by Dale Mayer
“And then what happened?” Manila asked gently.
“I don’t know,” he said. “There was a weird scream, and then I didn’t hear anything.”
“Well, didn’t you go look?”
He gave her the longest look and said, “No, I didn’t.”
She sucked in her breath. “Alejandro might not have been dead, you know?”
“The jungle is not a very nice place,” he said quietly. “That cry … That cry was Old Man Alejandro dying.”
“And so you feel responsible?”
“Not only do I feel responsible but somebody in your team told me that I was responsible and that I could be killed for it.”
“Why would they say that? And why would you feel that way?” Manila asked. “Yes, it wasn’t very good of you. That’s not how you treat anyone. And being greedy is hardly the way to go through life.”
“I really wanted his knife,” he said. “I guess maybe, in my heart of hearts, I wondered, if something bad would happen to Alejandro, then I could keep his knife.”
“Did you do anything deliberately to kill him?” Ryker asked.
Pablo shook his head. “Honestly, I didn’t. But I did make it sound like I had lost the knife out in the middle of nowhere. And I had seen the guerrillas …”
At that, instant silence filled in the room.
“Oh my,” she said. “So you told him where you lost the knife, and he went there looking for it, and you knew the guerrillas would find him. But why would they have killed him and not you?”
He took a deep breath, and he said, “I told them.”
“No, hang on a minute,” she said. And then she stopped and said, “Oh, so they had captured you, and, in order to get away, you offered up your coworker, the old guide. Is that it?”
“And you guys,” he said slowly, tears coming to his eyes. “But I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Because they had you as a captive too. And then, when they did come and catch us, your coworker, the old guide, was missing because you had already handed him off to them, where they then presumably killed him?”
“They killed him,” he said. “I did ask. And they said that he wasn’t coming back anymore.”
“And so then, when they took us prisoner, you realized that they weren’t looking at you with any favor because you had already killed off your coworker.”
He nodded. “But I didn’t know that that’s how they would do it until they caught me by the river and sliced me up. And they told me that was for my betrayal and for my lack of loyalty. And I know I deserved it,” he said. “I know that.” Then, in a softer voice, he continued, “I didn’t mean to get him killed. I just had a greedy moment, and I was thinking of how much my life sucked when I didn’t have any money, and I didn’t want to be doing what I was doing.”
“You didn’t want to be out in the jungle?”
He shook his head. “No, I never wanted to. I never had any intention of being a guide, but my father and my uncle insisted, and so I went with Old Man Alejandro, but I hated all of it. I just want to go home.”
She nodded. “So then what happened?”
He shrugged. “You know what happened. You guys saved my life, my worthless life. Now I have to return and explain to my family what happened.”
“Well, will you tell them the truth?” Manila asked Pablo. He hesitated, and she nodded. “Of course not,” she said. “Because that isn’t coming home with any sense of pride, is it? You don’t want them to know the truth.”
“Would you?” he asked. “It’s one of my worst acts. I’m ashamed of my own behavior, and it cost Old Man Alejandro his life.”
“But it got you the knife,” Ryker said in a dry tone. His arms were crossed over his chest.
Manila studied Pablo and said, “Did you shoot me?”
He shook his head. “No, I didn’t,” he said. “But somebody asked me to. Somebody tried to pay me to. But we had a big fight, and I wouldn’t do it.”
“Because you’re trying to go home,” Manila continued. “In order to go home, you’ll need money to get all the way around the country again because you’re not going back through the jungle, are you?”
He shook his head. “No, I’m not. I’ll get a ride and work my way around. There are vehicles that go back and forth, but I want to make sure I get all the way home again.”
“So somebody asked you to shoot me. Presumably using one of the weapons that Ryker here had, and then, when you didn’t do it, he got mad at you. Is that correct?”
He nodded. “But I escaped him and the two guerrillas that came this morning, and I paid somebody to hide in their house.” He slid a sideways glance at Ryker. “That’s where you found me.”
Ryker nodded, but his face was dark. “I hear you,” he said. “And that’s why you ran. And that’s why you had a gun on you. You knew that you could get caught by one or the other.”
Pablo nodded. “I have money,” he said. “But I also took all the money from your packs before the guerrillas came. And so I have your money too.”
She stared at him in shock. “You’re the one who swiped our wallets? We thought the guerrillas did.”
“I knew that they were coming,” he said. “And you guys were getting ready for dinner, so I went through the backpacks and found what I needed. And I’ve been carrying them with me.”
“The guerrillas didn’t strip you clean when they sliced you up?”
He shook his head. “They didn’t search very well,” he said. “I hid them inside my clothing.”
“Well, that’s smart, at least,” she said. “Any chance I can get my cards back?”
He bent down and pulled up his pant leg and, inside his boot, were indeed her credit cards and Andy’s. “Do you have Benjamin’s too?”
He winced and shook his head. “I did. At first. But Benjamin already has his back again.”
At that, she stopped, sagged on the bed and whispered, “Is he the one who asked you to shoot me?”
He looked up at her with shame in his gaze, and he nodded. “But I never intended to. I just needed the money. I didn’t do it.” Pablo nodded again ever-so-slowly. “Then he paid me the money that I had already taken from him once and promised more.”
“And you said yes. And you took Benjamin’s money that he paid you to shoot me because you want to go home and to never have to return to that jungle again, right?” Manila asked Pablo.
He nodded, his expression full of shame and guilt.
“So Benjamin shot me then, since you wouldn’t, didn’t he?” Her voice was barely a whisper when she spoke. She groaned and said, “Wow, so all of this blaming the guerrillas and all the rest was a simple case of Benjamin trying to get rid of me.”
“I wonder how much Benjamin had to do with this from the beginning,” Ryker said quietly.
“I don’t know,” Manila said. “But what will we do now?”
He held up his phone and said, “I’ve recorded Pablo’s statement right here. So, if nothing else, we’ll have some evidence to take back with us.”
“I can’t even imagine this,” she said. “I’m absolutely dumbfounded.” She looked back at Pablo. “Is there anything else you need to tell me?”
He shook his head.
“Did your uncle back home or did the old guide with you in the jungle have anything to do with the guerrillas?”
“No,” he said. “I don’t think so.”
“So the guerrillas just came upon you?”
He nodded. “After they spoke with Benjamin.”
Manila and Ryker shared a wide-eyed look.
“And they needed what?” Manila asked.
Pablo sighed. “I’m the one who told them what you were doing and what you had as skills and that you guys all had money. But, while they were taking out the old man guide, I went through your possessions.”
She looked at Ryker. “I don’t even know what to say.”
“No,” Ryker said, “I’m sure you don’t. I can’t say I’m too surprised about
Benjamin though.”
Just then footsteps sounded, and Miles walked in. He took one look at Pablo and said, “Oh, this is interesting.”
Miles handed over a bag of food to Manila, but she simply set it down on the little table and said, “I’m not even sure I can eat. Honestly, I’m feeling pretty sick to my stomach.”
Miles looked at her in surprise and asked, “Why?”
She motioned to Pablo and said, “You need to tell Miles.”
And, with great difficulty but with a clearer voice, Pablo repeated what he had just explained to Ryker and Manila.
Miles stared at Pablo in shock. “So you had Alejandro killed to get a frickin’ knife? Then you stole from the team who you had brought into the jungle as one of their guides, and, when you realized that the guerrillas wouldn’t keep you because you were so disloyal and had betrayed your own coworker, your mentor, we saved you, and now, down here, you found that one of Manila’s team members wants you to kill her because the guerrillas failed to?” He took a deep breath. “So you took money from Benjamin to shoot Manila—but didn’t?”
Pablo nodded. “It sounds pretty bad when you say it like that.”
“It is pretty bad,” he said. “I don’t even know what to say to you. But I have bigger problems now. And I obviously have to deal with Benjamin.”
“I’m coming with you,” Ryker said.
“And I’m coming with you two,” Manila said, her tone heavy. “This is really my problem.”
“Then let me come too,” Pablo said.
“I think you have to,” Ryker said. “Because you’re accusing Benjamin of hiring you to commit a murder, and that’s a pretty major charge in our world.”
With that, Manila, with Ryker’s help, got her boots back on again, and they walked outside of the hospital, carrying the same food that Miles had just delivered. She was pretty tired by the time they got back to the hotel, not to mention sore. The two guards sat outside, but they hopped to their feet and said, “Hey, what’s the point of standing guard if she’s not even here?”
“I want to ask you once more if you saw Benjamin, the old heavyset guy you mentioned earlier, leave with a rifle in his hand.”
“We told you that we didn’t see him leave with anything.”
“Right,” Ryker said. “I just wanted to give you a chance to change your story now. After all, he paid you.”
Both men flushed. They looked at each other, and then their shoulders sagged. “He did. We figured you had probably more guns in there, and we didn’t want to cross him. He did have a rifle in his hand.”
“Right,” he said. They turned and opened the door, then stepped in. There, Benjamin and Andy sat at the table, playing some game with toothpicks. Manila looked at both of them. Andy came over and gave her a gentle hug. She smiled up at him and said, “I’m really glad to be going home.”
“I am too,” he said. “Are you sure you should be walking around? I can’t believe you got shot.”
“Yeah, that’s terrible,” Benjamin said.
“What you really mean,” Manila said, “is that it’s terrible that you missed and that I survived.”
Benjamin stared at her in shock. “What are you talking about?”
For her answer, she placed her phone on Play and let them listen to Pablo’s story.
Immediately Benjamin picked up her phone and hit Stop, then tried to delete it. “You can delete it all you want,” she said, “but I already emailed a copy to myself and to Global Mining Industries and to my university.”
He stared at her in shock. “You can’t really believe that little weasel, can you?”
“But I do. I think you put that tracker in my bag too. So you could always tell the guerrillas where I was. However, I’m surprised you had the guts to make the original deal with the guerrillas to kill me in the first place. Except that you probably only did that in order to save your worthless life,” she said. “And they took your cash, but you couldn’t exactly ask them for a refund when Ryker and Miles here saved us before the guerrillas could kill me. I find that funny on two levels.”
“I don’t have a clue about what you’re talking about,” he said. “You can’t possibly believe Pablo.”
“What am I supposed to believe?” she murmured.
“It doesn’t matter,” he sneered, “but trust you to believe anything but the truth.”
“Then tell me what the truth is,” she said.
He glared at the four of them standing around him, while she walked over to the bed and laid down.
To Ryker, she said, “And now what?”
“Good question,” he answered.
“That’s all you’re saying lately.”
He nodded. “Sorry about that, but some of this stuff has to play out as it’s meant to.”
At that, Benjamin hopped to his feet and, this time, he held a handgun in his right hand, waving it around as he spoke. He glared at Manila and said, “You’re the one who ruined everything.”
Ryker carefully slid into place behind Benjamin.
“I haven’t ruined anything,” she said. “I’m lucky that I’m even alive right now, what with the guerrillas, the jungle, you and your rifle. Apparently, this bullet wound is from you,” she snapped, tired and finished with the ugliness of life. “What the hell will you do with that handgun now? I guess if you’re close enough, your shot may actually hit your intended target.”
“I don’t know,” he said. “But I want to be free to leave.”
“Where will you go?”
“I’ve traveled the world over, sweetheart,” he said. “I have more experience out in places like this than you’ll ever have.”
“Good,” she said. “You and Pablo can go. He wants to return home. Maybe the two of you can get there yourselves.” She motioned at the hotel room door. “Go. You want freedom? Go.”
He hesitated and backed up toward the door, then said, “You’ll let me walk out of here?”
“Why do I care?” she asked. “You’re not coming home with us.”
He frowned. “It’s not over, you know.”
“Well, it is for you,” she said. “You won’t have a job at Global. Your good ol’ boy buddy who pushed to have you on this expedition has been terminated, just so you know. I’m sure the local law enforcement here will be looking for you too, since you fired a shot in their fair village, potentially stirring up a war between the villagers and the guerrillas, so you might as well return to the jungle and make peace with whatever end you have coming.”
He shook his head. “No way. The jungle? The guerrillas? You can’t believe any of what Pablo said. I mean, did you hear him? He had his mentor killed.”
“And you also paid the guerrillas to kill me, then paid Pablo to kill me when your plan A didn’t pan out,” she said.
“That’s a joke. He was going to shoot you himself.”
“What was his motive?” she asked.
Benjamin shrugged and said, “That guy doesn’t need a motive.”
By this time, Ryker stood between Benjamin and Manila on the left side of Benjamin, while Miles was at the right side of Benjamin, standing slightly behind him as he continued to wave his gun hand in Manila’s direction.
Benjamin lifted his handgun and pointed it at her. “I’m not sure I give a shit about anything else anymore. You’ve already trashed my reputation, and we’re not even back yet. I won’t have any luck getting another job in my field. But, as long as you’re not around, I’ll die happy. So I might as well kill you now.”
She slowly sat up. “Do you hate me that much?”
“Absolutely,” he said. “The fact that you got my job over me is absolutely disgusting.”
“It was never your job to begin with. And you would never be lead on any of these trips either. That’s it? That’s all this is about?”
He nodded. “Yes, that’s all it’s about. It’s my job. It shouldn’t have been yours. I know I won’t get it now, but I want to make sure you don’t either.�
�� And he tried to pull the trigger, but instead, another gun rang out. It wasn’t his. He looked at her in surprise and looked down at his hand, now bleeding profusely. He started to scream.
She looked over at Ryker, who had shot him in the hand, and said, “You could have just killed him.”
He looked down at her and smiled. “Not going to happen. We’ll take him back, and he’ll stand trial. This coward needs to face the consequences of his actions.”
“Good,” she said. “As long as it doesn’t involve me.” She collapsed on the bed and said, “God, when can we leave this place? I really, really hate it here.”
“In about twenty minutes,” Ryker said. “I’m sure this quiet little village will be happy to see us leave.”
“I’m not going with you anywhere,” Benjamin said. “And you can’t stop me.”
And then, in a sudden move, he lunged down and picked up the handgun with his one good hand and turned it on himself. He looked at her and said, “I hate you, bitch,” and, right before he pulled the trigger, Miles grabbed his gun hand, breaking his left wrist and probably a lot of the manifold bones in his hand and the gun went off, shooting Benjamin in the foot.
The man fainted at the sight.
A moment of stunned silence followed before Manila finally mustered the words, “Shit. We won’t make that boat, will we?”
Ryker laughed and said, “Yeah, we probably will.”
“And why is that?”
Miles held up his hand and said, “Because of this. I had it all on tape.”
She groaned. “We’ll have to take him back with us, won’t we?”
They nodded. “We will take him back. But we’ll ask the hospital for a body bag.”
“He’s not dead, is he?” Manila asked.
Ryker chuckled. “No, but he’ll wish he was.” He and Miles shared a knowing grin. “Both his hands are injured, so we’ll put him in the body bag, with his head out, so he can breathe fresh air, instead of dealing with adult diapers.”
Manila made a face. “What about local law enforcement?”
The two guys out in the hallway opened the door and said, “Everyone just wants you all to leave. You’re a very bad influence here.”
She sighed, nodded, and said, “I agree with you.”