“Of Palatus?” he asked. He did not want to admit that to himself.
“You have good reason to fear him,” Felicity said. Her voice went dark. “The Arch-Gourmand of the Sect of the Savorous Society has been searching for the Gastronomy of Peace his entire life, as his predecessors did. Many good chefs have fallen by his hand — perhaps many more will before he has achieved his end.”
The way she said it — it was almost like Felicity was jealous of the Gastronimatii’s power. “But there are worse things to fear,” she said.
“Like?” said Guster.
“Tasting the One Recipe.”
Guster shrugged. Tasting the One Recipe was the thing he wanted most in the world. What was there to be scared of? “Can’t wait to try,” he said. He wasn’t going to let her bully him.
Felicity locked her eyes on him for a moment in an icy stare. “Good,” she said, then turned back around in her seat.
Guster shivered despite the heat. What wasn’t she telling him?
They drove for hours, passing small villages and long stretches of green jungle as they went. The Lieutenant stopped the car in a tiny village where they used the bathroom and bought supplies and gas.
The Lieutenant bought a bunch of bananas and gave one to Guster. It was no larger than his hand. He nibbled on the end and found it particularly sweet — almost like a little white candy bar wrapped in a peel. It felt good to put something in his tiny stomach.
“You like our bananas?” said Riziki. Guster nodded since his mouth was full. “We have forty-six varieties in this country, but you will find that there are none so sugary as the ones that come from the shores of the lake itself!” Guster decided to keep an eye out for more.
When they came to the open plains again, there were zebra galloping along in the distance, their fat bottoms bouncing up and down as they ran.
Riziki tapped Guster on the shoulder as they passed a herd of gazelle, “I do not know about all the crazy things you tourists say, but you see those little brown creatures?” he asked. Guster nodded. They were like miniature deer, no larger than big dogs, but much, much skinnier. “When the lion or the cheetah is hungry, the gazelle is easy to catch, so they make a tasty treat. Snatch!” Riziki trapped his fist in his hand. “We call them the lunchbox of the Serengeti!” he laughed.
Guster didn’t quite understand. “They are tasty,” Riziki said shrugging his shoulders. Guster doubted it was true.
As the sun set, they turned off the main highway onto a dirt road that wound through the jungle. When they came to a clearing in the trees, Felicity told the Lieutenant to stop for the night. “We’ll make camp, then start again at first light tomorrow,” she said.
The Lieutenant parked on a flat spot as he spoke into the microphone in his helmet. “Set up a perimeter,” he ordered. The other jeeps followed the Lieutenant off the road and parked, each one forming one side of a square on the edge of the trees.
Guster caught a glimpse of himself in the rearview mirror as he climbed out of the jeep. His face was covered in dirt from the long, dusty journey, except for a mask of white around his eyes.
“Did you see that hyena, Guster?” exclaimed Zeke, trotting up to him. “It was so ferocious, it bit this guy’s motorcycle in two!”
Mariah rolled her eyes behind him. “It wasn’t a hyena, Zeke. It was some stray dog. Hyenas are much bigger and they hunt in packs. Besides, it was only barking at the guy’s heels. It didn’t even get close to the motorcycle’s tailpipe,” she said.
Guster could tell that Zeke was starting to feel comfortable in Africa, since he was exaggerating again. Now that he had the chance, he told Mariah, Zeke and Mom what he’d found out about the Arrivederci Chocolate, as well as his guess that the Gastronomy of Peace was something sweet. Even Zeke started to get excited at the mention of dessert. Mom pinched her chin and stared off into space, like she was trying to add up numbers in her head.
Felicity’s men started to set up a camp. They worked like clockwork, pounding in stakes, lighting a fire, pitching tents, unfolding a table, and hanging lanterns and mosquito netting.
Felicity took a machete from the jeep and disappeared into the thick tangle of trees.
Odd, thought Guster. Just then, the Lieutenant dumped a rolled up tent into his arms. “This is for your family,” he said.
Guster and Zeke spent the next half hour setting up the tent. Felicity returned a short while later with a snake the size of an elephant’s trunk slung over her shoulder. It was dead.
“Eeee!” Mariah screamed. Mom pulled her into a hug.
“That’s slimy-slitherin’ sicko,” said Zeke. Felicity paid them no heed. She flopped the tube onto the table and slit it up the center with a chef’s knife. She yanked out the intestines and threw them over her shoulder into the jungle, then started to peel back its skin. The Lieutenant opened up a wooden box full of plates, cookware and spices and placed it on the table for her. Felicity’s hands worked so fast they blurred, first filleting the snake and then spicing the meat. In a minute, it was frying in a pan over the fire.
Guster almost heaved at the sight of it. “You can’t expect anyone to eat that!” said Zeke.
“No one is forcing you but the sauce,” said Felicity. She flipped the snake fillets deftly, then removed them from the pan. In another minute she had a brownish sauce simmering in the leftover juices.
Zeke wandered toward the fire. His face seemed to lighten as the smoke touched his nose. “Never seen anyone do that…before,” he said, his bottom lip quavering. Felicity poured the sauce onto individual plates next to the filets. The mercenaries rushed to attention on either side of the table. “I don’t suppose they can eat all of it —” said Zeke and joined them.
Mom and Mariah stood at the table too. Guster never would have believed it if his own nose hadn’t told him, but it smelled delicious. “Hmph,” muttered Mom, shaking her head. “Using strong sauce to cover up bad meat.”
“One more thing,” said Felicity. She lopped off a few branches of what looked like palm leaves with the machete. In a flash, she wove the individual leaves together until they were a slender, canoe shaped basket. The Lieutenant placed a bunch of bananas he had just chopped off a nearby tree into her centerpiece.
“There. You have to make a house a home,” Felicity said. “Dinner is served.”
The mercenaries and Zeke dug into their food without hesitation. Riziki gobbled it down like a lion. Even Mom gave in and ate some. Guster tested it with the edge of this tongue. It was actually quite good. He ate three mouthfuls.
“Tomorrow we break camp at dawn. I want us to find those gorillas before midday is through,” Felicity said. She turned to Riziki. “Is that going to be a problem, tour guide?”
He looked up from his food, his lips smeared with stew, a surprised expression on his face. “Most certainly. I mean, most certainly not. I mean… of course. You will be very happy with your visit, I assure you,” said Riziki with a forced grin. He looked nervous. Guster sniffed the air. Riziki did not smell of spices. As eccentric as he was, he was certainly no Gastronimatii.
“Good,” said Felicity.
“If it’s that easy,” Mom replied.
Felicity cocked her head sideways in surprise. “What do you mean?” she asked. “There is no way the Gastronimatii followed us here. We’re hundreds of miles from civilization.”
Mom laughed. “The Gastronimatii are only half the danger,” she said. “Do you have any idea what horrors were guarding the first ingredient?”
Felicity looked like she didn’t know what to say. “No, Mrs. Johnsonville, I suppose I do not.”
“Let’s just say we should keep your mercenaries close,” said Mom.
Felicity’s eyes narrowed, and the two women locked gazes.
“While we’re on the subject of undiscovered secrets —” said Felicity. She pulled a small pad of paper and a pen from the Lieutenant’s front shirt pocket. She scrawled something on it, then slid it across the table
to Guster. “It’s a line from Archedentus’ original diary, commonly recited by those who were in his inner circle.” Guster read it:
That with a single taste,
The strong and mighty shall cease,
To lay their waste,
Consumed by the Gastronomy of Peace.
It was a cryptic poem. Who were the strong and mighty? How could a dessert consume anyone? If that’s what it could do, was he sure he wanted it? It was supposed to make whoever ate it feel peaceful, not destroy them. “Quite a recipe, then,” said Guster, trying to hide his anxiety.
“Perhaps Archedentus never made the One Recipe because he was afraid it would kill him,” Felicity said gravely.
“How could dessert kill anybody?” mumbled Zeke with his mouth full. He’d loaded his plate with a second mountain of snake meat.
“Gluttony comes to mind,” she said in Zeke’s direction.
“Like it’s so good, Guster couldn’t stop eating it, and his stomach would blow up and squirt out everywhere like you’d stomped on a sausage?”
Felicity did not answer. She merely cleared her plate.
Guster shivered. Whatever appeal the snake meat had was lost. Why did Felicity want the Gastronomy of Peace? She did not seem like the kind of person who cared about peace.
Riziki began to laugh uncontrollably. “You tourists! You tell such strange stories! I don’t know what kind of animal this ‘Gastromatter’ is, but if it is your liking we can avoid it altogether. We give good service here. That is why it is customary in my country to receive payment at the earliest moment possible,” he said, holding out his hand.
Felicity continued to clear the plates. “We’ll pay you when we see the gorillas,” she said.
Riziki shook his head. “Oh I am very sorry to say then that I will not be going a step further until payment is received and the transaction is complete,” he said, emphasizing the last word.
Felicity stood up, her face motionless. “Very well.” She snapped her fingers, and the Lieutenant handed her a wad of bills. “Here’s twenty-five percent of your payment, in US dollars,” she said, tossing the wad of bills on the table. “You get the other seventy-five percent when we reach the gorillas.”
Guster had never seen so much money in one place. Riziki snatched it up and counted it eagerly. He slid a bill out of the stack and held it up so he could examine it. “This one is ten years old,” he said, shaking his head and clicking his tongue disapprovingly.
“I can take it back,” said Felicity holding out her hand.
Riziki clutched the wad of cash close. “No, this is fine, thank you,” he said. He forced a smile.
“Dessert,” said the Lieutenant. He took candy bars from his backpack and handed one to everyone sitting at the table. Guster sniffed his, but it smelled too waxy, so he gave it to Zeke who stuffed it in his pocket.
He snatched one of the bananas from the basket centerpiece. They tasted even sweeter than the ones back in the village, so he wolfed it down. The snake meat had turned on him and now it felt like it was crawling around in his stomach. He was hungry, and he didn’t know how much longer he could survive on bananas alone. How many more days before he starved to death? He really, really hoped the Gastronomy of Peace could cure him — if they could find it at all.
The mercenaries cleared the rest of the plates, then Guster, Zeke, Mariah, Mom and Henry Junior — who had mushed banana all over his face — bedded down in one of the tents on the far side of the clearing. Guster squished toward the center of the tent to keep away from the outside where there might be bugs or snakes. Mom switched off a lantern that hung from the tent’s roof. “Good night, my dear children,” she said.
“Good night,” said Guster.
“Wait till Betsy hears about this,” said Zeke.
“Yeah. Thanks for the best vacation ever Mom,” said Mariah.
“You are welcome,” chuckled Mom nervously.
Guster thought it was funny that Mariah and Zeke would say such things, considering that they might not make it back to tell Betsy about their vacation at all.
Grunts and growls followed by the occasional roar came from the jungle on the other side of the tent.
It was quiet for a long time when Zeke turned to Guster and whispered, “Capital P, let’s make a promise that if a hyena attacks one of us, the other one will jump in and help fight it off.”
“What are you scared for? You’re the one who totally KO’ed those giant chickens. Hyenas don’t even have razor-sharp beaks,” Guster whispered back. Guster thought about how brave Zeke had been when he’d saved him. It got quiet.
“Zeke?” Guster said.
“Yeah?”
“I promise,” said Guster. He fell asleep, his dreams filled with the sounds of the jungle.
***
Hunger pangs woke Guster a few hours later. He stared at the ceiling of the tent, trying to fight it. It was getting worse.
He threw off his sleeping bag, quietly unzipped the tent door, and went outside. He half expected some hyena or rhinoceros to come charging out of the tangled wall of thick, black trees. The leaves and branches rustled and scraped together, though there was no wind. There was no telling what was in there.
He crossed the camp toward the table where the mercenaries had stored the food. He might even have some more of the sauce — without the meat of course. He especially wanted more bananas.
He crawled underneath the table where he’d seen the Lieutenant store the leftover rations in a metal cabinet. He felt in the dark for the latch, opened the door and began rummaging around inside. His hand passed over some plastic pouches and a few candy bars before he finally found a small package of mints.
“You told me that it was a rescue, not a kidnapping!” said a voice from the other side of the clearing. Guster froze. It was the Lieutenant. He and Felicity were facing the other way, staring off into the darkness.
“We adapted to the situation,” said Felicity.
“The way they tell it, they were on that ship by choice,” he said.
“Maybe. But if that boy really is the Harbinger of Peace, we need him more than he knows. He is responsible for a lot more than guarding the eggbeater. He, as the chosen Evertaster, will have to confirm the dish’s validity once it is made. He will be the first person in the history of the world to taste the Gastronomy of Peace.”
“Isn’t that what he wants?” asked the Lieutenant calmly.
“Yes. But the Gastronomy of Peace is still a mystery. No one knows what will happen to the person who eats it.”
“I thought you said it was his cure.”
“It is, if it doesn’t kill him first.”
“Then let’s take him home! Let’s keep him safe!”
Felicity laughed. “He’s an Evertaster, Lieutenant. If he’s got it as bad as I think he does, he’ll either join the Gastronimatii, or starve to death by his thirteenth birthday.”
They were quiet.
“You think it will really kill him?” asked the Lieutenant.
“Perhaps,” said Felicity. “It’s a bitter pill. I just don’t know.”
The jungle slithered all around them. First Felicity told Guster that the Gastronomy of Peace would cure him. Now she was saying it might kill him in the process. It was all an age-old experiment, and from the sound of it, Guster was the guinea pig.
“What about Mrs. Johnsonville?” asked the Lieutenant.
“She will have to do the thing which I cannot. I only hope she is ready for it.”
“Do they know?”
“I don’t think so. They never finished translating the recipe.”
“You’re not going to tell them, are you?”
Felicity shook her head. “I can’t take that chance. I can’t let them go on their own.”
The Lieutenant sighed. “I’m going to protect them,” he said.
“I would expect nothing less,” she said.
The two of them turned and walked toward their tents, right past the t
able. Guster lay down on the ground as flat as he could and held his breath. When they were gone, he let out a huge breath.
He didn’t understand. Was this recipe his cure or his death sentence? He was going to die if he didn’t eat it, but what if he did? If only they still had the eggbeater, then maybe Mariah could translate the rest and find answers.
He took a pair of bananas, snuck back to the tent and slipped inside. He shoved a few in his mouth, then settled down on his sleeping bag again, but it was no use — after what he’d heard, the best he could do was toss and turn the rest of the night.
Chapter 18 — The Sweetest Way
Guster awoke the next day to the sound of the troops speaking to Felicity. “Gone,” said the Lieutenant. “He vanished in the night.”
“Lions?” asked Felicity.
“Not likely Ma’am. We traced his tracks. He left on foot.”
Felicity pounded her fist into her hand. “I should never have trusted such an eager tour operator,” she said.
Guster unzipped the tent and stepped out. The morning was already hot. “Riziki?” he said.
“He tricked us!” said Felicity with a glare. Guster wanted to kick himself. He was the one who’d decided to bring Riziki along. Now what? They were deep in the jungle without a single clue to lead them to the gorillas.
Mom and the rest of the kids emerged from the tent as one of the jeeps zoomed off the dirt path from the north and came to a halt. “Ms. Casa, the settlements are few and far between,” said the driver of the jeep. “The villagers report that there are no gorillas in the area. In order to see them, we have to go all the way to Rwanda or Uganda.”
“Is that so?” said Felicity. She shot another glance at Guster. No wonder Riziki had been so hesitant back at the airport. He’d known all along he was leading them on a wild goose chase.
Felicity looked Guster squarely in the eye. “You chose this route Guster. The diamonds aren’t here.”
She turned to the jeep driver who had born the bad news. “Pack up camp, Private. We should have gone to Egypt in the first place,” she said. The men started to take down the tents.
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