by Roland Smith
Yes.
“Have you left camp?”
Yes.
“Is Yvonne at camp?”
No.
Marty wanted to say “Not yet” and give Ted her ETA, and the fact that he couldn’t made him want to scream in frustration.
“Did you let the hatchlings go?”
Yes.
“I’ll do the next three one at a time. Is Ana with you?”
No.
“Buckley Johnson?”
No.
“Grace?”
Yes.
“Thank God for that anyway. Did you take your tags off and destroy them?”
Yes.
“Are you all okay?”
Marty looked at Grace.
“We’re alive,” Grace said.
Yes.
“I guess all you can do is keep an eye on Yvonne and her thugs with the dragonspy. Just stay out of their sight. We’ll regroup when I get there. I’m going to spend a little more time on the Rivlan. If I can’t get it back on the river, I’ll start working on our communications and we’ll figure out a way to get to you. I better get back to it,” Ted said. “And you need to keep on the move.” He gave the dragonspy a big smile. “Stay safe.”
He disappeared back into the hatch like a greasy rabbit.
Dylan dropped the line down.
“I’ll tie our stuff off,” Marty said. “See you up there.”
Grace started up the ladder. Marty followed her after he got their packs secured. When he got to the top, he pulled the ladder up behind him. Dylan had untied their packs. Grace was helping him sort out the gear on the small wooden platform Flanna had put up.
Marty knew Grace had never been on a zip line, but she was good on a tightrope. He was certain she’d be fine on a zip, providing she didn’t crack her skull open. He looked at Grace. “Did you bring helmets?”
Grace shook her head. “I forgot, but I have first aid supplies.”
“That might come in handy when someone cracks their head open,” Marty said, eyeing the supplies. “What time does it get light here?”
“About seven,” Grace answered.
“That means we’ll have a couple of hours of nocturnal zipping.” He looked at Dylan. “Have you ever been on a zip line?”
Dylan shook his head. “How hard can it be?”
“It’s not hard, except for the fact that you can break your neck if you make a mistake.”
“What are you going to do with the tracking implants?” Grace asked.
Marty took them out of his pocket and held them in his palm. The tiny implants were still flashing. He had an idea about what he wanted to do with them, but he wasn’t sure it would work.
“You guys go ahead,” Marty said. “I’ll be right behind you.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Grace said. “I think we should stick together.”
Marty had anticipated the objection. “You know, when you were on your swanky vacation with Noah Blackwood, we got along just fine without you bossing us around.”
Grace folded her arms across her chest. “We wouldn’t be in this mess if you hadn’t tried to rescue me.”
“We did rescue you,” Marty said. “You just didn’t know you needed rescuing. I need to check on Yvonne one more time, then fly the dragonspy back here so we can try to figure out where everyone is. You need to go ahead and pull up every ladder you can find so Yvonne and her trigger men can’t get up here. Besides, we can only have one person on the zip line at a time, which means we’re going to have to leapfrog our way through the canopy.”
“All of that kind of makes sense,” Dylan said.
Grace gave him the stink eye. Dylan returned the look with a smile. Grace blushed.
Marty watched them both. That’s interesting.
“Okay,” Grace said with reluctance.
Marty found this interesting as well. Grace usually didn’t give in so easily. He got the harnesses ready, helped Dylan and Grace into them, then gave them a brief lesson on how to use a zip line without cracking their heads open like eggs.
“You need to go slow until you figure out what you’re doing. There’s a hand braking system on the harness. Pull yourself along until you figure out how to use the brakes. If you start freewheeling, you can end up going out of control. But don’t panic, there’s a bungee brake on the other end of the line that should slow you down so you don’t smash into a tree. Keep your eyes open for what lies ahead. Flanna probably cleared this area at one time, but if she hasn’t used the lines recently, it’ll be overgrown again. You can actually watch plants growing here.” He looked at Grace. “You better go first.”
Grace hooked on to the line, tested the harness, then zipped off into the night. Dylan joined her a little too fast.
“Keep the brakes on!” Marty shouted after him.
“Duh du —”
“Ow!” Grace shouted. “That hurt!”
“Sorry.”
Marty smiled. They’d work it out. Now he had something to work out. He took his Gizmo out and sat down on the platform. Yvonne’s boat was already tied up at the jaguar preserve’s dock. Yvonne was standing on the dock, holding a small antenna up in the air, obviously tracking the hatchlings. Marty turned up the dragonspy’s volume.
“Well?” Spike asked.
“The hatchlings are definitely on the move, or at least they were. They’ve stopped. They’re half a mile out.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Wolfe’s people know we’re coming. They’re moving the hatchlings.” She took her sat phone out and hit a button. “No signal.”
“That’s because Blackwood has jammed everything for a twenty-mile radius. We’re operating dark. What do you want to do?”
Yvonne looked confused, and a little frightened, which brought a smile to Marty’s face. It was clear that Blackwood hadn’t given Yvonne detailed instructions prior to knocking out the communications. She didn’t know what to do, but she made a quick recovery.
“The Rivlan isn’t here, which means we passed it coming upriver, or else it’s been here and has moved on. The helicopter is still here, which means Wolfe is either away from camp or incapacitated. If he knew we were coming, he would have loaded the hatchlings up and flown them out of here. Can you disable the helicopter?”
“Sure.” Spike nodded at one of his men. “But that doesn’t answer my question, does it? What do you want to do?”
“Our priorities have changed,” Yvonne said. “We need to go after the hatchlings.”
“I’ve heard you mention them before. What are they?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
“Whatever.” Spike spit his slimy cigar into the water. “After we get these … uh … hatchlings. Then what?”
“Then we come back here and clean up.”
Spike laughed. “You mean kill whoever is left over.”
“That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”
Marty had heard enough. He hit the HOME button on the Gizmo.
The dragonspy arrived at the platform in less than a minute. He wasn’t sure if what he had planned was going to work. The tracking implants were tiny, but so was the dragonspy. He turned off the bot’s power and gave it a close examination. There were only two places he could attach the implants: on the underside where the legs were and on top between the wings.
He pulled out the first aid supplies Grace had cobbled together in camp and searched through them until he landed on a tube of surgical glue. He opened the tube, squeezed a tiny drop onto the first implant, and gently pressed it to the dragonspy’s back. He swatted the real insects buzzing around his head as he waited for the glue to set.
Here goes nothing … or everything.
He activated the dragonspy and launched it. To his relief, it took off. He did a couple of loops around the platform. The bot was a little sluggish, but it was flying. He brought it in for a landing.
He attached the second implant. As he waited for the glue to set,
he thought about his next move. He obviously needed to keep Yvonne away from the hatchlings. He also needed to keep her away from them. Discounting the Amazon River, the direction they were heading, and the direction he assumed the hatchlings were traveling, there was only one direction he could lead her, and that was south. He hoped there was something really horrible to the south.
Marty hit the LAUNCH button on the Gizmo, and his heart sank. The dragonspy’s wings rattled on the wooden platform as if it had been swatted and was dying. He kicked himself for attaching the second implant. He might have been able to dupe Yvonne with just one implant.
But what were the chances of one of the implants going out the exact same moment she started to follow them?
He looked down at the vibrating dragonspy. There seemed to only be two choices, and neither was good. The glue had set. There was no way to get the implants off the bot now. The only way to disable the implants was to crush the dragonspy.
“No big deal,” he said aloud. “Except it cost Ted and Wolfe a million bucks to build it.”
His only other choice was to put the dragonspy in his pocket and head south himself. He walked over to the south side of the platform, hoping that Flanna had strung lines in that direction. She hadn’t. Which meant he’d have to lead them astray on foot. Which brought him back to his first option.
Squish the bot.
He turned around and was about to take a million-dollar step when he noticed he could no longer hear its wings rattling. At first he thought the dragonspy had run out of juice trying to get off the ground. He shined his headlamp all over the platform, but the dragonspy was no longer there.
What the …
He stared at the Gizmo screen and saw the back of his own head bowed over the Gizmo. He looked up. The dragonspy was hovering about twenty feet above him, holding its own.
Must have needed time to get used to the new payload.
He flew the dragonspy in a couple of circles, maneuvering it through the dense branches and tangled vines. It was definitely slower now, but that could turn out to be an advantage. One of the things he’d been worried about was the dragonspy’s speed. It seemed to have three flying modes. Hover, dead stop, and extremely fast. His plan had been to fly south a few minutes, stop, then fly on again, hoping this would fool Yvonne into thinking the hatchlings were moving at a realistic speed through the rain forest. Now he didn’t have to worry about it. The sluggish dragonspy was now moving at the speed of two jogging baby dinosaurs.
He heard a whirring sound. A headlamp was zipping its way toward him. Grace made a perfect landing on the platform — difficult to do in the dark.
“What are you still doing here?”
“Hello to you, too,” Marty said. “Where’s Dylan?”
“He’s about half a mile ahead, which is where you should be.”
“I had to take care of some stuff. It took longer than I thought.” He explained his plan.
“I hope you lead them off a cliff,” Grace muttered.
Marty grinned. Killer Grace. “Me, too.”
“Where are they?”
“I’m guessing they’re about fifteen minutes away. I overheard Yvonne talking to one of Noah’s thugs. They’re tracking the implants. The hatchlings are the priority. Once they’ve captured them, they’ll come back and kill everyone at their leisure.”
“You definitely need to lead them off a cliff.”
“I’ll give it my best shot.” Marty looked at his watch. “I’m glad you came back. We still have a little time. I’m going to start Mr. Dragonspy south. It might be a good idea to get rid of any obvious footprints beneath this tree. If they see prints, they’ll know we’re using the zips.”
“I’m on it,” Grace said, throwing the ladder over the edge of the platform.
While she climbed down, Marty put the dragonspy into infrared mode and started it south. It was a smart little bug. It would fly indefinitely in the direction he sent it, avoiding obstacles, until he gave it instructions to do something else. The infrared video was a little hard to interpret on the tiny screen. He put the spyglasses on, which weren’t much better. It would be a lot easier when the sun came up. He looked over the edge of the platform. He could see Grace’s headlamp bobbing around a hundred feet below. He watched her for a while, then scanned the forest beyond and saw a flash of light in the distance.
“Crap!”
Yvonne had made better time than he had expected.
If it is Yvonne.
He couldn’t take a chance that it wasn’t Yvonne. The light flashed again, then a second light appeared and vanished. It looked like the lights were heading their way. Grace was still bobbing around with her own headlamp, oblivious to the fact that there were people coming her way. He couldn’t shout out a warning. He turned off his headlamp and hurried down the rope ladder.
Now all I have to do is get her to notice me without making her scream.
The only way to do to this was to make enough noise to get Grace’s attention, but not enough to be heard by the group coming their way. She was about fifty feet away with her back to him. He coughed. She didn’t turn around. He coughed louder. She still didn’t turn around.
Is she deaf?
He stepped a few feet closer and tried another cough. This one worked. She whipped around and painted him with her headlamp beam.
“What are you doing down here?” she asked irritably. “I just got rid of our footprints.”
“They’re coming,” he whispered, hoping she got the hint. She didn’t.
“Who’s —”
“Why does everything have to be a debate with you? Yvonne is here. Turn your headlamp off. Let’s go.”
Without another word, Grace started up the ladder. By the time she reached the top, Marty could not only see the headlamps, he knew how many there were.
Four.
They were only a hundred yards away when he started up the hundred-foot ladder. Halfway up, they were twenty yards away. He stopped climbing. He’d never make it to the top before they reached the tree. He hooked an arm around a rung and started to pull the slack up behind him. Yvonne and the others were now close enough that he could hear them talking.
“Did you hear that?” someone said.
“Yeah. A scraping sound. Better take out your tranquilizer gun.”
“It isn’t the hatchlings,” Yvonne said. “They’re a quarter mile away and making good time. If we want to catch up with them, we need to pick up our pace. Less talking, more walking.”
“Yes, sir!”
The others laughed, but not Yvonne.
No sense of humor, Marty thought.
Two of them stopped directly below where he was dangling. They lit cigarettes.
Smoke break. Perfect.
Yvonne and the other two continued on. Marty grabbed a vine to steady himself. He didn’t want his swaying to knock something loose from the tree and have it fall on their heads. He looked down on the two smokers. He hoped Grace was looking down on him, and the smokers, and was keeping her mouth shut. If the men looked up, it was all over for him. They’d probably shoot him out of the tree, and they wouldn’t use a tranquilizer dart. After his bullet-riddled body hit the ground, they’d climb up and grab Grace. They’d find the Gizmo and figure out his dino chase scam. It wouldn’t be long before Dylan got worried and came back looking for them, zipping right into their clutches. He prayed Dylan didn’t pick this moment to come back. Zip lines made an unmistakable hum.
“Yeah, I hear you,” one of the men said irritably. “Lighten up. We’re right behind you.”
Marty guessed that they were wearing earpieces because he hadn’t heard the question. The second man said something about Yvonne that would have enraged her had she heard it. The first man topped the insult with one of his own, causing Marty to stifle a laugh.
That’s all I need. Start laughing, then … Blam!
“What do you think these hatchlings are?”
“Probably another one of Blackwood�
��s mutants. Bottom line, I don’t care what they are. As long as he keeps putting coin in my piggy bank, I’ll chase after anything he wants. Easiest scratch I ever made.”
The men flicked their cigarettes into the rain forest, then headed south. Marty waited until their headlamps disappeared before clambering up to the platform to Grace.
She helped him over the edge. “That was close,” she said.
“Tell me about it.”
“I heard them talking, but I couldn’t understand what they were saying.”
“They were making fun of Yvonne and talking about how much money Noah was paying them.” Marty checked the dragonspy on the Gizmo. It was making steady progress in a southerly direction. “We better catch up with Dylan. He’s probably going nuts with worry.”
Grace looked down at the Gizmo. “Why catch up with him?” she asked.
“Huh?”
“The reason we came up here was to get away from Yvonne and lead her away from the hatchlings. Thanks to you, mission accomplished.”
Marty wouldn’t have admitted this to anyone, especially Grace, but he was pretty happy with the compliment.
“What’s to stop us from going back to camp?” Grace asked.
Marty stared at her a moment, a little confused, until he realized what she was getting at. The answer was, nothing was stopping them from going back to camp to see if anyone had made it back. If no one was at camp, they could head in any direction they wanted, as long as it was away from Yvonne.
“We need to get Dylan,” Marty said.
As if on cue, they heard the zip line humming. Dylan hopped onto the platform.
“Where have you been?” Dylan asked.
“About time you showed up,” Marty said.
“Me?”
“How do you like zipping?”
“It’d be awesome if I could see where I was going and there weren’t people trying to kill me.”
“We’re heading back to camp,” Grace said.
“What about Yvonne?”
“We’ll explain on the way,” Grace said.
“Nobody home,” Marty said.
They had just arrived back at the jaguar camp, which was exactly as they had left it. Empty. While Grace and Dylan searched the huts in the early morning light, Marty pulled out the Gizmo and checked on the dragonspy. The spyglasses were back in his pocket because he still couldn’t walk and watch at the same time. The dragonspy was making steady progress to the south, but there was no way of telling how far ahead of Yvonne it was. He flew the bot above the canopy to get the lay of the land. It was velvety green for as far as he could see.
