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“I’m not sure exactly. I haven’t been out here in a while. There are several trailheads in this area where you can park, but I think this is the closest one. The paths crisscross the entire national park, so we may need to fan out to find the one leading to the grove.”
“We’ll be able to talk to each other through our earpieces.”
While she went back to her car, Juan and his team hid pistols under their shirts and got out fifteen balled-up nylon sacks to carry as many nuts as they were able to find.
They began the trek into the jungle, led by Renee, who took Parsons by his good hand.
“Be careful not to step on the crabs,” she said. “They live on the forest floor. You could say they’re our local treasure. And if you see any small tree with broad heart-shaped leaves, don’t touch it.”
“Why not?” Raven asked.
“It’s another plant unique to our island called the jelutong, or stinging tree. One of its leaves rubbed against my arm once. It felt like being scalded with acid. If you so much as brush your hand against it, you’ll be in agony for days.”
“I hate jungles,” Linc muttered and kept his hands close by his side as he picked his way through the foliage.
They reached a fork in the trail. The path went in three directions.
“This is where we’ll need to split up. The trees are in a clearing that was supposed to be a phosphate mine, but they never started digging after cutting down the trees. The flora is just now starting to come back. I think that’s why the Rand’s palms started growing so well there. Otherwise, they’re difficult to locate.”
Eddie and Linc took the trail to the left, while Raven and MacD went to the right. Juan stayed with Renee and Parsons and kept going straight.
They walked for another five minutes before Renee asked, “How did you two
meet?”
Juan looked at Parsons, who said, “I have to be honest with you. Juan and his friends saved me from some unsavory people.”
“The ones who hurt you and those others that you need the cure for?”
“Yes. This is related to the Empiric and Port Cook incidents. And they might come here, so after we find the trees, Juan has asked you and me to leave and wait for them back at the airport.”
“Absolutely not,” Renee objected. “If my little island can help, I want to do my part.”
“My dear, we can’t—” Parsons started, but Juan put his hand up to stop the two of them.
“Do you smell that?” he said.
Renee sniffed the air. “Is that petrol?”
Although they were surrounded by thick jungle wilderness, the breeze carried the unmistakable odor of gasoline.
FIFTY-TWO
At the same moment that Juan called Eddie to tell him about the gas smell, he and Linc noticed it, too. There seemed to be an opening in the trees up ahead, and voices soon accompanied the odor.
They got off the path and crept forward. Eddie almost stepped on one of the red crabs that Renee had mentioned. Crunching its hard shell underfoot would certainly draw attention. He pointed it out to Linc to keep him from making the same mistake.
They kept going until they could see into the clearing that Renee had described. There were a dozen squat palm trees loaded with ripe nuts, many of which had already tumbled to the ground. There were more than enough to supply antidotes for everyone who had been affected by the Enervum gas.
But the stench of gasoline had gotten stronger as they’d approached the clearing, and Eddie now saw why. A Chinese man only twenty yards away was unloading the last of a plastic gas tank onto the ground near the trees. Three more tanks were discarded nearby.
As Eddie and Linc drew their pistols, the man backed into the trees and took a cylindrical object from his pocket. Eddie couldn’t tell what it was until the man took the top off and struck it against the remaining segment.
It blazed to life. A road flare. The man was going to toss it into the gas-soaked clearing and burn up their best chance at developing an antidote.
The man reared back to throw the flare. Eddie and Linc didn’t give him a warning. They both shot at him through the trees until one of their bullets took him down. The flare fell harmlessly at his feet in the damp jungle.
Eddie’s eye was drawn to another flare lit up on the opposite side of the clearing.
