Part 41 (1/2)

Habitation.

AUGUST 16, 4:13 A.M.

AMAZON JUNGLE.

Louis floated in his canoe, awaiting news from his trackers. Dawn was still hours away. Stars shone in the clear sky, but the moon had set, casting the swamp into deep shadows. Through night-vision scopes, Louis watched for any sign of his men.

Nothing.

He grimaced. As he waited in the canoe, he felt his plan crumbling around him.What was going on out there? His ruse to get the Ranger team fleeing had been successful. But what now?

At midnight, Louis's team had crossed the swamp in their canoes, hauled overland from the river. As the group neared the far sh.o.r.e, flares had blossomed into the sky further up the chasm, near the southern cliffs. Shots were fired, echoing down to the swamp.

Using binoculars, Louis had watched a shadowy firelight. The Ranger team was again clearly under attack. But from his vantage, Louis could not see who or what was attacking them. His attempts to contact Jacques's recon team had failed. His lieutenant had gone mysteriously silent.

Needing information, Louis had sent a small team ash.o.r.e, his best trackers, outfitted with night-vision and infrared equipment, to investigate what was happening. He and the others remained a safe distance offsh.o.r.e in the canoes and waited.

Two hours had pa.s.sed, and so far, there was no word, not even a radio message from the trackers.

Sharing his canoe were three men and his mis-tress. They all watched the far sh.o.r.e with binoculars.

Tshui was the first to spot a man slip from the jungle. She pointed, making a small sound of warning.

Louis swung his gla.s.ses. It was the leader of the tracking team. He waved for them to cross to sh.o.r.e.

”At last,” Louis mumbled, lowering his scopes.

The convoy of canoes swept to the boggy banks. Louis was one of the first on sh.o.r.e. He silently signaled his men to set up a defensive perimeter, then crossed to the lead tracker.

The dark-haired man, a German mercenary named Brail, nodded in greeting. He was short, no taller than five feet, painted in camouflage and clad in black clothes.

”What did you find?” Louis asked him.

The man spoke with a thick German accent. ”Jaguars, a pack of fifteen or so.

Louis nodded, not surprised. Across the swamp, they had heard the strange growls and cries.

”But these were no ordinary jaguars,” Brail continued. ”More like monsters. Three times normal size.

There's a body I can show you:” ”Go on,” Louis said, waving this away for now. ”What happened to the others?”

Brail continued his report, describing how the trackers had been forced to move with care so as not to be spotted. The rest of his four-man team were positioned in trees up the chasm. ”The pack is leaving, heading deeper into the canyon. They appear to be herding the remaining mem-bers of the enemy team ahead of them:”

Brail held out an open palm. ”After the cats left the area, we found these on a mauled corpse:” The tracker held two silver bars affixed to a sc.r.a.p of khaki. They were captain's bars. The leader of the Rangers.

”Why aren't the jaguars attacking the rest?” Louis asked.

Brail touched his night-vision scope. ”I spotted someone, an Indian from the look of him, leading them from farther up the canyon:”

”One of the Ban-ali?”

The man shrugged.

Who else could it be?Louis wondered. He pondered this newest information. Louis could not let the others get too far ahead, especially if the Rangers had made successful contact with the strange tribe.

With the prize so close, Louis dared not lose them now.

But the surviving jaguars could prove a difficulty. They stood between his team and the others. The pack would have to be eliminated as quietly as possible without spooking his true prey.

Louis studied the dark forest. The time of slinking in the others' shad-ows was nearing an end. Once he knew where the village was located and evaluated its defenses, he could take his plan to its final stage.

”Where are the cats now?” Louis asked. ”Are they all heading up the canyon?”

Brail grunted sourly. ”For the moment. If there's any change, my scouts will radio back to us. Luckily, with the infrared scopes, the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds are easy to spot. Large and hot:”

Louis nodded, satisfied. ”What about any other hostiles?”

”We swept the area,Herr Doktor. No heat signatures:”

Good. Then at least for the moment, the Rangers were still keeping attention diverted away from Louis's team. But this close to the Ban-ali lands, Louis knew such an advantage would not last long. He and his team would have to move quickly from here. But first, for his plan to proceed, the path ahead had to be cleared of the jaguar pack.

He turned and found Tshui standing at his shoulder, as silent and deadly as any jungle cat. He reached and ran a finger tenderly along her cheekbone. She leaned into his touch. His mistress of poisons and potions.

”Tshui, macherie, it seems once again we must call upon your talents.”

5:44 A.M.

Nate's shoulders ached from carrying the stretcher. They had been march-ing for over two hours. Off to the east, the sky was already glowing a soft rose with the promise of dawn.

”How much farther?” Manny huffed from the head of the stretcher. He voiced the question on all their minds.

”I don't know, but there's no going back from here,” Nate said, winded ”Not unless you want to be someone's morning snack,” Private Car-rera reminded them, maintaining a vigil on their back trail.

All night long, the jaguar pack had dogged their trail, sticking mostly to the jungles that fringed the cliffs.

An occasional bolder individual would stalk the loose shale, a silhouette against the black rock.

Their presence kept Tor-Tor on edge. The jaguar would hiss under his breath and pace around and around the stretcher, on guard. His eyes flashed an angry gold.

For them all, the only safe path from here was forward, following the lone figure. The tribesman maintained a quarter-mile lead on them, keep-ing a pace they could follow.

But exhaustion was quickly setting in. After so many days with so little sleep, everyone was bone tired.

The entire team moved at a snail's pace, feet dragging, stumbling often. Still, as hard as the night journey was on all their nerves, one member of their party suffered the most.