Survival Reflex

“She is not my—”

“Anyway, they’ve met him. They can spot him, where your men might think he’s just another gringo tourist looking for some action.”

“Photographs would do as well,” Herreira said.

Downey ignored him, saying, “More importantly, my men can take him out with no reflection on your team.”

Herreira wasn’t easily deceived by specious arguments. The Brazilian government had no qualms about jailing foreign intruders or killing those who resisted arrest. A simple-minded blind man could’ve seen that Downey’s primary concern was to prevent embarrassment for the United States.

The doctor had been bad enough, but if he’d started to recruit allies from the U.S., some might regard it as more than intrusion. It could mean invasion, perhaps an act of war.

“Your men must willingly submit themselves to my authority,” Herreira said.

“Sure thing, Major,” Downey answered with a broad smile in his voice.

Herreira knew that he was lying, that his agents would behave as they had always done in “Third World” countries for the past two hundred years. Imagining that only the U.S. was fit to form opinions, dictate terms, decide what should be done in any given situation from Latin America to Europe and Southeast Asia.

“In that case,” Herreira replied, “I welcome their assistance.”

“That’s my boy. Expect a call within the hour.”

So, Herreira thought, they were already in Cuiabá or well on their way. His agreement, once more, meant no more to Downey than a rubber stamp on plans already finalized. He’d have to watch them every moment, to be certain they didn’t overstep their bounds.

Or if they did, and tragedy ensued, Herreira had to make sure that he couldn’t be blamed.

And if some accident befell them in the process, it was Downey’s job to deal with it, smother the breath of scandal.

Let the Yankee do his job, then. And together, they might just manage to save Herreira’s career.

“I STILL THINK it’s a bad idea,” Bolan insisted.

“Senhor Cooper, I’m Tehuelche. What you see—” the hands that smoothed her dress had polished nails “—is only one facet of what I am.”

“I understand that, but—”

“I know the jungle,” she informed him. “I was born and raised there, educated in a mission school. Your high technology may locate map coordinates, but it won’t tell you if the doctor has been forced to flee again or where he’s gone this time.”

“He’s moving?”

Marta Enriquez shrugged. “We won’t know that until we reach the meeting place.”

“I’ve done some tracking of my own, from time to time,” Bolan informed her.

“Were you hunting men?”

“Yeah, I was.”

She frowned at that. Sometimes the newbies asked what it was like, killing and almost being killed, but Enriquez had to have seen that for herself. Instead she simply asked, “Why are you here, really?”

“Bones is—or was—a friend of mine. If he’s in trouble now, I’d like to help him.”

“With no politics involved?” she asked.

“The man I knew wasn’t concerned with politics. He was a healer.”

“Tell me why you call him ‘Bones.’”

Bolan explained, briefly. When he was done, she asked, “And you would help him, even if he now heals those who might be enemies of the United States?”

“If he needs help—wants help—I’ll do my best. I didn’t come to join a cause or fight against one. If there’s fighting to be done, though, you’ll be in the way.”

“In any case,” she said, “it makes no difference. I have supplies for Dr. Weiss. If I don’t go with you, then I must go alone into the forest.”

Bolan saw that argument was futile in the face of such determination. He had no doubt that Marta would proceed without him, and it was entirely possible that she’d withhold Weiss’s location if Bolan refused to cooperate.

At last, resigned, he said, “All right. We need an early start tomorrow.”

“Is dawn early enough?” she asked him, smiling.

“Just about.”

“I’ll let you sleep, then.” At the door of Bolan’s hotel room, she paused and turned. “What if they follow us, your people?”

It was Bolan’s turn to shrug. He didn’t think he’d seen the last of Downey’s people yet. “I shook them once,” he said. “I can do it again.”

But shaking might not do it in the jungle. He might have to bury them, if they were bent on doing some irrevocable harm to Nathan Weiss or to himself. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d clashed with Company spooks, where lives were at stake.

“I hope you can do it,” she answered. “They may be here already.” And having said that, she slipped out of the room.

Alone, Bolan got busy with his fear. He would be wearing street clothes when they left the following day, in Enriquez’s car, but he wanted his canteens full and his weapons ready to go. He’d change clothes when they reached their jumping-off point, where they’d have to ditch their wheels and take to water, then proceed on foot. There were no roads where they were going, yet.

What was waiting for them at the end of the trail?

A friend, perhaps—or maybe not.

Time changed minds, hearts, people. Bolan didn’t think that Nathan Weiss had been transformed into a villain or mad scientist since they’d last seen each other, but it was entirely possible that Bones had found himself a cause to follow. And it might be one that ran against the grain with Bolan, one way or another.

Insurrection, revolution—the American tropics bred them like fever. Most countries south of the Rio Grande had battled their way through long series of rebellions, civil wars and military juntas over the past two centuries, and some were still embroiled in that struggle. Brazil had seemingly beaten the trend.

Bolan would see what waited for him when he reached trail’s end, and not before. Meanwhile, he needed sleep, in case he couldn’t find it in Green Hell.

CHAPTER FIVE

Cuiabá

“I hope the dirty SOB resists,” Dirk Sutter said.

“I’m counting on it,” Clement Jones replied.