RIN’S PARTY JUMPED ACROSS BORDERS TO the fertile flatlands of Chinandega, a town the locals called the City of Oranges. It was easier to blend in here among the crowds of all shades, though the girls discarded their veiled hats thanks to the hot, humid weather that reminded Rin of her tropical home.
Bartering their hats for a couple of horses, they traveled north—a journey of almost three days past palm trees, bean and avocado plants, golden trumpets, and bright red peppers. Lulu pointed each out as she rode behind them. Admittedly, it was nice having Lulu’s commentary to listen to. Rin had gotten used to riding with limited vision; it meant she had to concentrate on the road ahead—not whatever wonders might be blooming around them.
If only humanity could be as beautiful and perfect as the plants and the trees, Rin thought to herself. Perhaps that was the world Hiva was aiming for. But after so many cataclysms, it still hadn’t been achieved. It just wasn’t possible, Rin supposed. Not for humans, with their greediness and hatred.
And sorrow. Rin saw it on Berta’s face the moment they descended upon the soil of El Salvador. How cruel, this irony that had brought them to Berta’s birthplace.
Lulu watered the horses as they rested by a tree, leaving Rin and Berta to eat fruit together in awkward silence.
“Here.” Berta had sliced some ripe papaya with a pocketknife and handed some to Rin. “Gotta keep your strength up.”
After a beat of hesitation, Rin took the slice from her. “Th-thank you…,” Rin whispered, and bit into it quietly.
The awkward silence continued. Rin didn’t dare speak, especially after noticing that Berta was softly smiling—wistfully. The bitter nostalgia of happier days that could never again be retrieved: Rin knew that feeling all too well.
Soon they’d entered the city of San Salvador. That was when Berta found her voice.
“I grew up in Apopa, a small town not far from here,” she said, hiking the leather strap of her briefcase over her shoulder. “But Mom took me and Maximo here a few times, to this cathedral. To pray for work.”
Past the tramways and the busy shops was a majestic cathedral that seemed to have its own brilliance in this bustling city filled with life. A two-towered white building with a colorful façade painted red and blue, as if signaling a celebration.
“Do you…” Rin swallowed her next words, blushing before speaking again. “Do you want to go inside?”
Berta shook her head quickly. She stood at the black gate, in front of the maroon arched doorway, and simply stared at the religious shrine.
“My mother told me there used to be an old temple here, dedicated to a saint. Can’t remember which one. My mom was the religious one. Whatever spirituality I had left me the minute we went to Europe and I lost my brother.”
Lost families. Rin thought of her own being cut down by the Dahomey women during the raid. She’d become numb to pain since that day. Rin almost wanted to go back to those times. They were preferable to her present disarray.
“I’m sorry,” Rin whispered.
“It was that blasted man who lied to us and lured us from home!” Berta said. “A headhunter from Norway who worked for some rich scumbag named Carl Hagenbeck. His name was Jacobsen. Johan Jacobsen. I can’t forget that name.”
Rin gripped the low black fence. “Where is he now?”
“Even if I knew, even if I killed him, then what?” Berta grimaced. “The bastard’s already ruined my damn life. He put me in a zoo and paraded me around Europe. I was only a kid. If it weren’t for that crazy woman stealing me away to America, I would have died there.”
“Woman? You mean Madame Moustache?” said Lulu, who stood on Berta’s left. Then, furrowing her brows, she put on her best cowgirl voice. “The shootin’, lootin’ gambler who shot her lover in the back for cheatin’ on her.”
“And ran to Europe,” Berta said with a laugh. “She must have picked me up on a whim. Great impression, by the way.”
“I’ve been working on it.” Lulu lifted her head proudly.
Rin grinned at them secretly as they giggled like sisters, though not without a tinge of jealousy. She missed Iris. There was so much she wanted to do, so much she should have done while Iris had been alive and herself. But she’d let hatred steal every opportunity away.
Rin’s breath caught in her throat as she felt Lulu’s little hand tugging on her dress. “I can do a pretty good impression of you, too,” she said with a mischievous smile. “Wanna see?”
“Yes!” Berta lifted her head.
“No,” replied Rin flatly before turning around. “Let’s not waste any more time. Remember what we came here for.”
A disappointed Lulu puffed out her cheeks as Rin strode away from the church. Rin was doing it again. Pushing them away. What she did to everyone when her walls came dangerously low. The consequence was an acute loneliness that settled deep into her bones.
But that loneliness helped her stay focused.
Rin kept her expression cold and hard with a warrior’s scowl, ready for the battle ahead. We’re almost there.
The Jump took them right to the river’s edge. That blasted dress. Her foot caught the hem of her bell-shaped skirt and slipped. Before she knew it, she was sliding down the muddy shore and then planting her cheek in the dirt. Berta and Lulu yelped and followed her into the water.
“The Kunene River,” Berta coughed, gripping the mud with her hands and pulling herself up. “Just like the map said.”
Rin pulled Lulu out of the water with one hand and hoisted them back up onto the shore. Nobody had drowned. Good. Neither had her pouch—it was still in Rin’s pocket, carrying the Moon Skeleton and Temple’s map. She sighed with relief and, slumping over, surveyed their surroundings. Far beyond the broken wood and fallen trees—felled perhaps by a recent storm—were little huts made of thatch and strung-together logs. Against the backdrop of green hills, a few villagers walked, some cooking meat over a fire. They were shielded by the fallen trees and sparse splintered trunks, so nobody had seen them appear. It made things a little easier.
Rin pulled Temple’s map out of her pouch, soaked but still intact. The symbol that looked like a trident was in the southern region of Angola, just as Uma said it would be. But the area she circled—the land purchased by John Temple—was just outside a village called Opuwo.
“Let’s go,” she said, getting to her feet. “There’s no time to waste.”
They entered the village and traded their restrictive British-American clothes for more weather-appropriate light, colorful shirts with wrap skirts. But expensive Western clothes could be bartered for more than a few garments.
“A boat?” Berta spat, staring incredulously at the local men who were helping lug one down to the river. Lulu was busy packing some papayas, mangoes, and bananas she’d gotten from a particularly generous pregnant woman. “We’re going river rafting this bright morning, are we?”
“The Kunene River will take us down to the town in no time.” Rin grabbed a few double-sided paddles from the villagers. She wouldn’t spend another few days trudging through the forest on foot while an instrument as destructive as the Titan Control Device lay ready for the taking. She launched a paddle at Berta, who caught it with ease.
“Don’t slack off,” Rin said before following the men down to the river.
The boat was thick and sturdy in the water. The locals used it to fish, from what Rin could understand. Lulu waved goodbye to the village children as they boosted off the shore and started down the river. The currents would take them south into the lands of the Herero. From there, it’d be a day’s walk to John Temple’s manor, according to his map.
“I wonder what that old man’s doing right now?” Lulu said after a while, eating a ripe mango while she traced a line on the map spread out across the floor. With the other two paddling downstream, Lulu was in charge of directions. Berta’s bright idea.
But to Rin’s surprise, Lulu hadn’t been perturbed at all by the rushing waters and the jutting rocks that they’d had to swerve to avoid. She kept her sharp eyes on the map, reading out landmarks to look out for. A little girl fit for an explorers’ expedition.
“Who, John Temple?” Berta snorted. “Didn’t that old grandpa have dysentery? He’s probably dead by now.” She shrugged before grunting from a splash of water.
If disease didn’t take him, Adam Temple would. That is, if he ever found him.
Adam. Rin bit the inside of her cheek. What if that disgusting boy ran into Iris first? Iris giving in to her genocidal nature had been his plan from the beginning.
Find and destroy the Titan Control Device. Then get to Iris and…
And what? Iris had already made it clear. Once she became Hiva, there was no turning back.
“There has to be a way,” Rin muttered, wincing as river water splashed into her face.
The current, though manageable, still battered the boat, tugging Rin’s weary body back and forth, at times lifting her precariously—that terrible weightlessness that felt as if she’d be tossed off her feet any moment.
“You okay, warrior girl?” Berta looked at her over her shoulder and gave her a broad grin. “Don’t get soft on me now!”
Rin smirked. “You wish.” But the farther down the river they went, the more she turned inward, her thoughts becoming more turbulent than the river currents.
As evening fell, the river stilled. Berta breathed a sigh of relief and dropped her paddle into the boat.
“Where are we?” she asked, rubbing her arms for a minute before reaching for the wood again.
Lulu tapped the map. “Mr. Temple’s handwriting’s real bad, but it looks like we should be in the Kunene Region by now.” She squinted as she tried to pronounce it.
Rin lowered her arms without dropping her paddle. “Are you sure about that?”
Lulu nodded, her eyes sparkling with pride. “You bet! I’ve been working real hard while y’all were paddling. Shouldn’t be long now, Miss Rin!”
The little thing pumped her fists as if she were ready for a fight. After everything she’d been through, something told Rin she wouldn’t lose in one.
“Is that a… smile?” As they began paddling near the shore, Berta gave Rin a ridiculous teasing expression. “Is the warrior princess smiling? Are we so lucky?”
She hadn’t realized. Heat rushed to Rin’s cheeks as she faced the front again, paddling through the calm current.
“Ha! Not so tough, eh?” Berta began, only to be shushed by Lulu.
So she’d seen it too.
Putting a finger to her lips, Rin pointed down the shore, where a crocodile had emerged from the trees and slid down the mud on his belly into the river.
Rin could tell from the number of mud slides along the shore that the area was inhabited by more crocodiles than she would have liked. But what mattered more was getting to Opuwo as quickly as possible, and these rushing white waters were the way to do it. As long as there were only a few crocodiles to deal with—
“And what’s that?” Berta waved to Rin, nodding toward the trees on their left. A glinting piece of metal within the trees had caught the light of the dying sun. Then another one. Some to their right too, hidden between the thick branches and leaves.
Lulu tilted her head. “Those aren’t crocodiles.”
No.
They were guns.
Rin had just barely realized it before she heard one loud bang, followed by more as the guns began firing at them.