A King's ransom

52

Matthew got a new pair of boots. “Replacement” boots was a more apt description. They were better than the old ones, but definitely not new. He recognized them as the Swede’s.

“What happened to Jan?” he asked the guerrilla.

It was the fat guy with the tattoo on his face, Cerdo. “He’s gone.”

“Home?”

He smirked, then said with a chuckle, “Yeah, home. Now, let’s go.”

“Where to?”

“You’ll see.”

Matthew rose slowly. He didn’t like the vibes, but he tried to be rational. They wouldn’t have brought him a better pair of boots just to take him out and shoot him.

“Bring everything with you.”

“Everything?”

“Are you deaf? Yes, everything.”

Matthew pulled on the boots and buttoned his coat. It was a cold morning, so he was already wearing every stitch of clothing he owned. Two shirts, a pair of pants, a wool sweater, and a knit cap that one of the guerrillas had pitched aside because it was too full of holes. He also had two pairs of socks, one for his feet and one that served as mittens on really cold nights.

He looked around his sleep area beneath the canvas tarp, making a mental inventory of “everything.” Beyond the clothes on his back, there wasn’t much. He unfastened the tarp from the trees and shook out the water. He rolled his blanket inside and strapped the bundle to his back. He felt like a Great Depression-era hobo about to hop a train.

“Got it all?” asked the guerrilla.

“That’s everything.”

“Make sure. We’re not coming back.”

“What a pity,” said Matthew.

Matthew’s spot was down the hill from the guerrillas’ main hut. He followed Cerdo up the path, then stopped short, startled by what sounded like machine-gun fire in the distance. It was faint, but he recognized the sounds from his tour in Vietnam.

“What’s the shooting?”

“Chulos,” he replied. That was the guerrillas’ word for the Colombian army.

Was the army moving in for a rescue?

That had been Matthew’s first thought, but his hope faded quickly. Rescue didn’t seem possible. This place was too remote. It had to be just another skirmish in the decades-old war between the army and the leftist guerrillas. Or the guerrillas and the right-wing paramilitaries. Or the guerrillas and some group of Ecuadorian or Peruvian bandits. Or a turf war between FARC and the ELN. Or right-wing extremists dragging unarmed campesinos into the street and murdering them in front of their families just because they were suspected of being sympathetic to the guerrillas.

Out here, there were just so many ways to get killed in the crossfire.

They reached the hut at the top of the hill. Matthew followed the guerrilla to the front, then stopped short at the sight.

The camp had been completely transformed. Joaquin and his men were standing to one side, guns in hand and their packs strapped to their backs. Several dozen other guerrillas-men and women whom Matthew didn’t recognize-had taken positions around the hut, including a long trench that they’d dug and fortified with fallen trees. Near the hut, guerrillas were rolling black ink onto their weapons and striping their faces with black greasepaint. Someone was anticipating some night fighting. From the dragon insignia on the fatigues, Matthew recognized them as FARC.

“Sit here,” said Cerdo.

Matthew quickly searched for the driest patch of earth and seated himself in front of the hut, to the right of the door.

“Matthew,” someone whispered.

He peered around the corner of the hut and spotted Emilio, the Colombian prisoner, seated along the side of the hut just a few feet away.

“What’s going on?” asked Matthew.

“Army’s getting close. FARC’s gearing up for a battle.”

“I thought Joaquin wasn’t part of FARC.”

“He’s not. They’re kicking him out of their territory. FARC commanders put up with him so long as he was selling his kidnap victims to them. But he’s been asking for too much money lately.”

“Where are the other captives?”

“FARC took them.”

“What?”

“I think it’s like back rent. Joaquin’s been a squatter on their turf, so they just took four of his prisoners. They let him keep two.”

“Why us?”

“Just a guess on my part. Joaquin thinks I’m the least trouble. And you’re worth the most money.”

It sickened Matthew to think that things were so bad with Joaquin he almost wished he’d been sold to FARC.

“Up,” said the guerrilla. It was a girl this time. Cerdo was gone. At gunpoint she marched Matthew and Emilio across the busy camp toward Joaquin and the rest of his band. Joaquin was in a serious-looking conversation with one of the FARC commanders. They were checking a map, apparently deciding on the best way out.

Matthew glanced back toward the hut. From about thirty meters away he caught sight of Nisho and the Colombian woman seated on the ground near the campfire. On the other side of the fire, closer to Matthew, Cerdo was talking with two FARC guerrillas. He was laughing and pointing back toward the women. Finally, he got down on his knees, hands together in the praying position, whining and begging in Spanish, “Please, stop, you’re hurting me!”

The men all laughed, but Cerdo laughed hardest, and Matthew realized what was happening. He was recounting their rape of Nisho, as if telling the FARC boys what they had to look forward to.

Joaquin called his men together. He had his map, and he apparently had FARC’s blessing on his way out. Turning over Nisho and the Colombian woman had guaranteed his right of passage.

“Vamos,” said Joaquin. Cerdo came running along, his belly bouncing.

Matthew glanced back one last time at their camp, toward the two women prisoners. He thought of his own wife and daughter and felt an almost uncontrollable urge to grab a gun and do the right thing. But between Joaquin’s group of bandits and the FARC guerrillas, he would have been killed before firing a single shot.

“?Te amo, Nishooooooo!” shouted Cerdo. A chorus of laughter followed from Joaquin and the others who’d been at the river that day.

Filled with anger, Matthew forced himself to put one foot in front of the other as they marched down the side of the mountain. He didn’t know where they were going, and it no longer mattered. At that moment he vowed that wherever they ended up, he’d seize the first opportunity. He’d kill Joaquin first, Cerdo second.

Whoever else he could take with him would just be gravy.