“What just happened?” Charu asked, her mouth hanging open.
“I don’t know,” Axel said. “But why did a large man and a freaky woman with a tattoo on her forehead just tase Loosha, toss him into a car, and speed away?”
“Where do you think they’re taking him?”
“Who knows? A piece of paper flew out of the driver’s jacket. Maybe that will help.”
Axel jogged across the parking lot, grabbed the piece of paper, and rejoined Charu.
“Does it say anything?” Charu asked.
“It’s a brochure for a campground called Hafnawi’s Desert Life Camp,” Axel said. “There’s a map and everything. It says the camp is only one hour by car from the visitor center. Price includes your choice of hot air balloon ride, camel tour, and guided hike. Additional activities extra.”
“What do we do now?”
“Loosha said Daisha was here at the visitor center. We need to find her. If he wasn’t lying, that means she’s still alive!”
Axel could barely contain his excitement over seeing Daisha. He was getting so close. His heart pounded with anticipation as he and Charu spent the next hour calling her name and scouring every inch of the visitor center. Tour groups came and went, but not one trace of Daisha.
“She’s not here,” Axel groaned, leaning against a wall in the parking area. “He really was lying.”
“She’s not here, but maybe we can find her at Hafnawi’s Desert Life Camp,” Charu suggested.
“What are you saying?”
“If that woman and man took Loosha back to this camp then maybe Daisha is there too. They have both of them.”
Axel’s eyes widened with excitement, renewed hope of finding Daisha filling his soul. “You may be right,” he said. “But how do we get there? We certainly can’t walk there in this heat.”
Charu nodded. “Yes. We tried hiking in the desert alone and with no supplies. We’d be dead right now if it weren’t for the Wadi Rum Desert Patrol.”
A door opened behind them and out walked a man dressed like he was in the Jordanian army. Axel and Charu had seen him before, when they were hiding from Loosha behind the big rock.
“What’s all the commotion out here?” the man asked and looked hard at Axel. “Hey, you’re that boy the man was looking for. He had a tattoo on his neck. Are you with the same tour group?”
Axel shrugged, not knowing what to say.
“Yes,” Charu answered and grabbed the brochure from Axel’s pocket. “We need to go to this place. That’s where we’re supposed to meet him.”
The man looked at the pamphlet. “Of course, Hafnawi’s Desert Life Camp,” he said. “I know Fahd, the owner, very well.”
“How can we get a ride there?” Axel asked.
“Next van comes in four hours,” the man said, looking at his watch. “If one comes at all. From what I understand, Fahd’s people already picked up a very large tour group. There may be no reason for them to come back.”
“What do we do now?” Charu wondered.
“Wait here,” the man suggested. “If a van doesn’t come, inform the front desk and we’ll make arrangements for you to sleep somewhere here.”
The man went back inside the building, closing the door behind him.
“Well, at least they have a water fountain and bathroom,” Charu said. “Perhaps they have a manicure salon and I could get my nails done while we wait.”
“We need to find this campground now!” Axel shouted, not in the mood for joking. “If Daisha’s really there, I need to know. Besides, she could be in trouble. Look what that woman did to Loosha with the stun gun.”
The roar of loud motor engines caught their attention. They turned around and saw three jeeps cruising into the parking lot. A decal plastered on their driver’s side-doors read Wadi Rum Jeep Tours. The vehicles were dusty and dirty, like they had just come back from a long drive. Three young Arab men hopped out of the jeeps and walked into the visitor center. Two of them turned off the jeeps. One left his running with the key in the ignition.
Axel and Charu looked at each other with sly grins.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Axel asked.
“Have you ever driven a standard vehicle before?” Charu asked back.
Axel shook his head. “The closest thing to a car with an engine I’ve driven was a go-cart at Disneyland.”
Charu smiled. “I’m only fifteen, but I’ve driven plenty of vehicles in my day.”
“Let’s do it!”
Axel hopped into the passenger’s seat. Charu slipped into the driver’s side. She let go of the emergency brake, shifted from neutral to first gear, and zipped out of the parking lot in the direction of Hafnawi’s Desert Life Camp.
Adrenaline surged through Axel’s veins as the visitor center faded into open desert. The road to the camp was nothing more than a well-worn path in the sand. Signs painted on rocks appeared every few hundred yards, indicating they were driving in the right direction. Axel looked to see if the other jeeps were coming after them. No one was on their trail.
They had been driving for a good fifty minutes when Charu began to slow down.
“What’s wrong?” Axel asked.
“We’re getting low on petrol,” Charu said. “I need to save it.”
“I hope we have enough to get us there.”
“You and me both. The last signpost said the camp is in three kilometers.”
“That’s less than two miles. We could walk that if necessary.”
Just then, a powerful gust of wind blasted the jeep. Thunder cracked over their heads, and lightning bolts sliced through the clouds. Grit and dirt blew in their eyes. The jeep rocked sideways, teetering on two wheels. Charu tried to correct the wheel but lost control. The jeep flipped, somersaulting its way across the sand like a hunk of space-age sagebrush.
The jeep finally came to a stop in a mound of soft sand. Both of them sat there for a stunned moment. They slowly moved limbs and rolled necks, checking to see if any bones were broken.
“Are you okay?” Charu asked.
“I guess,” Axel said. “How about you?”
“Nothing’s broken, but I feel a whopper of a headache coming on.”
Charu crawled out of the jeep. A second later, she shrieked at the top of her lungs.
“Wow!” Charu cried. “Axel, this is amazing! You have to see this!”
Axel wiggled free from the wreckage and looked into the atmosphere. What he saw nearly brought tears to his eyes. The once clear blue sky was now the color of an exploded crayon box, a never-ending ribbon of a leprechaun’s rainbow.