“Wouldn’t that just put another charge on you guys?” Gary asked.
“Probably. But this is your last chance to be an objector and possibly get out of any legal ramifications.”
Without even speaking, Monica moved next to Kevin and Maria. After a few seconds, both of the Gutsdorfs joined her. That left only the television crew.
Merchant looked around at her people, then at Maria. “You realize there’s legalese in your contracts that say the network can sack you for any illegal activity?”
“Yes. Of course, if the network were to happen to get footage of me stopping someone from destroying a World Heritage Site…”
“Okay, you can stop. No need to appeal to the producer in me. I just wanted to make sure you knew. I’ve come this far with you, so I’m certainly not going to stop now.”
One by one, every single person in the TV crew gave their consent.
The three smaller boats had a head start, and soon they lost view of them. The Navy ship behind them was also falling behind, though, so there was still a chance they could do something. By the time Isla Niña came into view again, every person not carrying some kind of television equipment was armed with one of the tranquilizer guns, even Merchant. As soon as the island poked over the horizon, Kevin had his binoculars out and was scanning the island for Estevez and his people.
“Well?” Maria asked, standing beside him. The light was fading again, reminding her of the night one of the turtles had shown itself to them for the first time and sent her into some kind of fit. She thought she could deal with it now if either Pet It or Squeeze It showed up, or at least she could keep her cool in the moment. Once this day was over, she planned on crawling into bed next to Kevin and not poking her head back above deck until they were back on the mainland. The Galápagos Archipelago might still be the land of her dreams, but a vacation it was not.
“Their boats are already there, but it doesn’t look like they picked a particularly good place to land. Estevez obviously doesn’t come out here that often. They’re having a hard time lugging the gas cans up the rock face, I think.”
“How many people?” Maria asked.
“Looks like four. Estevez is already up on the island. Seems to be barking orders at the others. We might still have time to stop them, we might not.”
“This is the dry season,” Maria said. “They probably don’t even need all that gas. Just a little accelerant and a match, and the whole island could go up.”
“What does he even think this will accomplish?” Monica asked. “Pet It and Squeeze It are in the water.”
“Maybe he’s not that smart,” Kevin said, sneering. “It’s not like he impressed me that much.”
“Or he could be trying to destroy some evidence,” Simon said.
Cindy raised an eyebrow at him. “What do you mean?”
“Maybe there’s something on the island that gives a clue where Call It George and her babies came from,” Simon said. “And if he knows about it…”
“Maybe,” Maria said. “I suppose we’re going to have to ask him. After he wakes up from all the tranquilizers we’re going to put in him. Monica, make sure the Zodiac’s ready.”
“Do we really need to follow the rules about keeping a larger boat away from the island at this point?” Charlene asked.
“The rule isn’t just there to protect the species of the island, it’s there to protect us as well,” Maria said. “Too many shallow rocks and coral reefs. Even something the size of the Cameron would be too big to avoid getting torn up.”
“With only one Zodiac at the moment, that means, at best, that we can have three or four people going to the island,” Kevin said.
“And we should probably leave at least one in the Zodiac to pilot it around in case of an emergency.”
“Want to draw straws to see which one of us goes?” Kevin asked.
“Hell no. You’re not going.”
“But…”
“But you have broken ribs, broken toes, and broken who knows what else. Forget about all of that? The last thing we need is for one of those guys to hit you and send a rib into your lungs.”
Kevin sighed. “I’ll stay behind on the Cameron. I’ll have Gutierrez take it as close as is safe, and all of us that stay behind will try to use the guns to cover you.”
“So I’m going,” Maria said. “Who else?”
Both Simon and Cindy volunteered, with Simon being designated as the one who would stay in the Zodiac and keep it ready for a quick escape if needed. After a little back and forth, they finally decided that Gary and his camera would be the fourth. He wouldn’t be able to get out and help Maria and Cindy on the island, but they figured it would be good to have a visual record of anything that happened to use as evidence in their favor when the Navy got them.
As they got close enough to launch the Zodiac, Kevin looked through the binoculars again for an update. “Looks like they’ve got all the gas cans off the boat.”
“Pouring gas on the island will all by itself probably do irreversible ecological damage,” Maria said.
“We may already be too late to stop that,” Kevin said, “so let’s see what we can do about keeping it from getting worse.”
“Any sign of our two long-necked friends?”
“Honestly, we can’t even be one hundred percent sure they exist at this point. Remember, we were only guessing how many based on the eggshell pieces. But no, not seeing anything. Be careful, though. Especially at that spot on the island where Mrs. Schmidt was taken. If they exist, then that’s the place where they’ll be.”
“Duly noted. Okay everyone, saddle up!”
As the Zodiac launched, Maria risked a look back at the approaching Navy ship. It was still some distance away, but now that the Cameron had stopped, their time before the Navy’s arrival would be short. Between keeping the mayor from burning Isla Niña and having their pursuers catch up, their time to do this was limited.
Simon expertly sped the Zodiac right up to the place where they had tied off on their earlier trip, and Maria and Cindy, both carrying their own tranquilizer rifles, went up the side of the island. Maybe it was the adrenaline, or maybe it was the idea of a ticking timer before everything went irreversibly to hell, but Maria didn’t have the same trouble climbing the rocks that she had the first time. Or maybe she was just getting used to this.
This is my life now, Maria thought as she twisted her prosthetic leg to keep it from getting caught on the basalt. This is my life and I can do it.
Once they were both up, Simon drove the Zodiac a slight distance out, trying to get into a position where he could see them both. Gary’s camera, Maria noticed, stayed on her the whole time.
“Over there,” Cindy said, pointing to where they had seen the mayor and his cronies unloading their deadly cargo. As they ran in that direction, Maria noticed that the four men had already started their damage. Several booby nests had already been trampled, and several iguanas lay sprawled and broken nearby as though they had been kicked. On a nearby cactus, a small cactus finch tweeted shrilly at them, as though it understood what was going on and wanted them to hurry up and save it. The relatively flat terrain allowed Maria to see where they had piled the gas cans, and two of the mayor’s men already had some open to pour on the ground.
“Stop!” Maria screamed at them. The mayor looked up, appeared startled by their presence, and then said something to the one henchman without a gas can.
The guy pulled out a pistol and, without bothering to take careful aim, fired at them.
“Shit,” Cindy said, skidding low on the ground to take up some poor cover behind a stunted tree. “This was not part of what I was expecting for today.”
“Get in line,” Maria said as she ducked low near a rock outcropping. The initial shots were nowhere near either of them, but they weren’t in a very good position to return fire. Maria peeked around the outcropping to see that one of the men with a gas can was running away from them, dumping a steady stream
of gas behind him in the water-starved vegetation. “We’ve got to…”
Before she could finish, Cindy jumped up from behind her cover and took aim with her tranquilizer gun. The guy was too far away, and the gun wasn’t designed for that kind of long distance shot. Maria would have warned her that she didn’t have a chance at making the shot, except Cindy was too quick.
Cindy pulled the trigger, and to Maria’s surprise, the man staggered as a tranq dart hit him right in the neck. He dropped the gas can and staggered, but didn’t immediately drop to the ground.
“Holy hell,” Maria said. “How did you do that?”
“My grandpa taught Simon and me had to use guns when we were kids,” she said. If this had been any other time, Maria would have questioned how that training translated to weapons that weren’t intended for long-distance sniper shots, but the man with the gun fired at them again. Cindy ducked back down. Maria kept an eye on the man she had shot just long enough to see him drunkenly pull something out of his pocket. It was hard to be sure from this distance, but she thought it might be a lighter.
“No, no, no, we’ve got to stop him,” Maria shouted. “If he…”
Even from so far away, she could clearly see the lighter spark up in the waning light. The man collapsed from the tranquilizer, but the lighter stayed lit as it fell into the grass.
That particular patch of vegetation hadn’t received the same gasoline soaking as the parts behind the man, but the grass caught easily. A fire started next to the man’s prone body, and anybody with half a brain could tell how quickly the fire was going to spread.
They had no way to put it out. They were too late.
The mayor and his two other men saw this and immediately began to panic. The other who had been holding a gas can dropped it and, despite the mayor’s frantic pleas, ran back in the direction of their boats. The one with the gun ran in a completely different direction. Maria didn’t think he would find anything to help him that way. He simply picked the direction that was most opposite the prematurely started fire and ran, dropping the gun behind him.
That left Mayor Estevez himself, who stood still and surveyed the sudden chaos around him, finally seeming to wonder what the hell he had done.
Then he, too, ran. Maria’s mind flashed red with anger. She couldn’t let him get away with this.
“Cindy, go see if you can rescue that guy you tranqed before the fire kills him,” Maria said. “Then get him to their boats and escape.”
“What about you?”
“Estevez is mine,” she said, then picked up her tranquilizer gun and ran after him.
The air began to grow black, both with the coming night and the thick black smoke of the burning vegetation. Trying to run flat out with her prosthetic was awkward, but she was surprised how quickly she was learning to adapt. She passed the small pile of gas cans and saw Estevez getting closer to the edge of the island. Out on the water, she could see the Navy Ship coming up alongside the Cameron, where it slowed for a moment before coming closer to the island. They must have seen the fire, but given the ship’s size, it would still be forced to keep its distance. If the ship had any way to put out the fire, it probably would be too little too late.
“Estevez, stop!” she yelled. The mayor came to a halt at the edge of the island. He looked down into the water as though considering jumping. Maria raised her tranquilizer gun. “Don’t do it! I’ll put a tranq in you and you’ll drown. Just stop and come back with me.
“No, this isn’t right. I messed up. I can’t go back or they’ll come for me,” Estevez said.
Maria slowly stepped closer. Something about this part of the island looked familiar, and it made her uneasy. “Who will come for you? What’s this all about, Estevez?”
“No one was supposed to die. They never told me anything about that. If they had, I wouldn’t have taken their money, I swear!”
“Who? Whose money, Estevez?” She kept inching closer. The smoke grew thicker and choked off her air as she finally realized where they were. The Navy ship moved closer on the water, closer enough that she could hear shouting from the deck.
Maria thought she heard something moving in the water just over the side from Estevez.
“Paperclip Unlimited. That’s the name they gave for the company,” Estevez said. “They did this! They created that monster! I just wanted to destroy anything they’d done here, to protect the people. I swear I wouldn’t have…”
“Apologize later, Estevez. For now, just come toward me. Away from the water, away from…”
Instead, Estevez took a step closer to the edge. He didn’t seem to realize how close he was. He also couldn’t possibly know that he was standing in exactly the same spot where Mrs. Schmidt had been taken.
“They said there was more,” Estevez said. “They said their projects were everywhere. If they are all like this, then you have to…”
The water below Estevez erupted. The creature, Pet It, snapped Estevez in its jaws before the man could finish. Gunfire again sounded from the Navy ship, and Pet It screeched in pain even as it chomped down so hard on the mayor that the man snapped in half, his bloody torso flying one direction while his legs went the other. Bullets zinged by Maria’s head. She turned and ran, knowing the Navy was aiming for the creature, not her, but suspecting they wouldn’t care much if they hit her by accident.
Going back the direction she had come, Maria stopped short as she saw the conflagration that Isla Niña had become. The fire was spreading in all directions. There was no sign of Cindy or the man she had shot, but Maria had a clear view of the fire racing along the trail of gas the man had left behind.
It was heading straight for the pile of gas cans, most of which would still be full.
Maria dropped the tranq gun and quickly scanned her surroundings. The Navy was occupied with killing Pet It, just far enough away now that she didn’t think she would get accidentally shot. She could see the edge of the island, and out beyond it there was Simon and Gary, Simon motoring closer to the island while Gary kept the camera squarely on her.
She risked a quick glance back at the fire and gas cans. Maria had seconds at most.
Running for the edge, a random memory came to her of the day she and Kevin had arrived in Ecuador. What was it he had said as they got out of the limo?
Remember, you’re an action hero now. Walk towards the Cameron as though there’s an explosion behind you and you’re too badass to look at it.
As she leaped off the edge and dove for the water, the pile of gas cans went up behind her. She felt the heat of the explosion at her back. The last thing she saw as she plunged into the sea was Gary, a look of shock and awe on his face, as he filmed the whole thing.
20
Isla Niña burned late into the night.
As much as everyone wanted to go back to Puerto Ayora, there was far too much to deal with here. Maria’s long hoped for crash into bed with Kevin didn’t come until the late, late hours, considering she and everyone else were too busy being interrogated by members of the Ecuadorian Navy. More ships turned up in the hours following the deaths of Mayor Estevez and Pet In, whose charred carcass could be seen hanging off the edge of the island when the wind blew the fire just right to illuminate it. At least one of those ships, though, had carried representatives of the American consulate. Merchant had been able to use them to make a few key calls. The result seemed to be that no one on the Cameron was going to get arrested. That didn’t mean the Navy went easy on them during the questioning.
By the time Maria finished all the questioning and was allowed to return to the Cameron, the first hints of morning light could be seen on the horizon. Many of those who had not been quite so neck deep in this mess had been allowed to return hours earlier, meaning that the only sound she could hear when she wearily climbed back aboard the boat were the occasion snores from the people sprawled in and on the Cameron, many of them just collapsed in a corner from exhaustion and falling asleep there. Even Kevin had appare
ntly been returned half an hour earlier, and she assumed he was in bed, but despite her exhaustion, Maria couldn’t bring herself to go down to join him yet. She felt like she was duty bound to watch Isla Niña’s funeral pyre.
The Cameron had been moved farther away from the island to make room for the Navy blockade, which now surrounded the three-mile-wide island. There wasn’t much they could do to put the fires out, but they could keep it from spreading. This was an ecological disaster, but it didn’t need to do damage to the rest of the archipelago.
That didn’t make this anymore heartbreaking.
As Maria leaned on the railing, staring up at the rising plume of black smoke that finally looked like it was petering out, she got the impression that someone was slowly coming up behind her. She braced herself, ready to fight if it was some attacker like one of the mayor’s surviving men (even though all three of them were supposed to be in the brig on one of the Navy ships). More likely it would be Kevin, though, here to comfort her. That made it all the more surprising when instead Merchant came up and joined her at the railing.
“Is that going to cause a problem?” Merchant asked, pointing at the smoke. “I mean, an environmental one? For the other islands?”
“Possibly, but more because of any pollutants from the gas, I would think. Smoke itself is nothing new in the Galápagos. There’s active volcanoes farther to the west, remember.”
“Ah.” Merchant pulled a tissue from somewhere and held it out to Maria.
“What’s that for?”
“Your cheeks. You’ve been crying.”
“I have?” Maria touched her fingers below her eyes. They came away wet. She took the tissue and wiped the tears away. “So much for me being the Indiana Jones of the sea.”
“How do you figure?” Merchant asked.
“Indy doesn’t cry when the temple he’s raiding is destroyed around him.”
“Maybe that’s not the kind of hero we need anymore. Maybe we need one who’s aware of the ramifications of their actions. Or one who needs time and help to deal with the horrors she’s seen. I think people are ready for that, aren’t you?”
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