“Of course,” he replied. He motioned them into his living room. “As you can see, it’s a small place, but please have a seat and make yourselves at home.”
Sofia held onto Luis and led him over to the sofa. They sat down next to each other. She set her bag on the floor next to her.
“Excelente,” Rick said, with a wide grin. “I’m going to get us some snacks and drinks. Then we can go over things, ok?”
Luis nodded his head eagerly as his adrenaline-fueled hunger kicked in.
Rick went to the kitchen to heat up some leftovers.
He came back and handed them each a Coke.
“Gracias,” Luis said.
Sofia nodded.
“De nada,” Rick replied, winking at Luis. “I’ll be right back.”
They took some sips and watched their host work, whispering to each other in Spanish.
A few minutes later, Rick brought out a plate of food. He pushed some magazines and newspapers aside and set it down on the coffee table, along with some plates, cutlery and paper napkins.
“Help yourselves,” he said, sitting down in an armchair across from them.
“Llapingachos?” Luis said, when he saw the fried, cheese-infused potato patties. “We love these. They’re Sofia’s favorite.”
Sofia tried to hide her smile.
They all tucked into the food.
“Did you make these?” Luis asked, impressed by how good they tasted.
Rick laughed. “I wish. No, I’m afraid I’m not a very good cook. I pretty much depend on the local restaurants around here.”
“Well, they’re muy delicioso,” Luis said.
Sofia was quiet. She took a sip of Coke.
“I like to think I’m good for the local economy,” Rick said, smiling, trying to warm things up with Sofia.
She took another sip, lost in thought.
After they finished the food, Sofia and Luis thanked him for the meal.
Rick took their plates away and dropped them in the sink, along with his other dirty dishes.
He came back and sat down across from them. “Why don’t you tell me what’s going on? What did those guys want with you?”
Luis fished the folded piece of paper out of his pocket. It was the one he’d taken back from the men attacking him. He held it up. “This is a police report I got about our padre. He’s missing.”
“Missing?” Rick asked, frowning. He leaned forward. “What happened?”
“We think he was abducted,” Luis said.
Sofia shook her head. “We know he was abducted, and it was probably by the same men who attacked Luis tonight.”
“Whoa,” Rick replied. “Why was your father taken? Who are these goons?”
Sofia sighed. “He was accusing a foreign company of trying to steal artifacts...”
Rick cut her off. “Hang on, I’ve heard of this.” He rifled through the newspapers on his coffee table. He found the article he was looking for. “Sofia Torres. Wait, is that you?”
“Si,” she replied. “You read my article?”
He nodded eagerly. “I wondered if you were related to him. Diego Torres. That’s your dad?”
“Si,” she replied.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Rick did a quick scan of the article. “Do the police have any leads?”
She shook her head. “No, not so far.”
He turned to Luis. “What did those guys want from you?”
“They’d read Sofia’s article,” he answered. “Somehow they figured out I was her brother. They were looking for her. They were trying to get me to tell them where she was. They searched me to see if I had anything that would lead them to her.”
“I was driving around at the time,” she interjected, “following up on some leads.”
“I guess that was lucky timing on your part,” Rick said.
She nodded, looking down. “Guess so.”
“What about calling the police now?”
Sofia shook her head. “We’ve already done that. We talked to them when our father went missing. They weren’t much help.”
Luis nodded his agreement, looking somber.
“Is there anyone else you’d like to call? Someone who can help?”
Sofia shook her head. “Not at the moment. I’m not sure what to do.”
“Where’s your mom?” Rick asked.
Luis looked down.
Sofia tensed. “She died when we were kids. An undiagnosed heart defect.”
Rick could’ve kicked himself for asking the question. The last thing he wanted was to make these two feel any worse, after the night they’d had.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he replied. “I lost my mom, too. Cancer. I was a teen. It’s pretty rough.”
Luis nodded, but didn’t say anything. He just stared at the floor.
“Si,” she said sadly, “it is.”
Rick changed the subject. “What do you know of the circumstances around your dad going missing? Your article said it’s been about three days?”
“Si,” she replied. “Four days, now. His truck was found abandoned on a road near a village outside the city. On the front seat, there was a map opened to the region of the Tayos Caves system. He left behind a thermos of coffee, his jacket, and work boots in the truck. His cell phone seems to be turned off...”
Luis cut in, “He would’ve told us if he was going to head out into the jungle. He wouldn’t just leave us without saying a word.”
“Besides, he’s not that foolish to go wandering into the jungle alone,” Sofia added.
Just then, Rick remembered something else. “Luis, before we escaped from those two goons in the alleyway, you went back to get something else out of one of their pockets. You said it might be important. What was it?”
Luis nodded and took it out of his pocket. “It’s an old compass of some kind. I’ve never seen it before.” He handed it to Rick.
Rick took it. He was surprised by its weight. It was much heavier than it looked. It was a magnetic-needle compass that looked decades old. The compass rose was ornate, with the colors of indigo, bronze, and gold artfully arranged in its center star pattern. Similarly colored, but more faint, wavy lines emanated out from the central image. The compass was a tarnished, golden color, scratched in places, with a series of strange symbols inscribed in a Fibonacci spiral pattern around the back of it. He held it up and moved it around,
