Iris Johansen - Quicksand

"You're laughing." The little girl had raised her head and was staring at him with sudden indignation. "I don't think this is funny." Her eyes were glittering. "I'm scared. That man, Kistle, said he'd feed me to an alligator."

"I don't think he has trained alligators. I think this one is strictly on his own."

"I know that." She buried her face in Miguel's shoulder. "Are you scared too?"

Poor kid. She had been through hell in the last couple days and she was showing more guts than a lot of men he knew. "Very scared." His hand gently stroked her hair. "But maybe we can make it through this together. I don't believe this branch is going to break. You don't weigh much." But he had felt the branch give a little when he'd pulled himself up on it. They might be on borrowed time now. "I'll wait for a few minutes until my cell phone dries out a little and then try to call for help. If it doesn't work, we'll just sit here and either wait for those alligators to go away or until my friend comes to get us."

"Is Eve your friend?"

She wasn't shaking quite so much now. "Yes, but I was speaking of my friend Montalvo. We've been together for a long time and I tend to think of him first. I was just a young boy when he found me in the jungle."

"Were you lost?"

"Yes." There were many ways of being lost, so it wasn't a complete lie. "It's easy to get lost. Aren't there stories in your fairy-tale books about children getting lost in the forest?"

"I don't read fairy tales anymore. Mama says that it's better for me to face what happens in the real world."

Miguel glanced down at the alligators swimming below them and turned her head on his shoulder so that she couldn't see them. "I don't think that a little escape from the real world is too bad. Maybe your mother wouldn't object if you thought of something a little distracting at the moment."

"What?"

"Well, I don't know any fairy tales. My father didn't approve of them either." Unless they appeared in one of his cocaine hallucinations. "But after I went to Montalvo I used to read books from his library. I found one about Tarzan and the apes." That should be okay to talk to a kid about. At any rate, it was as close to squeaky clean as Miguel's background provided. "Tarzan was lost alone in the jungle too. Just like me. Then this big, ugly ape found him and took him home."

"Like Montalvo?"

Miguel grinned at the thought. "Exactly like Montalvo."

NO QUINN.

No Kistle.

Montalvo moved silently through the underbrush. He could feel the familiar tension and exhilaration that always gripped him when he was on the hunt. He'd already explored the east side of the island and now he was moving west. There couldn't be much more territory to cover. This was a small island, not like the acreage in Clayborne Forest.

He could smell the rotting vegetation underfoot mixed with the sweet fragrance of water lilies floating on the nearby water. No scent of sweat or soap, salt or musk. He hadn't really expected it. Both Quinn and Kistle would have made sure to rid themselves of those telltale signs.

But Eve was no soldier. He had made her go shower in the jungle in Colombia to rid herself of that clean scent that clung to her.

Eve.

He immediately banished the thought of her. Don't think of Eve now. If he managed to get Kistle, then there would be no danger to Eve. It was the only way to-

The cell phone in his pocket vibrated.

Shit. Not now.

He looked at the ID. Miguel.

He punched the button. "What is it?" he whispered.

"Two alligators, one tree, me, and Laura Ann." The phone was crackling. "No, I think one of the alligators got bored waiting and swam away. But I believe we could still use some assistance. This branch is a little unstable."

Damn it to hell. "Where?"

"Off the north side of the island."

"How bad is it?"

"Laura Ann is a few inches away from me."

"And you don't want to scare her."

"That's right. Though she's amazingly resilient. I'm sorry to spoil your fun, but I really think you should take care of plucking us out of this tree before you go back to-" The cell phone crackled and disconnected.

No choice. Montalvo thrust his cell back in his pocket. If Miguel thought the situation required an SOS, then it must be deteriorating rapidly.

He set off at a trot toward the north.

THE BRANCH CRACKED AGAIN ANDbegan to slowly give way.

"Oops." Miguel scrambled to pull the little girl higher and closer to the trunk. But the break was too close to where they were huddling. Could he manage to get to that higher branch? Not likely. Maybe.

He'd have to try.

"Laura Ann, we're going higher." He tightened his thighs around the branch and inched carefully forward. "Listen, if we happen to take a dunking, I want you to swim for the bank. Don't wait for me. Don't look back. Don't stop. Montalvo will be here soon."

"No. I won't leave you." Her arms tightened around his neck. "They'll eat you."

"No, they won't. I'm practically a superman. You saw how I fought off that alligator. Alligators have no real family feeling. Maybe if I wound one, that other alligator will come back and attack him."

"Will that work?"

"Of course it will." The branch was splitting, the pale fibers gleamed in the darkness. It wouldn't hold much longer. "But we'll try to get to that other branch before I-"

"For God's sake, Miguel. What are you doing?"

Relief so intense it made Miguel almost light-headed poured through him as he saw Montalvo swimming toward the boat Miguel had abandoned to come after Laura Ann. "I'm being a hero. But evidently not very well. I'd get in that boat fast. We seem to be fascinating this alligator, but his buddy may come back. And there are too many underwater roots for you to get that boat close to the tree, if that's what you plan on doing. Could you nudge this alligator out of the way?" He added, "Quickly, please?"

"Nudge?" Montalvo pulled himself onto the boat. "I don't think there's any question of nudging. I'll have to get off a couple shots that will take him down."

"Good idea. Isn't it fortunate they're not an endangered species in this swamp any longer?"

"Get rid of him," Laura Ann said through her teeth. "Now."

"She's growing impatient. Smart girl. Did I tell you how remarkably intelligent she is?"

"I'll have to get close enough to shoot him in a vulnerable spot. A bullet wouldn't puncture that tough hide. The eye, I think…" He was rowing, drawing nearer. "Get her on a higher branch."

"It's not that easy. I've been trying."

The branch dipped another two inches.

Laura Ann cried out, her arms tightening to a stranglehold around Miguel's neck.

"Shh," Miguel whispered. "My friend is here. He'll help us. He's very smart."

"Montalvo?" she asked shakily. "The one who's like the ugly ape?"

"Ape?" Montalvo maneuvered the boat at an angle. "After I get you out of there I think we'll have to talk, Miguel."

"It was actually complimentary… sort of," Miguel said.

"I can imagine." He was drawing a bead on the alligator under the tree. "That branch is holding by a few splinters of wood. Don't even breathe."

"I won't," Miguel said hoarsely. "Who needs oxygen?"

The alligator was turning toward Montalvo's boat as if sensing danger… or fresh meat.

Montalvo shot it in the eye.

But the alligator moved in the last second and the bullet only skimmed the edge of its eye. The alligator exploded into action, its powerful tail whipping in a fury of pain and rage. It struck the trunk of the tree with desperate force.

And the last splinters of wood holding the branch broke.

"The bank," Miguel yelled to Laura Ann as they hit the water only yards from the wounded alligator. With all his strength he threw her toward the island. "Swim!"