David threw himself flat, but did not stop moving. He soon discovered that crawling on his belly like a snake was easier than trying to walk upright, and after just a few minutes of squirming, the tangle of undergrowth opened up, disgorging him into the emptiness beneath the canopy of the deep forest. Hardly anything grew down here, where the sun did not reach. Even the torrential rains had trouble penetrating the network of branches, leaves and liana vines. A strange mist shrouded the forest floor, and the ground smelled of decay, but after just a few moments, David began to sense how overpoweringly alive the jungle was.
It was alive and dangerous.
Christophe and his companion broke out of the bush nearby. Both young men had held onto their rifles, but the weapons hung from their slings, forgotten. “They are coming,” Christophe yelled. “Run!”
This time, David did not hesitate. He fell into step behind the others, and together they plunged deeper into the foggy void between the branches. Time passed differently under the jungle canopy. It seemed to David that hours went by, and yet his body said otherwise. If indeed he had been running for hours, he would have collapsed from thirst or exhaustion. The jungle was a strange, alien environment, where nothing was familiar and everything looked identical. They might have been traveling in circles or venturing deep into a part of the world where no man had ever trod. David didn’t know which prospect was more terrifying.
Soon, the sound of running water filtered through the ambient noise of jungle birds and colobus monkeys. They were nearing a river. Not the Congo — they were too far east for that — but certainly one of its tributaries. If they followed the river, they would eventually find an outpost.
The others quickened their pace, searching for the elusive stream that would guide them back to civilization. The rushing noise grew louder and then abruptly became deafening, as they emerged from the woods on the edge of a pool that lay at the base of an enormous waterfall.
David had seen the falls at Kisangani and Ubundu — short drops that spanned the broad width of the Congo — but this was much different. This waterfall was high, perhaps a hundred feet or more, but half as wide. The water fell in a thin veil, which did not so much crash into the pool below as simply pour, like the flow from a well pump’s spigot. The pool was similarly small, draining away in a small stream only a few feet across. The water above the fall was almost certainly the result of the rain. The fall, the pool and the stream might not even exist in dry weather, and that meant there was no guarantee that following the stream would take them anywhere.
Christophe pointed toward the fall. “There! Do you see it?”
David saw nothing but a translucent wall of water and darkness beyond.
“We can hide there. Behind it.”
David still didn’t see what Christophe saw, nor was he altogether certain that hiding was even necessary. Were the government forces still following them? He couldn’t imagine that they would go to so much trouble to hunt down a handful of rebel conscripts. Christophe didn’t wait for him to answer, but hurried to the edge of the pool and skirted it until he was nearly under the falls. The other young rebel remained with David, watching as their comrade cautiously parted the curtain of spray and vanished from sight.
A moment later, Christophe appeared again. His face was alight with wonder. “Come! You won’t believe this.”
David stared into the darkness behind the falls. His earlier trepidation returned. The darkness behind the waterfall was like the jungle, a place where human beings did not belong. The other young man evidently felt no such hesitancy. He struck out toward the waterfall and whatever lay beyond, leaving David alone with his fears.
For a long time, David stood there, watching the water pour down. Christophe and the other boy did not emerge, and David was starting to worry about them. There had been no sign of their pursuers. Perhaps the mercenaries were as lost as they now were, or perhaps they were wise enough not to venture into the uncharted jungle. Regardless, there was no reason for them to hide. They would be better off getting their bearings, settling on a destination and moving out before night fell and the jungle predators began to hunt.
He edged toward the fall. “Christophe! Are you there? Come out!”
There was no reply, but of course how could they hear him? The cascading water drowned out his voice.
He moved closer, along the edge of the pool. The water looked like quicksilver, a rippled mirror reflecting a turbulent sky. He called out again. When there was no reply, he ventured close enough to the fall that the spray showered him like raindrops. A narrow lip of rock protruded out from behind the fall, slick with moisture and moss, just wide enough to stand on.
“Christophe!”
He reached out a tentative hand, touching the water the way he might pet an unfamiliar dog. Despite the height from which it fell, the water felt soft against his fingertips. Emboldened, he took a great step forward and felt the water pass over him like a baptism.
It was dark on the other side, but enough light filtered through the fall for him to immediately see that this was no mere cave. He stood there, incredulous, unable to believe that a place such as this could really exist.
His amazement caused him to forget for a moment why he had feared to enter, but a shriek from somewhere in the shadowy depths of the hidden world brought him back to the moment. He opened his mouth to call out again, but before he could, a figure broke free from the darkness. It was the other young rebel. He was covered in something dark and wet, and even from a distance, David could see the pure terror in the rebel’s eyes as he ran. A second figure moved into view behind the fleeing youth.
Not Christophe.
David spun away, plunging through the veil of water. He fell face down in the pool. It was far deeper than he would have believed, and for a moment he was held down by the weight of the falling water. Panic seized him and he clawed for the surface, desperate to put as much distance between himself and the waterfall as he could. A few seconds later, he splashed up onto the shore of the pool and got his feet under him.
He looked back just once, wondering if the horror he had beheld would emerge from that wondrous hidden place. There was no sign of it, but that was of little comfort to David. He turned away and ran back into the woods. He ran until he collapsed from exhaustion.
When his strength returned, he ran more.
MAN
1
It was a day like any other in the Arbaeen district of the canal port city of Suez. Cars moved about on the streets, in a hurry to get wherever they were going. Pedestrians ambled about less purposefully on the roadside, or when necessity dictated, risked a mad dash through traffic to reach the other side. People idled in coffee shops, purchased kebabs from street vendors, and perused the wares of merchants. Only a few of those meandering about were locals. At the canal’s end, the population of Suez fluctuated daily with tourists, sailors and passengers debarking for a day ashore, while they waited for their vessels to make the long passage through to the Mediterranean Sea or to meet a ship heading south, toward the Red Sea.
The locals barely even noticed the appearance of five more strangers.
They did not arrive together, nor did they appear to even be aware of each other. There was the young couple. European tourists. He spoke halting English with lapses into German, and she spoke halting English with lapses into French. Most of the Arab merchants spoke a smattering of English, so communication was not that difficult. The man, who was broad and tall, had close-cropped blond hair with a long goatee, and he wore dark Oakley sunglasses. He looked like he might belong to an American motorcycle gang. The woman was quite a bit shorter, and very shapely. It was difficult to tell if she was beautiful, because she was mostly covered up by a hijab and sunglasses that matched her boyfriend’s. It was a bit unusual for a Western tourist to wear the ceremonial head scarf, but not enough so to make the locals take note. The pair bought some food and bottles of Orangina at a shop. At another, the man bought his girlfriend an Egyptian cartouche pendant.