by Stuart Gibbs
Esmerelda laughed sharply, like Charlie was an idiot, but Ivan stared at her thoughtfully.
“What’s it worth to you to protect them?” he asked.
Charlie held his gaze. “I’ll give you Pandora.”
Ivan grinned. “Deal.”
Esmerelda whirled on him, furious. “You can’t agree to that! What about me? I have rights to that creature too!”
“The only reason you’re even here right now and not back in the jungle is because of me,” Ivan told her. “I’m in charge here.”
“Do you know what that creature cost me?” Esmerelda raged. “Both my brothers! And my face! You can’t just give her up like that!”
“The price was right,” said Ivan. Then he gave Charlie a friendly smile. “Let’s figure out how to make this work.”
“No!” Esmerelda yelled. “That treasure is mine as much as yours!”
Despite the amiable demeanor Ivan was presenting, he had no intention of letting Eve go. He merely wanted to manipulate Charlie into coughing up Pandora.
Charlie had suspected as much. She had no intention of giving Pandora to Ivan. She was simply trying to distract him and Esmerelda. In truth, she hadn’t been trying to get the knife out of her backpack. She had only wanted Esmerelda to think that. She had really been trying to get something else, a small plastic container she had palmed. When she had asked Esmerelda and Ivan to look at Eve, she had popped it open, and now that Ivan and Esmerelda were arguing, she used what was inside of it.
Bullet ants.
She had been collecting them throughout the trip, keeping them alive but safely tucked away in case she ran into trouble.
Like being kidnapped by the SVR, for example.
Now, in one quick motion, she flicked the container, flinging the ants onto Esmerelda and Ivan. The ants were so light, neither of the others felt them… until the agitated insects attacked.
Ivan felt the sting first. He had been subjected to plenty of pain in his life. At the SVR, he had even been trained in how to withstand it. But he had never experienced anything like this. It felt as though every nerve ending in his body had suddenly caught fire. It was so intense that it leveled him.
Esmerelda went down next. Her immunity to pain didn’t apply to the initial shock of it. She sank to the floor as well, gripped by convulsions.
Charlie pried the knife from Ivan’s hands, returned it to her backpack, and ran to the cockpit. The pilot was looking back toward the others with concern, trying to figure out what had happened. Out the windshield, she could see the dark forms of the Andes Mountains rising into the sky. The glow of Cuzco’s lights was still a few miles ahead; for now they were on the fringe of civilization.
To Ivan’s surprise, the pain wasn’t receding, but getting worse. He was reeling from it.
But for Esmerelda, the worst had already passed. Her body’s unusual chemistry could even overwhelm the venom of the bullet ant. She staggered back to her feet and lunged for Charlie, seething with hatred.
Charlie intercepted her attack, catching Esmerelda’s arms in her hands. She used her fingernails as a weapon, like Milana had told her, digging them deep into Esmerelda’s skin, but Esmerelda didn’t even flinch.
“You little fool,” she snarled at Charlie. “I thought you understood my condition. It’ll take more than a bullet ant to incapacitate me.”
“Oh, I didn’t want you incapacitated,” Charlie said. “I need you to land the helicopter.”
Esmerelda faltered in her attack, wondering what Charlie had done.
And then the pilot screamed and succumbed to the pain from the bullet ant that Charlie had dropped on him. He collapsed in his seat, throwing the helicopter into a dive.
FORTY
Five thousand feet above the Andes, Peru
Charlie had known her plan was risky, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
After all, it was extremely difficult to beat anyone in a fight when they were ultimately immune to pain.
She was aware that flying a plane and a helicopter were different skills, but she figured that knowing how to do one would aid in doing the other. At the very least, given the circumstances, Esmerelda would have to give flying the helicopter a shot.
Which was exactly what happened. While Charlie dragged the pain-racked pilot out of the cockpit, Esmerelda slipped into his seat and took the controls. She was able to pull them out of the dive, although the helicopter still wheeled dangerously in the sky.
“You little lunatic!” Esmerelda yelled at Charlie. “I don’t know how to control this thing!”
“Then just bring it down,” Charlie replied.
“Where?” Between the residual effects of the ant bite and the shock of taking the controls, Esmerelda was on the edge of panic. “There’s nothing but mountains around us!”
Charlie raced back to the cockpit and looked through the window. Esmerelda had a point. They needed a flat place to land, and the Andes were a jumble of jagged peaks; flat land was in short supply.
But there was one patch below them to the left. “There!” Charlie exclaimed, pointing.
Esmerelda had no choice but to aim for it, although her first instinct was to push too hard on the stick. The helicopter veered downward too quickly until she realized her mistake and pulled back.
Charlie fought aside a wave of nausea, keeping her eyes locked on the place she had chosen to land. It sat atop a butte surrounded by the horseshoe bend of a river, along which there was a small town. As they came closer, Charlie realized the flat spot was actually a series of man-made terraces, with a steep pinnacle of rock at one end.
“Oh my.” She gasped. “I think we’re about to crash-land in Machu Picchu.”
* * *
The most famous icon of Incan civilization, Machu Picchu was used for only about a century. Although often mistaken for a city, it was really an estate built for the emperor Pachacuti in the mid-1400s, and abandoned around the time the Spanish conquistadores arrived. While explorer Hiram Bingham had received international fame for his “discovery” of it in 1911, locals had known of its existence all along and had even shown it to other explorers. What Bingham had really done was make it famous.
It was understandable why the site had captured the attention of the world; it was an astounding display of Incan architecture in a gorgeous and somewhat improbable setting. Since Bingham’s arrival, Machu Picchu had become the most popular tourist site in Peru, attracting more than 1.5 million visitors a year, despite its somewhat remote location in the mountains. It had also been declared one of the New Seven Wonders of the World and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
To protect the site, visitors were not allowed there at night. The great terraces had been crawling with tourists only an hour before, but were now thankfully clear as the helicopter came down.
The flattest area, in the center, was still a difficult target, as it was surrounded by the remnants of ancient stone buildings as well as a few steep, stony peaks, most notably Huayna Picchu, an eight-hundred-and-fifty-foot-tall pillar of rock with the ruins of temples atop it, where Incan priests were rumored to have lived.
In the darkness, Huayna Picchu was nearly invisible, and Esmerelda almost crashed right into it. Instead, she veered away at the last instant, coming so close that the helicopter’s rotors nicked the stone walls, sparking off the rocks and kicking the chopper into a spin.
Charlie was flung backward from the cockpit, tumbling across the floor over both the pilot and Ivan Spetz. Eve skittered into the wall and gave a yelp, indicating that she had regained consciousness. Charlie looked to her and saw her eyes, open wide and round in fear, no doubt wondering what could possibly be happening to her.
The helicopter came down hard on a terrace by the edge of Machu Picchu, landing so roughly that the pontoons blew out and one of the skids collapsed. The craft slid through a protective fence and came to a stop balanced precariously on the edge of the gorge, fifteen hundred feet above the Urubamba River.
Although
Eve was awake again, she was groggy from the sedative. While Esmerelda was still in the pilot’s seat, Charlie picked Eve up and flung open the helicopter door, intending to flee into the ruins.
But Ivan Spetz wasn’t out of the game yet. Even though he was sprawled on the floor of the helicopter, racked with pain, he grabbed Charlie’s ankle with surprising strength, tripping her as she tried to escape. She went down hard, banging her shoulder and head as she tried to protect Eve with her own body.
The helicopter shifted ominously, sliding a bit farther on the edge of the gorge.
Charlie kicked Ivan in the arm as hard as she could, causing him even more pain and getting him to release her, but by the time she got back to her feet with Eve in her arms, Esmerelda was blocking the doorway, holding the knife. Her face was a mask of rage—but there was something else in her eyes. A slight disorientation.
“First you’re going to give me that creature,” she said. “And then you’re going to die.”
Charlie said, “If you kill me, you’ll die too.”
The tone of her voice was so steady, Esmerelda realized she wasn’t bluffing. “What do you mean?”
“You might not feel the pain, but you realize that something’s wrong with you, yes? Your muscles are weakening and you’re starting to have trouble breathing.”
Esmerelda’s face filled with concern, then anger again. “What did you do to me?”
“I poisoned you. With these.” Charlie held up her hand, displaying her fingernails.
Esmerelda looked to her arm, where Charlie had dug her nails into her skin a few minutes before. There were red slashes where blood had come to the surface. “Curare,” she gasped.
“Oh,” Charlie said. “You’ve heard of it.”
The plant she had found back where the anaconda had been lurking had a poisonous resin that Segundo had taught her about. Amazon natives had been poisoning the tips of their arrows with it for centuries, although it could also be delivered to the bloodstream via a good scratch.
“You little rat,” Esmerelda seethed—although despite her anger, her strength was fading. She had to steady herself against the wall.
The helicopter shifted again, sliding a bit more over the edge of the gorge.
“We need to get out of here now,” Charlie said. “The choice is simple. None of us has to die. The curare acts fast—but you still have time left. If you let me go, I can run to town and get a doctor. But if you kill me… then we’re both dead. I think both of us can agree that’s the worst option.”
To Charlie’s surprise, Esmerelda didn’t back down. Instead, she raised the knife in her trembling hand. “I don’t have any options here. You’ll never get help for me.”
Charlie swallowed hard, worried. It had never occurred to her that Esmerelda might think she was so evil. “Of course I’ll get help. I’m not a jerk. I don’t want you to die.”
“Right,” Esmerelda said sarcastically. “Since I’m gonna end up dead either way, I might as well take you with me.…” She suddenly lunged for Charlie with the knife.
Eve screeched in anger and flung herself out of Charlie’s arms. For a small creature that had been recently sedated, she was surprisingly powerful. She slammed into Esmerelda, sending her reeling backward into the cockpit. The motion jostled the entire helicopter, which began to slide over the lip of the gorge.
Charlie wanted to grab Eve, but there was no time. She dove for the open doorway of the helicopter.
Luckily, Eve was smart enough to realize what was happening. She sprang away from Esmerelda and bounded out the door as well.
Charlie and the little creature tumbled across the rocky ground as the helicopter tipped over the edge.
Inside, Esmerelda wasn’t quick enough to follow. And Ivan was too crippled with pain. They could only scream as they realized what was happening.
The helicopter plummeted into the gorge, crashed into the river fifteen hundred feet below, and exploded in a ball of fire.
Charlie lay on the rocky lip, battered and bruised. In the glow of the fire, she saw that Eve was all right. In fact, the little creature was surprisingly resilient, looking as though she was almost back to normal, despite everything that had happened.
Voices echoed through the night. Charlie sat up and saw flashlight beams cutting through the ruins in the distance.
Probably security guards, she thought, alerted by the crash.
She turned back to Eve, thinking that she was going to have to run off and hide in the ruins with the creature to keep her hidden.
But Eve was already on the move, loping away as fast as she could, her wounded leg holding up well now that Charlie had bandaged it.
“Eve!” Charlie shouted.
Eve stopped and looked back. Charlie wasn’t sure, but it seemed that the little creature gave her a slight smile.
Then she scampered off, disappearing into the shadows.
Charlie got to her feet. She knew she wouldn’t be able to catch up to Eve, but despite all her bruises and bumps, she was still in good enough shape to move.
So she slipped away into the ruins before anyone could find her and start asking questions.
FORTY-ONE
Agua Rojo Eco-Lodge
It took Dante and Milana a week to get back through the flooded forest to the resort. Although Oz and his men had sunk their canoe, and Ivan’s as well, the canoe that Oz had come in was still moored there.
The trip was difficult and exhausting, made worse by the fact that both of them were plagued by feelings of doubt, failure—and concern about Charlie. Neither of them had any idea what had happened to her, and they couldn’t help but assume the worst.
So even though they were desperate for food and hot showers and sleep when they arrived, the first thing Dante did was use the resort’s computer and Wi-Fi to check his email accounts, hoping there was some word of what had happened.
To his relief, there was.
Buried in hundreds of emails from work, friends, and his superiors, there was a brief message.
Hey, Dante—
I’m safe. But… if you tell anyone about the creatures or the lost city, then I will never, ever give you Pandora.
—Charlie
P.S. Have you kissed Milana yet?
Dante was overcome with relief and joy, knowing that Charlie was all right. And then that turned to shock and surprise.
He hurried into the restaurant, where he found Milana wolfing down a lunch that Segundo had made for her. She was also halfway through her second beer. There was another plate for Dante, but Dante ignored it.
“She’s alive and well,” he said.
Milana grinned with relief. “Thank goodness. She emailed you?”
“Yes. From my own secure CIA account.”
Milana set down her beer, stunned. “How? That has six layers of encryption. And she shouldn’t even know it exists.”
“She’s Charlie,” Dante said. “She knows everything.” He sat at the table across from Milana. “If she has access to that email account, then she can hack the CIA’s system. Which means she’s probably read all of my emails.”
“Oh,” Milana said, with concern.
“Exactly. All the information about Einstein’s other coded message was on there. Including the entire translation of it. Like the part about Darwin having discovered something too.”
Milana smiled, despite herself. She couldn’t help but respect the kid. “She knew all along? So it wasn’t a coincidence that she was in Galápagos when all this started.”
Dante shook his head. “Like she kept telling us, there’s no such thing as coincidence. She didn’t go there only to be far away from anyone who might want Pandora. She was looking for the first clue to Darwin’s treasure.”
“And if she’s read the entire message, then she knows there are others who hid their discoveries too.”
“Right.”
Milana started laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Dante asked.
&nbs
p; “She played us perfectly. Here we were, thinking that we were manipulating her into joining this search for us, when she was manipulating us into it.”
Dante nodded, and then he found himself laughing too. “That kid is such a pain in my butt,” he said.
“True,” Milana said. “But I’m glad she’s on our side. I think.”
“Yeah,” Dante agreed. And then, while he was sitting there, laughing and enjoying the moment, he figured maybe he ought to stop being so annoyed at Charlie for being right all the time and just listen to her advice.
So he kissed Milana Moon.
EPILOGUE
Iguazu Falls
The border of Argentina and Brazil
Charlie Thorne stood at the edge of the largest waterfall system on earth, thinking.
Before her, the Iguazu River spilled over a dozen separate cataracts into the gorge known as the Devil’s Throat. (The South Americans apparently liked to name things after the devil.) The mist it created swirled and eddied around her, cool on her skin.
It had taken her three weeks to get here from Cuzco. Originally, she had intended only to go as far as La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, and catch a plane out of South America, but on the train there from Cuzco, she had met some backpackers who raved about Iguazu, so she figured she ought to check it out.
They had been right. It was incredible.
Charlie hadn’t been able to find Eve at Machu Picchu. She assumed the creature was trying to return home to her family, but by Charlie’s calculations, that was a journey of hundreds of miles through the Amazon basin. It would have been arduous, if not impossible, for a human on her own, but she hoped Eve was hardy enough to make it.
Then Charlie had fled the area before anyone noticed her.
There were thousands of backpackers making their way around that part of Peru, and since Charlie looked and acted older than her age, it wasn’t hard for her to blend in. She was still wearing her money belt, which had enough cash to get her to La Paz, and once there, she had made a call to her bank to arrange an untraceable delivery of more funds. With those, she had purchased a fake Bolivian passport. In most countries, it wasn’t hard to get false documents if you had the funds.