Bianca shook her head. “My brother, Manny, was worried about her last night, so he followed her into the jungle this morning to help show her the way back.”
“Worried? Why was he worried?” Connie asked, watching Josh survey the small, dirty bar.
“We saw the Colombians yesterday just before we took Delta to the trail’s end. We rode horses as far as we could, dropped her off and then came home. On our way home, Manny thought he saw poachers or something, and decided he should go back in the morning to find her.”
Sal chuckled. “Find her? In a rain forest that size?”
Josh shook his head. “Not unless her brother knows the forest really well.”
Bianca nodded. “Manny knows the jungle quite well. He has tracked down lost tourists before. Well...he and Augustine did once. The couple had wandered away from the tour bus and once they got turned around, they became lost. It only took Manny and Augustine two hours to find them, and they were a good mile away from the bus. Believe me, my brother knows the jungle.”
Josh appeared edgy. “So he went after her this morning to help show her the way back. When do you think he’ll return?”
Bianca shrugged. “When he finds Delta.”
Connie shot a worried look over to Josh. “Something or someone out there scared him enough to go after her this morning.”
Nodding, Josh turned to Bianca. “Delta is supposed to return by nightfall. If she and your brother aren’t here, what would you think has happened?”
Bianca thought for a moment. “I know Manny. He won’t return without her.”
“Then that pretty much sums it up,” Sal said, taking her cap off and running her hand through her wet bangs. “We wait until he brings her in.”
Connie nodded. “Josh?”
“Agreed. We wait. If neither of them shows up tonight, we get a move on into the jungle at first light. Until then, I say we try not to let our imaginations get the best of us. For all we know, he could be showing her the sights.”
Kiki jumped off Bianca’s shoulders and climbed up to Connie, who reached up nonchalantly and stroked the capuchin monkey’s chest. Kiki let out a sound resembling a purr. “I have a bad feeling about this,” Connie said, as Kiki took her hand and examined it curiously.
Josh shrugged. “Not much we can do until tomorrow. I suggest we check our supplies and make sure we have everything we need. I’m going to take a look around and see if there’s anything at the entrance to La Amistad that might have set Manny off.”
Connie nodded. “We can also talk to the people here. See if anyone has any information. Once we get in La Amistad, we’re on our own.”
Bianca sipped her Coke, then shook her head. “Don’t worry. There isn’t a man for miles who’s better at scouting the jungle than Manny. If anyone can find her, he’s the one.”
Connie cast a look over to Josh, whose face was deadpan. If he was worried, he certainly didn’t show it. “I wish I knew what Manny saw that triggered his alarm,” Connie said quietly.
Josh shrugged. “Me too, Connie. Me too.”
When Megan and the general started toward shore, Delta rose, only to have Manny pull her back down. “They’re leaving,” Delta whispered tersely.
“We have to give them some room. Once we see the direction they’re moving, following them will be...how did you say it yesterday...cake?”
Delta nodded and grinned. “You sure we won’t lose them?”
Manny nodded. “Trust me, Delta. I pretty much grew up in this forest. We can give them a five or ten-minute head start and still be able to follow.”
Delta heaved a sigh. Trusting anyone was hard; trusting a man was the hardest. It had taken her a long time to trust her new partner, Tony Carducci, and even now, that trust was still sometimes tested. “Okay, Manny Decoubertin, I am going to trust you, but if you lose them, I’m going to kick your ass.”
Manny grinned warmly into Delta’s face. “I might enjoy that.”
Ten minutes later, Manny signaled for Delta to follow him. For the next half hour, they trailed Megan and the others without incident, when suddenly, out of nowhere, sprang two soldiers, each pointing a rifle in their faces. Manny held his hands up and spoke quickly, while Delta nodded and tried to look innocent. She cursed herself for not knowing Spanish, and promised that if she ever got out of there, she would make it a point to learn.
Manny pointed to the trees, gesticulating wildly, until one of the soldiers barked at him, “Silencio!”
The guards looked at Manny, at Delta, and then at each other before chattering away. When they had summed up the situation, one guard motioned with his gun for them to walk ahead.
“What’s going on?” Delta asked, her heart pounding and beads of sweat forming above her top lip.
“I told them the truth. That we are from a geographical survey unit checking out the local flora and fauna.” Manny laced his hands behind his head as he walked.
“And?”
“And I don’t think they believe me.”
“What now?” Delta ran her hand through her curly wet hair.
“They’re taking us back to their boss.”
“I don’t like this one bit.” Delta cut her eyes over to Manny. “We’re in trouble, aren’t we?”
Manny nodded.
“They’ll kill us, won’t they?”
He nodded again.
Delta thought about this for a moment. “I didn’t come all this way just to let Megan down. We have to do something.”
One guard poked Delta in the back with his rifle and barked something at her.
“Any good ideas?” she asked, seeing Manny’s eyes dart about as if looking for a weapon.
“We’re as good as dead if we get to their camp,” Manny said, through unmoving lips.
“I know a little karate,” Delta said, casting a quick glance over her shoulder to gauge the distance between her and the guards.
“I don’t think so, Delta.”
Again, Manny’s American colloquialisms caught her by surprise. He hadn’t sounded so American in Rivas yesterday. “They’re macho Latinos, Manny. They’ll never expect it from me.”
“You can’t disarm a soldier that easily.”
Delta looked at Manny’s profile and grinned. “Wanna bet? You take care of the guy behind you, and let me take care of mine.”
“But—”
“No time for buts. Just follow my lead. I know what I’m doing.”
“Just say when.”
“When we get past that dead tree. As soon as I step over.” Delta cast her eyes over at the fallen tree.
Manny nodded.
They walked along for a while longer with neither saying a word. The rain forest was so quiet now; it felt like the creatures were spectators of this bizarre game. Well, there were a few tricks she was sure these Colombians hadn’t seen, and Delta reached into the very bottom of the bag to retrieve them.
Stepping over the fallen tree, Delta reached out to steady herself but could not stop her fall. On her back, Delta lifted herself up on one elbow, and in one swift movement swept the guard’s legs out from under him. As the surprised guard started to fall back over the dead tree, Delta yanked his gun away from him, hastening his fall. He landed on his back with a thud, and Delta heard, with some satisfaction, the air leave his lungs.
Manny immediately leveled his captor with a swift kick to the inside of the kneecap. The second guard fell to the ground, writhing in pain. Manny snatched the weapon from the ground and pointed it at the guard’s face before barking orders to them in Spanish. Both men rose to their knees and laced their fingers together behind their heads.
“Well done,” Manny said.
“My best friend taught me a few moves,” Delta replied, checking her weapon for a safety catch. It was a foreign automatic she had never seen before. “Doesn’t matter what country you’re in, men always underestimate the power of women,” she said with a grin.
But before either could say another word, bullets zipped and pinge
d into the trees around them.
“The others have returned!” Manny cried, shooting his weapon in the direction of the unfriendly fire. “Run!”
Delta looked down at the foreign rifle in her hands and then back up at Manny. “Not without you.”
“I know the jungle better than you. Go, and don’t stop!”
The guard Delta had downed got up and started running. Manny turned and pulled the trigger, shooting him in the back. Delta stood there, shocked to see that her little Tico guide had just killed a man.
“Go, Delta. If they catch you, your fate will be much worse than a simple death. Go! I’ll cover you.”
Delta hesitated a moment before chucking the automatic at Manny’s feet. “Be careful.” With that, she took off at a run.
Branches lashed her face as she barreled through the unforgiving jungle. Barbed vines grabbed at her ankles and small bushes slowed her progress, but Delta ran desperately, fired by fear. Hearing only her own labored breathing, she wasn’t sure if anyone was following her. When she slowed down long enough to check for pursuers, she saw Manny reach down for the second rifle. As he bent over, a bullet ripped through his thigh, throwing him onto his back.
“Manny!” Delta cried, taking three steps back toward him. Should she leave him here and risk getting caught, or worse? Or should she continue on in hopes that she could live through this to help Megan escape? Before Delta could find an answer, one of her would-be captors stepped in her path about forty feet away. The grin he wore like some perverse voodoo mask reminded her of another man’s grin moments before she’d killed him.
So arrogant was this guard that he wasn’t even pointing his rifle at her—a grave mistake against a woman of Delta’s caliber.
“Run, Delta!” Manny yelled, reaching a bloody hand toward the rifle.
One look into the soldier’s eyes told Delta he planned to do more than just kill her. Saying a silent prayer for Manny, Delta wheeled around and began her descent into the darker region of the forest. Bullets thudded into the bark of trees all around her...Run for your life, Delta. And don’t look back.
“Gunfire,” Josh murmured to himself, as the sound of automatic weapons reverberated through the jungle.
Peering through his binoculars, he tried to locate the source of the gunfire, but knew it would be futile—the jungle was too dense. There was only one way to find out.
The next morning, as shafts of light peeked through the dense canopy, Delta pushed away the large palm frond leaves she’d hidden under. Their tops were wet, but they’d kept her safe and dry. She didn’t know how far she had traveled from where she’d left Manny, but she was sure she could make it back. If, of course, he was still there...
Last night, the gunfire that followed her as she escaped had died down shortly after she’d rounded a huge tree that resembled a sycamore—the species found dotting the sidewalks of her hometown. If she could find her way back to that tree, she might be able to find Manny.
Taking out her canteen, Delta took a drink of water. Gotta stay cool. Manny could very well still be alive. I owe it to him to try and find him before the Colombians do. On the other hand, he could very well be dead, and I could be wasting valuable time going back for a corpse.
The decision was an easy one. Delta Stevens always repaid her debts.
After several false turns, she finally located the sycamore-like tree. Just as she started around its ten-foot base, the guard spotted her. Before she could duck back, he moved toward her. For a second they stared at each other, as if both were unsure of what this moment meant. Then the guard smiled at Delta and raised his automatic rifle.
Darting to her left, Delta plowed through the bushes as bullets ripped through the leaves and thudded into the dirt. The guard pursued, cursing and shouting in Spanish as he fired off half a dozen rounds. This time, Delta did not look back. Arms and legs pumping, she swore she could feel the air from the bullets as they whizzed by her. If she didn’t get out of the line of fire soon, it’d only be a matter of seconds before one of those bullets found its mark.
Running blindly through the jungle was like racing through a dark house, not knowing where the furniture was. She didn’t know if the drops running down her face were from sweat, or from blood drawn by one of the many overhanging branches scratching at her face and arms, but whatever it was made it difficult for her to see.
Another rushing sound, besides the beating of her heart and the bullets tearing into tree bark, made it difficult to place the distance of the guard’s footsteps. In an attempt to get out of the line of fire, Delta took a sharp right turn, and was greeted by a slap in the face from a huge leaf.
She wiped her eyes, but still had a hard time focusing on the vegetation ahead. Just as she turned to see if the guard was gaining on her, the ground disappeared from under her feet. Too late, Delta realized that she’d stumbled right into a raging river. The current grabbed her like a rag doll and propelled her downstream. By the time her head surfaced, she had already travelled fifty yards from where she’d fallen in, swept further along with every passing second.
Delta needed to turn herself around before her head crashed into a rock and cracked open like a pumpkin on Halloween, but knowing and doing were two separate things.
Fighting the pull of the current and inhaling more water than air, Delta managed to turn herself so that her feet faced downstream. White foam slapped her face, forcing its way up her nostrils. With flailing arms, she struggled to keep her head above the raging water. She coughed and gagged as she tried to keep water from pouring down her throat. It seemed she’d escaped one threat of death only to run into the embrace of another. Even in the midst of the roaring rapids, the irony didn’t escape her.
How long or far she traveled, she didn’t know. What she did know was that fatigue had settled in, and the effort of repeatedly pushing herself away from oncoming rocks had weakened her already straining muscles.
Delta craned her neck and saw a bend in the river where the rapids slowed. She was sure it would pick up speed again once it rounded that curve. Okay, Delta, you’ve got one chance—pull yourself out. Otherwise, it’s all over.
Pushing off a boulder in the middle of the rapids, Delta propelled herself closer to the left bank, where a large branch loomed over the water. Her timing would have to be exact, or else she risked being knocked out and drowning. As she neared the overhanging branch, Delta used every ounce of energy she possessed to thrust herself up and out of the water. Overestimating the distance, she hit the branch with her forearms, but as her arms scraped down, she managed to hang on.
With the water still tugging at her legs, Delta feared she wouldn’t have the strength to pull herself completely out of the water. Hanging on for as long as she could, Delta made one more attempt to hoist her body out of the water, but failed.
“Goddamnit!” she cursed, not relishing the idea of dropping back into the river. As she hung there considering her limited options, she noticed that the water was slightly calmer next to the bank. If she could swing herself over to it, she might be able to grab the roots of a nearby tree and dig in before the current could sweep her downstream. Clenching her teeth, Delta gripped the branch more tightly and lifted her feet out of the water so that her body hung like a backwards L. With a mighty effort, she kicked her legs forward and started swinging her body like a pendulum. Finally, she swung out as far as she could and released the branch. She plunged back into the water...but now only a foot from the shore. She dug her hands into the sandy ground, searching for roots to cling to. Gotta keep from being dragged back into that current.
Finally, her fingers found their target. She held fast to the tree roots. Then, slowly, she pulled and dragged herself, using the last vestiges of her energy to get her body out of the water. Once her feet were clear of the river, Delta collapsed face first into the mud. She had gambled it all and had won. Exhausted, she lay her head on the riverbank and rested.
“There it is again,” Sal said, as
the gunfire in the distance echoed through the jungle.
“Then we’re right on track,” Connie replied, picking up the pace. “Where there’s trouble, we’ll find Delta.” More shots rang out as they swiftly moved through the lush undergrowth.
“Wait.” Josh reached out and grabbed Connie’s shoulder. “That’s the same type of weapon I heard yesterday.”
Connie stopped and listened. “You sure?”
“Three years in ‘Nam, Connie,” Sal answered. “The man knows his stuff.”
“But what does it mean?” Connie wiped the sweat from her forehead with the bandanna she wore around her neck.
“That our Colombian boys are either target practicing or they have enemies here in the jungle. Come on.” Josh started for the river bank. “In ‘Nam, lots of the camps were near a water source. Even in a rainforest, guys gotta drink water. By the sounds of those shots, if we continue following the river like we have been, we have a good chance of running smack dab into whoever’s shooting that weapon.”
Connie looked at the river contemplatively. “I think it’s the best shot we have.”
Josh turned to Sal. “Salamander? Got an opinion?”
Sal cocked her head for a moment. “How far away are they?”
Josh closed his eyes and listened. “Could be half a mile, maybe more. Hard to tell, but in this thicket they’re not close enough to do us any harm. Bullets don’t go very far in a jungle as dense as this one.”
Sal took her hat off and shook her head. Drops of sweat flew in every direction. “Umm...I think Connie’s right. We go where the trouble is and we’ll find Delta.”
“Then up the river it is.” Picking up his gear, Josh started cautiously around the river’s bend.
Connie and Sal followed him. No one said a word. Suddenly, the shooting stopped.
“Someone must have won,” Sal offered.
Connie shuddered. “God, I hope Delta didn’t have anything to do with that.”
Josh shook his head. “Not unless she was able to get her hands on that Sten. How likely is that?”
Connie narrowed her eyes at him. “You know Delta. What are the odds she was involved in that?”
Delta Force Page 11