by Rai Aren
They’d made a long list of supplies they would need and headed out early to gather them. Rick had gone with Sofia and Luis, while Javier went by himself, in order to split the effort and save time. They planned to meet back at Rick’s apartment as soon as they were done.
Rick, Sofia, and Luis were making one of their last stops at a local hardware store. They went inside. It was crowded and busy.
Sofia pulled Rick aside. “I want to talk to you,” she whispered.
Luis went on ahead, list in hand.
“Sure,” Rick said. “What is it?”
She had a serious look on her face. “I wanted to ask you what you thought about Javier.”
Rick was glad she was bringing this subject up. “I think he’s a noble person, principled, but...” his voice trailed off as a couple of other shoppers squeezed by them.
“But what?”
Rick looked at Sofia and lowered his voice. “I’ve been thinking that the odds are there’s a lot he’s not telling us.”
She nodded her head quickly. “I’ve been thinking the same thing.” Her journalistic instincts had been sending her all kinds of warning bells since they’d made their rescue plan. She knew there was soon going to come a point of no return and she wasn’t certain how they would ultimately fare when it did.
She looked at Rick intently. “Do you think we can trust him?”
He took a moment to answer. “To a point, yes.”
She felt relieved and validated that she wasn’t the only one thinking along these lines. “My feeling exactly.”
“I think we’d be well-served to keep our eyes wide open where he’s concerned,” Rick said. “I’m hoping we’re all on the same side, but we need to admit that this is a marriage of convenience, so to speak.”
She nodded in agreement.
“He doesn’t really want us coming with him, that much is clear,” Rick added. “But he’s been forced into a situation where he needs us to.”
“And once he doesn’t need us anymore?” she asked. “Once he’s reunited with his friends?”
Rick raised his eyebrows. “Then, the calculus of our jungle adventure changes. We’ll have to stay alert, I guess.”
She sighed. “Right. That’s what worries me. We don’t really know what we’re getting ourselves into here. This has all happened so fast. Now, we’re going to be led out into the rainforest by someone we just met.”
Rick knew she was right. He felt the same way. It was slightly mad. Well, maybe more than slightly. But he also knew they had a snowball’s chance in hell of finding her father without Javier’s help.
He touched her shoulder to offer some support. “Let’s just focus on getting your dad back and getting out of this alive. We’ll watch each other’s backs. Sound good for starters?”
She bit her lip, feeling a bit relieved just to have shared the burden of worry, but she was still worried sick about all the things that could go wrong. At least Rick was on the same page where Javier was concerned. “Si,” she answered.
As the three of them were leaving the hardware store, bags of goods in hand, Rick’s cell phone rang. He looked at the display. It was his landlord.
He stopped. “Rick here.”
Sofia and Luis stopped next to him.
“Say what?” Rick asked, his voice rising. “When did you...”
He looked at Sofia and Luis as he listened, a deep frown on his face.
“Can you tell me what you see?” he asked. “No, I can’t right now...”
Sofia mouthed the words, “¿Qué es eso?”
Rick just shook his head to indicate he couldn’t answer at the moment. He checked the time.
“Look, I don’t know if I can get back right away...”
He rubbed his forehead, listening.
He let out a heavy sigh. “Would you do me a favor and just fix the lock for now? I’ll pay you for it.”
He paced. “I’ll call you when I know when I can get there. Just fix it, por favor. Bill me whatever it costs... No, just leave it all. I’ll deal with it later... Sure, sure, I will... Ok, gracias.”
The call ended.
“What’s wrong?” Sofia asked.
“I think our timetable just got squeezed even more. My apartment was broken into. Someone must’ve been watching us, waiting for us to leave to search the place. We haven’t been gone that long.”
“I don’t suppose we can just assume it was regular thieves?” Luis asked.
Rick shook his head. “No, I don’t think so.”
“Ares?” Luis asked.
“It has to be,” Rick replied.
“Do you want to go back?” Sofia asked. “Check things over?”
Rick thought for a moment, trying to decide what their next move should be.
“We should call the policía,” Luis suggested.
Rick considered that. “No,” he said, realizing something. “That will just call even more attention to us. They’ll ask questions. I’ll have to go through everything with them, say what’s missing, if anything. And frankly, we don’t have the time.”
“Are you sure?” Sofia asked. “This is serious.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure. I think we know who did this and why. If they’re now also onto me, or have tracked you two down somehow or Javier, we’re in bigger trouble than I realized. They had to have been watching my place, and if so, they could be watching any or all of us right now.” He looked at the two of them. “We’ve got to let Javier know.”
“I’ll call him right now,” Sofia said.
“Good,” Rick said. He pointed to Luis. “They’ve already attacked both you and Javier, looking for information. They’ll have no qualms about doing it again. We’ve gotta get a move on.”
* * *
They met up with Javier twenty minutes later. Luckily, they’d managed to get most of the supplies they needed. They all piled into Javier’s truck, with Rick riding shotgun. They stopped at a gas station to fuel up, and then changed into their camouflage clothing, with long sleeves and pants to protect their skin, and sturdy hiking boots. They grabbed a few extra snacks and bottles of water for the trip. It had been decided that Javier would get them as close as they dared on the road near the location he’d last seen Diego. From there, he’d hide the truck and they’d go the rest of the way on foot.
The nervous and scared, yet determined, foursome headed out onto the highway, for the long, almost four hour drive east from Cuenca, nearly all the way to the border with Peru. Into the rainforest and into the unknown. Hoping against hope that all was not already lost...
CHAPTER 9
Oz watched his men heading out from their encampment, deep in the rainforest of Ecuador, to do some scouting. His team were consummate professionals, but he could tell the tension was mounting. They knew they were getting closer and that it was only a matter of time until they would find their ultimate destination. They needed a few more puzzle pieces and all would be theirs.
Oz was part of a global organization that was ever on the hunt for new weapons, and any and all sources of power that could be adapted into weaponry, technological inventions, and more. They had operatives everywhere. Certain code words would attract their attention—powerful, ancient artifacts, secret knowledge from the distant past, hidden portals leading to areas of strange phenomenon, people gaining unexplained, and sometimes unnatural abilities, even shades of the supernatural.
Not long ago, they’d caught wind of mystical occurrences in this specific region of Ecuador. Superstitious whispers abounded regarding mystifying events relating to a trove of once lost ancient artifacts... the fabled Crespi tablets and a mysterious metal library. There were even rumors of unexplained disappearances of people who were supposedly out near the protected and restricted Tayos Caves system—disappearances due to some hidden power related to this metal library, or so the rumors went.
After doing extensive research, Ares had sent a team of men, led by Oz, out to investigate. Once in Ecuador, they had
done their recon. They planted people in select places to listen and learn, bribed people as needed, and then acted swiftly when they found information of particular interest to them. They were unconcerned by the pockets of resistance they’d encountered so far. They had effective ways of quieting resistance.
Now, Oz had brought a small team out into the Ecuadorian jungle, leaving behind a few operatives in the city of Cuenca, with whom they remained in radio contact. His team was heading towards the Tayos Caves system. All signs pointed to the elusive metal library being in this area. They were determined to find and take control of it, at any cost.
Oz walked to the edge of their jungle encampment. The night was warm, with a soft breeze on the humid air, and it was alive with shrieks and rustles. A light drizzle came down, hitting his face. He closed his eyes, relishing the smell of lush foliage kissed by rain. He loved the night. It was when he felt most alive. He rarely slept anyways, but now with the adrenaline pumping through him, his mind raced with how various scenarios might play out in the hours or days ahead. He was ready for any of them. He was eager to engage. Waiting was never his strong suit when he was this close to his prize.
He thought about how being out here was like dancing on the edge of a knife. One wrong move, one bad decision and you may not live to get it right the next time. He relished the adrenaline rush of being on the hunt. Of seeking prey. Of seizing that which was there for the taking. He revered the strong and powerful overcoming the weak, taking whatever they needed, whatever they desired. Out here in the jungle, life was more honest, more blunt, more brutal, less merciful. As it should be. Their company name, Ares, which meant God of War in ancient Greek, was appropriate. Life was a battle, and others and their hidden treasures were meant to be conquered. It was simply the natural order of things.
Oz looked up at the jungle canopy above. Only a few stars were visible beyond the thick foliage. They were getting close. He could feel it. Possessing these artifacts, bringing them to Ares headquarters, would launch his career to dizzying new heights. He’d be able to rise to the level of the top shot callers and gain all the perks, privileges, and powers that came with it. He had long held plans of what he would do with that power...
He would be respected, feared, dominant, powerful. Everything he had not been as a young child; teased and bullied mercilessly for years because he was smaller than the others and because he stuttered. It had been an excruciatingly difficult time in his life. It didn’t help that his father had abandoned him and his mother when he was a baby. He’d been born premature and weak, needing the support of a neonatal intensive care unit for his very survival in the first two weeks of his life.
His mother had cruelly reminded him over the years, like the worst record he’d ever heard on endless, agonizing repeat, that his birth had been the catalyst for their unfortunate change in circumstances. His father had left them with nearly insurmountable debt from the medical bills associated with his birth and difficult early months. His mother had worked three jobs just to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. She was always exhausted. He recalled that she had an ever-present haunted look in her eyes. He often heard her crying after she’d put him to bed and thought he was asleep. As a child, powerless to change anything, he’d been left alone to simmer in his own pain, confusion, and anger.
In his home, a tiny, rundown apartment, the omnipresent palpable tension and fear for their very survival meant Oz rarely slept well. Insomnia plagued him to this day. He’d learned to live with it well enough, he supposed.
Oz believed that his mother placed most of the blame for their struggles on him. If only he hadn’t been born. If only he’d been born healthy. These thoughts had chased him nearly all of his young life. He went through life with the sad and uneasy sense that he’d done something wrong just by his very existence. He felt he had no choice but to prove himself, to his mother, to the father who left him, to the world, to justify even being in it, to earn his place.
He remembered his childhood as one of endless want, hunger, and crippling poverty. He recalled his mother’s simmering anger and resentment towards the way her life had turned out, and towards the deadbeat dad who turned his back on his young family, a man Oz had only ever seen in photographs. In that way, his father almost didn’t seem real to him. Just a face in a photo. A ghost from a past he had no memory of. He envied the other kids in school who had dads that came to their sporting events, to their parent-teacher interviews, who took them on outings, dads who taught them important things, and who helped them gain skills and knowledge beyond a classroom. Men who were strong and capable, and who showed their children how to be just as strong and capable.
His mother’s mental state eventually declined further into a spiraling dark depression, ending in suicide when he was only sixteen. One day when he’d come home from school, Oz had found her lifeless body lying next to an empty bottle of pills. It was the worst day of his life. He was never the same. From then on, he’d been unable to open up to anyone, or get close to anyone. Without any extended family, he’d found himself homeless for a time.
Those early years of being utterly vulnerable, poor, without any decent options, and nowhere to turn had taught him that life itself was a merciless beast to either be conquered by and crushed under, or to conquer and rise above. There was no in between for a person like him. Spending cold nights in the cruel, uncaring streets, where abuse of all kinds was just around the corner of whatever street he found himself wandering down, made him vow to never be weak or at anyone’s mercy ever again. Physically, financially, or emotionally. He’d hated every moment of his existence, and he told himself that one day he’d find his way out of it.
Then Ares had found him. He’d spent years working his way up inside the organization. They had been harsh. They expected a great deal—complete commitment, unwavering loyalty, and no mistakes. They required one to devote their life to them. There was no time for a life outside the organization. In every way, they owned him. But Oz didn’t mind. He had nothing outside of the organization anyway. Within their midst, he’d found a place to belong, something to aim for, an identity. They were strong and they taught him how to be strong, too. He’d mastered the art of being dispassionate towards others, to not let sentiment or morals or ethical concerns cloud his decisions. To zero in on his objectives at the expense of whatever stood in his way. He found it all profoundly liberating.
Over time, with the guidance and resources his employment had provided him, he reinvented himself. He became physically strong through boxing and martial arts; he sculpted his physique and paid attention to the way he dressed and carried himself. The stutter had been overcome through years of speech therapy. He eventually carried himself with confidence and took pride in his work. He even chose a new name for himself. It was a way of forging his own identity and divorcing himself from a past he wanted nothing to do with and longed to forget. He never wanted to be associated with weakness or need or vulnerability again, as long as he drew breath.
Ares had taken note of his fervent dedication, his intelligence and strong will, and his commitment to any task they’d assigned him. As the years went by, they gave him more responsibility, which had culminated in this opportunity. It was his first mission as a leader. He was ready. He was hungry. Eager to show them that he could produce great things for the organization. Things that would make them, and him, ever more powerful and feared in the world.
Yes, he understood the jungle. It made sense to him in a way the rest of the world did not. Predator or prey. It was all he’d ever known. He would not let the beast get him. He was the beast now.
Behind him he heard the sounds of a struggle. Strained voices, pleas, a physical altercation, then whimpering. He smiled. Everything was turning out just as he hoped.
CHAPTER 10
Rick, Sofia, Luis, and Javier had gone over their plan in great detail as they’d left the city, heading into Ecuador’s rainforest region, but no one had spoken for the last h
our as they got ever closer to their destination. Night had fallen fast. The glow of the headlights on the dark highway had been hypnotic. The world seemed to narrow in scope to two points of light leading the way to a destination they were each drawn to for their own reasons.
Rick thought about the Tayos Caves system. They were getting so close to a place of mystery and wonder and extraordinary natural beauty. He thought about how bittersweet it was going to be to come so close to a place he’d longed to see with his own eyes, but not be able to explore. There would be no sight-seeing on this trip. No grand expedition in search of lost treasure. He wondered what the night would bring, but he just hoped they’d all get out alive.
Rick had glanced over at Javier from time to time on the drive. Javier had been exceptionally quiet once they’d finished going over their plans. He knew there was a lot the young man wasn’t telling them. He hoped whatever it was he was keeping to himself wasn’t going to get them all killed.
Finally, Rick’s attention perked up as Javier pulled off the E40 highway and turned right, down a narrow roadway that wasn’t even visible from the main road. He drove down a way on a rough and muddy road filled with potholes, barely wide enough for the truck. Branches scraped the sides of the truck and slapped against the windows, as water splashed up from the deep potholes. It was as though the jungle was consuming their insignificant vehicle.
They all sat up straighter, immediately alert.
The sense of nature closing in on them in a near-suffocating embrace was quickly bringing back more memories for Rick. He knew that out here they had to play by the jungle’s rules, which could be merciless and unforgiving.
Javier then took another quick right and parked the truck in the midst of some thick foliage.
“We go on foot from here,” he said, turning off the ignition. “I know a path. It’ll take us about an hour, maybe more if we have any delays, to hike to where I saw the prison camp. Grab your gear.”