Insects: Braga's Gold

by John Koloen

  Ever since being captured his mind was focused on either escaping or getting out at the first opportunity. He had a hard time reconciling his sense of the situation with the apparent lack of urgency on the part of his companions. Cooper and Boyd, two lab rats, got along well, and Duncan seemed above it all. It seemed to Harden that he was the only one who recognized the threats they faced. But he was struggling to avoid being exposed as a worrywart and now that he was alone with Duncan after he returned to his chair, his doubts leaked into his conversation.

  “Why are we just sitting around? Shouldn’t we be getting outta here? I mean, you told me Cody got the truck started, right?”

  Duncan shrugged.

  “Gotta tellya, this hasn’t worked out the way I thought it would.”

  “You and me both,” Duncan said, who’d been watching the riverbed for signs that Reptilus was moving through it like Sandfish.

  Duncan mostly listened as Harden gradually let his fear infiltrate what was essentially a monologue. He was thinking aloud, vetting each word as if to squeeze the angst out of it before exposing it to air.

  “I guess what I really want to know is whether we could just, you know, leave.”

  “I’m not stopping you,” Duncan said.

  “Well, why don’t we go? Your guy’s a guide, right?”

  “We’re a long way from his stomping grounds. Besides, we flew in.”

  “And the plane’s coming back. I know. I don’t get why you’re still here.”

  “I don’t think it’s up to me,” Duncan said. “Braga’s been watching us as much as he’s watching his men. I don’t think he wants us to leave until he’s ready.”

  “How’s he gonna stop us, I mean if we leave at the same time? You think he’s gonna shoot us?”

  “I get that impression, yeah.”

  “Even if he shoots one of us, the rest of us can get away.”

  “What if you’re the one that gets shot?”

  Harden could imagine being shot in the back halfway across the riverbed.

  “So, what do you think is going to happen?”

  Duncan leaned toward Harden, careful not to tip his chair in the unsteady sand.

  “We have to be patient and not do something stupid,” he said, before getting out of his chair, stretching his arms, and leaving Harden without the straight answer he was looking for.

  98

  Cooper agreed with Harden that they should flee as soon as possible, but only after Duncan said it was okay.

  “I’m following his lead,” Cooper said, with conviction.

  “Yeah, but he’s not gonna do anything,” Harden countered. “We wait too long and we’ll never get out. We’re not the only ones. You think those guys want to stick around?” Harden said, pointing toward the miners.

  “I think I already told you this, I’m following Duncan. He’s been through this. I haven’t and neither have you.”

  Cooper coughed several times. His bloodshot eyes watered.

  “Aren’t you scared shitless?” Harden asked.

  Cooper stared at the ground for a moment. He had avoided dwelling on their situation by keeping his mind occupied on other things, such as freeing himself from his bindings and focusing on returning to the States. His conversation with Boyd returned him to the here and now and the prospect of earning a thirty thousand-dollar bonus. Now that escape seemed to be within reach he saw no reason to pursue it immediately.

  “I don’t think I’m scared, not since they cut us loose. Anyway, those guys aren’t gonna leave until they got the gold. That’s why they came here. They’re probably talking about how they’re gonna spend their money when they get back to wherever they came from.”

  The Americans had collected as much of their gear as they could find. The miners had taken the food items and water, Braga had the electronics and wallets, Grimaldi the first aid items, leaving only Boyd’s scientific gear intact.

  “At least our packs won’t be heavy,” Cooper said amiably, as he shouldered his pack.

  “You’re leaving your sleeping bag?”

  “Think I should take it?”

  “I’m taking mine.”

  “Probably won’t fit in the plane.”

  “Assuming we get a ride,” Harden said, morosely. “Assuming the plane even shows up.”

  “Maybe there won’t be enough room for any of this stuff,” Cooper said, as if not hearing Harden.

  “What if we have to hike out?”

  “What the hey, I don’t mind leaving this stuff behind, if that’s what it takes.”

  “So who goes first, assuming the plane shows up?” Harden asked while Cooper rolled his sleeping bag and attached it to his pack with stretch cord.

  “I would guess Duncan and the guys he came with. They paid for the ride.”

  “Yeah, I know. It’s what we shoulda done and I said so at the time,” Harden said, his voice rising.

  “I know, I know. If we knew then what we know now, that woulda been the thing to do. I agree. But we didn’t. We thought we’d be covering a lot more territory.”

  “So we ride in a piece of junk ATV, if you can call it that. We covered a lot of territory after that, if what you mean by ‘covering’ is hiking through the goddamn jungle.”

  “So, things didn’t work out like we planned. They never do. Besides, we still have one more thing to do before we leave.”

  Furrows spread across Harden’s broad forehead.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The bugs, man. That’s why we came here, remember?”

  “Fuck, man, you can’t be serious,” Harden said, incredulously.

  “I am and so is Cody. All we need are a couple of bugs and we’re thirty thousand dollars richer.”

  Harden stared at his companion in disbelief, shaking his head.

  “You guys are crazy. You’re not gonna get the money if you’re dead. Look over there at that guy. That’s what the bugs do to people. You think thirty K is worth that?”

  Cooper stared at the remains of Luis Fuentes in the distance, somewhat obscured by smoke but obscene in its obviousness.

  “Cody knows what he’s doing, I’m sure.”

  “Did he tell you how he’s gonna do it?”

  “We didn’t talk about that. He basically asked me if I’d help him and I said I would. He’s done this before, you know.”

  “Maybe you should talk to him, find out what the plan is, make sure you don’t end up like that guy.”

  “Maybe WE should talk to him,” Cooper said.

  “I’ll listen, but I do not see how he can make this work without someone dying.”

  99

  “Where’s Cody?” Cooper asked Duncan, who had been dividing his attention between watching the miners and helping Grimaldi pack up his kitchen, most of which he expected to be left behind. Harden stood alongside Cooper, staring momentarily at Fuentes’ body.

  “Except for the knives, most of this stuff isn’t worth much,” Grimaldi lamented, “but it gives me something to do, you know, takes my mind off the circumstances.”

  “Haven’t seen him for a while. What’s up?”

  “Aw, me and Brett were talking about the bugs and whether we can catch them. Cody told me something about looking for a scout team.”

  “That makes sense but I’m not sure I would recommend it.”

  “Why not? He made it sound like it wouldn’t be a problem.”

  “You must’ve misheard him,” Duncan said. “It only takes a couple of these things to kill you, once they get inside you. They’ll just gnaw and chop until they die and by then their buddies will be crawling all over you.”

  “You did it, right? You captured specimens.”

  “Yeah, but it was different. Most of the colony had moved on and only stragglers were left. It wasn’t a whole scout team.”

  “That makes a difference?”

  “Oh, yeah, definitely,” Duncan said, breaking off from helping the cook, moving closer to Cooper and Harde
n. He noticed that Grimaldi was listening to the conversation and led them toward the center of the camp where they could continue in private.

  “A scout team is organized to find food and when they find it they immobilize the prey, and report back to the colony. You can imagine what happens next.”

  “How big is a scout team?”

  “I’m guessing in the fifties for a smallish colony, maybe low hundreds for a larger one.”

  Harden and Cooper exchanged worried glances.

  “Hundreds?” Cooper said, astonished.

  “You’re talking about colonies with thousands, maybe tens of thousands of members. There’s thousands of them under the sand out there, somewhere.”

  “So they might have moved on?” Cooper asked hopefully.

  Duncan shrugged.

  “Who knows? I keep telling y’all that I’ve never seen this kind of behavior before.”

  “What could it mean?” Cooper asked.

  “It means they could be all around us under the sand,” Harden said. “Am I right, Howard?”

  Duncan nodded.

  “That’s one possibility.”

  “What’s another?”

  “They’re biding their time.”

  100

  “I didn’t see any bugs by the truck,” Cody Boyd announced as he approached from the far end of the campsite. “By the way, you’re a loud talker, Brett. I could hear you like I was next to you.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Why don’t we just take the truck?” Cooper asked.

  “I can’t figure out the transmission. Besides, a couple tires are nearly flat. I don’t think it’ll get very far even if they get it into gear.”

  “They must have a pump.”

  “As if whatshisname would let us drive away.”

  “Oh, they’d be on us,” Boyd said.

  “Okay, so we don’t take the truck. What’s stopping us from just going back there and hiking to where the plane’s gonna land? You said there aren’t any bugs, right?” Harden said.

  “I didn’t check everywhere. Just around the truck. So—” Boyd said, shrugging.

  “So they could be around there?” Cooper asked.

  “If they’re under the sand, yeah, they could be.”

  “But they might not be?” Harden said hopefully.

  “It’s anyone’s guess,” Duncan said. “Like I said, these guys are doing things I’ve never seen before.”

  “So we’re back to square one,” Harden said, frustrated. “We don’t know shit.”

  The Americans stood awkwardly in a circle, staring at the ground or their surroundings. Duncan had his eye on Braga who was having an animated conversation with Grimaldi. Cooper and Boyd talked quietly while Harden collected stones and started lofting them at the riverbed, watching as they landed, kicking up sand.

  “What are you doing?” Boyd asked.

  “I’m trying to see if the bugs are out there. How else we gonna find out?”

  “And if they’re not there, what are you gonna do?”

  “I’m thinking about leaving, with or without y’all.”

  “And then what?” Boyd asked.

  “I’ll find some shade and wait for the plane.”

  “You don’t even know where it’s gonna land, for crying out loud,” Cooper said.

  “So? I’ll hear it. I can run.”

  Duncan sighed, turning his attention to Harden.

  “The pilot doesn’t know you.”

  “Yeah, he’ll probably think you’re trying to steal his plane,” Boyd said.

  “If he’s got a gun he’ll shoot you. Think it out, man.”

  Harden stopped throwing stones and rejoined the group just as Fernando Braga approached with great purpose, his eyes fixed on Duncan as if targeting him. Grimaldi strained to keep up with his boss, who started speaking in Portuguese, his voice elevated in pitch, the words rapid-fire and unintelligible to the Americans.

  “What’s he saying?” Duncan asked.

  “He is angry about the airplane,” Grimaldi said in English.

  Braga poked a finger in Duncan’s chest, which he batted away reflexively.

  Braga rested his right hand on his holster, glaring at Duncan. Duncan looked at Grimaldi questioningly.

  “I overheard you talking about it,” the cook said. “He’s angry, as you can see. He wants to know when the plane is coming.”

  “Why, so you can hijack it?” Boyd shouted.

  Braga’s eyes lit up when Grimaldi translated. He stepped toward Boyd, punching him hard in the shoulder like a boxer. The stunned Boyd wobbled and instinctively threw a right at the shorter, stockier Brazilian, his fist glancing off a muscular shoulder. Braga grinned and followed up with a left hook that caught the young American’s jaw. His knees buckling, Boyd went down as Braga drew his pistol, pointing it at Boyd.

  Duncan appealed to Grimaldi to calm his boss.

  “This will get us nowhere,” Duncan said excitedly, as if Braga could understand him. “You shoot and you’ll have to kill us all. You’ve got only six shots. We’ll get to you and we’ll throw you to the insects. Tell him that. We’ll watch them eat his eyes out. We know how to escape and he doesn’t. Tell him that.”

  Braga listened to the translation attentively before turning angrily to Duncan, who squared his shoulders as if preparing for an impact. Braga returned the gun to his holster, pulled on his beard while sizing up the former professor. Grimaldi continued to talk to Braga, fearing for his own safety from the bugs, reminding him what had happened to Fuentes and Victor Machado. Braga smiled crookedly, gently patted Duncan on the shoulder and backed away alongside Grimaldi as they continued to talk.

  “Ask him about the sat phone,” Harden whispered.

  “What?” Boyd said, massaging his jaw as Cooper helped him to his feet.

  “The sat phone. He’s got it. We can call in a chopper.”

  “Not so loud,” Boyd said, annoyed, eyeing the cook, who was still talking to his boss.

  “We won’t all fit on Howard’s plane,” Harden argued. “This way Howard and his guys get out and we get out. Am I right?”

  Boyd glanced at Duncan, who shrugged. Cooper nodded in agreement.

  “At least we can try, right?” Harden insisted. “What do we have to lose?”

  101

  The Americans continued to debate whether to ask for the satellite phone. What would stop the Brazilians from hijacking a chopper? It was almost certain they would hijack the plane if they got to it first. Duncan knew what he said about Reptilus was an empty threat but he counted on Braga’s complete ignorance and fear of them to work in his favor. Besides, he didn’t have time to think. He reacted instinctively and couldn’t have stopped himself if he wanted to.

  “We could tell him that if he gives us the sat phone we’ll call in another plane to fly him out,” Harden said.

  “He’s not gonna give us the phone,” Cooper said. “He’ll probably think we’d use it to call in the army or something.”

  “We could let the cook listen.”

  “And then what? We call in a chopper and when it gets here he’ll grab it and leave us high and dry. This doesn’t work on so many levels,” Cooper said exasperatingly. “We’d just be risking the lives of whoever comes.”

  “I hadn’t thought about that,” Harden said, sheepishly. “You’re right. We’d just be making it worse. You gotta understand, I really want to get outta here. I don’t care about a bonus. I don’t care if I get paid. You guys want to collect bugs, you go right ahead. I just wanna get out.”

  Harden moved away from the group, distraught and near his wit’s end but relieved that he’d finally put all his cards on the table.

  “We’re getting nowhere like this,” Duncan said to Boyd and Cooper, who only now noticed two of the miners approaching, one holding a machete. Duncan turned to face them as they walked past Harden, who moved out of their way. Braga watched from a distance.

  “Venha conosco,” one of the miners sa
id quietly.

  Duncan glanced at Suarez who, along with his cousin, had watched the Americans’ discussions in silence.

  “He says to go with them.”

  “What? Why?”

  Suarez relayed the questions.

  “He says the boss wants to talk to you.”

  Boyd and Cooper exchanged worried glances.

  “Don’t do it,” Boyd said.

  “I don’t think I have a choice,” Duncan said as the men led him away, one in front, the one with the machete in the rear.

  Harden quickly rejoined his companions as they watched Duncan approach Braga, with Grimaldi standing alongside.

  “I wish I could hear what they’re saying,” Boyd said.

  “I wonder what this is about,” Cooper said.

  “They’re probably working out some kind of deal,” Harden said before abruptly changing his tune. “Hey, they can’t do that.”

  The three watched as Braga put his hand on his holster while one of the miners zip-tied Duncan’s hands behind his back and forced him to his knees. Boyd took several steps toward Duncan when Cooper grabbed his shoulder.

  “Don’t,” Cooper said. “You’ll only make things worse.”

  102

  “This is just a precaution,” Grimaldi said to Duncan after Braga returned to his supervisory duties, chiefly to ensure that his men didn’t pocket any of the gold. They’d been working at a torrid pace, motivated by fear and greed and, now that the job was nearly over, calculating their earnings and looking forward to spending them. Braga knew that keeping men on task was much easier at the beginning of an operation than at the end, more so now that they were threatened by fire and Reptilus. Whether they respected or feared their boss, they were confident that he could solve whatever problem came their way, that he had a plan and all they had to do was follow it.