“I do not know the Cusco police,” Brynn said. “Maybe they investigate. But we do not see them and every time we go it is same man. And they have no previous reports on file. It is as if… as if they do not care.”
“How many people taken?” Kinimaka now came forward and knelt before Brynn.
“Six.” Brynn forced out the word through a raw throat.
“Over how long?”
“Six weeks,” Brynn said. “And every night we fear.”
“Do you have any clues,” Hayden asked, “where the monsters come from? Where they take your people?”
“Most of us… most of us are so scared.” Brynn cried a little. “That… that we hide underneath our beds or cower in closets. Most of us… can’t take not knowing who they will come for next.”
Mai didn’t hesitate, but laid a hand on Brynn’s shoulder. “There is no shame in being scared.”
“Some of the men… they watch through high windows or the eaves. They see a little of what happens in the dark. They see naked, black-smeared, odd shapes. No features. They see monsters and even they are afraid.”
“And they do not act?” Smyth said, for once careful to keep emotion out of his voice.
“Not against so many. They count hundreds.”
Drake was shocked. “That many?” He covered his confusion and a dozen questions by nodding at Mai.
“And when they leave they go that way.” Brynn nodded straight at the mountains with their winding passes. “They take our people there and not one has returned.”
Drake stared at Hayden. “You think the cops are paid off?”
“Either that or criminally lazy.”
Kinimaka added a new disquiet. “Are there other villages in the area?”
Brynn nodded. “Nuno. Quillabiri.”
“Do nightmares follow us around?” Yorgi asked. “We come here to find bad seller of Inca relics and find even worse. I do think we are cursed.”
“Speak for yourself, Yogi,” Alicia said. “I broke my curse.”
Mai didn’t react; concentrating all her focus on Brynn, she leaned over and took the woman’s hand whilst staring the village leaders right in the eyes.
“If you want our help,” she said. “You have it.”
Smyth groaned.
Drake couldn’t help but wonder what kind of hell they’d just walked slap-bang into.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Splitting forces, especially when the coming night held such monstrous promise, was never a good idea, but Drake backed Hayden when she suggested it. The nearest village to Kimbiri — Nuno — was only a thirty-minute walk to the south and a potential target for some kind of raid tonight. They couldn’t be certain until they talked to the villagers and decided to leave four in Kimbiri and send three to Nuno.
Hayden found herself wanting to walk alone whilst Drake and Alicia passed the time with a little harmless banter. This worked at first, but she knew almost immediately that she needed company. Her own thoughts were as dark and deep as mountains at night, and as confusing as their myriad passes. And just as dangerous.
Why did she always destroy relationships? In the heat of battle, she’d told Mano how she felt, and in no uncertain terms, wrecking their bond, but it had been her simple desire for space that caused the outbursts. Not a fundamental need to be rid of the Hawaiian.
For years now, he had been there. Every battle, every conversation; every goddamn bullet. At her side — a shadow. She feared now that she’d used his moral stance to push him away, citing that she knew better — for the good of the nation. Maybe she was right, maybe he was right; it didn’t matter. What mattered was how they both came out of it.
As for Mano, she had no idea. She didn’t deserve to know where he was. And she still needed her own space, needed to find something. Trailing along these mountain roads inspired a much-needed sense of solitude, and she soon fancied that Drake and Alicia were leaving her alone on purpose. They knew a little of her relationship track record, which was not good. They didn’t know it all — which was better. Suffice to say, it was the same old story.
More breakages than a boxful of kids’ toys.
The cool air surrounded her, the vast mountain range standing still and ancient, one of earth’s extraordinary sanctuaries. One could say anything to these silent sentinels and never be judged. One could stare into their primeval, hushed immensity and, for a few moments, slough off every problem and worry you ever acquired.
They walked for a while, Hayden twisting and turning through past and present and an odd kind of future where every single moment was a shard of uncertainty.
“Cheer up, love,” Drake interrupted her. “Could be worse. You could be Alicia.”
“Fuck off, Drakey.”
Hayden smiled, thinking: How the hell do they do it? They both must have fears, worries, regrets. Compartmentalization worked to a certain point, yes. But it could hardly deal with the terrors they’d faced and put down, the personal ordeals they went through every week.
It could be worse.
Sure. It could. Of that she had no doubt. Of them all only Dahl had children. Only Dahl was married. Shit, that guy was fucking superhuman.
And deserved better than his current lot. But who knew, maybe it would all come around. She saw they had been walking twenty minutes and looked ahead to where the village should be.
“Just in the lee of that mountain?”
“Yeah. Not quite where I’d put my village, but I guess there’s a reason.”
“To keep the weather off?” Alicia speculated.
“An avalanche would soon change all that.” Drake motioned at the snow high above.
“Always an answer.”
“It comes with intelligence and free thinking.”
“Probably. But I’m sure Yorkshire was excluded when those options were offered.”
Drake stared. “Who are you? Dahl?”
“Yeah, sorry. Been around you lot too long.”
The Yorkshireman laid a hand on her forearm. “And staying around.”
Alicia offered a smile, their exchange something Hayden had once never thought possible. Alicia had always been so flighty, so intensely focused on the next horizon and the next job. Somehow, she’d found a kind of peace. And embraced it.
Hayden sighed inwardly and spotted the jumbled huddle of homes up ahead. The trail dipped and then ran along flat ground for a while, green swathes to either side, before splitting among the houses and ending up against the mountain. Hayden had already seen young men watching them, and walked easily, steadily, offering no threat to these people.
The villagers back in Kimbiri had told them that one of the elders spoke decent English and the younger people could get by, so they were reasonably confident their questions would be understood. They were not welcomed along the way, even when they started to pass among the houses. People stood around or rose from their work to watch the newcomers. Hooded eyes studied them and then met with the next pair. A scraping of digging tools made Hayden’s ears prick and sent her gaze to the right.
Two men stood atop a short slope, holding a pitchfork and a spade.
Drake nodded at the nearest youth. “We’re here to help. Do you speak English?”
So far, no real sign that these people were being terrorized. Hayden began to think maybe they’d wasted their time by coming here. They should have dealt with what they knew rather than second guess and spread their resources. But it stood to reason that Kimbiri wouldn’t be the only village affected.
Alicia half-turned. “Pretty soon,” she muttered. “We’re gonna walk headfirst into the mountain. Any ideas?”
Drake grinned. “We could ask them to take us to their leader.”
“They’re not aliens. They’re Incas.”