Following Wizard’s directions, Zoe took them south.
They flew for three days, stopping occasionally at abandoned UN depots to steal food and helicopter fuel, until they entered the least-populated area of the country—perhaps the entire continent—the Katanga Plateau in the deep south.
Dotted with volcanoes, mountains, and lush river valleys, it was as spectacular as it was remote. Giant waterfalls plummeted from mountain clefts. Fed by constant humidity, the layers of mist that shrouded the valleys remained in place all day long.
As she flew, Zoe keyed her radio scanner so that it continuously monitored all frequencies, military and commercial, allowing her to keep track of any radio activity in the area: Congolese Army patrols, UN people and maybe…
“—Wolf, this is Broadsword. Just picked up a rogue signal south of Kalemie. Huey signature. Could be them —”
“—Check it out—”Wolf’s voice replied.
Wolf’s people were close behind.
Then, late on the third day, after following a dozen false leads, Wizard spotted a mountain that had been mentioned by Stanley in his book, a mountain with twin waterfalls.
“That’s it!” he called excitedly over the roar of the rotors. “Zoe! Cut southwestward!”
Zoe did so, bringing the chopper low over a densely forested river valley that was itself fed by three small fast-flowing mountain rivers.
“Bring us down at the junction of the rivers,” Wizard called.
They landed on the riverbank, the strutless Huey landing lightly on its belly. Then, cautiously, they stepped out of the chopper.
It was Lily who spotted them first.
“Now that is cool…” she breathed, gazing at the nearby jungle.
Alby came up beside her. “What—oh my…”
His jaw dropped.
There in front of them, stretching away into the hazy mist, was a forest of enormous trees.
Ghostly gray in color, they soared to a height of two hundred feet, their interlocking upper leaves forming a canopy through which the Sun couldn’t penetrate.
But it was their trunks —their wide, huge trunks—that seized the children’s attention.
Each gigantic trunk, dozens of them, rank upon rank, all at least thirty feet in diameter, had been beautifully carved into the shapes of men.
Some depicted old chiefs, others warriors and priests. All were stern in appearance, fierce, warlike.
And they were old,really old. The great trees were faded with age and strangled by countless vines, vines that seemed to constrict around the figures like giant coiled snakes. The figures stretched away into the mist, an army of sentries standing guard over time itself.
The air was still, the dense jungle silent.
Wizard came up alongside Lily, put a hand on her shoulder.
“The Valley of the Arboreal Guardians,” he said softly.
“So where do we go now?” Solomon asked.
Alby had Zoe’s digital camera slung around his neck. He raised it and took a series of quickfire photos of the incredible carved forest.
Wizard recited Hieronymus’s scroll: “‘At the valley of the Arboreal Guardians/At the junction of the three mountain streams/Take the sinister one.’ It seems pretty clear. We proceed to the junction of the three streams near here and take the sinister fork.”
“The sinister one?” Solomon said.
Lily smiled. “I don’t think it’s supposed to be scary, Solomon. In ancient Latin,‘sinister’ or ‘sinistra’ means left. We take the left-hand tributary.”
While the others were staring in awe at the huge carved forest, Zoe was exploring the riverbank upstream.
Something had caught her eye about fifty yards in that direction and she wanted to see what it was.
She came around a bend in the river……and stopped dead in her tracks.
“Oh, shit,” she breathed.
No fewer than thirty riverboats lay before her, crumpled and broken, half-sunk in the river. Derelict boats of various types and ages. Some were recent designs, others were World War II–era patrol boats, others older still: 19th-century modular riverboats of the kind used by Henry Morton Stanley. There were even a couple of semidestroyed seaplanes and one crippled helicopter with the insignia of the Angolan Army on it.
Zoe froze.
It was a collection of vehicles that had arrived at this place and never left.
“Shit. We just walked into a trap.”
She spun, calling, “Lily! Wizard! Get back to the chopp—”
