I blinked at him in shock.
“Get up,” Klaus said tiredly. “We need to chat.”
“I’m not wearing any pants,” I warned him. He rolled his eyes and kicked my pants at me.
“Get up,” he repeated.
I rose and pulled on my pants with as much dignity as I could. Casey was nowhere to be found. The rest of Klaus’ goons were also missing. My stomach twisted inside me. Did they have her? Where had they taken her? What were they doing to her? A thousand terrible thoughts cascaded through my brain in an instant, each more horrible than the last.
“What’s going on?” I asked, not comprehending the situation but desperate to find Casey. “What do you want?”
Klaus looked at me like I was the dumbest man alive. “What do I want? I want the fucking fern.”
I considered lying to him, but since I spied Alberto’s journal is his pocket, I decided it was a lost cause.
“Yeah. Don’t we all.”
Klaus exhaled slowly. I wasn’t sure if it was relief or skepticism.
“Are you with Verité Labs?”
“Me? No. Remember. I’m shooting a cooking show,” I said. He opened his mouth to call me on my bullshit, but I raised a hand. “We were looking for the fire leaf fern, too. But I swear, I’m not with Verité. They’re assholes.”
Klaus’ face betrayed his confusion. “You’re not with them but you saw them?”
“Yeah, yesterday. They tried to fucking murder me in a cave.” I was still really angry about that. Klaus, whose life likely involved much more frequent instances of extreme violence, looked unsurprised.
“Did you see my guys?”
Klaus guys were missing? “No,” I told him. “Sorry. If Verité found them, they’re probably dead.”
He nodded. In agreement? Frustration? It was impossible to tell.
“How come you aren’t dead?” He seemed somewhat put out.
“Good question. I’m not exactly sure. They had explosives and were trying to make it look like a natural cave-in I guess, but they fucked it up. Ended up crushing themselves.”
“They killed themselves?” He looked unconvinced.
“I only know that I didn’t die and one of them did. For all I know the rest are still out there.”
Klaus chewed on that for a moment. I still couldn’t tell if he believed me. The gun in his hand stayed aimed at my face. I was getting really fucking tired of being threatened at gunpoint. “You found the fern.” My eyes darted to the journal in Klaus’ pocket. I nodded reluctantly.
“Where is it?” He asked. When I didn’t immediately reply, he sighed. “Look, I may be a mercenary, but I’m ordinarily not a fucking murderer, unlike whoever the hell got hired by Verité. My guys have been missing for three days. They got picked off one by one. I didn’t find bodies. But listen, I’m very done messing around. You know where the fern is. I’ve got your little book. I see you knew Alberto Dima.”
“Did you kill Alberto?” I asked, interrupting. I needed to know.
Klaus shrugged. He looked unconcerned by the question. “I didn’t. Genuprix might have. Or it could have been Verité. It was definitely one of the two. I had information on him in the dossier I received, and I’d imagine that Verité knew all about him too. But that’s neither here nor there. You knew Alberto, apparently well enough that he sent you his notes. And judging by what I found here in your camp, you know where it is. Tell me.”
“If I tell you where it is, you’re just gonna’ shoot me,” I told him. “That’s really not much incentive.” I was trying to appeal to his reason.
“If you don’t tell me, I’m going to torture you until you tell me.” Klaus said it in such a matter of fact tone that I didn’t for a second doubt him. “How’s that for incentive?”
“Um, it’s pretty good I guess. Although I would have preferred—.”
“Shut the hell up.”
In that moment, I realized two important things. The first was that Casey had already packed up her things and must have somehow escaped Klaus’ notice. Otherwise he’d be using her to make me talk. I prayed that she was watching safely from somewhere nearby.
The second thing was that Klaus was tired. He looked like he’d been out here looking for his guys for three days. He was exhausted, desperate, and therefore potentially unstable. Potentially manipulatable.
“I can’t tell you where it is,” I told him, feigning confusion. “But I think I can take you there.”
Klaus examined my face like he was looking for subterfuge.
“Look, if I don’t lead you to it, you can always torture me then,” I said irritably.
Klaus bit back a small laugh. “I don’t want to torture you. Jesus. This was just supposed to be a plant collection job. I’m getting much too old for this shit. Now there’s a fucking hurricane blowing in…” He rambled on until realizing that he was doing so. Then he pressed his lips into a firm line. “Fine. Put on your fucking shoes and let’s go.”
And that was how I found myself leading Klaus down the mountain on the seaward side in only my shoes and pants. My aim was to draw him away from the summit so that Casey could escape back to the village.
Klaus and I walked for hours in the humid jungle. I pretended that I knew where I was going, talking incessantly and knowing that I’d eventually give myself away. So, my plan was to confuse Klaus and keep him off guard by being as irritating as humanely possible. My hope was that he’d just stay occupied on me long enough for Casey to get somewhere safe.
He’d clearly missed the signs that she’d been in the camp, even though they should have been obvious to him. That meant that he was not only tired but getting sloppy. This side of the island was much more heavily wooded. The jungle provided much better opportunities to ambush someone. If I could just get him into a situation where I could overpower him…
A loud noise filled the air. It sounded like Smurfs singing?
“What’s that awful noise?” Klaus asked. “Is that you?”
I shook my head. “Do I look like a singing chipmunk?”
Klaus looked at his gun, and then at me. “Has anyone every told you that you talk too much? A simple ‘no’ would have sufficed.” He shook his head in annoyance. “Most people get less chatty and sarcastic when you point a gun at them.” He continued grumbling to himself at a nearly inaudible hiss.
“I honestly have no idea what that noise is,” I said honestly. It seemed to be coming from up ahead, but off the path slightly.
“Go that way,” Klaus said, remaining behind me and keeping his gun pointed at the back of my skull.
39
Casey
“Keep on going,” Klaus ordered David. From where I was hiding, I could hear them but not see them. I’d laid my trap, and now all I could do was wait until they sprung it.
When I awoke at dawn that morning, I had not imagined the day unfolding the way it had. Although the morning broke with only a few rays of weak light making it through the approaching storm to light the day, I was full of optimism. All we needed to do was walk back down to the village by noon to catch the ferry. It would be a quick hike, and while it would have been nice to have more time, our journey from here on out was all downhill. I’d packed my things and gone off to relieve my bladder and use the radio to check on Travis and Curtis before waking David.
When I returned, the sound of voices alerted me to Klaus before he could see me. I snuck off the path and around our little camp to listen, trembling so hard when I saw the gun in Klaus’s hand that I was surprised that he didn’t hear it. I had to protect David from Klaus. When David started leading Klaus away from the summit and into the jungle, I got an idea.
The execution of my idea required a lot more tromping around in the jungle than I would have preferred. In order to follow Klaus and David, I had to stay off the path and far enough away that they couldn’t hear me. Luckily for me, perhaps, David kept up a more or less constant running commentary.
It wasn’t a particularly
sophisticated idea, but it was the best I could do on short notice. I set the camera in a small clearing on the ground, rewound the tape, and made it replay the clip of David singing the theme to Gilligan’s Island over and over. When that proved insufficiently annoying, I messed with the sound to make it an annoying, high whine. That would get his attention. Then I grabbed a big rock, climbed up a tree, and waited.
It wasn’t long before the sound of their footsteps became audible through the forest. I could easily distinguish between David’s confident footfalls and Klaus’ exhausted ones. They were only moments away now.
“What do you see up there?” Klaus asked David.
“Nothing yet,” David replied. His voice was muffled by the vegetation. “The trees are too dense, but I think there’s a clearing ahead.”
“Keep going,” Klaus barked. “All the way into the clearing.”
I looked down from the branch I was poised on and saw David pass beneath me. Klaus remained ten feet or so behind David.
“You know, I could really use a machete or something with all these damn leaves,” David was complaining.
“I’m not giving you a fucking machete. Walk.”
“Fine. I’m just saying that it would go a lot more quickly…”
“Shut. Up.”
Nine feet.
“What is it?” Klaus asked again. Five feet left.
“Um, I think it’s a piece of electronics. I see something black in the underbrush,” David said. Four feet.
Three.
“It’s a camera,” David clarified. “Looks like someone dropped it.”
Klaus lowered the gun in relief.
“Well, turn it off. That noise is annoying.”
Two.
“Ok. I gotta’ bend down. Don’t shoot me or anything.”
“Just fucking do it.”
One.
I dropped the bowling ball-sized rock I was holding, and it hit Klaus’s head with an audible, sickening crack. He didn’t even have time to stagger. He went straight down like a lead balloon, making a loud “oomph” noise as he went. Then nothing. A dark stain of red oozed from beneath him.
“Holy shit.” I said from my position in the tree. “That worked better than I thought it would.”
David, who had been turned away to turn off the camera, turned at the noise. He looked at the downed Klaus, and then up at me in disbelief. He blinked up at me in confusion as he put together what I’d done.
“Casey?”
“Hi.”
David walked close enough to Klaus to inspect him.
“Fuck, Casey. I think he might be dead.” He then checked for a pulse before dropping Klaus’ wrist like it was a particularly dangerous snake. “No, not dead. Just really, really hurt. He’s gonna’ have one hell of a headache when he wakes up. If he wakes up.”
“I don’t fucking care if he’s dead or not.” I honestly didn’t. I had only been trying to knock him out, but Klaus had threatened to hurt David. He’d threatened to torture him. His threats brought out the fierce, primal cavewoman in me. Klaus bad. Klaus need go bye-bye.
“Me either, but, just… damn.” His voice was mild but impressed. “I didn’t realize you were such a badass.”
I scrambled down out of the tree. Before I even finished getting down, David was pulling me from the branches and folding me in his arms.
“You were supposed to run away,” he whispered, rocking me back and forth like he had in the cave when I’d gone unconscious. “I wanted you to be safe.” His hands ran all over me, checking for injuries.
“I wanted you to be safe,” I insisted. “I had to protect you. I love you. I was just trying to knock him out, not kill him. I wasn’t sure what size rock to use so I just grabbed the biggest one I could get up in the tree…”
David looked at me like I had completely lost my mind. Perhaps I had. I had just maimed Klaus to protect him. Casey-the-cavewoman needed to protect her man. I worried that he was going to hate me for doing something so violent, even if it was to protect him. Then his expression softened. When he kissed me, I knew we were going to be ok. The image of Klaus bleeding on the jungle floor was going to appear in my nightmares, but it was hard to regret what I’d done. David was worth it.
40
David
Casey saved my ass from Klaus, but we’d lost the morning. With the storm beginning to bear down on the island, we were out of time. There was no chance of making back to the village in time to make the ferry. We stood in the clearing next to Klaus’ body and discussed our options. Thankfully, we had a map of the island courtesy of Dr. Cruz, but our exact position was impossible to pinpoint inside the jungle. We guessed that we were somewhere near the beach on the seaward side of the island.
“Priority one is to get somewhere safe before the storm hits,” Casey said. “I’ve never been in a typhoon, but I’ve been in a tornado before. It’s not an experience that I care to repeat. Especially out here in the middle of a jungle.”
“That means either heading back to the village, to the St. Johns, or into the caves.”
“We’re not going into those caves again.” She shook her head and shuddered.
“I agree. So where are we headed?”
Casey frowned and then pointed south-west. “We need to head back that way. We have to reorient ourselves. That means taking this path all the way down to the water. Then we can start heading west along the beach and toward the village.”
I nodded. It would be shorter to circle the island on the beach than try to climb the summit of the volcano a second time. “Ok.” I turned toward the path, remembering something. “Did you happen to grab one of my shirts from camp?”
Casey shook her head. She was smirking but trying to hide it. “No. Sorry. You can steal Klaus’ though.”
“No thanks.” I told Casey, thinking that I’d rather not be covered in Klaus-blood. “I’ll just be shirtless. At least it isn’t cold.”
When Casey’s eyes went wide, and she didn’t reply. I paused. She was staring at Klaus. I followed her gaze and felt my jaw go slack.
A monkey, another one of the little mustachioed type we’d seen before and I’d been hearing all morning, was crouched over Klaus’ body. It was going through his pockets.
The monkey, surely feeling the gaze of two massive predators, froze and looked up at us. The look on its face was unreadable, but certainly didn’t look guilty. His little hands closed on Alberto’s journal, the journal containing the spores, and I inhaled sharply.
“Put that down!” I said firmly, taking a step closer to the monkey. He clutched the journal to his chest, tensing his entire body. “You better put that journal down right fucking now,” I warned him. “Put it down.”
Another step. The monkey backed up a corresponding step, sticking his tail up high in the air and holding the journal with both his front paws. He had to waddle awkwardly with it, unable to stand on all fours while continuing to hold it.
“David?” Casey asked, her voice soft. “I think you’re scaring him.”
“Good,” I whispered back. Hopefully he’d drop the damn journal and run away. Then, to the monkey, “Drop it.” I took a final step toward it.
Instead of dropping the notebook and leaving like I’d hoped, the monkey took the notebook and ran away through the underbrush. It waddled off like the cowardly thief it was.
“Fuck!” I heard Casey exclaim, but I was already racing after the tiny primate. It had the spores, and I was not letting it get away.
The monkey redoubled its speed when he realized I was following it. It was almost silent in the forest, it’s little feet deftly stepping around the obstacles that littered the floor. I made enough noise for the both of us, crashing through plants, startling birds, and nearly tripping over roots as I pursued him. If not for the fact that the monkey had to stand on two legs to keep hold of the notebook, I would have lost it instantly. As it was, it took everything I had to stay within visual range. What I lacked in ability, I made up with
determination.
Behind me, I could hear Casey following through the jungle and calling my name. I couldn’t reply to her. I was totally fixated on the catching that monkey. There was no way that the little bastard was going to steal my fern spores. I’d hiked for two days, been blown up and threatened twice at gunpoint, and looked straight into a goddamn volcano to get the fern. Those spores were mine.
No longer was I afraid of the monkey. I was all out of fucks to give. The only thing I wanted was that notebook.
My lungs burned as I dragged my half-naked body forward through the underbrush. Leaves and branches stung my skin as I ran through them, leaving scratches that I’m sure were going to itch later. I’m positive that I looked as deranged as I felt. Ahead of me, the monkey looked over his shoulder at the enormous, furry beast and reconsidered its position. The awful little paws finally dropped the notebook. Wisely deciding it just wasn’t worth it to be chased by such a hideous monster, the monkey sprung nearly vertically, straight up into a tree, and promptly disappeared into the jungle. I stumbled forward and collected my prize.
Victorious and winded, I recovered the notebook. A moment later, Casey exploded out of the brush behind me, panting and annoyed.
“Seriously?” she demanded. Her voice was exasperated. “We still have all the granola bars. We could have just lured him with the food.”
“I’ve got it, though,” I said, holding the notebook aloft. Casey shook her head at me. “I saved the spores.”
“Good job.” Her voice was sarcastic. “Excellent monkey chasing.”
“I can see you’re not impressed,” I told her. “But I also found something else.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
I pointed through a break in the trees up ahead that I’d just noticed. The beach, and what looked like Klaus’ camp, was just ahead of us. “Our way out of here.”
Lost and Found (Scions of Sin Book 4) Page 21