Vanika stood near the back of the operation, her arms crossed over her chest with an air of forceful confidence.Beside her, Professor Dawson fanned himself with his pith helmet, his skin ruddy with heat over his ginger beard.
Adam could hear his distinctive whining complaints from all the way up on the hill.
He made a quick assessment of the rest of the uniformed bodies working below.“We can’t get to the kid in the middle of all this.We’ll need to follow them until they set up camp for the night.”
“That means getting over the river.Any chance we could sneak across their bridge?”
Adam thought of what he knew of Colonel Charles Borthwick—and of Jacobs.“Doubt it.”
“Subhas mentioned that the Adrija had a crossing.”
“Then let’s go see what we’re dealing with.”
Adam guided Ellie back from the drop.Kalb still waited, quivering with the effort it took to remain sitting.At the sight of them, the dog let out a groaning, eloquent whine.
“Good boy,” Adam said, rubbing his ears.
Kalb leaped up to trot after them.
Adam studied the landscape, his mind automatically mapping the way they’d come against the directions Subhas had given him back in the village.Game trail… level ridge… dry streambed…
He led Ellie and the dog up the river, then picked their way down another slope, pushing past a stand of wild sugarcane to bring the water back into view.
The forest loomed on the opposite bank.It wasn’t the thick tropical growth of British Honduras, where palms had mingled with plantains under the sweeping arms of mahogany trees.This wilderness was quieter and older, towering teaks rustling softly over ground papered with ferns and wildflowers.
The mythic name for the place echoed through Adam’s mind.Dandakaranya.
He didn’t pretend to know what he would be getting himself into over there.A new forest meant new resources—and new threats—but that wasn’t what set the hairs itching at the back of Adam’s neck as he studied the whispering green depth of the shadows under the canopy.
“Ugh,” Ellie complained behind him.“Why does he have to do that?”
Adam glanced over to see her shove Kalb back from her face, which he’d been lapping with his tongue.
“Because he loves you.”Adam nodded across the river.“There’s our ferry.”
Subhas’s crossing was a rope.The far end was tied around a thick-trunked tree.The woven length of hemp was green with age, dipping down into the water, which had already risen to cover the tree’s roots.The river rippled subtly where it passed over the barely submerged line.
Adam crept closer, pushing through another stand of brush.His side of the bank was flooded as well.He had to peer through the shimmering water to see where the near end of the rope was tied off around a fig tree.
From where he stood, his view of Borthwick’s work site was blocked by a broad curve in the current.“We ought to be out of sight of the bridge here.It should be safe to cross.”
Ellie’s skeptical look communicated that she possessed a different interpretation of what constitutedsafe.“Won’t we have to leave the dog behind?”she asked hopefully.
“He can swim it.Can’t you, buddy?”Adam patted Kalb as the Seluki panted up at him adoringly.
“But he was raised in a desert.”
“With a great big river running through it.He’ll be fine.”
Without waiting for further debate, Adam slipped into the water.It lapped around his shins, slightly cooler than the sultry heat of the afternoon.
The rope had obviously been there for a while, but it felt solid, if a bit slippery with algae.
“I want you to go first.”Adam raised a hand as Ellie opened her mouth to protest.“If you’re behind me, I might not know you’re in trouble until I’m on the other side.”
Ellie grimaced, unhappy with Adam’s logic but unable to counter it.She joined him in the water, her boots splashing softly.“What do I do?Just grab on and drag myself across?”
“That’s it.”Adam adjusted the straps on his pack.They’d traveled light, and it wouldn’t be the first time their gear had ended up under water.He was mostly worried about the Winchester.Guns didn’t like getting wet.Adam would lose the rounds in the stock, but the bulk of the ammunition was in an oilskin pouch in the pack.
