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Jase smothered a laugh again. “You have a point,” he agreed quietly. “Still, I don’t think both of them would have ended up in a sinkhole a second time in fourteen hours. For fuck’s sake, I know you’ve trained here before; did you suffer amnesia since then, or what?”

“Last time I was here at Camp Rudder we were concentrating on small boats, snakes, and stream crossings. The takeaway from that sentence is that we got to use boats and we crossed the streams, we didn’t spend hours slogging in the water. I’ve heard you talk, Jase. You grew up in Vegas, don’t go all high and mighty now, like you know about swamps. Never bullshit a bullshitter.”

“I spent two years in Vegas, I did not grow up in Vegas. I slogged around the Pantanal Swamp in Brazil, my friend, for almost three years when I was a young teen. Two of my adopted brothers grew up there, and they ran away from home so often that Mom just started having me go with them to keep them safe, then after a few days, it was my job to haul them back to Curitiba. She was pragmatic like that.”

Ryker stared at him. “Brazil?”

“Dad was a construction manager. He was in charge of building an airport in Curitiba, so we stayed there for two and a half years. I think Mom was intent on adopting half the country. When we left to go to Indonesia for a bridge project I had two more brothers and another sister.”

“What the fuck, dude, are you shitting me?”

“Eu não mentiria sobre isso,” Jase said easily.

“That’s not Spanish. Portuguese?” Ryker asked.

“Yep. I just said I wouldn’t lie about this.”

“So how big was your, I mean, is your family?”

“Thanksgivings are massive. I have eleven brothers and five sisters.”

“You’re shitting me, there’s seventeen of you?”

“Yep. Dad took projects all across America and the world, and Mom had the biggest heart in the universe. Bruno and Gustavo were eight and four when Mom saw them at Curitiba’s church shelter where she had us all volunteering. Before then, they’d been living by themselves in the swamp for over a year. Prior to that, they’d lived with their grandfather who’d died, and no other relative would take them in because of Gustavo’s cleft palate. Bruno had been taking care of him.”

“So that’s how you ended up in the swamp so often?”

“Yeah, they’d go back to this shack that sat a little bit on the shoreline, but mostly floated in the swamp. Every fucking time they went back, Bruno would have to sneak on board to make sure that no Anacondas or jaguars had taken up residence. When I explained that to dad, he always made sure I was armed. I swear to God, I was more scared of checking for critters than Bruno ever was. Especially the time I found a damned anaconda.”

Ryker just looked at him incredulously. “Where are they now?”

“Gustavo is a surgeon. Not surprisingly, he worked a few years with Doctors Without Borders, but he’s stateside now. Has a couple of rugrats. But Bruno? Well, Bruno is Bruno,” Jase said with a shrug.

Ryker knew there was a story there, but he didn’t push. Anyway, there was no time, they had to track down Zed.

“Well, since I now know you’re as much of a swamp rat as Sebastian, teach me, oh wise one.”

“Rule one, don’t fall into a sinkhole,” Jase grinned.

Ryker was pretty embarrassed that he’d fallen into one of the damn things let alone the second one. He knew how to toe the ground before stepping, he’d just jerked when he saw a gator.

Dumbass!

“Thanks, I figured that one out on my own.” Ryker really wanted to take off his boots and pour out the water. “When I said yes to being the second tracker on the team, I didn’t know it would mean Camp Rudder,” Ryker griped again.

“And that’s why our lieutenant, in his infinite wisdom, knew enough to send his little boy who only knows the sand and the ocean to someplace new, like a swamp.”

“Fuck you, Drakos, this isn’t my first time here, or even my second.”

Ryker rolled his shoulders and hefted up his backpack which had to weigh ten pounds more because of the extra water and mud weight it was now carrying. At least he’d had the common sense to pack most of his shit in plastic. Yeah, he might be dumb, but he wasn’t dumb.

“If you’ve been here so often,” Jase said with a shit-eating grin, “then that must mean you like falling into these sinkholes.”

“Again. I’ll remind you, my rifle works.”

Jase’s laugh had a flock of herons taking flight.

“You know, you probably just warned Zed that we are on his tail,” Ryker grumbled.