Page 42 of Fear No Evil

Just as Jake was scraping the last bean from his bowl, Gallo barked an order that had him and the other UN team members gaping at the man, confused.

“Get up! You’re leaving.”

“Where are we going?” Boris asked him.

“No questions. Follow the squad commander.” Gallo pointed to David and his three sidekicks, Estéban, Julian, and Chucho, all of whom clutched their semiautomatics, urging haste.

With his meal sitting heavily in his stomach, Jake glanced at Lena’s taut expression as they both rose. The rebels were notorious for relocating their hostages, but the UN peacekeepers weren’t hostages, were they? Were they about to be marched to a different camp? How arduous would the hike be?

“You.” Gallo gestured imperiously to Bellini. “Carry the bucket.”

Looking mystified, the Italian did as he was told. With a cautious peek into the pail of hammered tin, his worry vanished. He sent the others a grin of relief. “Soap and towels.”

Jake shared a smile of relief with Lena. They were getting to bathe? Where?

As they followed David across the camp toward the football field, he reached for Lena’s hand, pleased when she let him hold on to it. It appeared they would get to forge the path nobody had used until now, the one by the bull’s-eyes.

Confidence welled in Jake. Apart from the sat phone fiasco, things were looking up. It wasn’t even raining for a change. Spindles of sunlight pierced the mist here and there, brightening the pink and yellow orchids sprouting on the bark of trees, on anything organic, really. The name for such plants surfaced from a college biology class taken long ago: epiphytes.

With Lena’s hand tucked in his, Jake felt himself smiling. He had to be crazy because he was happier now on this wet, muddy mountain in the middle of nowhere than he’d been in the last twelve years.

CHAPTER 9

Maggie cocked her ear toward a sound in the distance. She caught Jake’s eye.“Tu entends ça?” Do you hear that?

His gaze lingered on her upturned face.“Oui. Je suis impatient.”

The sound grew from a hiss in the distance to a gushing enticement to hurry.

Bursting onto a clearing, they all chorused their appreciation of the twenty-foot cataract spilling over the cliff in front of them and thundering into a basin the size of a backyard swimming pool before tumbling over a series of smaller rapids that disappeared downhill into the verdant wilderness.

Was this the waterfall drawn on the map?

Bellini dropped the bucket, racing with Boris to see who could undress the fastest.

Sitting on a boulder, Maggie untied her boots. With her eyes on the men, she pushed the dagger she still carried out of sight as she pulled her foot out. Realizing Jake had the map in his pants pocket, along with their passports, she glanced over to find him contemplating whether to strip his pants off.

“Just take them off,” Maggie told him in French. If Esme took umbrage with him stripping, she could look away. As for herself, Maggie’s clothing needed a bath as much as she did.

Leaving her boots beside the boulder, she waded into the shallows in her socks, fully dressed. Esme, led by her example, did likewise. They both gasped as bone-chilling water lapped at their feet.

“Are you going in all the way?” The Turkish woman didn’t seem too interested.

“You bet I am. The secret is to jump in all at once.”

Demonstrating, Maggie performed a shallow dive. The shock of the water startled her at first, but as it cooled the myriad bug bites on her body, she remained underwater, enjoying her solitude. The thunder of the falls muffled the exclamations of the others as they waded in. Hanging on to a root at the bottom, Maggie looked around. It was nice to be alone for a second.

A sudden disturbance had her looking up. A figure flashed toward her disturbing her peace, and a powerful forearm hooked around her waist before hauling her abruptly to the surface.

Jake’s worried face was the first thing she saw as she sucked in a breath of air.

“You okay?” Water spiked his eyelashes.

“Um,oui.” She glanced self-consciously toward the others.“Désolé si je t’ai fait peur.” Sorry if I scared you.

“I thought you hit your head or something.” His powerful kicks kept them both afloat and away from the current that had tried to carry her downstream. “You never came back up.”

“No. I just…wanted some time to myself.” Glancing self-consciously toward shore, she spotted Chucho picking up one of Jake’s boots. At her soft gasp, Jake turned his head and stiffened.

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