“This is base camp. It will take us a day to reach the plateau—”
“I thought it was going to be less than that?” Andy complained.
“Hopefully, it will be less,” she replied. “The last time I was here, navigating via the streams, it took us several days. We’ll be able to lift up above all that, and if the winds are favorable, then yes, we should arrive in plenty of time. We can be early, but we cannot be late. So, you might notice we’re building in slack for any unforeseen eventualities.”
Emma looked up at the sky, and then at her watch. “From now on, we treat this expedition like it’s a military mission. Drake will be calling the shots with me acting as advisor.” She waited. And though Helen’s lips were clamped, and Camilla seemed a little amused, there was no pushback. She held out a hand to the formidable Special Forces captain. “Drake.”
“Thank you, Emma.” Drake Masterson had both hands on his hips as he eyeballed the group. “This is a rescue mission. And from what we understand, it’s going to be a damned dangerous one at that. We will be entering extremely hostile territory. My job, and the job of my men, will be to keep everyone alive.”
Andy’s hand shot up.
“Go.” Drake nodded to him.
“Are we launching the balloon from here?” Andy asked.
“Yes, but not yet. Tasks will be handed out to everyone, and I mean everyone. Because everyone here needs to pull their weight, and no one is here just because they have a nice smile.”
“Damn,” Juan said with a grin.
“To begin with, my guys get the hard stuff.” He nodded to his men. “Everyone else, under the supervision of Emma, will be unpacking the gear and laying it all out. We’ll need to suit up in our jungle clothing, and also do a weapons check, load up our packs, and then… ”
Drake looked at the forbidding wall of jungle. “… then, we’ll be launching the balloon.”
“And what will you be doing?” Andy said with a cocky grin.
Drake turned to him. “To launch the balloon safely, we need about an extra hundred feet of clearing. So for the next few hours, Fergus, Brocke, Ajax, and myself will be hacking out some more space. We’ll then lay out the canopy bag and give it a once-over. We’ll construct the basket and check the heat blaster.” He lowered his brow to Andy. “You are welcome to pitch in, Mr. Martin.”
Andy shook his head and held his hands out. “See these? These are academic’s hands, and the toughest things they’ve dealt with lately are paper cuts and maybe a hot coffee spill.”
Drake snorted. “I’ve read your bio, Mr. Martin, and I know you’ve done plenty of fieldwork in some pretty nasty places. We could use your help.”
Andy puffed up a little. “Okay, sure, I’m in.”
“Good man,” Drake said, and then checked his watch. “It’s too late to launch today, as by the time we’ve done all of this, nightfall will have overtaken us. Launch is first thing in the morning.”
He looked along their faces. “Questions?”
There were none, and he nodded to Emma. “Then let’s begin.”
CHAPTER 16
“Well, well, well; old Santiago was right after all.” Mateo folded his arms as he read the data on the bank of screens before him. He turned to the young man sitting at the desk behind him.
“Hey, Nicolás, you see that storm cell gathering energy over the northeastern jungle?”
Nicolás had an open-mouthed grin, but his brow was furrowed. “Yes, I see it, but I don’t believe it.” He switched to the satellite images. “It doesn’t make sense — it’s just over the deep eastern jungle. But nowhere else.” He swiveled his seat to Mateo.
“It comes again.” Mateo turned back to his screen. Santiago, his former boss, mentor, and friend had retired just last year. And he remembered well seeing the same phenomenon exactly ten years ago. Back then, he was the fresh-faced kid, and just like Nicolás was as confused as he was intrigued by the occurrence.
“Every ten years, almost to the day, and always over just that part of the jungle, there looks to develop a localized hurricane, but coming out of nowhere, and centralized. But strangely, it stays centralized.” Mateo watched the cell become ever more dense every few moments.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. Or even ever read about this unique occurrence.” Nicolás turned back to his screen, and his fingers raced over the keyboard. “It’s impenetrable,” he breathed.
Mateo chuckled. “Give up; I tried the same thing when I first saw it. Satellite, thermal, or even geographic readings over the site are near useless.”
As they watched, even the satellite image started to blur over the affected area as if there looked like a smudge was starting to obscure his screen. The localized cloudbank swirled and was so dense it looked like an error in the software or hardware.
“Every ten years, we have what the locals down there call the wettest season.” Mateo watched, feeling like an old friend had come to visit them again.
“What should we do about it?” Nicolás asked.
“Do about it?” Mateo turned. “What should we do about the sun coming up, or going down? Or about the sky being blue, or the trees green? We do nothing but observe, document, and enjoy a unique weather phenomenon.”
Mateo reached forward to pull a battered old paper folder from a shelf. He looked at it for a moment, and then thumbed through it, finding the pages he wanted.
“History repeats. This was given to me ten years ago by my former boss; you’ll see my notes of the last occurrence.” He held it out. “And now I hand it to you to make your notes.”
Mateo pointed to the open pages as Nicolás read. “Every ten years, like clockwork, there is a unique phenomenon that happens in these parts.” He shrugged. “The conditions manifest over a single area, only remain for a few days, and then just as abruptly, dissipate and then vanish. It’s been happening for as long as anyone can remember. Maybe forever.” He looked up.
Mateo nodded. “Theories are that it is caused by an upswelling of thermal activity in the area that alters ground heat, and then the associated humidity and air density.”
Nicolás flipped back through the book. “2018, 2008, 1998… ” He let the pages fan. “… there are pages stuck in, handwritten, that go back hundreds of years.” He looked up. “What happens down there?”
“No one knows,” Mateo said. “Our best technology can’t see through it, so for all intents and purposes, whatever is or was there ceases to exist as far as we’re concerned.” He chuckled. “Maybe everything goes to the Land of Oz.”
“We should go there,” the young meteorologist said.
“No, we won’t. And I don’t think anyone would be mad enough to try and visit that strange cauldron at this time. Even if they could get there,” Mateo said wearily.
Nicolás nodded, and then began to read from the notebook. “One day, someone will.” He paused. “Hey, the weather satellite will be in a complimentary position for the next twenty-four hours. Mind if I continue to monitor the site?”
“Knock yourself out, kid.” Mateo had already lost interest.
CHAPTER 17
Ben had been traveling all through the night, like he had for the last few days. Dawn was coming fast and he needed to find shelter soon. Though there were the nocturnal night hunters, there were fewer of them than the ones who hunted by sight.
Ben had found out the hard way that the daylight hunters, even the smaller ones, had eyesight comparable to that of birds of prey, with vision that was mostly triggered by activity.