Eruption (12 page)

“There!” Mark said, pointing.

“I see them,” Nicole said. Down the mountain, maybe a quarter mile away, several small fires flickered in the dark.

They started down.

“I haven't seen any of those pugmarks in a long time,” Mark said.

“I haven't either. He must have gone off in a different direction.” Nicole no longer cared about the tiger. Her mother and sister and Chase were close.

 

The generator was inside the bottling plant, which had been badly damaged by the earthquakes. During the day, when the plant was running, the generator was used to run the pumps and filters and conveyor belts that produced their famous Montaña water. At night and on weekends, when the plant was idle, the generator was used to power the village.

The bottling plant was a lot more sophisticated than Chase had expected it would be. When Father Al had told him about their famous water, he'd had an image of villagers kneeling next to the lake, filling the plastic bottles one at a time,
screwing on caps, and tossing them into the back of an old pickup truck. He couldn't have been more wrong. Aside from the church, the bottling plant was easily the largest building in the village. They had entered through a loading-dock door, which had been open when they arrived. Backed up to the dock were three relatively new trucks with the colorful Montaña logo painted on the panels.

A few of the ceiling tiles had fallen and there were thousands of plastic bottles, empty and full, strewn across the floor, making for treacherous walking with the portable generator he was carrying and the acetylene tanks Cindy was pulling. Tomás had tried to take the tanks from her, but she had slapped his hand and told him to quit being ridiculous.

The power plant was in a separate room at the far end of the building. When they got there, Tomás had Chase fire up the portable generator and set up some lights so he could see what he was doing. Tomás started by checking the electrical connections with his ohmmeter.

In the corner was an old sofa. Cindy plopped down on it, and within seconds she was sound asleep.

Chase watched Tomás's clever hands and mind at work, systematically examining the generator from one end to the other. He wondered if Montaña water had existed when Tomás was growing up in the orphanage. He doubted it. The bottled-water craze hadn't been around long. Forty years ago, when Tomás had lived in Lago, they probably really did just scoop water out of the lake.

 

A villager saw the two lights coming down the mountain and alerted Father Al. He and a small group of men met Nicole and Mark just before they reached the square. Nicole quickly explained who they were and what had happened to John Masters.

“How far up the mountain is he?” Father Al asked.

“Two miles,” Mark said. “Three at the most.”

Father Al asked two of the men to go into the church and get a stretcher. “You say he was struck by lightning.”

“Yes,” Nicole said.

“And he lived.”

“That's right,” Mark said. “And that's not the first time he's been struck.”

“A miracle,” Father Al muttered, and crossed himself.

“Are my mother and sister here?” Nicole asked, almost afraid to hear his answer.

“Oh, yes,” Father Al said. “They are in the orphanage, asleep. They have been injured.”

“How badly?”

“Your mother is worse off than your sister, but if we can get her to a hospital soon, I think she will recover.”

Nicole looked at Mark. He smiled. “Don't worry about it. I'll take them up to retrieve Lightning John.”

“Thank you, Mark.” She gave him a hug, then turned to the priest. “Where's the orphanage, Father?”

“Behind the church, but please try not to wake them. At this point, sleep is the best medicine. In fact, it is our only medicine until we get them to a proper facility.”

Nicole smiled and started toward the square, but she didn't get far. She froze in mid-step.

“Oh, no!”

“What?” Mark hurried over and looked down. He swore.

Father Al joined them but didn't understand what they were staring at on the ground.

“There's a tiger in the village,” Nicole said as calmly as she could. “We need to get everyone into the church until we find out where it is.”

Tomás waved Chase over and showed him a handful of fuses. “In the shed,” he said. “In a red box. Bring the box.”

Chase smiled. He had always liked Tomás's way of communicating.

Clear and concise.

“I'll bring them right back.”

He headed out of the generator room toward the loading dock, happy to have something to do, and hoping that the fix was as simple as a new fuse.

An odd sensation overcame him as he walked past the conveyor belt. He stopped. The hair on the back of his neck prickled. He felt the same unpleasant sensation he had felt not two days before. Something was watching him. He could feel its eyes on him.

It can't be.

He slowly moved his headlamp around the huge room. Bottles, boxes, equipment, and enough shadows to hide an elephant.

It's my imagination. I'm just tired. I'm having a flashback.

But he knew none of this was true. There was a tiger in the building.

Nicole had told him that the most important thing was containment, but he didn't think she meant to contain the animal in the same container you're standing in. At the farm, they'd had a shotgun and a tranquilizer. Now he had nothing.

Cindy and Tomás have less than nothing. They don't know the tiger is here.

He looked behind him. The light shined through the generator door. He looked in front of him at the loading-dock door.

Midway.

If he made a run for the generator room and slammed the door, the tiger could leave the building. There were people in the square. The church door was open. The orphanage door was open. The tiger could go wherever it wanted.

The loading-dock door was a roll-up with a pull chain on the side. If he managed to get there without getting mauled, the tiger would be between him and the open generator door. Cindy was sound asleep. And Tomás might not understand if Chase shouted for him to close the door. Besides, Chase knew him well. Tomás wouldn't close the door without an explanation. If he thought Chase was in trouble, he would step out into the open and take on whatever it was.

Not even Tomás's clever hands can stop a tiger.

“What are the chances of this happening twice?” he asked himself. “About as likely as being struck by lightning twice. Paranoia. I'm being ridiculous.”

Just then he heard the crunch of something heavy stepping on empty plastic bottles. He turned his headlamp in time to see the flash of a striped tail disappearing into the shadows.

 

They managed to get everyone into the church without too much panic. Most of the villagers believed they were being herded inside because of the volcano.

It was crowded, with the injured taking up most of the pews. Father Al closed the double doors and started up the center aisle to the pulpit. Nicole and Mark stood at the back.

“What about John?” Mark asked.

“I guess he's going to have to wait until we get this figured out. I doubt anyone is going to want to go outside with a tiger loose.” She tried to spot Chase or Tomás in the dark church, but it was nearly impossible to see anyone in the candlelit room. “As soon as Father Al's finished, we'll look for Chase, Tomás, and Cindy. Between the five of us, we'll be able to get John down here.”

Father Al spoke in Spanish. Nicole translated for Mark.

“Thank you for being calm,” he said, his deep voice filling the large church. “I believe that Popocatepetl has gone back to sleep. It was a terrible day. I am sorry for your losses. But right now we have another problem. I have asked you to come in here because we believe there is a circus tiger loose in the village.”

Alarm and disbelief spread throughout the church. Father Al let them express their dismay for nearly a minute before holding up his hands to silence them.

“We believe everyone is in here, or inside the orphanage. We are safe as long as we stay inside and stay calm.”

“How will we get the tiger?” a man shouted.

“We are working on that,” Father Al said. “I'm going to go over to the orphanage to talk to the circus people and find out what we can do about our visitor.”

“The only circus people who are healthy are clowns!” another man shouted.

“There is an animal trainer among them,” Father Al said.

“A poodle trainer,” someone else shouted.

Some people wailed. Others laughed.

“This is not going well,” Nicole said. She started toward the aisle.

Mark caught up with her. “What are you going to do?”

“I'm going to talk to the congregation,” Nicole answered. She reached the pulpit and whispered something in Father Al's ear. He nodded and stepped aside.

Nicole waited for everyone to quiet down, which didn't take long. They stared up at her with curiosity and confusion. Public speaking had never been Nicole's favorite subject in school. Now she had to speak to over a hundred people in Spanish.

“My name is Nicole Rossi. My parents own the Rossi Brothers' Circus. There was a terrible accident on the road to Puebla. Two trucks went off the road. Five of my friends were killed, along with all of our elephants and our lions and tigers … except one. He managed to escape. I am sorry for this. I am also sorry for the loss of my friends and the animals.”

A tear rolled down her cheek. She paused and gathered herself before continuing.

“The clowns and the dog trainer have been with the circus for many years. During those years, they have seen many things and worked with many different animals. If the tiger is in Lago, we will find him and contain him before he harms anyone. You have my word.”

She looked out into the dark church. No one said a word. She turned to Father Al and said quietly, “I need to talk to my friends.”

“They are in the orphanage with your mother and sister,” Father Al said. “I haven't had time to tell them about the tiger.”

“I'll tell them,” Nicole said. “I assume that Chase, Tomás, and Cindy are over there too?”

Father Al went a little pale. He shook his head. “They are in the bottling plant, trying to fix the generator.”

 

Chase needed to make up his mind. The rattling of the bottles was getting louder. Tomás was going to hear the noise and come out to investigate. Chase turned around very slowly and faced the generator door.

“Tomás!” he yelled.

The rattling stopped. He wished it hadn't.

Tomás appeared in the doorway, looking concerned.

“You need to close the door! The tiger is in here. I am going to make a run for the loading dock.”

Tomás took a step out.

“No!” Chase shouted. “Stay where you are!”

Tomás hesitated.

A sleepy-looking Cindy appeared behind him. “What's going on?”

“The tiger is in the building. You need to close the generator door. I'm going to try to get to the loading dock and close that door so it doesn't escape into the village. You cannot come out until I tell you it's safe.”

“But —”

“I'll be fine, and so will you if you stay where you are. Close the door. Now!”

Cindy quickly explained the situation to Tomás. After a long moment's hesitation, he closed the door slowly. Now the only light in the plant came from Chase's headlamp. What he had not told Cindy was that the dock door could be closed only by the chain from inside. He would have to pull the heavy door down, then find the small door to the side to get out.

 

The ground floor of the orphanage was chaotic. Poodles barking, children crying, people talking over one another.

“What are you doing here, Nicole?”

“Which tiger is it?”

“The elephants are dead?”

“Who was driving the trucks?”

“Enough!” Nicole said. “We need to find our friends and tell them about the tiger. Then we need to search the village to find out if it is still here.”

“Yes, we will all go,” Pierre Deveroux, the dog trainer, said. “We will walk in a large group with sticks or whatever we can find. It is unlikely the tiger will attack a group.”

“Unlikely,” Dennis the clown said.

Pierre shrugged. “Nothing is for certain of course.”

“Of course,” Mark said.

Dennis smiled.

“If we can, we will contain him,” Pierre said. “If we cannot, we will try to drive him from the village.”

 

Chase ran toward the door, but he didn't get very far. He slipped on the bottles and fell.

This is it! American boy mauled to death by tiger in bottled-water plant in Mexico.

But that wasn't it. The big cat sounded like it was having the same difficulty negotiating the bottles strewn across the floor as Chase had.

The tiger roared in frustration.

Chase stood back up. He started moving forward again, but this time he went more slowly, trying to be careful about where he put his feet. He risked a glance behind him and wished he hadn't. The tiger was out in the open now and gaining on him.

Concentrate on the chain!

Chase wanted to head straight through the door and run off into the dark night, but it was too late for that. If the tiger followed him, he would never be able to outrun it. His only
hope was the door, and the ruse Momma Rossi had used to confuse Hector the leopard back in Florida.

Chase lunged for the chain and grabbed it with his right hand, hoping the door hadn't been left open because it was broken. With his left hand he tore the headlamp off his forehead and tossed it back toward where he thought the tiger was. He was working in complete darkness now. The door began to close as Chase double-handed the chain down as fast as he could. The tiger growled. The light from Chase's headlamp flashed around the building, which meant the tiger had fallen for Momma Rossi's trick. The door clicked shut as it smashed into the threshold. The headlamp went out. The tiger had snapped the bulb.

All I have to do now is crawl a dozen feet to my left, find the small door in the pitch dark, and let myself out before the tiger pounces on me.

He started to crawl.

The tiger ran into the big metal door and let out another horrendous growl.

Chase tried to ignore the terrible sound as he felt his way along the wall. The building was made of cinder blocks. He felt the metal doorframe.

Doorknob. Four feet up from the ground.

He reached for where he thought the doorknob should be, but just then the door swung open. A hand reached through and pulled him to the dock. A second later, the tiger hit the door. The door held.

Gasping for breath, Chase looked up at his savior. It was Tomás. He helped Chase to his feet, then took a close look at him as if he were checking to see if Chase still had all of his limbs.

“You okay?”

“No,” Chase said. “How did you get here?”

“Window,” Tomás answered.

Chase started laughing. Tomás joined him.

And that's how Nicole, Mark, Cindy, and the others found them.

“You two have a really twisted sense of humor,” Mark said.

Nicole looked at the doors. She could hear the tiger on the other side. “Did you catch yourself another cat?”

“Sure did,” Chase said. He looked at Tomás. “With a little help from my friend. Where's my dad?”

“Up on the mountain,” Nicole said.

“Taking a catnap,” Mark said. “Guess we should go up there and wake him.”