Page 83 of No Questions Asked

Shortly after midnight, according to my watch, I detected movement by the bunkhouse. I tapped the wounded guy on the shoulder, making sure he was watching. A man approached the workshop, said something to the guard outside, and disappeared inside. A few minutes later, he came out holding another man by the arm. A prisoner. That man turned his head toward the moonlight, and I got a clear view.

Salvador.

His hands were tied behind his back, his face looked swollen. The guard had ominously removed his gun and held it in his other hand. Salvador was staggering, barely able to walk. Alarmed, I tapped Amana on the shoulder, and she quietly alerted everyone in case we had to put our plan into action. For now, we would get in position and wait.

Within a minute, we were all in our positions. The landscape was black except for the pool of light surrounding the workshop building and the moonlight. Thankfully, the sounds of the night creatures and the generator were enough to mask our movement. Quietly we crept forward, stopping near the edge of a pool of light by the building. The guard was dragging Salvador toward the bigger building, and Salvador didn’t want to go. The panic and fear in his voice worried me. I exchanged glances with Amana, who’d already removed the long-range blowgun. Quiver Girl quietly nocked an arrow.

At that moment, Salvador broke free from the man’s hold and started to run toward the rainforest. The guy who’d been dragging him angrily raised his gun to shoot before he abruptly gave a single yelp, then crumpled to the ground without discharging his weapon. Amazed, I looked over at Amana, who held up a finger. In the space of mere seconds, Amana had hit him with a dart, and he’d gone down just like that. Impressed, I gave her a look of admiration and a thumbs-up sign.

Salvador was still running toward the trees, so I ran parallel to intercept him. “Salvador,” I hissed when I caught up with him. “Stop. It’s me, Lexi.”

He froze, then dropped to his knees. “Lexi?”

“Shhh,” I warned. “Keep your voice down. What’s happening?”

“They were about to kill me. Oh my God.”

“Who are they?”

“I don’t know exactly. Drug runners from Venezuela. Their boss arrived tonight. They questioned me once, beat me up some, but they weren’t sure what was going on. I sincerely didn’t know enough about anything to convince them I was more than what I told them I was, and that the guns they found in the backpack were for protection only. Luckily, we weren’t carrying much and none of them were automatic. I think they were partially convinced I was just a scientist, because one of the guys told me I was nothing more than an inconvenience. He said the boss had no further use for us and they were going to kill us and dump our bodies in the river.”

My anxiety skyrocketed. “Where’s Slash?”

“Still in the workshop. He’s okay as far as I know. I’m surprised they didn’t beat him up because he kept trying to draw attention to himself and away from the natives. But not by speaking, mind you. If they discovered he spoke Spanish, they would have definitely suspected a setup. But just between you and me, I think the drug runners mostly left him alone because they were afraid of him.”

As they well should have been. However, if the so-called big boss was still awake and ordering executions, we couldn’t afford to wait any longer. We had to save the men.

“Go that way along the tree line,” I whispered to him. “Quietly. The other villagers are lying in wait there.”

He looked at me in astonishment. “What other villagers?”

“The women,” I said. “They’ve come to save you.”

Chapter Forty-Nine

Lexi

Now that one guard was down and Salvador had escaped, it was clear the full plan had to go into action. It was only a matter of time before they were discovered missing.

I quickly returned to where Amana and Quiver Girl were waiting. Their position gave me an excellent view of the door, windows and guard. The guard sat oblivious to what had just happened fifty yards away, but our risk of detection increased as every minute passed. Patting her bag of heavily sedative, nonlethal darts, Amana moved into position. Right on cue, the guard got up from his chair and began walking around the building. I heard the softpffftof the dart gun—once, twice—and the guard went down. Two more women stepped out of the trees, pulling the man noiselessly into the rainforest. They made it look effortless.

Two down and seven to go, including the big boss man.

Silently, we headed toward the bunkhouse. One of the women had already opened the door, so we began a cautious and silent entry. I could hear snoring and loud breathing. Within two minutes, there were one or two women alongside each of the five men sleeping in their hammocks. One of the women motioned to a separate room, apparently occupied by the boss man. Two of us decided to take him together. I opened the door quietly and we slipped inside, readying ourselves. As soon as we heard the quiet whistle that served as our signal, we plunged the darts into their neck, where the toxins could most quickly reach the brain and heart and render them unconscious. After inserting the darts, we threw our bodies across the men to hold them down while the neurotoxins took effect. Their cries of alarm were few and brief because the neurotoxins were so fast acting. I surprised myself by how coolheaded and steady-handed I felt.

We were down to one guard.

Now came the trickiest part of the plan. We exited the bunkhouse and everyone except me melted into the shadows. I crept toward the front door of the lit up building. Some of the coolheaded feeling evaporated. Slash was inside that building, and one wrong move by me could lead to his becoming injured or worse. I tried to calm my pounding heart by reciting Fermat’s Theorem, but it wasn’t helping. If I messed this up, the guard might start shooting everyone on sight, starting with me.

When I reached the front door, I knocked twice, then darted around the side of the building, pressing back against the wall. After a moment, the guard inside yelled something. When there was no response, he opened the door, but didn’t come out. He called for his partner, who didn’t answer.

Deciding to investigate, he cradled his automatic weapon and carefully surveyed the outside. He stepped out of the door cautiously and started to move towards the chair where the outside guard had sat. I heard the first dart thud into his chest, followed by another and another. He must have been a big man, because he fired several random shots into the darkness and still didn’t go down. I prayed no one was in the line of fire.

Finally he toppled to the ground. I got to him first, kicking his gun away and checking to see if he was out.

He was and an arrow was lodged in his gun hand. Quiver Girl’s aim had been impeccable.

Amana emerged first and, after a moment, gave me a thumbs-up. The other women silently joined us. Carefully we approached the building where the men were being held with Amana in the lead. She motioned to me, so I slowly opened the door while the other women waited with blowguns and bow ready. After a moment, Amana stepped into the building with the blowgun to her mouth. She disappeared inside while I held my breath. A few seconds later she emerged, motioning for us to enter. We piled into the building where the men greeted us with happy shouts. I wound my way among the men to Slash and knelt down beside him, sliding my arms around his neck and kissing him repeatedly.

---