Laura 01 The Jaguar Prophecy (21 page)

Victor punches him in the groin as he stands up on the back seat, causing him to double up in pain.

The driver jumps out and gets kicked in the groin the moment his legs touch the ground, then as he drops to the ground Victor kicks him in the face. The fourth guy runs around the jeep and stops as he sees his friends on the ground unable to help him. He thinks of running away, but the alcohol and drugs affect his reasoning and he charges Victor.

He tries to punch Victor, who kicks him in the shoulder every time he pulls his arm back to punch. After several unsuccessful attempts at punching Victor, the man can almost not lift his arms, but still he attacks. Running forward with his head low, he tries to ram Victor in the stomach with his head. Victor sidesteps at the last moment, grabbing the guy by his hair and spinning him around, head first into his own jeep. He falls with a moan to the ground.

Victor pulls the keys from his pocket and gets into the driver’s seat, closing the door behind him and handing a cup of coffee to Laura.

“There’s milk and sugar on the tray,” he says as he places it on the center console, not a drop spilled.

Victor starts the truck and drives off while taking a sip of his coffee. Laura wonders if they will ever have a normal life. They still have almost ten hours to go at normal speed, or under five if Victor drives, but Laura notes that he is tired and suggests that he gets some sleep and she drive for a while. Victor agrees and stops the truck, then climbs over to the passenger seat while he instructs Laura to climb over to the driver’s seat via the back seat.

“Do you ever change seats by getting out of a car like a normal person?” Laura jokingly asks.

“Normal people do not get shot at when they change drivers,” Victor replies, sipping his coffee. Laura just shakes her head and puts the truck in drive.

The directions displayed on the phone are easy as it is just one long highway. Victor finishes his coffee and makes himself comfortable in the passenger seat. He stays in the front of the truck in case he needs to take control of the truck in a hurry. It is not long before he is asleep.

Laura had welcomed the coffee, however that was more than half an hour ago, and she now needs a toilet. Laura looks at Victor sleeping peacefully. Should I wake Victor? No, he needs the rest. With care, she brings the truck to a stop, pulling off the road far enough into the bushes that should any cars pass by, they will not be detected. After switching off the truck, she climbs out as silently as she can and makes her way to a nearby bush at the back of the truck close to the road, where she pulls down her pants and squats. Just as she is about to let go, she hears a vehicle approaching at high speed, its engine roaring.

Her immediate reaction is to stand up and pull her pants back on, not knowing that in doing so she will be clearly visible to the approaching vehicle. Just as she grips her pants and pushes up with her legs, firm hands are placed on her shoulders and push her down.

“‘Stay down!”

Seconds later a yellow Jeep Wrangler with four men in speeds past at full speed, music pumping at max. When they have passed, she spins around and looks directly into Victor’s grinning face.

“Seems I caught you with your pants down.” Slowly he gets up and walks back to the truck where he waits for her to finish before climbing back into the truck.

As soon as Laura climbs back into the truck she is ready to drive again, but just as she touches the keys Victor says, “Give them twenty minutes or so head start, we don’t want to catch them with their pants down, now do we?” He does not wait for her reply but makes himself comfortable again in the chair and closes his eyes.

Laura decides to have a sandwich and some water while she waits, and 25 minutes later she starts the truck and drives on. The road seems to form one long boring strip and Laura’s thoughts start to drift off, allowing the miles to pass by as she drives on.

“Victor. Victor, wake up,” Laura whispers. Victor is immediately alert, picking up the pistol in his lap.

“What’s wrong?” He scans the scene around the truck even while speaking. It is four hours since Laura took the wheel and she made good time considering the road. She had managed to cut the ten hours remaining drive time down to six even with the almost one hour she lost when they stopped and allowed the jeep to pass.

Up ahead, 500 feet away in the road is a bus and two other vehicles. There are people all around the bus and Victor can hear shouting when he opens his window. Laura had seen the lights from a distance and switched off the truck’s lights, and then drove closer until she saw that the road was blocked. It was then that she decided to wake Victor. She had pulled off the main road and stopped the truck 100 feet from the road, hidden in the bushes.

Lights come from the roadblock up ahead as a vehicle approaches. They look on as the same yellow Jeep Wrangler they saw earlier drives past, the same four guys still hollering and drinking.

The men had seen the lights in the distance approaching and then disappear as Laura switched them off. Thinking that the vehicle either stopped or turned around and was speeding away, they did not bother to scan the side of the road as they sped past in pursuit.

“What are we going to do Victor?”

“Stay here, I’m going to have a look.” Victor makes sure that the cab light is in the off position before opening the door and disappearing into the night. He uses the bush as cover and sneaks up on the scene in the road. When he gets closer he can make out what is going on. There are six men with guns, two standing guard over a group of passengers on the ground, while two are manhandling the remaining passengers off the bus, bringing each person to the last two guys. One is neatly dressed in a suit, while the other has on a military uniform, same as his colleagues, however he has the rank of General on his uniform.

The men are screaming in Spanish at the people, Victor can make out that they are looking for stolen money. Suddenly one of the passengers points to the cargo hold of the bus. The General walks over to the bus and opens the cargo hold, pulling out baggage and throwing it on the ground. The person on the ground keeps pointing to the cargo hold and talking. Finally the General pulls two large black sports bags from the hold. He opens one and takes out a stack of bills, holding it up for the suit to see. The suit nods and points to the second bag. The General opens the bag and nods that all is there.

Victor has slowly crept closer to hear better and is just in time to hear the suit’s order, “Matarlos a todos”. Victor freezes when he hears it, “kill them all” is the order. The General repeats the order to the other four and turns to follow the suit, already making his way to his car, a black 500 SL Mercedes. Victor sees the two guards raise their guns to fire, and takes action.

He runs low so that the two men inside the bus, still dragging passengers out, do not see him, and shoots from the hip. Aiming for the torso of each guard, he shoots the first guard, then the second, and then shoots the first one again and then the second one again. Stopping at the end of the bus, he takes careful aim and shoots the suit in the head just as the General opens the door for him. Before the General can react he gets the same treatment.

One of the men on the bus comes out, dragging a passenger. Victor first shoots him in the legs and as he falls down, rolling away from the passenger, Victor shoots him three times in the chest. The last man sees his friend being shot and tries to see who is outside.

Victor silently creeps under the bus and makes his way to the bus door, waiting. Suddenly legs appear in front of Victor, just inches away. He slowly brings the end of the silencer close to the man’s calf, but stops as he is about to pull the trigger. Victor notices the man’s sandals and chapped heels. He realizes that the man is a farmer, not a killer.

Patiently Victor waits, thirty seconds go by before the legs move, being pushed unwillingly forward, and then a second pair of legs appears, wearing new boots and Camo pants. Victor shoots the man in the left calf. As the man drops cursing, Victor shoots him again, two rounds in the buttocks and four in the back.

Victor rolls out from under the bus and tells the people to get up. They thank Victor for saving their lives.

“First you sort out a rude waiter, then you rescue a room full of pretty naked girls, and now you save a bus full of people. What next?” Victor spins around as he hears Laura’s voice.

“I thought I told you to stay in the truck, what are you doing here?” Victor is a bit annoyed but still glad to see Laura is safe. Laura ignores his question and continues.

“They’re asking you what about the money?”

Victor looks down at the two bags. There must be at least 10 million dollars in each bag. Then he looks at the people, thin, dirty clothes and few belongings. He tells the driver to get them all on the bus and out of there, and that they should divide the money equally between them all. The people thank him and start to load their stuff back into the cargo hold.

Suddenly, lights can be seen in the distance. The four men in the Jeep are returning, having given up on finding the missing vehicle they had seen earlier.

Victor runs down the road and takes a position in the bush 400 feet from the bus, reloading while running.

He aims the pistol towards the road and waits.

As the Jeep comes into view, he keeps his aim on the driver’s head, turning his body to keep following the Jeep. Victor shoots the driver in the head just as the Jeep passes him, causing the vehicle to veer left then right, and then sharply left before tipping over and rolling.

Victor starts running towards the Jeep as soon as he fires the shot. The two men in the back are thrown clear and are lying in the road, moaning. Victor shoots each twice in the head as he passes them. Upon reaching the Jeep he finds the passenger pinned underneath, the roll cage saving him. For some reason the guy is wearing his seatbelt, and is hanging from it, not being able to unclip it. He looks up at Victor and says, “Fucking gringo.” It is the last thing he says before Victor shoots him twice in the head, once for each time he has said it.

Victor calls to Laura to get their bags out of the truck and then join him at the suit’s Mercedes. The keys are in the ignition and as soon as Laura joins him he quickly climbs in behind the driver’s seat while she jumps in the passenger’s seat.

The car is pointing in the wrong direction, so Victor turns the wheel all the way to the left and slams the car in drive while stepping on the accelerator. Smoke pours from the back wheels as they break traction and the rear end of the car slides around until the car is pointed in the direction of the airport, when Victor rights the steering and eases off the accelerator, letting the tires grip. The car launches forward and they speed off, needing to put as much distance between them and the scene as possible. Victor knows it will not be long before the roads will be crawling with police and roadblocks being set up.

He has killed a General, possibly corrupt, but still a General, and his boss, possibly a drug lord, controlling the local army; it was not a good idea killing them.

Victor guns the car, unleashing the big 5L V8 motor, and they do the last supposed six hours in two, finally reaching a sign saying “San Luis Airport”, where he pulls the car off the main road a distance from the side road leading to the airport.

Taking his backpack from the car, Victor removes the gun and left over magazines from his bag. After releasing the lock on the fuel cap, he walks over to the fuel filler hole and opens the filler cap. He dumps the magazines into the pipe and into the gas tank, then takes the gun apart and dropped the slide and barrel into the filler pipe. Closing the cap again he starts walking towards the airport two miles away. They walk for a distance before Victor stops and throws the pistol frame into the bushes next to the road.

“Why did you get rid of your gun?”

“The police may have found the house full of bodies and it won’t be long before they find the dead pilot and the people alongside the road. They’ll be stepping up their inspections, even with private planes, and we won’t be able to bribe our way out if we get caught with the gun that killed all those people.”

They walk the rest of the way in silence. The sun coming up makes for a stunning sunrise. The airport is a medium sized airport, with two runways and multiple buildings. Victor goes to the information desk and asks around for private planes that he can hire. After a while he is given a number and finds a phone booth to use. He calls the number and waits. The phone is answered within three rings by a friendly female voice. “Ola.”

“Hello,” Victor replies.

“Oh, hello, how can I help?”

“We were given this number to call for hiring an airplane, do you rent out airplanes?” Victor is unsure about the number.

“Oh, that is my son. Wait, I will call him.” Victor hears the woman call someone and after a moment hears a man’s voice.

“You want to rent an airplane?”

“Yes, can you take us immediately?” Victor wonders if this is another smuggler.

“Yes, yes, where to?”

“Peru.”

“Where in Peru do you want to go?” Jose knows that if they wanted to go to Cusco or Lima he will not be able to take them.

“We want to do a private tour to some of the ruins in the lost valley, starting with Vilcabamba and progressing on to the new ruin site that was found.” Victor is hoping that being so close to the lost valley, Jose will be able to take them there.

“Yes, perfect, I have done it before, but we have to fly between the mountains. The valley is at about 5000 feet high, and the mountains stretch up to 20 000 feet in some places. You need a commercial airliner to fly over the top. I follow the river all the way in, very beautiful scenery,” comes Jose’s eager response.

“Agreed,” Victor replies. There is a silence on the other end, and then Jose asks, uncertainty detectable in his voice, “How many people?”

“Two, a romantic trip for me and my wife, we want it private.” Victor replies, hoping the man buys it.

“Two thousand dollars each.” It is a bargain, but Victor knows if he just takes it without haggling, he will raise suspicion.