Mystery: Suspense: Jaguar Ascends : : A Private Investigator Mystery Crime Thriller: (horror, thriller, science fiction, mystery, police, murder, dark, ... (Marie Avalon Mystery Crime Series Book 3)

by Josh Law

  Bacardi’s sunny side ups. Bingo.

  “Hello, and welcome to Yaviza, Panama! Let me give you the grand tour!” Rene ran backward into the City, shooting haphazardly at only the closest of the creatures. She used the metallic bolt’s reflection as a means of rearview, feeling bark scrape against her as she under-calculated the distance between herself and trees.

  It begged to be asked how so many various creatures could be teeming about the borders of the jungle fortress, raving high, without the heed or consent of the Yavizan patrol. It was a brainless question. Yaviza was run by Guatavita’s troops. Renee sighed within. It would help to have more than a rifle’s bolt to see the trap she was backing into.

  Crossfire began to knock holes in the walls of ravenous teeth that closed around her. Renee looked over her shoulder. There Cipriano stood in the middle of the City, exchanging fire with the local patrol. Tourists snapped pictures like rapid flash bombs. Renee felt dizzy from the glare. This would be all over Google within minutes. Soon the World could witness the guerilla combat Guatavita and company had brought to Central America. The sooner the better.

  “Got any good news for me, Senor?” Renee scrambled into the bed of a random truck to gain a vantage point. She’d never seen turtles move as fast as the snappers that were bull-rushing her in this mirage-reality moment.

  “You’ll be happy to know that Tito has agreed to my proposition. We’ve got passage to Panama City. In the back of a plantain delivery truck to your left.” With the footwork of a spirited dancer, Cipriano began to back towards the truck he’d indicated with his head. Renee swallowed. Salvation came in mysterious ways.

  “My kids, Senor?”

  “Already on board. Minus one who’s preoccupied in el bano.” Cipriano waved his hand. The Prescott kids dug themselves out of the massive load of plantain on the back of the truck and brandished pistols joining in the frenzy. Renee couldn’t help but smile. She was proud of these children for being able to shoulder guerilla tactics before they’d even graduated high-school.

  She hopped up on the plantain truck’s wooden guard rail, picking off the turtles with clear headshots. Sliding to her knees in the plantain, she began to do a head count.

  “Counting Clark, we’ve got everyone but Bacardi.” Renee looked up hearing the sound of flames breaking out somewhere behind her.

  “Get ready to punch it, Tito!” As if on cue, her voice cried out from the top floor of a rugged old shack immediately behind the plantain truck. That must be the night club Cipriano was talking about.

  Cipriano leaped up on the nose of the truck and ran over its roof. The Harpy Eagles were circling him, trying to tear his eyes from his head with their glazed talons. He gave a shriek and plucked a bottle of absinthe from his jacket, filling his mouth with it. He plucked a cigarette lighter from his pocket and spit the alcohol into the air over the lighter’s open flame. Influenced by the flame-happy chemicals they were stoned on, eagles became phoenixes, roasting, falling from out of thin air.

  “Now!” Bacardi jumped through the top window of the night club. Glass rained around her. She shielded her face with her hands and wailed as fire licked up behind her and guttered like dragon’s laughter over the whole building blowing it hell-ward in mushrooming blossoms. She landed heavy on her knees beside Sally, shooting plantain out of their peel and into her gaping mouth.

  “Alright, ninos, hang onto your lunch!” Tito punched the gas like he was being paid a hundred grand to do it( he was).

  No sooner had they broken out of the midst of the wayward Eden blitz rampage in the seedy jungle town than did a Jeep shoot through the trees, pursued by various more creatures under the influence of the purple steam. The wheelbase had been torn off and it skidded down the rocks, shrieking like nails to a chalkboard. Pieces of it began to peel away like daisy petals in a girl’s loves me/loves me not debate. Through mid-air, arms flailing like swimmers down a waterfall, Chief Riggs and Marilyn fell in slow-motion.

  They landed heavily in the plantain, showering peels over Clark’s head and shooting the fruits all over the back window of the cab until there was a sludge the consistency of trampled baby food. They rapidly blinked, bewildered by their life’s continuation. Renee leaned forward and handed them a bandana.

  “Glad you guys could join us. Kinda surprised you could show so quickly, Chief. Anyway, Cipriano worked a deal out with an old friend. We’ve got a ticket out of this jungle and we’re heading to the South Pacific to round up the rest of the concentrated zombie apocalypse from the infamous Durango excursion.”

  Chapter 14:

  “Wahoo! This thing is awesome!” Nick made his whole body shiver with his quaking laughter as he piloted the Jaguar through the jungle. Alex stood behind him, struggling to keep himself and the make-shift claw tip needle and unraveled t-shirt thread from slipping and furthering Nick’s injuries.

  “I thought you said it sucked!” Chance wailed as tree branches came sailing down on the deck. He gathered them and lashed them together with scraps of nylon they’d found on decks after the initial chaos of their fight had ended. Jungle branch and nylon had made for excellent makeshift fencing when hemming in a whole pride of raving male jaguars that were in detox.

  “It sucked before. Another look at the control panel and, dude, this thing has everything. A wheelbase that lifts up out of the water and folds into the framework when it’s not being used? A snowplow looking drop shoot thing for smooth sledding off a cliff and into a body of water? We’ll cut the crap and not even have to backtrack to Panama City! We can just head for the coast, hop off, and then it’s Isle of the Dead inbound!” Nick slapped the wheel. Alex pushed him to standing straighter.

  “Yeah, all of that is wonderful, I agree. Only, you’ve lost a lot of blood. How do you not even feel it? Usually, a dude is tanking by now?” He swallowed the urge to gag. His brother’s back was in ribbons. Alex wasn’t a doctor. He wasn’t half as skilled in the EMT classes that Clark had given them as Sally was. How in blazes was he going to pin the ribbons of Nick’s flesh back together in time to keep him from rolling out on decks?

  Alex bit his tongue. He couldn’t allow himself to even entertain that possibility. Nick was not going to die. If he had to cut himself and bleed dry to keep his levels up, Nick was going to live this time. Too much was at stake now. It was bigger than the both of them.

  “Well, for starters, I’ve got those enlarged adrenal glands and the scheduled hyperkalemia epidemic in my blood that messes up my heart rate on purpose to resuscitate me when I do tank out, which is like, often.” Nick swallowed. He felt Alex stiffen. It was obvious that he’d hit a nerve.

  “Not this time…” He yanked the needle. Nick cringed. He’d pretended it hadn’t hurt to save his brother’s nerves but he’d felt the pain shoot to his heels. He swallowed.

  “Hey, I’m sorry. Look, too much is at stake. I have no idea how I’m going to pull this off, but I’m not leaving you alone to clean up this mess. It was my brilliant idea to go to war with the shadowy Jungle Queen. Make no mistake, my brother. I end the wars I start.” Nick smiled feeling the needle reattach a large lobe of his shoulder skin to the other. Alex felt his eyes burning with tears he didn’t have enough water left in him to cry. It was one thing when his brother made promises like that in a quiet place when tragedy was always distant, around the next corner or tomorrow’s sunrise. It was easier to believe him then. Now, with his shoulder blades white wall’s yawning at him like the asylum’s cell he was certain to wind up in after this was all over, it was all he could do to choke down the screams of rage. Provoked by the notion that their tormenters had always been in the shadows, monitoring their every move. Waiting for the day when they were ripe for scientific debauchery. Had they ever been merely human or were they just ears of corn ready to be sacrificed to the lords of the Underworld?

  “Alex…” Nick couldn’t turn to face him. He was trying to man a massive golden Ark/Tank after all. Alex laid a hand atop his brother’s head.
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  “I believe you. Because you’re going to have some help. Remember when we promised each other just a matter of hours ago? No more scapegoats. You’re not dying on me, kid! I won’t let you!” He pulled the thread through one more time. Both of the brother’s looked up to notice Chance was staring at them, face twisted in apology.

  “What’s eating you, man?” Nick flashed a half –grimacing smile at his friend, turning the massive wheel hard to the right to avoid colliding with a skyscraping tree. They were almost out of this jungle if they were reading the Jaguar’s fancy GPS tech correctly. It was piloting off the cliffs that was going to be an impressive undertaking. Nick twisted his eyes shut and prayed that he’d have the wherewithal to undertake this.

  “I-I just want you guys to know.” Chance huffed and looked to the sky. Parrots were circling, waving the rainbow colors like the promise of redemption from the terror they were now plunged into.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “For what? We would have done the same thing?” Nick raised a brow and forced the wheel the other way. This massive craft had to be driven in zigzagging, manual serpent motion.

  Chance’s lips blanched as he struggled to breathe. Alex smiled at him.

  “Actually. I’d like to thank you, man. See, I mostly figured we’d find a way out of all that crap. I had faith in you guys even if I couldn’t see myself scraping out. But you bought Renee some time. She’s your sister and…” He looked away.

  “She’s like a mother to you. Despite the fact that she’s not really old enough to have an 18-year-old kid.” Chance finished for him.

  “Well, yeah. You remember what happened to my real mom. I’m not overly fond of my family name either. Renee gave me a family. I wish we could be mom and son for real so I could wear the name.” He’d blurted it out and now flushed with embarrassment. Nick laughed and reached backward patting the small of his back.

  “Then change your name. Here’s the secret to why Renee became a foster mother. Our parents cooked crank and got themselves iced when we were kids, leaving her to raise me the rest of the way in extreme poverty. That makes her mother to the orphans by instinct and me the man of the Vierra family. Which means if I want to give you our name, I can. So, it’s Alex Vierra from now on, in my book.”

  “Alex Vierra. I like that better than Prescott. Works better than calling you Alex Avalon. That would sound kinda wonky to me, FYI.” Nick bowed his head giggling and then sprung whip-like back to the task of steering the massive Ark through the Jungle.

  “Thanks, man.” Alex reached around Nick and shook Chance’s hand. The older boy looked the brothers up and down.

  “We’re all a family now. You guys have become my brothers through all of this. Which means that come whatever I’ve got your backs.” He clenched his fists. They all laughed to keep the terror at bay. They were a small band of nomads against the gods. The odds were pyramids against them.

  The cliff was on the rise now. Even from this distance, over the Jaguar’s engines, they could hear the Pacific rising to meet them.

  “Gentlemen, I’ve started a war and I’ve never been to boot camp. I’m not a general. I won’t start pretending I actually know what I’m doing here. I’m just a guy who resurrects by default against the world. This is all or nothing. The only way to do this is just to charge in guns blazing. We do what we can. We’re going to bleed, sweat and spill our guts. Mess up. We’ll probably light half the world on fire before we’re through.

  Guys, if you’re with me, I’ll choke the throttle on this thing and we’ll shoot right off into the sunset of freedom. I can’t promise you we’ll be able to save the World, each other, or anyone really. I won’t lie to you. I’m scared as hell and unprepared. I mean, for all I know it’s over when we land if I don’t time it right.

  Are you with me? I can’t go any other way.” He swallowed. His bravado was cracking. They could see the mental anguish begin to melt through him like Vesuvius’ escape. His knees were knocking together. His hair stood on ruffled ends. Now they could see him for what he was. A kid on the edge of 18 that had been confined to a casket not so long ago. Scared out of his mind, too young to have been through the Hell he’d seen.

  “Chase it, Nicky. If we go down, it’ll have to be in blazes. That’s the only way to kill a Lazarus. We live until we die. Let’s make it count.” Alex ran his hand up the back of his brother’s hair and smoothed the rest of it out of his eyes. Chance nodded, unable to speak.

  Nick swallowed, gripping the wheel as vertigo threatened to split him at the atomic structure. Honesty was his enabler. He revved the hand controls. The Jaguar pounced through the trees.

  They shot into the air like lift off. It moved for them in frames of slow motion. Their hearts stopped. The ringing in their ears drowned out the noise of stones and trees they’d taken with them.

  They glided oil-smooth through the air. Full auto rounds were a light unto their path on the way down. Guatavita was back with air support.

  They landed in a crater of water, the waves acting as shields, spraying the choppers out of their path. Some reeled and collided with one another like meteors clashing. They felt the explosions from where they were but couldn’t hear them over the awesome press of water that buoyantly propelled them back to the surface.

  “That went better than I planned! Okay, set the tools. Alex, you’re the techie. The coordinates for Waker’s Island. Move like you’re getting paid, boys!” Nicky chased the gas again and they shot in figure eight serpentine skids out of the line of drilling fire.

  Chapter 15:

  “I can’t thank you enough for this, Tito.” Cipriano laughed as Tito took the helm of a proud yacht.

  “Well, when I get my money, ‘mano, there won’t be any need for thanks. Good business and all of that. Only, I can’t help but wonder if you realize the bowl of loco you’ve stuck your toes into?” Tito took a puff of the Te Amo he was smoking and looked at Marilyn suspiciously. She shrank to Renee’s side, defensively.

  “Chief told me what happened. Are you okay?” Renee’s hand encircled Marilyn’s arm. She looked up, startled. It felt like ages since she’d seen her friend even though it had only been a few hours. She studied her face for a minute. Her eyes were haunted, she was drenched in tar from flames and had chemical burn peppering her skin, yet her eyes had never been more alive. It healed whatever hurt might have taken root.

  “Yeah…You’re back. We’re on our way. It’s all good. But it will be better when I see my kid.” She laughed and laid a hand on Renee’s shoulder. The foster mother smiled.

  “Can you believe all of this?”

  “Heck no. But I’m glad. For everything.”

  “What?” Renee caught her breath. It wasn’t what she’d expected to here.

  Tito and Cipriano stopped talking and turned to listen. These words had attracted everyone’s attention.

  “Mama, I think you must be smoking something!” Peyo slapped his knees, cackling.

  Marilyn looked around at all of her friends. She saw that they were so full of life now and that was all that counted. Their vibrancy would never blaze hotter than it did in this moment. This might be the last time.

  “Of course, I am! All of you should be! Tito’s question is a very good one. We have no idea what we’re heading into. Out of the frying pan and into Hades’ is a good guess, I’d say. But I’m glad all the same and you wanna know why? Had it not been for this, this treachery would have slipped in under our noses and caught us all in its noose before we had time to form the words to protest. This crazy is good! We might fail. Hell, not going to lie, they’ll probably roast us alive before it’s all said and done.

  Point it, because of everything that’s happened, we have the chance to die alive and free. What could be a better life? What more could we want? What else would we die for?”

  Cipriano stared at her with a foxy smirk. Tito just laughed and let smoke plume from his nostrils.

  “I get you, Senora. I get you. Only no
body’s dying today. Not when Tito is in command, ay? Let’s see the directions your boy drew up.” Tito held out his hand and Clark slapped the paper into it.

  “Let’s bring the kids home, eh, boss lady?” The Doctor laughed and took the rifle Bacardi handed him.

  They sped into the ocean with the haste of angels. The waves trailed behind them in falling star patterns. Fortunately, the Waker’s Island was only a few hours out from the South-Western coast of Panama. They could do this. They could actually do this.

  The sky began to fill up with jets, helicopters, even men in glide suits. They collectively caught their breaths.

  “Assume battle positions! Like I taught you. Vamos!” Cipriano leaped to the rail. The Prescott Kids did somersaults to the line-up. Their lips were trembling. They were terrified. Just children. Stronger than a whole nation of adults in this moment in the fact that they dared to stand up to this corrupted legislator.

  “I’m getting radio signals.” The Chief’s eyes popped. Marilyn turned herself away from the swarming sky to look his way.

  “Answer it! You’d be surprised the power a little trash talk has.” The Chief stared at his walkie in confusion. Who would have even known to wire it out here?

  “Let me.” Marilyn snatched it up.

  “This is Marilyn Avalon, copy.”

  “Mom.”

  She felt her whole body begin to shake with giddiness.

  “Nicky! You’re okay! What’s more your plan is working buddy!” The whole crew brightened at the mention of the name.

  “It’s good to hear your voice, Mom. I was stressing big over this one, but we pulled out like we always do.” His voice was a sedative. She drank it in, feeling him breathe into her a portion of the undying light that was in his fabric. If he believed, then she knew they could do this.

  “Yeah, baby. We always find a way somehow.” She smiled as tears rained down her cheeks and washed the jungle war filth from her face. She saw in her loved one’s faces that they were crying too. Healing issued forth like water from the stone. Alive. After everything, they were still alive.