And letting go.
He fell, landing with a bone-jarring crash in the Jeep’s open back as it passed. The two soldiers had put their AK-103s on the rear seat, and it now felt as though they were embedded in his spine.
The pain of his touchdown was nothing compared to the soldiers’ shock, however. The driver jumped halfway out of his seat in fright. The 4?4 swerved almost into a ditch before he regained control.
Eddie pulled himself upright. One of the AKs clattered into the footwell. But they were too close to the base for him to use the weapon – the shots would draw attention. Instead, he smashed an elbow into the driver’s face as he looked round. The Venezuelan’s head snapped back, blood spraying from his burst lip.
The other man twisted in his seat, grabbing for the rifle. Eddie chopped at his throat. He jerked away, the blow catching his jaw.
A retaliatory strike lashed at Eddie’s eyes. He threw himself back – and banged his head on the hard-edged bodywork.
The passenger took advantage of his brief dizziness, pulling the AK from the footwell by its barrel. He spun it round, about to empty the magazine into the intruder’s chest at point-blank range—
Eddie reached between the front seats and yanked the handbrake.
The 4?4 skidded. The sudden deceleration caused the passenger to be thrown forward, and his head thunked forcefully against the windscreen’s frame.
Eddie used the same inertia to fling himself upright. The dazed soldier was halfway out of his seat, and Eddie shoved him with both hands to make the exit complete. With a cry, the passenger tumbled out of the Jeep’s open side, and hit a tree at the roadside head first, breaking his neck. The AK bounced into the undergrowth.
One down – but the driver had recovered. He released the handbrake and stamped down hard on the accelerator.
The Jeep fishtailed, kicking up a muddy spray. The sudden swerve hurled Eddie sideways. He clutched desperately for a handhold to avoid following the dead soldier out of the vehicle, but only caught the edge of the rear seat. He hung over the Jeep’s side, mud splattering into his face.
The driver jerked the steering wheel. The Jeep swayed, tipping Eddie even further out. The track blurred past beneath him. He tried to hook a foot under the front seats, but couldn’t get a firm hold.
Green in his peripheral vision—
He closed his eyes as a plant at the roadside smacked into his cheek, at this speed even mere leaves enough to draw blood. Stinging, he looked ahead again – to see a tree coming up fast.
The driver saw it too. He swerved to scrape off his uninvited passenger against its thick trunk.
Eddie kicked, searching for a foothold. His boot thumped against the hard seatback. He strained to pull himself back into the Jeep, but couldn’t get enough leverage.
The tree rushed closer, filling his vision—
His groping foot finally caught the seat’s underside, and he yanked himself back inside as the tree whipped past, the leafy creepers dangling from it swatting his head.
Other parasitic growths concealed a danger of their own, though – a branch protruding into the road—
The driver screamed and braked hard – but too late.
The branch hit the Jeep’s windscreen. The glass shattered, pieces showering into the driver’s face. Chunks of broken wood bombarded both men. The remaining AK fell off the rear seat, ending up beneath the driver.
Eddie recovered first. He grabbed a piece of smashed tree and swung it at the soldier’s head, scoring a satisfyingly solid hit.
But the driver wasn’t out of the fight, swerving the 4?4 sharply across the track. As Eddie swayed, the Kalashnikov rattled into the front footwell – giving the driver the chance to snatch it up.
With an angry leer of victory, the Venezuelan swung round to shoot his attacker—
Eddie was gone.
The soldier was bewildered by his apparent disappearance – until he realised the Englishman had flattened himself across the rear seat.
He whirled back—
The Jeep had angled off the track – directly under a low, thick branch. There was a crunching thud. Slowed by dense bushes, the 4?4 bounced to a stop amidst the undergrowth. The engine rattled and stalled.
Eddie cautiously looked up. The driver was still in his seat . . . up to his neck. His head was a hundred feet further back, a pulped mess beneath the bough that had chopped it from his body.
‘Nice bit of tree surgery,’ Eddie said, clambering into the front and kicking the decapitated corpse from the Jeep. He recovered the AK-103, then restarted the engine and backed the 4?4 on to the road.
Now, he had to find the truck.
Before it was too late.
The new track was even more narrow and overgrown than the one that had led to Paititi, trees clawing at the military truck. Macy ducked a clawing branch, then peered fearfully at her surroundings. The vehicle had turned off the base’s access road on to the almost hidden path only a few minutes earlier, but even over that short distance the jungle had transformed into a dark, malevolent thicket. The trees were gnarled, as if twisted by the wounds of physically battling each other for the few scraps of daylight. Even the sun seemed to have abandoned this place . . . or turned away in horror.
Because there was something hanging in the air, permeating everything with foulness. A stench, beyond the inescapable jungle odour of decaying vegetation.
