Amazonia: a novel

by James Rollins

  Waxman was yanked off his feet, sailing into the air, claws sunk deep into his field jacket and chest. He bellowed, bringing up his own weapon. He fired over his head, striking the cat in the shoulder. The beast toppled backward, dragging the hooked captain with it. His body flew over the boulder, limbs kicking.

  Carrera lunged up and ran around the boulder, going to the aid of her captain. Out of sight, Nate heard the characteristic whir of her weapon. Then suddenly she was backing into sight again. On her trail were a pair of jaguars. They were bleeding, embedded bits of silver decorating their flesh. Carrera was obviously struggling with the cartridge to her weapon, out of ammo disks.

  Nate leaped away from the cave wall and ran toward her. As he reached her side, he shoved his shotgun to arms’ length, the muzzle only a foot away from the snarling face of one of the jaguars. He pulled the trigger, and the beast flew back, howling.

  Carrera unholstered her 9mm pistol. She fired and fired at the other jaguar, unloading the clip. It fell back, then collapsed.

  They stumbled up the slope.

  Around the other side of the boulder, the captain fell into sight, crawling, one arm gone. His face was a bloody ruin.

  “I…I thought he was dead,” Carrera said with shock, stepping in his direction.

  The captain crawled half a step, then a paw shot out and dug into the meat of his thigh. He was pulled back toward the hidden shadows. He screamed, fingers digging at the loose shale, finding no purchase.

  A shot cracked. The captain’s head flew back, then forward, striking the rock hard. Dead. Nate glanced behind him and saw Kostos crouched with his M-16 in hand, eyes fixed to its sniper scope. The sergeant slowly lowered his weapon, his expression pained and ripe with hard guilt.

  “Everyone, get inside!” he yelled.

  The party had remained clustered near the entrance.

  Nate and Carrera hurried toward the cavern mouth.

  Frank and Kostos flanked the threshold, weapons ready. The men were limned against the glare of the dying flare inside the passage. Frank waved to them. “Hurry!”

  From Nate’s position several yards down the escarpment, he spotted a deeper shadow shift along the base of the rocky cliff. To the left of the cave opening. “Watch out!”

  It was the largest of the jaguars, the one Nate had first spotted.

  It sprang past the mouth of the cave. Frank was bowled over, flying high into the air and landing on his back. Kostos was slammed into the wall. Then the cat was gone, racing back into the shadows below.

  Kelly screamed. “Frank!”

  Nate ran with Carrera. Kostos picked himself off the ground, wheezing and holding his chest, dazed.

  “Help me!” Kelly yelled.

  Frank lay writhing in the shale. Kelly’s brother hadn’t just been knocked off his feet. Both his legs were gone from the knees down. Blood spurted and jetted across the stones. In those few seconds, the giant jaguar had sheared off the limbs, as cleanly as a guillotine.

  Kouwe fell to Frank’s other side. Olin helped drag the moaning man into the cave. Kelly followed, yanking tourniquets from her pack. Plastic vials of morphine tumbled to the floor. Nate retrieved them.

  Near the entrance, a shot was fired. Light burst outside. Another flare. Nate held out the vials of morphine, feeling useless, stunned.

  Kouwe took them. “Go watch our back.” He nodded to the entrance.

  Olin and Kelly worked on the stricken man. Tears flowed down Kelly’s cheeks, but her face was tight with determination and concentration. She refused to lose her brother.

  Nate turned with his shotgun and joined Kostos and Carrera at the cave’s opening. The new flare showed that the jungle still moved with shadows. The bouldered slope offered additional cover for the cats.

  Manny joined them, pistol in one hand. Tor-tor sniffed at Frank’s blood on the rock and growled.

  “I count at least another fifteen,” Carrera said, face half covered with night-vision goggles. “They’re not leaving.”

  Kostos swore. “If they rush us, we couldn’t hope to stop them all. We’re down to one grenade launcher, two M-16s, and a handful of pistols.”

  “And my shotgun,” Nate added.

  Carrera spoke, “I’ve fitted a new cartridge into the Bailey. But it’s my last.”

  Manny crouched with his pistol. “There’s some old debris blown in the back of the cave—branches, leaves, whatnot. We could light a fire at the entrance.”

  “Do it,” Kostos said.

  As Manny turned, a long, low growl rumbled up the slope. Everyone froze. Illuminated by the flare, a large shape revealed itself on the rocky slope. Weapons were raised.

  Nate recognized the shadow as the largest cat.

  “A female,” Manny mumbled.

  It remained in plain sight, studying them, challenging them. Behind it, the jungle churned with sleek bodies, muscled and clawed.

  “What do we do?” Carrera asked.

  “The bitch is trying to psych us out,” Kostos grumbled, lowering his eye to the sight on his rifle.

  “Don’t fire,” Nate hissed. “If you shoot now, you’ll have the whole pack on us.”

  “Nate’s right,” Manny said. “Their blood lust is up. Anything could set them off. At least wait until we have a fire going here.”

  The cat seemed to hear him and let out a piercing yowl. In a surge of pure muscle, she leaped toward them, charging at an astounding speed, a precision machine.

  The Rangers fired, but the she-beast was too fast, gliding with preternatural swiftness. Bullets chewed at the rock, sparking, missing, as if she were a true phantom. A single razored disk whizzed from the Bailey and zinged off a boulder to skitter harmlessly down the slope.

  Nate dropped to one knee, shotgun pointed. “Here, kitty-kitty,” he hissed under his breath. Once she was close enough…

  Carrera repositioned her weapon, but before she could fire another shot, she was bumped aside. Tor-tor lunged past her, leaping from his master’s side to the slope beyond.

  “Tor-tor!” Manny called.

  The smaller jaguar bounded a few yards down the slope and stopped, digging in, blocking the path of the larger cat. With a sharp snarl, he crouched low, rear haunches raised and bunched to spring, tail flicking with menace. He bared his long yellow claws and sharp fangs.

  The giant black jaguar rushed at him, prepared to bowl him over, but at the last moment, she pulled up and stopped in front of Tor-tor, matching his stance, snarling. The two cats hissed and challenged each other.

  Kostos lifted his weapon. “You’re dead, bitch.”

  Manny motioned him not to shoot. “Wait!”

  The two cats slowly padded around each other, circling, only a yard apart. At one point, the giant female’s back was toward them. Nate could tell both Rangers had to restrain themselves not to fire.

  “What are they doing?” Carrera asked.

  Manny answered, “She can’t understand why one of her own species, even a small one like Tor-tor, is protecting us. It has her perplexed.”

  By now, the two had stopped snarling. They cautiously approached one another, now almost nose to nose. Sharing some silent communication, the circling continued. Raised hackles settled back to sleek fur. A soft chuffing sounded as the larger cat took in the scent of this strange little jaguar.

  Eventually they both stopped their dance, once again back to their original positions. Tor-tor crouched between the cave and the giant cat.

  With a final grunt, the large jaguar leaned forward and rubbed her jowl against the side of Tor-tor’s cheek, some understanding reached, a truce. With a blur of black fur, the giant cat spun and slipped back down the slope.

  Slowly Tor-tor straightened from his crouch. His eyes glowed golden. With a feline casualness, he licked a patch of ruffled fur back into perfect place and turned to them. He padded back to the entrance as if he’d just come back from a stroll.

  Carrera lowered her weapon and shifted her night-vision goggles.
“They’re pulling back,” she said, amazed.

  Manny hugged his pet. “You stupid bastard,” he mumbled.

  “What just happened?” Kostos asked.

  “Tor-tor’s close to being sexually mature,” Manny said. “A juvenile male. The female, though huge, appears proportionally to be about the same age. And with all the blood in the air, tensions were high, including sexual tension. From their actions, Tor-tor’s challenge was construed as both a threat and a sexual display.”

  Kostos scowled. “So you’re saying he was making a play for her ass.”

  “And she accepted,” Manny said, patting his jaguar’s side proudly. “Since Tor-tor came out and met her challenge, she probably believes him to be our pack leader. An acceptable mate.”

  “What now?” Carrera asked. “They’ve pulled back, but haven’t left. As a matter of fact, they seem to be massing down the chasm a bit, blocking any retreat back to the swamp lake.”

  Manny shook his head. “I don’t know what they’re doing. But Tor-tor has bought us some time. I say we use it. Get that fire lit and keep our guard up.”

  Nate watched the bulk of the pack flow down into the jungle chasm. What were they doing?

  “We’ve got company,” Carrera said, voice tense again.

  She pointed in the opposite direction, deeper up the canyon.

  Nate turned his attention. In that direction, he saw nothing but the dark jungle and the broken landscape of rock at the foot of the cliff. “What did you—”

  Then movement caught his eye.

  A short way up the chasm, a dark figure stepped more fully out of the jungle fringe and onto the exposed shale. It was a human figure. A man. He was as much a shadow as the cats, black from head to toe. He lifted an arm, then turned and began to walk up the canyon, keeping in plain sight. They watched him, stunned.

  “It must be one of the Ban-ali,” Nate said.

  The figure stopped, turned their way, and seemed to be waiting.

  “I think he wants us to follow him,” Manny said.

  “And the jaguars aren’t leaving us much choice,” Carrera said. “They’ve settled into the jungle below us.”

  The distant figure simply stood.

  “What do we do?” Carrera asked.

  Nate answered, “We follow him. It’s why we came. To find the Ban-ali. Perhaps this was their last test, the jaguar pack.”

  “Or it could be another trap,” Kostos said.

  “I don’t see we have much choice,” Carrera said. “I have a feeling we go or the pack will finish us off.”

  Nate glanced over his shoulder to the deeper depths of the cave. Ten yards back, Kelly, Kouwe and the others were still gathered around Frank, now stripped to his boxers. The man seemed to be sedated. Anna stood, holding an IV bag at shoulder height. Kelly had one of her brother’s stumped limbs already wrapped in a bandage and was tying off a vessel in the other. Kouwe knelt beside her, ready with the bandages for his other limb. Around them, empty syringe wrappers and small plastic drug bottles littered the cave floor.

  “I’ll see if Frank can be moved.”

  “We leave no one behind,” Kostos said.

  Nate nodded, glad to hear it. He crossed to the others. “How’s Frank doing?” he asked Kouwe.

  “He’s lost a lot of blood. Once he’s stable, Kelly wants to transfuse him.”

  Nate sighed. “We may have to move him.”

  “What?” Kelly asked, tying off a suture. “He can’t be moved!” Panic, exhaustion, and disbelief hardened her words.

  Nate crouched as Kelly and Kouwe began bandaging the second stump. Frank moaned softly as his leg was jarred.

  As they worked, Nate explained what had happened at the cave’s entrance. “We’ve been contacted by the Ban-ali. Perhaps invited to continue on to their village. I suspect the invitation is a one-time offer.”

  Kouwe nodded. “We must’ve passed some last challenge, survived some gauntlet,” the professor said, parroting Nate’s early assessment. “Now we’ve earned the right to move onward by proving ourselves worthy.”

  “But Frank…?” Kelly said.

  “I can rig up a stretcher out of bamboo and palm fronds,” Kouwe said softly, touching Kelly’s hand. “Knowing these tribesmen, if we don’t move him, he’ll be killed. We’ll all be killed.”

  Nate watched the woman’s face tighten with fear. Her eyes glazed. First her daughter, now her brother.

  Nate sank down beside her and put his arm around her. “I’ll make sure he gets where we’re going safely. Once there, Olin can get the radio up and running.” Nate glanced to the Russian.

  Olin nodded his head vigorously. “I know I can at least get the GPS working properly to send out a decent signal.”

  “And once that’s done, help will arrive. They’ll airlift your brother out. He’ll make it. We all will.”

  Kelly leaned into him, softening against him. “Do you promise?” she said, her voice soft with tears.

  He tightened his embrace. “Of course I do.” But as Nate stared at the pale face of her brother, with blood slowly seeping through the man’s new bandages, he prayed it was a promise he could keep.

  Kelly shifted in his hold, and her voice was stronger when she spoke. “Then let’s go.”

  He helped her to her feet.

  They quickly began arranging for their departure. Kostos and Manny crossed to the jungle and gathered material to construct the makeshift stretcher, while Kelly and Kouwe stabilized Frank as well as they could. Soon they were ready to head out again into the night.

  Nate met Carrera at the cave entrance.

  “Our visitor’s still out there,” she said.

  In the distance, the lone shadowy figure stood.

  Kostos raised his voice, returning to make sure everything was in order. “Keep together! Keep alert!”

  Nate and Carrera separated. The group filed out between them with the sergeant in the lead. Near the end of the line, Manny and Olin carried the stretcher, the patient lashed to the bamboo for extra security. The men in the party would take turns hauling Frank.

  As the stretcher passed, Kelly followed last. Then Nate and Carrera moved in step behind her.

  Just past the entrance, the toe to Nate’s boot knocked an object from the shale, something dusty and discarded. Nate bent to pick it up and inspected it.

  They couldn’t leave this behind.

  He knocked off the dirt and stepped forward. He slipped in front of Manny, wiped the last bit of dust from the brim of Frank’s Red Sox cap, and placed it back on the stricken man’s head.

  As Nate turned to return to his place in line, he found Kelly’s eyes on his, tears glistening. She offered him a shadow of a sad smile. He nodded, accepting her silent gratitude.

  Nate took his position beside Carrera. He studied the dark jungle and the solitary figure in the distance.

  Where did the path lead from here?

  Fourteen

  Habitation

  AUGUST 16, 4:13 A.M.

  AMAZON JUNGLE

  Louis floated in his canoe, awaiting news from his trackers. Dawn was still hours away. Stars shone in the clear sky, but the moon had set, casting the swamp into deep shadows. Through night-vision scopes, Louis watched for any sign of his men.

  Nothing.

  He grimaced. As he waited in the canoe, he felt his plan crumbling around him. What was going on out there? His ruse to get the Ranger team fleeing had been successful. But what now?

  At midnight, Louis’s team had crossed the swamp in their canoes, hauled overland from the river. As the group neared the far shore, flares had blossomed into the sky farther up the chasm, near the southern cliffs. Shots were fired, echoing down to the swamp.

  Using binoculars, Louis had watched a shadowy fireflight. The Ranger team was again clearly under attack. But from his vantage, Louis could not see who or what was attacking them. His attempts to contact Jacques’s recon team had failed. His lieutenant had gone mysteriously silent.
/>   Needing information, Louis had sent a small team ashore, his best trackers, outfitted with night-vision and infrared equipment, to investigate what was happening. He and the others remained a safe distance offshore in the canoes and waited.

  Two hours had passed, and so far, there was no word, not even a radio message from the trackers. Sharing his canoe were three men and his mistress. They all watched the far shore with binoculars.