by Eric Walters
I went into my pack and pulled out the space blanket. I opened it up and laid it on top of Alejandra. She turned around and sat up.
“That was so nice. Thank you.” Even in the thin light, I could see her smile. It practically glowed.
“You’re welcome. Get some sleep.”
I walked to the edge of the shelter so I could see the river and the path. Those were the places where danger could come from. Well, those two places and the jungle. Yeah, I’d made the right choice to take first watch. There was no way I was going to be sleeping tonight.
TEN
Alejandra peacefully slept under the space blanket. In the dark she was basically invisible, but I knew she was there because she snored. Not loud, just gentle and constant, and in some ways it was reassuring to me. It was the only familiar sound in a sea of sounds that washed out of the jungle and into the shelter. I’d never known just how noisy a jungle could be. There was that constant buzzing, croaking, rumbling sound made by the bugs, frogs, birds and little animals that were living all around us. It was so relaxing that it almost could have lulled me to sleep. But there was really no danger of that because there were other sounds that kept me awake.
There were the random cries of the howler monkeys and the sound of breaking branches or something moving through the trees. It had to be monkeys moving from tree to tree, but in my head it was a either a jaguar or one of those men, or the two of them working together. I had visions of the men using jaguars as tracking animals to locate us. Just how tired was I?
Without a watch I had no idea what time it was, so I didn’t know when I should wake Alejandra to take a shift. Really, though, what was the point? I’d take all the shifts, because it wasn’t like I was going to go to sleep anyway. This way one of us got some rest.
I developed a bit of a routine. I paced along the three open sides of the shelter. On one side was the river—and the caimans. On the second was the path—and, potentially, the men who were after us. On the third was the jungle—and the jaguars. Three separate sides and three separate dangers.
Mostly I kept the flashlight turned off. The rain and clouds had moved away, and the moon and stars provided enough light for me to see. The flashlight wasn’t really much good anyway. The beam wasn’t strong enough to pierce the undergrowth, and it temporarily blinded me before my eyes adjusted to the darkness. Besides, I was completely visible when it was on. I wondered how far away the light could be seen. Better to stay in the dark and as invisible as possible.
A few times I’d thought about taking Alejandra’s gun from the floor beside her—it wasn’t like she would have noticed—or digging into my pack and taking out the other gun. Each time I’d thought better of it. This wasn’t some movie or video game. Guns were dangerous, and I had no idea how to use one.
Instead, I’d armed myself with a piece of metal piping I’d found leaning against the wall of the shelter. It was about a meter long and had some weight to it. I didn’t really know what good it would do in an emergency, but still it felt good to have it in my hands.
There was another loud crash from the jungle and I spun around to face the direction it had come from. I couldn’t see anything, so there was nothing I could do except watch and wait. I tried to peer through the trees and realized that while I couldn’t see anything dangerous, I could see farther than I could before. It was getting lighter out. It was still dark, but less dark. That could only mean that morning was coming.
“Hello.”
I jumped in the air and turned.
Alejandra was sitting up. “Is it my turn to watch?”
“You can go back to sleep if you want.”
“What time is it?” she asked.
“Close to morning. It’s starting to get light.”
“You mean I slept through the night?”
“I didn’t want to wake you.”
“You should have gotten me up to take a turn.”
“You were sleeping peacefully, and I didn’t want to wake you up.” I almost mentioned the snoring but decided not to.
“First you put a blanket around me, and now this. Maybe you’re more of a gentleman than I gave you credit for,” she said. “Perhaps my boyfriend should be a bit worried.”
She got to her feet, yawned and stretched. Then she walked over to me.
“Maybe I should do something for you now,” she said.
Was she going to kiss me? That thought filled me with a new rush of fear.
“Get your bag. I’m going to teach you how to use the gun.”
“Oh, yeah, that would be great,” I stammered.
I turned on my flashlight and stumbled across the floor. I aimed the light inside my pack, reached in and carefully, oh so carefully, picked up the gun. I made sure to hold it by the handle, to keep my fingers away from the trigger and to not point it at either her or me. I handed it to her and aimed the flashlight on the weapon.
“This is a Glock, just like the gun I have.” She moved something and it made a clicking sound. “It has a full clip—eleven bullets—and there is a twelfth already in the chamber. It is ready to fire.”
“Doesn’t it have a safety or something like that?” I asked, giving out the little bit of information about guns that I knew from movies and TV.
She spun the gun slightly. “The safety is this little blade in the middle of the trigger. You must firmly squeeze the trigger to depress it or the gun will not fire.”
She went to hand me back the gun, and I hesitated.
“Do not be afraid.”
I was going to say I wasn’t, but I was. I took it from her.
“How do you know so much about guns?” I asked.
“I have had lessons in using firearms. My grandfather has a firing range. When this is all over, maybe we can do some target shooting.”
I laughed. “Target shooting sounds better than being the target.”
It was really starting to get lighter. I could see the river and the boat—and there were little lights coming down the path through the jungle.
“Somebody’s coming down the path!” I exclaimed.
She said, “It has to be them. We have to get down the river before they come!”
I watched as she ran back into the shelter. She picked up her pack, tossed in the flashlight and the blanket and grabbed her gun.
“Come on! To the boat!” she said as she raced by me.
I took a few steps toward her and skidded to a stop. I had to get my pack as well. I ran back and grabbed it from the ground. I started running again, then thought better of running with a gun in my hand and slowed down.
By the time I got to the boat, Alejandra had already untied it from the tree and dragged it down to the edge of the river. I tossed my pack into the boat, beside hers. “Get in!” I said.
“No, we must do one more thing. We must bring the second boat.”
“We’re taking separate boats?”
“Don’t be a fool. We need to make sure that nobody else takes a second boat.”
“Oh, yeah, that makes sense.” There was no point in getting on the river if they could just follow us.
We rushed back. She quickly untied the boat, and we started dragging it toward the river. I could see the men on the path. Thank goodness they hadn’t seen us yet.
Reaching the river again, she said, “Push it in and let the current carry it away.”
I bumped it into the water, and together we gave it a big shove. It floated out from the shore, and the current started it moving downstream.
“Get in and start up the engine,” I said. I could hear the panic in my voice.
She jumped into the boat and scrambled to the back. She lowered the engine until its propeller was in the water. At that same instant the men came into the clearing. There were five or six of them, and while they were too far away and it was still too dark to make out their faces, I could see that they had guns.
That was when they saw us too. They skidded to a stop and then started running towar
d us, yelling. I couldn’t make out anything other than “Alejandra!”
“Do you know them? Are they on our side?” I yelled.
“I cannot tell. We do not have time to—”
All at once they started firing their guns! I saw bullets hit the ground by the shelter, kicking up little puffs of dirt.
“Not on our side! Start the engine! Start the engine!” I yelled as I pushed the boat completely into the river and then jumped into it.
Instantly the current caught the boat, and it began to spin. Alejandra was standing by the engine, but it wasn’t starting. She was staring at it but not doing anything. I stepped over the seat and put my gun down on the bottom of the boat.
“Here, let me do it!”
I grabbed the crank and pulled out the cord. The engine sputtered but didn’t start. I looked for the gas line. Following it down, I saw a little switch. If it was turned off, the engine wasn’t getting any fuel. I turned the switch and then pulled the cord again. The engine caught! I grabbed the handle, spun the engine around to aim us downriver and then gave it gas. The boat jumped like it had been stung by a bee, and Alejandra fell backward, practically tumbling over the side before I grabbed her.
I looked back in time to see that the men had reached the river. They were waving their arms and weapons in the air.
“Get down!” I screamed. “Get down!”
I opened the throttle up full, and the boat zipped down the river. I bent down and tried to use the engine as a shield to stop any bullets that might be fired—but none were. The men were probably yelling, but I couldn’t possibly hear them over the roar of the outboard engine. We passed the other boat lazily drifting in the current. We then rounded a bend, and the men disappeared from sight. I eased off the throttle, and the engine noise lessened.
I looked to the left. The brilliant orange curve of the sun peered out from above the canopy of trees, and the whole world was in morning light. It was beautiful and so bright that I couldn’t even look directly at it. For a few seconds I got caught up in what I was seeing instead of what had just happened. Forget the sunrise—we’d just been shot at.
“That was way too close,” I said. “I guess there’s no question now about what those men were trying to do. They were shooting at us.”
“But they were not trying to hit us,” she said.
“How can you know that?”
“Kidnappers do not try to kill the person they want to kidnap. There’s no ransom for dead people. That is why they did not try to shoot us when we were on the river.”
“I thought we were just out of range.”
“Oh no, they could have picked us off. We needed to get away sooner.”
“We could have if you’d started the engine sooner.”
“I was looking for the Start button. I did not know about this cord thing. How did you know?” Alejandra asked.
“We don’t have guns where I come from, but we do have a cottage—at least, my grandpa has a cottage. He has boats, and we’ve all known how to run an outboard engine since we were six or seven. It’s not that complicated.”
She looked upset. I’d hurt her feelings. I had to say something else.
“It’s not complicated if you have experience, I mean. It’s like me with the gun. You have the experience—I don’t. I can show you how to drive the boat and start the engine, if you want.”
“No need. We have servants who do that sort of thing.”
I didn’t feel that bad for her anymore. “No problem. I guess that’s one of the big differences between the way you live and the way we live. We don’t believe in servants.”
“Do not believe in or cannot afford?” she said with a smirk.
“I guess both. No matter how rich I was, I wouldn’t have servants.” I didn’t want to fight with her. “The important thing is, we’re safe now.”
“They could still follow us.”
“We got rid of the other boat.”
“There was a canoe. They could follow us in that.”
“They could follow us, but they can’t catch us. We’re moving at a pretty good clip.”
That got me thinking. How much gas did we have? I reached down and picked up the tank that held the fuel feeding the outboard engine. I sloshed it around and figured it was about half full.
“How far do we have to go?” I asked.
“It is forty kilometers by air.”
“But the river curves and bends. It has to be farther,” I said.
“Probably, but I do not know how much farther,” she said. “We should move faster to get there sooner.”
“If we move faster, we’ll burn more fuel, so that might not be too smart. I don’t think we have enough fuel to travel faster.”
“There were extra tanks of fuel in the shelter You should have taken one or even two,” she said.
“Maybe you should have taken them, or asked one of your servants to help, or we should have prepared more last night. Either way, there’s no point in blaming anybody. We’re going to be okay.”
“If we run out of fuel, we will be not be okay,” she snapped. “It will be your fault.”
“Yes, it will all be my fault, but we will still be okay. Look, the current of this river is moving us along at a pretty good speed. Even without the engine, we can still get to the city, even if it takes most of the day.”
“Really?”
“Really. And we can row a bit if we have to.” There were two oars in the bottom of the boat. “There’s nothing to worry about.”
Of course—moving along a river that I knew nothing about was a cause for concern. Of course—having men with guns chasing us was a cause for concern. Of course—having caimans in the river and jaguars in the jungle was cause for concern. There was enough worry to go around for both of us!
I goosed the engine so we could go faster. The most obvious danger was from behind, and I wanted to get more distance between the men and us. I looked back anxiously over my shoulder, thinking I’d see what I was imagining in my head. But all I saw was the curve of the river, hemmed in on both sides by the jungle. That’s all I should have seen. Realistically, there was no way they could catch us in a canoe, and the other boat was long gone…unless it had drifted back to shore just down from where we’d released it. Great. Another worry.
I turned my attention to what was in front of us. The river was wide, but I didn’t know how deep or how rocky. If nothing else, I had to watch for those logs in the river…wait, those weren’t logs—they were caimans swimming through the water ahead of us. I started to zigzag out of their way when they dove beneath the surface. Maybe they were more afraid of me than I was of them. No, that probably wasn’t possible.
“Could you pass me my gun, please?” I asked.
Alejandra hesitated. “If I give it to you, do you promise to not shoot yourself?”
“I’m not planning on shooting anybody or anything. I just want it close.”
“Before I do that, are you hungry?” she asked.
“A bit.”
“Then you should eat.” She started digging around in her pack.
I knew what she was doing. She wanted to hand me some food instead of a weapon. That might not have been the worst idea.
She removed two bottles of water and a couple of energy bars and handed me one of each.
“Thanks. You can hand me the gun after I eat. Don’t worry—I’m not going to shoot it.”
“If you are not going to shoot anything, then why do you need a gun?” she asked. “My grandfather always says that there is no point in carrying a gun unless you are prepared to use it.”
“Interesting…does he carry a gun?”
“Always.”
“That is so strange,” I said.
“It would be stranger if he did not carry one. I assume your grandpa does not carry a weapon.”
“Nobody except police officers carries weapons where I come from. My grandpa hates guns.”
“But did you not say he was
in the war?” she asked.
“Of course, but that’s why he doesn’t carry a gun.”
“That makes no sense,” she said.
“Maybe he’s just saying the same thing your grandfather is saying. He had a weapon he had to use for years, and now he doesn’t ever want to have to use one again.”
“But I was told he used to fly into and out of our country on business, so I am sure he carried a weapon then.”
“He was an importer/exporter. Why would he need a weapon?”
“I guess it would depend on what he was importing or exporting. You know that many drugs flow through this country.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Are you saying my grandpa was a drug smuggler?”
“People who fly small planes into Central America are often drug smugglers. How can you be so sure that he was not a drug smuggler?” she asked.
“My grandpa is the most honest person I’ve ever met. How would you feel if I said things like that about your grandfather?”
She shrugged. “You would not be the first person to say such things about him.”
“People say your grandfather was a drug smuggler?”
“Not necessarily drugs. Some people have said weapons or even endangered animals,” Alejandra said.
“I know none of that could be true,” I said.
“How could you possibly know that about my grandfather?”
“Easy. Your grandfather is friends with my grandpa, so I know he’s a good guy. No choice, no doubts. Right?”
“Right.” She gave me a big smile.
Her smile was so much better than her scowl and her smirk and her other angry expressions. I was amazed by how fast she could go from one to the other. She was like an express elevator in a big building. She was either at the top or the bottom or rushing toward one of them.
I turned the outboard motor off.
“What happened to the engine?” she exclaimed.
“I just switched it off to save gas. Sorry.” I was sorry I’d startled her and more sorry that the smile had gone. “I thought we could drift for a while.”
“Okay.”
“It’s nice not to have the roar of the motor. Besides, we’re still moving pretty fast.”