Lisa Harris - No Place To Hide

“Because of the extreme differences in water temperature, density and speed, they stay separate until they hit a strong wave of whitewater and become a part of the Lower Amazon River. I know you’ve traveled a lot for your job, but I’m guessing you’ve never visited the Amazon.”

“I’ve worked in Eastern Europe, Australia, South America and the Middle East...but never visited the Amazon.”

“Do you see yourself involved in saturation diving long-term?” she asked.

“Probably not.” He didn’t even have to think about his answer.

“Why not?”

“Other than the fact that it’s an extremely demanding job? I think about having a family one day and, despite the money, would prefer not to be away for weeks on end.”

She looked back down at the river as the pilot made an announcement through his headset that they would be landing in about fifteen minutes.

“Where exactly are we landing?” Ryan asked, feeling the plane begin to drop in altitude.

“There’s a small, isolated airstrip where a contact is supposed to meet us and take us to Dr. Reynolds.”

“Is the pilot waiting for us on the ground?”

“He’ll return in the morning. I didn’t know how long it would take with the doctor, so I thought it was better to stay the night. It will be rustic—”

“You’ve forgotten I’m pretty used to the simple life,” he said. “On the job—when I’m not working—I’m sleeping, eating and relaxing in a tiny pressurized chamber. Let’s just say it’s about as far from glamorous as you can get.”

At half past one, just as the pilot had announced, they were taxiing down the short runway in the middle of the dense tropical forest they’d been flying over the past few hours. Ryan waited for the pilot to open the side door, then stepped out of the plane behind Ellie, thankful they’d arrived. Because the sooner they could talk to the doctor, the sooner they could get out of here.

Ellie picked up her backpack, then turned to their pilot. “We’ll plan to meet at nine in the morning.”

The pilot tugged on the waist of his pants. “I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to return tomorrow.”

“Wait a minute... What do you mean? That’s what we agreed to.”

“Things have changed.” The man glanced toward the tree line behind them. “Turns out you weren’t my highest-paying customer today.”

Ryan turned around. Three armed men started toward them. Adrenaline surged as instinct kicked in, and Ryan’s mind quickly ran through their limited options. His job required him to be able to stay calm in order to cope with emergencies. But while his gut wanted to jump in and fight them off, he knew there was no way he’d win. One of the men quickly grabbed his arm, ensuring he didn’t question his decision.

“Ryan...”

Another man grabbed Ellie’s arm and told her to shut up. How had he not seen this coming?

The pilot took an envelope from their leader, then boarded the plane.

“Wait!” Ryan said, shouting at the pilot. “You can’t just leave us here.”

The man holding him back tightened his grip on Ryan’s arm, his protests lost in the roar of the engine.

FOUR

Ellie watched as Ryan lunged toward the man holding him. But the odds were stacked against them.

A rifle clicked next to Ryan’s temple. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

The man dug his fingers deeper into her arm. She’d have a nasty mark above her elbow tomorrow, but if they didn’t find a way out of here, a bruise was going to be the least of her problems.

She glanced at Ryan, and the horror that she was the one who’d gotten him into this slowly sank in. She should have listened to his father. Or at the least should have insisted he drop her off at the private airfield, then take his own flight back to the United States.

Except then she’d have been on her own.

She watched as the airplane that had once been their ticket out of here taxied down the runway. It picked up speed, took off, then skimmed the top of the tree line before fading into the white clouds above them. She’d missed something. No one was supposed to have known about her meeting with Dr. Reynolds. She’d made sure of that. And now, not just her and Ryan’s lives were at stake, but the doctor’s was, too.

“Welcome to the Amazon.” One of the armed men with a row of tattoos running down his neck smiled, revealing a large gap between his front teeth.

“This isn’t exactly the welcome we expected,” Ryan said.

“Your plans have changed, though I am assuming you have already figured that out.”

The man ran his finger down her cheek. Ellie pulled back as far as she could, her stomach souring at the smell of alcohol.

“Let her go,” Ryan said.

“You’re not exactly in a position to argue with me.”

“Yuri? I could put an end to this right now. Teach him a lesson.” One of the other men aimed his gun at Ryan, the look in his eye making his intent clear.

“If I were you,” Yuri said, “I would do what he says. Pedro, he is a bit...trigger-happy, as I think you Americans call it.”

“Then just tell me this,” Ellie said, searching for answers as to what went wrong. “Who’s paying you to take us?”

“I am just the middleman, but don’t worry. All of your questions will be answered before long.”

He barked out a string of orders in Portuguese.

“What did he just say?” Ryan asked.

“He wants them to look through our bags.”

One of the men grabbed her bag off her shoulder, unzipped it, then dumped its contents across the ground. A second man did the same thing with Ryan’s bag.

“Any knives? Weapons?” Yuri asked her.

She pressed her lips together as the man searched the pockets, refusing to answer while at the same time hoping they didn’t find the survival knife she’d packed in the bag. It was one of the last gifts her father had given her. But it was too late. The man slid out the knife and slipped it into his pocket. Thirty seconds later, they were finished.

“Pick up your stuff. Both of you.” Yuri grabbed a Snickers bar from the pile beneath her feet and ripped off the wrapper before taking a bite. “We need to go.”

Ellie studied the surrounding terrain as she shoved her things into her backpack. The small airstrip was surrounded by thick trees for as far as the eye could see. This Amazon rain forest was twice the size of India and made up of floodplains, savannas and rivers. Not exactly a place they could simply walk out of, even if they did find a way to escape. The doctor had told her that the airstrip where they landed was less than a mile from the river—north, she remembered—but the plan had been to catch a ride downstream to where Reynolds would be waiting for her. There was no sign of the guide the doctor had promised to send.

“Trust me, there’s nowhere to go out here, unless you want to run into something even more deadly,” Yuri said, seeming to read her mind. He laughed, then took another bite of the candy bar as she slung the pack over her shoulder. “Without a guide, there is no telling what you might encounter out here.”

He was right. Where could they run? She glanced at Ryan and caught the concern in his eyes. He’d come to take her out of here, and she’d just walked them both into a trap.

Yuri slapped his leg. “Time to go.”

They left the open terrain of the airstrip behind and marched toward the jungle with Yuri in front of them and Pedro and the other man trailing a few feet behind. The thick canopy of trees enveloped them as they stepped into the heavily forested terrain. Large trees with thick vines soared toward the canopy that blocked part of the sunlight. A bird called out beside her. If she was right, they were moving south, away from the village and deeper into the jungle.