When the first rays of dappled sunlight wake me, I find Luke curled up to my back with his arm draped over my stomach, as if he’d tried to stop me from leaving in his sleep.
For a moment, I savor his warmth. But then reality kicks in.
Luke shouldn’t depend on me. Following me into the jungle nearly got him killed. And it may still.
I shouldn’t have let him come, but I can’t leave him now, even for his own good.
I don’t want to leave him.
I carefully lift his arm and sneak out of the tent. By the time I get back from relieving myself in the jungle, Luke is packing up our camp.
“Did you know that Parque Tayrona contains more than seventeen thousand square acres of jungle?” he says as he folds up the camp stove.
“So what?” I ask as I strap our sleeping bag to the bottom of my pack. “You think we’re still in Tayrona?”
“Probably. The vast majority of the parque is unexplored, unmapped wilderness.”
I shrug into my backpack. “If this is a needle-in-a-haystack analogy, you know exactly where you can shove your odds and statistics. I will find them.”
“I know. And I’m still with you. But I have an idea. Silvana was marching you guys northwest, right?”
“Yes. We were headed away from the rising sun.”
He shoves the folded camp stove into his bag and zips it up. “Then I propose we head due north, instead.”
“Why?”
Luke looks at me as if I should already have caught onto his point, and I hate how clueless that makes me feel. “Because the Caribbean is due north, and heading toward the shore means we’ll be going downhill. Which will make hiking easier. We can turn west once we hit the water, and that’ll be much easier going.”
“You’re leaving something out.” I can see it in his eyes.
If we hike along the beach, we might see a boat, or run into other tourists, or pick up a stronger cell signal. “You’re not trying to help me find Ryan’s murderers.” The betrayal feels like a bruise deep in my chest. “You’re trying to get us rescued.”
“I’m trying to do both,” he insists. “We’ll still be heading north and west, but at a much faster pace. And if we find help before we find the kidnappers, we can alert the authorities and let them take over. We owe that to your cousin and her friends.”
“I know, but . . .” I don’t want Ryan’s killer apprehended. I want him dead.
“Maddie, you don’t even have a plan.” Luke throws his hands up in frustration. “Even if you’re willing to kill someone—and I really hope you’re not—we have a rifle you don’t know how to use, and a grand total of five shells.”
But five shells is plenty, because I do have a plan.
Find the kidnappers’ base camp. Shoot from a hidden location. Flee with Genesis and her friends in the subsequent chaos.
The hard part will be deciding whether to aim for Silvana or Julian, in case I only manage one shot.
“You’re low on insulin, we’re both low on food,” Luke continues. “And if we hike much farther, we won’t make it back to the bunkhouse in time to meet the helicopter tonight. So if we’re going to press on, we have to head for the shore.”
I open my mouth to argue again, but he cuts me off.
“And if that doesn’t convince you, think about this: Silvana and Sebastián are almost certainly heading for the shore too. There’s no more convenient way for the kidnappers to get the supplies they need to keep themselves and their captives alive than by boat.”
I frown, resettling my bag on my shoulders. “Then why didn’t they march us straight to the beach in the first place?”
“Because they don’t want to be found. And they probably wanted to keep you guys disoriented.” He watches me for a second, letting me think it over. “This is our best bet, Maddie.”
He’s right.
“Fine.” I smile and toss my pack over my shoulder. “Lead the way north, Boy Scout.”