Page 40 of Colombian Chemistry

“What was that?” Irene asked, speaking louder now to overcome the rushing water that moved us faster and faster.

“Shh,” I said abruptly as I listened.

I didn’t have to listen long because flashes of red in the trees lining the jungle caught my eye—the signature color of the Jungle Kings.

“How in the hell did they find us?” I spat as I slunk lower in the boat. “Fuck. Get down!”

Irene didn’t argue and dropped to the floor of the canoe. I slipped the paddles up onto my lap and joined her on the floor, letting the current propel us forward.

“Is it them?” she whispered.

“Yes. It has to be.”

“How did they find us?”

“It’s impossible. There is no way they should be able to track us this well. It doesn’t make sense. And you’re sure you don’t have your phone or something?”

“No. I swear.”

A glint of sunlight through the trees caught the reflection of a drone.

“Fuck! They’ve got a goddamn drone!”

Irene followed my gaze to the little black spot following along the river. “A drone? How are we going to get away if they have us on a drone?”

Gritting my teeth, I pulled out my gun and popped off a perfect shot. It dropped to the ground and shattered on the rocks alongside the shore.

“Problem fucking solved.”

“There!” a voice shouted.

I peeked up over the edge of the canoe and saw several men with guns staring straight at us.

“Fuck!” I ducked down right before a bullet whizzed past me.

“They’re shooting! They’re shooting!” she squeaked.

I heard another voice scold the man for firing shots.

“They won’t shoot you. They need you alive. Why? I have no damn idea, but we’ve at least got that going for us.”

“What do we do?” she asked, fear shaking her voice.

I slowly peeked up again, this time to look at what was happening in front of us. As expected, the river grew wilder by the inch. There was a waterfall ahead without a doubt, and I needed to decide which threat was bigger: the waterfall or the armed men.

Irene tugged on my arm. “Marcus? What do we do?”

“We can’t risk the waterfall. It’s too dangerous. The cartel seems to all be on the west side of the bank, so we’re going to slip out over the canoe and swim like hell for the east shore. The minute we hit land, we’re going to have to run. Without the drone following us, we have a chance at getting away.”

“Okay.”

“You can swim, right? You weren’t too scared of drowning to get in a pool as a child?”

She narrowed her eyes. “No, I wasn’t, thank you very much. In fact, statistics show children who aren’t taught to swim have a much higher chance of accidental—”

“Not now, Irene! Just get ready to jump when I say jump!”

I grabbed ahold of my survival bag and prepared to go. When I lifted my head and saw the state of the river just ahead, I knew it was now or never.