foot above the river's surface, while the Huey's was a little higher. But for every yard that the two vehicles moved downriver, they both seemed to drop a couple of inches.
It was going to be close.
Very close.
They edged another yard downstream.
The caimans began to circle.
Eight yards to the jetty and water began to seep onto the roof of the Humvee and under their feet. The three of them stepped up onto the rotor housing of the Huey.
Five yards away.
Sinking fast.
From atop the Huey's rotor housing, Race looked out over the floodlit village.
It was deserted now, the only movement the occasional feline shadow that darted across the main street. There was no sign of human lifel None at all.
It was then that Race noticed it.
The all-terrain vehicle was gone.
The eight-wheeled tank-like ATV that had been holding Nash, Copeland and the Green Berets was nowhere to be seen.
Race spoke into his throat mike. 'Van Lewen! Where are you?'
“I'm here, Professor.'
'Where?'
'Couple of the Germans opened up the ATV and unlocked our cuffs. We're doing a circuit of the village now, picking up anybody we can find.”
“While you're at it, why don't you swing by the jetty in about thirty seconds.”
“Ten-four, Professor. We'll be there.'
Three yards from the jetty, and the Humvee's roof went completely under.
Race bit his lip.
Although they were now standing on the exposed rotor housing of the Huey, they were still going to have to step across the submerged Humvee's roof to get to the jetty.
'Come on, baby, stay afloat,' he said.
Two yards.
The Humvee's roof went six inches under.
One yard.
A whole foot under.
Lauren looped an arm underneath the dazed Gaby's shoulders.
'Okay, kids,' she said. 'Listen up. I'll take Gaby first. Will, you bring up the rear. Got it?'
'Got it.'
The Humvee-Huey came alongside the jetty.
As it did so, Lauren and Gaby leapt off the rotor housing of the Huey and splashed down onto the submerged roof of the Humvee—their legs dropping knee-deep into the water.
They took two sloshing strides forward before Lauren threw Gaby up onto the jetty. Then she leapt up onto it her- sell pulling her feet up just as two massive crocodilian shapes lunged through the water behind her, snapping their jaws ferociously.
'Will! Come on!' she called from the jetty.
Race readied himself to jump down onto the submerged roof of the Humvee. He couldn't imagine how it must have looked—him, in his jeans, T-shirt and baseball cap standing atop a submerged Army helicopter in the middle of a caiman-infested Amazonian river.
How the hell did I get into this? he thought.
Then, without warning, the whole Humvee-Huey contraption lurched dramatically, dropped another foot in the water.
Race lost his balance, almost fell off, but recovered quickly. Then he looked up to see that things had just gotten seriously worse.
The Humvee's roof was now at least three feet underwater.
Even if he could jump onto it, his mobility would be shot.
The caimans would get him for sure.
The Huey's situation wasn't much better.
Even though he was standing on the chopper's rotor housing, it, too, was now submerged underneath an inch of water.
