by Chloe Daykin
Raul
I wake up in the pickup cramped and curled, every part of me stiff. I haven’t dared move since Charles left last night.
I look out the back and see the other pickup. Parked up next to us at the hotel. Its smooth white walls reaching up into the blue of the sky. Everyone is in there. Everyone but me.
I look at Rick’s watch.
5 a.m.
If I lose Maya I fail Alessa. I fail Matias. And the forest. Everything fails.
I blink my eyes and wonder what I’m afraid of. I know the hotel room, I’ve been in there before. I know the number. I could just go up there myself, right?
And do what? Run away with her?
To where? Like how?
Charles and Rosa will be there. Guarding her. They’d get me before I even got in. Then who knows what they’d do? If they take me, who will come for me? How will they even know where I am? If they take me everyone loses. Everyone but JVF.
I think about Maya and wish I had magic hands that could reach into the building and pull her out like a fly in syrup.
And a small voice inside me says, She’s with her dad, right? What if she doesn’t even want me to? What if that isn’t even what she wants?
Maya
I don’t remember going to sleep, but an alarm clock blinks 5 a.m. in my face and tells me that I did.
I shower and slip into Raul’s clothes that don’t smell of him any more. I wonder how to get out of this. I could run. To where? I’ve no idea how to get to Carlos’s.
I don’t know anyone else.
I have no idea where Matias even is.
I look in the mirror and think about Raul. I wish you could reach someone just by thinking. I wish I could teleport. Even if he’s in the lake, I’d rather be there than here.
When I come out of the bathroom, Dad’s ordered room service and we eat in silence.
The door clicks open and Rosa comes in. My insides shrink.
‘Let’s go.’ Dad puts a hand on my head. ‘Things will be different. You’ll see. Things will be very different.’
What kind of hold have they got on him?
This is crazy.
He goes to hug me, but I back off, back to the desk. My fingers reach backwards to the briefcase sitting there. The one we found before. The one with the contract.
I click it open, swipe the contract off the top, push Rosa back into the wall and run out the door.
Raul
I climb out of the pickup and look up at the windows at the back of the hotel. I can climb up. Maybe. If Maya sees me she’ll know I’m here and find a way out. Right? Even if she’s decided to stay with her dad, I need to know. I need to know she’s OK.
I look around for handholds up the sheer plaster walls. Breakfast smells drift from the kitchen and my stomach rumbles.
I put a hand out to the wall and kick off my shoes and grip my toes into the window edge on the ground floor. I reach up and don’t look down. I pull-slide myself up the wall.
Maya
I run down the stairs lifting my legs up and flying down the banisters with my arms.
I hear Rosa’s footsteps behind me.
I jump over the last few steps and out the door into the sunshine.
The light stings. I bring my hand up to my eyes and wish I had sunglasses.
‘Oomph!’ I feel her body slam into me.
She takes the contract from my hand.
But not before I clock it.
I force my eyes open.
CLICK.
One last snap, I load it into my brain and her arms wrap round me from behind.
Raul
My hands reach for the second floor and I hear a scream round the front.
Maya?
I jump-spring off the wall into a squat and run round the corner, dodging two bikes and a guy with a tray of churros higher than his face. I swipe two and see Maya running out the front.
And Rosa. I’d know her face anywhere.
Her arms wrap round Maya.
‘Hey!’ the churros guy yells after me.
‘Maya!’ I run. She’s squinting like she can’t see me.
‘Raul?’
Rosa tightens her grip and walks her over to the pickup Charles has brought round the front and pushes her in the back and slams the door. She gets in the other side. Her dad runs out and gets in the pickup front.
I run over, hammering my hand on the glass. Maya puts her fingers up to the window. Our palms touch either side.
And it drives off.
Maya
I try to open the car door and jump into the street but it’s locked. I kick the door and scream. Charles keeps driving.
I hate him.
When the car stops at the airport I try and focus. And squeeze out light balls.
If I did it once. I can do it again. Right?
I grip my fists and try to explode the car.
We stop and Dad opens the door and my inner fire goes.
Rosa pulls my passport out of her bag. They must have taken it from the rucksack at Matias’ house. I hate the idea of them going through my stuff. Rosa locks my arm in hers and walks me into the airport where Dad buys a ticket to Glasgow. He shrugs at the price (which is huge) and pays. I think about JVF putting the money in the account.
I want to spit on the ticket. Who wants to fly on blood money? Who wants to fly anyway? Not me.
The flight leaves in one hour. I start to move away from the ticket desk. Dad doesn’t. He buys another ticket.
‘You’re going to Lima?’
Dad hands over his credit card. ‘That’s none of your business.’ He looks away.
‘That’s a yes then.’
‘Something’s come up,’ he says.
‘Like what?’
He takes the ticket and we walk away. ‘A meeting,’ he says. ‘A very special meeting. Something wonderful.’ He bites his lip. ‘I hope.’
I wish he’d stop talking like this.
‘I’ve been waiting years for this. Years.’ He rubs his head. ‘I’m not signing till I see something. There’s someone I need to see.’
‘Then don’t go.’
He looks at his ticket. He looks at the flight board. He grabs me in a hug then pulls away. ‘Go home. Keep safe. Rosa will look after you,’ he says and steps off towards the gate. He looks out at the planes, then back at me. ‘I have to,’ he says. And goes.
I watch him.
I have to get out of here.
I ball my hands into fists and scream inside till the energy boils up and out. Till a fireball bursts into the air and sets fire to Rosa’s bag.
Raul
I kick the earth, and rocks fly up and hit a dented VW. I say sorry to the driver and Pachamama (for kicking her rocks) and put my head in my hands, feeling hollow and hopeless and embarrassed at the connection to Maya that feels like someone just cut.
A car screeches up by my feet. ‘Hey!’ I put my hands down and jump out of the way and feel lucky I’ve still got my legs.
A grinning face jumps out of the car. Matias! And a not-grinning one switches the engine off.
‘I would have come last night,’ Carlos says. ‘But someone stole my canoe.’
‘I’m so sorry.’ I can’t look at Carlos. I look at the floor. I feel so ashamed.
I look at Matias. ‘How’d you get here?’
‘I hitched a lift downriver,’ he says. ‘To Carlos’s. We were meant to meet at Carlos’s – what’s wrong with you?’
I don’t say anything. No way I’m telling Matias about what happened in the lake.
Matias looks round and realises I’m on my own. He stops grinning. ‘Where is she?’ he yells.
‘I don’t know,’ I say. ‘They all went off in jeeps, that’s all I know.’
‘She went with her dad?’
I nod.
‘You didn’t stop them?’
‘You think I didn’t try?’
‘Get in,’ Carlos says and starts the engine back up. ‘We’re in I
quitos, the only way in or out is by plane, right.’
We jump in the back and go.
Maya
Rosa chucks the bag on the floor and stamps on it. The fireball floats to the ceiling and I wave at it and run for the exit and out. Slamming into the body of someone running in.
Matias? No way.
‘Like how?’ I say.
‘No time,’ he says.
We pull back and grin at each other.
I take his hand and we run to the back of a car, engine running. I crawl in and stick a towel over my head keeping my face away from the CCTV and anyone who might be running out I don’t want to see. Matias hits the side of the car and says something I don’t understand to someone I can’t see.
And someone climbs in next to me and shoves their body against me to stop me falling out and skidding all over the road like roadkill. ‘Hey,’ the body says.
And I know it’s Raul.
My heart jumps and I go pink with relief, even though I’m sweating from lack of air.
I put my hand up (I hope high enough to be his back and not his backside). ‘Hey,’ I say through the towel.
I think about Rosa realising I’ve gone. I think about Dad when he finds out. He’ll know I’m OK though. Right? He knows I’ve got friends here now. Well, he would if he’d listened. If he’d listened I wouldn’t be doing this. If he’d listened he’d be helping. Not on a plane to Lima.
And I hold my breath while we drive away and don’t stop till we’ve taken three right turns and a left and the air is busy with the sounds of water.
Maya
I burst out of the blanket and jump out the back of the car into the road by the harbour and breathe.
I look at Raul. Our eyes meet.
‘Hey,’ I say.
‘Hey,’ he says, and smiles his wonky mouth smile. I think how I thought I might never see him again. The connectedness sparks something in my stomach.
‘Did you stop him? Did you try? What did you say?’ Matias jumps in front of me.
‘How did you get here?’
‘He hitched a ride downriver.’ Raul winks at me.
‘To Carlos’s.’ Matias throws his arms up. ‘We were meant to be meeting at Carlos’s. What’s wrong with you? Where did you go?’
I think about the night on the lake. No way I’m telling Matias about that. ‘Where’s Steven?’
‘With me.’ Carlos taps his chest.
Phew. I think how happy he was with Matias’s family.
‘Dad’s going to Lima.’ I look at Matias. ‘He said …’ I think about what he said. That he’s doing this for us. I can’t say it in front of him. I think about the contract I CLICKed. I need to know what it says. Maybe then I’ll understand. ‘He said reasons that don’t make sense.’ I shake my head. ‘Scientific reasons. Ones he doesn’t believe. I’m sure he doesn’t.’ I look at Carlos. ‘I’m sorry about your canoe.’
Carlos nods and waves his hand.
‘If you’d followed the plan everything would be fine.’ Matias folds his arms like a kid who can’t get everyone to follow the rules. ‘None of this would have happened,’ he says, and I think how much he sounds like Dad.
‘If he wanted you back he’d have come to get you at Carlos’s anyway.’ Raul shrugs. ‘If everyone in Belen knows Carlos, JVF knows Carlos, right? If he was looking for you that’s where they’d look.’
I nod. It’s true. ‘We need to get to Lima. Something’s happening. Something big. Something he won’t tell me about.’
‘I’ve got this.’ Raul unfurls a wet roll of cash from his pocket. ‘It isn’t enough to fly on. But it’s something.’ He looks at the ground. ‘I took it from your dad. I’m sorry. I think it brought the bad luck to us.’
I shake my head.
‘This is for you.’ Raul takes a wedge of cash and offers it to Carlos. I think how long it takes his family to earn that from selling fabrics. ‘For the canoe.’
Carlos tries to refuse.
‘Please,’ Raul says and looks at the floor.
Carlos nods and takes the money.
‘We could get a boat?’ Matias pats the cash and grins.
‘Won’t we miss him? Isn’t that too slow?’ I wipe the sweat off my face.
‘They’re not meeting till Thursday.’ Matias scratches his neck. ‘That’s what I heard. When I was in the lodge.’
‘When you were going to kidnap me?’
He shakes his head. ‘When Juan Carlos went off with your Dad.’
‘Who?’ I screw my face up.
‘He’s the boss of JVF.’ Carlos’s brow creases. ‘Everything goes through him. It’s the way all the big corporations work. They have one main guy pulling the strings and running the show.’
‘He’s just a guy who wants money,’ Raul says. ‘He grew up in the slums in San Juan de Lurigancho with nothing and wanted more. He’s just never stopped wanting it.’
‘That’s who your papi left you for,’ Matias says. ‘When he shot at me.’
‘He didn’t shoot at you.’ I hate that Matias keeps saying that.
‘He said your dad had to come. He said once he’d seen the evidence, he’d sign the contract.’
‘What evidence?’
‘I don’t know. It sounded like they were meeting someone. Someone hard to get hold of.’
I stare at Matias. ‘And you never said that? All this time you never said it?’
‘All what time?’ Matias pulls a face. ‘You made a fire and ran away, remember?’
‘OK, OK.’ Carlos calms things down with his hands. ‘We’re wasting time. The boat to Lima takes two days,’ he says. ‘I need to get us a boat.’
Raul
Carlos speaks for ages on the phone. Pleading, cajoling. ‘Yes, they know what they’re doing. Yes, they’ve driven a boat before. Sure, it’ll be as good as new, not a scratch, I’ll vouch for it.’ Haggling over the money. He comes off the phone.
‘OK.’ He puffs out his cheeks. ‘You’ll take the boat to Yurimagua, then drive through the desert to Lima. When you get to Lima you go to the office and …’
‘And?’ Matias looks at him.
There is a silence.
Maya sets her eyes. ‘I say I’ll hand myself in. Say I’ll go home with him if he doesn’t sign. If he signs he loses me for good. And I’ll stay here, with you.’
‘Really?’
She swallows.
‘It’s worth a shot, right?’
‘Right.’ I try to sound sure. To back her up.
‘And I’ll make a fire,’ she says. ‘I’ll make a fire so big he can’t reach me.’
I don’t say anything about how she couldn’t before. How she didn’t get away last time, how when her dad turned up her light went out.
‘OK.’ Carlos nods. ‘But I can’t go with you. They’ll want to know where you are. If they think I kidnapped you they’ll be back.’ I try not to think of all the alliance workers who Matias said have died. ‘I can’t leave my family,’ he says, and we all stare at the floor and don’t say anything.
‘This way,’ he says, and we follow him fast into town to get the keys for the boat.
‘Some people want to help,’ Carlos says. ‘They just don’t want to make it public. They want to keep their families safe, so they keep it secret.’
Three guys walk past carrying planks. A path clears through the crowd of people milling about as they walk. In the harbour a boat sits low in the water, heavy with wood. The crew stare at us with hard eyes.
Carlos stares back.
The boat’s a taxi ready to take the load out to a bigger ship docked offshore, out of the way, out of sight. That’s how it works. There’s no inspectors, no papers needed offshore.
‘People do crap for money.’ Matias spits on the floor. ‘It’s lives we’re talking about here. People’s lives.’ He goes to yell at the boat, but Carlos stops him. Matias folds his arms and stomps off.
We leave the quay and walk past stalls selling fish and hunks of meat. I s
ee the dark red flesh of a turtle, its head and legs spread out on a table. Maya flinches and so do I.
Carlos hands the cash to a guy at a stall cooking giant white grubs on sticks on a barbecue. He hands over the keys and they nod at each other and we walk on.
Even though it’s daylight it’s dark and shady here.
We buy water and rice and chulpe, maps, torches, towels and rucksacks. I take Aiko’s parcel out of my pocket and put it in mine to keep it safe. I buy three wrinkly bags of material from a woman with a wrinkly face who smiles at us.
‘What’s that?’ Maya looks at the bags.
‘You’ll see!’ I say and grin.
It’s good to see Maya again. It’s good to be back together.
She pokes it and frowns, and we walk back to Carlos, who leads us to the gangway of a rusted river cruiser.
We look at the harbour where the boat filled with wood had been. It must have left while we were at the market. I look at the empty space and think about the empty space that’s left in the forest now. The price it paid to load it. Maya catches my eye and nods like she gets it.
Carlos pulls me back. ‘Keep an eye on Matias,’ he says.
I nod a promise, though it feels weird. Matias has always been the one to look out for us. The look in his eyes says this isn’t what he means though. Matias is becoming risky. Since what happened to his dad and Alessa I have sadness. And guilt. Matias has anger with nowhere to go.
The look in his eyes says watch out.
Maya
Carlos says something to Raul that makes him look funny and we stomp up the gangway and on to a double-decker ship that used to be white once but is now mostly rust. We load the stuff on to the boat and clank around. The top deck’s bare except for rows of hooks, the bottom has benches and a galley. Below that at the base is the food store and driving seat with a wheel and levers. Metal railings line the sides, and the air flows through the gaps and the holes on the perforated metal floor.