“We can’t risk it. Things could go sideways, fast. It’s going to be hard enough finding Juan.”
“I’ll get him,” Corso said.
Caesare nodded. “I’ll go with you.”
“Negative. You’ll just slow me down.”
Caesare smirked. “I’m not that old.”
“No offense, sir. But I can get in faster alone.”
Tiewater nodded. “He’s right. Besides, someone needs to locate DeeAnn and Dulce. Which is probably you.”
Caesare didn’t like the way this argument was going. But he couldn’t let his emotions get the best of him. “Fine.” He nodded at Tiewater. “Corso gets Juan, you find some transportation, and I’ll find the others.”
“My pleasure.”
“With any luck you might be able to give Corso here a nice diversion.”
“But wait for my go,” Corso said. “Until I find out what condition Juan is in. We might need a ride.”
Tiewater smiled.
“When you find something,” Caesare said, “head north, down that way. We’re taking the other road out of here.”
Captain Salazar was livid. He ended another tirade, directed at his lieutenant, and clenched his fists in frustration.
Thirty percent. THIRTY PERCENT! He’d just lost thirty percent of his men in less than an hour! What in God’s name happened?
Sosa tried to explain, but it was too late. Salazar wasn’t interested in excuses. He wanted answers. Like how such a large force made it up here before they did? He was expecting a few men. But clearly there were more out there. And to make matters worse, his men evidently didn’t see a damn thing!
Salazar put his hands on his hips, thinking. “Where’s Becca?”
“We don’t know. We lost track of her and her detail.”
“Jesus,” Salazar muttered, rolling his eyes. “Did your men do anything right?”
Sosa’s reply was indignant. “We killed one of them.”
“Dozens of men lost for only one of theirs. Doesn’t exactly make me feel better. Another fight like that and it’ll be over.” He shook his head and dismissed Sosa. “Go get me some damn answers.”
Sosa nodded but didn’t bother replying. Instead, he walked away and crossed through several lines of men until he reached the base of a large tree. Sitting on the ground, tied to the trunk, was the dark outline of Juan Diaz.
Sosa took a flashlight from one of his men and approached, shining the beam into the young man’s face.
Juan squinted and turned away as Sosa stopped and stared down at him.
“Who are you?”
“M-my name is Juan. Juan Diaz.”
“Why are you here?”
Juan resisted, saying nothing. Until he watched Sosa withdraw a handgun and lay it across his knee.
“I-I was asked to come. I’m an engineer.”
“An engineer, out here? Why?” Sosa asked. His accent was strong, leaving Juan struggling to understand.
“To fix the computer.”
Sosa frowned. What computer would be out here? Either the kid was lying or the enemy had equipment he wasn’t familiar with.
“Who brought you here?”
Juan hesitated again, long enough to hear the slide action on someone’s gun.
“I came with a group…of SEALs.”
“SEALs?” Sosa’s voice changed. “How many?”
“Two dozen,” Juan lied.
Sosa bolted to his feet. As he turned to leave, Sosa’s eyes met with Otero’s man, Russo, now standing behind him. If Sosa was nervous at the sound of Navy SEALs, Russo looked as though his heart just stopped.
He had been right all along.
Juan sat on the soft ground, frightened and watching the dark figures of Otero’s soldiers moving back and forth. They were talking excitedly in Portuguese, and judging from all the gunfire, it didn’t appear as if things were going very well for them. Which gave him at least some trace of satisfaction.
He’d been on the ground for almost an hour and kept trying to change his position to keep the circulation from being cut off, but the tingling in his feet returned. He was losing feeling.
The headlights of another military truck appeared, easing to a stop at the end of the line where several soldiers were waiting. They quickly jumped in and began unloading a number of large crates, followed by an even larger piece of equipment. It was lowered carefully to the ground, and the thick canvas cover was removed to reveal a powerful-looking piece of artillery. Juan watched helplessly as the men disappeared into the darkness with the giant weapon and its remaining pieces.
When the sound of the men faded, Juan suddenly heard a soft crunching sound behind him. He twisted his neck in an attempt to see who, or what, was approaching. There was nothing but a dense wall of bushes and trees covering most of the hill. Then he noticed something move and peered harder into the darkness until he saw two small dots of white. When they blinked, he froze. They were eyes. And they were watching him.
He gasped and turned back around in a panic. In desperation, he dug his feet into the dirt and tried to move around the trunk of the tree. But the ropes were too tight.
“Help!”
There was no response. He had opened his mouth to yell again when a low voice stopped him.
“Shut up!” it growled.
Juan twisted back again and looked closer. The eyes were still there, yet the more he focused, the more he could see the outline of a dark-colored face. A face painted black.
It was Corso, hiding motionlessly in the bushes. “What the hell are you doing?”
Juan looked back to make sure no one was coming, then whispered loudly to Corso. “I thought you were a wild animal.”
“Well, I’m not,” Corso retorted. “So shut up.” He looked back and forth, examining the area. “Can you walk?”
“I’m losing some feeling, but I think so. What are you going to do?”
Corso shook his head. “I have absolutely no idea.”
Several hundred yards away, Tiewater was watching from the front of the line. Further back, he could see a large base being set up, with several soldiers running tripwire.
They had to move quickly. Once a solid perimeter was established, getting in and out would be much harder.
Tiewater watched several men run past the vehicles. The truck in front was the most logical option. It wasn’t as big, but it would be the easiest to drive out if he could get it started. It was too new to hotwire which meant he needed to locate the keys. Because unlike the movies, no one kept their keys stashed above the visor.
“Talk to me, Tiewater,” Corso’s voice whispered in his ear.
“I’m looking for keys.” He watched a soldier approach and stop at the vehicle. He opened the back and retrieved a large bag. He hefted it over his shoulder and closed the door before marching back up the hill to the other side. “Hold on. I may have the driver.”
Tiewater continued watching as the soldier reached the top and dropped the bag on the ground. After briefly disappearing, the man reappeared and began heading back down toward the truck.
“How fast can you get Juan out?”
“Pretty damn fast. But it has to happen now.”
“Okay.” Tiewater looked back and forth before stepping out of the trees. “I’m taking this guy. Get ready.”
Corso slid a knife out and gripped it tight in his hand. “I’m ready.”
“Ten seconds…”
When the soldier reached the Humvee, he opened the back again and leaned in. Tiewater was already moving. Running low and smooth from the trees, he covered the distance quickly, stopping at the driver’s door. He could see the man searching for something beneath the tailgate’s overhead light.
Tiewater raised his gun and began to move when he glanced through the side window. Sitting inside, in the center console between the two front seats, were the keys.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Tiewater muttered to himself.
“What?” Corso repl
ied over the headset.
“Shh!” Tiewater whispered. He remained frozen at the door, waiting until the man behind the truck pulled something else out and reached up to close the gate. Without looking up, he turned and continued back up the hill.
Tiewater quietly opened the driver’s door and reached for the keys. He examined them and slid the larger key into the ignition. With a slight turn, the dash lit up. He immediately turned it back off.
“We got wheels! GO!”
With that, he slid into the driver’s seat and laid his rifle across on the passenger’s side. He pulled the door closed until it made a soft click. He then kept the key in the ignition and slid down in his seat as low as he could.
No sooner had Tiewater given him the go than Corso rushed out of the brush and dropped behind Juan. He worked quickly with the knife, cutting the lines, then peered out over Juan’s shoulder. No one was watching.
“Let’s move!”
He jumped up and yanked Juan onto his feet, pulling him back into the shadows.
“Stay on my heels!” was all Corso said before darting back the way he came. Juan scrambled and ran after him.
They had made it less than fifty yards before they heard a yell behind them. Neither of them knew what the words meant, but there was no doubt as to the message.
“Hurry!” Corso barked.
Juan ran harder, but in the darkness, he caught his foot on something hard and tumbled. He scrambled to his feet only to be met by bright lights shining up the slope. One of the lights found both him and Corso, followed by more yelling. Then gunfire.
Tiewater lifted his head in the Humvee just enough to see outside. At the top of the small hill, the driver and several other soldiers looked in the direction of the gunfire and ran toward it.
Tiewater placed one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the key.
“Can you make it?”
“I don’t know.” From his position, Corso rose up and shot into the lights, dropping two of the men. But there were too many. Bullets passed overhead and he threw Juan down before firing another burst.
Back in the truck, Tiewater suddenly noticed movement in the side mirror of the Humvee. Several men were running up the line of vehicles, toward the front. He continued watching as one of them stopped and climbed into a large truck, two vehicles back. The rest of the men continued running and passed the front vehicle before turning back around.
Behind him, Tiewater heard the larger truck roar to life and saw its bright headlights shining out over the dirt road, illuminating the soldiers now waiting for it. It backed up and began edging its way out of line.
“Okay, we may have a problem.”
From further down the mountain, Caesare’s voice broke in. “What is it?”
“They’re moving their trucks. We might be about to get blocked in.”
Caesare stopped running and listened. “Corso, how close are you?”
Corso fired off several more rounds and pushed Juan forward, ahead of him. “Not very.”
Caesare shook his head in the darkness. “Tiewater, we need those wheels. Get out of there while you still can!”
Tiewater paused. “Corso?”
“Go!” growled Corso. “We’ll get there on foot.”
Tiewater shook his head. Their situation was deteriorating quickly. He sat straight up in the car and twisted the key hard in the ignition. The soldiers, still standing several yards in front of him, were startled to see the Humvee’s lights come on. They stepped forward, trying to peer through the front windshield.
In one motion, Tiewater dropped it into gear and mashed the accelerator down.
86
Caesare finally stopped and scanned the area around him. A large hill climbed to the right and he caught a glimpse of movement just before he saw the muzzle flashes. Bullets ripped past him and he dove to the ground, rolling behind a group of small trees. He came to a stop on both elbows and fired back between the narrow trunks.
Two more rounds tore into the tree just above his head, after more muzzle flashes. He fired back, estimating where the outline of the shooter would be, and everything fell silent.
DeeAnn stopped when she heard the shots behind her. After it went quiet, she turned and called forward again. “Dulce!” She stumbled forward in the darkness, listening for the gorilla to answer again.
Here. Come.
There was a slight echo, and DeeAnn looked down to realize that she was standing on a pile of rocks. She leaned forward, placing a hand on the slope in front of her. Under the moonlight she could see a dark opening in the wall, eerily resembling a gaping mouth. “Dulce, are you in there?”
Yes. Come.
She stumbled forward to the entrance and found the first several feet into the cave illuminated by the moonlight overhead. She shook her head and mumbled under her breath. “This feels like a really bad idea.”
She stepped slowly into the darkness, trying to keep her balance over the uneven ground. Unable to see beyond the glow of her vest, she stopped again and stared forward, letting her eyes adjust.
“Dulce?”
The small gorilla emerged from the darkness in front of her. Me here.
She took DeeAnn’s hand and pulled her deeper inside. Together, they walked forward, the vest’s blue glow giving her an eerie feeling.
“Did you find Dexter?”
Yes. Me find friend.
DeeAnn squinted, still trying to see, as Dulce pulled her deeper into the cave. After perhaps fifty more feet, she stopped when something emerged out of the blackness. She gasped.
Standing in front of them was the small capuchin, covered with bright gray fur. He remained still, watching them in the damp coolness of the cave.
But it was another image that most surprised DeeAnn. Another monkey standing behind Dexter. She stepped forward to get a better look with the tiny vest light, and her eyes suddenly widened. There wasn’t just one monkey behind Dexter, there were several. Dozens. All standing together.
Ever so slowly, DeeAnn turned, shining her light in different directions to find more, all sitting calmly along the walls of the cave. All with gray hair and even a few with white.
But it was what she saw next that caused her mouth to fall completely open. Drawn on the inside of the walls were lines…and shapes. Crude, but easily recognizable as circles and lines.
“Oh my God,” DeeAnn whispered. Her vest made a loud buzz. She covered her mouth and continued shaking her head in disbelief.
“Oh my God, indeed,” a woman’s voice said behind her.
DeeAnn whirled around to find three silhouettes standing in the entrance, backlit from the moonlight.
“Who are you?”
One of the figures approached. She stepped close enough for the blue light to show her face. Her Portuguese accent was thick. “My name is Marie Becca.”
“What do you want?”
Becca ignored the question, her eyes panning the wall, then falling onto Dexter in amazement. “My God, it’s true.”
DeeAnn stepped between them. “What do you want?”
The other woman smiled with an air of condescension. “I’m here for the same reason you are.” She then looked past Dexter to the others. “An evolutionary wonder that no one else has ever seen.” She shook her head incredulously. “But I never thought it would be true.”
DeeAnn’s face hardened. “Leave them alone.”
Becca nearly laughed. “Leave them alone? Are you serious? Don’t you understand what this means?”
“I know exactly what it means. But you’re not going to take them. Any of them.”
Becca’s eyes returned to DeeAnn’s as if seeing her for the first time. Hearing another loud buzz, she lowered her gaze and studied the strange vest with the blue light. “What is that?”
DeeAnn instinctively turned it off. “It’s none of your business.” At once, the light went off, causing them all to disappear into the darkness.
Moments later a red flare burst into li
ght, revealing both men standing behind Becca, one holding the flame over his head. More of the cave came alive, revealing even more capuchins.
Both women gasped nearly in unison. The cave continued for quite a distance, extending deep into the mountain. About twenty yards back, they noticed something remarkable on the floor. It was a large area ringed by stones. In the middle were several small piles of leaves, layered with taller sticks leaning over them. It didn’t look like much, but the women studied it with astonishment. The monkeys were trying to create fire with piles similar to those they had seen from humans. They still didn’t understand how to make it happen, but they were trying.
Out of the corner of her eye, DeeAnn saw Becca withdraw a small tranquilizer pistol from behind her back and point it at a nearby monkey –– one covered in white fur.
“No!” In a split second, her instincts kicked in and she lunged for the other woman, trying to knock the pistol out of her hand. The two fell to the ground, causing the gun to fire, and a dart ricocheted off the cave wall.
DeeAnn clawed for the gun, trying to wrestle it from Becca’s hand. But the taller woman fought back, striking DeeAnn in the face with her fist.
Becca rose onto a knee and tried to aim again, but DeeAnn quickly pushed forward, knocking her back down.
Before she could lunge again, one of the soldiers stepped forward and pushed a heavy boot against DeeAnn’s back, pinning her in place while Becca returned to her feet. Not bothering to brush herself off, the Brazilian repointed her gun and fired a dart into the chest of the monkey at close range.
The monkey screamed and clawed at the dart, pulling it out. At the same time, the other capuchins surged forward trying to protect him. But within seconds its movements began to slow.
Forcefully, Becca pushed through the troops, grasped one of the monkey’s flailing arms and pulled it off its feet. She immediately jumped back behind the two soldiers for protection.
Becca lifted the monkey and examined her prize as it went decidedly limp, dangling from her hand. She looked at DeeAnn on the ground and smiled. “I win.”
Catalyst (Breakthrough Book 3) Page 34
