22

‘All right,’ Tobias said, having conferred with one of the Guardians. ‘Stella was sighted in Brazil, a few hours ago. She’s got a couple of teams of rogue Agents with her. But she’s disappeared again—she could be anywhere now.’

‘We should split up,’ Sam said straightaway, ‘and break up into a couple of teams ourselves. You guys,’ he motioned to Tobias and Xavier, ‘go with the Guardians to the east, and make a lot of noise about it so that one or both of her teams pursue you. Meanwhile, Pablo and I will get to the ferry and meet the Dreamer.’

Tobias nodded and said, ‘Good idea.’

‘We’ll take the journal with us,’ Sam said to Pablo. ‘And Tobias and Xavier, when you get back here, keep analysing the scanned copies and all the information we have.’

Pablo nodded but Xavier looked unsure.

‘Pablo and I go alone,’ Sam said, adjusting his dart gun on his hip-holster, then picking up his backpack. ‘That was the dream—and having the two of you make a diversion, that’ll help us change things up, cool? And if she does catch up with us, then we’ll change it some more. I’ll go with the Dreamer and use the journal to search for the Gear while Pablo keeps leading the chase away from us.’

Xavier finally seemed to agree.

‘Wait,’ Pablo said, looking surprised. ‘You mean we go now?’

Sam smiled. ‘No time like the present.’

‘But I haven’t even packed …’

‘I know how you feel,’ Sam said with a smile.

Sam and Pablo’s first leg of the expedition was in a seaplane that flew them up to the river in the city of Porto Velho. Pablo seemed either ill from the flight or by the suddenness of it all. Sam felt saddened during the flight when he saw great swathes of dense green forest cleared to smouldering orange-brown mud, making way for cattle.

People got to eat, I suppose …

The set-down on the water felt like riding a skipping stone, and as they climbed from the aircraft, Sam put his backpack over his shoulders and helped Pablo up onto the jetty. The academic might well have been an expert in the history of his country, but he was no field-man, a fact his brand-new safari-type outfit attested to—as well as the trouble he had walking across the uneven planks of the jetty.

Great, imagine if we land in trouble on the ferry.

‘That’s it,’ Sam said, pointing over at the ferry named the Roosevelt-Rondon. A big vessel, it was exactly like in his dream, painted pale yellow with blue window frames and with four tiers of decks. There were large paddles at the side and rear to propel the boat along the brown river.

‘Then let’s get ourselves some tickets,’ Pablo said.

The paddleboat cast off and began its gentle sway up the Amazon River. On board, Pablo settled into a chair in the diner where assorted trays of high tea were amassed. He continued to read through the journal while Sam familiarised himself with the boat. There were two dining compartments, one on the large main deck, and one on the top level that served more as a noisy bar full of commuters, drinking and playing cards and dice games as the river passed underneath them. Sam calculated there were maybe two hundred people aboard spread out over the upper decks, the lower deck taken up with cargo and livestock.

Out on the rear deck, Sam watched as other watercraft chugged by. He scanned the faces, hoping one would be familiar from his nightmare. His phone rang. It was Tobias.

‘Hi,’ Sam said.

‘Hey,’ Tobias replied. ‘Where are you guys?’

‘On the ferry,’ Sam replied. ‘About half an hour in.’

‘Keep your eyes peeled,’ Tobias said. ‘We just had word that Hans and his German Guardians touched down in Peru.’

‘Peru?’

‘He’s coming at you from the other side.’

Great. That changes things …

‘How would he know where we are headed?’ Sam asked.

‘Now that’s a million-dollar question,’ Tobias said.

‘Maybe from Dr Kader, if they have him captive?’

‘Maybe, but the timing is too suspicious,’ Tobias sighed.

‘It’s like he knows where I am right from when I first arrive,’ Sam said.

‘Exactly.’

Sam was silent, then said, ‘How does he do it?’

‘If we can’t get rid of him for good, we’re going to somehow have to flush out his source of information.’

‘You think it could be someone back at the Academy?’

‘Maybe. We’ll see. Meantime, we’re tracking your location and we’ve sourced two helicopters so Xavier and I will be able to get to you within a couple of hours if need be.’

‘Any sign of Stella?’

‘Yeah,’ Tobias laughed. ‘They’re about a hundred kilometres from us, stuck answering questions from the local police after we tipped them off that they were a group of poachers.’

‘Nice! That should buy us some time.’

‘My thoughts exactly,’ he said. ‘Good luck,’ Tobias said as he hung up.

Sam gazed out at the river behind them. ‘Come on Dreamer, where are you?’