3 Hit the Road Jack (31 page)

“I think we can start by going-“ Kalel started.

“Babe,” Kellan shouted, the alarm in his voice made me jerk towards him. He yanked something off my back, staring around the room as he did it. A moment later I was looking at a white envelope, sealed from Jack. My heart quickened; it felt like every breath was an effort.

With a shaking hand, I took the envelope from Kellan and slowly opened it. Al stood up. “I’m going to do a walk around.” I nodded, reaching in to pull out the piece of paper.

Scoping me out?
    -Jack

“How is he always one step ahead of us? I just don’t get it. You
can only have so many –“ A flash of something caught from my necklace. “Oh crap! I’ve been so stupid! This whole time I’ve been wearing this necklace under all my clothes. It hasn’t been working for me, but I’d bet my life that it’s been working for Jack to track me! Is there any
way to see if there’s a tracking device inside this thing?”

Kalel took it from me, passed his phone over the piece and stared at his phone’s screen. Kai and Kalel communicated something amongst each other mentally. “You got it right Leka,” Kalel bit out.

“That slimey son of a-“

“Gabi!”

“What? Sorry. I can’t believe the pendejo would stoo
p so low as to literally screw over family. Wait until I get my hands on that-“

“Gabi!”

“Sorry,” she shrugged. “I have the mouth of a sailor when I’m pissed.”

“Clearly.”

“We can’t change it, but what this does mean is that when Ralph built this for you, he embedded the tracking device in it. So either he’s been working for Jack for a while or he had ulterior motives where you were concerned Leka,” Kalel concluded.

A chill ran up my spine. “Ugh.”

“Can we please get rid of that thing?”

“Allow me,” Gabi smiled. She grabbed the necklace from Kalel and forced her way through the crowd and out the back door. She walked down the steps and into the backyard area. She whirled the necklace around like a cowboy would a rope.

“Woohoo! We got ourselves a cowgirl!” a random guy yelled.

She turned and winked over her shoulder, earning cheers from several locals. With a quick flick of her wrist, she sent the necklace flying what looked like at least a mile up El Yunque. Whistles and claps erupted all around. She bowed eloquently before returning to my side.

“Well, now that that’s taken care of, I’m starving. Where’s my food?” she asked.

Right at that moment, a mountain of food was brought out to us by a man and a woman. If I had to guess, I’d say they owned the place.
They looked to be in their late forties, dressed in casual attire. It was a very casual restaurant so it wouldn’t surprise me if the owners dressed like the patrons.

“Ay que rico,” Gabi smiled around a large bite. We’d had to get creative and mixed our blood with salsa for dipping.

Silence loomed at the table while we ate. We’d come out to relax, but with El Yunque right behind us, that was hard to do. Tomorrow hung over our heads and weighed us down. I doubt anyone thought about anything else given how many times we all glanced at the rainforest.

“Ok. I’m done sulking. Let’s get out of here,” Gabi sighed.

I knew when Craig didn’t do anything to break the tension on the way back to the apartment, that things really were as bad as they seemed. When we got back to the condo, a large box was stationed in front of the door.

“That’ll be our ops gear,” Kalel stated.

“Kalel, why don’t you and I study some maps of the tunnels running through the mountains for tomorrow,” Al suggested.

“Maybe I can pull up images of the interiors from tourists,” he agreed.

“I’ll join you,” Kai said.

“Why don’t we all do it?” I asked. “We all need to know where we’re going after all.”

“I’ll plug the computer into the TV,” Kalel offered.

We anxiously crowded into the living room space and spent the next several hours studying El Yunque inside and out. The task actually gave us something to focus on and eventually the tension dissipated.

“So we’ll go in tomorrow at dawn so we’ll have the sun’s light all day,” I confirmed.

“Right. We’ll drive up so we at least have an escape vehicle, hopefully,” Gabi said.

“We’ll need to load our weapons before we leave. We can’t leave anything to chance. Jack has orchestrated this entire thing, and once we set foot on the mountain, we’re in his territory with his traps,” Al stated.

Kellan squeezed my hand, offering me a bit of reassurance. He’d been quiet most of the night, silently absorbing everything. I knew he was paying attention
;
he just wasn’t jumping in like the rest of us.

“Tomorrow’s the day mates.” Craig looked around at all of us. He almost seemed excited about it.

“He’s an adrenaline junkie,” Kellan chuckled, patting his friend’s shoulder.

“I’m never
cluckin
’
drab,” he replied.

“Isn’t that the truth.” Gabi shook her head.

I looked at my watch. “Wow, it’s already three in the morning.”

“You should go catch some
Z
’s Lex. I’m sure you won’t miss anything,” Gabi said.

“I won’t sleep long; maybe an hour. Wake me up when it’s time.”

They all nodded and began conversing amongst each other about approaches and what area to hit first.

“I’ll come with you.” Kellan led me to the bedroom and closed the door behind us. We both plopped down on the bed and I immediately snuggled against him.

“I can’t believe it’
s almost time.”

“Everything will work out babe. We’ll be fine.” He kissed my brow as I closed my eyes, trying not to worry about the things unknown.

Chapter 29

“We’re driving up to about fifteen kilometers. Brace yourselves because the air thins and the pressure rises,” Kalel warned.

Kalel and Al had thought of everything. We were all crammed into a Hummer which basically made it impossible for any cars to pass around us on the narrow road winding up the mountain. We adorned our ops attire and had weapons stashed in nearly every pocket, an assortmen
t varying from gas bombs to kniv
es and dart guns. Once loaded, I didn’t know how the spies ever got used to the weapons all around them. I found myself walking a little funny to keep a star from slicing my thigh.

“You know, if we weren’t going into battle, I might actually like to explore the rainforest. It’s a lot more than I expected. It’s like the magic of nature is palpable up here.” I looked out the window as we narrowly missed a branch jutting out above us. Leaves beat the side of the vehicle as we remained glued to the side of the mountain.

“Sorry babe, but I won’t be coming back with you for that one.” I chuckled nervously, reminded of the day ahead and the question mark it held hostage.

We came to a clearing with
a
waterfall on the right and a small parking lot on the left. We were just about to pass the waterfall when the car began to roll backwards and collapsed.

“Oh shit,” Gabi said, eyes wide as she looked around.

“Mary Poppins!” Craig exclaimed as he opened the back door and got a look at the vehicle outside.

“I guess we’ve reached the point that he wants us. We’re on foot from here guys,” Al stated.

I stepped out of the car and looked at the deflated tires and now snapped in half rims. I walked around the car, but didn’t see any nails. I didn’t even see how or why the tires deflated at first.

Kai pressed a hand on my shoulder, stopping my movement. He placed a silencing finger in front of his puckered lips. I nodded once.  He bent down and pointed to a thin dart poking out of the tires. It was barely visible, merely a single porcupine.

We all grouped together, our backs against the Hummer as we looked around, searching the jungle for any movement. I listened, but the birds cawing in the distance made it hard to hear anything else.

My head flew upwards as I heard something being carried by the wind. I saw no one; only the white envelope that was sinking through the sky from above. I looked at my companions, whose eyes were glued to me and the envelope.
I snatched it out of the sky when it was within reach. I ripped it open and pulled out the paper.

Welcome to my jungle. Let the games begin.
     -Jack

I read it aloud. The moment I said Jack, the ninjas fell all around us. This time they had weapons; this time we were fighting dirty.

Simultaneously we withdrew our weapons of choice. We broke out around the vehicle as the assassins drew closer; the inner circle versus the outer. We were surrounded by at least fifteen of them. Given how many we’d gone through, it had me wondering just how big Jack’s operation really was. He seemed to have an endless supply of them. Given that all we could see of them was their eyes, I couldn’t decipher whether they were the same ones from the warehouse or not.

They came at us in twos, swinging their wood and metal bars. I couldn’t help but feel like I was in the final levels of Super Mario Brothers, facing off to the mini
K
oopas.

Both swung at once, coordinated by one high and the other low. I leapt up and back onto the hood of the Hummer. Serum flooded my mouth as adrenaline pumped through me. I somersaulted through the air over them and was just about to land when one of them hit my stomach, sending me flying into a tree that cracked in half from the pressure. I used the split trunk as leverage to swing myself back up and over the edge rather than fall
a
mile
or
more down
into a
ravine.

I withdrew my dart gun, aimed and fired, hitting one of my targets in the hand. It wasn’t a perfect sho
t
, but at least I hit him. He dropped to the ground. The other didn’t give me a chance to reload. He
c
ame at me with round
kicks, the pole flying out in front of him.

We danced around each other’s moves for a while. It was a good sign because it meant that practice had improved my skills. I had to be sure I didn’t get sloppy as things carried on though.

The sound of Kellan struggling caught my attention. His grunts and heavy breathing stood out against the others. I looked over, giving my guy the perfect opportunity to send me flying into the mountain side. The moment I saw Kellan barely fighting off three guys at once, something within me clicked, some sort of inner strength bulleted to my surface. I threw my arm out right as the ninja closest to me released the spear at the end of his pole and aimed it at my chest. I snapped it in half, the piece scraping but not penetrating my
clothes or
skin.

I was at Kellan’s side in a split second. One second I wanted to be next to him
,
and the next I was. I heard the battle begin to die down behind me as I connected one by one with each ninja, barely able to keep up with my own speed. They went flying into the air landing on hard edges of the mou
n
tain’s rock surrounding the waterfall. Blood slowly began to run into the water from their black uniforms.

My breathing was heavy, my heart pounding in my head as I moved on to the next assassin. One by one I knocked them out, snapped their
necks and
tossed them over the mountain’s edge. Again, I could barely keep up with my own speed. When I finally stopped not even a minute later, my head spun causing me to teeter in my steps. Kellan caught me as I started to go down.

I took a deep breath, closing my eyes as he surrounded me. “I’m ok,” I finally said.

“You haven’t stopped glowing,” Kellan whispered.

My eyes shot open and looked straight down at my arms, thin lines projecting neon light,
forming a
maz
e
down and around my hands. I took a few more breaths, trying to calm my racing heart. The serum was beginning to recede already.

“You ok Leka?” Kai asked, his brow creased with concern. The others’ expressions were similar.

“I’m fine. Really. Just not used to this yet.” They didn’t look convinced but didn’t push either.

“I say we head up the mountain. They’re dropping from above us so they’re further up,” Kalel said.

Kellan secured my hand in his as we made our way further along the road and up the mountain. The higher we went the chillier it got. It became harder for my lungs to expand. Lucky for me the oxygen levels in my blood were way above normal since I was a vamp, which helped offset the asthmatic feel brought on by the thinning air.

We reached another clearing, this one was merely a large notch carved out of the mountain. Large and small rocks gathered beneath moss at its base beside the road while vines looped above us. The road had narrowed to nearly a single lane by this point.

I studied nature’s mur
a
l. It’d been at least twenty minutes since the last battle had ended. I was on edge, waiting, anticipating Jack’s next move.