“I was shot,” Delta muttered, remembering now the painful impact as the bullet ripped through her shoulder. She’d been shot twice, once in the leg and once in the shoulder, which had forced her to release Megan’s hand. Megan hadn’t let go. Delta had released her grasp to keep from pulling Megan over with her. No wonder she was feverish. Two bullet wounds and near drowning were wreaking havoc on her body. Trying to force her heavy eyelids open, Delta felt a pair of hands gently press on her shoulders.
“Dormir,” the soft voice implored, as fingertips lightly fluttered across Delta’s eyelids and down her cheeks. “Dormir.”
Closing her eyes, Delta murmured, “Can’t… sleep. Gotta… go… back.” But the medicine was stronger than she, and Delta settled her heavy head back into the pillow. When sleep mercifully carried her away, Delta dreamed of a thatched hut, a medicine man, and making love to Megan.
“Go… back,” Connie mumbled in her sleep.
“Shh,” Megan whispered, leaning over and brushing some stray hair from Connie’s sleepy face. Fear and caffeine had been fueling Connie’s empty tank, and Megan worried that Connie would work herself into the ground if she didn’t slow down and get some rest. For three days, they had been searching the coastlines of Costa Rica and Panama, combing nearby towns and port villages. They had sent their good friend, Josh, to check out hospitals and police stations all along the coast, but not one person remembered seeing a 5’9” brunette with green eyes and two bullet holes. Still, it was inconceivable to Megan that Delta had simply drowned. There would be something offering itself up as a piece of evidence; a piece of clothing, or her body, washed up on the shore. Three days had yielded nothing. She had simply disappeared. Maybe Connie was right. Maybe it was time to go back into the jungle and look for her.
Maybe they were the only people who could help Delta. Closing her eyes, Megan released a fractured sigh. She could barely believe how desperately her heart missed Delta.
Delta had come to Costa Rica to find Megan, who had been abducted by General Zahn and used for slave labor in gold mines. It was no surprise to Megan that Delta had dropped everything to come and find her in an environment that was as foreign to Delta as the bottom of the ocean. It was also no surprise that Delta brought Connie, Josh, and Sal with her. Delta was nothing if not resourceful, and she had utilized everyone and everything at her disposal to get Megan out of the rainforest.
And now, Delta was lost. The irony tore at Megan’s heart until her eyes filled with more tears, and a sigh slid jerkily from her, prompting Connie to stir.
Connie’s eyes slowly opened, and she stretched, yawned, and sat up. “What time is it? Damn, you shouldn’t have let me…”
“We have to go back, Con.”
Getting off the bed, Connie paced over to a large topographical map of Costa Rica pinned to the wall and studied it for a long, quiet moment. Delta had fallen over an area marked by blue pins. Gold pins marked where they suspected Zahn and his mining operation were. There was a third color, a green grouping of pins that Connie pointed to. The only way to find out if Delta was still alive. One way, that is, because she believed.
“The Bribri,” Megan murmured, nodding. “That’s what I’m thinking.”
Connie nodded back. “She’s one of them now. If anyone can find her in the jungle, they can.” Connie studied the map closely. “You know, the Native Americans have always known the power of the spirit. It’s the part of our culture that even the Europeans couldn’t drive out. I believe the Bri can help us find Delta, but do you? Are you willing to believe in something outside your frame of reference?”
Megan looked from Connie to the map and back again. She’d seen firsthand what believing could do. She had believed in Delta; believed that she would come for her.
Trusting that the Bri might somehow know Delta’s whereabouts was easier than she thought. “At this point, Con, I’m so desperate, I’d believe in Santa Claus if it meant finding Delta.”
Connie released a deep breath. “That’s it then. We’ve tried every conventional means at our disposal. I suppose it’s time to do what we do best: make up our own rules.”
“It’s been pretty successful so far in everything else.”
Connie’s smile didn’t reach her eyes as she picked up her clipboard and studied the names and numbers on it. “We’ll pick Sal up from the hospital, get Gina from the airport, tell Josh what we’re going to need and then…”
“We’re going back into that goddamned rainforest.”
Stepping through the hospital room door, Connie quickly approached the tiny woman wearing green army fatigues with a matching baseball cap. Sweeping Sal off her feet, Connie hugged her tightly. “Hey there, slugger. How you feeling today?”
“I feel like kicking some Colombian ass,” Sal said, grinning and forcing a deeply embedded dimple to show in her right cheek, “But Megan said I have to wait.”
Megan nodded. “You’ll get your chance.”
Connie held the small woman close to her. “You look better than you did yesterday. You feeling better?”
“Much better,” Sal said, hugging Connie back. “My butt only hurts when I sit on it wrong. Wanna see the wound?” Sal grabbed at her pants and was beginning to lower them when Connie and Megan looked at each other and grimaced.
“No, thanks. Maybe some other time,” Connie answered, winking at Megan.
Sal shrugged. “Suit yourselves, but it’s really a cool thing. Look.” Sal reached down and grabbed her father’s dog tags, which she’d worn since his death in Vietnam. Attached to the chain, hanging next to the dog tags, was a compressed bullet. “Guess where this came from?”
Megan shook her head. “Gross. You had them save the bullet?”
Sal nodded proudly, and when she did, her short, reddish hair bobbed beneath her army cap. Sal was the only woman Megan knew who looked at home in regulation army fatigues.
“You bet! Think of all the conversations I can start by showing people my scar and the bullet that made it.”
Connie shook her head. “Megan’s right. You’re gross.”
“Maybe, but I’m alive to talk about it.” Sal peered toward the door. “Where’s the big guy? He hasn’t been in to see me this morning and bring my ration of real food. If you thought hospital food in American hospitals was bad… sheesh.”
“He’s bringing the car around and signing you out.”
“Is he packing?”
Connie shrugged. “I don’t think so. The weapons he’s getting…”
“Not weapons, goofus! Food! Is he carrying any real food?”
Connie couldn’t help but grin at the small woman who had risked her life to come help Delta find Megan. It wasn’t the first time, either. Sal and Josh had come into their lives during a mission where they’d needed Sal’s impressive electronics abilities. No one could have predicted that they would have to kill two men in order to save Delta’s life, but they did. Without remorse. Josh had spent time in the forests of Vietnam and his jungle expertise had already proved invaluable in Latin America. With their help, Connie and Delta had managed to find Megan, but Sal had been shot as they were escaping the Colombians; an experience Sal intended to share with the rest of the known world.
“I’ve seen that look on your face before, Con,” Sal said, suddenly perking up. “What’s the plan? Man, laying around has made me stir crazy.”
Megan put her arms around Sal’s shoulders, towering over the would-be soldier. “Crazy enough to go back into the jungle?”
Suddenly the door was flung open, and a big, bearded man filled the entire doorway. “Did I just hear you say we’re going back to the jungle?”
“Josh!” Sal released Megan and threw her arms around the large man’s neck and hugged him. He, too, was wearing green army fatigues. In his left hand, he carried a plain brown bag.
“How you feeling today, Salamander?” Josh asked, handing the bag to Sal, who ripped it open and stared down at the contents.
“Donut
s! All right!”
Josh grinned as Sal tore into a glazed donut, his love and adoration evident in his eyes.
Sal’s father had saved Josh’s life, as well as the lives of four other young men, before being killed by the Viet Cong. The Cong had not only killed Sal’s father, but cut his head off and rammed it on a pole to parade around. The men whose lives he’d saved swore to watch out for the little girl whose daddy would never return.
They managed to keep their promise, making sure Sal wanted for nothing. While Josh lived with Sal and made sure she finished high school, the other men started a college fund for her. When she graduated from college with a degree in electrical engineering, they all chipped in and bought her a car. Sal may have lost a father, but she had gained four big brothers who took care of her every need. Josh and Sal were each other’s family; a family that now extended to Delta, Connie, and Megan.
“I’m feeling good enough to go back after Delta, if that’s the question.”
Megan stepped up to Josh and quietly asked, “No luck on the water?”
Josh shook his head sadly. He had managed to commandeer a boat from a local fisherman and had spent from morning to dusk on the sea, hoping to spot any sign of Delta. Each day, he had returned exhausted, darkened by the constant sun, and with no news.
“I suppose no news is good news, eh?” Josh asked softly.
Megan barely nodded. “We want to go back to the Bri village. Con and I think they might be able to help.”
Josh looked confused. “But she went down in the water. It only makes sense…”
“Nothing makes much sense where Delta Stevens is concerned,” Connie said, and she, more than the others, would know. For seven years, she and Delta had been best friends. They were partners in crime in the River Valley Police Department, and one didn’t move without the other knowing which direction. While Delta was a beat cop, Connie was an informations expert whose job was to track down evidence in a more technological fashion. Both had different strengths and varied weaknesses, yet their relationship bordered on the paranormal. Connie was the thinker, the contemplator, and the brains. She looked before she leaped.
Delta, on the other hand, was the doer, the hero, and the champion of those less fortunate than she. Delta leaped before she looked. Delta was the warrior, the physical one who had killed two men, escaped a fiery death as she saved children, and pushed herself through the unfamiliar terrain of a rain forest in order to save the woman she loved.
Touching Josh’s shoulder, Connie said, “Delta became part of the Bri in a ritual that made her a Bribri warrior. Megan and I are of the opinion that Shaman may be able to tell us where she is.”
Sal took her hat off and scratched her head. Sal was as secular and as pragmatic as they came, and she had a hard time believing anything that wasn’t right in front of her face. “we’re that desperate?”
Connie and Megan nodded. “I don’t know where else to turn,” Connie said, her voice betraying emotions she was trying desperately to hide. “They know the jungle better than anyone. If Delta is anywhere near it, they’ll know where to look.”
“Besides,” Megan added, “Delta’s not the only one who needs our help.”
Sal groaned. “Oh, don’t tell me…”
Megan nodded. “I made a promise to Siobhan that if I got free, I would bring help. With or without Delta, I don’t intend to break that promise.”
“Tell me we’re taking some of the Panamanian army with us,” Josh said, knowing full well of that impossibility. The Panamanians had made their position crystal clear. They wanted nothing to do with Colombians, gold, or crazy Americans in search of their friend.
Connie shook her head. “I wish we could, Josh, but General Zahn is well known here. It would be a mistake to trust anyone who might be on his payroll.”
“And that list most likely covers ambassadors, cops, judges, you name it.” Megan watched Sal stuff a donut in her mouth. “People who underestimate the power of the cartel wind up as fish food.”
Sal glanced over at Josh as she wiped her mouth. Unspoken words traveled between the two. Though there had never been anything sexual between them, Josh and Sal were as much mates as any married couple, and they knew what each was thinking. “So, what you’re telling us is we’re going back into the jungle. Alone. Again.”
Nodding, Connie pulled a map out of her backpack and spread it on the bed. It was another topographical map of the terrain of La Amistad Park, a large rain forest area in Costa Rica and Panama. La Amistad, which meant Friendship Park, had been anything but friendly.
“Where’d you get that?” Josh asked, impressed.
“Connie hasn’t slowed down since she landed. Megan rested her hand on Connie’s shoulder. It was a rock beneath her fingers. “She and that damned computer back home are miracle workers.”
Flattening the map with a quick brush of her palm, Connie pointed to some green marks. “As best as I could get from the locals, the Bri’s village is in this vicinity. Considering where we started in Rivas, and where we ended up, I’d say this was where the Colombians were when we left them.”
Everyone studied the map as Connie moved her finger over it. “Delta fell in here. See these lines? They show the natural current. If the current carried her, she could have ended up over in this area.”
“But I’ve been through there a dozen time,” Josh said. “And we didn’t see anything. There ain’t a town, a village, not even a dock. Nada.”
“It’s possible she could have made her way to shore and gone back to the jungle where she knew she could get help. If I were Delta, that’s what I’d do.”
“And risk being killed by the Colombians?” Josh asked, reaching for the bag in Sal’s hands. Sal slapped at his hand before reaching in and handing him one of the donuts she didn’t want.
Connie nodded. “She’s hurt. She needs help, and she knows the authorities could very well be on Zahn’s payroll. If Delta is going to turn to someone, it’s going to be the Bri.”
Josh studied Connie for a moment as silence hung in the stale hospital air. “You know her better than anyone. If you think that’s where she is, then I say it’s a go.”
Sal pulled another donut from the bag she kept out of Josh’s reach. “So, you want to find the Bri and then what?”
“See if they have Delta. If they do, that’s one less thing we have to worry about.”
Sal’s eyebrows raised. “One less?”
Megan nodded. “I made a promise to get those people help, Sal. Once we know that Delta is alive and safe, then I have a promise to keep.”
“That promise could be suicide, Megan. Those men have high-powered weapons, scopes, and communication. What have we got?” Sal bit hard into the donut.
Megan looked over at Josh. “Josh, what have we got?”
Josh cleared his throat. “I got my hands on a couple of M16s, a Beretta sniper, and a few HKs. Oh, yeah. I also got a Ruger Mark II with a silencer. He sort of threw it into the bargain. We went with rifles for accuracy and sniping. A handgun won’t do shit in the jungle.”
Connie nodded. “Anything else?”
A slow grin spread on Josh’s face. “Two really nifty pairs of night goggles. I ain’t about to go back in there in the dark again.”
“Night goggles?” Sal piped in. “Can we afford those?”
Josh shrugged. “They’re on loan.”
Sal stared slack-jawed at Josh. “And just how in the hell did you get your big oven mitts on those type of weapons?”
Josh swiped the bag of donuts and grinned. “Gotta few buddies down here who, well, let’s say they make a killing selling rifles to the highest bidders.”
“A killing, eh? How come you never told me about them?”
Josh shrugged. “These aren’t the kind of guys you talk about and live, Salamander. They mean business.”
Connie nodded. “And so do we. I really appreciate you going to bat for us, Josh.”
Josh studied the donut he was hol
ding. “I pulled Smelly’s fat outta the fire once. Guys from Nam never forget. It’s just how things are with us.”
All three women repeated, “Smelly?”
“Long, gross story. Anyway, Smelly can line us up with a boat, too. That little old fisherman’s boat is just too damn slow. If we’re going back in, we’re gonna need a boat that’s got some guts to her. Just give me the word, Meg.”
Everyone turned to Megan, who stared down at the map. For a long moment, she said nothing. Then, she looked up from the map and made eye contact with each of them.
“I know it’s a long shot, but I believe in my heart that Delta’s alive. I’ll understand if you don’t want to take any more risks. After all…”
“After all, what’s another piece of lead in my cute bum?”
Megan grinned at Sal and Josh. “You guys are the best.”
Sal put her arm around Josh and hugged him. “Yes, we are. And that’s exactly why we’re going to bring your gal home.”
Home. Delta tried to remember the last time she was there. Who was feeding her cat? And how in the hell was…Carducci. Yeah, that was his name. Delta wondered how he was doing all by himself. She forced her eyes completely open. It took a moment to focus, but she managed to clear her vision enough to see an old woman hunched over her. Long, white hair hung loosely over her shoulders, framing deep wrinkles and caramel-colored skin. She was the oldest-looking woman Delta had ever seen.
Trying to orient herself, Delta slowly looked around, her eyes aching from the fever. A bamboo fan rotated fitfully overhead, and a glassless window set into one wall. The old woman was speaking Spanish in a low, gravelly voice, and Delta wasn’t coherent enough to make out any of the words. But she was awake enough to know she was, indeed, alive. And if this was no fevered vision, then Connie would also know she hadn’t bled out or drowned in the Carribean.
Connie. The image of her swam before Delta, making her smile for the first time in forever. Surely Connie would be calculating this very minute how to find Delta. She would be planning and scheming, bossing everyone around in an effort to locate her best friend, and Connie would not rest until she did. On that, Delta would bet her life. The thought of Connie frantically racing to and fro erased the grin, and warm tears ran down the sides of Delta’s face.
Storm Surge (Delta Stevens Crime Logs Book 6) Page 2