“They’re certainly not inside the building,” Professor Castillo said.
“Maybe they put them someplace else.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Cassie put in. “There’s plenty of room downstairs and if this was their base of operations, then that’s where they’d be better protected.”
“True,” the professor agreed. “Which only leaves us with two possibilities, as I see it: either someone else took them away, or else somehow the Nazis managed to get them out of here themselves.”
“The first one’s pretty unlikely,” Claudio said as he doodled on the mud with a twig. “If someone had taken away the boxes, they’d have taken the journals too.”
“That’s true,” Cassie agreed. “And that only leaves the other option: that somehow the Nazis managed to get them out of here themselves.”
“That’s obvious, sweetie,” Valeria retorted with her usual animosity. “The question is how and where to.”
“By plane it would have been impossible,” the professor hastened to put in before Cassie could fire off some angry retort to his daughter. “Cargo planes in the forties wouldn’t have had the range to get here, and helicopters hadn’t even been invented.”
“Well, we know the Xingu isn’t navigable,” Angelica pointed out.
“So that leaves us just overland transport,” Valeria concluded. “They must have walked.”
Cassandra laughed, rather too loudly. “Are you serious? You make it sound like a stroll across the park. Not to mention the fact that Germany and Brazil were on opposite sides during the war.”
The sun was nicely warming my face and drying the permanent humidity of the place out of my clothes. When I decided to intervene I did not even bother to raise my head, but instead remained comfortably stretched out with my hands behind my head.
“I think I know how the Nazis got here,” I said. I raised my voice so they could hear me. “And how they got the sample boxes out of here.”
For a moment all five waited for me to continue.
“And are you going to tell us for free, or do you expect us to pay you?” the professor asked when he saw I was not saying any more.
“They got them out by air,” I said still squinting at the sky.
“That’s impossible! I’ve already explained about the planes at the beginning of the century—”
“I don’t think it was planes they used,” I interrupted him.
I did not actually see his face, but all the same, I knew the professor was frowning and crossing his arms.
“So what are you suggesting?” Cassandra asked. “Flying saucers? Mythological birds?”
“Not exactly.” I raised my head just enough to see the skeptical look on their faces. “It’s something much simpler, something well-known. The clue was in the room where they kept all the supplies.”
The few minutes of hesitation were finally broken by Valeria swearing unexpectedly. “Of course! the hydrogen”
“First prize for the blue-eyed girl.” I gave her a wink from above.
Claudio looked from one to the other, apparently bewildered. “What are you talking about?”
Valeria explained: “They got the boxes out by air, but not on planes or”—she glanced at Cassie—“flying saucers. They used hydrogen airships. They were a symbol of Nazi Germany, after all. They had enough range to reach any part of the world. They could also stop at will, and what’s more, they were capable of transporting heavy cargo. How come I didn’t think of it myself?” She looked in my direction and bowed graciously. “Mister Vidal, you’ve earned yourself my most sincere admiration.”
I returned the gesture with a nod while I could not help focusing on the beautiful features of the professor’s daughter. She was also looking at me with an interest which, it seemed to me, was something more than academic.
“We have to get those notebooks” Valeria said for the third time, bringing up a subject I had thought we had done with. “You know that as well as I do.”
She, her father, and Claudio had formed a common front and were trying to convince Cassie, Angelica, and me of the overwhelming need to rescue those notebooks. Cassie and Angelica were undecided, but I was firmly against it.
“It’s madness,” I insisted. “Those thugs are looking for us, and not exactly to say hello.”
“That’s precisely why,” the professor argued. I guess he was trying to show his daughter he was capable of something daring. “The last place they’ll expect to find us is at their camp.”
“Doc, this kind of logic only works in B-movies,” I replied as patiently as I could. “Don’t kid yourself, at least two or three of them will be watching while the rest search for us.”
“There are six of us,” Claudio said shyly.
I looked at him for a moment and mentally compared him with those armed gorillas he was setting out to confront. I did not even deign to reply.
“Whichever way, we just have to get hold of them,” Valeria repeated stubbornly. “They’re the only clue that can lead us to the archeological finds that would tell us the truth about this civilization.”
“I thought we already knew that,” I said, remembering everything we had discovered.
The Argentinian shook his head. “We’ve only unraveled a small part. Shreds of a complex enigma which we could only begin to solve if we got back the objects we think the Germans took away from here. And for that, we need the notebooks.”
“I don’t care if you need a chorus line of dancers! The answer is still no.”
“We’re in the majority here.” He pointed at both sides, one thumb at Valeria and the other at the professor.
“This isn’t a democracy.”
“Oh, isn’t it?” Valeria retorted, arms akimbo. “Are you trying to say that your opinion is worth more than ours?”
“It’s certainly more sensible. It’s not me who wants to rob a group of mercenaries who’re armed to the teeth.”
“Maybe it’s worth the risk,” Cassandra said unexpectedly. She stepped across to the group of would-be suicide victims. “I know how dangerous it could be, but just think of everything we’ve gone through. It would all have been completely pointless if we were to leave empty-handed.”
“And even more pointless if you left without hands…”
She did not answer, but knowing her, I was sure she was not going to give in once she had made her decision.
Then Valeria gave a long look at Angelica who, with her head down and hands in her pockets, stepped over to the enemy as she glanced at me apologetically.
Five to one. Obviously persuasiveness was not one of my virtues.
“You’re like the orchestra on the Titanic,” I grumbled. “What we should really be doing is getting out of here as if we had rockets in our pants! And if you want to come back, do it later with the cavalry and then study this place at leisure.”
“We already told you last night that it’s impossible,” Valeria said. “The Morcegos won’t let us leave.”
“And even if we did,” the professor said, “it would be too late by then. Everything would be underwater because of the dam and there wouldn’t be anything left to study.”
“But if we did,” I insisted, “we could explain what we’ve discovered here and get them to stop flooding the reservoir. We might even get them to empty it again.”
“Without proof?” Valeria asked. She gave a tired smile. “They wouldn’t pay any attention to us and they’d called us lunatics, or frauds. We need those notebooks. It’s the only way of tracing the things they took away, so that we could show them as evidence that this place exists.” And to show her determination she added: “I’m not leaving without them, no matter what.”
Nobody said anything, but I knew that for one reason or another they all agreed with her. Claudio and Cassie because they were archeologists, Angelica perhaps out of loyalty or contract obligation, and Professor Castillo… well, it was obvious he wasn’t going to let his daughter out of sight, even if she were
to jump into a volcano.
So, there I was, absolutely convinced that it would be like jumping into a shark-filled pool disguised as a baby seal, but unable to convince them otherwise. And unfortunately, equally unable to leave them to their fate.
“Anyway,” Valeria said in a more conciliatory tone, “as long as the mercenaries are looking for us by day and the Morcegos are lurking by night, there’s no way we can leave. Even if we managed to leave the city we couldn’t get too far.” I knew she was thinking about the two other members of their team, who had tried to escape only to appear in pieces after a couple of days. “So it won’t make much difference if we take another risk and try to get those notebooks back. You said it yourself last night, we should make them confront each other.” She came very close to me and took my arm gently as her blue eyes sought to bend me to her will. “I’m only suggesting that while we’re doing that, we get back the notebooks as well.”
I found her insistence on getting hold of those notebooks, which might turn out to be completely worthless, absurd and obsessive. But I could not think of any way of making her understand.
Making an effort, I tore my eyes from her. I looked first at Cassie, then at the professor. “I’m not going to be able to persuade you to forget all about it, am I?”
Both of them shook their heads.
“Right then…” I threw back my head and gave a snort. “There might… just be a way...” I lowered my gaze and looked at my five scruffy comrades in arms.
Valeria’s eyes opened wide. “Seriously? Do you have a plan?”
“More or less…” I said, regretting my words as soon as they left my mouth.
I was still thinking it was a terrible mistake that we would end up regretting. Still, I could not just ignore their fate. If we were going to weather the storm, I would rather be the one at the helm when we did it.
So, even though all the alarms in the world were ringing in my head, I ignored them and began to explain the daring plan I had started to fabricate in my mind.
Hours later, I cursed myself for not having paid more attention to those signs.
If I had, all of us would still be alive.
70
“Are you out of your mind?” That was Professor Castillo’s first reaction when I finished presenting my idea.
“Crazy as a loon,” Cassie agreed dispiritedly. “You’re as crazy as a pinche loon.”
The other three watched me warily, not daring to be so bold on such a recent acquaintance. Still, they gave me that particular look which tends to be reserved for people who walk around with a funnel on their head and their hands between their shirt buttons, shouting orders to their soldiers to launch an attack on the left flank of Wellington’s infantry.
“Do you seriously believe it can work?” Valeria asked at last, trying to hide the scorn in her voice.
“If you can think of anything better,” I said, leaning on the remains of an old column with my arms crossed, “I’m all ears.”
“But surely,” Angelica said with a twisted grin when she finally realized I was serious, “what you’re proposing is extremely dangerous and rather… what’s the word?”
“Absurd,” Claudio put in shaking his head. “I never heard such nonsense before. Es una boludez!”
“Wow,” I said, amused. “I can see you really love the idea.”
“Have you listened to yourself?” the professor said. “Even though it’s coming from you, it sounds insane!” Do you really believe what you’re saying?”
“Sanity is overrated,” I objected with a smile. “And with a little bit of luck we could solve all our problems in one go.”
“… a little bit of luck?” Cassie said arching her eyebrows.
“Come on, you’re the ones who’re determined to get those Nazi notebooks back. All I’m proposing is a way of doing it and at the same time trying to get us out of all this in one piece.”
“No, Ulysses. What you’re proposing is a Russian roulette.”
I can’t brag about my patience: so many objections were getting on my nerves.
“Let’s see…” I passed my hand over my face wearily. “I understand the risk perfectly well. It’ll be very dangerous, and the possibility of something going wrong is so high it’s not worth even mentioning. In fact, it’s most likely that we’ll all end up dead, but as I see it, we only have two options.” I paused before going on. “We either sit here waiting till the construction thugs or the Morcegos find us sooner rather than later and slaughter us like lambs… or we take the bull by the horns and gamble. In the worst case scenario, if nothing comes out right, well…” I shrugged. “We’ll just be speeding things up a bit…”
The silence that followed my brief speech showed that deep down they all more or less felt the same way.
The professor hesitated, not yet fully convinced. “Well, I…”
To my surprise it was his own daughter who laid her hand on his shoulder to silence him. “And what exactly is it you want us to do?”
It took us an hour to agree on who would do what and in what order. This was essential if the complex plan I had in mind was to succeed.
There were many times when they shook their heads and raised their arms in disbelief, but in the end they humored me as if I were a lunatic. When at last we added the final touches to that unlikely script, there were only a few hours left before nightfall. So, we set our watches at zero and started off. Each of us was to carry out a particular part of the plan.
In my case, it was something very close to self-sacrifice.
71
Using the undergrowth to hide, I crawled through the mud with the professor and Cassie following. We were trying not to make a sound as we approached the mercenaries’ camp.
When we were at about fifty yards away, on land that was still dry, I raised my head carefully and counted four of them, including Souza, sitting in a circle. They were eating freeze-dried food, apparently at ease and unaware of our presence.
“There are two I can’t see,” I whispered looking back. “They must be on watch somewhere.”
“Or else the Morcegos had them for dinner,” Cassie suggested.
“Whatever it is, be very careful. You know what you have to do.”
“It’s you who must be careful, Ulysses,” the professor warned. “I still think what you’re planning is madness.”
“Yeah,” I said with a knot in my throat. “Still, I’d rather be hung for a sheep than for a lamb, right?” I forced myself to smile one of those everything-will-be-just-fine smile. Although judging by the expressions on my friends’ faces, it must have looked more like: I’m an idiot and I have no idea what I’m doing.
Then I felt a familiar warmth on my hand. I saw Cassie’s on it, holding it hard.
She did not say anything, but there was no need.
Nor did I.
We simply looked at each other. No words were needed to express what we felt.
Then, without looking back, I slipped away through the bushes, leaving behind two of the people I loved most in this world. And whom I would quite possibly never see again.
Crawling on my belly like a snake and praying that I would not come face to face with a real one, I took advantage of the blind spot beside the tents to get near the camp without being seen.
There was still some time before evening fell and the shadows lengthened, but the forest dusk and my coat of mud and grime of several days—I’d lost count of how many—made me feel safe from discovery. It was more likely that they perceived my smell before they saw me.
The voices of the mercenaries sounded unworried. I felt sure they could not even imagine I was less than ten yards away from them, hiding behind one of their tents. Extremely careful, on all fours, trying not to step on any dry twig that might give me away, I slid as far as the next tent, then the next, each time coming closer to the mouth of the cave.
But just then, when I was getting to my feet ready to go on into the darkness of the cave, the slightest o
f noises made me look behind. The next thing I saw was a steel butt coming fast toward my face.
“Well, well,” Souza said. He was standing over me, arms akimbo, as I kneeled with my hands tied behind my back. “Look who’s here.” He crouched and raised my chin to force me to look at his face. “Did you miss us, then?”
The left side of my face hurt like hell, and when I opened my mouth I thought the blow had broken my cheekbone.
“I wanted to see…” I muttered painfully, “whether you had a phone I could use, to call my mother and tell her I won’t be coming home for dinner.”
The commanding chief smiled cynically as he unsheathed an enormous knife and put it to my throat.
“I should kill you right now for what you did to Luizao,” he said in an icy voice as he pressed the knife against my windpipe.
“It wasn’t us,” I whispered. I could feel the cold steel blade cut through my skin. “It was the Morcegos.”
Souza squinted his eyes without releasing the pressure.
“The Morcegos? Do you think a children’s story is going to get you out of this?”
“You’re wrong. They’re real and they’re here, even though they only come out at night.”
“Uh-uh. Like ghosts, how spooky.” He waved his hands in the air. “So, I guess the disappearance of another of my men last night is also the Morcegos’ fault.” Souza’s face was screaming that he did not belief a word of what I had said. “And of course, you had nothing to do with it, did you?”
I looked up, trying to convince him with my eyes. “I don’t know what happened to your man… but I swear it wasn’t us.”
The reply to that came in the shape of a size 12 military boot, kicking my stomach hard. “The reason I’m not killing you right now,” he said with contained fury, “is because I want you to tell me where the others are.”
“What others?”
Another brutal kick, this time below the stomach.
BLACK CITY (Ulysses Vidal Adventure Series Book 2) Page 31