Blood Ransom (11 page)

WEDNESDAY, NOVMEBER 18, 6:27 A.M.

TAGALA VILLAGE

Natalie woke with a start. Sunlight poured through the cracks in the wooden shutter, causing her to squint. She swung her arm across the bed and grabbed for her alarm clock. Instead her hand hit the air.

Where was her clock?

Squinting, she looked around the room. Thatched roof…stack of broken chairs…wooden dresser with a bright green crocheted covering…

The events of yesterday rushed back. Joseph’s plea for help and the pile of incriminating photos…The plane crash…Being held at gunpoint by the villagers…She closed her eyes, wishing she could wake up back home in her bed in Kasili—

Her eyes popped back open as memories of her ransacked living room shattered that idea. Safety seemed an elusive figure she couldn’t hold on to.

Her own dreams during the night had been surprisingly void of the drama surrounding her the past twenty-four hours. The only thing they’d been filled with was a tall, handsome doctor with dark curly hair and blue eyes. She shook her head and pulled the sheet to her chin. There was no time to think about Chad Talcott—or how he made her wish she had time to think about him.

She sighed and tried to recapture the peace she’d managed to find while sleeping. The deep breath made her long for the rich scent of percolating coffee from her tiny kitchen. Instead, all she could smell was the woodsy aroma of the cooking fires.

Turning over on the straw mattress, she tried to stretch out the stiffness in her legs. Her foot hit something hard at the bottom of the bed. Propping herself up on her elbows, she stared at the lump under the sheet. She wiggled her toes, but the lump didn’t move. She lifted the sheet and peered beneath the worn covering.

A six-inch lizard stared back at her.

Natalie screamed and scrambled out of the bed, her foot tangling in the sheet. Falling backward, she landed with a dull thump against the hard floor. Air whooshed out of her lungs, and she struggled to take another breath.

“Natalie?”

Her chest burned, and she couldn’t move. As the wooden door of the hut swung open, she looked up at Chad from her awkward position on the floor. The sheet was wrapped around her legs, her skirt bunched around her thighs, and she was certain her hair stuck out in at least a dozen different directions. Definitely not the way to make a good impression.

He knelt beside her. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.” She managed to sit up, thankful she’d opted to wear her clothes to sleep in. She rubbed her left shoulder, which had taken the brunt of the impact. “What were you doing? Standing guard outside my hut all night?”

He shot her a grin. “Nick and I were outside talking. I heard you scream.”

She gritted her teeth together and pointed to the bed. “There’s a lizard in my bed.”

Chad thumped the bottom of the mattress. “It’s dead.”

Her gaze narrowed. “I realized that after I screamed and crashed to the floor and it still hadn’t moved.”

Dead or alive, she had no desire to get close to the creature.

Chad folded his arms across his chest, the smirk on his face broadening. “You’re bound and determined to trek across the dangerous African bush, but you scream at the sight of a little lizard?”

“Very funny.” Natalie threw one of her shoes at him, missing his shoulder by a centimeter. He didn’t need to know the extent of her phobia of lizards, snakes, mice…

He caught the sandal before it hit the floor, a gleam in his eye despite his deadpan expression. “Watch out. I’ve been told I can be far more vicious than even a dead lizard.”

“Ooh, I’m scared.” She couldn’t help but laugh. It was one thing she liked about him. No matter what the situation, he seemed to know how to bring out her sense of humor. “Have you come up with Plan B?”

Chad dropped the shoe. “Joseph left to find transport to the capital. We should be able to get there by boat.”

“What about the plane?”

“Nick’s going to head back there with Mbella, one of Joseph’s friends. He’s sure he can fix it and fly out of here, but it’s going to take some time. He doesn’t want to take off until he’s certain everything is okay, and there’s no way to transmit a message at this point because of the radio’s restricted line of sight. If all goes well, he’ll meet up with us in the capital for his scheduled pickup and take us back to Kasili once we’ve talked to the embassy.”

Natalie nodded. At least something was working out. “I need to ask Nick to try to contact my boss once he’s airborne then.”

“I’ve already asked him to.” He turned toward the door to leave. “As soon as Joseph returns we can leave.”

“Chad.”

“Yeah?”

She pointed to the bed and shot him a pleading look. “The lizard.”

Chad moved back to the bed and, after wrapping the lizard in the bottom sheet, slung it over his shoulder. “Anything else, ma’am?”

“No.” She ignored his thick cowboy drawl as he slipped out of the hut and shut the door behind him. “Of all the ridiculous situations.”

Shuddering at the horrific thought of sleeping all night with a dead lizard, she grabbed her backpack, wishing she had an extra change of clothes. Her skirt looked like it had been trampled by a herd of buffalo, and her shirt hadn’t fared much better. If nothing else, a coat of lip gloss and mascara would perk her up.

Natalie brushed her hair into a ponytail, then dug in her backpack for her small cosmetic bag. Her Bible slid onto the dirt floor. She picked up the small black-leather book—a gift from her parents on her twenty-first birthday—and flipped it open to the gum-wrapper marker in the book of Leviticus. Apparently her systematic, daily readings through the Old Testament had vanished somewhere along with the last days of the rainy season when she’d packed the emergency bag.

Leviticus. The corners of her lips drooped into a frown. Maybe that’s why she’d stopped reading straight through the Bible and switched instead to passages from the New Testament she’d left on her bedside table. Slaughtering goats and bulls for sin offerings had little to do with her daily life. Or so it seemed.

Floundering for encouragement, Natalie turned to the Psalms. David had been chased by his enemies more than once. Hounded by men who wanted him dead. At least her situation wasn’t quite so perilous. Still, she identified with David as she read the prayers that lifted up pleas for God’s salvation from his foes. A shiver pricked her spine as she sent up an urgent petition for her own life.

She’d never thought she’d be running from an enemy. An enemy she couldn’t even identify, for that matter. The risks of living in the RD were something she took seriously by implementing as many security measures as she could. Never driving alone at night…Avoiding certain areas of town…Ensuring she was always aware of her surroundings…Arming the security system on her house at night
…Yet this faceless foe had pushed her into a war in which she didn’t know the rules of engagement.

She read Psalm 91. “He will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.”

A shield and rampart…a refuge from trouble.

That’s what I need
,
Lord. Your covering and protection. Your wisdom to figure out what is going on.
She fingered the edge of the page.
I can’t do this by myself.

But what
was
going on? A village cleared out by a dozen rogue soldiers…A UN-monitored presidential election…Hints of a rigged election…A modern-day slave trade…They all had to be connected. Even without knowing all the details, she couldn’t ignore the deadly consequences they were facing. Or the helplessness she felt.

Her shallow breathing left her feeling as if a pile of bricks sat on her chest, a feeling overshadowed only by the sense of urgency that gnawed at her.

What do we do
,
God? Joseph’s father will die if we don’t find him quickly—

A knock on the door drew her from her thoughts. “Are you ready to go?”

Wishing she had a few more minutes to spend in prayer, Natalie opened the door to Chad. An open line of communication throughout the day with her heavenly Father was going to have to do. “Yeah, I just need to grab my backpack.”

“Joseph found a boat that will take us up the river to the capital. Are you sure you’re up for it?”

“You bet.” Natalie slung the strap across her shoulder and stepped out into the morning light. They were already a day late, and there was little time to waste. “Let’s go.”

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 8:01 A.M.

SOMEWHERE ON THE CONGO RIVER

After thirty minutes aboard the massive boat, Chad was ready to disembark and take his chances with the relative quiet of the jungle. The relentless
chug-chug-chug
of the giant riverboat’s diesel engine competed with the chatter of a thousand passengers. Pigs, goats, and chickens ambled around him. Women cooked breakfast. Men traded their goods and slaughtered animals while drinking bottled beer. The jazzy rhythms of Africa rang out over several battery-operated radios, none of which played the same station.

A fly buzzed in his ear and he slapped it away. Both the lack of a good night’s sleep and the constant jarring of the other passengers added to the assault on his senses. Obviously the craft Joseph had managed to secure their passage on wasn’t simply transportation in a country whose road system left much to be desired. The three huge barges chained together had become a floating marketplace.

They’d left Joseph to chat with one of his friends from school. Chad glanced at Natalie, who worked to keep up with him as they pressed through the heavy crowd. Her face was pale, emphasized further by the bruise on her forehead. They were going to have to battle to find a shady place along the edge of the boat among the sellers and their goods. He wiped beads of moisture from his forehead. A warm,
humid breeze skirted off the water, a sign that in a few short hours the metal deck would be blisteringly hot from the afternoon sun.

He grasped Natalie’s elbow and maneuvered her past a heaping pile of fish swarming with flies. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah.” She pressed her hand against her nose and skirted another pile of unidentifiable carcasses. “A dead lizard seems like nothing compared to this.”

He chuckled in agreement. “Any headache left?”

“A slight one, but who wouldn’t have one in this place.” She pointed to insects and lizards piled on tables ready for tonight’s supper and rolled her eyes. “The variety doesn’t end, does it?”

A man walked by carrying a smoked porcupine under his arm. Natalie was right. There was no limit to what might be sold between those from the villages and those on board. Villagers came to trade their fish and dwarf crocodiles for salt, batteries, shampoo, and cigarettes. Bush meat was another viable trade despite environmentalists’ attempts to stop the practice. Already he’d noticed a number of endangered species getting tagged and packed into the massive onboard freezers. In the capital, elephant steaks had become a gourmet food for urbanites willing to pay the high prices.

An
oof
resonated behind him. Natalie jumped sideways, knocking into him.

Chad steadied himself, then turned around. “It’s a baby chimpanzee.”

Its owner, dressed in shorts and a bushman’s hat, hushed the chimp clinging to him like an infant.

The anxiety on Natalie’s face dissolved. “He’s adorable.”

Chad didn’t agree. “Adorable until it escapes from its rope and bites someone. Wild chimps can be both strong and vicious.”

Natalie took a step backward.

With a grin on his lips, he maneuvered them toward an empty spot at the starboard railing. “Come on. There’s a shady space up ahead.”

The warm breeze from the river helped to erase the pungent smells drifting off the boat. Making his way past a covered flatbed truck filled with layers of tin sheeting, Chad grabbed onto the rusty rail. The boat rounded a bend in the river. Ahead women washed clothes along the shoreline, the colorful patterns of the material standing out against the white sand of the river. Within minutes of sighting the village, a jumble of overloaded boats raced toward the larger vessel, their passengers ready to trade with those on board.

“The river’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Natalie shoved a piece of windblown hair behind her ear before handing him a bottle of water from her bag.

He nodded his thanks. Nightmarish memories from his family’s escape down the Congo had faded enough that, for the moment, all he saw were fishermen standing in dugout canoes, waiting for another catch. Children played on the green banks along the edges of the water. A pelican resting among the dense trees shook the long feathered plumes on the back of its head.

It was beauty that vied for prominence against the atrocities done to the country’s people.

Natalie loosened the lid on her water bottle. “You’re not regretting coming, are you? At this pace, Nick will beat us to the capital.”

Chad took a sip from his water bottle and watched a pirogue ripple through the river beside them, its pilot’s even strokes propelling it toward their own heavy boat. “Considering how we slow down at every village, I’d say you’re right.”

The noise escalated behind them, and Natalie lowered her water bottle from her lips, turning toward the source of the commotion. “What are they yelling about?”

Chad studied the two men and their animated gestures. “Sounds like a heated bartering session over a piece of slaughtered meat.”

“Sounds more like an inquisition.”

Chad laughed. Instead of abating, the shouting only increased as another man joined the discussion. How much deliberating did it take
to buy a few kilos of meat? “You have noticed the camaraderie hidden in people’s expressions, haven’t you, despite their fiery words?”

He smiled at the determined set of her chin as she regarded the situation with obvious concern. He liked her. Her sensitivity. Fortitude. Intelligence. Passion. A rare combination in the women he typically encountered. Either he needed to get out more, or he’d found someone worth getting to know.

He turned away from her and shook his head. He had to keep his focus on why they were here and not on how her smile managed to make him wish he had time to get to know her better. Truth was he had little time to put into a relationship. Something he’d best not forget. Once they returned to Kasili, life would resume its unending cycle of twelve-hour shifts and late-night emergency calls.

Natalie’s arm brushed against him, interrupting his thoughts. “Raw meat is something I can’t handle here. Seems like I can’t get away from the whole animal issue. I was flipping through my Bible this morning and opened up to Leviticus.” She shuddered. “It never seemed to have much relevance to my own life—the Levitical laws and the need for a blood sacrifice.”

“I’m sure you’re not the only one who’s ever confessed to skipping through those passages. I know I have.”

Her soft laugher filtered through the breeze. “I’m glad to know that.”

“But it does have some significance. Christ offered a one-time sacrifice for sin with his death.”

“ ‘One died for all, and therefore all died.’ ”

“It’s a powerful thought,” he admitted.

Someone screamed.

Beside them, a woman grabbed her child, knocking over a basket of oranges in the process. Chad stared across the crowd, trying to figure out what had happened. The meat barterers were gone. Then he saw the source of the commotion. A thin rope lay slack in front of them on the deck.

The chimpanzee was loose.