Circle of Bones (31 page)

Cole put out his hand to take the device from her, and this time all three of them froze at the loud
crack
of a branch breaking and the anguished word, “
Fuck
!”  They sure weren’t islanders.

Cole shoved the device deep into Theo’s rucksack and slung the pack onto his own back as Riley scanned the jungle around them searching for an escape route. She waved her finger back and forth in the air to signal the others to move out, then she started into the bush, leading them, stepping to avoid hard wood and turning her body sideways to ease past the bigger branches of the trees, palmettos, and ferns.  The Indian River followed the narrow rocky ravine until it reached the coastal plateau and the broad forested swamps. Up here, the rain forest canopy was high, but the brush on the ground was still thick, prickly and almost impenetrable. She didn’t want to veer too far from the stream bed for fear they would get lost. 

They were only about fifty feet away from the stream, and she could hear the noise made by the other men as she and her companions passed even with them. She guessed there were two of them. She could hear heavy breathing and grunting as they jumped from boulder to boulder following the stream bed up the ravine the same way she and the others had gone. And there was the occasional guttural curse, but otherwise, not a word. They weren’t tourists who had decided to hike upstream for fun. Nothing about them said fun. These guys were hunting.

Through the trees, she glimpsed a flash of white, perhaps a T-shirt. They were close. Too close.

She wondered if they should continue in stealth mode like this, no matter how it slowed them down, or say the heck with it, and haul ass back down to Zeke’s boat at the river landing, hoping they could outrun them. But Zeke had rowed them up the river, and he didn’t have an outboard on the back of the
Providence.
Who knew what kind of boat the hunters might have.

The decision was made for her two minutes later when Theo stumbled and crashed into a thicket of bamboo.

“Over there!” a man shouted behind them.

Cole yanked Theo to his feet. 

“Follow me,” Riley said and she took off running, oblivious now to the noise, as they angled back toward the river bed and down towards the falls.  She kept her ears tuned to the regular breathing of her companions. She’d lost men once, and she wasn’t about to let that happen again.  

Ahead, she could hear the roar of the water over the rasp of her ragged breaths. The air grew more humid as they neared the churning stream. They’d have to go back down the trail they had climbed on the way up. The walls of the ravine narrowed to sheer rock leading them to the switchbacks that led down alongside the waterfall. It had taken the three of them an hour to climb up the cliff, but she didn’t see any other way.

Riley broke through the underbrush and leaped on to a rock that protruded above the fast moving water. She leapt to another, and a third, and paused to check on the men behind her. 

Cole jumped first and with his arms spread out like a tight rope walker he wobbled, then found his balance. He stepped to the next rock.

Theo stood on the bank of the river and stared at the rapids.

“Go on,” she said. “You grew up here. You should be used to this.”

He looked up at her and smiled ruefully. “Yeah, but I always hated doing this,” he said, and he jumped across to the first rock. He teetered for a moment. “Because when I hurry,” he said, one long leg extending outward as he tried to counterbalance his tilting body, “this is what always happens.”  He crashed sideways into the rushing water. 

“Theo!” she called reaching out to him. “Grab hold!”

His fingers came within inches, but not close enough. “Shit!” 

Then behind her, she heard another splash and she turned in time to see Cole’s head surface as two men, one she recognized as Spyder Brewster, busted through the brush and stepped onto the stones fifty feet upstream. Riley stretched her hand out to Cole and when her fingers closed around his, she braced herself to pull him to safety. She did not expect the quick tug that produced a burst of pain in her shoulder and pulled her off balance, plunging her into the freezing cold water.

When she surfaced, she couldn’t see Theo’s head anymore. Cole was pulling ahead of her.

“When you go over the falls,” Cole called out, “be ready to break your fall with your feet in case it isn’t deep enough.”

Then he was gone, lost in the white water at the head of the falls.

And seconds later, the white foaming water sucked her down before she’d taken a proper breath, and she was free-falling. She wanted to follow Cole’s advice, but she was disoriented and could not tell if she was falling feet first or not. Then she hit the water and plunged down and down until her feet touched the soft, silty bottom. She pulled for the light above her, but she wasn’t making any progress. The downward current at the base of the falls forced her down and the light remained out of reach. The pressure in her chest was building as her body craved oxygen. She realized she had to get out from under the falls so she let the water force her deeper and then she swam parallel to the bottom. After traveling no more than twenty feet, the pressure changed, the surface brightened, and she swam up and finally broke into the air, filling her aching lungs with a loud rasping gulp of air.

Theo was already on the bank at the edge of the pool, and Cole was hauling the dripping rucksack out behind him. She stroked over to join them.

“That’s always been the fastest way down,” Theo said.

She glared at Cole. “Thanks for the warning.”

He looked up at the top of the falls. “Think they’ll try it?”

“I suggest we don’t wait around to find out.” Riley took off down the bank of the river, her sneakers now squeaking like a leaky pump.

Zeke and Galen were sitting cross-legged on the dock next to the boats when they ran, still dripping, into the clearing. Zeke shook his dreads and called out, “Theo, how come you not tell these people nobody care up if you skinny dip?”

Cole’s boots thudded down the dock. He stopped in front of the two men and bent forward, hands on knees, gasping for breath, and struggled to say, “Did you see two guys come through here a while ago?”

“Yeah, mon. Red Man brought dem up in de
Sally B
.” He indicated another of the boats tied to the dock. “Dey axe about you.”

Riley cut in, “Zeke, we’ve to go. Now.” She leaped into the boat. Cole followed her.

Zeke looked at Theo who nodded. “We go, den,” he said and he stepped into the
Providence
. 

Riley glanced up and saw Galen’s face under the brim of his palm hat. His left cheek and neck were marred with lumps and craters. Patches of skin stretched smooth and red in a way she had come to know well during her stay in the burn unit at Bethesda.

Theo untied the dock lines and pushed them off.

“Galen,” she said as their boat drifted away from the dock. He didn’t seem to hear her. She looked back the way they had come, and she could hear the others crashing through the bush beyond the clearing. She turned back to Galen. “Marine,” she shouted in her best drill sergeant voice. “We need a distraction. Something to hold them up here long enough for us to get back to our boat. Can you handle it?”

She saw him get to his feet. He straightened his back and snapped her a salute. “Yes, Ma’am.
Semper Fi
.”

They passed two boatloads of German tourists who glared as Zeke splashed them with his oars, but the boat boys pulling the tourists upriver merely nodded at Zeke. Cole opened the bag and showed her that he had not lost the paperweight. He handed the yellow GPS to Theo. The younger man groaned when he held the electronic device up and water dribbled out of the plastic case.

It looked as though the same three taxis were parked under the banyan tree at the Indian River Boat Tours dock, and the two other drivers were still smoking and talking politics when the
Providence
glided alongside the dock. They glanced up at Zeke’s arrival, but went right back to their conversation. Riley was first out of the boat. The sun was brutal. She stepped into the shade to wait for Zeke to finish securing his boat, then pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. She didn’t have to open it to know what condition it was in. She was peeling wet bills out of her pockets to pay Zeke, when she felt a hand on her right elbow and a familiar voice spoke her name.

“Riley.”

She knew who it was even before she turned around. She tried to yank her arm out of his grip. “Let go of me.” It was crazy, but she was certain her arm burned where he touched her.

His hand opened, releasing her, and she backed away rubbing her hot skin. He stood there in his creased khaki Dockers, white Polo shirt, and yellow and navy Henri Lloyd jacket, looking as if he had stepped right out of the pages of
Yachting Magazine
. Diggory the chameleon. He was no yachtsman. His eyes traveled up and down the soggy length of her, and she saw a slight smile flash across his features.

She slid between Cole and Theo who had come over to join her. She squelched the desire to reach up and attempt to tame her unruly hair. She thought her pulse must be throbbing cartoon-style in her neck.

“You’re coming with me,” Dig said, all traces of the smile gone.

She wanted to smash her fist into that smug cleft chin of his, but she wanted even more to run.

“How did you find me?”

“That’s irrelevant. We have to go.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you, Diggory.”

“Yes, you are.” He sighed and turned to face down river toward the sea. His eyes narrowed. He wasn’t looking at her when he said, “It’s about your father, Riley. They sent me to get you.”

“What? Who sent you?”

He turned and looked at her with a face that asked her why she was even asking. “You know, State.”

“What are you talking about?” Her mind whirled with thoughts of her passport, her father’s dementia, the possibility of another terrorist attack somewhere in the world outside these small islands.

“He’s had a stroke, Riley.”

His words hit her like a physical blow and she took a short step back. “What? When?”

 His blue eyes seemed to sear into her, burning even more than her skin. “He’s asking for you. The doctors say it doesn’t look good.”

“But —” She wanted to say something intelligent that would make him be quiet, but she couldn’t find the words. She bit the insides of her cheeks when she felt her throat tighten. She’d be damned if she’d let any of them see her cry. Her father? But they said he’d live another ten years. 

“Riley.” Cole put his arm around her shoulders as though he expected her to swoon. He steered her away from Dig. “If what he says is true, then I’m very sorry about your father. But you don’t know what’s true for the moment.” He glanced back over his shoulder, then turned back to face her. “Who is this guy?”

“It’s a long story, Cole.”

“It’s the guy from the photo, isn’t it? The one on the boat with the Brewsters.”

She nodded. She was looking for the pattern in all these connections: Dig, the Brewsters, her father, Michael, and now Cole Thatcher. 

“How can you believe what this guy says?”

She couldn’t. She knew that. Dig was the most talented liar she’d ever known. But she couldn’t
entirely
not
believe him, either. She’d been looking for an opportunity to get answers out of this man. So maybe this was it.

Diggory called out to her. “Phone him, Riley. Call your father’s townhouse.”

She went for her pocket, but remembered that everything, including her phone, was soaked. Her mind felt waterlogged, too.

She walked back over to Diggory. “Can I use your cell?”

“My battery’s dead. You can phone from the airport.”

“Dig, I don’t think I
can
get on a plane right now. I don’t even have my passport. I have to be in Pointe-à-Pitre on Monday for a hearing and I have —”

While she was talking, Diggory reached inside his jacket and produced a small blue folder with gold lettering that read U.S. Passport. He handed it to her. “I took care of it. Here.”

She opened the cover and saw the old photo taken before she left for her posting at Lima. She thumbed through the dozens of visas stamped in the back. It was hers. She looked up at him. “I don’t understand.” 

“I have us booked on this afternoon’s American flight to San Juan. We’ll get into DC before midnight. Let’s go.”

She clutched her passport to her chest. “Diggory.” She wondered again if she knew who was playing for what team. She held up her passport. “How did you get this?”

“Riley, we don’t know how much more time your father has. We can talk about this on the way.”

She turned away from Dig and saw Cole’s green eyes fixed on her. She walked up and stood in front of him. “It’s my father,” she said, her voice soft.

Cole glanced over her shoulder, then took a deep breath and returned his eyes to hers. “Even if it’s true, Riley, you don’t have to go with him. I can get you to the airport.” 

She saw the pain in his eyes.

Dig’s deep voice intruded. “The flight is overbooked already.” He coughed as though to clear his throat. “I had them bump two passengers to get us on. We miss this flight and the next one’s not until tomorrow and
that
might be too late.”

She mouthed the words, “I’m sorry.” She wanted to tell him she knew what she was doing. That she knew better than to trust Diggory Priest, but she hoped to find more answers down this path. Then she spoke aloud without turning to look at Dig. “What about them?” She pointed at Cole and Theo.

“They’re free to go,” Dig said. “They’ve nothing to do with this.”

She placed a hand on Cole’s shoulder. “Take care of my boat, okay? I have no idea when I’ll be back.”

He reached up, covered her hand with his. “Don’t go with him, Magee. Please.” 

She gave his shoulder a squeeze and withdrew her hand. “The combination for the hatch padlock is 1996, the year she was built. I’ve got business cards on my chart table with my contact information. I’ll get a new phone in DC.”