by Shea, Hunter
Several minutes later, they were racing down the runway, breaking gravity’s grip and heading to one of the most remote and exotic locations in all the world.
“See, that wasn’t so bad,” Austin said.
Natalie opened her eyes, looked out the window at the clouds beneath them and said, “Henrik, would you kindly knock me the fuck out?”
Austin was feeling the drain of the long flight, with a stop over in Saudi Arabia where they stayed in the plane while it refueled. He’d taken a long nap as they flew over India, and was ready for another when they started to make their descent to the island of Sumatra.
That’s when Natalie’s eyes opened for the first time. Deep pillow lines creased her face. She stretched, yawning and oblivious as to where she was at the moment.
She looked surprised to see Austin sitting next to her.
“What are you doing here?” she said.
“Sitting here amazed that you slept for fifteen hours.”
“Fifteen hours?”
“Not a minute less.”
Scratching her head, she said, “Why was I asleep for fifteen hours?”
He pointed out the window. She followed his finger, eyes still droopy. “Oh, yeah, we’re flying in Jay Jay the Transformer.”
“Not for long,” Henrik said across the narrow aisle. “We’ll be landing in less than ten minutes.”
She lay her head back on the pillow that had been propped against Austin’s shoulder. “That’s cool. Wake me when it’s over.”
Austin chuckled. “Hey Henrik, save some for me on the flight home.”
Henrik smiled weakly.
He’s worried, as we all should be, Austin thought. Orang Pendek or not, this is going to be a dangerous trip.
The G6 dipped below the clouds and he could see the long strip of land that was Sumatra spread out beneath them.
Guess the party’s officially over.
They were able to get Natalie up and on her feet and were taken to a nice hotel in the city of Padang. It was early afternoon by the time they stepped out of the car. The streets were bustling with people and motorbikes and small cars that looked to have been rescued from another country’s junk heaps. The sights and smells were dizzying. Austin had an urge to explore, but Henrik asked them to stay in the hotel.
“I promise, you can sightsee all you want after we’re done,” he said.
It felt good to stretch his legs. All Autin wanted to do was walk, maybe jog around for an hour or so. Instead, he and Natalie went to the suite that had been reserved for them and waited for Henrik to return.
Natalie, now fully awake and back to her usual self, walked around the finely appointed suite, taking it all in. “Nice digs.”
“We leave tomorrow morning, so don’t get too attached.”
“Oh, I’m going to enjoy it while I can. Not looking forward to camping in a jungle.” She went into the bathroom. “Look, a bidet. I think I’ll miss you most of all.”
Austin couldn’t help but laugh, despite the growing tension in his gut. He knew this day would come, but now that it was here, he was nervous. They were total strangers in a very strange land, about to head out into a mostly unexplored rain forest in the interior of Sumatra. It wasn’t a matter of what could go wrong. It was more a matter of what wouldn’t go wrong.
At half past five, Henrik came back. And he wasn’t alone.
Beside him was a bear of a man with long black hair, a permanent five o’clock shadow and, of all things, a black eye patch. Austin couldn’t help thinking his friend had just procured a pirate for their expedition. All that was missing was the parrot.
“Austin, Natalie, I’d like you to meet the man responsible for putting all of this together. This is Oscar Gaspary.”
“Pleased to meet you both,” he said in a high, thin voice that shocked Austin. He expected something more akin to a throaty rumble. “You volunteers or did Henrik conscript you?”
He smiled, revealing two missing bottom teeth, the tip of his tongue poking through the gap.
“Oh, we came of our own free will,” Austin said.
Oscar shook his head. “Well then, you’re both off your nut. Glad to see I’m not the only one. Welcome to hell.”
Chapter Six
Oscar Gaspary regaled them with stories of his and Henrik’s exploits all during dinner and into the night. Natalie couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed so hard. Henrik spent a good deal of the time blushing or quietly urging Oscar to stop.
The big man was like a runaway train. Once he started, the brake lines were worn to the nub. Apparently, he and Henrik had been to hell and back together…sometimes bringing hell with them. They’d traveled the world twice over, most times covertly. Natalie didn’t have a hard time believing mild mannered Henrik Kooper was a trained killer. She’d already seen him in action and knew he had some pretty deep connections to the weapons black market.
Oscar drank from a liter bottle of sparkling water. “Should I tell them about the time we crashed that little soiree in Riyadh? That little pecker of a prince wasn’t happy some real men got a crack at his harem, I’ll tell you that.”
There was a knock at the door and Henrik nearly jumped out of his chair. “Ah, I believe dinner has arrived!”
A sumptuous feast had been brought to the suite, but there was no alcohol. Henrik thought it best they start the day’s trek with clear heads. Natalie agreed. Truth be told, she was still a little fuzzy around the edges from whatever the hell he’d given her during the flight.
Around midnight, Oscar said goodnight to everyone and went to his room. Henrik was right behind him. Natalie wasn’t tired, but Austin was exhausted. He passed out on the couch.
She stared out the window for most of the night, watching the twinkling lights, taking in the smells of the city as they wafted through the screen. This wasn’t her city or any like she’d ever seen, but it was civilization, something she was pretty sure she’d be missing in no time.
The next morning, Oscar waited for them outside the lobby in an olive van that looked to have a couple hundred thousand miles on it – every one of them rough road. The struts creaked noisily when they stepped inside.
Oscar saw their trepidation, considering Henrik had told them they were driving to the edge of a distant national forest to meet up with the party that had been assembled to take them into the jungle. “Don’t worry. She’s like my first wife. Ugly as sin but very, very capable.”
He roared in his reedy laugh, slapping the wheel.
Henrik was unusually quiet. She understood. He had a lot on his mind. He was close to accomplishing something he’d centered his entire life around. She’d been there, done that, with his help. It’s why she had to be here, no matter her fear or reservations.
They drove out of the noise and clatter of Padang. The van was like a rolling pizza oven, even with the windows open. Main roads gave way to strips of land that could barely be called roads.
Natalie saw a paperback book nestled between the driver’s seat and the center console. She plucked it free, examining the cover. The spine was cracked, the cover peeling back, the pages yellowed and worn.
“The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell,” she said, flipping through the book. A matchstick had been placed on page 294. “Heavy stuff.”
Oscar looked at her through the rearview mirror, smiling. “We’re all on a hero’s journey, even the sad twits trapped in an office cubicle. I never leave home without it.”
“Don’t be fooled by his seedy exterior,” Henrik said. “Our Oscar is a regular philosopher.”
“Who you calling seedy?”
“I take it back. How does bedraggled sound?”
“Exactly the same!”
Austin leaned into Natalie, reading over her shoulder. “You think we’re going to have to go into hero mode out in the jungle?”
Henrik turned round in his seat to face them. The flesh of his face was drawn tight over his skull, his cobalt eyes sharp
and serious. “The mere act of taking the first step is heroic. From here on, you can only traverse into the realm of the legendary.”
Natalie closed the book, resting it on her lap. “We ran from being legendary in Scotland.”
“You can be legendary without the fame or recognition.”
Oscar huffed. “Not me. I need an audience.”
“How much further?” Austin asked. He couldn’t stop jouncing his legs. Being still was not one of his finer qualities.
“Six or more hours, depending on road conditions,” Henrik replied. “We’re going to pass by Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park. It’s quite beautiful this time of year. You’ll be able to see the Bukit Barisan mountain range as we get nearer. The park is home to incredible wildlife, including elephants, rhinoceros and the exceedingly rare Sumatran tiger. Unfortunately, Sumatra has the highest percentage of endangered wildlife in all the world.”
“Why is that?” Natalie asked.
“I’ll tell you why,” Oscar said as Henrik opened his mouth, “it’s the fucking logging companies. Just like in South America. They’re destroying the goddamn ecosystem. You try chaining yourself to a tree out here, see if they don’t just cut you in half without a moment’s thought.”
Henrik added, “Pollution from cars, industry and slash and burn fires is also a major concern, and not a top priority of the government. Sumatra is just one of over seventeen thousand islands in Indonesia. People call Indonesia the Emerald of the Equator. In a few more generations, they may have to change it to the Hematite of the Equator.”
Natalie had spent so much time researching the Orang Pendek – well, if she was being honest with herself, she did far more relaxing and zoning out than researching back in Germany – that she’d done little reading up on Indonesia itself. She was sure Henrik and Oscar would be fine travel guides and fill her in on what she needed to know.
At one point, they stopped the car on a road just wide enough for the van, though Oscar assured them it was made for two-way traffic. The grass was so tall on either side of the narrow road, they couldn’t see a thing. Natalie wondered what could be lurking in the brush. She hoped it wasn’t something large and hungry. This was just the kind of place where something as mundane as a flat tire could spell instant doom.
They stretched their legs and filled the gas tank from jugs tied to the roof of the van. Austin dropped and did fifty push-ups while they gassed up. “Gotta keep the blood moving.”
“I’m pretty sure mine is moving just fine,” Natalie said.
Oscar agreed with her. “Conserve your strength, big boy. You don’t want to get overheated out here.”
Thunder rumbled in the distance, though the skies were relatively clear.
“Rain’ll come soon. It always does,” Oscar said.
It was then Henrik’s turn to take the wheel. The ride was less bumpy with him at the helm. He seemed to have a supernatural gift for spotting pits in the road and smoothly cruising past them.
Dark clouds swarmed ahead of them, a solid wall of rain waiting to envelop the van. Heavy drops pelted the roof. It sounded like a dozen linebackers tap-danced above them.
“I hope the road doesn’t wash out,” Henrik said.
“What if it does?” Austin asked, getting soaked because he refused to roll up his window.
“We’d have to wait until it dries. It could delay us by a day or two.”
“Or a week or two,” Oscar said.
“Where would we go?” Austin said.
“We would camp right here,” Henrik said. “There are plenty of supplies in the back. Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that.”
“Yeah,” Natalie said. “Crossing fingers, legs, eyes and toes.”
The rain was relentless, and it only made things hotter. Huge splashes of mud washed over the front of the van as they plowed ahead.
Two hours later, they drove out of the rain, but the way ahead was even sloppier because it had been thoroughly inundated. The van slid sideways several times, once almost smashing into an enormous boulder that popped up out of nowhere.
“Hope you brought your s’mores fixings,” Natalie said to her brother. They were all drenched in sweat, the interior of the van having become a sauna during the storm.
He wiped the sweat on his face with the hem of his shirt. “Don’t jinx us.”
“Yeah, if we get stranded, it’s because I jinxed us – not the wrath of the rain gods or this thing they call a road out here.”
Oscar said, “No worries. If the van gets stuck here, we can hoof it the rest of the way. We’re close enough.”
“How close is close enough?” Austin asked.
“Five, seven miles?”
Natalie groaned, looking out the window. Close enough to what? This place looked even more untouched by man and remote than the deepest parts of Africa. Or at least how she imagined them to look.
She suddenly slid forward, smashing into Oscar’s seat when Henrik jammed on the brakes. The van came to a grinding halt.
“I think I lost a tooth,” Natalie grumbled, fingering her jaw.
Austin massaged his forehead. There was a red welt where he’d collided with the back of Henrik’s seat. “What the hell, man?”
Henrik and Oscar didn’t respond. The van’s engine idled.
Natalie shifted so she could see out the front window, thinking they just missed hitting an elephant or something.
“Oh crap.”
Six men blocked the road ahead of them. They held formidable weapons, every muzzle pointed at the van.
Chapter Seven
Henrik looked to Oscar. “Yours?”
There was the light click of the safety going off on Oscar’s gun. “Kind of hard to tell from this distance.”
The armed men were thirty feet from the van, unmoving, guns held steady at them. No one said a word. Henrik couldn’t read the intent on their nut brown faces.
“Should we be concerned?” Natalie said.
“That remains to be seen,” Oscar said. He handed Henrik a pistol, low and out of sight of the human barricade. “Shall we?”
Henrik slipped the gun in his pocket and opened the door. The hinges creaked. They stepped out, feeling a warm breeze that smelled like more rain on the horizon.
“Halo,” Henrik called out, trying his best at a Bahasa Indonesian accent. He knew it wasn’t all that good, but it’s not as if they couldn’t tell he wasn’t from here. Tall, pale men with blond hair had a habit of standing out in Sumatra.
The men didn’t reply. Nor, unfortunately, did they lower their weapons – AK74’s, and not in the best condition. They had most likely been circulating on the black market for years, new owners snatching them up at a fair price once the previous owners were killed.
Henrik heard the doors open behind him and said, “It’s best if you stay in the van. What you may need is in a green duffel behind you.”
Natalie and Austin silently obeyed. They were as far out of their element as Henrik would be should he be sent to Jupiter. He had to take control of the situation.
“I don’t think these are friendlies,” Oscar said out of the side of his mouth.
“I tend to agree with you.”
Henrik’s hand tightened around the gun in his pocket.
“Would you boys mind parting the wave, so to speak, so we can get by?” Oscar called out.
In response, their guns moved higher, aiming for their heads.
Henrik knew he and Oscar could take them, but there was a real concern that Natalie and or Austin would not make it out of this alive. Once the bullets started to fly, they would be vulnerable to errant gunfire.
Henrik tensed, staring them down as best he could. They stared back with dark, blank gazes.
“Three each and drop low,” he whispered to Oscar.
The big man grunted. “Works for me.”
They were about to fall to the ground, firing their guns in rapid succession, when the men suddenly broke into laughter. Their guns fe
ll to their sides. Henrik, almost in a crouch, eased his finger off the trigger, the gun now out of his pocket.
A short older man wearing a Mets-Yankees 2000 World Series T-shirt emerged from the tall vegetation on the side of the road, clapping. “You should have seen your faces,” he said in perfect English.
Oscar grumbled. “Your men were one second away from not having any faces, Surya.”
“I take it this is our guide, Surya Darmadi?” Henrik said. “If he wanted to make a grand entrance, he succeeded.”
Surya approached Oscar and they shook hands. “This little bugger may be the best, but he’s not the brightest,” Oscar said.
“Is it safe to come out now?” Austin said.
“Yes. It appears we have an unusual welcoming party,” Henrik said.
Oscar made introductions all around. Up close, Surya Darmadi looked to be in his sixties, with deeply carved lines around his mouth and forehead. He was burnished from the sun, with a curly mop of salt and pepper hair. Straggly hairs hung from his chin. His hands looked rougher than cowhide.
“My apologies,” he said to them. “Sometimes my jokes are not so funny, I am sure.”
“Nearly deadly,” Oscar said, clapping him on the shoulder.
The men in the road had stayed put, talking amongst themselves. “Are they all the porters you have?” Henrik asked.
Surya smiled. “Where you want to go, it’s amazing I was able to get this many. I had to import them from different islands. They don’t know any of the legends. They speak no English, but they are very experienced, very strong.” He pointed to each, giving their name, “That’s Deddy, Bambang, Ridwan, Yandi, Saharto and Hengki.”
The porters waved. Henrik, Oscar, Natalie and Austin waved back.
Natalie said, “So how come you’re not afraid?”
The guide wagged a finger at her. “Who said I am not afraid? I worry about a lot of things. Everything in the jungle is out to get you. There are people living out there, strange people who might not like our stepping into their boundaries. Then there are the beasts great and small. Sometimes the smallest are the deadliest. But as far as Henrik’s Orang Pendek and Gadang Ur, I lose no sleep. The beasts are smarter than us and don’t want to be seen, and the city, if it still exists, is probably nothing more than utter ruins – a ghost of something far less great than we have imagined. But superstition runs deep with my people, and most would rather cut off their arm than venture there, I am sure.”