“Got another name?” he asked Balls.
She smirked. “Bianca Alejandra Leticia Sofia.”
“I see; Balls.” Ben grinned. “I’m gonna go with Bianca; how’s that?”
She shrugged. “For the money you’re paying, you can call me what you like.”
“Yeah, for a million bucks, we’re all in,” Chess said and looked over his shoulder at his pals. “Right?”
They all agreed. “Money for old rope.” Shawna winked. “And we get 100Gs, just for saying yes?”
“No, you get 100Gs for getting on the plane, and after it takes off. And after your training. And when I’m happy that you’re ready,” Ben replied.
“Too many rules.” Chess looked at Ben with disdain. “If you don’t mind, we’ll speak to Drake. We don’t really know you.”
“Too late; you said you were in, so basically you’re on my payroll and work for me. Don’t like it, the door’s that way.” Ben nosed toward the door and then shrugged. “We got plenty more down and out Mercs to interview, and the day is still young.”
Chess’ eye narrowed. “That right?”
“Now you’re getting it.” Ben just smiled.
Chess’ jaw jutted. “Hey, Drake, I don’t think I like your buddy.” He lunged forward, grabbing for Ben’s collar.
In the blink of an eye, Ben gripped his wrist, half turned it, and used his other hand to take the big man’s hand and give it another twist, turning it upside down, and wrenching it all the way up to the man’s shoulder. He then held it with ease, his eyes half-lidded with boredom.
Chess grimaced, his entire body leaning out, while Ben held him in check with just one hand. He looked like he was struggling hard not to show pain.
“You don’t like me, but you’ll take my money,” Ben said. “That is, if you live to get it.” He sat forward, still hanging on as Chess gritted his teeth. “And you know what? I don’t want you to like me, because I don’t want to like you. If you come on this mission, you may die. Maybe all of you will die, so I don’t want to be your friend, or have to care about you. Got it?”
Chess’ teeth were clamped.
“Got it?” Ben repeated, applying a little more pressure.
“Yes, fuck, yes,” Chess seethed.
Ben let him go.
Chess sat back rubbing his shoulder and just glared. His friends looked like they didn’t know whether to pile in on Ben or laugh out loud.
“Told you not to mess with him.” Drake grinned as the five Mercs stared, but seemed more surprised than anything else. Drake raised his eyebrows. “What? You thought he was going to pay you a million bucks to have a holiday? We meant it when we said this mission is bordering on suicidal, and you’ve all said yes without even hearing the details.”
“We’ve been to tougher places than the Amazon.” Bianca lifted her chin. “And we’re all listening now Mr. Special Forces… Mr. Ex Special Forces.”
Ben turned to her. “Self-preservation finally winning over greed, huh? It’s good to worry about your own skin.”
She nodded. “Nothing I’m scared of. Not in this world.”
“Nothing in this world.” Drake chuckled. “In this world, at this time. And I used to be the same.”
They paused as two massive chicken club sandwiches, overflowing with tomato, chicken breast, lettuce, tomato, peppers, and crispy bacon arrived at the table. Potato chips surrounded the plate.
Ben and Drake nodded their thanks to the waitress, and the aroma of bacon wafted over everyone.
Drake lifted his napkin. “Now, Captain Cartwright here is going to give you a brief overview, and I want you to listen closely. Then all of you take a few minutes to think about it and ask questions while we eat our lunch.” He looked hard at each of them until they nodded.
Ben took a sip of his coffee. “Before I start, know that there is no dishonor in saying ‘no’ to us. And indeed, it might be the smartest thing to do. This job will be for insane people only. Drake and I will be leading a small team in. I hope we’ll be leading that same team, plus one, out. If we make it, you’ll all be rich. And if we don’t, you won’t need the money anyway.”
Shawna sneered. “Is this where you tell us that what you’re about to say is confidential?”
Ben shook his head. “I don’t give a shit who you tell. No one will believe you anyway.”
Chess rolled his shoulder and looked like he was about to take one of Ben’s chips, but changed his mind. “Okay, Captain Cartwright, we’re all ears.”
Ben began.
CHAPTER 16
“At last.” Nicolás leapt up to pull the battered notebook from the shelf.
Mateo leaned back in his chair. “At last, what?”
Nicolás held up the book. “The big wet, the monsoon of madness, the wettest season, it’s all due to return in just two months.”
Mateo ran a hand through silver hair and sighed. “Oh, yes; your first love.”
Nicolás flipped pages to his last entry, entered nine years and 10 months ago when he had only just joined the Meteorological Services. He left the book open and rested on his elbows, staring down and reading the notes again as he’d done too many times now to count.
The wettest season came every 10 years, almost to the day, and always over just one part of the Amazon. Down in the darkest center of the still mainly unexplored jungle, a localized hurricane developed, but coming out of nowhere and always centralized. Strangely, it stayed centralized and just over one of the towering tepuis or flat-topped mountains.
Then, in just 24 hours, it dissipated and vanished, as quickly as if a switch had been thrown and so completely it was like it was never there. The anomaly had intrigued him for 10 years since he had seen it right here with his own eyes.
Well, he thought, as much as one could see. Nothing could pierce its cloud cover — radar, satellite images, even X-rays were all deflected. But he had seen something in there.
Nicolás rolled his chair along to his computer and quickly searched his files. He found what he was looking for and pulled up the satellite video he had recorded from high above the plateau from all that time ago.
He had spent months cleaning it up and now he played it again, for probably the hundredth time. The silent film showed a balloon with people in it entering the cloudbank, and then what looked like it being attacked by something that came out of the cloud, something big. Using the passenger balloon for scale, the bat-like creature had to have been about 30 feet across.
Nicolás knew that the Amazon had her secrets, but none he thought as compelling and mysterious as this one. He looked over his shoulder at the sound of the senior meteorologist’s voice.
“Hey, this year, we have all the new meteorological equipment you can use to measure the storm’s intensity. Also, if you’re really lucky, you may get permission to fly one of the drones in for a closer look.”
Nicolás nodded with little enthusiasm and played the video again. “A closer look.” He breathed slowly, watching the strange events, still trying to understand what he was seeing. He knew that the drones couldn’t get too close or they’d lose power and fall to the jungle floor, as dead as a dodo.
He had researched the phenomena extensively, finding many references stretching back hundreds of years. With the Internet as his research base, he crosschecked other phenomena that occurred around this time and found a single peculiarity — a comet, called Primordia — that came close to the Earth once every 10 years, and always in years that ended in 8… just like the year when he had witnessed the balloon. And now, just like this one. A theory had formed that begged to be proven.