Page 60 of No Questions Asked

“There aren’t,” Salvador confirmed. “It’s an extremely isolated area. Much of that territory belongs to protected tribes, including several that have had little to no contact with the outside world.”

“Which tribes?” Slash asked.

Slash stepped aside so Salvador could move forward and get a better look at the map. “Hard to say for certain, but that area is mostly Okampa territory. They have a number of villages in the area—no one really knows for sure how many—but they have a reputation for being extremely unfriendly to strangers.”

“Then why is the satellite phone beaming from that location?”

Salvador shook his head, looking worried. “I don’t know.”

“Wait!” Gwen exclaimed. “I totally forgot, with everything that’s happened, but when we were approaching the village where Lexi disappeared, I thought I saw a native person shadowing us in the trees. He had these strange tattoos on his face. When I tried to get a better look, he’d vanished, so I thought maybe it was my imagination. I mentioned it and the tattoos to Lexi, and she said the same thing had happened to her. She’d seen a tattooed face just like that when she was in the rainforest alone, right before she saved us.”

Slash instantly stilled, trying to remember exactly what Lexi had said to him after she’d awakened from her concussion.

I poked a snake, jumped out of a tree, and saw a native man watching me. I think I may have been delusional.

“Gwen, what did the tattoos look like?” he asked, a note of urgency in his voice.

She closed her eyes, thinking. “They were black swirls and white slashes, but jagged ones like lightning. This man had them over every inch of his face. But I didn’t see anyone like at the village.”

He glanced at Salvador. “Does that mean anything to you?”

The guide lifted his hands. “Maybe. Most of the native tribes have tattoos of one sort or the other. However, the Okampa are known for their extensive facial tattoos. My guess is that if that man’s entire face was covered, he’d be a very important member of the tribe.”

Slash looked back at the map, considering, before he turned to Vicente. “Do you speak the language of the Okampa?”

“I don’t even know what the language of the Okampa is,” Vicente replied. “No one knows. Outsiders who have tried to penetrate the area have always been turned back. There’s so little known about them, that it’s hard to say what we could expect.”

“Is it possible they could have taken Lexi?”

“Anything is possible, but why?” Vicente looked as baffled as Slash felt.

“I don’t know why.” Frustrated, Slash reached for a plausible explanation because none were at hand. “Maybe for ransom or they kidnapped her on behalf of someone else, like a drug cartel.”

“Why do you bring up drug cartels?” Vicente asked a bit sharply.

Slash studied him, wondering what had prompted the hard edge to his question. “Have you seen the tattoos on the wrists of the guys who tried to kidnap us? It’s the mark ofEl Esqueleto.”

“Yes, I saw them. But what doyouknow ofEl Esqueleto?” Vicente asked.

Slash had clearly hit a nerve, but he wasn’t sure why and didn’t have time to deal with that now. Martim and Gabriel were also staring at him intently. Until he knew what was going on, it was better to play it safe and reveal nothing. “Enough to know he’s a dangerous man.”

Vicente studied Slash for a long moment, as if deciding to press him on it or let it go. “You think he took her?”

“Everything’s on the table.” He kept his tone light and noncommittal. “But I don’t think so. We’d have received communication from someone in his organization by now. Ransom, hostage, some kind of deal or negotiation. We’ve heard nothing. Besides, the way she was kidnapped also doesn’t fit the style of a cartel operation.”

“You know a lot about cartels for a computer guy,” Vicente said.

Slash shrugged. “I’m well read.”

“I bet.” Vicente said, but didn’t push further.

“Well, if the cartels didn’t take her, who did?” Salvador asked. “Then the only possibility left is a native abduction. And if natives took her, it would have to be for a totally different reason.”

“What kind of reason?” Slash asked.

Salvador thought and then shook his head. “I don’t know. I can’t think of a single one that makes any sense.”

A half dozen scenarios ran through Slash’s head as to why a tribe would kidnap Lexi, and none of them ended well. He pushed those thoughts away to focus on what hedidknow. Turning back to the map, he ran calculations based on distance, weight and fuel capacity to determine if the helicopter would be able to get him close enough to the area.

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