[Project Nemesis] Jungle Fever (15 page)

            They all ate
their breakfast with relish, Yvonne moaning in delight at finally having eaten
something and not feeling her tummy gnawing her to death.

            Armando
hesitated, but asked, “Yvonne, why were you chosen for this job?”

            “I own Star Hunts,
Inc.  It´s a bounty hunting operation, I built it up from nothing, and in the
business I´ve got a reputation...”

            “Shit!  Yvonne
Jackson?” Remy looked at her appreciatively, “I´ve heard about you--you caught
that bastard serial killer last year, didn´t you?  It was all over the news.  Hey
we´ve got a tough one here,
amis
!”

            “Yeah, Jeffrey Walter.
 Bastard,” she spat.  “Anyway, I´m well-known for tracking rogue animals as
well.  A contact of mine offered me the job, and I took it.  I was flown in a
military plane from home to Chile, and then in a helicopter to a neighboring
island.  Apparently there´s no heliport or runway here on this one.  The jungle
is too dense and the ground to soft for heavy equipment to clear the land.  The
port is the only way on or off the island, and it´s heavily guarded.  I
remember looking around, seeing all the security and thinking that something
was wrong with the information I´d received from my boss.  No way would they
need so much security if they were just testing on animals.  Maybe if the
facility was in the US, then yeah, but here on this island, no way.  I thought
I´d either been lied to, or it was just military paranoia.  I´ve worked with a
couple of ex-Army Rangers, I know how paranoid they are.  The facility is about
a mile inland from the port, you can see it from the ship.  From what I
remember, there´s a guard tower near the port, so no day-visitors can enter the
island, and they´ve got a small fleet of boats patrolling the waters
surrounding it.  About a dozen in all.  They must have a lot of manpower down
here.  Now, I know what´s going on, I can see why they need the protection.”

            “Shit,” Remy
growled.  “No fucking way can we steal a boat and escape then, not with just
the four of us.  Ain´t going to happen.  We´ve no fucking weapons, not even a
knife.  They´ll shoot us before we even take a foot off the island.  I don’t
know about y’all, but I can only heal so fast from a bullet wound.  Enough of
them hit us and we’re toast.  And there ain’t nothin’ to keep Yvonne from
getting’ hurt.”

            “No, we don´t
have weapons, but remember what you are, you´re cats--faster than the best
soldiers, stronger, you know the island better than them, you´ve had to live on
it long enough and you can use the jungle to your advantage.  You heal fast,
yeah, you´ve no protection from bullets, and I remember when I was shooting
tranquilizer darts, the cats were sidestepping the frigging things--and I´m
sure you can do that too.  We need more of you though, if we can gather all the
men that escaped the facility, and persuade them to join us, then I´m sure
we´ll be able to overpower the guards,” Yvonne replied confidently.  “Don´t
forget, you´re their superhuman soldiers, there might be some shit you´re
capable of, that you don´t know about yet.  If we could get a few of the
others, then we should be able to steal a ship--you´re Action Men, aren´t you?”
she finished teasingly.

            “The pheromone´s
not as strong as it was yesterday, but I believe it´s still strong enough to attract
other cats.  The majority of the escapees ran as far as they could from the
facility.  I´ve seen some tracks, if we follow them and let the pheromone work
for us, then we should be able to gather a few of them.  Would you mind?” Rafe
asked.

            “No, so long as
you guard me.  I don´t fancy being raped by a bloody panther, I swear that
damned one yesterday was thinking about it!  It was a good job that Armando ran
past, it was you, wasn´t it?  That fought it off me?”

            She smiled
gratefully at his frowning nod. “Thanks, if it weren´t for you, I´d probably be
traumatized for life!” she joked.

           
“De nada.”
Armando
said, smiling.  She liked it when that hard face eased into a smile.

            After they´d
finished breakfast, they quickly left the cave and started the trek through the
jungle to the tracks that Rafe had found yesterday while hunting.

            The jungle humidity
stifled the air, making it difficult to catch their breath.  Yvonne was glad to
not be weighed down by gear this time, but still didn’t find much relief in the
sticky climate.  She felt like she’d sweated out every drop of water she’d
managed to garner.

            Her thick hair
clung to the back of her neck.  She wore it in a high ponytail, but the hairs
at the nape of her neck were still soaked with sweat.  She felt better after
having slept, but her muscles were still sore and tired.

            Try as she might
to keep up with the men, they bested her with their unnatural strength and
endurance.  As time passed and the day wore on, she knew there was no way in
hell she could manage the punishing speed they´d set themselves.

            Guilt at slowing
their progress swallowed her.  She was a major cog in their plan, so she didn´t
feel too bad.  She was going to help them escape after all, something that they
probably wouldn´t be able to do without her help--that eased her guilt a little. 
Still, it irked her that for all her strengths, she was no match for any one of
them when it came to hoofing it through the jungle.

            Armando extended
claws from one hand and slashed at a thick vine which immediately leaked
water.  He grabbed it and motioned her close.  She tilted her head up,
capturing the water he dribbled into her mouth.

            “Thanks,” she
said, grateful to him for his thoughtfulness.

            He nodded, and
they all stopped for a water break before continuing on.

            Yvonne didn´t
regret agreeing to act as bait, if the bloody pheromone could work for them
instead of against them, then that was something at least in their favor.  Her
aiding them in their escape lessened the shame she felt for agreeing to work
for the project in the first place.

            She´d been in an
untenable position, and was sure that most people would have jumped at the
chance to earn that much money in one go, no matter the job.  But now she knew
the truth and the gory details of what was really happening here on the island. 
She was disgusted with herself, as she should have realized that the salary
wouldn´t have been so high unless it was something the government wanted to
keep hushed up, which in itself, was never a good sign!

            Blood money. 
Plain and simple.

            She felt stupid
and dumb, avaricious and greedy.  It didn´t matter that she
knew
she
wasn´t, this situation made her feel that way.  She wanted to help them, not
only to appease the disgust she felt at herself, but because she needed to.  She
couldn´t bear the thought of them being stuck on this island, either until they
were shot by the guards, or until they were caught and sent back to the
facility to be tortured some more.  She had to help them.  If she had to act as
bait then that was what she´d do.

            “Is it just me,
or is the pheromone getting stronger?” Remy asked with a pant, it was the first
time she´d seen him out of breath.

            “Yeah, it has
been for a while.  It must be exertion capturing it in her perspiration.  Heats
it up and strengthens it, releasing it into the air.”  Armando nodded sourly.

            Remy blew out a
breath, then continued, “I thought when we first met her it was strong, fuck.”

            “Well, I can´t
help sweating in this heat.  I don´t understand why you three aren´t!  It´s not
fair,” she teased with a sulky pout.

            Rafe shrugged,
“We´re not exerting ourselves enough to sweat, saying that though
cariña,
your
scent is doing what the heat isn´t!”

            “Hot stuff!” she
joked, then spread her arms and laughed.  “Can you believe my ex cheated on
this?  Must be blind!”

            “C
hérie,
he must be!
”
Remy told her seriously, then grinned.  “You are perfection
itself, from your shiny nose, to the sweat patch on your back, I prostrate
myself before you, as your most faithful servant!”

            She laughed at
him, swatted him on the back, and told him mock sternly, “A gentleman would
never mention my shiny nose!!”

            “Do you three
never shut up?” Armando spoke over their laughter.

            “Get a life,
mec!
”
Remy teased.

            He frowned,
looking like a thundercloud, which only amused Yvonne further.

            “I have one!”
Armando said.

            “Can we rest a
second?  I´m exhausted.”  Yvonne panted, then said, “Are we near wherever we´re
going yet?”

            Rafael laughed,
then chanted, “Are we there yet?  Are we there yet?  Are there yet?”

            Yvonne almost
stumbled when they all, even Armando, laughed!

            “I love being the
butt of someone’s joke.”  She harrumphed, earning more guffaws at her indignity. 
Sparing a glare at Rafe, she plopped herself down onto a large, moss covered
stone. “Well, I´m tired!  I haven’t been here as long as y’all.”  She swiped a
hand across her sweat-beaded brow, grimacing at the unrelenting heat.

            “Yes,
querida,
we´re nearly there,” Rafael said.

            She raised her
eyes to the heavens and thanked every angel there!  They seemed to have been
walking for a long time, but didn´t actually appear to be getting anywhere.

            The thick
undergrowth looked the same in every direction, and it hampered their every
movement.  The heat and speed made her tired, but the amount of effort she had
to put in just to clear a path for herself was exhausting.  Oh how she wished
she had a machete!

            The worst of it
fell upon Rafael, who led the pack and picked through and carved a path for
them all to follow.  Following him and Remy should have made it easier on her,
but it didn’t.  Not by much.

            Already, her legs
protested the trek.  Her thighs and calves burned from the exertion.  Her whole
body felt tired, and what she really wanted was a nice long nap, and then a hot
shower, clean clothes, and a huge bowl of spicy black beans and rice.

            Oh, it was no use
in entertaining such fantasies!

            She dreaded to
think how long they´d been traveling and how much further they had to go.  It
probably was a lot less than she thought.  She felt as though they´d been
traveling all day, but in reality they´d probably only been walking for a
couple of hours.

            She´d never felt
so lethargic before, so exhausted and she´d been on ops very similar to this.  She
could only think that her body was reacting to
their
pheromones, if the
chemical one strengthened in intense heat, then theirs would too, and she had
it tripled!

            God, it was a
wonder that she could even move.  She knew that when she´d snuggled into Remy
last night, his scent had been strong, and he´d been resting, so it made sense
that his scent would be enhanced in the heat of the day, even if he wasn´t
feeling the effects of the weather like she was.  That counted for all three of
them.  The more she thought about it, the more she believed.  It was the only
thing that made sense, she´d never felt so weak in her life; she was a strong
woman, used to a hard and physical life, it was crazy that she would just
change overnight. Their pheromones cleared up some of her worries though.

            Nature tended to
come out on top of the best of human intentions.

            “Come on, there´s
a small pool of water ahead, you can wash up and have something to drink.” 
Remy hoisted her to her feet.  She clung weakly to him for a second, then shook
herself, Yvonne Jackson relied on no-one!

            She stood up,
smiled breezily and said, “Lead the way!”

            When she saw the
pool, she almost cried in relief, she knelt down and ducked her head in the
water, she drank some of it at the same time.  It was lovely and fresh, she
wished that she could bathe in it, but knew that it was important that she not
wash away any of the remaining chemical pheromone.  She sighed in regret, and
they continued on their journey through the jungle.

            Hours later, as
they lost the light in the sky, the men decided to make camp.  Patches of sky
glimmering through the thick canopy had begun to darken with impending twilight,
and according to Rafael there was still a way to go.

            Traveling through
dense jungle vegetation was no picnic in the park.

            They settled near
a small brook, and she watched enviously as Remy and Rafael waded in and washed
themselves down.  She felt hot and sticky, and she longed to jump in and feel
clean too, but she knew that she couldn´t, not yet at least.  She´d washed her
face, arms, and the back of her neck and hair, so she felt a little better, and
she knew that as the temperature dropped she wouldn´t feel so sticky.