by Dale Mayer
“He’s the one who’s checked himself out,” he said.
“Was he really afraid the rest of the villagers would know he was here?”
“I think they were trying to keep him safe, and he was just trying to stay safe. The guerrillas went to a lot of lengths to make sure he didn’t survive.”
“And is that even fair? I don’t understand that.”
“I don’t either,” he said. “Come on. Let’s head down to the beach.”
They walked in silence most of the way. He studied her face often, loving to see her turn her full face against the breeze and just inhale the salty seawater scent. “You really love it out here, don’t you?”
“I’ve always loved the outdoors,” she said. “And, of course, look at the field I went into.”
“And is that a field where you would expect to always be outside, doing trips like this?”
“Over the next three to five years, I would expect to,” she said. “As you move up in the company, you can stay home more often. But it’s hard to say.” She shrugged. “I’m not quite ready to give up the trips yet.”
“Good,” he said. “As long as you’re enjoying yourself, then you shouldn’t have to.”
They kept walking along the edge of the beach as he studied the coastline.
“How long a trip is it tonight?”
“Depends on how far in the ship can come,” he said. “But we’re looking at about four to five hours at a minimum, just to get us from the shore to the ship. Could be several hours longer.”
“Rendezvous at midnight, so maybe, if we’re lucky boarding, it’ll be by early morning? Like a normal early morning, I mean. Like, six a.m.?”
“Something like that,” he said.
“You sure it isn’t easier to just fly out?”
“Fly from where?” he asked. “No airport is anywhere close to this village. We could bring in a float plane. But, given the weather forecast, that might not be a good answer. We could drive to the next city, but I don’t know if I want to try that.”
“Why?”
“The guerrillas are everywhere,” he said quietly. “I don’t know if they’re more pissed off that you escaped or pissed off that you were a potential gold mine for them.”
“Likely both,” she said sadly. “I didn’t really get any feeling that they cared about who we were as much as what we could do for them.”
“Welcome to life in Colombia,” he said.
She nodded. “Still sucks.”
“I’m still wondering if anyone else knew about the tracker in your bag,” he said.
“I don’t know.” She smiled and shrugged. “And it wasn’t much of a tracker, was it?”
“No, but it did the job,” he said. “It let them know we arrived at the village.”
“True,” she said, frowning. “And it should have told them where we were in the jungle.”
“Yes, but the jungle is not that easy to track for signals. So it depends on who was receiving the tracker data. If they weren’t the guerrilla part of the search party, then they wouldn’t have had any way to know exactly where we were. If it was just Alejandro with a handheld transmitter and receiver, then likely, it was for his use to keep you safe.”
“True enough. Okay, so we’ll just leave that one for the moment,” she said. “Say it was Alejandro who gave it to me. He may have explained at the time, but I honestly didn’t pay him much attention. More that it was yet another safety rule to follow. I was telling Benjamin about it earlier. But it could also be that others knew it was there too. Like the guerrillas. Particularly if it’s common for guides to use in this area.”
He looked at her, frowned and said, “I wonder. Did Alejandro appear to be that sophisticated?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know what the norm is on something like this. But if the guides can’t afford to lose their people, maybe it makes sense so they can always find out where they are.”
“Maybe,” he said. Inside, he wondered about such technology. “The old guy, was he friendly?”
“Very,” she said.
“I wish I could return to where you were actually taken from so I could better study the tracks and see who and what happened.”
“I didn’t get much of a chance to do or see anything,” she said. “I was out with Andy, collecting rocks, and Benjamin was with the two guides.”
“How far away were you?”
“About a mile.”
“You didn’t have a guide with you?”
“We were going back for a third trip, and I was the one insistent about that trip,” she said.
“And, when you got back to camp, what did you see?”
“I didn’t get a chance to see anything. It was early morning. I went into my tent, and, when I came out, we were completely surrounded already. There was Andy and the young guide and a half-dozen armed guerrillas. We were marched through the forest until we came up to the camp where they kept us at.”
“And did you ever see the older guide again?”
She frowned, and he watched as that quick intelligence of hers whispered through the possibilities. Instead of looking for the answer to his question, she was looking to understand why he’d even asked it. “I’m not sure that I did,” she said. “Maybe he heard them come and disappeared.”
“Maybe,” he said. “How close was Benjamin to your camp?”
“Well, he was supposed to be halfway,” she said, “but he was at the guerrilla camp when we got there. So I don’t know if he just was rounded up earlier or if he left his position.”
“Was he within sight of you at all times leading up to your capture?”
“He was supposed to be,” she admitted. “But I stepped around the corner, looking for another vein in the rocks.”
“That’s the only time he was out of sight?”
“Until Andy and I decided we were coming back, and we couldn’t see him then. But we didn’t really worry about it because we weren’t looking for trouble.”
“And he should have been with a guide, right?”
“In theory, yes. One should have been with him and one at camp.”
“And they were supposed to stay close all day, correct?”
“One was to be with us at all times, yes. But we’ve been working together for days already, so they already knew my habits, and I don’t think that was at the top of their list of things to worry about.”
“Maybe not,” he said, “but it’s hard to say.”
“What difference does it make?” she asked. “It was just a bad scenario. We were completely surrounded and taken prisoner.”
“But nobody saw the old guide.”
She shook her head. “No,” she admitted. “I didn’t.”
“And who put the idea in your head that he was the one who had brought the guerrillas in on this?”
“I don’t think I heard anything about it until we found the injured younger guide,” she said. “But I don’t remember. I just figured he got smart and managed to escape and took off.”
“And forgot about you?”
“If you think about it,” she said, “any guide would.”
“Not all guides,” he said, “but maybe some of the guides would have gone back to get help.”
That stopped her in her tracks. “In which case, they would have gone back to where we were and that would put them in more danger.”
“Maybe,” he said quietly. “And it’s also quite possible that he got killed in the fray.”
“And yet, he was the one with all the experience,” she said. “At least, according to Pablo.”
“How did they treat each other?”
“An easy camaraderie, although they obviously had their issues,” she said instantly. “I don’t think they were buddies, the way they talked back and forth.”
“Then what was the relationship, do you think?”
“More like teacher and student. The older guy was the more senior one and was showing Pablo the ropes. Pab
lo, more or less, did what he was told to do. They were joking about a knife that Pablo really liked, which was the older guide’s.”
“Alejandro?”
“Yes,” she said. “The knife was from his grandfather. Pablo really liked it. But Alejandro wouldn’t let him use it.”
“And was it a friendly conversation?”
“Yes, it just became something that they argued about every day.”
“Whatever,” he said, dismissing it. But, in the back of his mind, he wondered.
“I don’t understand this line of questioning,” she said. “What’s it all about?”
“Maybe nothing,” he said. “It’s a little confusing what’s happening here.”
“True,” she said. “I wish we had seen Pablo though. I really want to know that he’s okay.”
“True. Did he have a phone at all?”
She looked at him in surprise; then she shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t see him with one, but that doesn’t mean anything. The guerrillas took ours away.”
“No,” he said. “It really doesn’t. But whatever, we’ll see.” He pointed just then to an outcropping of rocks. “That’s a possible place.”
“Sounds like we’ll get soaked,” she said.
“Maybe,” he admitted. “But it won’t kill us if we do.”
“Can’t we get onto it from the shore?”
He pointed at the huge rocks. “It’s likely a Zodiac—a Navy SEAL boat. It’s not the best to bring in on rocks like this.”
“But they must handle a certain amount of rough terrain.”
“Yes, but we’re also looking for a location to reach in the dark.” His gaze swept along the coastline, looking for a better landing spot.
Then he came around the corner on another beach, and he stopped and looked at the cliff around them. “Let’s climb up over here.” Thankful that she had her boots on, she followed his lead, and they made their way up to a small ledge that overlooked the area. And down below were several boats tied up and several others farther out fishing.
“Is there a problem?” she asked.
He studied the area and shrugged. “No, I don’t think so.”
“Where’s Miles?” she asked.
He slid her a sideways glance. “I haven’t heard from him in a little bit,” he said. “He was going to check on Pablo.”
“Only Pablo has left,” she said. “For that matter, both Andy and Benjamin have left too. Speaking of which …” She told Ryker about the conversation she had with Global.
He looked at her in surprise. “Benjamin has filed a formal complaint about you?”
She shoved her hands in her jeans and stared out at the water. “And I’m really struggling with that too. There wasn’t any bad blood between us before this trip. Not that I knew of anyway. But now … Now it feels like everything’s wrong.”
“Some trips and some days can be like that,” he said. “It’s almost like it’s a reset once you get home. Or overnight even, if you’re lucky. You have a good night’s sleep, and you wake up the next day, and everything’s changed again.”
“Maybe,” she said. “But I doubt it will happen in this instance.”
“I know,” he said. “Something has been wrong right from the beginning.”
As they turned to look around, she said, “We’re not very far off from the spot where we were originally, are we?”
“We’re a whole lot lower,” he said, motioning up to another cliff. “We were up there. I didn’t realize that we had this lower ledge here. It would have been much easier to rappel down from here.”
“Well, at least I had my one experience jumping off the cliff.”
He laughed and said, “You did really well.”
“No, I didn’t. I blubbered like a baby the whole way.”
“We’re all forced to the edge of our endurance sometimes,” he said. “It’s how you step up and show who you really are at those times of stress which makes all the difference. You didn’t back away. You faced the challenge, and you survived. That’s what counts.” He looked down at her and dropped a kiss on her forehead. “Come on. We can walk to the water now too.”
And, just then, a shot rang out. She cried out in his arms and collapsed.
Chapter 13
She opened her eyes, hearing an odd whimper, only to realize it came from her throat.
“Hush,” he whispered as he carried her rapidly down the cliff edge.
“What happened?” she murmured. He jolted suddenly, and she cried out yet again.
“If you can, hush,” he said. “I don’t want to have to put something around your mouth to stop you from crying out.”
His words finally slipped into her foggy brain, and she clamped her mouth tight. “You won’t have to,” she said but started to shudder and shake as her body was overwhelmed with pain with his every step. “What happened?” she whispered.
“You’ve been shot,” he said.
She laid in his arms, trying to absorb that information. But none of it made sense. “Why?”
“I don’t know. I’m trying to keep us out of sight, but that’s pretty damn hard too.”
She was aware that they were running along the edge of the beach. “Can’t they shoot downward on us?”
“There have been no other shots,” he said. “Not since the initial one that took you down.”
“Where’d they get the weapons?”
He didn’t bother answering, and she realized she was talking in order to take her mind off the searing heat in her shoulder. “I guess they missed, huh?”
He gave a broken laugh. “I don’t know how you can say they missed,” he said. “You’ve been shot.”
“Yes, but I imagine they were trying to kill me and not just hurt me.”
“Maybe,” he said. “I’m not giving them a second chance. And it’s not easy to shoot downward. It’s easier to shoot down than up, yes, but I’m a moving target. That’s doubling the difficulty.”
“Is it bad?”
“No,” he said. “You’ll live.”
But she realized that he was huffing as he carried her. Her need for answers and to talk was throwing him off his stride. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
He twisted to stare down at her. “For what?”
“For always being a problem,” she said. He tucked her closer, almost as if trying to hug her, but that motion caused her shoulder to flare up in burning pain. She wished she could shut it off, but there was no way to do so. Every step pounded through her. She whispered, “I think I’ll be sick.”
“No,” he said. “You’re not allowed to be.”
That startled a laugh out of her and settled her stomach somewhat. But then he had to take several different jolting steps as he moved down off the rocks, and, instead of feeling the bile crawl up her throat again, all she could see were black spots.
When she woke the second time, he was carrying her on a much more even surface. “Did I faint?” she whispered.
“You did,” he said, his voice cheerful. “I’ll bug you about that later.”
She gave a half laugh. “And yet, you still carried me. Why didn’t you just dump me somewhere so I wouldn’t be such a problem?”
“Well, that won’t happen,” he said. He stepped inside a building, and immediately she was awash in coolness.
“I’m glad we’re inside,” she said. “Only where are we?”
“The hospital,” he said.
She groaned. “He won’t want to see us.”
“We have money. We can pay,” Ryker said. “So that’s not a problem. He’ll look after you.”
Even in her wonky mind, she could hear voices rushing toward them. She was laid on something cool and hard. Her body was readjusted and then her T-shirt was gently cut off her. She opened her eyes and looked up at Ryker, who hovered atop the two other people.
“That was my only shirt,” she whispered.
“I’ll get you a new one,” he promised.
She let he
r eyes drift closed again until they started poking her shoulder. She cried out in pain and heard the muffled voices, but she was not quite far enough away to be unconscious. Finally, she understood that she was being rolled slightly and, with great difficulty, they flipped her and rolled her over a little bit so they could check the back of her shoulder. And then she heard, “It’s gone clean through.”
“Is that good or bad?” she asked.
“Well, good, except for the fact that you’ve got a shoulder blade with a hole in it now,” he said.
She opened her eyes, and, for some reason, all she could think about was a hole literally in her shoulder, letting light through, and that image wouldn’t leave her alone. Of course it was foolish, but the pain made her thinking completely cloudy. She laid back as she was injected with something. “I hope that’s a painkiller,” she murmured.
“It is,” he said. “We have to go in and dig around to make sure the wound is clean, and this will help get you through it.”
She stared up at him. “No surgery?”
He shook his head. “No, but this will probably be worse.” And he gave her a heavier dose.
She closed her eyes and went out.
When she awoke for the third time, her eyes studied the ceiling above her, wondering where she was. She rolled her head to the side and cried out. Instantly, she recognized Ryker as he raced toward her.
“Don’t try to move,” he murmured.
“Why not?” she snapped.
“I see the drugs make you angry,” he said with a note of laughter.
She glared up at him. “What happened?” she asked, reaching up and then crying out again.
He gently returned her arm to the position it was in. “I said, Don’t move.”
She stared at him for a long moment, waiting for everything in her brain to tumble back into place, and she remembered being shot. “Did you catch him?”
“No,” he said. “I’ve stayed here with you.”
“You should have gone after him,” she said childishly. “Otherwise, he’ll shoot somebody else.”
“Maybe,” he said, “but it’s hard to say. And you’re my first priority. I wouldn’t leave you to take another bullet.”
“I’m in the hospital,” she said. “He’s not likely to get me here.”