Page 125 of Javier

Javier flashed me a cursory glance and approached his boots cautiously, shook them a little, and poked them with his wire stick. Once he was sure they were snake-free, he put them on. It was some consolation that he took my concern seriously. At least he didn’t think I was totally bonkers.

“Given a choice, in their natural habitat, a snake will try to sneak away from a human,” he pondered aloud as he tied his laces.

“They want to be left alone.” I lowered my feet to the ground. “I’ll help you look.”

“Sit tight,” Javier ordered, rising to his feet. “It’s easier to see movement when only one of us is moving.”

He was right.

“How did the snakes get into the shower?” Javier asked, as he secured the bathroom door.

“A drone,” I said. “It dumped the snakes over me.”

“Fuck the fuckers,” Javier swore a foul string and moved back to the closet. “The vipers were forced into a defensive situation.”

“By someone who knew this,” I pointed out.

“Someone like that son of a bitch, Bekker,” Javier suggested.

For the first time in my life, I wanted to kill someone and his name was Wilbur Bekker.

Javier hooked the wire thought the straps of his duffel and slowly dragged it out of the closet. “If he went to the trouble to dump those vipers in the shower while you were in it, he probably has a backup plan.”

“While you were in the bathroom helping me out, someone could’ve let another snake loose in here.” Paranoia sent ice crawling up my spine.

“It’s possible.” Moving carefully, he unzipped the bag. “The same person who took down the protective mesh over the shower may have been in a position to release another snake.”

“That’s what I think, too.”

“No worries.” He probed the duffel with the wire. “If there’s one or more snakes in this room, I’m gonna find them.”

When he was sure there were no snakes in the duffel, he pulled out his flashlight and his M4. I held my breath as he checked the room in a grid pattern, poking his stretched-out hanger in every nook and cranny, moving the furniture, using his flashlight to check every corner low or high, even climbing to check the rafters.

“You didn’t faint,” he said as he tore the couch apart.

“You’re right.” My lips twitched, crookedly perhaps, but Ihad something to be proud of.

“You are so brave, Angel.” He kept up his methodical search. “You don’t give yourself enough credit. I was as scared as a cat at the dog pound in there.”

He wanted to cheer me up. I managed to steady my smile.

“I need you to tell me exactly what happened before I went in the shower.” One by one, he checked the kitchenette’s cabinets. “Can you do that?”

“I’ll try.” I took a deep breath and willed myself to recall. “It began with the drone whirring overhead…”

It took me a few minutes to tell Javier everything I could remember. He listened quietly, taking in every detail and asking lots of questions. By the time I finished my story, he’d completed his search and no object in the room had been left untouched.

“Clear,” he reported. “Other than the vipers in the bathroom, there are no snakes inside this suite.”

I let out a breath of relief.

He slid out his cell and punched the dialer. “Allen? Guzman here. Account for your men. I bet a million dollars one of them is missing. Find him. Put everyone on high alert and call a snake removal expert.” He listened to whatever the other man said on the horn. “No, you don’t need to come up here right now. I got it under control and this could be a distraction to stage a full-fledged attack. Use every asset you’ve got to secure all access points and reinforce the perimeter around the hill. This attack might or might not be over. It pays to be on guard.”

With the call made, he sat down beside me, and, laying his rifle on the mattress, gathered me in his arms and pressed my face into the crook of his neck.

“We survived,” I whispered, my voice still shaky. “We’re alive.”

“Of course you’re alive.” He crushed me to his chest. “You didn’t think I was gonna let anyone hurt you, did you?”

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