Ferdclance! Gamay knew enough about snakes to realize she was face-toface with a killer. Goosebumps rose on her skin. She felt extremely exposed.
"What should we do?" she whispered, watching the flat head moving back and forth as if in time to unheard music.
"Don't panic. It should move soon to get out of the direct sunlight, probably into that patch of shade. If it comes this way, stay where you are and I'll distract it."
Gamay was leaning on her elbow, a position that had grown uncomfortably painful, and she wondered how long she could remain that way. She wanted the snake to move, but on the other hand, she didn't want it heading in her direction.
The snake made up its mind a few minutes later and began to uncoil to its full length. As Chi said, it was a big one, as long as a man was tall. It slithered silently through the grass to the shade cast by a small tree and took up residence next to Chi's faithful machete, which was leaning against the trunk.
"You can move now. It's sleeping. Sit up slowly." She turned to see Chi on his knees. He put down the. boulder he was clutching.
"How long was it there?"
About a half hour before you woke up. Usually snakes will retreat if you give them a chance, but you can never tell with Yellow Beard, especially if you disturb its sleep. It can be quite aggressive. He can have my machete if he wants it. How do you feel?"
"Okay, except that someone's been using my head as a football. What's this mush where my hair used to be?"
"I made a poultice of medicinal leaves. The pharmacy was closed."
"How long have we been here?" she said, rubbing the arm she'd been leaning on to get the circulation back
A few hours. You slept off and an. The bitter taste you have in your mouth is a motbased restorative. You got a nasty bump on a rock when the boat went over."
Vague memories of white roaring water came flooding back. "The rapids! Why aren't we dead?"
Chi pointed to the sky. "You don't remember?"
The helicopter. The fragments of memories were jumbled like a boxful of jigsaw puzzle parts. She and the professor were in the pram out of gas. The strong current was pulling them toward the rocks. Then the roar of the deadly water was drowned out by a clatter. The red-and-white chopper they had sighted earlier circled above the river.
Gamay remembered thinking that they were dead, with the armed chicleros behind them, the boiling rapids ahead, and the helicopter above... Then the aircraft swooped down like a Valkyrie and hovered just off the water between the pram and the rapids. Downdraft from the spinning rotors chewed up the river in a big circle and created waves that kicked the pram out of the current and sent it in toward shore. But the blast from the chopper . dangerously rocked the light aluminum craft. With the grassy shoreline only a few yards away the pram pitched over.
Gamay was catapulted out of the boat like a projectile from a siege machine. Then bang! Her head hit something hard. Her vision went squirrely, and her teeth dunked together. A bolt of white lightning. Then blissful darkness.
"The helicopter saved us," she said.
Apparently so. You would have been fine if you hadn't tried to split a rock with your head. It was only a glancing blow, but enough to knock you out. I dragged you onto shore, then through the bushes to this place. I gathered the roots and leaves to make the poultice. You slept fitfully through the night and may have had some strange dreams. The tonic I gave you is something of a hallucinogen."
Gamay recalled an odd dream. Paul was high above her, calling out her name, the words appearing in a cartoon dialogue balloon, before he disappeared into a vapory cloud.
"Thanks for everything," Gamay said, wondering how the diminutive middle-aged professor managed to haul her from the water and into the forest. "What about the men who were after us?"
The professor shook his head. "I didn't pay much attention to them with all the confusion. I had my hands full getting us to safety. I think I heard some shots. But it's been quiet ever since. Maybe they think we're dead."
"What do we do now?"
"I was pondering the same question when our scaly friend arrived. It depends on how long his nap is. I'd like to retrieve my machete. In this country it could mean the difference between life and death. You rest for a while. If Yellow Beard doesn't wake up we'll discuss another plan. I came across a path, probably what the chicleros used to get around the rapids, that we can explore later. In the meantime, we might want to move farther away in case he's grumpy when he awakens."
That was fine with Gamay With Chi's help she stood. Her legs were shaky, and she felt like a newborn foal. She looked around and saw that they were in a small, sun-dappled clearing protected by trees and bushes. They moved to the far side of the clearing, where Chi removed her poultice and pronounced her bumps and bruises practically gone. He said he would pluck some berries to fill their stomachs while they waited for the snake to finish his power nap. Still tired, Gamay lay back on the grass and shut her eyes. She came awake a moment later. A branch had snapped. Chi would never be so noisy.
She sat up and looked around. The professor stood at the edge of the clearing with a berry-laden branch in his hand. Behind him was the chiclero leader Gamay had named Pancho. He was a far cry from the figure who'd ordered them imprisoned in a cave. The slicked-down hair looked like an osprey nest, and his white clothes were dirty and torn. His big pale belly showed through the rips and tears. The sneering smile was gone, too, replaced by a mask of rage. The pistol in his hand was the same one he'd waved around on their first encounter, though, and it was pointed at the back of the professor's head.
The man put down the pack he'd been carrying and snarled at Chi in Spanish. The professor moved next to Gamay. They stood there side by side. The gun barrel shifted from Chi to Gamay, then back again.
"He wants me to tell you that he is going to kill us to avenge his men," Chi said. "First me, then he will have his way with you on my body."
"What is it with these guys?" Gamay snapped. "No offense, Professor, but a lot of your countrymen seem to have their brains between their legs."
The start of a smile started on Pancho's face. Gamay gave the big man a coquettish grin, as if the proposition appealed to her maybe she could buy time for the professor and get close enough to this goon to do serious damage to his libido. Chi was a jump ahead of her. He turned his head slightly, stared at the machete against the tree, and leaned his body forward slightly as if he were going to make a dash for it. Gamay knew Chi well enough to see the movement was uncharacteristically clumsy, as if he wanted to catch Pancho's attention.