JAKE BANKED THE PLANE to the southwest, putting the glow from the burning warehouse behind them. He was glad to be done with it—and Frank—but suspected far worse lay ahead. Water dripped from his soggy clothes as he steered to a heading that would take them to the spot in the visions. The need to answer the call wouldn’t stop pulling at him. Pulling at us, he thought, glancing at Alex. His son’s eyes were puffy. Alex had climbed back into the passenger seat and pulled Jake’s shotgun onto his lap.
It bothered Jake that his boy held on to the weapon as if it gave him comfort, but he didn’t want to ask his son to place it on the backseat. Neither of them wanted to look back there, where Lucy’s body lay.
He leveled the plane off at five thousand feet and scanned the horizon. Stars peeked through the partly cloudy night sky, providing enough illumination for him to see that the flat terrain gave way to a more rugged area ahead. It was pitch-black where they were going. He performed a couple of clearing turns to check his periphery, and when he banked to the right, he spotted a trio of distant twinkling lights off his wing. There were no roads down there, which meant the lights had to be coming from boats.
“It’s the first group of mercenaries,” Alex said. “They’ll be at Frank’s in less than thirty minutes.”
Jake was glad Alex had broken the silence. He’d been worried the trauma of what had happened would shut down his son. He banked in the opposite direction. Sure enough, more lights were converging from the east. “The party’s about to start,” he said, hoping to keep Alex talking.
“They’re going to be mad.”
“You’ve got that right.”
“And they’re going to come after us.”
“Without a doubt.” Alex caressed the stock of the shotgun. It was pointed away from both of them and the safety was on. Still… “Be careful with that.”
“Did you know the AA-12 fully automatic shotgun is considered one of the most potent force multipliers ever designed?”
The question surprised Jake but he went with it. “I do know. Three against fifty, and we still came out on top.” He thought about Lucy and regretted the words immediately.
But Alex pressed on, taking comfort in details he’d memorized at some point. “The high-explosive rounds feature a fin-stabilized warhead that allows it to travel nearly 200 meters with accuracy. That’s the length of two football fields. Low recoil. Lethal, unleashing a deadly spray of shrapnel with every strike. If you’d have kept your finger on the trigger, you would’ve emptied this thirty-two-round drum magazine in 2.13 seconds. But because you used short bursts, there are still ten rounds left.”
“I see you were counting, too.”
“Can’t help it.”
“Yeah. Me neither.”
“You lost the phones in the water, didn’t you? So we can’t call Mom.”
“I’m afraid so.”
“She’s probably in a panic about us both. Ahmed and Sarafina, too.”
“I know. But at least they’re safe.”
Father and son passed the next fifteen minutes in silence.
Finally Alex looked up at Jake. A tear spilled down his cheek. “Dad, why does this keep happening to us?”
How does a father tell his son that all the bad things in his life were his dad’s fault?
“Stop it,” Alex said, as if reading his mind. “You’re not to blame.”
Jake looked at him, and saw Francesca in his son’s eyes. The empathic gift mother and son shared was a constant challenge. “It’s hard to put anything past mom or you.”
“So stop trying. You’ll be happier. So will we.”
“Hey, who’s the dad here, anyway? Me or you?”
“I’m getting older every hour, remember?”
Jake tensed. It was the kind of gallows humor he’d have expected from Tony, not his son. But it was also the kind of humor he used himself in tough situations. He didn’t know why it helped, but it did. So he couldn’t very well begrudge Alex the same release.
Adopting an airline captain’s voice, he said, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have begun our descent. Please fasten your seat belts and straighten your chairs to their full and upright positions. Please stow any articles”—he cocked an eyebrow at the AA-12 on Alex’s lap—“or shotguns in the overhead bins, or beneath the seat in front of you. We’ll be landing on the murky waters of an unknown lake in the middle of nowhere in ten minutes.” He cleared his throat. “For elderly passengers needing a little extra assistance, we’ll have several four-hundred-pound caiman crocodiles standing by the pontoons to help guide you to shore.”
Alex’s smile was brief, but it was there. He passed the weapon to Jake, who placed it on the floor behind them, careful to avoid looking at Lucy’s face.
Five minutes later they were flying a racetrack pattern over a valley surrounded by forested peaks. Starlight reflected off a thick blanket of mist that spread from one end of the valley to the other. Three large waterfalls tumbled from the western cliffs to disappear into the thick fog below.
“This is it, right?” Jake asked.
“I feel it too, Dad. This is where we’re supposed to be. But how can we land? We can’t see anything.”
Jake checked the fuel gauge. The needle hovered just above EMPTY. He tapped the glass and the needle ticked lower. Alex noticed. They exchanged a look.
“There’s supposed to be a lake down there,” Jake said.
“But where? It’s a big valley. Do you think the mist is like a cloud layer? Something we’ll break through if we descend so we can spot the lake?”
“Afraid not. Mist clings to the ground. Once we dip into that soup, we’ll be blind. Plus, even though the pull I’m feeling is very specific, I doubt it’s pointing at a convenient landing spot on the water. It feels to me, more like it’s directing us to the underground chamber we’ve seen.”
“I agree. So what can we do?”
“We need help. We need—”
“Another vision,” Alex said.
“Exactly. I was able to create one before, back at the safe house. But I can’t do it while I’m piloting the plane.”
“I’ll do it. Tell me how.”
Jake didn’t like the idea of Alex tapping into the mini’s power, but what choice did he have? Reluctantly, he loosened the button on his cargo pants pocket and pulled out the device. “It worked for me by hovering it over my hands.”
“Hovering it?” Alex asked, taking the artifact. “How do I do that?”
How could he explain it? He wasn’t sure how he did it himself. It was a combination of things, the most prominent of which was focusing on the same tonal vibration he’d felt in the cavern in Afghanistan. “When you were in the visions, did you feel the vibration in the air?”
Alex frowned. “Yes. I remember that.”
“Okay, good. So, hold the mini in your open palms, close your eyes, and focus on the memory of those vibrations echoing through the cavern.”
Alex emptied his lungs, held up the mini, and closed his eyes. Jake braced himself, hoping whatever happened didn’t cause him to lose control of the aircraft. He sensed the small pyramid responding to his son’s call, and its energy slowly filled the cabin. The sensation was different from what Jake had felt when he’d wielded the device, and after several long seconds, he knew it wasn’t going to work. He waited a while longer to be sure, until finally Alex’s shoulders sagged.
“It’s not working,” his son said.
“I know. I’m going to have to do it myself. You’re going to have to pilot the plane.”
“Oh, no, you don’t,” Lucy said.
Alex yelped. Jake spun around so fast he caused a wing to dip sharply. He recovered the aircraft quickly, his mind racing.
“Lucy!” Alex cried out.
“Ouch,” she said, yanking the dart out of her shoulder. She tossed it on the floor. “I can’t believe you left that stuck in me!”
“Uh, sorry,” Alex said. “I thought you were—”
“Dead? Yes, I guess I could understand that. So you’re forgiven. But let’s steer away from this Alex-is-going-to-fly-the-airplane stuff.” She reached forward and gave Alex a gentle shove on the shoulder. “You nearly tipped us over when you spun us around to go back for your father. You can barely reach the pedals!”
Jake was incredulous. The girl had dozens of nasty-looking piranha bites on her legs, and one of the deadliest poisons in the Amazon coursing through her system. “How long have you been awake?”
“Since you two started talking about…visions.”
Alex said, “How are you alive? After the frog poison?”
“My mother has been injecting me with frog secretions since I was a baby.”
“To make you immune?” Alex asked.
Lucy nodded. “It’s a practice passed on to each of the shaman descendants of our tribe. Shamans have always been a powerful force in the community. A force for good, for healing, for reason. But warriors sometimes resented their power, so they turned to their darts. Death appears instantaneous.”
Alex said, “But then the shaman wakes up…”
“And takes her revenge. The inoculations are a secret that has been kept from the rest of the tribe for thousands of years.” She looked at them. “Until now.”
“We won’t tell,” Alex said. “Promise.”
Lucy smiled. As Jake banked the aircraft into the far turn of their racetrack pattern, she looked out her window. “You found the sacred waterfalls so easily. All from your visions?”
“Yes,” Jake said. “And the man behind those visions told us to bring you. That you would know the way.”
Lucy frowned. “What man?”
While Jake was considering how to best answer the question, Alex beat him to it. “The man your mother saw at the edge of the falls.”
Lucy’s eyes widened. “Mother told you her story? She’s never told anyone but me.”
Alex nodded.
Jake frowned. Alex hadn’t mentioned the story to him. But if his son said it was the same man, then he must be. “Is there a lake beneath the falls?” he asked Lucy.
“Yes.”
“Can you describe its position? Its length and breadth?”
She nodded and pointed out the window. “Do you see that sharp peak about a third of the way down the valley?”
“The taller one?”
“Yes, that’s where the lake ends. If you descend straight toward the falls, and land beyond that point, you will touch down on the water.”
“God bless you, Lucy. Now buckle up. Both of you. We’re goin’ in.”