Delta had been so pragmatic, so temporal in her thought processes that she would never have believed herself capable of sitting still long enough to garner the wisdom of an elderly woman. But her mind had opened since the Bri ritual. She began to look at the world through new eyes. She had never realized how limited her vision had become in the city. And though Delta knew she had always struggled with black and white, she was beginning to not only see, but also understand the grays. She was not the same, never would be, and she was so glad. She should care about the environment. She should have some connection to nature. It was unnatural not to. How had she managed so long without being tied to the earth? Delta only hoped that she lived through this so she could put all she had learned into practice.
After they returned, they made a dinner she recognized as Tipico, rice, beans, eggs, tortillas. Flora said it would give her strength for her journey.
Journey. That was an understatement. What she was attempting could only be called possible suicide. She was going back into the forest in search of a tribe few westerners even knew existed. Last time, the Bri had found her, not vice versa, and who knew what would have happened if they hadn’t?
Delta rolled back over and studied the moon and knew, in her heart, that Connie and Megan were looking at it also. It made her feel more connected to them, and she needed that now, more than anything.
“I’m coming, gals. Just hang in there a little longer, okay?” Turning from the moon, Delta was startled to find Flora standing by her bed.
“I didn’t hear you,” was all Delta could think to say.
“I walk quiet.”
Delta grinned. “Yes, you do.”
“Papa say boat ready tomorrow night.”
“Good. Will you come with us?”
Flora nodded. “Soldiers want see us. Know we there.”
“I see. How many soldiers are there when you pick up the bags?”
“Four, maybe five. Two ride back with Papa to help put on big boat.”
“And they stay on big boat?”
Flora shrugged.
So there was another boat in the picture. These guys weren’t taking any chances. If the old man were caught with the gold, little harm would come to him from the authorities. Hell, he’d probably become a national hero. Once the gold was out of her father’s hands, Delta suspected it went to yet another boat, probably owned by the Colombians. They would handle the gold much like they handled drugs, and that was something she did know a thing or two about.
“Do they ever… bother you?”
Flora’s brow wrinkled as if she didn’t understand. “bother?”
“Molest, bug.”
“Oh, moleste. No. No moleste. Well… sí… only one time.”
Delta cringed. “What happened?”
“He kiss me. That’s all.”
Delta imagined that wasn’t “all” but let it go. The woman deserved her self-respect. Shaking her head, Delta wondered when Mother Earth was finally going to put an end to the destructive patriarchy ruining the planet. Camille Paglia had been right. Women would always be in sexual danger. Until, of course, the punishment for ill-placed penises was their immediate removal.
The thought made Delta grin.
Not that all men were bad, of course. Even Carducci had turned into an okay human being. But not, Delta noted, without a great deal of effort on her part. With a little work, she concluded, most people could become softer, kinder, more in tune with those around them. Not everyone needed to be yelled at or sworn at.
“Delta?”
Shaken from her thoughts by Flora’s soft voice, Delta looked at her. “Yeah?”
“You dream at night… of a… what is the word?” Flora wrinkled her forehead, searching her vocabulary. “Shaman?”
Delta nodded. He seemed to be orchestrating her dreams, not merely existing in them. “Yes, Flora, I do dream of a shaman.”
“Por qué? I mean, why?”
Delta studied Flora’s face for a moment in the flicker of the small light bulb. She needed to explain to this young girl that her warrior spirit was joined to the Bri because of its strength and integrity. Flora was asking her to reveal the spiritual plane she had visited during her initiation celebration. Delta had faced swamps and crocodiles as she became more connected to nature and to her inner soul, and that had changed her life. It was so much more than Shaman giving her the tooth of the jaguar as a symbol of her courage and strength, so much more.
“Shaman is a friend of mine. He made me a Bri warrior.”
“You have many friends?”
Delta grinned widely. “Yes. Yes, I do.”
“They will come for you?”
Delta nodded as someone knocked on the door to her room. “Yes, Flora, I think they just might.”
When Connie heard the loud knocking on her hotel room door, she looked at her watch. Everyone had been gone less than an hour, and she didn’t think any of them could be back so soon. Connie opened the door a crack, and she couldn’t have been more surprised if the man stood there was naked with a feather boa around his neck.
“What in the hell?” Connie asked, staring at the large man in the doorway.
“My partner is missing, Connie. I thought maybe you could use some help.”
Connie suddenly threw her arms around Delta’s beat partner, tony Carducci. He returned the hug with equal enthusiasm, his two-day-old beard growth scratching the side of her face.
“How did you know she was missing?”
Carducci grinned. “Josh called. Said you guys might be in need of a shooter. Took me a day to get all my comp time covered, but here I am. What do you need?”
Connie could hardly contain her joy, her surprise, or her tears. He had come to Delta as one of life’s greater challenges. After one of Connie and Delta’s “adventures,” Delta was relegated to Training Patrol, a task few good officers were fond of. Carducci was her first, and only, student.
When he arrived, he was something out of a movie; brash, arrogant, inflexible, and oh-so macho. Tony Carducci got his ears pinned early by a cop who would always be his better. Like a pit bull pup that thinks he’s the alpha dog, Carducci soon discovered that, as long as Delta Stevens was his partner, he would be the beta dog. Taking the blob of unformed human beta clay into her skilled hands, Delta had helped mold him into a fine young cop worthy of being her partner.
Now, it appeared, he had also transformed into a fine person as well.
“Come in, come in,” Connie said, releasing his thick neck. With the exception of the time she kicked his ass, it was the first time the two had ever made physical contact.
Connie’s eyes were welling up, but she willed them to stop. Now was not the time for silly sentimentalism. Now, they not only had another pair of hands but a marksman who could shoot the wings off a fly at a hundred yards. “Josh didn’t say anything about contacting you.”
Carducci shrugged. “I told him I didn’t know if I could get my comp time covered, and that if I did, I’d see him within the next thirty-six hours.”
“We could really use your help, Tony.”
Carducci tossed his single bag on the floor and looked around the room. “HQ?”
Connie nodded. “We’ve just about lined up our ducks. There’s a hell of a lot going on down here. Once we get our bearings, things are going to heat up.”
“Speaking of heat, I couldn’t get a weapon through LAX, but I figured Josh could find something in my size.”
Connie nodded. Carducci was one of the top candidates for the next SWAT opening, and he was a shoe-in. No one had the range marks to even come close to his scores. He had only to finish his field training with Delta before he became eligible.
Field training, Connie thought. How could that even compare to the “field” he was about to enter? It was funny how one’s perspective could change. Not long ago, she thought Tony Carducci was a complete idiot. Now, when Delta needed him most, here he was, and she amended all of her earlier views of him. Le
opards really could change their spots. “It was good of you to come, Tony.” It was the first time she’d ever used his first name.
Carducci shrugged. “Hey, man, she’s my partner. She’d do the same for me. I’ve learned a shitload from her, you know? Coming down here is the least, the very least, I can do for her.”
Connie couldn’t help but grin at his youthful exuberance and fanatic loyalty to Delta. Yes, Delta would have done the same. The amazing thing was that Carducci knew Delta well enough to know she would. Delta had taught him will.
“We can use you more than you know.”
Carducci’s demeanor didn’t change. “She’s hurt, isn’t she? Josh wouldn’t elaborate. He just told me to get my ass down here. Said he was making other calls as well, I assume, to some of his Nam buddies.”
Connie gestured to the empty chair. “You better sit down for this, Tony. It’s a long one”
An hour later, when Josh and Sal strode through the door, Connie had just finished filling Carducci in.
“Jesus,” he muttered, shaking his head. “Isn’t anything simple in Delta’s life? Ever?”
Connie shook her head. “You know better than that.”
Carducci rose and shook Josh’s hand. “Good to see you again.”
Josh cut his eyes over to Connie as he shook Carducci’s hand. “Glad you’re here, man.” To Connie, Josh said, “Sorry I didn’t say anything, but I didn’t want to get your hopes up.”
Connie nodded. “No problem, Josh. Thank you for thinking about him. We could use the help. Tony said you called some of your Nam pals.”
Josh nodded. “I’ve just lined up some help along the coast, should anything go sour on us. There’s more help than you might realize, Connie. Carducci is just the first one to get here. I don’t know if the others will arrive before we leave, but at least we know help is in the neighborhood.”
Sal walked over to Carducci and ran her hands across his chest in a way that could be labeled sensual. “Hey handsome, want to see my bullet wound?”
“Sal!” Connie cried, tossing a pillow at her. “Down, girl.”
Sal backed off and laughed. “Doesn’t anybody want to see my bullet wound?”
Carducci cocked his head, realizing she wasn’t kidding. “Sal, you were shot?”
“Right in the bum. Well, my upper thigh, but it’s the same thing. Wanna see?”
Carducci looked over the top of her head to Connie, who merely rolled her eyes. “Uh, maybe later, okay?”
Connie turned to Josh, who was pulling boxes of ammunition from a bag. “Give him the best you’ve got.”
Josh nodded and motioned for Carducci to follow him into the next room. When the two men were out of earshot, Sal looked hard at Connie, who shrugged and smiled. “What can I say? A lot of people care about Delta.”
Sal jerked her head toward the adjoining room. “But him? I didn’t think he had the depth.”
Connie snickered. “Makes you change your whole impression about him, doesn’t it?”
“I’ll say. Who’da thunk it? The big guy has a heart after all.”
“I didn’t think it was his heart you were after.”
Sal feigned hurt. “Ouch. You do me wrong, Con. I think the big lug is cute, that’s all.” Sal strode over to the computer and stared at the screen.
There was an email addressed to Connie from Cassidy. Although Connie was the genius of the group, nobody was better with electronic devices than Sal. “I see you’ve gotten a hold of your friend, Cassidy.”
Connie rubbed her eyes, tired from viewing the small screen.
“Yep. She’s faxing over a map she made showing the Bri’s and other indigenous tribes locations. Before you know it, we’ll be on our way.”
“Our way where?” Carducci asked, walking back into the room.
“To the jungle, Tony,” Sal answered lightly. “Where there’s snakes the size of alligators and spiders the size of cats. Think you’re ready?”
Carducci looked around the room at the other faces, searching for some sign that Sal was joking. “You’re kidding, right?”
Connie stepped up to him and patted him on the shoulder. “Sal’s just kidding. Actually, the spiders are more like the size of dogs.”
Carducci grinned and laughed with the others. “I don’t give a shit if they’re the size of horses. Let’s go get her and bring her home.”
Looking at Flora’s father as he prepared the boat, Delta wondered whether or not she’d be able to pull this one off. She’d made the best plan she could think of, but even the best plans seemed to go awry in the jungle. For the first time in a very long time, Delta felt unsure of herself.
“We walk,” Flora said, taking Delta’s arm and pulling her toward the beach.
“I don’t need to walk,” Delta grumbled, feeling angry with herself for being so grouchy. Her leg was feeling better, and she was antsy to get off the island.
“I watch you three days,” Flora said, threading her arm through Delta’s as they walked. “I see fighter. I see stubborn. I see woman want to live.”
“And?”
Flora stopped and looked hard at Delta’s face. For the first time, Delta realized they were almost the same height. “And now, I see fear.”
Delta looked away. She was afraid. This nature hike had gone on long enough and it was time to get home, but to what? A part of her wanted to just give up. She wanted to get to San José, get on a plane with her friends and go home. She could just walk away and get back to living her own life. But surrounding herself with the dregs of society every night, only to see them back out in the street in less time than it took to book them wasn’t what she wanted anymore, and this surprised her. Everything about her surprised her now. Everything she thought she wanted, everything she thought she knew, had become altered forever. Her life held a different meaning for her now. The life she had been living seemed so senseless down here.
Putting the badge and gun on every night was a thankless job that, in the end, really didn’t change anything except create a backlog in the already overflowing criminal court system, and for what?
Delta was afraid all right, but not of the task at hand, and not of the darkness of a place that would frighten even the bravest soul. No, Delta was afraid she might not have the chance to change that life she’d left.
“I am afraid, Flora. I’m afraid I let my life get out of control. I’m out of control. I have been for a very long time, and I just want the chance to make things right.”
Flora reached out and fingered Delta’s necklace. “Bri warrior.” Not a question.
Delta nodded. She’d warred for her whole police life, and she was tired of it. Tired of fighting bad guys, tired of doing what was right when she should have been doing what was best. Delta was tired of putting her relationship second to a career that was sucking the life out of her. Delta was tired. If she was, indeed a warrior, she had become a reluctant one. All she wanted to do was curl up with Megan, watch movies, eat popcorn, and not give a damn whether or not the pusher she just arrested was out on bail. She just wanted to fall asleep in Megan’s arms without worrying about the child molesters, wife beaters, and sociopaths running around her beat, destroying lives. Delta wanted to just live a more peaceful life with the woman she loved.
“Do you believe?” Flora asked softly.
Delta touched the jaguar tooth, remembering the incredible ceremony where her spirit became one with the Bribri’s tribe.
“Yes, Flora, I do.”
“Then, pray.”
Delta looked puzzled. “Pray?”
“Sí. Find warrior inside.” Flora tapped Delta’s chest with one finger. Then, she kissed Delta’s check before taking off toward the boat. “Pray, Delta. Believe.”
Believe? Delta looked out at the rainforest in the distance on the mainland. Believing in herself was what had made her such a good cop.
Believing in her friends was what had made her such a good partner. Delta believed all right. Perhaps Flora
’s simple solution was the best. Perhaps it was time to pray. As Delta walked gingerly along the shore, her thigh throbbing as she did. She thought maybe Flora meant for her to look inside herself for the strength she needed to do this, but even that strength was waning.
A little farther down the beach, Delta looked at the sea and admired the way the sun reflected off the waves as they danced in the water. Ever since the ceremony, life had become much more vivid, so exact. In the sea, she could pick out five, six different blues, and she saw several shades of yellow in the rays.
Before, she never would have noticed water or the way it moved. No amount of prodding would have enabled her to see the colorful and awesome world around her the way she did now. Shaman had spilled her blood on the earth, and she had become more aware of the life on it.
It was time for Delta to celebrate life, not the nightly death and sickness she experienced on her beat. Delta liked how she now felt. She loved the peaceful way of the warrior. It filled her heart and soul with a comfort she had never known.
Then why was she afraid?
Closing her eyes, Delta inhaled the sea breeze and tasted the salt air. She could understand how Megan had fallen in love with this place.
Opening her eyes, Delta nodded to herself as she listened to a voice in her head she had never heard before. She knew she wasn’t going crazy and that it wasn’t a real voice…more like a newly awakened sense of herself and her surroundings. It was more like she was in tune with the vibrations of the world around her.
It was weird.
For the first time since she’d become a cop, Delta was looking at a problem from more than one side. Instead of just charging in after Zahn, crashing recklessly around the forest, she was letting herself express her fears of the situation. Maybe that’s what being a warrior was all about: knowing oneself completely and being able to translate that knowledge into possibilities. Maybe her days of fearless flying and rash decision-making were over. Maybe Delta Stevens was finally ready to grow up. There was no doubt that leaving the hostages to whatever fate Zahn had in mind was irresponsible. Everything was becoming so much clearer to her now.
It was simple: she would follow-through with her plans to find the Bri. They would help her find her way back to Zahn’s camp without running into the general’s men.
Storm Surge (Delta Stevens Crime Logs Book 6) Page 5