"Our guest has arrived."
Jacey was not sure who she expected to see but it certainly wasn't the
tall, dark-suited man who turned angrily to face them as they came
in.
Nicolas Schlemann looked at Felix, then at Jacey, and then back at
Felix again.
"What the hell's going on?"
he demanded.
Jacey turned to Felix.
"This is the surprise you promised me?"
"Part of it," Felix said.
"You've brought me out here on false pretences, Connaught," Nicolas
said.
"I understood you had a business proposition for me, but if it concerns
Dr.
Muldaire, I'm not even interested in opening negotiations.
I
don't share my women."
He smiled cruelly at Jacey.
"Although I sometimes give them away."
Jacey saw Felix's expression change.
"Just leave Jacey out of this," he said tightly.
"She didn't know you'd be here until she walked through the door.
My
offer to you was genuine.
I have something for you.
Something you
need."
"You don't have anything I need," Nicolas said.
He walked over to the
door, then stopped and turned, and looked carefully round the room
until his eyes rested on Jacey.
"You don't seem to have anything of worth at all."
"I'm offering you a chance to escape," Felix said.
"A chance to avoid going to jail."
"Living with the Indians has got to you.
Connaught," Nicolas
drawled.
"You're as crazy as they are.
What makes you think I'd ever end up in
jail?"
"You will," Felix said, 'when Hernandez finds out you've nicked large
sums of money from the treasury and put them into a European personal
account.
And when Curtis Telford hears that the money he's paid out
for the logging rights in Guachtal has gone the same way."
For a moment Nicolas looked bemused.
Then he smiled derisively.
"You've been drinking too much jungle juice, Connaught.
It's softened
your brain.
I haven't touched any treasury money, or Telford's money
either.
And I don't have a European account.
Why would I need one?"
"Because you're planning to leave Guachtal," Felix said.
"You've been planning it for years, and this is the big pay-off.
Why
stay here for the rest of your life, when you can live like a
millionaire anywhere you like?"
"You're insane," Nicolas said contemptuously.
"I have no intention of leaving Guachtal."
Felix smiled.
"I know that," he said softly.
"But no one else does."
Nicolas stared at him.
"And the evidence is going to look pretty damning," Felix added.
"The money's been transferred, Nicci.
It's safely stashed away in a
numbered account.
An account that I will be happy to prove belongs to
you.
The treasury is bare."
For the first time Nicolas began to look nervous.
"That's impossible," he said.
"No one can access the treasury account except me."
"Wrong," Felix said.
"There are friends of mine in the States who can access the Bank of
England, or the White House, or the Pentagon, or any other secret files
they damn well please.
Sometimes they do it just to prove that they
can.
Other times they do it to help friends like me."
It took Nicolas a few minutes to gather his thoughts.
"What do you hope to gain from this trickery?"
he demanded, at last.
"Once I explain what's happened, you'll be the one who goes to jail."
Felix's smile did not waver.
"Nicci," he said, 'you've overlooked one very important point.
You're
not the most popular guy in Guachtal.
People accept Hernandez, because he's relatively harmless.
But they
don't like you.
You've got too much power.
If they see a chance to
destroy you, they'll grab it with both hands.
They won't question the
evidence.
They'll just thank me for providing it."
"I'll fight," Nicolas said, his voice thick with suppressed fury.
"You'll lose," Felix said.
"Think about it.
Who's going to support you?
Hernandez won't, because
his wife will order him not to.
Carlos Marquez won't either, because
you cut him out of the logging deal, and he's never really been your
friend anyway.
He used you, just like you used him."
Jacey saw Nicolas clench his fists, and for a moment she thought he was
going to punch Felix.
"Take what I'm offering you, Nicci," Felix said softly.
"I'll give you time to run.
There's plenty of space in South America.
I'm sure a talented guy like you will find a niche somewhere.
I'll
even put some money in an account for you, enough to support you for a
while."
"Why do that?"
Nicolas asked suspiciously.
"What's in it for you?"
"You might not believe this," Felix said, 'but I'm grateful to you.
You've kept this country financially stable, in your own crooked way.
You've given us a base to build a future on.
So I'm willing to give
you a chance to escape.
Just don't come back to Guachtal."
He smiled
again.
"It's your best bet, Nicci.
Better than jail."
"How long do I have to decide?"
"Until tonight," Felix said.
"If you want to wait that long.
I think we both know what you're going
to do."
Nicolas looked at Jacey.
"I missed you," he said.
"When you went back to England, I actually missed you.
I was delighted
when you returned.
It's the first time I've ever felt like that about a woman."
Then he
went out of the door, leaving her flabbergasted, staring after him.
"So," Felix said cheerfully, 'what did you think of my surprise?"
"Hail, saviour of the rain forest," she said flippantly.
"Well, of our little piece of it."
He looked at her critically.
"You're pleased, I hope?"
"About the trees?"
She nodded.
"Of course I am."
"And about Nicolas?"
he persisted.
"Guachtal will be much better off without him."
"Let's hope so," she said.
"Let's hope whoever takes on the treasury can run it as well as he
did."
"I hope I'll be able to take on the treasury," Felix said.
"And I've already got some deals lined up.
You've heard of IN Bio
She nodded.
"The organisation in Costa Rica making an inventory of all their forest
animals, plants and micro-organisms."
"And selling the information to pharmaceutical firms."
He nodded.
"They've already been paid several million dollars by conglomerates in
the States for exclusive use of their research material.
We could do
the same thing."
He smiled at her.
"My mother's research will come in useful after all."
"Have you thought," Jacey said, 'that the loha destroyed Nicolas after
all?"
"The loha?"
For a moment Felix looked perplexed.
Then he grinned.
"Oh, you mean the spirit?"
"Ana Collados told me the Indians had offered Nicolas to the loha,"
Jacey said.
"She said it lived in the space between the worlds, and it would strike
him down when he least expected it.
And Nicolas has been destroyed by
information that was manipulated in cyberspace."
"Very strange," Felix said, clearly unimpressed.
"Dear old Ana is as crazy as Juanita when it comes to Indian ghosts and
spirits."
"She said it was a cruel spirit," Jacey said.
"And it's true."
"You think what's happened to Nicolas is cruel?"
Felix asked.
"It could have been much worse.
How long do you think he'd have lasted
in jail before someone knifed him?
At least I've given him a chance to
make another life somewhere else."
He reached for her hands and held
them.
"Tell me you don't care about Nicolas, Jacey?"
Jacey smiled.
"I don't care about Nicolas," she said.
She squeezed his hands.
"But I do care about you."
Was it the truth?
Later that night, as she lay next to Felix, and
listened to the constant symphony of sound from the rain forest, Jacey
couldn't help wondering what would have happened if Felix had not
managed to destroy Nicolas, and she had continued her affair with
him.
Would they have eventually found they could share something more than
just sex?
She would never know.
If she stayed in Guachtal, she would