by Dale Mayer
His eyebrows raised when he saw Benjamin. “Good morning, sleepyhead,” he said.
Benjamin glared at him.
Ryker ignored his attitude and placed the tray down, then handed out cups. Thankfully there was enough for Benjamin too. Ryker quickly poured the coffee and cut the treats. But this time, there wasn’t any sharing. Benjamin reached and grabbed. She settled back with her coffee and studied the three different men. All were at different stages of life, and some were happier than others with where they found themselves. She would happily travel with two of them again, but she hoped to never have to do another trip with Benjamin. He was just way too sour for her liking.
As the atmosphere lightened, and the people had relaxed a bit more with food in them, she could feel her own tension dropping. Then she turned to Ryker. “Did you get through?”
“I got a couple messages through,” he said. “We’ll hear back in two hours.”
“Hear back about what?” Benjamin asked almost belligerently.
Ryker looked at him. “For a way out.”
“Right,” he said. “We could always rent a truck and drive to the airport.”
“That’s probably … what? Six to eight or maybe ten hours away?” Andy asked.
“Doesn’t mean there are any international flights either,” Manila said. “So we’d be flying to the nearest city and then out.”
“I don’t really care,” Benjamin said. “As long as we’re on the move.”
“That’s the plan,” she said. She looked at Ryker. “There’s another issue that I never thought to bring up. Andy was taking pictures of the guerrillas. I don’t know if that may have something to do with why they’re still after us though.”
Instantly, silence fell on the table.
Andy muttered, “Shit.”
She shrugged. “Sorry. I didn’t know if there was any reason why that would be a problem. I figured that, if we brought it up, Ryker would know.”
“May I see the photos?” Ryker asked.
Andy got up in an instant. “I’ll get my camera from my room.”
He disappeared, and Ryker looked at Manila. “When did you find this out?”
“I knew all along, but I only thought of it now. He kept his camera on him a bunch, but he always kept it out of sight. It’s expensive, small, easy to carry around, and the guerrillas may not have known what it was.”
“It’s dangerous to take pictures of them like that,” Ryker said.
“Right,” she said gently. “But honestly, I’m not sure that the guerrillas even knew.”
“Right.”
Just then Andy returned. He handed over the camera, and Ryker immediately went through the gallery of photos. “Lots of faces,” he said, yet he connected the camera to his phone via a USB cable, already downloading them and sending them off to Mavericks central command.
Andy shrugged. “Faces interest me. They tell of an entire world in a small expanse of skin.”
Benjamin snorted. “That’s such a dopey thing to say,” he said.
Andy glared at him.
“I think it’s great,” Manila said. “Andy, at least, was thinking about other things than himself.”
Benjamin stared at her. “What the hell does that mean?”
She gave a heavy sigh and snapped, “Forget it.”
Benjamin subsided, but he didn’t look happy with her. But then, what else was new?
With Benjamin and Andy right beside her, Ryker excused himself for a few moments and stepped out in the hallway. He quickly answered Miles’s call. “What’s up?”
“Pablo is here,” he said. “But he’s in a room in the back of the clinic.”
“Did they tell you that he was there?”
“No,” he said. “But I’ve just cornered a young doctor who admitted that they moved Pablo out of the public eye and into a back room after hearing his story.”
“Pablo told them?”
“Yes.”
“So they’ve moved him for his own protection?”
“It appears so. The village generally has a peaceable relationship with the guerrillas, but the members do come down and try to coax young men and women to join them. Pablo’s at the right age for that.”
“But he’s not likely to join given what they did to him,” Ryker said. His voice was hard as he remembered the slices on the young man’s body.
“When I say coax, I mean forcibly convince,” Miles said.
“Right. In other words, he wouldn’t have a choice, and, if he’s injured, then he really wouldn’t have a chance to fight them off. Plus, if they’re still after Manila, then that’s even more of an option to grab Pablo and to force him to tell them where she is and then either take him into the fold or dump him off somewhere where he’ll get eaten.”
“Exactly,” Miles said. “He’s recovering though. He’s on antibiotics, but he needs a few days in the hospital. He’s quite worried. He doesn’t have money, and he doesn’t know how to get home.”
“Something else that we didn’t really consider,” Ryker said. “We were just trying to keep him alive. But I don’t think he’s safe to go home. Not with his uncle.”
“I’ll talk to Pablo again in a few minutes,” he said. “I just wanted to give you a heads-up that he’s here.”
“And find out if he has any idea what the guerrillas’ plans were and whether they’re likely to leave Manila alone or not.”
“Will do,” he said. “I still think regardless that we need to get her out of this place and back home again, so keep trying to see what you can come up with.”
“I’m on it,” he said. He walked down to the hall that had a window staring out over the expanse. And then he heard whispering off the side. He turned to see two of the hotel employees, both men, speaking in low voices, but they were gesturing toward the room that Manila was in. He stepped forward and immediately approached them. “What do you know about that woman?” he asked in a harsh voice.
Both men immediately clammed up, their expressions turning sullen.
“If you think to bring her any more grief,” Ryker said, shoving his face forward, “you’ll have to deal with me. Do you understand?”
Both men glared at him.
“You’re working for the guerrillas, aren’t you?”
Both men’s eyes widened, and they immediately shook their heads.
“Yeah, you are,” Ryker said in disgust. “I wonder how the rest of this town will feel about that. Are they all on your side? Are they all guerrilla sympathizers?”
“No, you can’t do that,” said one young man. “We’ll lose our jobs.”
“Oh, so you care more about your jobs than the life of that poor woman. She already escaped them once. Why do they care?”
“I don’t know that they do care,” he said. “They just put out the word to see if anybody knew where she was staying.”
“So they come into town, do they?”
The same man nodded. “They do. But not in a large group. Just one or two. They have sources here and also get some of their supplies here.”
“They probably do for every village though. They have a network of spies of which I believe you two belong to.”
The men shook their heads. “No, but they pay money sometimes,” the man said. “They just want information.”
He looked at the second man who, so far, hadn’t said a word. “And what information will you give them?”
He gave an innocent look and said, “None.”
“Meaning, you’ve already passed on that information, haven’t you?”
Instantly, the younger man stiffened. “I didn’t say that,” he snapped.
“You don’t have to,” Ryker said. “I can see it’s written all over you. When did you tell them and when can I expect to have visitors?”
The young man looked at his buddy and asked, “Did you already talk to them?”
He shot him a hard look. “You don’t get paid for nothing.”
“Sure, but we als
o can’t just turn her over to them.”
“Why not?” he said sullenly. “They’re nothing but foreigners. We don’t need their kind here.”
“Idiot. You must have tourists at this hotel to have your job here. And yet, if you give her to them, she’ll be here a hell of a lot longer,” Ryker said. “So I’m not leaving here until I find out exactly what you said and when that’ll happen now that you’ve told them.” There was silence in an instant. He checked his watch and said, “You’ve got no idea who you’re dealing with, so feel free to take a seat because you’ll be here for the next couple days, in with the town’s doctor, … or you can talk now.”
“You can’t hold us here,” the young man said.
“And why is that?” Ryker asked with interest. “The guerrillas held her and her team for a whole day. I mean, what do you care, right? We’ll just retaliate and show you the same treatment she got. In which case, of course, you don’t get food or water, and we’ll march you into the jungle and leave you to suffer the heat and the snakes the same as the guerrillas did to her.”
The young man shook his head. “They’re not like that,” he said.
Ryker snorted. “Seriously, is that what you think? Do you realize one of her guides was sliced up and dumped for the animals to feast on, alive?”
At that, the young man paled. “I didn’t think they did things like that.”
“They are guerrillas,” Ryker said. “They like to think they are soldiers. All they give a shit about is fighting.”
“They’re fighting for a cause,” the second man cried out with heavy emotion.
“Absolutely,” Ryker said. “And we don’t know anything about that. But what we don’t want to do is get involved again. So why would you tell them where she is?”
“Maybe because they don’t want her lost in the jungle,” the second man said, his voice turning crafty.
Ryker gave him a flat stare. “You can tell your guerrillas that she leaves today under our care, and, if they want to bring on a war, then bring it here to the village.”
“You can’t do that,” the younger man said. “Innocent people will get hurt.”
“And who do you think she is?” Ryker asked, his eyebrows going up. “She’s a geologist here, looking at rocks. She’s innocent in any part of whatever hellish nightmare scenario you guys were told.”
“But that’s not true,” he said. “She’s dangerous. She’s spying for the government.”
Ryker snorted. “Have you seen her? She’s not a spy, for your government or for hers. She’s not anybody other than a geologist fascinated by rocks. She works for a US company, and they sent her here to look for platinum.”
The young man looked confused. He glanced at the second man, but he wasn’t having anything to do with it.
“Right,” Ryker said. “Well, let me call for my backup. We’ll take you into the jungle. We’ll tie you up and see how long you last.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” the young man said. “You can’t do that.”
“I can do anything I need to do to keep her and her team safe,” Ryker said, his voice low and intense. “And, as you seem to think that it’s totally okay to sign her up to get kidnapped again and to get tossed into the jungle and tortured and God-only-knows-what-else they’ll do to her because she picked up a rock that she was legally allowed to do by your own government, then you’ve got another think coming.”
Footsteps echoed by the stairs. Ryker turned to see the owner of the hotel coming in.
The owner immediately asked, “Is there a problem?”
“Depends if you’re a guerrilla sympathizer or not,” Ryker said, his voice still low and steady.
The hotel owner’s face twisted with scorn. “They took my son, and they ruined my daughter,” he said. “They can keep their war to themselves in the jungle.”
Ryker motioned at the two men standing here. “Well, these two men just sold the guerrillas information about the people who I came with here,” he said. “And I’m getting pretty angry myself.”
“As far as I’m concerned, they can return to the jungle and be tied up and deposited for the guerrillas. They’re always looking for new men. They can have these two new converts.” The owner glared at them.
At that, both men jumped up and said, “No, no, no, we’re not joining them.”
“Yes, you are,” Ryker said. “I’ll tie you up with a big gift-wrapped bow and dump you in their camp if it’s the last thing I do.” He meant every damn word of it. “For trying to send those three innocent people—that woman in particular—back into their clutches, I’ll make sure that the guerrillas know you’re willing but just need to have your minds changed.”
Both men immediately paled and shook their heads. One man said, “I have a wife and a baby.”
“Oh, that’s good,” Ryker said. “They’ll want your wife too.”
At that, the young man turned all shades of color, and he said, “Look. We didn’t mean any harm.”
“You already accepted money, and, if you did it this time, you’ve done it many times,” he snapped.
At that, the hotel owner reamed them out, his Spanish fluid and with a dialect that Ryker couldn’t even begin to understand. But the tone was easily understood. The owner was not only disgusted but he was also angry that they, as hotel employees, would use their access to the hotel guests for such purposes. Both men followed an order from him and pulled out the money from their pockets.
“Is that all she’s worth? That’s the extent of what a woman’s life is worth? So show the guerrillas where your wife is—and is that all I would get for her?”
“No, please, no,” the young man cried out in fear.
“Why shouldn’t I? It’s not like you care about women—this one in particular—do you?” Ryker snapped, driving home his point.
Both men looked ashamed. “It’s hard to make money here,” the younger man said.
“That’s not an excuse,” Ryker said. “She’s a person and not just a victim here. You have no business making her life a living hell.” He turned to the hotel owner and said, “What will you do with these two?”
He was still obviously angry. “If I fire them, these two worms will just return to the guerrillas and tell them what’s going on here. They’ll come and burn down my place,” he said in disgust. He turned and spat at the men’s feet. “I’ll be speaking to my manager about you two.”
They both backed up, and Ryker said, “You two need to quit giving information to the guerrillas, accepting money from them, don’t you?”
Sullen, the two of them looked at him and said, “You didn’t have to tell him.”
“I wouldn’t have to if you two were being cooperative,” Ryker said, his voice low. “And believe me. At this point in time, if I find out anybody else is coming here, we’ll use you on the front line.” He turned to the owner and said, “And that’s not a bad idea. I want both men standing guard on our rooms.”
The owner looked at him. “Why would you want that?”
“Because then, when the guerrillas come,” Ryker said, “I’ll throw these two to the wolves.”
“You can’t do that,” the young man cried out yet again.
“And why can’t I?” Ryker asked. “I’ll give them the two people they were looking for, except that you’ll take their places.”
“That’s wrong,” he said. “We didn’t do anything.”
“Seriously? You just sold a woman to the guerrillas.”
Chapter 11
Restless, Manila didn’t know how long it would take for Ryker to come back. She’d finished the coffee, and the two men were arguing over what their next step was, when Benjamin hopped to his feet and said, “Okay, I’ve had enough of this place. I’ll tour the village.” Then he looked at her. “Somehow you ended up with fashionable clothes, but you’re still barefoot.”
She looked down at her bare feet and nodded. “The only thing I have to wear is my boots,” she said. Then she motioned at hi
s getup. “You have your clothes from yesterday, and I still do too, but then I’d have to get changed.”
“No point,” he said. “You’ll slow me down. Besides I don’t want to be seen and I can do that better without you.” And he walked out.
Andy said, “He doesn’t mean it that way.”
“Yes, he does,” she said. “I’ve never seen that totally sexist side of him until this trip.”
“Have you done trips with him before?”
“No,” she said, “not really. Not long ones like this.”
“I think it really grates on him that you make more money than he does.”
“And that’s always the balancing act,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s because I have a degree, and he doesn’t, or because I’m female, and he thinks I get special treatment for that.”
“And yet, the truth of the matter is, most times it’s the men who get a higher paycheck. So that’s probably a large part of it.”
“Benjamin’s the kind of guy who’ll complain no matter what,” she said. “If you want to go with him, then go. I’ll sit here and relax. My body needs to recover from yesterday.” He hesitated, but she waved him off. “Go on and enjoy.”
He smiled and said, “Ryker said he was outside, so you should be okay.”
“I’m more than okay,” she said. “I’ll probably take another nap.” She pushed her chair back and checked her jeans on top of the awning. Then smiled and said, “At least I have clean clothes.”
He looked at them and smiled. “That was very smart.”
She nodded. “Go on. Enjoy your afternoon.”
“Wait. Wasn’t Miles supposed to bring food?”
She nodded. “He should have been back by now, I thought.” Andy hesitated, and she said, “You can always check back and see if the guys are back with food while you’re out. The first flush is over now that you’ve got some treats in you, so either go for a walk and come back, or, if you see Miles or Ryker, you can always come back with one of them.”
