“It’s their fear.”
“Then let’s go.”
“I’m sure it’s Roberto.”
“So?”
“We could learn something.”
She studied him, and then he could see that his idea was dawning on her. “That’s inhumane. I am ashamed of you that you would even say such a thing.”
“Okay. But remember it’s your brother’s life. Now I want you to bear with me.”
Sam nodded at T.J., who got in front of Anna.
“Please, just stay here for a minute.”
Anna shot around T.J. and Sam grabbed her.
“I swear to God I will handcuff you to a tree.”
With that, some of the fire went out of her eyes.
“Okay, but I’m going with you.”
“On this, with your brother’s life, there is no plan B.”
He waited while the moans down the trail continued.
“No plan B,” Anna said.
Just around the bend they came upon the two figures.
Sam knelt down near Roberto’s thrashing head.
“Roberto,” he whispered. The head slowed. “Roberto.”
“Help me,” he shrieked, hoarse and breathless.
“I will. You can get up and be free, but first you have to tell me some things.”
“Please, please, please!” He was hysterical and barely rational. Sam reached down and ran the zipper halfway up, providing a little airway.
“Relax. I’m not letting you out until you relax.”
The man whimpered and cried, nearly incoherent, but his breathing slowed.
“Okay, Roberto, now all you have to do is tell me the truth. And I will let you up.”
“What do you mean?”
Suddenly it was as if the old Roberto had come back. Sam sensed resistance.
“I thought you had learned. I guess not.” Sam reached out and closed the zipper. Roberto’s body jumped as if Sam had hit him with 120 volts. Suddenly he was screaming and shaking. T.J. winced and looked at Sam, obviously worried, pointing to his heart Anna bent, her lips low to Sam’s ear.
“Please, Sam, I can’t take this.”
Sam loosened the zipper; maybe he was pushing it. If it didn’t work this time, he would let the man up.
“Roberto, I think we may just leave. Up here somebody may find you. Or when we move you off the trail they may not.”
“What do you want?” He became incoherent. He was crying and had defecated in his pants.
“Tell me where Jason is.”
Roberto talked.
Sam pulled the zipper down; he supposed Roberto could see light. When they had established that he knew nothing of Jason’s whereabouts, that Jason had been taken, Sam knew they should move quickly.
“Who shot the rocket at my boat?”
“Jason.”
“Were you with him?”
Silence. Sam reached for the zipper.
“I was.”
“What did Grace Technologies do to Jason’s brain?”
“He had a rare disease and they experimented. I don’t understand it. Something about changing his brain cells. Chellis and his scientists understand it. Chellis knows how to make Jason paranoid so he stays close to home. The massages help his symptoms-it’s the oil, but I don’t know how.”
After a few more questions it became obvious that Roberto didn’t understand the mechanisms involved. They would need to go elsewhere.
Ten people or more had kidnapped Jason. Probably across the island. Sam released Roberto and listened while he cursed.
“Panic is your worst enemy, Roberto. If you don’t tell Chellis, I won’t. Seems to me you ought to be on our side.”
“Fuck you,” Roberto screamed, no doubt imagining the fury of Chellis and the death of his own career. Now that he was up and looking at them, he surely realized that they would have freed him with or without the confession. Humiliation fused with anger made him hateful, and Sam could see it in his eyes.
“Relax. Any one of us could have had your reaction. Once the mind starts flying free you never know where it’s going to come down. You just flew a little further than most.”
“You are despicable,” Anna said to Roberto. T.J. stepped out of the brush and handed Sam a filterless cigarette butt with a small gold insignia stamped on one end.
“Middle Eastern,” Sam said.
“We should chase them in the helicopter,” Roberto said.
“Very handy, a helicopter. A beanie on a coffin. They’ll blow it out of the sky about the way you blew my boat out of the water.”
“Jason did that,” Roberto corrected him.
“While you watched,” Anna said.
“Well, I’m sending the chopper anyway.”
Sam just nodded; he would try to take advantage of the idiocy.
“We’ll need boots, water, warm clothing, preferably wool or moisture-wicking, a lighter, water, knife, and some fully automatic weapons if you have them.”
“We have the weapons.”
“And a rocket launcher?”
“We have one of those as well.”
“Good.” Sam moved off toward the lodge at a jog. “Let’s roll.”
As soon as they started they heard a seaplane circling low and dropping. Sam ran, suspecting that the plane was to pick up the intruders at Lodge Bay. If they had not done so already, at any minute the intruders would discover that their plans were being interrupted. Even as he thought it he heard the approaching plane apply power and fly low over the island. It sounded to Sam like a large twin-engine seaplane. No doubt the intruders had gone back toward the lodge, then turned and gone overland toward the other side of the island.
It took only five minutes to get everything on Sam’s list. They grabbed some food bars for good measure and some of Nutka’s salmon jerky.
“I suppose you want to go with us,” Sam said to Anna.
“I can act the part of a commando. My performance will be convincing.”
Sam allowed his eyes to tell her she was a dope.
“Give her a gun,” Sam said. She snatched an M-16 from T.J. It was made of camouflage-colored plastic and steel.
“Can you use it?”
Anna popped out the clip, pulled back the bolt, and checked the chamber. With a business like ka-chink she replaced the clip.
Sam nodded his approval.
Sam, Anna, the men, and Roberto left the lodge before Sam said what was on his mind.
“I want to have the pilot take us to the far side of the island in the Beaver. Roberto, you can come when your helicopter arrives.
“The Beaver will be there before the overland troops. It will come in fast and low and land. Still, it may get shot up. These kinds of people are going to have a lot of firepower.”
“Okay, I’m going,” Anna said.
