No Room for Error: A Lexi Carmichael Mystery, Book Seven

by Julie Moffett

  We pressed on halting more frequently to try and conserve what little strength we had left. It was late afternoon when we came to the top of a rise.

  The stream dropped quickly away into a narrow valley with steep sides, cutting a ravine in the rock that would be too difficult to follow at the level of the water. The valley floor was very uneven with a rapid drop of almost fifty feet immediately below us. The valley stretched for at least a mile or so before ending abruptly in a dense green wall of what was clearly jungle. We stood silently for several minutes as our weary brains tried to process this new information.

  Basia broke the silence. “So, what do we do now? Once we are in the valley, there’s no cover. I have absolutely no interest in playing hide and seek again with another helicopter with one arm tied behind my back.”

  Finn shaded his eyes, looking in both directions. “If we want to take another route, we’ll have to head back until we can climb out of this valley. Even then we may face a similar decision point. If we want to keep following the stream and moving downhill, we have to press on. I see little choice. What do you think, Lexi?”

  I considered. We were truly spent. It looked like the climb down to the valley floor wouldn’t be too treacherous, but we would completely exposed the whole time until we reached the jungle. If we had to move quickly, we couldn’t. If a helicopter chanced by, we would be spotted quicker than a novice at a Black Hat convention.

  But there were really no alternatives. We couldn’t realistically backtrack. We simply didn’t have the energy for climbing. Staying here without food and water wasn’t viable either. We needed the stream as our compass. I didn’t like the idea of being in the open, but we hadn’t heard the helicopter since yesterday and the chance for some sunshine suddenly appealed to me more than the danger.

  “Let’s go down. It’s our best and probably only option.”

  I didn’t have to say it twice. We paused, listening carefully for any foreign sounds, then Finn started down, walking sideways to offset the incline. Basia followed him, holding one of his hands as I took up the rear. As we descended, the wind started to blow around us. The breeze felt heavenly and it increased even more as we approached the valley floor.

  Proceeding through the valley, we found ourselves squeezing through or walking around almost continual debris tossed haphazardly alone the valley floor by countless floods that overflowed the narrow ravine. We were just over halfway down the valley when I heard it.

  Helicopters. Holy bad luck. Couldn’t we get a freaking break for once?

  Basia turned to me. Terror was etched on her face. “Not again. What are we going to do?”

  There was absolutely nowhere to hide. No boulders this time. Only half-buried branches and tree stumps, as well as piles of mud and small rocks. We were going to be spotted for sure.

  Our best chance was to try and make it to the jungle before they could find a place to land.

  “Run!” I shouted.

  I hadn’t taken more than a dozen steps when a helicopter flew right above me. I observed some guy hanging out the side and pointing at me. No hope for evasion this time.

  Finn and Basia were ahead of me, running for dear life. Actually running was a generous description. They looked like a pair of octogenarians doing step aerobics and I wasn’t doing much better.

  Two armed men leaned forward out of the helicopter, preparing to jump out as it approached a small ledge. Finn and Basia saw them, too, skidding to a stop to watch the harrowing maneuver in morbid fascination. They waved for me to catch up, but I screamed for them to keep going. Finn hesitated, but Basia grabbed his hand and they started running again.

  The first guy jumped onto the ledge. When he stood up and peered over the edge looking at us, I saw the gun. He lifted his eye to a scope and pointed it directly at me. I froze in indecision. Why was he going to shoot me now? Wouldn’t it have been simpler to shoot at me from the air?

  Since stopping to debate the merits of his strategy didn’t seem like my best move at this point, I began zigzagging as best I could, trying to make it a hard shot for him and still keep the pace. In front of me, Basia and Finn were passing almost directly below his position, but he ignored them. For some reason, the shooter had eyes only for me.

  A bullet, then another, pinged off the rocks about ten feet in front of me. Oh, God. Somehow I was harder to miss than a Star Trek rerun, yet this guy wasn’t even close. Unless, of course, he intended to miss. Maybe he wasn’t trying to kill me, but just stop me from running. If that were the case, there was no way I was stopping. A single shot pinged a rock closer to my foot as I neared where the ledge loomed above. I stumbled, nearly falling.

  The wind had continued to pick up and was muffling the sound of the helicopter. I dared another peek at the ledge and saw the helicopter lowering again to drop another guy off. My shooter had paused to assist another guy as he jumped from the helicopter to the ledge, so at least I was safe from a bullet for the time being.

  The second man landed on the ledge. As the helicopter began to rise to pull away, a gust abruptly caused it to list to the left. I paused to watch in fascination. The helicopter jerked hard to the right as if the pilot was overcompensating, coming precariously close with the rotors to the valley wall. He appeared to have stabilized the craft when a final gust nudged the helicopter into the wall.

  While my mental processor wasn’t operating at maximum gigahertz, I was sufficiently capable of understanding that standing below a falling helicopter wasn’t an ideal position. I put on a burst of speed that actually resembled running, passing directly under the chopper. It was making lots of very unhelicopterlike sounds and groans. Basia and Finn were about one hundred yards in front of me, still running like halfbacks in the Super Bowl.

  Sparks and metal started flying, accompanied by a horrific, screeching soundtrack. A quick peek indicated the helicopter seemed to be falling in slow motion, headed straight for me. It was going to be close. I summoned the rest of my energy and poured on as much speed as I could.

  The explosion and sudden blast of heat knocked me off my feet and threw me forward. My last thought was that I never, in my wildest dreams, ever expected to die beneath a helicopter.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  “Lexi, wake up.”

  A cool hand rested against my cheek. My eyes fluttered open. I blinked a few times before I could focus.

  “Basia?”

  “She’s okay. Thank God.”

  I turned my head and saw Finn. His green eyes were filled with a mixture of concern and relief.

  I struggled to sit up. “What happened?”

  “The helicopter crashed.” He helped me into a sitting position. “As far as I can tell there were no survivors.”

  “What about the guy on the ledge? He shot at me.”

  “I didn’t see any guy on a ledge.”

  Basia shook her head. “Me neither. But I wasn’t looking. I was just running for my life.”

  I pressed a hand to my head. I had a pounding headache and my nose and cheek hurt again. Badly. “Can I have some acetaminophen?”

  Finn nodded scrounging around in the bag until he pulled out the bottle. He shook a couple into his hand and then handed me a water bottle. It was about one-third filled.

  He met my questioning gaze and nodded. “It’s the last of our water until it rains again.”

  I took a small sip—just enough to wash the pills down—then looked around. We were in the jungle near the stream. They must have carried or dragged me the rest of the way under the cover of the trees and a small ways into the jungle. I missed the fresh air of the valley, but the wind was up enough, there were still breezes here that helped to keep down the mosquitoes. The shade was a relief, too.

  “We’re in trouble, aren’t we?” Basia said, rubbing her head. “And I mean that in ad
dition to the boatload of trouble we’re already in. They certainly had time to radio the others where we’d been spotted.”

  I didn’t see the sense in lying. “Yes.”

  “So what do we do?”

  I pressed my hand to the back of my head, which ached, too. “We have to rest and think for at least a little bit. We can’t push on right now. It’s a risk, but I’m too disoriented to walk and we have to give our bodies a little time to recoup before moving on.”

  Finn rolled his neck, his face gaunt and pale. “I agree. Let’s set up the tarp and rest for an hour or so.”

  He opened my bag and pulled out the tarp. He gathered some fronds to place beneath it and then spread it out. As soon as it was ready, he stretched out, lying on his back, his forearm covering his eyes.

  “Come on,” he said, motioning to me.

  I thought Basia would join him, but instead she went to the edge of the stream and sat there leaning against a large tree, tucking her legs to her chin and staring at the water.

  Worried about her, I changed my mind about the tarp and joined her. “Are you okay, Basia?”

  “No. Not really. I’ve been thinking about my life and Xavier. This whole plane crash thing has given me time to reflect. Why I was so stupid all those years with guys who didn’t give a crap about me?”

  “Is that an opened-ended question I’m supposed to answer?”

  “You can answer if you have a theory.”

  I considered. “Maybe you dated those guys because you weren’t sure of what you were looking for or what you wanted in a partner.”

  “I didn’t think I wanted anything. I didn’t need anyone. I was perfectly fine on my own, except I wasn’t. I dated a lot of men because I was lonely.”

  I wasn’t sure what to say.

  She pushed her hair off her neck and fanned the skin beneath. “I guess what I’m trying to say is I can’t believe I resisted dating Xavier for so long. He’s the one guy who’s seen me for who I really am. He persisted even when I brushed him off.”

  “Xavier is a great guy. You won’t get any argument from me on that front.”

  “I know. It’s just that I think he may be the one. I think about him all the time. He treats me like a queen but he calls me out on the crap I pull. He sees the real me and he loves me anyway.”

  I put my hand on Basia’s arm. “Why wouldn’t he love you? You are beautiful, kind and smart. You swing a mean high heel. And you’re happy in a way I’ve never seen when you’re around him.”

  Tears swam in her eyes. “I don’t want to die, Lexi. Not now. Not after finding the person I know is going to make me happy until I’m a little old lady.”

  Oh, jeez. If she started a full-blown cry, I might have to shoot myself. Hoping to avoid that, I pretended not to notice the tears. Instead, I washed my hands in the stream and patted water on the back of my neck, staying calm.

  “First of all, Basia, it’s not realistic to think Xavier is going to make you happy all of the time, especially not until you are a little old lady. The odds that he will infuriate you averages out to about three thousand, seven hundred and ninety two times based on a reasonable estimate of both of you living until the age of eighty years old. Secondly, we’re not going to die. So, you can tell him that yourself.”

  She picked up a rock and tossed it in the stream. I watched the ripples spread out. “I know there’ll be challenges. It was just a turn of phrase. I’m certain Xavier will infuriate me on occasion because, well, he’s a man. I’m sure I’ll do the same to him, too. But we’re going to weather it, because that’s what people do when they love each other.”

  “Exactly.”

  She turned her head. “Do you love Slash? I mean, is he the one?”

  I considered. “I don’t know how to answer that. He’s a difficult man to know. But what I know of him, I love. It’s just, this love thing is pretty complex. I’m not even close to figuring it out yet.”

  “You may never figure it out, and that’s okay. As long as you value the relationship and the benefits that come from it.” She threw another rock in the stream, leaned her head back against the trunk and closed her eyes. I thought she was going to doze off, but suddenly her eyes popped open. “So, what do you think we’ll be having for dinner?”

  I stood, brushing my hands off on my filthy jeans. “We’re going to have to move to Plan B, which involves a spear and Finn fishing. But first we have to put some distance between us and the helicopter crash.”

  I turned around, took one step then froze.

  The branches in front of me rustled and a woman with bronzed skin, naked from the waist up, emerged from behind a tree. She had a bow in her hands and an arrow cocked.

  It was aimed right at Basia.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

  Before I could blink, the arrow left the bow, whistled past my shoulder and headed straight for Basia. I turned, flinging out my hand as if I could catch it, but it was too late. The arrow had long passed me by the time I had fully rotated.

  Basia collapsed.

  “No!” A scream tore from my throat as I staggered toward her and dropped to my knees.

  I was reaching out a trembling hand to touch her shoulder when a huge black snake dropped out of the tree and landed directly on top of her. I yelped and fell backwards as the naked woman stepped past me and yanked the snake off Basia.

  Finn gave a roar and headed toward the woman, when I stepped between them holding out a hand.

  “Stand down, Finn. She didn’t shoot Basia. She killed a snake.”

  Finn stopped in his tracks, looking in astonishment at the dead snake in her hand.

  She cocked her head, studying us...no, studying me.

  I stared back. She was young, maybe my age or possibly a little younger, with large brown eyes and long dark hair that had been braided and fell over her left shoulder. It was about the same length as mine. She had a curious birthmark on her left cheek in the shape of a crescent moon.

  She wore some kind of cloth around her waist and a corded belt that held a knife pouch, a wooden cup and several small, cinched bags about the size of my fist. A quiver filled with arrows had been strapped to her waist and right thigh, instead of on her back in the way that Robin Hood wore. Other than the cloth around her waist and a magnificent necklace made of small red, blue, green and yellow feathers, she was naked.

  Basia made a noise behind me, so I bent down, rolling her over. “Basia, are you okay?”

  She sat up, rubbing the back of her head. “I think so. I fainted.”

  I turned back to the woman and observed her expertly laying out the snake. She pried her arrow carefully out of its neck and checked the tip for damage. Raising a large knife, she brought it down with a loud thwack and cut off the snake’s head. Then she slit it up the middle, pulled out its guts and pushed what was left of the snake into a cloth sack, pulling it tight with a rope. My stomach heaved and turned my head.

  Finn helped Basia to her feet, shaking his head. “Are you saying she shot a snake in a tree from that distance? That’s pretty damn good.”

  “I wouldn’t advise making her mad. Basia, can you talk to her?”

  She brushed off her pants. “I’ll try to say hello in as many languages as I think she might know. We might get lucky.”

  Basia rattled off a dozen phrases in different languages, but none of them resulted in more than a bewildered look from the native woman.

  Finally I pointed to myself. “Lexi.”

  She frowned and then pointed to herself. “Sorry.”

  I took a step back. “Whoa? You’re sorry? You speak English?”

  She frowned and tried again, pointing at me. “Wexi.” She pointed at herself. “Sari.”

  “H
er name is Sari,” Basia explained and then pointed at herself. “Basia.”

  “Ba-sha.”

  Basia pointed to Finn. “Finn.”

  “Fwyin.” Sari lowered her eyes and stepped away from him.

  Finn chuckled. “Close enough.”

  Sari reached into the bag around her waist and pulled out the snake. Basia recoiled in horror as Sari thrust it at Finn, keeping her head down.

  “She’s offering it to you as a gift, Finn,” Basia said.

  After a moment Finn shook his head and bowed slightly. “No, thank you, Sari. You shot it. You earned it.”

  Sari put the snake back in the bag and stared at us, clearly puzzled by our behavior.

  Sari moved closer to me, tentatively touching my arm. I wasn’t sure what she was wanted, so I held it out. She grasped it and started wiping away some of the mud.

  “What is she doing?” Finn asked.

  “She’s looking at my skin. I think she’s curious.”

  Sari examined my skin and the earrings Slash had given me. Finally she inspected Elvis’s locket, bringing her nose almost to my neck to study it.

  “She’s fascinated by the locket,” Basia said. “She likes it.”

  “She probably hasn’t seen anything like it before.”

  After that Sari examined my jeans, tennis shoes and the zipper on my jeans. She did the same thing to Basia, spending extra time on the buttons on her blouse. When she came to Basia’s earrings, I heard her give a sharp intake of breath and then a sigh.

  “I think she likes really likes your earrings,” I said.

  “They’re dangly and sparkly. Well at least they used to be. That’s probably why.”

  She didn’t approach or touch Finn. In fact, I noticed Sari didn’t ever meet Finn’s gaze directly and seemed to shrink in front of him.

  “I think Sari comes from a male-centric society,” Basia said. “She’s acting very submissive around Finn.”

  “Should I change the way I act?” Finn asked.

  She shrugged. “I’m not sure. I’m just throwing it out there.”