Karl kissed her again, trying his best not to expose either of their faces to the cameras on the drone. In a moment, he could hear the buzz of the rotors as the drone moved off toward the northeast.
Pulling award from her, Karl said, “Let’s go.”
The two of them ran across the open area back the way they came. As Karl ran, he thought about the prospect of being caught. What would the Venezuelans do to them? Would they simply turn them over to the Russians?
By the time the two of them got to the edge of the opening and started into the thick jungle undercover, Karl felt a buzz in his pocket. He grabbed Maya by the arm to slow her down. Hidden under the canopy of forest, Karl checked his phone. It was a text from Ruiz in all caps reading, ‘SHIT SANDWICH.’
Karl hit the button to dial Ruiz. The phone came on, but it wasn’t the oil company man.
In Spanish, the man said, “We have your friend. Turn yourself in or he ends up in a prison without windows.”
Thinking about what to say, Karl settled on, “I am a simple college student on a hike in this beautiful jungle.” His Spanish was perfect, without dialect.
The man on the other end of the phone laughed. “You are a spy. We shoot spies in this country.” Then the phone went blank.
Maya touched Karl’s arm. “What is it?”
“They have Ruiz.”
“He will be okay, right?” Maya said with uncertainty. “After all, he is a sanctioned oil company worker.”
All true, Karl thought. But this would be different. He had a feeling the Russians were running the show at this compound.
31
Before taking another step, Karl checked his phone and saw that he was down to about twenty percent power. He sent a quick text to Roddy at the Agency, explaining their current situation. Then he waited.
“What are we doing?” Maya asked.
“Trying to see if we can get some help.”
“How would they find us in this jungle?” She waved her hands around.
“Infrared. If they didn’t have FLIR on the drone, they could call in a helo with a FLIR pod, searching for our heat signature.”
“We can’t walk out of this jungle,” she pronounced. “And it will be getting dark soon. I can’t imagine the animals waiting for us here.”
“We’ll be fine,” he reassured her. “If we have to use our guns, we can do so. But only at a last resort, or the shots will help them find us.”
She took his hand in hers. “I’m afraid, Karl.”
He knew they were on their turf. They would know how to deal with the jungle much better than Karl and Maya.
“It’s not panic time,” he said.
“We have to have a plan,” she said.
His phone buzzed and he saw that Roddy had answered him. The Agency said to get the hell out of Dodge. They would deal with Juan Ruiz through the American embassy. But as far as anyone in America was concerned, they had no clue who Karl or Maya were or what they were doing in Venezuela. Use Canadian contingency protocol, Roddy said.
Karl gave Maya the news. Their cover was as Canadian college students searching for the elusive Ocelot cat.
He lifted the camera to view the back screen, and found the images he had taken of the missile compound from the precipice. He deleted the pictures and made sure they could not be recovered. Karl thought about the images he had transferred to his phone, but the Venezuelans would never be able to break the encryption on these files. Now he thought about their bags, which they had left near the drop point. Hopefully, the soldiers would not find those, or they would never be able to explain the extra passports.
“They’ll expect us to move away from the compound,” Karl said.
“That makes sense.”
“So, we’ll head toward it.”
“That doesn’t make sense. Are you crazy?”
“Maybe a little. But we need more proof that they plan on deploying and storing banned nukes here in the Venezuelan jungle than SAT photos and images from a zoom lens.”
“How do we get proof?”
That was the tough part. There were no good options. Only options that could either get them put in jail or killed. “We get a little closer.”
He took her hand and led her into the jungle toward the Venezuelan missile site. As they traveled down the side of the hill toward the perimeter fence, the rain fluctuated from occasional drops to full-on downpours. They couldn’t get any wetter, Karl reasoned. But he was concerned about the fence ahead. Even if it wasn’t electrified, they didn’t have the tools to cut through it or go over the top. How would they get any closer than the outer perimeter? Karl also expected cameras and motion sensors.
About half way to the compound, Karl’s phone beeped, indicating it was low on power.
“Was that a text?” she asked him.
Karl found a rock and he sat down for a moment. He dug into one of his pants pockets and found a fully charged spare phone battery. In a few seconds, he swapped out batteries. Then he checked on the distance to the actual compound, which was less than a quarter mile ahead in the jungle. That meant the perimeter fence should be coming up soon. Once the new battery went in, he got a number of texts almost immediately. They were all from Roddy.
“What’s going on?” Maya asked.
“Roddy said the American embassy petitioned the Venezuelan government already for the release of Juan Ruiz. The Venezuelans were shocked.”
“Let me guess. They have no knowledge of the man.”
“Doesn’t say. Roddy shifted ideas once he found out we were heading toward the compound. He told us to wait until dark before we try to breach the perimeter.”
“How does he expect us to do that anyway?”
Karl had no clue. “He says he has something in the works.”
“Good to know.”
Looking to the sky and then checking his watch, Karl realized that darkness would be upon them soon. Then he glanced at the map on his phone. “Let’s get down to the fence,” he said.
Karl got up and led the way into some of the most inhospitable brambles they had encounter to this point. The going was slow. By the time they saw the tall perimeter fence, they were nearly upon it. The Venezuelans had obviously taken the lead from the Russians. The swath they had cut through the jungle was just wide enough to construct the fence and perhaps view intruders. The inside of the fence had a road that ran the length of the fence. That would make it easier for patrols and fence maintenance.
Maya was about to say something, but Karl put his finger to his lips. Then he whispered into her ear. “They could have audio.” This wasn’t likely, considering how noisy a jungle could be. But better to be careful.
His phone suddenly buzzed. Karl checked it out. Roddy saw that they were at the perimeter. ‘Now what?’ Karl asked Roddy by text.
Now the buzz from his phone was an actual call. Karl picked up and simply listened.
“Hey, we got you some help,” Roddy said.
“What kind?” Karl whispered.
“Other than the phones, do you have any electronic turned on?”
Karl thought about the camera, but that was turned off. “No. Why?”
“Is it fully dark there?”
“Nearly so.”
“Good,” Roddy said. “Turn off your phones and remove the batteries within the next fifteen minutes.”
Karl considered the demand. “You have an EMP?”
“We tried to hack into their computer system,” Roddy said. “But the Russians have obviously shored up their system. Let’s see how they like living in the stone age.”
“They could have backup systems,” Karl surmised.
“I’m guessing they do. Which is why we’ll hit them twice, fifteen minutes apart. One on the next hour and then fifteen after. So, keep your phones off for a while.”