The three travellers continued their lonely trek through the thick undergrowth surrounding El Lago de Meurto. Rexton led the way, with Caroline following close after and Mohsen bringing up the rear. Rex offered a brief history of the area:
'In 1910, a Frenchman by the name of Jean-Paul Gagne led an expedition of forty men into the heart of the Amazon. After eighty-one days, and the loss of five men, Gagne set up camp in what he thought was a clearing. In reality, though, it was a dry lakebed...'
'El Lago de Meurto...' Caroline interjected.
Rex nodded, 'After a few hours, it began to rain. Gagne stood his ground. Later that evening, the Amazon burst its banks and a tidal wave of mud and debris gutted the camp, killing Gagne and most of his men. There were a mere handful of survivors, no more than five...'
Caroline sighed heavily and prepared to speak.
'It took the French government seven months to mount a rescue;' she said softly, 'By that time, of the five that had survived the flood, only one remained alive. That last survivor, a man by the name of Zacharie DuPont, had buried my father the day before his rescuers arrived...'
Caroline allowed for the revelation to sink in. Rex halted his step, turned and fixed her with a concerned gaze.
'Gagne met him in Istanbul the year before and had hired him as a tracker,' Caroline continued, 'The news of his death broke my mother's heart; I was too young at the time to understand, of course.'
'Is that why...?' Rex began.
'I came here?' Caroline finished his sentence, continuing, 'In part. Four months ago I received a letter from one Z. DuPont, an apparent friend of my father. He told me of the Gagne expedition and of those last few days my father and he spent together. DuPont asked that I meet him at El Lago de Meurto, a lake the Peruvian government refuses to admit exists.'
'Why here, though?' Rex asked, 'Why not Lima or Brasilia?'
Caroline shrugged.
Rex lowered his voice, 'Have you considered the possibility that this may be some sort of trap?'
Caroline laughed, 'What would anyone have to gain by trapping me?'
'You're the wife of the British Consul to Peru, aren't you?'
Caroline bit her tongue.
'How did...?' she began.
'I am extremely well connected, Ms. Carol, and my sources are impeccable.'
A wireless unit, perhaps, secreted somewhere in that food store? Or a spy in the British consulate? Or one of her mother's friends, perhaps; they were all liars and hangers on. There was no way for her to know for sure.
Caroline watched as he unfastened the clip to his satchel; a small bulge in its side marked the presence of his Webley pistol. She sensed his companion shift behind her, into a blocking position. The jig was well and truly up.
'Who are you?' Caroline demanded.
'I told you my name.'
'What are you...Army Intelligence?'
He nodded, 'Special Branch.'
'What's that?'
'Like the British Secret Service, though with a little more "diplomatic immunity".'
Caroline considered her options. She could run, of course, but where? To Zacharie DuPont, a man she had never met? To Jose Guerrero, a man she had seen kill? To John Brady, a man she could no longer trust? There was nowhere; an endless jungle without mercy or remorse. Logic skipped a beat.
Caroline dashed off to the right, out into the clearing where El Lago de MeurtoE had been almost thirty years before. Something caught her in the knee, and she fell forwards onto her hands. Glancing down, she saw that her knee had exploded in a mess of blood and bone. She had been hit by a strafing round. She glanced around for Rex and Mohsen; there was no sign of them. A green-shirted man emerged from the undergrowth, carrying an automatic rifle. He was soon joined by a gaggle of other men, one bearded and unfortunately familiar to her.
'What have we here,' Jose Guerrero sneered, 'A little mouse escaped from the cellar?'
He laughed an awful, piggish laugh. Caroline screeched in agony. Her vision was becoming hazy, partly from the pain and partly from the inevitable blood loss she has suffered.
'Pick her up,' Guerrero ordered, 'Gently. We wouldn't want to do any more damage than we have already done.'
He grinned devilishly, revealing several missing teeth. Caroline noticed that the rest were either capped in solid gold or a rotted bronze colour.
'Bastard!' she screamed.
'I should say, a little mouse with a big mouth,' Guerrero spat, 'You should be thankful I don't leave you here to rot!'
Two of the soldiers hoisted her up. She writhed in agony as her leg was twisted backwards; the bulk of it was hanging from the remaining tendons.
'What an awful mess,' Guerrero said with mock sympathy, 'It will probably have to be amputated.'
Caroline screamed. She then rattled off a list of expletives that would have made even the most uncivilised of people blush before passing out from shock.
Guerrero chuckled, 'Estúpida gringa.'
From a distance, Rex and his young companion watched as the party vanished into the undergrowth with an unconscious Caroline. His expression betrayed the anguish he felt at this sudden turn of events.
'What we do?' Mohsen whispered.
In a firm voice, he replied, 'We get her back.'
TUNE IN Sunday, September 26 at 7.30pm EST FOR THE STARTLING CONTINUATION!
