Page 49 of Fear No Evil

Arias rubbed his eyes, then repeated Boris’s counteroffer to make sure he had it right. “Very well. I will convey this to Rojas at our next meeting.”

Maggie blew out a grounding breath. At this slow pace, negotiations could take forever, and their phone’s first battery was about to die. The UN team, according to the terms oftheir visit, was only here for another week. Jay needed medical attention and could die in the meantime, the way Mike had. Yet he was doomed, just as they were, to wait for Arias to make another long march to the other side of the mountain, only to return with Rojas’s counteroffer totheircounteroffer, which would then require them to make yet another offer. Maggie, in the meantime, was going to lose it. If only Rojas would use a radio like everyone else.

Dark clouds of emotion descended on Maggie so suddenly and ferociously that she needed to remove herself from the group before they witnessed a meltdown and wondered at the reason for it. Only, she couldn’t leave Jake in the state he was in. Where could she take him?

A glance at the bungalow brought an immediate surge of protest. Not enough privacy. She had to get away from here. A glance at David reminded her of their visit to the falls‍—that was it! The falls! If she could dive into the cooling water, she would feel better. Jake could also benefit.

“¿Comandante?”She dared to address Marquez as he approached them to reclaim his radio.

His eyes, buried within the leathery folds of his skin, focused on her.“¿Sí?”

“My husband is suffering from the stings of many hornets. Please allow David to take us to thecascadafor an hour. Jacques needs the cold water.”

The eyes of the other peacekeepers had rounded at her temerity but then lowered to Jake, who swayed intentionally on his stump, looking worse off than he hopefully was.

Marquez grunted, looked around, and caught David’s attention before waving him over. “Take the French couple to the waterfall, but keep an eye on them.”

“Sí, Comandante.”With a respectful nod, David crossed toward Jake, his brow furrowing as he studied his welts. “Can you walk, señor?”

Maggie grabbed Jake’s arm, eager to leave before the others requested to go with them. “You take one side, David, and I’ll take the other.”

Together, they hoisted Jake off his seat and started across the camp toward the path that would lead them to the waterfall.

CHAPTER 10

The weight on Maggie’s chest diminished as the sounds of the camp faded behind them. Lucky for her, it wasn’t raining. Yet the spindles of sunlight shooting through the canopy and fingering the ferns at her feet seemed to mock Mike Howitz’s death. The sun had some gall shining in the aftermath of Mike’s brutal and unjust demise. Maggie’s heart broke anew. How many more times would terrorism and political ambition kill good men, women, and children? She’d given her all to stop the madness, but the atrocities kept happening. Did her efforts accomplishanything?

Struggling to hide her distress from David, she blinked back tears of helplessness.

It made matters worse that Jake, who was her rock out here, leaned heavily on the two of them, stumbling over roots and rocks like he didn’t have the coordination to avoid them. What if he wasn’t exaggerating? What if he died of the poisonous toxins delivered by those hellish hornets?

Without Jake, she would become the jumpy, sleep-deprived mess she was before they worked together.

“David.” She peered across Jake’s chest at the squad leader. “You said your mother was from the Arhuaco tribe?”

“Sí,señora.”

“Did she teach you any remedies for a hornet’s sting?”

David reflected while struggling to bear his half of Jake’s weight along the irregular trail. “She did teach me something, señora.” He scanned the forest earnestly. “I don’t know if it grows this high on the mountain.”

“Please try.”Because if Jake dies, I’m going to fall apart completely.The words in her head brought tears to her eyes.

“He is strong, señora.”

David assumed her tears were for Jake. With a pinch of guilt, Maggie acknowledged they were more for herself and the loss of something she used to have‍—a confidence that had proven ephemeral. She wasn’t ever going to get it back, was she?

At last, they reached the cataract, even more stunning today with a patch of blue sky visible through the break in the trees. She and David lowered Jake onto a boulder near the water’s edge. Maggie took out the rag she’d stuffed into her pocket and immediately wet it in the cold water before applying it to the lump at Jake’s temple.

The urge to walk straight into the water and wash away the panic swirling inside made her eye the pool longingly.

David backed away. “I will walk a short distance and look for a certain tree.You’ll be okay, señora?”

Did she look as overwrought as she was feeling? “Yes, of course. Please, find something. He can’t even talk.” Unless Jake was faking it.

With a nod, David turned away, then vanished soundlessly into the shrubbery.

Crouched beside Jake, Maggie caught his face in her hands and looked him in the eye. She took care to speak in French lest David was still close enough to hear. “Don’t you dare die on me, Jake.”