Yael and Jake had come to some understanding and were jointly leading their little entourage. Alexis followed behind with Isiah bringing up the rear. She was watching where she placed her foot as she climbed a small hill littered with mossy boulders when the heels of Jake’s feet came into view. Drawing to a quick stop to avoid colliding with her teammate, Isiah’s hands landed on the small of her back, presumably coming to his own unplanned halt.
She looked up to see what had brought Jake to such a sudden stop. Yael was standing at the front, her hand up in the sign to remain still. Then taking a few steps back down from the crest where she’d been standing, she gestured them down. Without question, everyone dropped to their haunches.
“The encampment is there, but I think it might be more than we bargained for,” she said in a hushed tone.
“We’re not here to do anything other than look around…oh shit, we’re going to need to do more than look around aren’t we?” Isiah said.
Yael’s gaze shifted left, then she took a breath and met Alexis’s stare. “From what I saw, I think it’s a staging ground for human trafficking. There are three tents, and I could only see inside one. There were four women, all locked in a single cage.”
“A cage?’ Jake repeated. Yael nodded but kept her attention on Alexis.
“Fuck,” Isiah said.
Ignoring the rapid beating of her heart, Alexis spoke. “We have to get them out.”
“We can’t, Alexis. Not without risking a major international incident,” Jake said.
“Fuck that. We are not leaving them here,” Isiah interjected before she could say anything.
Jake and Isiah shared a look. Jake sighed. “Are you sure they’re caged? Are you sure they’re being trafficked?” he asked Yael.
Yael’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, I’m sure they are caged, but no, I’m not sure they are being trafficked. It’s possible they are being used as mules to move drugs.”
Isiah let out an exasperated breath. “They’re caged, McMullen. Nothing good can come of that.” Before Jake could respond, Isiah slipped by him and crouch-walked to the crest. Dropping to his belly, he pulled the binoculars from his backpack and started surveilling. Not a minute later, all four of them were laid out along the ridge.
Sure enough, four women, none looking older than twenty, were huddled in a cage in the tent farthest from them. There were two other cages in the same structure, both of which were empty.
There were four men with guns wandering the camp and every few minutes, a fifth man would pop his head out of the tent closest to them and holler something. Each time, one of the four men walking the grounds would answer.
“Anyone speak Spanish?” Yael asked.
“French, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, and a little Russian. But you knew that,” Alexis answered.
“Pashto and Arabic,” Isiah said.
“I feel like I brought a knife to a gunfight with you all. I guess I’m going to have to be everyone’s subtitles,” Jake muttered then listened to a little back and forth before filling them in. “The four men keeping watch appear to be more than guards. I think they are each head of a region, and each is responsible for a certain number of women. They haven’t said anything specific, but the man in the tent is either the leader or the accountant, and he keeps popping out to ask each man what his count is for the month and when his team will be bringing the goods.”
“The women,” Isiah corrected. “They’re bringing women.”
Jake shot him a look then went back to watching the camp through his binoculars. “I get it, Clarke, but those were his words, not mine.”
Alexis’s attention stayed trained on the women. Two were backed into a corner, hugging each other and the other two, though close by, weren’t touching. Three looked terrified while the fourth had an infinitely worse expression—she looked resigned. Alexis could see it in her face, she’d already given up.
“What are they saying?” Alexis forced herself to focus on the situation and not the women. “When are the women that each man is responsible for bringing supposed to arrive?”
“You see the guy walking toward us now?” Jake asked. Alexis switched her focus to a man who looked to be in his early forties, but with his round, pock-marked face, it was possible he was much younger.
“Yes,” she answered.
“The four women in the cage are his contribution,” Jake said as the man in the tent popped out again, called out a question, then disappeared back into the tent once he’d received an answer. “The one who just answered said his will arrive later today. And the one who now has his back to us, said his will also arrive today. He said he’s bringing one more than required.”
“One more than required,” Isiah repeated. “This is part of a bigger ring and someone is coordinating all this.” No one responded to that comment. There was no need.
“And the man who just stepped into the third tent then back out?” Alexis asked.
“It’s a woman,” Yael said.
That possibility hadn’t occurred to Alexis. All four were dressed in the same army green fatigues, all four carried the same weapon, and all four—with the exception of the pock-marked man who looked to be at least fifty pounds heavier than the other three—had roughly the same build. She trained her binoculars on the person in question and magnified the view. There was very little to give her away, but Yael was right—that fourth member of the team was a woman. It was in the shape of her hands and, oddly enough, her eyebrows.
“Then the woman,” Alexis said. “What’s her timetable?”
“Tomorrow morning,” Jake answered.
Alexis shook her head. “If we wait until tomorrow morning when all the women are here to go get help, they might be gone by the time we get back. We can’t risk that.”
Yael and Isiah agreed.
Jake hesitated. “It’s not that I don’t want to go in and get those women out, get them to safety and back to their families—assuming they have them—but by tomorrow morning, there will be thirteen more women. If they aren’t brought here—somewhere we know—then they’ll be taken somewhere else. By saving these four today, are we sentencing the thirteen more we know are coming to a life none of us even wants to contemplate?”
“You have a valid point, but I’m not leaving this jungle without knowing those women are safe,” Isiah said. “Any ideas?”
They were all silent, and Alexis had no doubt that her colleagues were doing the same thing she was, evaluating the options, considering plans, weighing the risks.
“Two of us could keep watch while the other two hoof it back to the villa and call Shah. She may be able to rustle up a tactical team quickly,” Alexis suggested. “I know it’s not the best plan because it splits us up and because we have no idea if Shah will be able to convince the right people to do the right thing, but it’s the plan I’ve got.”
Jake shook his head. “We can’t commandeer a US team to come down here. Does anyone know if Shah knows someone high enough in the Honduran military or politics, let alone someone who would care enough about this, to do something?”
Beside her, Isiah huffed a quiet laugh. “The only person who could answer that with any authority is Shah herself. But if anyone were to know who to go to in Honduras, it would be your director. It’s a chance, but I’m with Alexis, I don’t know what other choice we have.”
“Who goes and who stays?” Yael asked.
“No one else speaks Spanish,” Jake said. “I think I need to stay. And since Shah is our director that means Alexis needs to go.”
“I’ve been in situations like this before, I can stay with you,” Yael offered.
“So have I,” Isiah countered. Then looking to Yael, he added, “Don’t you need to stay with Alexis?”
“I don’t need a babysitter, Clarke,” Alexis snapped. “This is work and Yael is officially off duty when I’m at work.” Technically—legally—this wasn’t work, but the glare she fixed on Isiah dared him to point that out. Instead of the
argument she’d anticipated, he grinned.
“Fine, Yael can stay. If you wanted to spend time alone with me so much, all you needed to do was ask.”
She opened her mouth to deliver a set down, then snapped it shut when she saw Jake’s shoulders shaking with silent laughter.
“Seriously, Clarke,” she said. “One jokester is about all I can take right now.” Scooting back down the hill, she started digging into her backpack and removing everything that she could leave with Yael and Jake, including her portable phone charger and extra water bottles, protein bars, and clips. They all carried the same weapons and she thought it wise to leave most of their ammunition—though not all—with Yael and Jake.
Isiah joined her and did the same. Then they consolidated the few items they were keeping into one bag and filled the other bag with the extras. By the time they were done, Yael had joined them.
“You’ll be careful?” Yael took the bag Alexis held out.
“As careful as we can,” she answered. “We’ll head back to the road and follow it into the last village we passed through. I think it was five or so miles back. I’ll call Shah as soon as I have a signal and fill her in. I know we came here to find The Gentleman, but if things go south with this.” She jerked her head in the direction of the encampment, “Then I think it might be best for us to return to Tildas Island. This area will be hot and even if he was still here, he probably won’t be for long.”
Yael nodded, and Alexis glanced at Isiah. His attention was fixed on the crest where Jake still lay on his belly watching the camp. Isiah had been adamant about not leaving those women. She wondered if seeing them reminded him of his mother, of the myriad ways in which women could be used and abused. Or maybe that hadn’t even crossed his mind. Either way, his sincerity and conviction reinforced what she was already starting to believe—that Isiah Clarke was a good man. Oh, she’d known he was, but knowing and truly believing were two different things. One required more trust than the other and that kind of trust didn’t come easily to her.
Without another word, she and Isiah started down the hill, back toward the river. When they’d walked a good thirty minutes, Isiah drew to a stop.
She turned to face him. “Water break?”
He shook his head and looked toward the west. “I studied the maps before we left. If we go upstream for a couple of miles when we reach the river, it will put us closer to the village we passed just before Luis was shot.”
“Okay,” she said, sensing there was more.
“Do you think Shah will have a way of handling this?”
They were getting closer to the matter now. Judging by the way Isiah’s gaze kept pulling toward the path they’d just taken, she’d wager he was having a hard time leaving those women’s lives to chance.
“If she doesn’t, we’ll go back and handle it ourselves,” Alexis replied.
He searched her face. “You’d do that?”
For many reasons she would, but she didn’t want to get into that at the moment and so she nodded.
“I don’t think we’ll need to. Like you said earlier, if anyone can find a way to resolve the situation, it will be Shah. But we need to get her the information so she can act. The sooner we get her the intel, the sooner we can get back to Jake and Yael and be there if needed.”
The look in his eyes softened and the corners of his mouth tipped up. “So you’re saying we should get our asses moving?”
She smiled back. “It might be in our best interest.”
They reached the river fifteen minutes later and started heading upstream. Alexis glanced at her watch. It was close to four o’clock. They’d make it to the village before dark, but wouldn’t be able to make it back. Not without night vision goggles, which, thinking they were only out for a day hike, they hadn’t bothered packing.
She looked over her shoulder to raise this with Isiah when he sucked in a quick, sharp breath. Spinning, she saw him clutching his right thigh. She barely had a second to notice the dart sticking out of his leg before a sharp stab pierced her own. And then the world slid into darkness.
Chapter Ten
Isiah woke slowly, his muscles protesting even the smallest of moves. Forcing his eyelids open, he stared up at the jungle canopy into the darkness. The sudden realization that he’d lost hours of his life sent a jolt of adrenaline through his system and he bolted upright.
Even as his mind recognized the familiar surroundings—he’d been left where he’d fallen—his first thought was for Alexis. In a near panic, he scanned the area looking for her. He didn’t have to look far as she lay on the ground, not two feet away, still asleep.
Or tranquilized, he acknowledged, remembering the dart he’d seen in his thigh just before he’d passed out. Glancing down, he noted it was no longer there and he didn’t know what disturbed him more, the fact he and Alexis had been attacked or the fact that whoever had done it had had their hands on his body, and presumably, Alexis’s, without either of them knowing.
Forgoing any further thought on that question, he scrambled to Alexis’s side and felt her pulse. He let out a breath when it beat steady and strong beneath his fingers. A quick look at his watch told him they’d been out for just under ten hours and it was close to two in the morning. With the difference in their body weights, if Alexis had been tranq’d with the same dose as he had, she’d likely be out for a bit longer. Knowing they couldn’t go anywhere in the dark and that this attack had essentially disabled them until dawn, Isiah opted to let Alexis sleep it off while he regrouped.
Unslinging the backpack he still wore, he opened the main compartment. Nothing was missing. Not his phone, not the water bottle, not the extra charger they’d kept. Nothing.
Frowning, he looked around as he contemplated what had happened. If someone had meant them harm, it would have been easy enough to accomplish while they’d both been knocked out. But that hadn’t happened. Not only were he and Alexis both essentially fine, all their stuff was still in his possession.
Pondering the situation, he rose from where he sat on the jungle floor and began to pace. Not even five minutes later, Alexis started stirring. Given the short amount of time from when he woke, he wondered if her dose had been adjusted to her weight. Which was yet one more unusual thing to consider in this situation.
Her eyes fluttered open and she stared at the sky, much as he had, then, again, much as he had, she bolted upright.
“It’s okay,” he said calmly, wanting to soothe the panic he saw on her face.
She whipped her head in his direction and stared. He counted to six before he saw recognition sink in and her expression morphed from fear to confusion.
“What the hell happened and what time is it?” she asked.
“We were both hit by tranquilizer darts and it’s close to two in the morning.”
Her brow dipped as she considered his words. “Did anything get taken?” she asked nodding to the backpack that lay between them on the jungle floor.
He shook his head.
“And you’re okay? We’re both okay?”
He nodded.
“So somebody wanted to delay us, but not harm us. Or at least not harm us permanently.” She voiced the conclusion he’d come to as well.
“Appears that way.”
She glanced around, letting the reality of the situation sink in. “Fuck.”
He couldn’t agree more, but stayed silent. She pulled her phone from her shirt pocket, glanced at it and scowled.
“Any chance you have a signal?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I looked earlier when I checked the backpack. I think we have at least another mile or so before we’re close enough to civilization to get a signal.”
“We should have brought a satellite phone,” she grumbled.
“Would have been nice, but since we didn’t think we’d stumble upon a group of human traffickers or get put down by a tranq gun, I think we can skip feeling bad about that decision.”
She slid him a w
ry look. “No way will we be able to move until dawn. I mean, I think we could pick our way along the riverbank, but the risk of injury is much higher and our rate of progress will be much slower. It will be better to wait.”
“My thoughts, too. But here’s the million-dollar question—now that the time Shah has to get shit done has been cut by a good fourteen or fifteen hours, will it be enough? Will she be able to do what needs to be done in time to save those women?” he asked.
“Or should we double back and rejoin Yael and Jake and see what we can do ourselves?” she finished his thought. And that was the million-dollar question—without a doubt, he and Alexis could make it back to the encampment as soon as it was light. Then they could formulate a plan for freeing the women. But it was risky. The other alternative was to continue as planned, call Shah as soon as they had a signal, and hope she had enough time to do something.
“Realistically, we’re not in that different of a situation as before,” Alexis said. He looked up and met her eyes, startlingly light in the darkness.
“How’s that?”
“We never knew for certain whether Shah would be able to help anyway. She’ll have less time to organize now if she can, but we don’t know that she can. And we always intended to rejoin Yael and Jake. I vote that as soon as it’s light, we head toward the village, but only as far as we need to to get a signal. We call Shah, then head back as planned. She can either get something in place, or she can’t. Either way, we agreed that we weren’t leaving the jungle until those women are safe.”
It didn’t take him long to see the truth in her words. Their plan now had a compressed timeline, but it was essentially the same plan.
He nodded. “Sounds good. We have about four and a half hours before it starts to get light. Any interest in a midnight snack?” he asked reaching for the backpack and the protein bars inside.
“If only we had candlelight and a checked table cloth,” Alexis said with a smile as she rose. “Nature calls, but as soon as I return, I’ll take you up on that generous offer.”
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