The Darkest Heart (12 page)

A waft of blue smoke drifted from one side of the boat, floating across the surface of the water and thinning. The air smelled of diesel.

Raul looked at me and raised his eyebrows, a smile touching
his cracked lips. ‘Let's get moving, then. There's some stuff we need to pick up.' He turned the wheel and steered us into the main channel.

15

Standing forward on the bow, one bare foot on the gunwale, I lifted a hand to shade my eyes from the sun and looked back at Raul, sitting with Rocky at his side. I wondered if he would ever get what he wanted from life. All the time we had known each other, we both thought we wanted something different. Raul always talked about saving up and moving to Imperatriz, while I was always on the cusp of earning enough money to get what I wanted. It gave us something to talk about when the journeys were long and the sun was cruel, but now I was beginning to wonder if either of us would ever find our balance, or if we would die right here on the river, side by side, in the place we knew best.

‘I should have made him stay at home,' I said to Daniella who was sitting on the deck close to me. She was leaning against the gunwale with her legs drawn up so her knees were against her chest.

The river was more than a kilometre from one bank to the other here, both sides thick with forest that hummed, vibrant with life. All around us, white sandbanks rose from the silt-laden water like pale-boned monsters. The surface of those ever-moving islands was untouched by man and rippled as if water had been imprinted upon it. Here and there, sunken trees reached up, breaking the surface of the river like the hands of drowning men grasping for rescue.

A pair of
anhinga
snakebirds dried their plumage in the branches of one of those trees, watching the water with fixed stares. Another was swimming, only its long neck visible above the surface. I
watched it disappear under and turned back to look at the old man behind the wheel.

Raul noticed me watching him and he nodded once in acknowledgment. A brief smile showed around the bent cigarette clamped between his lips. He shifted on the bench which was fixed to the deck behind the wheel, straightened himself for a moment, then allowed his back to hunch over the wheel once more.

His entire body looked tired, the fever taking hold. Despite the intensity of the sun, he shivered from time to time, and I could almost feel his headache, the fuzzy discomfort in his old joints. I imagined the pain behind his eyes and how it would hurt to smile. But Raul would ignore it just like he had ignored so much distress and inconvenience in his life. If he thought of something else, he could make the fever less acute; dull it with the strength of his mind.

We'd come about sixty kilometres south past the mouth of the Rio das Mortes. Just over an hour ago, we passed the remnants of a small gold-mining operation that had dried up many years ago and been more or less abandoned to the forest. A few ramshackle buildings close to the water, the trees and undergrowth advancing to reclaim them. There had been a couple of Indian canoes there, the occupants looking up from their fishing lines to watch us pass, but we hadn't seen anything else other than trees and water and sky.

Another couple of hours and we'd meet the plane. We could make it back to the Rio das Mortes before nightfall, then moor somewhere until morning. After that it would be a day's travel to Mina dos Santos. The old man would be thinking he had three or four days on the river and he'd be with his wife again. He'd have to admit his illness then, and she would take him into the cool darkness of their home and care for him until the fever passed. She was a strong woman; she would force the sickness to leave him. The way I saw it in my mind, she would shout and beat it into submission until it left his body like an exorcised devil. She would take it in her hands and squeeze it until it gasped for breath.

‘If he gets any worse,' I said, still looking at him, ‘maybe we
should drop him back at Piratinga before we go on to Mina dos Santos. I don't know if he'll manage the rest of today, let alone three or four days. You can get off, too. It was a mistake to let you come.' But I couldn't be sure that would be the best thing. The old man might die here on the boat if his fever worsened, but Daniella might just be safer.

‘Am I in the way?' she asked.

I shook my head and raised a hand to the old man. ‘I just have a feeling,' I said. ‘Things haven't started out well today.'

‘Then they can only get better.' Daniella stood and came to me, putting an arm around my waist and letting the breeze brush her face. A few strands of hair came loose from her ponytail, moved in the wind, one of them catching on her lip and sticking.

I reached out to brush it away as I scanned the river. ‘No, we should go back. It's out of our way, but it's the best thing to do. We'll get what we came for and then we'll go back to Piratinga. I'll go on to Mina dos Santos alone. Just me and Leonardo.'

Even as the words were on my lips, though, the
Deus
shuddered beneath us, an abrupt and violent motion that shook right through me. The boat lurched a second and third time before the engine cut out and died.

I held onto the gunwale and caught Daniella as she fell against me, seeing the last tongue of smoke wisp away behind us while the boat coasted in silence, losing its momentum to the river. All I could hear was the sound of the bow cutting through the water, slowing, coming to a stop.

The silence that followed was stark and empty.

In the wheelhouse, Raul and Rocky were recovering from the jolt. The old man looked dazed and all he could do was raise a hand to let me know he was all right. Rocky was scrabbling to her feet, indignant at having fallen from her place on the bench beside her owner.

‘I'd better go see what's wrong,' I said to Daniella. The sound of my voice was flat and strange in the vast openness of the river. ‘You wait here.'

When I reached the wheelhouse, the old man had recovered
and restarted the engine. When he tried to put the
Deus
in gear, though, the familiar whine and chug was cut short by a grinding as the boat shuddered and failed. He tried one more time, then sat back from the wheel and showed me a blank look.

‘What is it?' Leonardo said, coming forward but stopping short when he saw Rocky. His eyes lingered on her for a moment, then he looked up at Raul. ‘You know we have a collection time, right? And if we're late, no one gets paid.' There was a slight tremble in his voice that might have been fear.

I put a hand on the back of the seat and leaned in to speak to Raul. ‘What do you think, old man?'

‘Not sure. Did you feel anything? We hit something maybe?'

Leonardo raised his voice, but couldn't hide his nervousness. ‘Hey, if we're not there when that plane—'

‘You know how to fix boats?' I turned on him.

He pursed his lips and watched me.

‘I didn't think so. From what I've seen, you're more roads than rivers, so you want to let us figure this out or you want to swim to meet your plane? If you know how to fix boats, then that's good, but if not, why don't you sit down and shut up?'

Leonardo stared at me, his eyes fixed on mine for several seconds, then he nodded once, slowly. ‘OK,' he said, pausing a moment longer before returning to his seat. He was showing me that he wasn't afraid of me. He would not be intimidated by me. If I hadn't taken his gun before he came on board, there's a good chance it would be in his hand by now.

I watched him go, then told Raul to try the engine one more time. As soon as he put us in gear, though, the
Deus
convulsed. The old man swore under his breath and stood up. ‘I'll have a look.'

I followed him to the stern, going into the covered section at the back where the engine was housed. I held a torch for him while he checked it over, all the time breathing heavily, grunting with effort.

‘You see Leonardo's reaction?' I spoke to Raul's back.

‘Uh-uh.'

‘He looked scared.'

‘Just gave him a shock, that's all. He's not the scared type.' Raul straightened up and put his hands on his lower back.

‘Anything?'

He looked at me and scratched his cheek, leaving an oily mark amongst the grey bristles. ‘Nothing. You'll have to go in.'

‘In the water? You think maybe the propeller?'

‘I think maybe we hit something.'

I switched off the torch and came out of the housing, glad to be in the fresh air again. Inside, it was dark and close; hot and smelling of diesel.

‘Going for a swim?' Leonardo asked when he saw me taking off my shirt.

‘Unless you want to go?'

He held up both hands.

‘I didn't think so.'

‘Is it safe here?' Daniella asked, looking over the side of the boat, then raising her eyes to the distant shore. ‘We're a long way out.' It was half a kilometre to each bank, and maybe the same distance to the bottom of the river. ‘There's things in there that—'

‘It'll be fine.' I waved away an insect that had come to buzz around my face, attracted by the sweat. ‘I've done this before.'

Daniella nodded, but looked worried.

‘And if I don't go in, we'll be stuck here for a while.'

‘We can't get closer to the shore?' she asked.

‘Maybe,' Raul told her. ‘But it's not easy. We have to try this first.' He looked at me with a serious expression, knowing I wouldn't go into the river unless I had to.

The
Deus
drifted, turning sideways as the lazy current took us back downriver. Here, more sandbanks lifted from the water, creating a maze of channels. We couldn't risk being washed against one and wedging into the soft sand, so I dropped the anchor, hoping it would find purchase. We had moved a little closer towards the left bank, coming within four hundred metres of the tufts of marshy vegetation that grew there. Beyond them, on the beach, a huddle of dark shapes lay like damp, rotting driftwood.

I flicked at the insect that had returned to land on my shoulder,
and stared at those shapes on the beach. It wasn't driftwood, though, it was a group of caiman enjoying the sun.

‘Jacaré,'
I said, not liking the idea of being in the water near a large group of armoured reptiles with mouths full of sharp teeth.

The old man thought for a moment. They won't bother you. Too far away.'

‘And if there's a big one down there?' I looked over the gunwale and stared into the opaque water. ‘Right here? I heard there's
jacaré
that grow up to four metres.'

‘I never heard of them attacking a man.'

‘I don't want to be the first.'

The old man smiled.

‘All right, hold onto these.' I took him to one side and handed him my pistols.

The old man stared as if he didn't know what to do with them, then sighed and clipped them to his belt.

Leonardo's eyes went to them straight away, like a bird drawn to a shiny object.

‘Look after the old man,' I said, squatting to rub Rocky's head. ‘Daniella too.'

I stepped out of my trousers, so I was wearing only a pair of cotton shorts, and swung one leg over the gunwale. I beckoned the old man closer and spoke quietly. ‘Don't worry about me,' I said. ‘Just watch Leonardo. I don't trust him.'

Raul glanced behind him and then looked back at me. ‘Sure. No problem.'

‘And don't let him get too close to you. He has a chance, I think he'll try for those.'

‘Why?'

‘Because that's the sort of person he is. Just don't show him your back.'

The old man nodded and moved away as I swung my other leg over and dropped off the side of the boat with a splash.

The water was warm and I was a good swimmer but there was something about being in the river that prickled at the back of
my mind. Something that wondered what was down there in the darkness.

Countless creatures glided through that water; a thousand things that could kill a man in the most terrible ways, and once I was submerged, I was at their mercy. I would be blind, swimming with my eyes closed against the silt that swirled in dense clouds through the waters. If anything were there, I wouldn't see it. If anything came for me, I would be unprepared. It would snatch me away and drag me into the darkness.

With those terrible thoughts in my head, I took a deep breath and went under.

16

Feeling along the rough underside of the boat, I tried to find the propeller while keeping track of the hull above me. It was disorientating in the darkness, and even though I tried to keep my eyes closed, the silt-laden water found a way in and felt grainy under my eyelids.

Something brushed past my cheek and I fought hard not to panic. It was nothing more than a fish, I told myself, or a twig caught in the current. I focused on the task and continued feeling around the hull until my lungs began to burn and I turned to kick for the surface, breaking out and taking a deep breath.

‘Anything?' I heard the old man say and I looked up to see his face peering over the gunwale.

I held onto one of the tyres hanging from the
Deus
and wiped the water from my eyes. ‘If there's something, I'll find it,' I told him. ‘Don't keep asking. And don't keep turning away from him. Watch
him
, not me.'

‘Don't worry about him, he's fishing.'

‘Fishing? I don't want any hooks down here.'

‘No,' the old man said. ‘Not anywhere near here.'

I shook my head at him and moved a little further along, then took another deep breath and dived.

Slipping under the hull, scraping my scalp as I felt for the prop shaft, my fingers touched something unexpected.

A smooth object.

My immediate reaction was to pull away, to get away from whatever it was, but I hardened my resolve and forced myself to continue.

I couldn't tell what it was and I traced its outline, not wanting to touch it, not wanting to be down there in the darkness, and I was surprised by a sudden movement when it jerked in my hands.