More Than Paradise Part 24

On that cheerful note, they parted company and Ash headed for the Fojas with her heart in her throat.

v They heard the helicopter before they saw it. Ash was circling, Charlotte thought, trying to see down through the jigsaw of gaps in the cloud. A ne mist shrouded the lake bed. She would never be able to land in this.

Nitro was on the cell phone, trying to talk her down. He handed out ares to several members of the team and had them stand in the landing area. On his signal they red them, and a cl.u.s.ter of small orange explosions broke overhead. A few seconds later, the noise of the chopper blades whooped and thudded like huge bird wings smacking into plastic.

Charlotte felt nauseous. She was desperately afraid for Ash, but something else was going on, too. She had awakened that morning aching all over, and her body temperature had been swinging from freezing to feverish ever since. Teeth chattering, she squinted up into the fog and held her breath as a dark shape came into view northwest of their position. Ash was approaching the lake bed from the opposite direction of the one she'd chosen almost two weeks earlier.

Nitro was talking fast and Charlotte tugged at his arm, reading the tension in his face. "What's wrong?"

"It's a steep angle. She's trying to come in for a low hover."

Charlotte wanted to run out into the middle of the marshy clearing and wave her arms. Everyone had turned around, facing away from landing area to watch the dark khaki helicopter dropping into view. Ash steered it toward the lake bed. Amidst the cheering and premature elation, Nitro barked off an urgent "No," and Charlotte could see why.

Something very strange was happening. Ash had started to hover above the lake bed when the helicopter began to swing around as if something had caught it by the tail. It seemed to wobble in the air.

Nitro muttered, "f.u.c.k."

"What's happening?" Charlotte wailed as a hand landed squarely between her shoulder blades and she was attened to the earth.

Nitro yelled, "Everyone, get down!" and s.h.i.+elded her with his body.

* 207 *

The helicopter veered sideways, nose dropping. The air vibrated as if the sky itself were shuddering. The Huey was heading straight for the forest south of the team. Charlotte couldn't move. She wanted to close her eyes, but they were locked wide open. She couldn't draw breath. Ash was going down right in front of her.

"Do something," she cried.

Nitro placed his hand over her eyes and held her tight as a dull boom shook the earth and the sky fell quiet.

They lay frozen for no more than a couple of seconds, then he was on his feet again. Ordering her to stay where she was, he charged off across the lake bed followed by most of the team.

Flames licked up over the trees and a plume of black smoke blended with the mist. A hand touched her shoulder and Renee drew her into a sitting position and gingerly hugged her.

"I'm sorry, Charlotte." She was crying.

They stayed in a shaky crouch for a few seconds, then lurched to their feet by unspoken consent and started walking.

"Are you sure you want to see this?" Renee asked as their feet sank into the bog.

Charlotte had no answer. All she knew was that she could not believe she'd lost the woman she loved. She had to see Ash, no matter what.

v The acrid smell of petroleum and damp, burning wood a.s.saulted Ash's nostrils and lungs, but she could feel every part of her body. The undergrowth at the rim of the lake bed danced before her eyes in a blur of greens and browns. She angled her head. Above her, the forest canopy swung back and forth with the gait of the man carrying her, slung over his shoulder.

She craned awkwardly to see the back of his head and instantly recognized what looked like auburn dreadlocks. Her rescuer was half naked, his skin covered in earth. When they'd made it into the concealing gloom of the forest, well away from the wreckage of her bird, he deposited her on the earth, propped against a tree trunk.

Ash gazed up, her head swimming. "Bruce. G'day."

"Yeah, g'day." Gla.s.sy brown eyes regarded her with xed marsupial tranquility. "It's always the b.l.o.o.d.y tail rotor."

* 208 *

"I tipped a tree on the descent angle," she said, hardly able to believe she'd lost her bird. "Something must have been caught up and tangled. Thanks for getting me out."

"No worries." He leaned his back against the tree and slid down next to her. "Could you give Charlotte a message for me?"

Ash stared at him. "You know Charlotte?"

"I have the honor of her acquaintances.h.i.+p." He paused. "I wouldn't have let it happen. I want you to know that."

"You were there?"

"About the same time as the Terminator. I would have offered to help, but he didn't need my services."

As her mind foggily processed this information, Ash ran an exploring hand over her pounding head. A lump the size of a golf ball protruded above her right eyebrow. Very attractive.

"What do you want me to tell her?" she asked.

"I'll meet her at our special place tomorrow morning."

"Your special place?" Ash could not be hearing this. Charlotte had been hanging out with the most wanted man in New Guinea?

"I have the specimen she'll need," the Roo said.

"Wait a minute. You're selling plants to her?"

"It's a gift." He sounded affronted. "I should get going."

"Bruce." Ash put a hand on his shoulder. "Some advice. Get out while you still can. Time's up."

"I feel the heat," he conceded. "I know that cretin you work for wants to serve my head on a plate to the corporate villains. What am I worth?"

"He offered me fty to bring you in, and I don't think the Terminator was sent out here to light the camp res."

"I gured."

"You can do just as much somewhere else," she said. "Maybe more. The people here need voices on the outside."

"I'll think about it."

Ash took a card from her pocket and handed it to him. "If you need a ride, that's my number. I have a spare bird in Madang."

He tucked the card into his woven loin pouch and got to his feet.

"Don't forget to tell her."

Ash stared after him. Charlotte had some explaining to do.

v * 209 *

"I still can't believe it." Kneeling next to Ash, Charlotte ran a sanitary wipe over the gash on her head. "I mean that you're here and everything is all right."

They were nally alone, in the fading light of day, in the privacy of a smaller tent Nitro had found among the items dug up the day before.

Charlotte was more placid now, having spent the rst few hours after the crash attached to Ash like a limpet, revisiting her fears and relief over and over.

"It is all right, isn't it?" Ash checked in again. They'd talked about the attack, and she didn't want to keep bringing it up, but she need to be absolutely certain that Charlotte wasn't hiding anything from her.

"I'm ne. Truly. I told you, he was dead before he could do what he wanted and it's weird, I don't really feel a thing about it. Maybe I will one day, but right now, all I'm interested in is you. And us." She delivered another stinging dab.

"Okay, you've tortured me enough." Ash slid an arm around her waist and drew her down onto the sleeping pad. "Stop fussing and lie down. You're sicker than I am."

Charlotte didn't resist. She placed her prized box of wipes carefully in the corner of the tent, wrapped in a torn piece of cloth, and they both slid onto their sides, facing each other. Ash stroked back the dark strands that clung to Charlotte's forehead. She was ushed and her eyes seemed too bright.

"I don't know what's wrong with me," she said, meeting Ash's eyes. "Do you think its malaria? I don't see how it could be. I haven't been bitten and I think the DEET's soaked through every layer of my skin by now. All that me oquine I've been taking is probably in my liver. Maybe that's why I'm sick."

Ash gave her a rea.s.suring smile. "I'm sure you don't have anything serious. As soon as we're out of here, you'll be seeing a doctor."

Ash didn't want to scare her with speculation about the nastiest suspects. Malaria. Dengue fever. Ross River fever. She knew Charlotte must have had every shot in the book, so she couldn't have any of the other serious conditions. Chances were, she had picked up the u that was epidemic in Pom. Her symptoms matched those Ash knew all too well from her own infrequent bouts. Locals seemed to build up a resistance, but visitors usually took the virus home with them as a parting gift.

Charlotte nuzzled into her shoulder. "Don't leave me again."

* 210 *

"I won't." Ash kissed her cheek. Her skin felt hot and damp. She would fall asleep soon, and Ash still hadn't asked the question she'd been putting off while others were around. Keeping her tone casual, she said, "There's something we need to talk about. Tell me how you met Bruce."

Charlotte stiffened in her arms. "How do you know-"

"I spoke with him. I think it's time you told me what's going on."

"I was going to as soon as you got here." Charlotte sounded upset.

"I would have told you on the phone but with the batteries-"

"I know. It's okay." Ash rocked her gently. "I'm not angry. Just talk to me."

"When did you see him?" Charlotte demanded.

"It doesn't matter." Ash wasn't going to give her the opportunity to make anything up as she went along. She wanted to hear the unvarnished truth.

Charlotte sighed. "I was trying to nd him yesterday when...it happened. It's a long story, but you know that night when I didn't come back and you were angry?"

How could she forget? "Yes."

"I was with him. He took me to see something."

She sounded so uneasy Ash a.s.sumed Bruce had mentioned the price on his head. "You can trust me," she said, wis.h.i.+ng she didn't need to a.s.sert that to the woman she loved. But she had to be real.

Charlotte knew enough now to wonder about anyone who worked for Tubby Nagle. "If I wanted to kill Bruce, I've had the opportunity. Last time I saw him, he was ne."

"Well, I know you probably won't believe me, but he's made maybe the most important discovery of this century."

"Bigger than your g plant?"

"Huge," Charlotte said. "If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I would just think he was crazy, and that's what the scienti c community would think, too, if he tried to tell them. That's why he told me."

Her teeth were chattering and Ash could tell from her rapid, shallow breaths that talking was hard for her. "Slow down, baby," she said. "Just tell me what he's found."

Charlotte scrunched her face like she could hardly bear to give up the information. "He found little people who keep themselves young with an elixir of life from an orchid species unknown to science."

It was a movie. Ash hardly knew what to say. "Dwarfs?"

* 211 *

"No. A primitive species of human."

"Like the hobbit?" Concussion, she thought. It had to be.

"Yes, in fact, they are probably the same species, only living. Can you imagine?"

Strangely, Ash could, despite her immediate disbelief. She had heard stories about "little people" but had a.s.sumed they were simply the stuff of legends, like leprechauns in Ireland. But West Papua was perhaps the last place on earth where a tribe of people could exist, unknown to the outside world.

"So Bruce has contact with these people?"

"He took me to see them."

"Oh, G.o.d."

"I know." Charlotte placed her hand to Ash's face. "I was frightened to say anything. I'm so afraid of what could happen to them."

Ash could understand that. She wasn't sure what she would do with such knowledge either. "Thank you for telling me."

"I should have trusted you," Charlotte said. "I'm sorry."

"You did what you thought you had to. We all have to make decisions like that. I promise you something. Once we get out of here, I'll do anything I can to help. Okay?"

Charlotte made a small sound of relief. "I wish I knew exactly what to do about it. I mean, I have no proof, but Bruce expects me to get a huge company to do all kinds of things to protect the Fojas. They're not going to unless they think it's worth their while."

Ash smiled, nally clear about the Roo's gift. "Good news. Bruce has a plant for you."

"The orchid of life," Charlotte whispered in awe.

"He seems to think you'll know where to meet him so he can hand it over."

Charlotte nodded. "At my g tree. I can take you there."

"Good. We're meeting him tomorrow morning."

When Charlotte was silent for a long time, Ash got worried and s.h.i.+fted a little so she could see her face more clearly. "Are you okay, baby?"