weather feed detailing the hurricane skirting St Lucia and moving south-west, scattering fishing boats across the northern coast of South America and tearing through villages as it went.
Finding a secure landing spot before the winds really hit hadn't been easy. Then came a lot of waiting, and a growing certainty that Joao wasn't ever going to appear, that they were on some kind of a wild-goose chase that just might get them killed if they weren't careful.
'Sssh, it's me, Joao.' He crouched at the entrance to the tent, favouring Kendrick with a wide grin.
Kendrick pulled himself upright and groaned, 'Where's Buddy? Have you spoken to him yet?'
'He's outside.'
Kendrick stumbled out of the tent and blinked himself awake while fading sunlight skimmed the treetops around them. The skin of Buddy's helicopter flickered with a constantly shifting mirror image of the surrounding trees and bushes, providing it with an effective camouflage.
Kendrick heard the distant sound of monkeys shrieking in the jungle. Maybe it was more romantic this way, he thought; more like how a movie director would portray the life of an investigative journalist – hiding out in the jungle, trying to avoid satellite detection while hunting down a remnant of the old US Army.
But that wasn't how it felt, far from it. They were risking their lives, and if anything bad happened to them it was unlikely that anyone would ever know about it. They were within a hundred miles or so of the Maze, and the very knowledge that it was so close left Kendrick with a permanent vague feeling of unease and dread.
This was as close to returning to the Maze as he ever wanted to get.
Buddy was leaning against the 'copter's shrouded carapace, talking quietly with a boy who couldn't have been more than twelve or thirteen, whom Kendrick realized must have come with Joao. The boy's English was heavily accented and occasionally fractured.
A thirteen-year-old with an automatic rifle and a bandanna, Kendrick noted. He wondered what this boy might have grown up to be in other circumstances, in some other place. An image of his own young daughter rose unbidden in his mind. She'd have been just a little younger than-
No, don't think about that. He forced the mental image away. The boy here had to be one of Mayor Sobrino's mercenary army, and it was debatable if they or Los Muertos were the worse. Supposedly they protected the townships in this part of the country against Los Muertos' incursions, but with the amount of drug trafficking that went on in the area it was more likely a half-hearted cover for making themselves a lot of money.
'This is Louie,' Buddy announced on his approach. He glanced back down at the boy. 'Louie, this is my friend Kendrick. He's the one who wants to find out about the Los Muertos guy.'
Old man's eyes gazed out at Kendrick from a child's face. He flinched, despite himself, under that appraising gaze.
'You brought it?' the boy asked.
Kendrick looked back up at Buddy, and their stares met knowingly. This was something they'd talked about: what if the kid hadn't come alone? What if he had compatriots hiding out in the jungle somewhere, ready to jump them? Out of sight of Louie, Buddy shook his head from side to side, slowly and carefully. Everything's okay. He emphasized his point by giving Kendrick a discreet thumbs-up. Buddy would have already had his instruments scanning the surrounding hills in case Lome had brought unwanted company.
Kendrick studied Joao out of the corner of his eye. It was he who had made the initial contact with the boy- mercenary. Kendrick could not rid himself of the idea that Joao was digging himself deep into something he might not be able to get out of. Buddy appeared to have faith in him, however.
Maybe that was good enough, and everything would be fine, but of course there were never guarantees.
'Sure, Louie. We've got it.'
Still gripping his rifle firmly, the boy nodded. 'Show me first, then we talk.'
Kendrick climbed on board the helicopter. He emerged several seconds later carrying a suitcase. With his free hand, Louie made an imperious gesture towards the ground. Buddy glanced at Kendrick, and shrugged. Joao looked on, from the edge of the clearing, his expression one of fascination.
Buddy put the case down and opened it. Tightly wrapped bundles of yen flapped in a sudden breeze that was warm and heavy against the approaching chill of the night. Louie put his rifle down and leant over the case, leafing rapidly through the banknotes. Kendrick could just make out the boy's voice as he talked under his breath while counting the money. When Louie looked up, his face was filled with ugly greed.
'Okay, I'll show you.'
A long time ago, Los Muertos – meaning 'the dead' in Spanish – had been a part of the United States Army. Then the famines had come, and then the LA Nuke, and things had really started to fall apart. A couple of divisions of soldiers judged to be absolutely loyal to Wilber had been posted at the Maze before things went to pieces in Washington. When the end came for Wilber himself, some of those soldiers had started to head for home. But there were others who believed more deeply in Wilber's messianic visions, who believed the Endtime was upon them. Out here, lost in the jungle and leader-less, they had transformed themselves into Los Muertos. If Wilber remained their Arthur, then the old United States had been their Camelot, now lost for ever.
'Just tell me you really know what the hell you're doing,' Kendrick whispered to Buddy as they walked. Joao and Louie were a little ways ahead of them, dark shapes in the night-time jungle. There was no way they could fly their 'copter any closer to where Louie was leading them: too much chance that either Los Muertos or one of Sobrino's wandering patrols of mercenaries would take them out with a ground-to-air missile, on a general principle of shoot first and worry later.
'I really know what the hell I'm doing,' Buddy replied, as Louie led them on a long and circuitous path through the jungle, back to the road that he and Joao had taken to meet them.
'That's reassuring.'
'No, listen to me, I set things up myself. I put out some feelers, I found you a story.'
'Buddy, it's not about getting just any story. What I want is to find the people who put us in that place.' Kendrick didn't need to say which place.
'Yeah, I know that. But if even a fraction of what I've been hearing is true, this is going to be worth it.'
They walked on, frequently passing through wide patches where the jungle had been burned away, presumably during firefights. Their nostrils were filled with the lingering, oil-tinged scent of destruction.
'Exactly how dangerous is this?' Kendrick demanded. 'What happens if we run into a Los Muertos patrol?'
'What happens is, we run. Besides, we're only skirting their territory here. They don't normally bother with small groups like us.' Buddy saw Kendrick's alarm and shrugged. 'Look, sometimes people do get kidnapped for their ransom value, but that isn't really their style. If they want supplies, they raid a town, or hijack a couple of trucks off the highway. They're mainly trying to take over the black-market operations south of Mexico. That's why Sobrino uses kids like Louie, says they help him maintain his profit margin.'
'Buddy, that kid gives me the creeps.'
'Me too, me too,' Buddy muttered. 'What're you looking at me like that for?'
'He's just a kid. Don't you care what happens to him?'
'He's not a kid any more, Kendrick. Life is very hard around these parts. I told you that. Now c'mon.'
Buddy called after Joao and Louie, who waited while the other two caught up again. They were moving down a slope now, the black strip of the road visible just a few metres ahead.
Joao grinned at Kendrick, his teeth gleaming in the depths of the night. 'Hey, Joao,' said Buddy, 'tell Kendrick here what you know. About the soldiers.'
Joao shrugged. 'They glow in the dark.'
Kendrick frowned. 'How?'
'Some of them, they eat the flesh of the old gods out in the jungle, and in return the gods fill 'em with light.'
'But not literally glowing, right?'
Joao nodded emphatically. 'I heard this, they glow. Dance and yell about eating God, all kinds of crazy shit. For real.' He shook his head now. 'Nobody lie to me. Took this job 'cause wanted to see it myself, maybe.'
'You are shitting me,' said Kendrick to Buddy.
'I've heard this story so many times,' Buddy replied. 'Has to be something in it.'
