“Humor us,” Rick said.
“I don’t think we need to play games with one another at this point, do you?” His voice was laced with derision. He pointed to Javier’s blackened eye. “I see you got a little souvenir from your first meeting with us. You were a slippery little fish, I’ll grant you that. But you do know we mean business.” He waved his hands towards his men, who still had their guns trained on them. “Consider this our permit to explore these caves, Shuar.”
Javier glared at him, saying nothing.
“Yes, I know who you all are, including your three friends there,” he said, pointing to Mari, Carlos, and Juan. “And I know you don’t like visitors.”
“Not your kind,” Javier snapped back at him.
“I think some of your men got similar souvenirs, if I’m not mistaken?” Rick shot back, letting his ego get the better of him.
“Ahh, the gringo. Rick, is it? Poking around town, hoping to mount an expedition to the fabled Tayos Caves,” the man said in a mocking tone. “Sticking your nose in where it doesn’t belong.”
“Look who’s talking,” Rick quipped.
The man just smiled. He knew he had the upper hand. Rick’s taunts meant nothing to him. “Your friend there,” he said, pointing to Luis, “also managed to give us the slip with your assistance, I understand.”
“Happy to help.”
“Indeed. My men back in town were rather embarrassed about that.”
“Glad to hear it,” Rick said.
“But I think your luck has just run out.”
“We’ll see whose luck runs out by the end of the night,” Rick threw back at him.
Rick was acting way braver than he was actually feeling. He just wanted to make his friends feel a little safer, like he might be able to protect them. He had no idea if it was working or not, or if he had a snowball’s chance in hell of getting any of them out alive.
The man gave Rick a sidelong glance. “Yes, we will.” He clapped his hands. “But all’s well that ends well. Now you are all here. You saved us some trouble.”
“Who the hell are you?” Rick asked.
The man laughed. “You are a brave one, I’ll give you that.” He sized Rick up. He wasn’t the least bit threatened by him.
Rick knew he had no advantages in this situation, but that didn’t mean he had to act that way. He was hoping some kind of opportunity to level the playing field would present itself.
“You can call me Oz.”
“Oz?” Rick asked, giving a mocking laugh.
“Yes, Oz,” he answered, a quick flash of anger crossing his face. He clenched his jaw, then turned to Sofia. “You must be the reporter.” He saw how protective she was over the younger man and his former captive, Diego. “A happy little family reunion?”
“Let us go,” she said defiantly. “You’ve hurt my family enough. My father was no threat to you. He’d never even been here before.”
“On the contrary,” Oz said, “he was poking his nose in where it didn’t belong. That was most inconvenient and had to be stopped. Same problem with you and your brother. Your recent article was starting to make life more difficult for us. But no matter, you’re here now. This couldn’t have worked out better for us.” He gave them a sly grin.
Diego hung his head. “I am sorry I brought you and Luis into this.” He would never forgive himself if anything happened to them.
“Shhh,” she said, gently rubbing his arm. “You were only doing what you thought was right.”
“We love you, Papa,” Luis whispered.
“I love you both,” he answered. “Please forgive me.”
Sofia turned back to Oz, anger flaring in her eyes. “Are you also responsible for the other people who’ve gone missing in this area over the last few weeks? Are they dead?”
Oz glared at her. “No interviews tonight, reporter.”
Rick whispered to her, “I think we can assume the answer to those questions is yes.”
Oz ignored him. He looked over at his men. “Alpha-1 and Alpha-2, search them for weapons and anything else that might interest us. Search their rucksacks, too.”
They started with Rick. He gave no resistance. He didn’t want to push his luck.
The man searching him found his stun gun and gave him a fierce look. “Asshole.”
“Glad you enjoyed it,” Rick replied with as much snark as he could muster.
Rick glared at the man as he moved on to search Sofia next. “Don’t put your hands anywhere you shouldn’t.”
The man showed no reaction. He swiftly gave her a pat down, then moved on to Luis.
“Him neither,” Rick added in a mocking tone, still glaring at him.
The man returned Rick’s glare and patted Luis down.
“Gentle with him,” Rick said sternly, as the man moved on to Diego next. “Beating up on old men is a real cowardly thing to do, you know.”
“He gave us trouble,” the man answered. “We gave it back.”
Sofia’s eyes teared up at the thought of how roughly they’d treated her father, a sweet, decent, hardworking, and caring man.
Luis wanted to throttle them for hurting his dad, a man who’d never hurt anyone in his life.
Rick noticed the man did use a light touch on Diego, however.
They moved on to Juan, Carlos, Mari, and finally Javier.
One of the other operatives spotted Javier’s rifle. He emptied the chamber of ammunition, pocketing it, then slung the rifle over his back.
Alpha-1 then found the compass in Javier’s zippered pocket. He brought it over to Oz.
“Well, well, we have this back,” Oz said. “My men told me about it.” He weighed it in his hand. “Heavy.” He turned it over, looking at the inscribed symbols arranged in the Fibonacci spiral on the back of it. “I must say, this is most interesting. Quite ornate.” He held it up and moved it around, frowning. He watched, puzzled, as the hands spun wildly. “A compass that doesn’t give directions, but reacts very strangely... to what
