Then Agamemnon would reward him in kind, perhaps with command of his own cell. Surely then he would rise even further in the ranks.

  Miki turned and smiled at Eduardo. “It was a very good speech, my friend.”

  Eduardo smiled back.

  One of the men suddenly turned and pointed at the jungle. Eduardo could see a ripple of movement coming down the nearest hill. It broke intermittently, like a wave trying to crest on a beach.

  “What is that?” Miki asked.

  Some of the men gathered their guns and began to point them at the ripple. Eduardo shook his head. “Hold your fire.”

  “What if it is the sniper?”

  “It’s not.”

  “You can be so sure?”

  Eduardo looked at them, forcing himself to put on a calm demeanor. “Trust me, I would never downplay risk.”

  The men lowered their rifles and watched as the motion grew closer. They could hear nothing, only see the ripple as it proceeded down the hill toward their camp.

  Miki came close to Eduardo. “You know what it is?”

  “I think I do, yes.”

  The ripple came closer. Finally, in the last few feet before the jungle became the camp, the foliage suddenly parted and Eduardo smiled when the old man’s bearded face broke into the sunlight.

  “Have you found it?”

  The old man nodded. “Yes. It is hidden but clear even to my old fragile eyes. I can show it to you.”

  “You’ll do more than that,” Eduardo said. “You will show us and then lead the hunt for the sniper.”

  10

  Annja maneuvered her way through the thick jungle foliage. Her clothes, which she’d been wearing for almost a week, were utterly glued to her by the sweat pouring out of her. Even if she hadn’t been sweating, the pea-soup-like humidity under the jungle canopy ensured she would stay soaking wet. It was a horrible feeling.

  Vic wound his way through obstacle after obstacle without ever breaking stride. If he was exhausted, he showed no sign of it. Even during the frequent stops they made to collect water from the streams and rivers they crossed, Vic seemed totally in his element.

  Annja was jealous.

  She’d been in strange situations before, but there seemed to be something about this particular jungle that was worse than any of the others she’d been in. Something about how the buttress trees leaned in close, about how the tube vines snaked their way up from the ground, wrapping themselves around everything in sight.

  It all seemed so…ancient.

  Annja actually shivered once or twice as they passed through a particularly claustrophobic part of the jungle. She’d heard that people could get the willies in the tight confines of a jungle when the sun or sky wasn’t even visible above due to the dense growth of plants and trees.

  Around them, the daytime birds gave up an endless cacophony of sound. Annja could imagine their bright plumage on display as they hopped from branch to branch somewhere high above them on the hunt for a meal or a mate.

  The barrel of Vic’s gun nosed through the jungle ahead of him. Often, he would pause on bent knee and check the compass Annja noticed he’d taped to the buttstock of his gun. He would check it against a small folded and laminated map he carried in his uniform. Only after taking another bearing would he rise and resume his path.

  Annja had absolutely no idea where they were headed. At varying times during their march, she thought they were traveling north, but then they switched directions and Annja thought perhaps they were now moving in a more easterly fashion.

  But after the third direction switch, she gave up trying to figure it out.

  Vic checked back on her every few minutes. He’d warned her what would happen if she didn’t keep up and from the grim expression on his face, Annja had little doubt that he would do what he said—leave her behind if she couldn’t keep up.

  About two hours after they started, Vic called a halt by raising a clenched fist. He turned and put a finger to his lips, warning Annja that the no-talking rule was still in effect.

  He took out an MRE for each of them and Annja tore into it, devouring the macaroni and cheese as if it was the last meal she’d be having. She washed it down with what felt like a gallon of water. Vic refilled the canteen from the nearby stream, and Annja found that the sterilization tabs didn’t taste that bad if you were thirsty enough.

  Vic put his mouth up close to her ear and in a very quiet whisper said, “Make sure you pee.”

  Annja nearly coughed. “What?” she whispered.

  Vic frowned. “Pee. And check it. If it’s dark yellow and smelly, you need to get more water into your system. If it’s clear, you’re okay.”

  Annja plopped a forkful of macaroni into her mouth and nodded.

  Vic moved off and began eating his own food. Annja watched him and then, when she was done, moved over to where he sat. “How far have we gone?” she whispered.

  He smirked. “About a mile and a half.”

  “That’s it?”

  Vic looked at her. “We’re not traveling in a straight line.”

  She nodded. “I noticed. But why not?”

  Vic pulled out his map. He pointed with a small twig he found on the ground. “This is where we started earlier. This is where we need to get to.”

  “Okay.”

  “And this,” Vic said, pointing at a spot marked with a bright red X on the map, “is the location of the camp where I completed my assignment last night.”

  “Uh, okay.”

  “You see anything special about that?”

  “Not really.”

  Vic pointed. “The enemy camp is located at a point where they can intersect our path if we aren’t careful.”

  “That wouldn’t be good,” Annja said.

  Vic frowned. “Genius.”

  Annja sighed. “You don’t have to be sarcastic about it. I was only making a small joke.”

  “Damned small.” Vic pointed again. “Our path will take us around their search line. Or at least what I hope their search line will be.”

  “And then we make our escape?” she asked.

  “Hopefully.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Vic smiled. “We have another group to contend with—the folks you left behind when you escaped from the other camp. I imagine they’ll be very interested in locating you. We have to assume they’re out looking for us, as well.”

  Annja took a swig of water. “This is a royal pain in the ass.”

  “Escape and evasion is never easy,” Vic said. “Especially in a place like this.”

  Annja looked at him. Something about his expression made her frown. “Something bothering you, Vic?”

  “No.”

  “Liar.”

  Vic looked at her. “What do you mean by that?”

  Annja shrugged. “Your face. It looks more serious than before. Like you know something but you’re not sharing it.”

  “No sense sharing it.” He shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

  “So you keep saying.”

  He looked at her and then grinned. “Fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  “Okay.”

  Vic pointed at the jungle. “You been feeling a little claustrophobic lately?”

  “Yeah. I have,” she admitted.

  He nodded. “Me, too. And that’s rare for me. I’m usually at home in any jungle. But this one, I don’t know. It feels a little too…closed in.”

  “Is that it?”

  Vic brought his rifle up into his lap. “The last time I was on leave, I spent some time a little south of here in a small village. The locals are always great at making you feel at home. Anyway, one night after too much food, I fell in talking with one of the town elders. Guy was so old he looked like a wrinkled prune. But his eyes, I mean if you saw them, you’d swear they were on fire.”

  “I’ve known people like that,” Annja said.

  “This old guy, he starts telling me about this jungle. This particular stretch. About how it holds a lot of secrets.”

  Annja smiled. “Secrets?”

  “I know, right, you think the same thing I thought—the old guy’s had too much stale beer. But he tells me then that my next mission will take me straight into a place I’ve never known before. A place I’ve never thought existed.”

  “Weird.”

  “Yep.”

  “And you think this is that place?” Annja asked.

  Vic frowned. “Not really. But the old man’s words have been ringing in my head today. Ever since we started out. Like I’ve got this feeling I can’t place.”

  “What kind of feeling?”

  “Like someone’s keeping an eye on us,” he said.

  Annja glanced around. “The search teams?”

  “No. Someone else. But it’s like they stay on the periphery just enough for me to think I might be imagining things.”

  “Like they know how to flirt with your subconscious enough to make you question your gut,” Annja said, knowing how he felt.

  “Exactly.”

  “Those would have to be some pretty skilled people. I don’t imagine you’re the kind of guy who has survived as long as he has without trusting your gut,” she said.

  Vic smirked. “I suppose so.”

  Annja looked out into the jungle. She hadn’t felt much today, but then again, she’d been concentrating almost exclusively on trying to keep pace with Vic. Her attention had been so focused on that that perhaps she’d lost sight of her natural ability to detect danger.

  Now, though, as she glanced around her, she could feel something, too. It seemed to gnaw at her just a tiny bit.

  “Well, I’m real anxious to go pee now,” she said.

  Vic finished his MRE and packed it away along with Annja’s trash. “I’ll stand watch. Do your business over there and cover it with the log when you’re done,” he whispered.

  Annja headed toward the log. She glanced back at Vic and was amazed that despite being only a few yards away, he was already difficult to notice in the jungle. His camouflage was so effective, he seemed to merge with the trees and plants around him.

  Now I know how he can get so close to his targets before he kills them, she thought.

  She turned the log over and lowered her pants. She heard an instant buzzing frenzy as mosquitoes dive-bombed her backside.

  Great, she thought, this just keeps getting better. It’s a good thing I’m not overly concerned about looking dignified.

  She stood and flipped the log back over onto the moist ground. As she pulled her pants up, she crushed a few flying bugs between her backside and the cloth of her pants.

  Vic turned when she came back through the jungle. “All set?”

  Annja nodded, making sure the pistol she wore was still secure.

  Vic led them on, pausing at the next large tree to take a bearing. Annja knew a little about orienteering, but Vic seemed to know right where he was heading.

  Annja looked around the jungle. How people could find their way through this maze was surprising enough. It all seemed to utterly infinite. Trees, plants, animals, birds, snakes, insects, wet humid air and…rain.

  She heard it before she felt it. Overhead, the sudden eruption of millions of pellets of water pelting the large leaves reaching up to the sun. The drops splattered against leaf after leaf, making their way down to the floor below in a way that reminded Annja of the pachinko parlors in Tokyo.

  In a short time, the rain reached them, soaking them even more. Annja let some of the water run into her mouth, grateful that it didn’t taste like sterilization tablets. Vic was moving up ahead, but he stopped and pointed at the ground.

  Annja looked down and understood why. The dirt was turning into thick, gooey mud. With every step the earth seemed to suck at her feet, making progress slow and exhausting.

  Worse, they were leaving a very distinct set of tracks through the jungle. Anyone following them would know they went this way.

  That fact didn’t make Annja feel very good.

  But Vic seemed to be taking that into account. Annja noticed they were traveling now more to the right side, almost as if they were making a very large circle.

  What the hell was he up to?

  Annja didn’t quite understand why they would switch directions again after so much work getting to this point. Wasn’t there an easier way to do this? Couldn’t they just run for the edge of the jungle?

  She smirked. Like so many times before, Annja knew that she was in the company of a professional. Vic knew what he was doing. All she had to do was shut up and keep pace. He would take care of her.

  She supposed that was the problem.

  Annja didn’t like knowing someone else was responsible for her safety. She much preferred being in charge of her own welfare.

  But then again, she hadn’t planned on being kidnapped, either, and then escaping into the jungle equipped with absolutely nothing but her legendary sword.

  Vic stopped suddenly and held up his clenched fist.

  Annja froze.

  Vic turned abruptly, took three big steps to the left and then gestured for Annja to do the same. She did and came over to squat next to Vic.

  “What’s the matter?”

  Vic pointed at about eleven o’clock to their position. “Out there.”

  “What?”

  Vic brought his rifle up into his shoulder and sighted through the scope. He pulled back and nodded for Annja to look through it.

  Annja closed one of her eyes and peered through the scope. Instantly, she saw movement. It was muddled at first from the rain streaking the scope, but then she saw it.

  An old man with a long white beard.

  Behind him, five men with rifles.

  Vic’s mouth brushed Annja’s ear. “They’ve found us.”

  11

  The old man, whom Eduardo had nicknamed Balut due to his proclivity for eating the black aged duck eggs as he tracked, turned and held up his hand. He spotted Eduardo and called him forward.

  Eduardo approached. “What is it?”

  Balut shushed him. Eduardo frowned and then took a breath before whispering, “What?”

  Balut sniffed the air. “Can you smell it?”

  Eduardo sniffed. “Smell what?”

  Balut continued scenting the air as if he were some type of bloodhound. “A woman. I can smell her.”

  Eduardo frowned. Agamemnon had mentioned that an American woman had escaped from his camp. Was it possible they had stumbled on her trail?

  “She’s nearby?”

  Balut sniffed the air again. Then he moved off the trail and poked his way through the dense undergrowth. Eduardo watched as he poked his nose here and there before settling on a log on the ground close by. He turned the log over, got down on all fours and proceeded to stick his nose right into the ground.

  When he came back up, he wore a smile. “This is fresh.”

  “What is?”

  “She has pissed here recently.”

  Eduardo rolled his eyes in disgust. “You just stuck your nose into her waste?”

  Balut came back toward him plucking another black duck egg from the pouch he wore, peeling the shell and popping it into his mouth. “A good tracker knows the surest way to find his prey is to study their waste.”

  He chewed slowly, letting bits of eggs fall around his mouth. Eduardo felt repulsed. Not only did he hate balut as an edible substance, but the manner in which the old man devoured the eggs was sickening.

  Still, if the American woman was close by…

  “What about the sniper?” he asked.

  Balut frowned. “He will, no doubt, be tougher to track.”

  Eduardo looked overhead. The rain continued to sluice down through the trees. The mud all around them was thick and mucky. Eduardo was amazed Balut was able to smell anything over the strong scent of fresh rain.

  Eduardo waved his men forward. When they were around him, he smiled through the rain pouring down his face. “Nice day for a walk, eh?”

  The men grinned. Eduardo knew he had their confidence. All he had to do now was get the woman and then the sniper.

  “The old man here says there is a woman close by. Agamemnon told me about an American woman he had kidnapped for ransom. She escaped yesterday. And it is very possible we have stumbled onto her trail. She is close by, according to the old man who has…smelled her effluents.”

  Balut cracked a smile. “She smells lovely.”

  Eduardo sighed. “Be that as it may, you are to fan out from here and we will attempt to catch her. Agamemnon wants her taken alive, as well. She is unarmed and should be relatively simple to catch. Alone out here, she is probably very weak.”

  Balut frowned. “I doubt that.”

  Eduardo ignored him. “We will form a line with each of us four yards apart and then proceed. She will not be able to escape the line and we will catch her. Be sure to take your time and check everywhere. If she knows we are close, then she will try her best to elude us.”

  Eduardo turned back to Balut. “Can you give us a bearing of which way she went?”

  Balut turned and walked farther away. He came back and pointed. “Perhaps ten minutes before we arrived here.”

  “That’s it?”

  Balut nodded. “You ask, I show.”

  Eduardo checked the safety on his gun. His men fanned out and they waited for his signal. When he saw they were all in position, he waved them forward as one.

  The fact that they had come across the woman’s trail surprised him. He would have thought that they would come across the sniper’s trail first, but then again, as Balut had said, he would no doubt be tougher to track.

  And much tougher to corner.

  “Eduardo!”

  One of his men from the left waved him over. Eduardo pushed his way through a tangle of vines and then looked at the ground where the man pointed. “Do you see it?”

  Eduardo nodded. There on the ground were what appeared to be two sets of tracks.

  Balut appeared next to them and knelt in the mud, feeling the tracks with his hand. He glanced up. “They are fresh. But the rain is washing them away. In this weather, they were probably recently made. I believe they are close.”

  “The woman?”