Chapter 51

The next morning, Michael, Christine, and Kiana took a flight from San Diego to Mexico City, then another from Mexico City to San José, Costa Rica. It was a long trip and it reminded Kiana of her flight with Christine to Thailand. Along the way, the three of them discussed their upcoming mission but Kiana had a hard time concentrating and instead her mind kept wandering back to Olivia. She still hadn’t received any text messages from her, but wherever she was, and whatever she was doing, Kiana hoped she was safe. In addition, she hoped Michael’s contacts would dig up some information about her soon.

Kiana had never been to a country in Latin America before, including Costa Rica, but she was immediately impressed. San José was a lush, tropical city of approximately three hundred thousand people and it was bustling with activity. Their contact was a USIA agent named Francisco Moratalla, who was a man in his late forties with slick, black hair and a pockmarked face. He met them at the airport and took them to a car in a nearby parking lot. From there, he drove them to a marina on the coast where he had rented a small boat for their use.

“I’ve already taken some cursory trips around the island and there’s no doubt something is going on out there.”

“Like what?” Michael asked.

“I’m not sure. There’s not a whole lot visible from the water, other than a small dock on the northern shore. In addition, there must be an airstrip somewhere inland because I saw several small planes head that way early yesterday. And a helicopter. It’s impossible to see much more, however, since there are sentries posted at numerous spots along the island’s coastline.”

“Interesting,” Christine said. “We’d like to get onto the island without being seen, if possible. Any ideas?”

Moratalla nodded, then pointed at three wetsuits that were lying in the back of the boat. Next to the wetsuits were various pieces of diving equipment, including masks, oxygen tanks, respirators, and flippers. “That’s what those are for. There’s a spot on the island’s southernmost tip that’s rarely patrolled, probably because the jungle on that section of the island is so dense the sentries think it’s inaccessible. I’ll get you as close to it as I can, then the three of you can swim from there. Once you’re on the island you should be able to make your way north, through the jungle, toward the airstrip and whatever else Voronov has hiding out there.”

“How will we get off of the island afterward?” Michael asked.

“Send me word and I’ll pick you up. At the same spot where I dropped you off.”

He fired up the boat and off they went. It took them about two hours to get to the island and when it finally came into view they immediately started putting their SCUBA gear on. Moratalla angled the boat toward the island’s southernmost tip and stopped briefly when they got to a particular spot a ways off shore. They didn’t want to risk being seen so they wasted no time and the three of them fell into the water and made their way underwater toward shore. To Kiana, the water was amazingly warm, relatively calm, and pretty clear, so making their way through it was no problem at all. It took them about thirty minutes to reach the shore and as soon as they did, they rushed into the surrounding foliage, removed their wetsuits and SCUBA gear, and changed back into their normal clothes which they had brought along in waterproof storage baggies. Once they had changed, they hid their wetsuits and SCUBA gear in a large, hollow log they found nearby (they would need them once they returned), then proceeded north into the jungle. Kiana couldn’t help but chuckle as she felt an intense wave of heat and humidity wrap itself around her. It was hard to believe that less than forty-eight hours earlier, she had been racing down a snow-covered mountain in British Columbia, Canada.

Travel was tough. As Moratalla had said, the jungle on that part of the island was amazingly dense and making their way through it was easier said than done, especially since they didn’t have a machete or anything else to help them cut their way through. In addition, the canopy of branches above them was so thick it blocked out the majority of the sun’s light, so they were basically walking through complete darkness. To Kiana, it was pretty spooky, especially since she kept seeing dark shapes (which she assumed were monkeys), darting around in the branches above them. At one point, it finally got so dark she decided to put on her sunglasses (the ones Walters had given her), and then, thanks to their night vision feature, she could make her away along much easier.

Their biggest challenge, however, happened about an hour after they reached the island. They came to a large, stone cliff. It was at least a hundred feet tall and it seemed to stretch on endlessly in each direction, so they had no choice but to try to scale it. Normally it would have been no problem since they were all skilled climbers, but unfortunately they had no climbing equipment with them, not even a rope. As such, they had to climb it freestyle and it was a complete beast. Its face was extremely ragged and uneven, with lots of footholds and things to grab onto, which was good, but it was also moss-covered, damp, and extremely slippery, which was bad. And parts of it were brittle. About fifty feet up a chunk of it broke away under Kiana’s foot but luckily she had a firm grip on a nearby branch and was able to keep herself from falling. At another point, about seventy feet up, she slipped completely and actually started to fall for a few feet but once again was able to grab onto something and save herself. But the biggest problem they faced, by far, was when they got to the top. Kiana and Michael had made it all of the way up but Christine was still a couple of feet behind. Without warning, the side of the cliff broke away under her and she actually fell about ten feet before she was able to grab onto a branch and save herself. Unfortunately, however, there was no way for her to pull herself back up from there since the cliff was much too steep and much too slick at that point.

Kiana knew they had to think of something and they had to think of it fast. Christine was completely helpless since there was no way for her to go either up or down and she was tiring quickly since she was hanging from the branch by one arm. Michael was leaning over the cliff’s edge in a desperate attempt to reach down and grab her, but Kiana could already tell his efforts were going to be fruitless. Christine was simply too far away for him to be able to reach her.

Then an idea came to mind. She pulled her phone from her pocket and pushed the noose button. Slowly but surely, its cord unwound from within.

“Use this.” She handed it to Michael. He grabbed it and lowered it down to Christine. She reached out with her one free arm, grabbed it and wrapped it around her hand the best she could.

And then they pulled her up. It took both of them, Kiana and Michael working in unison side-by-side, and they were both sweating profusely by the time they were done but they were able to pull her to safety. Christine’s hand was torn up pretty badly in the process and it was bleeding in spots where the cord had cut into it but she was thankful nonetheless. Had she fallen from that height she would have been killed for sure.

They took several minutes to rest and recover, wrapped up Christine’s hand the best they could using one of her socks, then moved along, once again making their way through the jungle to the north. Luckily, and much to Kiana’s delight, the underbrush seemed to be thinning a little as they moved further along and as such travel started to get a little easier. Kiana did notice an increase in mosquitos, however, and she grimaced as one bit her on the side of the arm.

About twenty minutes later they came to a large swamp and were forced to wade their way through it. Its water was murky and brown and to Kiana it was about as gross as she could imagine. She immediately started to think of her beloved purple bubble bath, sitting at home in Mill Creek, and she decided she would never take it for granted again.

She was about half way across the swamp and was chest deep in the water when a frightening thought came to her mind.

“Do they have crocodiles in Costa Rica?”

“I’m not certain,” Michael said. “Maybe.”

She wasn’t too happy with that answer. She took a quick look around, at the water all around her, then quickened her pace a little. As far as she was concerned, she was going to get out of that water as fast as she could. And she was quite relieved when she finally made it to the far side and was once again safely up on dry ground. But unfortunately, her relief was short lived. She looked down, at her right arm, and saw it was covered with small, black leeches. The things were absolutely wretched and she started to freak out the minute she saw them clinging to her skin.

“Get ‘em off, get ‘em off, get ‘em off.”

Michael grabbed her by the arm and started plucking them away one by one. Physically, they hadn’t hurt her in any way but they left small marks all over her skin.

“So far,” she said, “I’m not liking this island too much.”

“Me, neither,” Christine said.

“I don’t know,” Michael said. “It could always be worse. We could be back at the Space Needle.” There was a small, wry smile on his face as he said it and he was clearly trying to be funny, to lift their spirits a little, but neither Kiana nor Christine was amused, not in the least. Especially Kiana.

Without another word, they moved on. Much to Kiana’s relief, about an hour later they finally made it to their destination.

Voronov’s compound.