled himself from the river and into the trees. Joshua ran up the sloping hill in the same direction Riggs had said the girls were headed.
It wouldn’t take long for the group to meet up, explain what had happened, and realize that Joshua was no longer on their side. From then on, he would be the enemy of not just Dr. Meron’s and Julie’s group but of his own as well.
A half hour later, he found Julie and Amanda. They were walking ahead of him, moving slowly, Julie half-carrying Amanda as they pressed onward through the jungle. He needed a plan, and fast. The girls were trying to meet up with their group, and Joshua needed to help them do just that, without getting himself killed in the process.
“Juliette,” he shouted, running forward to intercept them.
53
HE HADN’T REALIZED HIS MOUTH was hanging open until Reggie called out to him. “Ben, you okay?”
Ben couldn’t move his gaze from the water, but he nodded. “I’m okay. Carlo…”
“We saw, Ben. Nothing we can do.”
Ben wanted to scream. He wanted to curse, to argue with Reggie. We could have stopped it.
But he knew the horrific truth. There was nothing they could have done. The attack was swift, stealthy, and there was no possible way to have prevented it. Even as it was happening, it would only have put more lives in danger if they’d tried to stop it.
Paulinho and Rhett were facing the other direction, looking onward into the thick stand of jungle that was now the only barrier between them and the cliff face. He felt a hand on his shoulder, pulling him gently away from the edge of the river. He turned to see Archie next to him, and Reggie walking over. “I’m sorry, Ben.” Ben wasn’t sure why the man should have been sorry. Carlo wasn’t his employee, or friend, or even an acquaintance. Ben didn’t know him any better than anyone else on the trip, and he should have been able to brush off the feeling with little concern.
But something nagged at him. The entire journey had been reminding Ben of something, something he couldn’t quite place. He hadn’t tried to understand the feeling, and even actively refused it, but he knew it was there. It tugged at him, bringing him back to a time and a place he’d long since tried to forget.
His father was there, and his brother. A hunting trip. A bear cub had wandered into their camp, and Ben’s brother had come between the cub and its mother. Ben’s father died saving him. His mother never truly recovered.
That was almost fourteen years ago, and he’d become a park ranger shortly after that. He’d wanted a job that was solitary, something away from people and busyness. When he’d arrived at the park and started working, he realized immediately that he’d done it for the wrong reasons.
He loved the park job, and dedicated the next decade to it, but it was Juliette Richardson who’d finally forced him to realize the truth. He didn’t hate people, he just hated the pain they caused. He wanted to help, and was stubbornly dedicated to the people he loved and worked with, and would do anything to protect them. He was reclusive because he was afraid, not because he was angry. She’d made him realize that.
Reggie soon joined Archie. “Ben, he knew the risks. We all do.”
“He had nothing to do with —“
“None of us do, Ben. It’s no one’s fight, and that’s exactly why you and I are fighting it.”
Ben eyed Reggie suspiciously.
“I’m on to you, Bennett,” Reggie said. “Julie filled me in on a bit of it, but I got the rest pretty quickly.”
“What are you talking about?” Ben asked.
“You and I are the same this way, Ben. We care about people in a way that makes us stupid sometimes.”
Ben frowned.
“It’s not always a bad thing, man. You’re here, and that’s good. No one else on the planet would throw themselves in the face of this willingly. You flew here. On a plane. Two planes, actually.” Reggie grinned.
“She told you about that?”
“Yeah, sorry.” Reggie rapped him on the back. “Everyone’s got something, you know?”
Ben laughed.
“There aren’t a lot of guys I’ve met like you. You’re stubborn as hell, but you use it smartly. Under pressure.”
Ben started walking away, trying to distance himself from the river and not think about the fact that when all this was over, when th
ey’d finally found what they were looking for and somehow stayed alive, they’d have to cross it once more.
“Carlo was a good man, I’m sure,” Reggie said. “We’ll make sure to find his family. Right now, though, we need you. All of you. Understand?”
Ben nodded.
“Good. Julie’s out there somewhere, and she needs you to get her back.”
Ben tensed at the mention of her name, but he knew Reggie was right. The man wasn’t pandering to him or manipulating his emotions. He spoke in truths, and laid out the facts. It was one of the things he liked about Reggie.
Archie had rejoined Paulinho and both men were checking the bruising that remained on Paulinho’s torso. It was a terrible bluish-black color, but Paulinho seemed to be doing well. The bruise-covered area was already growing smaller too, it seemed. Archie poked and prodded it in a few places, and both men soon deemed it healthy enough to continue forward.
“You ready?” Reggie asked.
Ben thought for a moment, his subconscious still churning through scenarios that would allow him to not have to free-climb a rock wall. Not finding a suitable scenario, he nodded. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
Reggie grinned. “You got this.”
Reggie walked the few paces over to Archie, Rhett, and Paulinho and asked the same question, but before Ben could listen for their responses, he heard the unmistakable sound of gunfire cracking through the air. He squinted, trying to see across the river at the source of the commotion.
The gunfire continued, steady bursts of shots echoing over the river’s surface and reaching Ben, then bouncing off the cliff face behind him and back over the water. It created a tin can effect, adding more confusion and threatening chaos to the mix of emotions Ben was feeling.
Julie suddenly stumbled out onto the same ledge they’d descended from less than an hour earlier, the gunshots continuing to rip through the jungle.
54
“JULIE!” HE SHOUTED. HE WAVED his arms above his head, hoping to get her attention.
