We were ill equipped, just our clothes and guns. There was no way we could survive for any time at all in this alien place. I didn't want to think about it. I had no intention of staying here any longer than necessary.
The men were close now, not more than twenty feet away from us. Two of them were arguing about which direction to take. Ants were crawling over my feet. Laura swatted the back of her hand. A coral snake, its beautiful bright bands announcing that it could kill you fast, slithered by not six feet from Laura's foot. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders.
I realized I was so hot my blood seemed to swell in my veins. Sweat pooled under my arms and at the small of my back. I hated the heat. Why couldn't drug runners deal out of Canada? A lovely little insect the size of a fifty-cent piece dropped from a branch above my head onto my forearm. It took a good-sized bite out of me, then lightly dropped to the ground where it scurried off to hide beneath a leaf.
Finally, the men fanned out, several coming our way. It made sense. I would have done the same thing. I listened carefully to every boot crunch.
Only two men were coining our way. I raised two ringers to Laura and she nodded, readying herself.
I pointed to the guns and shook my head. She nodded again. A minute later they were not a foot from us, sweeping their guns around, swearing at all the bugs, all the dripping leaves overhead, all in Spanish. If they found us, I knew we had to be fast and quiet as the dead. One of the men yelped. Maybe the insect that had just bitten off half my forearm had gotten him.
Then one of the men looked down and we stared at each other. Without a sound, I reared up and smashed the butt of the AK-47 under his jaw. It cracked real loud, but he only let out a whiff of a yell before he fell.
Laura moved fast. She butted the other man in his gut, then raised her weapon and slammed it down against his temple.
We stood over the two men, trying to control our breathing.
We heard men calling to one another. They apparently hadn't heard these two go down, thank God. Of course they'd be missed soon enough. We quickly stripped the man Laura hit, because he was very small. Laura pulled on his pants and his boots and threw the pants and boots she'd been wearing into a bush that, I swear, quivered when the boots struck it. We relieved both of them of their weapons.
It took three minutes, no longer. We began to make our way due west, going by small glimpses of sun. Every dozen or so steps, we wiped away the marks of our passage. Our progress was slow. Both of us were dripping wet, so thirsty our tongues felt swollen. We heard the chattering of monkeys high above our heads in the interlocking tree branches, and the constant calls and shrieks of animals we'd never heard in our lives. We heard a low, warning growl. A puma, Laura whispered. They knew we were there and were announcing it loudly to their cousins.
Birds checked in-squawking louder and more ferociously than Nolan ever had even at his crankiest.
"Just listen to them," Laura said. "They're all around us and loud as can be. Oh, Mac-what do you think the ice acid does to animals? Like Grubster and Nolan?"
I stopped cold and stared at her. "I hadn't thought about them. Doesn't it make sense that they'd sleep just like we did? That they'd wake up, just like we did? That they'd be all right?"
I thought she was going to burst into tears.
"That was a stupid question," I said without hesitation. "I'll wager my AK-47 that they're just fine." The panic calmed in her eyes. "Maggie's probably feeding them. Don't worry, Laura."
We kept walking, looking carefully down and around before we took each step. To walk a mile would take three hours, I figured, cursing at the boots rubbing my heels.
Then, suddenly, with no warning, it started to rain. We just looked at each other, tilted our heads back, and opened our mouths. The water tasted wonderful. Suddenly, something with a dozen skittering legs landed on my cheek. I shook it off, cupped my hands together, and drank.
The rain was so heavy, even coming through the dense canopy of green overhead, that in just a minute or two we weren't thirsty anymore. We were also sodden and nearly steaming, it was so hot. It felt miserable. God, I couldn't wait to be on a ski slope, puffs of cold air streaming out of my mouth.
I raised my hand and rubbed my fingers over a dirty smudge on Laura's cheek. "You know, Laura, when I flew from Washington just a week ago, I never imagined ending up in a rain forest with the woman I love, someone I had to come three thousand miles to meet."
"This isn't anything I'd anticipated either," she said, and kissed my fingers. "We'd better get to work on finding Savich and Sherlock."