Stranded (32 page)

Eve worked at removing the bandana still binding her hands. She made a show of fumbling at the task and making squealing gasps of frustration. Below her, her pursuer had slowed and kept looking down at the ground. The towering tree was understandably unnerving. But if she was to implement the second part of her plan, she needed him to keep up the chase. He certainly wasn’t going to walk away and leave her.

As if reading her thoughts, he took his pistol out of his belt and peered up at her. She took a quick breath and hollered, “I’m scared! If I climb back down, you won’t hurt me, will you?” The quiver in her voice was genuine.

“Come down. I not hurt you.”

Right. “I’m . . . I’m afraid I’ll fall. Can you come get me?”

“You come here.”

She feigned a step downward, then drew back her foot and clasped the tree trunk. “I can’t,” she wailed. “You come. You aren’t afraid.”

The man swore and shoved his pistol back into his belt. The stink of his sweat grew stronger with each step closer he took. Whimpering, unable to stop mewls from squeaking out of her throat, she matched his progress with steps farther and farther out on the tree limb. When he reached the same branch and saw she had backed away from him, he fumbled for his pistol. “Why you go there? Come here to me!”

She tightened her clutch on the large branch overhead that angled in from a nearby tree. “Not when you’re holding that pistol,” she whined. “You need both hands to help me.”

He left his pistol in his belt, grumbled, and held out his hand. His shirt was soaked, and his arm glistened with sweat. His hand trembled.

She extended her own shaking hand toward his, careful to keep a gap between them. “I can’t move.”

Holding onto an overhead branch, he inched his way toward her.              

He was now an arm’s length away. She retreated another step. The limb dipped under her weight. He hesitated.

What if her plan didn’t work? What if he grabbed her after all? “Go away!” she screamed. “Don’t touch me!” She took another step backward.

He lunged at her. With a shriek, she stepped off the branch. It sprang up like a cracked whip.

She plunged downward, then hung, kicking her feet as the large branch she gripped bore her weight. The man, however, was caught by surprise. He lost hold of his branch and crashed to the one beneath it. And then to another beneath it. He gained momentum as he fell. He hit a large branch but couldn’t hold on. Flailing, yelping, he crashed through the remaining branches until he landed with a loud
whump
on the ground. He didn’t move.

She regained her foothold. Half of her sobbed, fearing she had caused his death. The other half hyperventilated, fearing he was still alive. She climbed down and crept toward him. His body was submerged partway in the humus of the forest floor. One of his femurs protruded out of his abdomen. Blood oozed from his mouth and nose and ears. A look of horror etched his face.

Shaking so badly she could hardly stand, she scraped leaves and branches over his body. Part of her wanted to cover up the grisly deed she had participated in. Part of her, still wily and desperately afraid, wanted to ensure he wouldn’t be found by his partners.

She whipped around when her peripheral vision caught someone approaching. The intruder made no sound. Her adrenalin skyrocketed at the thought of being captured a second time. She remembered the man’s pistol and began digging at the mound she had just made.

“Eve?”

Jake! With a sob she ran to him and flung herself into his arms.

He held her so tightly she could hardly breathe. “I was afraid I’d lost you.”

“There’s another man—”

“It’s okay. I took care of him.”

“But there are more . . . and a ship. I—” She stepped back and looked at the mound, then at Jake. “I—”

“What happened?”

“He fell. I set a trap. He followed me up the tree and I . . . I couldn’t let him get
me.”

“It’s okay.” He took her hands. “You were defending yourself.”

Her chin and lower lip trembled uncontrollably. “Where . . . where’s the other man?”

“Back up the trail a ways. I left him unconscious and tied up.”

“There are more,” she repeated herself. “They came on a ship, probably into the cove. What if—”

She stopped, unable to voice her horror. What if Crystal had been playing on the beach? What if she and Betty had been captured?

“Let’s find out what we can from our friend up the trail.” Jake’s voice was grim, clearly sharing her anxiety.

He took her hand and led her to the second man. He was covered with ants. Jake groaned. It was obvious from the number crawling in and out of the man’s open mouth that he was dead.

“Now what?” She stared dispassionately at the body. For all her championing of life and justice, she found herself glad both scumbags were dead and she and Jake were alive.

“We’ll have to go through the garden to check out the cove. If we go downstream, they’ll see us.”

They sped upstream, and, at the other side of the garden, crouched behind the last bit of outcropping rock to gaze down at the cove. She blinked at finding not a fishing craft or a logging ship, but a sleek, white yacht anchored in the middle of the cove. To the right of the inlet, where the stream emptied, a small motorboat was pulled onto the beach. Except for two tiny figures moving on the yacht, there were no other signs of human life.

“Do you think there are more than those two?” she asked.

“More could be below deck.”

Including Crystal and Betty. Were they with the Boss? Her stomach punched bile into her throat.

Jake pulled her to her feet. “Let’s go. They’re waiting for the men to return. They won’t do anything until they realize they’ve got a problem on their hands.”

“What about Betty and Crystal?”

“That’s what we’re going to find out.”

“Oh.” She knew what that meant. The tunnel through the burial cave. Where snakes sought refuge from the heat. Her stomach looped into a series of knots. She couldn’t go in there.

They paused for a drink at the garden’s tiny waterfall. The water was warm and tasted like she’d licked a boulder. On the other side of the garden, thousands of insects swarmed the python’s carcass. Gulls fought the flies to get a share of the meat. At their approach, the birds flapped away with shrill caws.

“What’s this?” Jake pointed at the rocks piled on the serpent’s head.

A thrill washed over her. She’d been so consumed by her captors she’d forgotten about telling Jake her good news.

She took his hand. “It’s my grave. The old me.” She laughed at the surprise widening his eyes. “Before the python squeezed out my last breath, I called to God. I don’t remember all that happened, except that I woke up different . . . alive . . . believing.”

“Believing what?”

“Everything we talked about all these months. Jesus, faith, God’s forgiveness . . . all of it. I’m a new person.” Her heart was crammed so full she couldn’t separate the treasure into its pieces, didn’t know how to explain the radiance inside her.

Why did he look so startled? She grinned. “What, you don’t believe He could save a sinner like me?”

Jake frowned. “It’s just . . . you were so adamant. So dead set against His choices, how He runs things . . .”

Grasshoppers . . . or mousemeat? God . . . or the Boss? A deep contentment spread to every cell in her body. “I want Him in control, Jake. Even . . . even when it hurts.”

A painful smile twitched Jake’s lips. “I’m glad.” The smile broadened, and he swept her into his arms. “Or as Betty would say, Halleluiah!”

She wanted to laugh with him, but couldn’t. Not when Betty and Crystal might be in trouble.

One glance down the steep hole connecting the Japanese garden to the burial cave tunnel undid Eve. Her lungs locked. Her knees buckled. “I can’t go in there without a light, Jake. That’s where the python must have come from. It wasn’t in the garden when I arrived.”

He took her face into his hands. “I can’t bear to leave you here. If anything happened to you . . .” His voice choked.

She closed her eyes. Focused on the warmth of his palms against her cheeks, the strength of his fingers. Jake loved her; she loved him. She could go anywhere with him, do anything for him. The vise clamping her lungs loosened, and she took a deep breath. “All right, I’ll go.”

He kissed her soundly and released her. “You can pray, you know.”

Huh. She gave a half laugh. Weird to think that was available to her now.

Holding the katana sword and the confiscated pistol in front of him, Jake crawled on his stomach into the hole. She followed, stretching her hands forward, one flat against the wall, the other grasping Jake’s foot.

The blackness swallowed her. So completely, she could see nothing. Not even her elbows brushing against her hairline with each movement forward. The heavy odor of her armpits clogged her nostrils. She shivered and began praying.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.

She followed Jake around the sharp curve into the tunnel leading directly to the burial cave. Her heartbeat quickened. She tried not to think about what awaited them.

The passageway enlarged, and they shifted from their stomachs to their knees. The stagnant smell of death and decay grew heavier. Her stomach tightened. Why hadn’t she thought to dig up her captor’s pistol? Or look for her bayonet? What help was she to Jake without a weapon?

“Okay, we’re at the chamber.” Jake’s voice echoed eerily in the open room. “I’m staying on my knees and going for the opposite wall rather than feel my way around the perimeter. Hang on.”

“No worry.” The words shook out of her throat. “My fingers are permanently attached to your foot.”

Cinders dug into her knees. Every two crawls forward, Jake stopped to sweep the katana sword in front of him. Each time, he braced for the possibility of the blade encountering something. Each time, she ceased breathing. When he resumed crawling, her lungs were good for two more swallows of air.

Would they hear a snake? The scrape of leathery scales on rock? The python had made no noise in the garden. No warning until the monster grazed her foot.

The sword clanked against something solid, and she jumped. The reverberation shot down Jake’s leg to her hand. He reached back and squeezed her fingers. “We made it. We’re on the other side.”

“Attaboy.” She leaned forward and kissed his fingers. They were icy cold against her lips.

The air outside the burial cave proved burning hot, insufferably humid, and incredibly sweet. She inhaled it in hungry mouthfuls. The cacophony of gulls and crashing ocean waves topped every concert she’d ever attended. Was there a way to hug God? A simple thank you didn’t seem adequate.

Jake waved her to his side against the wall of the trench. “Still just two guys showing on the boat.”

“There wouldn’t be anybody inside the cave, waiting for us, would there?”

“Their bad luck if they are.” He crawled to the door and lay flat on his stomach, pistol at the ready. “Betty, Crystal, can you hear me? It’s Jake. Are you in there?”

When there was no answer, his jaw tightened. “I’m going in.”

“Me too.” She crawled over to him.

“I’m opening the door slowly so it won’t be noticeable from the yacht, even with binoculars. Just a crack, enough to get inside on my belly.”

He inched the door up and she held it while he squirmed inside. A moment later, his hand appeared and he held the door for her.

They waited for their eyes to adjust to the muted light. The room was deathly quiet. The fire was out. The cooking kettle was gone.

Jake stood up but motioned her to stay where she was. She understood: if there was trouble, he wanted her near the door so she could flee. Her heart thumped against her chest.

He flattened himself against the left side of the sleeping hall. Then he jumped across the opening and flattened himself against the other side. Her heart jumped with him. He had just made himself a target to anyone in the hallway.

Silence greeted his effort. He crouched and slipped into the dark passageway.

Time stood still. She pictured him checking out each sleeping ledge. There were ten. Any one of them could hold a man with a weapon. She held herself rigid, focusing herself as an ear. Even her heart seemed to cooperate. Tension muzzled the cave with empty echoes.

Then the noise came. Cries. Female voices. She jumped to her feet and dashed into the hallway. Jake had found Betty and Crystal.

The four of them laughed and hugged and talked all at the same time, until finally Jake took control. “Okay, one at a time, tell us what happened.”

“I saw them first.” Crystal said. “Aunt Betty and I watched them sail into the cove. She said we had to stay hidden.”

“Good.” Jake squeezed Betty’s shoulder. Ten to one Crystal would have run to greet the boat otherwise.

“When two of them landed on the beach, we moved the kettle to the back of the sleeping hall,” Betty said. “I was afraid they’d smell the seafood cooking if they came close enough, and they’d know we were somewhere around.”

“Good again.”

“And when we heard someone come in, we were scared to death till we saw it was you,”
Crystal exclaimed.

“Next time, use the clevis pin to lock yourselves in.” 

“Next time? Aren’t we leaving on the yacht?”

“Betty, those aren’t good guys down there.” Eve crossed her arms in a tight squeeze. “Those men from the motorboat found me and took me prisoner.”

“What happened to them?”

Jake grunted. “I took care of one of them; Eve, the other. They’re both dead.”

“You killed them?” The question shivered out of Crystal’s throat.

Jake and Eve looked at each other. “Not on purpose, but yes,” Eve answered. “It was them or me.”

“I’m glad it wasn’t you.” Crystal ran to Eve and hugged her. “They must be bad men.”

“I suspect they’re thieves. Modern-day pirates,” Jake explained. Crystal’s eyes widened. “They probably stole the yacht.”

He left them inside while he went out to check for activity on the boat. Betty dished up soup for them. No one had eaten since last night.

Eve brought him a bowl. “Jake, not that it matters now, but what was your answer going to be last night in the garden?”

He grimaced. “I went to the garden to say no to you; I left saying no to God.”

“I don’t understand.”

“When you were alive, I could tell you no because I had hope—hope that things would change.” The blackness he’d stuffed back into his heart in the garden seeped out like boiling tar. “But when you almost died, my hope died. I couldn’t lose you. Couldn’t give you to God. I love you—I didn’t want to be alone.”

The stunned look on her face tore him. He had failed not only God, but her as well. He took her hand. “I’m sorry. I thought I was strong. I discovered I was weak.”

Her face crumpled. “That’s what I wanted, Jake, to win out. I’m sorry I did that to you.”

“You only showed me what was already there. I’m responsible for my decisions, not you.”

A splash from the cove silenced them. A swimmer, headed for the beach.

Jake pushed Eve toward the cave door. “I need you to stay with Betty and Crystal. This guy is either retrieving the motorboat or he’s hunting for the other two men. If he heads into the jungle, I can go after him.”

“Can’t we wait them out in the cave?”

“We’ve left signs all over the place—trampled grass, packed earth. They’d follow a trail straight to our door. The opportunity to pick them off one by one is too good to pass up.”

“Then I want to come with you. Be your backup.”

“Thanks.” He brushed his lips over hers. “But I’m afraid your guerilla warfare skills are a bit rusty.” He eased the cave door open. “Eve’s coming in. Use the clevis pin to lock the door until I return. And, no matter what, no one leave the cave!”

He shut the door on their protests.

Already the swimmer had reached the shore. He looked Filipino, but much shorter and slighter in build than the other two. The man pulled a pair of glasses from a shorts pocket and put them on, then pulled out another item and unwrapped it. A pistol, protected by waterproof wrapping.

Jake ducked and ran halfway down the trench. Two gunshots pierced the air. At him?

He popped his head up high enough to see over the trench. The man was wading upstream toward the rain forest. He fired again, twice, the gun pointed straight up at the sky.

A signal to the other two men to return to the beach, no doubt about it. Jake’s adrenaline spiked. He plunged into the burial cave tunnel. If he could race through fast enough, he’d exit the tunnel that ended at the stream and intercept the man, out of sight of the yacht.