The Amazon Code (13 page)

“You’re going to be fine, kid.” Julie heard Reggie encouraging Rhett near the front of the plane, while Ben and Paulinho loaded their backpacks into the storage area. “Like I said, I’ve held the controls once or twice, and as long as you handle the landing, we’ll be all right. How’s that cut?”

Rhett nodded, not looking away from the controls.
 

Julie tried to ignore the conversation, but couldn’t. Both men seemed to consider themselves only amateur pilots
. And I’m going to fly with them willingly?
She looked at Ben.

“We’re going to be fine,” he said. She knew how he felt about flying, and she was amazed that he seemed to actually believe what he’d just said.
 

Reggie spoke again to the group. “Everyone stand over by the tree line. I’m going to get her started up.”
 

He didn’t explain why he wanted them to stand back, but Ben sidled over to Julie and whispered in her ear. “He said the SUV in front of the cabin was very likely rigged with explosives. He probably thinks the plane —“

“Stop,” she said. “I don’t want to know.”
 

Ben shrugged, and Julie turned and walked toward the trees as Reggie climbed up into the cockpit of the aircraft. She heard the door slam.
 

A minute passed, then the airplane’s engine sputtered to life, the low hum reaching her ears. She waited. Ben pressed his hand over hers, and she felt him squeeze.
He’s nervous too,
she thought.
 

Another minute passed, and Reggie hopped out of the pilot’s seat and waved over to them. “If she was going to blow, she’d have done it already.”
 

Julie wondered how the man could seem so nonchalant, but she followed Ben and the others over to the plane. Ben helped her inside, and they all buckled their seatbelts as Rhett taxied the plane to the runway. He waited at the edge, checking and re-checking the instruments and displays in front of him. Reggie was smiling from the copilot’s seat, but his eyes contradicted the rest of his face in their hard, semi-closed way. She waited.

Finally she felt the lift force as Rhett pushed the throttle down and started the plane on its takeoff sequence. The kid seemed calm, collected, and perfectly focused on the task at hand as the plane accelerated, then finally rose slightly as the lift forces pulled the plane upward. He pulled the nose up, and Julie felt the momentary weightlessness as their centers of gravity shifted and they became airborne. She’d never flown in a plane as small as this, and the jumpiness caused by the bumpy runway was immediately replaced by the smooth and gliding feeling of flying.
 

She looked over at Ben. His knuckles were white, his eyes fixed straight ahead, but she didn’t bother him. Once they reached their cruising altitude, he would calm down a bit and be able to relax.

“What do you think we’re looking for?” Paulinho suddenly asked.
 

Julie and Amanda looked over at him, and Ben, still starting straight ahead, raised his eyebrows slightly.
 

“I mean, what’s the big deal? Amanda’s company has been doing amazing research since they started. Why are they after you now?”
 

Amanda shrugged. “I don’t know. It all seems so strange. One week we were working on capturing dreams, and now I’m a fugitive.”
 

“What do you think the golden man has to do with all of it?” Julie asked.
 

“Again, I have no idea. That seems to be the beginning of it all, though. When one of our employees uploaded the data, I believe someone on the other side accessed it right away. After that, all of this started.”
 

“One of the investors?”
 

“Probably. They were always hands-off, but their only requirement for continued funding was first access to anything we discovered.”
 

Julie considered this. She didn’t know anything about high-tech venture capitalism, but it seemed odd that an investor would seem disinterested enough in their investment to be hands-off, yet require immediate access to any new findings. It definitely didn’t check out, but Julie didn’t press Amanda for more.
 

A few minutes later the plane pushed out of its steady ascent and leveled out. Ben released his grip on the armrest and his hand immediately found Julie’s. She looked over at him, trying to gauge how he was feeling without explicitly asking. His eyes seemed tired, their brows bent into an expression of worry. Or stress, she wasn’t sure. He stared back at her, nodding slightly. She smiled, then turned to look out the window once more.
 

“We’re on our bearing now,” Reggie called out from the cockpit. “We’ll fly into Manaus, then find a boat to take us upstream.”
 

Paulinho tapped Reggie on the shoulder. “Where exactly are we going? Those lines crossed, but they didn’t exactly tell us the destination.”
 

Reggie smiled. “No, I suppose not. But that location is remote enough that we’ll be able to narrow it down much easier when we get close. I jotted down the coordinates before we left my place.” Reggie flashed up a piece of paper, on which he’d written some numbers. “It’s in the middle of the Basin, between the Purus and Jaruá Rivers. Still a pretty large region, but it’s a good place to start.”
 

Julie wasn’t convinced. “Pretty large region? Seems like that’s quite the understatement.”

“Yes, that’s probably true. But we’re not in Manaus yet, so there’s not much we can do.”
 

“What’s in Manaus?” Paulinho asked.
 

“A professor. I’ve never met him in person, but we’ve exchanged emails before. He has some pretty interesting — and compelling, I might add — theories about that particular region of the jungle, so I thought of him right away when the maps came up on the screen. He’s also a Jesuit priest, someone who’s got access to some of the things we don’t. Like records.”
 

“Records of what? And what is a Jesuit priest going to be able to find that we can’t?” Dr. Meron asked. She didn’t sound excited by Reggie’s suggestion, and Julie had to agree — this man, someone they’d just met, was leading them across a continent in search of something worth killing for. She wasn’t sure if Reggie was being cryptic on purpose, or if it was his usual style.
 

“I’m with Amanda,” she said, unable to stop herself. “This all seems a bit far-fetched to me, and — no offense, Reggie — we don’t even know your last name.”
 

Reggie faced forward again, then sighed. He turned back around and looked at each of them in turn. “Fine, I’m sorry, you’re right. You have no reason to trust me. I’ve got no way to change that right now, so… you’ll just have to trust me.”
 

Julie waited for him to continue. She hadn’t forgotten that he
still
hadn’t told them his last name.

“Before I joined the Army, I taught history at a community college. I’ve always been a history buff; still am. I first reached out to Father Quinones back then when I was working on a paper, then I was deployed on and off for the better part of ten years. He teaches at the Federal University of Amazonas, in Manaus. His specialty is in religious history of this region, with a focus on the religions of the native and uncontacted tribes here. He’ll be a great asset to have, especially because of his connections with the Jesuit Order.”
 

“Who are they?” Ben asked.
 

“Catholics. The Society of Jesus, actually. A male order of the Catholic church.”
 

“A fraternity?”
 

“Well, yes and no. He can explain it better, but it’s essentially a congregation that’s part of the Catholic faith. What’s important here is that the history of the Spanish conquerors in this territory and the Catholic church are very closely intertwined with the mythologies and histories of the area.
 

“What I’m interested in is Father Quinones’ knowledge of the Quito Jesuits — the order that was started back in the early 1600s, in Peru. I think there’s some interesting reasons to cross-reference what we know about the region we’re heading into with any information we can find on its history.”
 

“Can you give us the nutshell version?” Ben asked.
 

“Bits and pieces. Mostly just typical stuff we’ve all heard of before. You know, El Dorado, the City of Gold, all that stuff?”
 

The rest of the group was silent.
 

“Are — are you suggesting —“ Amanda’s voice cut out before she could phrase the question.
 

“No ma’am,” Reggie responded. “I’m certainly not convinced we’re
looking
for the city of El Dorado, at least not yet anyway. Just that it’s by far the most dominant piece of history this region has to offer, so we might as well be versed in the lore and mythology of it. It shows up time and again in historical texts, and we’re about to be neck-deep in the center of the myth.”
 

“Why is that?”
 

Reggie looked at all of them again, slowly. “Seriously?” He sighed. “Well, I thought we were all on the same page. My bad. That ‘golden man’ that’s been haunting your dreams? It’s a pretty obvious reference to our lost city.”
 

Amanda’s voice rose. “If you think I’m going to believe that —“

“Dr. Meron,” Reggie said, holding up a hand as he twisted around further to fully face them, “El Dorado means ‘the golden one,’ which also originally meant ‘the golden man.’ I hate to break it to you, but the moment your magical computer caught a glimpse of that little gold dude, you were on the hunt for the most fabled city of all time. Whether that’s an actual city of gold or something else, no one knows — but we are looking for
something
out there, right?”
 

“I don’t believe…”
 

“I know, and that’s okay. But if we’re going to be thorough, we need to check all the boxes, dot our t’s and cross all our I’s, all that stuff,” he said. “Father Quinones should be able to fill in any blanks we have as far as the history of this area is concerned, and with the two of us putting our heads together on it, I’d bet we can pinpoint where those lines are crossing, down to a twenty-mile radius at least.”
 

No one spoke, everyone still staring at Reggie, shocked. Rhett sat in the pilot’s seat and hadn’t spoken a word since they’d taken off, but Julie thought she saw his shoulders rise and his ears perk up a bit at this last bit of information.
 

“I’m as skeptical as the rest of you,” Reggie said, “but we have to try. We know we’re heading into the heart of the rainforest, one of the most inhospitable places on the planet, and we’re running out of time. Don’t you think it’s a little strange that the guy telling us all where to go is covered in
gold
?”
 

Still no one responded. Their fates had been sealed as soon as they took off, and no one argued to change their destination.

Julie and the others used the flight time to rest and try to sleep. No one spoke of the events down at the cabin and Reggie’s bunker, or at the hotel, but she knew it was on all their minds. They were flying into the center of the Amazon rainforest and being chased by a group of well-trained killers.

They had hardly any gear, had no idea what they were actually looking for, and the thumb drive and Julie’s laptop with a dying battery they’d left at Reggie’s house was useless out here.
 

It was an impossible task, and once again Julie had no idea how she’d gotten involved in this mess. She was scared, feeling helpless, and mostly useless, but she knew there was no alternative. She knew she’d follow Ben to the ends of the earth, and she knew she was as stubborn as he was when it came to protecting someone else.
 

They would figure this out, or they would die trying.
 

21

PAULINHO WAS JUST AS SURPRISED as the others to hear Reggie start talking about the myth of the great lost city, but he was too tired to argue. The hum of the plane’s engine eventually overcame the excitement and anticipation they were all feeling and the group fell into a restful silence.
 

He leaned back against the headrest and almost immediately slept.

Paulinho had never been very good at remembering the dreams he had during sleep, but as soon as his eyes closed he was deep into a recurring dream he’d experienced as a young boy, then a young man; one that came back every now and then.
 

The dream was difficult to see, as were most of the dreams he had. Swirling lights of different colors flashed in front of him, most deep hues of dark blues and greens. He’d seen pictures of the Aurora Borealis over the North Pole, and this effect was similar. It was a peaceful dream, and it always surprised him with its beauty.
 

The next phase of the dream was the same as it had always been: some of the dancing lights became darker shadows, still lit up in color but now faded, as if shadows of their previous shapes. These smaller lights grouped together in front of the larger, brighter lights, and become one, like the center of a kaleidoscope that was constantly twirling and mixing the colors and shapes.
 

These darker shapes grew together, still twisting and moving, and the lighter colors swirled even brighter around them. Paulinho took it in, knowing he was asleep but still somehow able to enjoy the show.
 

This particular version of the dream seemed longer, and even more vivid, than the other dreams he’d had, but he didn’t care. It was beauty in its purest form, seen from inside the head. He imagined he was watching his own brain during the act of thinking, lighting up as his thoughts and emotions and cares mixed together into a spectacular light show.
 

He couldn’t move when he watched the dream, at least not in the same way he could move around in other dreams. His body didn’t exist in this dream, it wasn’t the type of landscape his mind would allow him to move through, even if he tried to force it. He was stationary, given one single view of the light show and no others, forced to watch the artwork unfold as a spectator, even though it was a creation of his own mind.