Laura 01 The Jaguar Prophecy

by Anton Swanepoel

  Suddenly, lights can be seen in the distance. The four men in the Jeep are returning, having given up on finding the missing vehicle they had seen earlier.

  Victor runs down the road and takes a position in the bush 400 feet from the bus, reloading while running.

  He aims the pistol towards the road and waits.

  As the Jeep comes into view, he keeps his aim on the driver’s head, turning his body to keep following the Jeep. Victor shoots the driver in the head just as the Jeep passes him, causing the vehicle to veer left then right, and then sharply left before tipping over and rolling.

  Victor starts running towards the Jeep as soon as he fires the shot. The two men in the back are thrown clear and are lying in the road, moaning. Victor shoots each twice in the head as he passes them. Upon reaching the Jeep he finds the passenger pinned underneath, the roll cage saving him. For some reason the guy is wearing his seatbelt, and is hanging from it, not being able to unclip it. He looks up at Victor and says, “Fucking gringo.” It is the last thing he says before Victor shoots him twice in the head, once for each time he has said it.

  Victor calls to Laura to get their bags out of the truck and then join him at the suit’s Mercedes. The keys are in the ignition and as soon as Laura joins him he quickly climbs in behind the driver’s seat while she jumps in the passenger’s seat.

  The car is pointing in the wrong direction, so Victor turns the wheel all the way to the left and slams the car in drive while stepping on the accelerator. Smoke pours from the back wheels as they break traction and the rear end of the car slides around until the car is pointed in the direction of the airport, when Victor rights the steering and eases off the accelerator, letting the tires grip. The car launches forward and they speed off, needing to put as much distance between them and the scene as possible. Victor knows it will not be long before the roads will be crawling with police and roadblocks being set up.

  He has killed a General, possibly corrupt, but still a General, and his boss, possibly a drug lord, controlling the local army; it was not a good idea killing them.

  Victor guns the car, unleashing the big 5L V8 motor, and they do the last supposed six hours in two, finally reaching a sign saying “San Luis Airport”, where he pulls the car off the main road a distance from the side road leading to the airport.

  Taking his backpack from the car, Victor removes the gun and left over magazines from his bag. After releasing the lock on the fuel cap, he walks over to the fuel filler hole and opens the filler cap. He dumps the magazines into the pipe and into the gas tank, then takes the gun apart and dropped the slide and barrel into the filler pipe. Closing the cap again he starts walking towards the airport two miles away. They walk for a distance before Victor stops and throws the pistol frame into the bushes next to the road.

  “Why did you get rid of your gun?”

  “The police may have found the house full of bodies and it won’t be long before they find the dead pilot and the people alongside the road. They’ll be stepping up their inspections, even with private planes, and we won’t be able to bribe our way out if we get caught with the gun that killed all those people.”

  They walk the rest of the way in silence. The sun coming up makes for a stunning sunrise. The airport is a medium sized airport, with two runways and multiple buildings. Victor goes to the information desk and asks around for private planes that he can hire. After a while he is given a number and finds a phone booth to use. He calls the number and waits. The phone is answered within three rings by a friendly female voice. “Ola.”

  “Hello,” Victor replies.

  “Oh, hello, how can I help?”

  “We were given this number to call for hiring an airplane, do you rent out airplanes?” Victor is unsure about the number.

  “Oh, that is my son. Wait, I will call him.” Victor hears the woman call someone and after a moment hears a man’s voice.

  “You want to rent an airplane?”

  “Yes, can you take us immediately?” Victor wonders if this is another smuggler.

  “Yes, yes, where to?”

  “Peru.”

  “Where in Peru do you want to go?” Jose knows that if they wanted to go to Cusco or Lima he will not be able to take them.

  “We want to do a private tour to some of the ruins in the lost valley, starting with Vilcabamba and progressing on to the new ruin site that was found.” Victor is hoping that being so close to the lost valley, Jose will be able to take them there.

  “Yes, perfect, I have done it before, but we have to fly between the mountains. The valley is at about 5000 feet high, and the mountains stretch up to 20 000 feet in some places. You need a commercial airliner to fly over the top. I follow the river all the way in, very beautiful scenery,” comes Jose’s eager response.

  “Agreed,” Victor replies. There is a silence on the other end, and then Jose asks, uncertainty detectable in his voice, “How many people?”

  “Two, a romantic trip for me and my wife, we want it private.” Victor replies, hoping the man buys it.

  “Two thousand dollars each.” It is a bargain, but Victor knows if he just takes it without haggling, he will raise suspicion.

  “One thousand each.”

  “One and a half.”

  “Fine, but you handle the customs and get us through without needing to stand in long queues.”

  “Agreed. Where are you?” Comes the eager answer.

  “At San Luis Airport.” Victor is getting hopeful.

  “Ok, go to the departure area, I will meet you there in four hours, I will be wearing a blue shirt saying ‘Jose’s Travels’ on it.”

  “Four hours, we’ll be waiting.”

  Victor replaces the phone and takes Laura’s hand, trying to look like a normal couple. Together they walk to the departure area where they find it almost deserted save for two elderly people waiting to board a flight. Taking seats near the exit, they make themselves as comfortable as they can and try to get some sleep, but are unable to. Just under four hours later a man comes up to them wearing a blue shirt.

  “You called for a plane?”

  Victor notes the lettering on his shirt, “Jose’s Travels” with a small plane flying around the lettering.

  “Yes, name’s John, this is Sue.”

  “Nice to meet you, I am Jose. Come with me, I will help you through customs.” Jose is a young man in his mid 20s, with dark tanned skin and long black hair. He is about five feet three and of medium build.

  They follow Jose to a window where an old lady is sitting, drinking tea. Jose greets her, but she only mumbles something about him needing to follow protocol and go away.

  He talks to her for a few minutes, promising her a few favors until finally she puts her teacup down. Jose quickly asks for their passports and gives them to the lady, asking her again nicely to stamp the passports while on her tea time.

  It is then that Victor realizes that they had never had their passports stamped when they arrived in Colombia, how are they going to explain trying to get out if they never came in? He takes Laura’s hand and slowly backs away from the window, but just then the old lady looks up from inspecting their passports and stares intently at him. Victor smiles and steps forward again. The lady looks him up and down, and then turns her gaze to Laura. The seconds tick by. Slowly she picks up the two passports and looks from each passport photo to them. Suddenly she drops the passports onto the desk and reaches for something on the desk, and before Victor can say anything she stamps the passports.

  Picking up her tea again, she hands the passports to Jose without saying a word or looking up, intent on completing her crossword puzzle she was working on before Jose disturbed her. Victor can hear a sigh of relief from Laura as they turn and walk away.

  Jose takes them to a separate scanner where his cousin is working and, after showing the stamped passports, they are allowed through without being scanned or their bags checked.

  “This is too easy,” Victor whispers to La
ura.

  “You are just being paranoid.”

  They come to a waiting area with a glass wall. There are several small planes parked outside.

  “That one is mine,” Jose says, pointing to a Piper PA-28 Pathfinder Cherokee airplane. It is a single engine 235 horsepower plane, with a maximum speed of around 160 miles an hour with a ceiling of just over 13 000 feet. She has a 62 gallon fuel tank, giving a range of just over 500 miles.

  “Come, let’s go,” Jose eagerly says and turns to walk towards the glass door. As he turns, he walks directly into a man wearing a General’s uniform. The man has a long mustache and a scar running down his left cheek. Behind him are four more men in uniform, all armed with automatic weapons. Victor looks around and sees that there are six more men in uniform approaching them from the scanner they had just come through.

  “Passports please,” the General asks, holding his hand out to Victor, who reluctantly hands over their passports. The General looks at each passport carefully, studying every page intently, then hands them to a man behind him.

  “My name is General Conzales, I am not sure if you are aware of four separate incidents that have occurred in the last 24 hours, involving a man and woman fitting your description?”

  Victor shakes his head and the General continues.

  “Apparently a man attacked a waiter at his work, who happens to be General Peppy’s son, who turned up dead with some of his top staff next to Hernandez, the largest drug lord and human trafficker in the world, on the road to this airport.

  “In another incident, the house where Hernandez kept the women he had abducted was hit, and all his men killed and the women freed. They say a handsome hero saved them.

  “We also found a pilot dead by his plane at a small airport half a day’s ride from here, long believed to have been involved with smuggling drugs, guns and women, but we have never been able to prove anything.

  “I was working under the corrupt General Peppy, and now that he is dead with Hernandez, I am assuming command as General. I notice you have no entry stamp for Colombia in your passport. Do you have any knowledge of these happenings?”

  Jose stands back and looks at Victor intently.

  “It is you! I thought I recognized you. I was on the bus, you saved us.” He throws his arms around Victor and hugs him. Victor never thought that he would be betrayed by someone he had helped.

  “Thought so,” General Conzalas says, then continues, “Jose, step back.”

  “Yes Dad.”

  Victor and Laura both look in surprise from Jose to Conzales and back.

  “Yes, he is my son. He managed to steal a large amount of money from Hernandez and tried to smuggle it out of the country, but he was betrayed and they stopped the bus he was on. Then you came and changed everything.” General Conzales steps forward as he speaks and takes Victor’s hand and shakes it.

  “Thank you, you saved our country and many lives. We are currently rounding up all the drug smugglers, corrupt politicians, and police, including many of Hernandez’s men who created and smuggled drugs for him. Some are now even coming forward and giving themselves up.”

  He then turns to the man he gave the passports to and says, “Make sure they have the correct entry stamps in their passports.” The man nods and runs off to one of the customs booths, where he takes a stamp, changes the date and stamps each passport, then signs them. He then brings the passports back to the General, who hands them to Victor while asking, “Can you fly that plane?” Victor nods yes. “Take it, I need Jose here to help me rebuild things. We are indebted to you.” Victor thanks him.

  Jose steps forward and tugs on Victor’s shirt, pulling him slightly away from the group. “I need to tell you how to get to Vilcabamba.”

  “Ok, what route should I fly?”

  “The mountains are too high for you to fly over. I made the trip once after studying aerial photographs of the mountains. You need to fly between the mountains, staying in the valleys.

  “I have already reloaded the route and waypoints I used when I made the trip, simply follow all the waypoints and turn into each valley as indicated on the GPS, and you will be fine.”

  “What happens if I miss a waypoint?”

  “Victor, my friend, then you owe me a plane in our next life.”

  “Understood, I will bring her back safely once I have finished with my business in Peru.”

  “Good, I look forward to hearing some stories of how you managed to take care of all those people by yourself.”

  “Deal, but I did not do it all by myself, she helped a lot,” Victor nods towards Laura as he speaks, who is now approaching them slowly. Jose’s eyes widen when he hears Victor’s response.

  “Is she good with a gun?” Jose quickly asks before Laura is within earshot.

  “Actually she prefers to use her hands, twist a man’s head with one move and break his neck, snap and it’s over.” Laura hears the last bit but acts as if she had not.

  “Are you two done talking by yourselves or do I need to get rough before we can leave?” Laura places her arm around Jose’s neck playfully and pulls him close to her as she speaks.

  “We are done, we are done. Have a safe flight,” Jose blurts out, looking pleadingly at Victor for help, who nods to Laura to release Jose. Slowly Laura slides her arm off Jose and then turns around and walks towards the glass door.

  “That was close,” Victor says while walking forward and slapping Jose on the shoulder.

  Jose just stands there frozen, not sure if they are joking or not. Victor then shakes Jose’s hand, thanking him for his help and saying goodbye.

  After saying goodbye to Jose, he walks over to the door where Laura is waiting for him and opens it for her. As they step out onto the tarmac, the hot humid air greets them.

  “You are so mean,” Laura comments smilingly as they make their way to the airplane.

  “And you did not like playing along?”

  Laura bursts out laughing and replies, “I loved it, it was so cool.” Just then they reach the plane and Victor notices the name on the side of the plane, “Dream Catcher”, tail number “ASIN1”. He loads the backpack and suitcase on the back seats and climbs into the pilot’s seat, and then waits for Laura to climb in and secure her seatbelt.

  After checking that all the fluid levels are ok and the controls work, he starts the engine and calls the air traffic controller.

  “San Luis Ground Control, this is Alfa September Indigo November One, requesting permission to take off.”

  “Alfa September Indigo November One, this is San Luis Ground Control. You are cleared for take off on runway two, have a nice flight.” Victor recognizes the voice as that of the new General Conzales. Taxiing the plane to the runway marked “2” Victor gives Laura a smile and opens up the throttle. The plane lifts off after 800 feet, and Victor takes her up to 12 000 feet where he engages the autopilot.

  “Are we flying to Lima and then to Cusco?” Laura asks.

  “No, Lima is at close to 12 000 feet altitude, almost the maximum altitude level of this plane, we will be lucky if we clear the mountains. We are heading directly to the lost city. They have tourist facilities there now, we will be able to land on a normal road with this plane.” Laura nods and looks at the ground passing beneath them, it is all so beautiful to her, coming from the city.

  “Tell me a bit about yourself, where did you grow up and how did you get into all of this?” Laura turns in her seat to face Victor and puts her left arm over the back of her seat, resting her chin on her arm.

  “Born in South Africa, grew up partly on a farm and partly in the outskirts of the city.”

  “Were you born in a big hospital?” Laura chips in. Victor laughs, and then replies, “Actually I was born in a monastery hospital with nuns as nurses, it was the only one left of its kind at the time.” Laura’s eyes widened. “Wow,” is all she can manage.

  “Entered the army after school, wanted to stay in the army but was approached by a General
who offered me a different life. Although he was in the army, it was only his cover. His actual mission was to recruit members for a special worldwide organization. The organization does freelance work for anyone with the right money, normally governments when they want a job done but keep their hands clean. I left them a year ago to go solo.”

  “How long did you work for them and where?” Laura is now intrigued. Victor just smiles, but says nothing.

  “You’re not going to tell me?” Laura is a bit disappointed.

  “Not now, maybe another day.” Victor checks the electronic map system to make sure they are still on course.

  “How did you know we will not be able to fly to Lima?” Laura is wondering if Jose also deals in human trafficking by offering to take them to Peru when his plane cannot do it.

  “Jose told me before we left. There is a small airfield near Vilcabamba in the city of Santa Teresa that we can land at. The Peruvian government wants to promote tourism and is building an airport there. Although the airport is not finished, they have finished two runways to allow them to fly in building material directly, easier than trekking it up the mountain and through the jungle by trucks.

  “From there we can go by foot to the lost city.”

  Laura takes her sandals off, then puts her feet on the plane’s dash while looking out the side window, admiring the landscape below.

  After several hours, Victor checks the GPS monitor and notes that they are nearing their first waypoints on the map, indicating where Victor needs to turn. There are multiple paths with multiple valleys splitting off and he has to choose between the different valleys. Choosing the wrong valley will mean a date with the side of a mountain. If he makes one wrong turn, the airplane will not be able to fly high enough to clear the mountain and the space in the valleys is too small for them to turn around in.

  Laura and Victor both marvel at the stunning view they have, forest below them, and mountains in the distance, their tops shrouded in the clouds.