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“No.” Lake was about as pleased as everyone else in the room. “We don’t even know how many kidnappers are still out there.”
“I saw two head into the jungle,” Ryan said around a mouthful of food. His plate was empty already. He turned to Elle and gave her his best charming smile. “Elle, honey, would you top up my plate? I didn’t get anything to eat in the hospital and I’m starving here.”
“You’re always starving.” She rolled her eyes and took his plate. “Maybe if you’d stayed in long enough for the meals to come around, you wouldn’t be so desperate to eat right now.”
“Thanks, Ellie.” He used the name David had written on her note and earned a glare.
“Ryan,” Callum snapped. “Focus on something other than you
r stomach for a minute. What else did you see?”
Ryan became deadly serious. “Two men. One was checking tracks on the clearing floor. He pointed into the jungle. I got the impression he was telling the other guy which way Belinda and Beast had run. The other guy seemed to be in charge. He was the one who triggered the explosives with his cell phone.”
“What did the guy with the cell phone look like?” De la Cruz was perched on the bar. One glance at the man would lead you to assume he was perfectly relaxed. It was deceptive. Ryan had used that trick himself on more than one occasion. He’d bet, if pressed, that De la Cruz could tell them where everyone was positioned, what weapons they were carrying and what the biggest threat in the room was. It was Lake. It was always Lake. He might not have been the biggest—or most gregarious—of the team, but he was by far the deadliest.
“He was average height. Overgrown black hair. He had jeans and a blue shirt on. He was thin, but not hungry thin, mean thin. Long nose. Scar on his throat.” Ryan closed his eyes, bringing up the images of the man he’d seen for only a few seconds. “The scar was horizontal. Maybe somebody tried to cut his throat sometime?” He opened his eyes. “That’s all I’ve got.”
De la Cruz wasn’t pleased. “It’s enough. The guy is Angel Martinez. One of two brothers who run the baby cartel. He’s mean as they come. Smart, too.”
“Will he hunt Belinda and Beast?” Lake said.
“Yeah.” De la Cruz gave Lake a dark look. “He won’t stop until he has them. And they’ll suffer when he does.”
A ripple went around the room. Beast and Belinda were running in the jungle, unprepared, ill-equipped, and with no idea where they were or which way to head. Martinez, on the other hand, knew the jungle and was used to negotiating it. He had all the advantages over the pair. And he had a head start on the team when it came to searching for them.
“Can you pinpoint where Martinez and his man headed into the jungle?” Lake said.
Ryan nodded as Elle put another fully loaded plate in front of him. “I think so.”
“Elle?” Lake said.
“On it.” She tapped at her laptop, and the aerial image of the kidnappers’ encampment appeared on the screen—taken before the place had blown sky high.
De la Cruz and Lake came to stand behind Elle and Ryan. Ryan studied the image. The dirt track into the camp was on one side of the clearing, and he was sure the Martinez men had gone into the jungle on the opposite side.
“There.” He pointed.
“Elle, can you zoom out?” De la Cruz said.
A few keystrokes and the camp became small dots, as the vast green of the Amazon rainforest filled the screen. A red snaking line cut through the green, marking one of the many tributaries of the Amazon River. This river was called Madre de Dios—Mother of God. There were large yellow patches beside the river in one area, and Ryan wondered if they were massive sandbanks.
De la Cruz leaned forward, between Ryan and Elle, pointing at the screen. “That isn’t good.”
“What isn’t?” Callum said. “Elle, do your bloody magic and project the image for us all to see.”
“It isn’t magic, Mr Dinosaur, it’s a tiny projector you can buy on the internet.” She pointed the cube at one of the walls and tapped a command into her laptop. The wall filled with the aerial image of the jungle.
De la Cruz walked over and pointed at the yellow patches Ryan had noticed. “See those? That’s the damage caused when miners dig into the riverbank looking for gold. It pollutes the water, poisons the fish and erodes the rainforest.” His demeanour was grim. “It’s also illegal. These miners are dangerous. They don’t want to get caught, and they don’t take kindly to anyone showing an interest in their business. They’re violent, often deadly—especially with strangers.”
“Surely, if we can see where the mines are located, the authorities can too,” Megan said. “Why don’t they go in and shut the operation down? Maybe they have already. How do we know those mines aren’t abandoned?”
“Elle,” De la Cruz said, “zoom out until we can see most of the Madre de Dios River.”
The screen shifted and the red lines of the river shot off in all directions, curving and winding through the green. There were a lot of yellow patches dotted along the river. Far too many for any authorities to police. “See how big the operation is? If they shut down one mining site, another pops up. Then they wait a few days and go back to the first. These guys don’t care about the damage they’re doing. They want the money and they’re not afraid to kill to make it.”
“Surely the locals want rid of them if they’re causing that much damage to the environment?” Megan said.
“Who do you think works for the mining companies?” De la Cruz said. “The local villagers are in a tight spot. If they don’t work for the companies, they’re in danger from them, because they see too much. If they do work for them, they get much-needed money coming into the local economy. Many of these people live subsistence lives. The money is tempting. They want a better standard of living, just like the rest of us.”
