He nodded eagerly. “Si.”
“After you’ve done that, bring the food and water down to the river and find the best boat and put the supplies in the boat.”
“Hokay.”
She stopped walking and again knelt in front of the boy. “Now, Motzi, here is the hardest part, and you are going to have to trust me.”
He gave her a puzzled look.
“After our boat is all ready, I want you to take an ax and put holes in the bottoms of all the other boats.”
Now he stared at her aghast. “But, my people need boats to catch the fish for us to eat.”
“I know, but if you don’t do that the bad men will follow us when they discover where we’ve gone and if they catch us they will kill us and steal our samples. You’re going to have to trust me when I say Dr. Williams and I will make sure our government replaces all the boats with even better, newer boats as soon as we get back to our lab.”
He continued to look unsure but he finally nodded.
She stood up. “Now, let’s get to work and try not to let the bad men know what we are planning.”
The sun was just disappearing behind the jungle canopy when Mason finally drew the last blood sample and packed it in the padded case with the others. He now had two small suitcase-sized bags by his side, one holding the plants and flowers and the medicinal “tea” Maria and the village boys had gathered and prepared, and the other with the blood samples from virtually everyone in the village.
“What did you do with Maria?” he asked Lauren when they approached the table. “I could have used her to help pack up the last of the samples.”
“She’s doing something for me that is much more important than that,” Lauren said, giving him a wink.
When he stood and stretched, trying to ease his cramped muscles from having sat hunched over all day drawing blood, Lauren looked around the village and grinned.
“What’s with all the kids in the village running around with sticks poking out of their mouths?” she asked.
He chuckled. “Leave it to Shirley Cole,” he said. “She packed a large sack of suckers in the bag with the blood-drawing equipment. I guess she thought if the kids were going to have to endure the pain of a needle, they should get some reward.”
“Probably the first suckers they’ve ever seen,” Lauren commented.
He nodded. “You are right. I had to show the first couple of children how to eat them, but the rest caught on real quick.”
“The State Department could learn something from your candy diplomacy,” Lauren said.
He gave her a mock serious look. “Hey, giving a child candy is the surest way to get him on your side.”
He moved around the table and got close to her. “Have you figured out a solution to our problem?”
“Uh-huh. But first we’ve got to get something to eat and drink and figure out where we’re gonna bed down tonight.”
His eyebrows rose. “Did I hear you say we’re going to bed down… as in the two of us together?”
She laughed. “Down boy, don’t get your hopes up. If my plan works out, neither of us is going to get much sleep for the next few days.”
They began to amble over to where a group of the village women had spread a large amount of food out onto some blankets in the center of the village square, along with pitchers of fruit juice, sliced coconuts, various fruits, and other tropical delicacies.
Lauren leaned over to whisper in his ear. “Eat hearty, Mason. It might be the last chance we get to eat for many hours.”
He glanced at her with a quizzical expression on his face, but he didn’t have to be told twice to eat, having had nothing but water since breakfast.
After stuffing themselves until they couldn’t force another bite of food into their mouths, they glanced toward Maria.
“Is there a vacant house where we might sleep?” Lauren asked. She already knew the answer, having earlier told Maria they needed a house with a back door facing the river and away from the area where they knew the men watching them were camped.
“Yes, please follow me.”
Maria led them to a small house sitting right next to the trail that led down to the river and showed them inside.
Once they were inside, Lauren pulled Maria aside. “Did Motzi tell you of our plan to use the river to escape?”
Maria nodded, but put her hand on Lauren’s arm. “Yes, but is muy peligroso… ummm, dangerous. The river runs very fast and there are many rapids on the way around the mountain where the land falls quickly toward the ocean.”
Lauren shrugged. “I know, but we don’t have any other choice, Maria. If we go back the way we came, we’ll be ambushed and probably killed, and the medicinal plants and blood samples will be stolen.”
Mason moved closer. “Did I hear someone say ‘river’?”
Just then Motzi slipped silently into the back door. Without saying a word, he picked up the two sample bags and both Lauren’s and Mason’s backpacks. He grinned at Lauren and moved just as quietly out the back door and into the jungle beyond.
“Maria,” Lauren said seriously, “Once we’re gone and the men who are following us realize they’ve been tricked, they may come down into the village to find out where we’ve gone. I want you to tell them everything you know, okay?”
Maria looked alarmed. “But…”
“No, listen to me,” Lauren entreated. “These are very bad men and my guess is if you try to stall them, they may start hurting people in the village to make you talk. Perhaps even the children.” She shook her head. “Mason and I do not want to have to worry about your people, Maria. Once we get a good head start down the river, even if they know where we’ve gone it will be very hard for them to catch us.”
“Wait a minute,” Mason said, pulling the small GPS unit that had been fastened to Motzi’s shirt out of his pocket, “I’ve got a better idea.”
He handed the unit to Maria. “About an hour after we leave, pin this to the fastest, most agile boy in the village and have him run as fast as he can back up some trails through the jungle in the general direction from where we came, okay?”
Maria looked unsure but she nodded. “Tell him to stay just off the trails and to be very careful not to let the bad men catch him. Do you have someone who can do that?”
Maria nodded. “Jesus Garcia. He runs like the deer and he is very quick in the jungle. But why do you want this done?”
Lauren smiled and said, “The bad men have a machine that will allow them to follow this thing. It will make them think we have left the village in the night and have headed back the way we came. If they follow Jesus, even for a little while, it will help us get farther ahead of them, maybe far enough ahead so they won’t be able to catch us.”
Maria clasped both of her hands in hers. “As you wish, Señorita Lauren, but I will pray for you and will only say, vaya con Dios.”
“Going with God sounds pretty good to me,” Mason said, and he leaned down and kissed Maria gently on the cheek. “Thank you so much for all you’ve done, Maria. The world will owe you a great debt that can never be repaid.”
Maria blushed, smiled, and then quietly left the room.
After she left, Lauren took Mason by the shoulders and pushed him toward a small bed in the corner of the room. “Come on, boss man. We need to get a couple of hours of sleep before we begin our journey. It may be a long time before we get another chance.”
He gave her a leer. “Both of us in that tiny bed?”
She shook her head. “Don’t get any ideas, mister. We need the sleep worse than what you’re thinking of.”