by Dale Mayer
“So they may want to have a talk with me about where the platinum is located?”
He nodded. “You just happened to fall into their lap, but they didn’t get a chance to question you.”
“No,” she said. “But they left me with my backpack, so how does that work?”
“They left your backpack? They took the rest of your gear but left you that one?”
She nodded and pointed to the small bag on the side of the room. “It’s got my laptop and a few other things inside.”
Immediately he got up and walked to the bag and said, “I hadn’t realized they had taken it away and then gave it back to you.”
“Well, they did, and, because it was all rocks, I don’t think they cared. Outside of my mini laptop, that is. But I didn’t have my battery in my laptop either, so, if they tried to turn it on, it wouldn’t have.”
“Well, of course, they would care about a laptop,” he said, frowning. “That makes no sense.”
She stared at him, hating her sudden sinking feeling. “Do you think they’re tracking us?”
“That would make them extremely advanced,” he said slowly as he worked his way through the contents of her backpack. “But maybe not all that advanced.” He pulled out a small handheld device.
“Well, that’s not mine. What is that?”
“Something they can track you with,” he said, leaning back and staring at it.
She groaned. “So, even right now, they know where we are?”
He quickly took it apart and then grabbed the glass of water sitting on the tray. He dropped in a small black piece of it. “Well, they did,” he said, “but now they don’t. Not for sure. Except that we are still here.”
“Doesn’t there have to be a reason though for someone to track us? Why would the guerrillas bother? I’m sure that’s not necessary. I’m not a big fish to them.”
“No, but if the guerrillas are getting more business-oriented every day,” he said, “it’s quite possible that they are trying to stay mainstream or go mainstream. So letting you go without getting all the information that you might know was an opportunity that they didn’t want to pass them by. So they could ask you later when they had further questions.”
She shook her head. “But they were kids. Everyone older we saw were young adults, late teens even …”
His gaze was straight as he studied her face. “Adults will be behind all this. Someone’s keeping it organized and running smoothly. Likely a big organization. And it’ll be those men who are looking beyond what the guerrillas can do now.”
“Particularly if they have met and paired up in any way with another massive organization, like the drug trade,” she said, catching on all too quickly.
“Or the gold-mining trade,” he said, nodding, “because most of what is mined is done illegally. I’m sure an awful lot of security is needed to keep the gold flowing. They’d be a perfect match for that.”
“So pair up or the guerrillas are taking it?”
“Possibly.” He paused. “My initial thought is that the guerrillas planted this tracker on you because you said they asked you about the gold mining in the area.”
“Right.” She shook her head. “I’m not searching for that here.”
“So,” Ryker continued, pointing at the tracker, “they could see if your actions confirmed your words. As long as you didn’t stumble across a gold-mining operation, they might leave you alone.”
“My God, that could have happened easily enough. We’d look guilty as hell and would be innocent nonetheless.”
“Could be another geologic group.”
“Right, but I’d think I hear of it, or Global would have, whether legal or illegal,” she said, leaning back with a heavy sigh. “It really doesn’t make it very easy to even mine in Colombia, does it?”
“Not with their current war-torn state. And not likely without an agreement with the guerrillas.” He nodded. “But that doesn’t mean that you’re off the hook.”
“So,” she said, “the sooner we’re out of here, the better.”
“Absolutely.”
Just then another knock was at the door. He got up and walked over, then tapped once slightly. Another tap came on the other end. He glanced at her and said, “It’s Miles.” She nodded and picked up her coffee, then waited for Miles to join them.
As Miles stepped out onto the small balcony with them, he smiled at her and said, “Don’t you look a lot better.”
“A lot better,” she admitted as she stared down at her dress. “And this is, of course, thanks to Ryker.”
“Makes sense to me,” Miles said. “I did laundry myself, and I’m still wearing slightly wet clothing.”
She noted he wore a black T-shirt and black jeans. “Won’t the black attract the heat too?”
“But I can walk around town a little bit easier in these.”
“And speaking of which,” she said, her gaze going from one to the other, “how’s Pablo?” She saw them both hesitate. “Tell me,” she said. “What’s the matter?”
Ryker walked to the small table and pulled out a spare chair for Miles, then sat back down again. “Well, we’d like to think that Pablo is okay, but he wasn’t at the hospital when I checked.”
She leaned forward to stare at him in shock. He smiled and then grabbed her fingers and said, “Now that doesn’t mean he’s died, and it doesn’t mean that the guerrillas came and stole him away either.”
“What does it mean?”
“It means, after breakfast, we’ll talk to a different group and see what happened to him,” he said. “Nobody could tell us anything.”
She sat back and pinched her lips together.
“Remember. He survived an awful lot already. I doubt he died overnight.”
“He was in a really ugly shape,” she said quietly. “I would not be surprised if he passed in the night.”
“Well, let’s hope not,” Miles said. “We went to a lot of effort to keep him alive.”
She nodded. “And I guess we can blame the guerrillas for that loss too, if that’s the case.”
“I’d say his uncle as much as anything,” Ryker said. “I’d love to get the uncle’s name and pass on the word as to what he did, but I don’t think it’ll do a bit of good in this place.”
He watched as she turned to stare out at the ocean, the joy and the holiday spirit now gone as the reality of what they had survived settled in. She looked at Miles. “Is Andy okay?”
Miles nodded. “I just spoke to him. He’ll join us soon.”
She winced and looked around at her laundry. “Well, let me check and see if all this is dry.” She hopped up, quickly checked and snatched up the few pieces hanging around.
“Leave the jeans until later,” Ryker said.
She nodded and headed back inside to the bathroom to dress further.
Miles looked at him. “Got in deep pretty fast, didn’t you?”
“I did,” Ryker said. His tone was short and terse. “Don’t read too much into it.”
“Not reading anything into it,” he said cheerfully. “But it doesn’t mean that there won’t be some repercussions.”
“True,” he said, “but I can’t say I’m too interested in an ugly fallout.”
“Doesn’t have to be an ugly fallout,” Miles said. “Depends on what you want.”
“Is it wrong to say, all of it?”
“I don’t know. All of it is asking for a bit much but, as long as you two are on the same page, then maybe not.”
Chapter 10
Manila came out of the bathroom with a few more pieces of clothing on, feeling better with her underwear and less conspicuous and vulnerable. It’s not that she didn’t trust both Miles and Ryker. It just felt more normal. As she sat back down again, Ryker poured her another coffee, and she took a sip, then shuddered and quickly added cream.
Miles chuckled. “It takes a bit of getting used to, doesn’t it?”
She nodded. “That it does. So now what?�
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“I’ll check on Pablo again,” Miles said.
She nodded. “He damn well better be there,” she exclaimed. “That’s just terrible if he isn’t.”
“No point in getting ahead of ourselves now,” Ryker said. “I also need to send out some more messages and see what was lined up for our trip home.”
“I was thinking it’d be nice to stay here,” she said, “but you’re making it sound like that’s not happening.”
“You have to consider that somebody here could be willing to send a message to the guerrillas that you’re still around and maybe that you are more valuable than they had originally thought,” Miles said. “Or that sympathizers here may have had some family in the guerrillas. So they may take our interactions with the guerrillas more personally. It’s really hard to know.”
“Right,” she said. She stared at the beautiful vista. “It looks like such a beautiful holiday location, but really the same dark depths lurk below.”
“Absolutely,” he said. “We also don’t know anything about what the guerrillas were after or why they were after you and how far they’re willing to go.”
“Well, there’s that,” she said, as she motioned at the water glass and the black spot in it. “Ryker found that in the backpack they allowed me to keep.”
Ryker nodded and said, “I told him.”
She wrinkled up her face. “Right. What about Andy and Benjamin?”
“When I brought the gear back—no trackers in any of that by the way—I did talk to Andy a little bit,” Miles said. “He’s feeling better.”
She brightened. “That would be nice. He’s a good kid. What about Benjamin though? Anybody checked in with him this morning?”
“Not me,” Miles said.
Ryker shook his head. “Neither did I.”
She sagged in her chair. “We should disturb him and wake him up in the process, as it’s the only way to make sure he’s even there.”
“We’ll assume he’s there,” Ryker said.
“Sure,” she whispered, “but that’s not necessarily the truth.” She stared down at the food and asked, “Miles, did you want a piece?”
He nodded and grabbed one-half himself. Ryker grabbed another half piece too.
She put a half on her plate and watched as the men finished theirs off. “I need real food more than sugar,” she said.
“Sugar is good for energy though,” Miles said. “It’s just that we burn through it very quickly.”
“Right,” she said. “I wouldn’t mind walking around this little village. Maybe find a little restaurant.” She gave them both a hopeful smile.
“And that part’s not happening,” Ryker said, his tone was firm. “We can’t take the chance of anybody else here letting the guerrillas know of your presence.”
Just then another knock came on the door. Miles hopped up and walked over to let Andy in.
As soon as Manila saw Andy, she jumped to her feet, ran forward and gave him a big hug.
He held her close and said, “Wow, I’m so glad that shit’s over with.”
She beamed up at him and motioned at the table. “Come join us.”
He looked at the empty plate, and his face fell. “Like, I’m seriously empty,” he said. “I need food.”
“You can have the half on my plate, if you want,” she said, motioning at the piece she had yet to start. He immediately snatched it up and ate it in two bites. “You are hungry,” she said in surprise.
“I wasn’t kidding when I said I’m empty,” he admitted.
“Well, I’ll head down and see about Pablo,” Miles said with a wave.
“I sure hope he had a good night,” Andy said.
“We don’t even know where he is,” Miles said. “When we were there earlier this morning, they couldn’t tell us anything about him, other than he wasn’t there at the hospital.”
Andy stared at him in shock. “But where else would he be?”
“I don’t know,” Miles said. “I’m about to find out.” He motioned at Ryker and said, “I’ll bring food back too.”
“I’ll come with you right now,” Ryker said. “Give me five, Andy. I’ll load up on the coffee and some treats as it’ll be at least an hour or longer before Miles get back.” Then he turned to look at the two of them and said, “Do not leave this room. Do you hear me?”
She nodded slowly and said, “Take care.”
“I’m going downstairs,” he said. “I’ll be back in ten.”
He stepped out with Miles into the hallway.
“I didn’t think they’d leave us alone,” she said.
“Is it that bad?”
“There was a tracker in my backpack,” she explained. “Maybe Alejandro put it in my bag, in case we got lost.”
He stared at her in shock. “What?” Then he stopped, stared, as if processing, and then nodded. “That’s a hell of a good idea.”
“So, I don’t know if the guides or the guerrillas were really bad at using it or if it was damaged somehow on the trip. Maybe it didn’t like the humidity. I don’t know,” she said. “But the bottom line is, if it’s working, anyone who knows it’s there could know exactly where we are. That includes the guerrillas, since they went through our bags. However, they may not know what they were looking at.”
Andy reached up a shaky hand and ran it through his still damp hair and whispered, “This is just too unbelievable.”
“Let me tell you all their different theories,” she said with a half laugh. And she ran through everything that Miles and Ryker had discussed so far. “But Ryker thinks the guerrillas left the tracker to see if we headed for any gold-mining camps. If so, they would have come after us.”
When she ran dry, Andy stared at her in shock and said, “I want to go home.”
“Me too,” she said. “Me too.”
Just then came a knock on the door. She hopped up, but Andy reached out a hand and said, “Let me.”
She sank back down and nodded. “It’ll be Ryker,” she said. “It’s probably time for him to be back with coffee.” And she would cheerfully drink another pot. It was so good. Strong but good. She settled back to enjoy the view around her. But then she heard another male voice and turned to see Benjamin walking through the hotel room. She smiled up at him. “Wow, don’t you look much better.” But, in truth, he didn’t.
He still looked edgy and pissed off. He slumped into the chair closest to her and said, “What the hell? How long have you been sitting here with coffee and treats?”
“Only for the last hour or so,” she said cheerfully. “Andy just joined us too.”
Benjamin stared at her. “I figured you’d probably crash and sleep all day away.”
“Instead,” she said, drilling him with her glare, “we got a hotel room last night, had hot showers and a good night’s sleep. Just like you. And, so far, I’ve had coffee and a treat.”
He continued staring at her, then looked at Andy, who held up his hands and said, “I haven’t. I just got here. No coffee or treats for me yet.”
Benjamin snorted. “But, of course, the guys are looking after her, aren’t they? Just because she’s a female.”
“I don’t think just because I’m a girl,” she said. “But, if they are, I’m grateful. Sorry if I got coffee an hour ahead of you. But I didn’t realize you were awake. I don’t see you apologizing to us for getting a hotel room an hour ahead of us.” She really didn’t like his attitude.
“It’s always that way,” he growled. “Geologists get the fancy things, and we get the shitty leftovers. You guys always get better treatment and better pay.”
“You could have gone to college and got a degree, just like I did. That was your choice and your loss. And, with you, the fact that I’m female to boot makes it all that much worse,” she said with an eye roll. It’s not as if she hadn’t heard this many times before. It was always the same when guys like Benjamin were pissed about the fact that her wages were more than theirs. But they hadn’t done the
university work she had done, and, of course, it was back to that age-old experience versus education. Not to mention blatant sexism. She was at the point now though that she had the university education and the experience, so it should have stopped a lot of the BS whining and complaining. Only it never seemed to. “Did you see anybody when you came in last night at all?”
He shook his head. “I was so tired. I got my room, came in, stripped off and collapsed on the bed. I only had a shower this morning. I couldn’t have managed anything last night.”
“I didn’t think I’d sleep unless I was clean,” she said. “I was so damn hot and sticky.”
“Maybe,” he said. “I’m feeling better now. And I did manage to make a couple calls last night.”
“To Global?” she asked in surprise.
He nodded. “Took three attempts to get one call through, but I did let them know where we are and that we needed a way out of here.”
“Good,” she said. “I’m glad they know.”
“What did Global say about the guerrillas?” Andy asked.
He shrugged. “I didn’t give them too much of a play-by-play about it. Just that we were taken prisoner and rescued, and now we’re in a village looking for a way to get home,” he said. Then he glared at her. “I also used your credit card.”
She raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t know you knew the number.”
“I always memorize the numbers,” he said with a shrug. “We need something like that for a place like this.”
“I thought they would only take cash myself,” she said.
“They called and confirmed my number. That’s the only reason they took it.”
“Right. So, in other words, you paid twice for the room just because of the fact that that’s how much they would charge.”
He shrugged. “I honestly didn’t give a damn last night. And, right now, the fact that there’s food, and you’ve already had some pisses me right off.”
And again someone knocked on the door. It was more like a boot kick though. Manila froze and then realized it was likely Ryker. But Andy was already up and heading toward the door. She watched, hating to be anxious, but after all the things that could have gone wrong this morning, the last thing she wanted was anything to disrupt the mostly idyllic scene—notwithstanding Benjamin—they had going on now. Thankfully it was Ryker.