by Vanessa Kier
Once she’d put away the medical supplies, Emily drove the Jeep as close to the ravine as possible, only stopping when the closely grown trees prevented them from moving forward. After camouflaging the Jeep, Emily led him into the jungle.
Max watched her carefully, but she moved without a limp. Unlike him. Thanks to the aid of his tree branch crutch, he was able to walk at a slow, but steady pace today, but he definitely had a hitch in his step. Yeah, between the two of them, they weren’t exactly in prime shape to be playing jungle explorer.
Fifteen minutes later, Emily stopped and gestured in front of her. “There’s the gully.”
Max moved forward and looked down. He couldn’t tell what part of the plane the white square belonged to. Roughly the size of a microwave oven and charred around the edges, it could have belonged to any manmade item.
“Not much help, is it?” Emily said.
“No. Pass me the binoculars.” He searched the vegetation at the bottom of the ravine, but due to the thick canopy, didn’t spot any more pieces. So he moved to his left several yards and searched again. Saw another glimpse of white in a thinner section of vegetation. “Okay, it looks like the plane headed across the ravine as it broke up.”
“What would have caused the plane to break apart like that?” Emily asked.
“I can hazard a few guesses. First, weather. Turbulence from a bad storm could have put too much stress on the plane, resulting in structural failure.” He shrugged. “But I don’t think there have been any violent storms recently.”
“None while I was at my homestay.”
“Okay. A more likely scenario is a section of the plane—such as the tail or the tip of a wing—was hit by a surface-to-air missile. Maybe fired by the government, although we haven’t seen any signs that they have ground troops in this area. So it’s more likely that the plane was shot down by either a competitor of Dietrich’s or local smugglers.” He glanced over at her. “That would explain why the group from your homestay village was so well armed.”
Emily flinched, but didn’t jump in to defend the villagers. Progress.
“So… What?” she asked. “Someone leaked the plane’s route to a group they knew would destroy the plane? Wouldn’t that run the risk of the prototype activating?”
Max nodded. “You’re right. We don’t know exactly what the weapon does, but from the fact that the jungle hasn’t been obliterated, the briefcase must have prevented the weapon from discharging.” But if it had detonated—
He grasped her hand and held on tightly.
“Max?”
“If the weapon had detonated while you were at your homestay village, you might have been killed.”
“Okay, that’s a pretty scary thought. But it didn’t happen.”
Yet it was the type of outcome that Max faced all too often. Proof that his world was just too violent for her safety. And yet, he didn’t want to let her go.
Not now. Not ever.
A few heartbeats later, Max forced himself to release her hand. Shit happened. He knew better than to get distracted by what-ifs. The prototype hadn’t detonated. Emily was alive. All he could do was deal with whatever today threw at him.
This overwhelming fear for her safety was a direct result of working alone so long. Without the support of a team, and with him operating at less than full strength, the likelihood of failure was high. Plus, having events out of his control always set him on edge.
Yet it was more complicated than that. Caring for Emily, wanting to protect and shelter her, had brought parts of him back to life that he hadn’t even noticed had been dormant. He suspected he was a better man because of it, but didn’t know if he was a better soldier.
“Who would leak the plane’s route if there was such a potential for disaster?” Emily asked.
“Dietrich’s men both fear and respect him, so I doubt there’s a traitor among his ranks. Maybe an employee at the manufacturer discovered the threat and thought this was the best way to stop it from falling into the wrong hands. Or it’s possible that the buyer has a traitor among his men.” He shrugged. “Of course, the plane might simply have suffered from a mechanical failure. Something that caused a small internal explosion that breached the plane’s hull and caused the wind to tear the plane to pieces.”
Emily glanced skeptically at the piece of debris barely visible at the bottom of the gully. “Shouldn’t there be more stuff?”
Max shrugged. “We don’t know how high or how fast the plane was flying. This might only be the edge of the debris field. I’m not an expert on plane crash dynamics, so I have no clue what the trail should look like. But I think debris can stretch for several miles. Plus—” he nodded toward the debris “—I bet more pieces of the plane are down there, just hidden by the thick vegetation.”
Emily shot a look at him. “Max, I’m going to have to go down into the gully to investigate.”
Every instinct immediately rejected that idea as too dangerous. He glanced at the nearly solid tangle of brush that started a few feet down from the rim.
“I—” she began.
He held up his hand, thinking he heard the sound of rotors. Yes. There. Faint, but growing louder. “Helicopter’s coming. Quick, get deeper under cover.”
Ignoring his command, Emily put her arm around his waist and hustled him farther into the jungle until they stood under the protective foliage of several trees. Max leaned his back against the trunk of the widest tree and pulled Emily flush against him.
They waited tensely while the helicopter made several passes over the area. Shit. Unlike the previous flyovers, this time it sounded as if the helicopter was moving methodically back and forth in a search pattern. Either they knew Max and Emily were here and were searching for them, or more likely, they had tracked the missing plane here.
Had Dietrich managed to get his hands on infrared technology? Were he and Em in imminent danger? Tightening his arms around Emily, he waited for the helicopter to fly away.
He kept them in position for ten minutes more, until he was certain the chopper wasn’t going to make a surprise reappearance. “Okay. Let’s move.”
“Mmm,” Emily murmured drowsily.
“Em! Are you falling asleep on me?”
She blinked up at him. “Yep. Sorry. Can’t help it.”
“Damn it, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have woken you so often.” He’d made love to her in the Jeep twice more during the night.
She put her hand over his mouth. “Shh. It’s not your fault. I could have said no.” The smile she gave him was that of a well-satisfied woman. “But I didn’t want to. Besides, we slept in.” She pressed a kiss to his mouth. “I think I’m sluggish because we slept late. My body just got out of rhythm. Don’t worry, once we start moving again, I’ll sharpen up.”
“I know you will. You’re resilient like that.”
Emily rewarded him with a deeper kiss. Mmm… He loved the way their mouths fit together so well. Loved that kissing her now felt like coming home. “All right,” he said. “The helicopter changes things. We need to get into the gully and locate the briefcase as soon as possible.” If this helicopter was equipped with thermal imaging cameras, then he and Emily were racing against the clock.
“We?” She did that eyebrow raising thing that he was coming to love.
He sighed and pressed his forehead against hers. “Okay, I give up. We have to find a path into the gully so that you can retrieve the briefcase.”
“That’s right.”
For a long moment they remained like that, forehead to forehead, breathing one another’s air. So peaceful and connected that he wished they could stay like this. Because he was terrified that if he let Emily out of his sight, something awful would happen and he’d never see her again.
She broke the spell by pulling away. Walking over to the edge of the gully, she stared down, shook her head, then walked several paces to the left. “I’m not seeing any safe path down. There’s no slope here, just a sheer drop to the tops of the trees.”
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Max hobbled over and checked to the other side of her. He cursed. “You’re right. You need a place with minimal vegetation or at least low-growing bushes you can easily break through. Some place without too many branches that could snag the rope you’ll have tied around your waist. Not too steep an angle, so you won’t slide all the way down. Gentle enough that you can climb back up carrying the briefcase.”
“Still nothing,” she called from several yards away.
“Okay. Let’s split up again,” Max suggested. “You go left. I’ll go right. We’ll meet back here in half an hour.”
Unfortunately, the part of the gully that Max examined was more of the same. A straight drop from the edge through an impassable tangle of trees and bushes. When they met up again, he shook his head. “No luck. You?”
“Maybe,” she said. “Come look.”
The spot she led him to had a steep, but manageable slope that after a hundred yards or so ended at the crown of a large tree with branches big enough to hold Emily’s weight. The slope was dotted with bushes she could use to slow her descent, but it also had enough space between the bushes for her to move freely. “We don’t know what happens to the ground after that tree,” he pointed out. For all they knew, the ground dropped away after that.
“I know, but I don’t think we’re going to find anything better.” She shrugged. “Besides, worst-case scenario, the ground becomes too steep for me to walk down. I step into the tree’s branches and hope I can climb safely to the bottom.”
Max’s stomach lurched. Without walkie talkies, they wouldn’t be able to communicate once she reached the tree. Just as bad, the satellite phone wouldn’t work under the thick canopy covering the gully, leaving her no way to call Kris for help.
Yet, he suspected they hadn’t seen the last of the helicopter. Whether it had been searching for him and Emily or for the plane, they couldn’t waste any more time. She needed to do this now.
He checked the position of the sun, then his watch. It was only ten-thirty. “You have plenty of time before the sun starts going down. Let’s say that you’ll return no later than five.” At that point, the light would be fading, but full dark wouldn’t hit until six or so.
Emily nodded.
He glanced at her feet. “Do you think you can navigate the slope with your backpack on?”
She shrugged, then eyed the slope. “Honestly, given my blisters and how tired I am, I don’t think I’m up to balancing the weight of the pack on such unstable ground. Not with that steep an angle. Maybe you can use the rope to lower the pack to me after I’ve reached the tree?”
“Good idea.” He searched for the rope while Emily slipped out of her pack and removed several non-critical items. “Make sure you take first aid supplies and the night vision goggles with you.” He’d put a new battery in the goggles before they left the Jeep.
“Yes, Max.” He didn’t have to look over to know she was rolling her eyes.
A moment later she showed him the contents of her fanny pack. “Is this acceptable?” She’d packed her camera, one of the bags of groundnuts from her homestay mother, and a few basic medical supplies. At his nod, she fastened the bag around her waist, then checked that her water bottle sat securely within its special holder.
“All right, found the rope. Take this extra piece with you.” He passed it over, then looked around for a sturdy bush. “I’ll anchor you from here with this other rope. Once you reach the tree, I’ll send down your rucksack.”
After tying the rope to the trunk of the bush and testing it, he rummaged in his pack again. “Here, take my knife. You might need it to free the briefcase.”
She grimaced. “In case I have to cut it away from the courier’s body.”
“Yeah.” He’d already explained about the various setups for secure briefcases and that if the courier was chained to the briefcase, the chain would be unbreakable. He’d also warned her that the case would probably be booby trapped to destroy—or activate—the contents if she tried to open it. “You’ve got the surgical gloves?”
She nodded.
Knowing he had no other choice than to let her get on with it, Max tied the rope around her waist.
“Okay,” she said. “I’m ready.”
“Be careful.” He gave her a fierce kiss, trying to infuse good luck into her.
“I will.” She threw him a jaunty wave, but he saw her underlying tension. And exhaustion. Nerves tightened his belly. He would have given anything at this moment to be strong enough to make the trip in her place.
Hands clenched at his side, he watched as Emily sat on the edge of the steep slope, then reached forward to grab hold of the nearest bush.
“Take it slow, sweetheart.”
She nodded. After pulling against the bush to test that it would hold her weight, he saw her shoulders rise then fall before she slipped off the edge and put her feet on the ground. She teetered a moment and Max leaned forward, not that he had a chance in hell of catching her if she lost her balance. But she quickly steadied herself.
She took one hesitant step. Then another.
She gave him a thumbs up before shifting her grip to another bush and Max slowly let out the breath he’d been holding. Okay. Maybe this was going to work after all.
DESCENDING THE SLOPE was partly exhilarating and partly terrifying. Emily gained momentum as she went, but managed to use the bushes to slow her progress until she reached the edge. The ground there dropped quickly away, leaving a gap of about a foot between her and the tree. Fortunately, the wide branches in front of her appeared sturdy enough to hold her weight.
She waved up at Max and untied the rope from her waist. Then she waited for him to lower her backpack. After rearranging the items that had shifted during the trip, she shrugged her shoulders through the straps. Taking a deep breath, she stepped onto the nearest branch. When it didn’t break or bend too much under her weight, she moved toward the trunk and sat down. Peering through the leaves, she took a moment to plot her route. Nodding to herself, she pushed off and landed lightly on the branch below.
Twenty minutes later, she dropped from the lowest branch onto one of the tree’s exposed roots, then slid down the root to the bare patch of dirt at its base. She landed on her feet and threw her arms in the air like a gymnast landing after a particularly difficult vault.
Wanting to see how far she’d come, she turned back to the tree and looked up. And up. Whoa. She couldn’t even see the top of the gully.
Ugh. Climbing back up was going to be tough.
Well, nothing she could do about that now. She sat down to rest, took a long drink of water, and ate a few groundnuts and a banana she pulled off a nearby tree. Then she logged the coordinates of the spot into the GPS and began her hunt.
After two hours of pushing through thick brush and navigating the more open areas under the heavy canopy of the trees without any sign of the plane’s debris, Emily stopped for lunch and to rest her feet. She tried not to let her frustration get her down, but her lack of progress was disheartening.
Half an hour after she resumed her hunt, she finally found several pieces of the plane. She followed the trail deeper into the jungle, toward another white object peeking out from behind a flowering shrub. Birds called from the trees and insects droned. The helicopter hadn’t yet made an appearance, and between the heat and the soothing background sounds, she almost forgot the looming danger. It was peaceful down here. Yet also lonely. She wished Max could have accompanied her. She missed his company. Missed the way he looked at her as if he not only liked her, but respected her.
Since the accident, people had been more likely to look at her with pity than respect. She loved that Max didn’t care about her scars. That he saw her as someone strong. And she had to admit that part of her enjoyed Max’s attempts to shield her from harm. She couldn’t remember anyone ever doing that for her. Hardship made you stronger, so her parents encouraged her to resolve her own problems. And in the ballet world, teachers and choreograp
hers used harsh words and grueling workouts to weed out those dancers who didn’t have the heart to stick with dance no matter the cost.
Max would pamper her if he could. While she wouldn’t be comfortable with that for long, she thought it might be nice for a little bit.
Spotting another glimpse of white, she pushed through a thicket of bushes. When she reached the object, she saw that it was a mostly intact window. Farther along, she spotted the full ensemble of a seat, complete with seatbelt. She was so focused on scouring the ground for new evidence she hadn’t already documented, that at first she didn’t notice the low buzz in the distance. It wasn’t until the roar grew closer that she stopped to listen.
Oh, crap. The helicopter.
She glanced up. At least the canopy would hide her from view. Still, she took refuge beneath the leafiest tree she could find. She hugged the tree and tried to keep her breathing as slow and even as possible, not an easy task when she worried about what would happen if the helicopter’s crew noticed Max. Would they shoot him? Land and take him prisoner?
Of course, the helicopter could belong to the government instead of the rebels or Dietrich. Still, what would she do if they took Max away?
Would Max fight? No matter who was on board, he wouldn’t tell them about his mission. In fact, he’d not even mention her presence in order to keep her safe.
After passing back and forth over the gully for almost ten minutes, the helicopter flew away. Emily waited another ten minutes to make certain she was truly alone before she left her hiding place.
All right. She’d better hurry. She wanted to be out of the ravine if the helicopter returned. Besides, the clouds were thickening. She didn’t want to be caught in a storm.
She widened her current search area. Five minutes later, she saw a new line of debris extending back from a large tree. She quickly photographed the find, then followed the trail deeper into the wilderness.
She’d almost decided that she didn’t have time to keep going if she was going to make it out before dark, when she walked around a flowering bush and saw two passenger seats on their side. One of the seats was occupied by a vaguely human shape. The body had been gnawed upon, leaving only traces of flesh visible where the man’s shorts and short-sleeved shirt ended. The breeze picked up a lingering stench and wafted it her way.
