by Dale Mayer
“Sounds about normal,” Ryker said. He checked out the area, but it was silent. “I’m registering you about 242 yards to my left.”
“Stay there,” Miles said. “You’re closer to our target. I’ll meet you.”
While he waited for Miles to show up, Ryker quickly checked his compass and his GPS. They were off by about half a mile. Not bad for a nighttime landing in these conditions. Of course, this was only the last place that they had this woman’s data. She and her team could be anywhere by now. Whether the team was lost or had been caught by guerrillas was hard to say, but a satellite feed had shown them marching through the jungle, and they were not alone. Further investigation had shown that they weren’t heading back to any of the main research camps they’d planned to be at.
Still, Ryker was here now, and time was of the essence. Not only was the gold-mining big business here but, between the gold and the drugs, nobody really wanted any intruders, whether scientists or not. And, if she wasn’t prepared to pay her way out, then chances were she wouldn’t get out at all.
She’d traveled with a team of five, which included two guides. So, two company personnel and the two local guides. He suspected that the guides were long gone. That left her and the other two members of her team. Ryker had read up on them.
One was Benjamin, with over a decade of time with the company. Previously he had been a prospector without a degree behind him but decades of hands-on experience. He didn’t put much stock in new technology and held more of a grumpy old-timer attitude than anything.
Manila had a young university student carrying the rock samples. They always needed somebody for the grunt work, and, as long as they could get in and get out, time and time again, it was fine. But she was down for a ten-day excursion, and then she was supposed to return to Bogotá and head to another location—all of this by helicopter or plane, depending on how far away she was going, when she wasn’t on foot.
This trip had been planned as far out as one year earlier, but then was tweaked, finalized and booked six weeks ago, checking out what looked like to be the best spots for platinum that Manila had located in previous on-site searches. Still, this ongoing project came down every year to what looked like the best locations each time. They took various samples, went back, analyzed them and then set up the trip for the next time.
She now had three days left on a ten-day trip here. Day seven had started. She’d been taken early on day six. So they were about twenty-four hours into captivity. Those hours could mean a lifetime, depending on how they were treated. Ryker could only hope that the guerrillas saw some value in her and her samples, at least for a ransom demand. But Ryker wasn’t sure anybody here could be bothered with that.
It was much easier to shoot intruders dead and leave them for the wild animals, then move on to a different area. When the guerrillas returned in a few months, nothing would be left of their victims except for a few bones scattered around, but that would be it. The jungle was very good at cleaning up their dead.
Miles approached on the left. Ryker didn’t even bother looking up.
“I could have been a jaguar, you know,” Miles half-joked with that low voice of his. Something about that British accent carried so well.
“Nah, a jaguar would have been a lot quieter,” Ryker teased. He looked up with a grin to see Miles’s sneer. “We’re about a half mile out,” Ryker said. “Let’s go.” They lifted their packs, and he readjusted the weight of his, then his buckles, tightening them before starting off. The heat and humidity were pretty overwhelming, and yet, it was still nighttime.
The trouble with being in this area was he needed to be fully clothed, the heat be damned, not daring to take a chance with short sleeves or bare legs because of the creeping predators around. Some of the damn mosquitoes would take painful chunks from your skin, leaving a maddening itch behind, and that didn’t even consider the viruses and diseases they carried and could be transmitted with each bite.
And then there were the venomous vipers and the downright deadly scorpions.
Moving at a steady pace, Ryker and Miles headed toward their last known location for the woman and her team. It didn’t take Ryker and Miles long after studying the location from the shadow of the trees. It was an opening wide enough for a dozen tents to have gone up and looked like it might have been an old mining camp used for decades.
Miles whispered behind him, “What do you think? That they set up camp here, despite being one of the well-traveled places?”
“From their point of view, it makes sense, doesn’t it?”
“Unfortunately,” Miles nodded. “But that would have just brought in anybody else traveling this trail.”
“They probably were told, but they weren’t trying to hide,” he said. “I highly suspect the guides were keeping them out in the open to make them easy to find.”
“Sure, but that’s you,” Miles said. “You always look on the negative side.”
“No, I always look for the betrayal from within,” Ryker said. “And, more often than not, I’m right.”
“Sucks, doesn’t it?” Miles said as he motioned to a series of broken leaves. “Nobody even made any attempt to hide their trail.”
“That’s because the guerrillas think they and their related brotherhood are all alone out here. Not only do they consider this their backyard but they also consider it their playground. And nobody ever suspects another supposed team member when intruding into their space.”
“Too damn bad,” Miles said, “because, like you said, too often the betrayal is from within.”
After taking photographs of the area where the team was last seen, Ryker and Miles quickly held to the trail, obviously leading them away from that spot. When Ryker caught sounds of voices up ahead, they froze and melted into the background to one side. In his comm, Ryker could hear Miles tapping away, giving him a head count of possible hostiles. Ryker crouched down and studied the small group in front of him. Eight people, maybe nine by his count, which was confirmed by Miles’ tally too. So where were the sentries? There should be at least two of those out here.
It was a mixed group, including a young woman and a young man, but then the guerrillas were all about gaining new members and improving their numbers. It was a perfect alliance of young and old. Ryker wondered what the actual life expectancy was for any of them. For the women, in particular, chances were they ended up pregnant, bringing children into a world that had very little in the way of modern medicine. He didn’t know the stats but couldn’t imagine that the life expectancy of a baby born in this scenario was very good either.
As he studied the two young people, they kissed and disappeared into a tent. Just what Ryker expected. Free love reigned everywhere here.
As he watched four of the men laughing and joking, he realized just how short on female members they were. But that wasn’t his problem. One tent was off to the side that everybody seemed to be facing but ignoring. Ryker tapped back the location to Miles and got an almost instant response.
I’ll check it out.
Ryker waited and watched to see if anybody would notice when Miles slipped around to the side. But he was as good as Ryker was. Miles moved from tree to tree, his shadow blending in and moving with the light. As others moved, so did he. Any sounds he made were covered up by the others’ movements. It was quite efficient and elegant. Ryker watched his buddy and waited.
Several of the men got up and headed into the other tents themselves, but two men were left outside. They were on duty, so Ryker assumed those were the sentries. The interesting thing though was that they didn’t care about the space around them. But then they were young, and they weren’t well trained, and they were also overconfident about their backyard. Big mistake.
Well, what they didn’t understand was that now two human scorpions they weren’t expecting would take off with their guests.
The sentries stood and walked together out of the camp in a northerly direction.
There was activ
ity in one tent. Ryker knew perfectly well that was where the couple had gone. Meanwhile, from the other corner, there was nothing but one silent tent. The two sentries walked maybe fifty feet away, then stopped and took a look around before coming back to the camp. They headed down the path, passing him in the night. Then they went for another fifty-odd feet and turned around and returned to camp and sat again.
Ryker’s eyebrows rose at that. Very untrained. That wouldn’t count for a perimeter check at all in his book.
Miles was already at the back of the silent tent now. The question was, how to check to see who was inside. The opening was in the front, and that would make life a little bit difficult, even with these two lazy sentries. Plus these tents were cheap army-issued units, so not much in the way of ventilation windows. Still, a sharp knife would take care of the canvas in no time.
Just as he wondered how Miles was getting on, a double tap came on his comm. He tapped back once. And then came three more. His eyebrows shot up. In a hoarse whisper, he asked, “All three?” Back came the affirmative Yes. Ryker booked it. He snuck down and around, so he wasn’t crossing the path right in front of these two supposed guards and came up behind Miles from a distance. Ryker kept his eye on the sentries in the front of the captives’ tent, but they were talking carelessly. And then they got up and did their pass to the far side again.
As Ryker watched, they passed him again and went down the other path. They should have been breaking apart and individually going in a big circle around this camp, but that wasn’t what they were up to. As they reentered the camp, he was already at Miles’s side.
He peered inside to see three white people sleeping. Two males and one female. Not dressed the same as the other guerrillas and one with a backpack and what looked like maps, so these were the three he had come for.
Good. That was nice and easy. Now all he had to do was get their cooperation and then get them out of here. But that would take a little bit longer. He quickly gave Miles the relay times on the sentries and their system of patrol, or lack of one.
Miles nodded and, working as quietly as he could, finished slicing open the back of the tent. All three of them inside slept without noticing anything. But then the heat would do that to them too. Not to mention the fact that, if they hadn’t had much in the way of food, they would be weak and tired.
Just then, the sentries rose and headed out of the camp toward the north again. At that, both Miles and Ryker snaked a hand around each of the male captives’ mouths. Both men woke up, fighting to get a breath, but, as soon as Ryker and Miles explained who they were, both men subsided. Then Ryker went toward Manila. Her eyes opened even before he could get close to her. She opened her mouth, and he held up a finger and said, “Shh.”
She immediately snapped her mouth closed and studied his features. He was white-skinned, and, in the dark, even that would be obvious. She turned to the other two men of her team, both of them sneaking out the new back flap of the tent. She raced to her maps and quickly packed everything up, even as the stranger waited impatiently. She just glared at him but stayed quiet. Then she took her backpack, and he shook his head and took it from her and then pushed her to go outside the tent. But she wanted the backpack.
He glared at her and pointed.
She hissed, “Make sure it comes,” and stepped from the tent. Up ahead, her two team members were led farther away from the tent. She quickly followed, being as quiet as possible, but it wasn’t easy. She was tired, and it was dark.
He stayed behind her, knowing that at any moment, they could get separated. He waited and watched as the sentries came back and passed through the tent section, then carried on down south. He raced behind the others.
As soon as she turned and saw him, her gaze went right to her backpack. She nodded and kept on going.
Ryker didn’t give her a chance to stop, and he could see Miles leading the men quickly away. Ryker didn’t know how far they had traipsed, but they were leaving a trail a mile wide. Couldn’t be helped when there were five of them, and three didn’t know how to slide secretly through the jungle. He took some time every once in a while to clean up as they went. It wouldn’t fool any real tracker, but maybe it could fool these kids.
Ryker kept on going until he noticed the woman stayed with him. He studied her closely in the half-light. She wasn’t panicked nor appeared to be anxious in any way. “Why aren’t you with the others?”
“Because you’re slowing down, trying to hide our path,” she said. “And I won’t leave you alone.” She almost sighed when she said the last part, and he rolled his eyes at her. “So hurry.” She glared at him, but she turned and immediately moved faster.
He raced up behind her, grabbed her hand to keep her with him as they ran and whispered, “We have to catch up.”
She nodded and started running. Of course, it sounded like a herd of elephants going through the brush, and that would immediately cause them more problems. He bent down and scooped her into his arms.
She gasped in outrage.
“I have to do it this way to keep you quiet.” He glared at her.
With a sniff, she subsided. “How is it you can run so quietly?”
“Practice,” he said. Between her and her backpack and his own bags, he knew he could manage a couple miles but not too much more. But the more miles they put between them and the gang of teenage guerrillas behind them, the better. If they were ever caught again, the guerrillas would not be so easy on any of them.
He kept running until they could see the others up ahead. At the sound of his footsteps, Miles immediately moved the others off the path. Ryker smiled at that and let out an odd whistle. It sounded like an owl, a cry of a bird of prey. Immediately Miles responded with an answering cry.
Ryker slowed when he caught up with them and lowered her to the ground. One of the other men, the tall young kid, stepped forward and asked her, “Are you okay?”
She wrinkled her face up at him. “I’m okay,” she said. “But apparently I was making too much noise.”
The kid looked at her in surprise and looked up at the man behind her. “Thank you for the rescue,” he said, his voice heartfelt. “I’m Andy.” He pointed at the other man and said, “He’s Benjamin, and Manila is our geologist.”
Ryker nodded. “I’m Ryker. He’s Miles. Let’s go.” And that was all he would say, but he moved them rapidly, his hands pushing and shoving to give them an idea of just how fast they had to move. And, with Miles leading, they headed off again. As soon as she made more noise, she winced and looked at him, and he nodded. “One more like that,” he said, “and you’ll get carried.”
She glared at him, and he grinned. But he knew his teeth were flashing white in all this jungle darkness, and that would get a bullet between his jaws if he didn’t watch it.
It didn’t take long to come across more guerrillas. These were an older bunch, fully armed and more experienced. Ryker could imagine what they had gone through to live to be this old in their line of work. Miles and Ryker tapped out their strategy; then Miles took Manila’s two team members first, detouring deeper into the brush. Waiting a good thirty minutes, then Ryker carried Manila to meet up with the others. Another couple hours later, they heard more voices.
Following us? Ryker tapped out to Miles.
It took a minute or so before Miles responded. Can’t see them. Heard two on patrol. So I think not.
Finally, after four hours total on the run since being rescued, Manila stumbled to a stop, gasping. Her two team members were almost done too. Ryker looked at Miles and nodded. “We need a place for them to rest.”
“I think I hear water,” Miles said.
“And that brings its own dangers,” Ryker warned.
Miles nodded. “We need to go up farther toward a pool off the river.”
“Just make sure you pick one that’s not jaguar-infested,” Ryker said.
So the two softly wrangled back and forth.
Ryker quickly picked out a stand
of trees, and, boosting Manila to the lower of the branches, he came up behind her. When they got up about another ten feet, he removed several other branches too, hacking at them with a machete, and made a crossways platform that would hide them from people below. There he pointed out a very large branch and said, “You can rest up there.”
Nodding obediently, she sank against the trunk and, with her eyes closed, took several deep breaths.
“If you think you can sleep here, I have ropes to tie you to the limb, if you want that added security.”
She nodded. “Maybe later.”
Ryker pulled water from his backpack and handed it to her.
She looked at it in surprise and then drank greedily. Then she stopped suddenly and looked at him with a guilty expression.
He shook his head. “Yes, you shouldn’t drink too much at a time, but drink up whatever’s left,” he said. “We’ll refill it as soon as we get fresh water.”
She nodded and quickly emptied the bottle. When she handed it back to him, he slung both his backpacks up on a higher branch and pulled out a canteen and another bottle.
“I’ll be back,” Ryker told her. “Don’t move, and don’t make a sound.”
And, with that, he scampered down the tree.
Chapter 4
Manila stared after him, but he completely disappeared within seconds. She’d never seen anybody move so quietly or so rapidly in these kinds of conditions. She was exhausted, and she’d sweated so much that her body was almost completely dehydrated already. She needed that water so badly, but she also needed rest. She stretched out, chest down, and laid her head on the huge tree branch and closed her eyes.
But knowing that he was getting water and would be coming back up again stopped her from dropping into a deep sleep—that and possibly falling off her perch should she roll over, forgetting where she was. She needed to find out who he was and where they were going. The fact of the matter was, they were heading in the same direction where the woman had mentioned the rock cropping was, and Manila knew that she’d get nothing but an absolute stink for even considering it, but she was desperate to see if that was the rock formation she sought. And she also knew that the chances of making that happen were zero to none. She’d try to make her case if she could catch her breath again though.
