The fifth vial

CHAPTER 35

Ben reentered consciousness to a pungent, though not unpleasant, aroma, and a woman's voice softly singing in a tongue he didn't understand. The arrow was gone. The agonizing pain in his shoulder and the racking ache throughout his body were present, but strangely muted. It was not the first time he had awakened, he recognized, not the first time he had heard the woman singing. He was naked from the waist up, on his back, on a pile of blankets and rags in what seemed to be a cave. Sunlight was pouring in through the entrance, ten feet or so away.

Gradually, his vision came into focus, along with his memory, beginning with the moment of Vincent's gruesome death — some sort of dart to the side of his face, then a knife through his neck. The lethal arrow Ben had expected was never fired. Instead, what he remembered was a woman, kneeling beside him, speaking English and reassuring him that he was going to be all right. Smooth, tanned skin? dark, vibrant, concerned eyes. Along with a man wearing an eye patch, she had gotten him to his feet and struggled to get him to walk. The rest was a blur, except for her face. It was a lovely, intense, interesting face.

Steeled against the pain, he tried to sit. The woman singing nearby, more ageless than aged, made no attempt to stop him. She was a tribal native. Her face, though deeply lined, had features not unlike the man who had helped Vincent torture him. Behind her, Ben saw the source of the scent that was filling the cave — a pot, boiling on a small fire, emitting wisps of gray smoke.

He managed to get upright and remain that way for a few seconds be fore a wave of dizziness forced him back. The woman caught him with one hand and lowered him down. Then she eased a small ladle between his lips and held his head as he drank the thick, aromatic liquid that was there. In just minutes, the pain was completely gone, replaced by a cascade of remarkably pleasant thoughts and images. Soon after, as she was replacing the dried poultice on his shoulder with a moist one, the light from the cave opening began to dim. The tumbling images slowed, then faded.

Minutes or hours later, when his consciousness returned, the woman from the forest was kneeling beside him. Her face made him smile.

"Hi," she said, "my name is Natalie Reyes. Do you understand me? Good. Here's some water. You must drink."

Ben nodded and took cautious sips from an earthen cup. Behind Natalie, the other woman worked away at her fire and pot.

"Ben," he managed after his lips were moist enough. "Ben Callahan from Chicago. Are you Brazilian?"

"American. I'm a medical student from Boston."

"Thank you for saving me."

"My friend Luis did the saving, not me. The people who run the hospital murdered his sister for trying to help me. Friends of his down there told him you were being tortured. We were watching from right out there when that man with the bow followed you out of the hospital and down the road. Luis knew what was about to happen and he decided to save you."

"I'm glad he did," Ben understated. "I never thought — "

"Easy," Natalie said. "There's time."

Ben again forced himself upright. This time, the dizziness was minimal. His shoulder was carefully wrapped in gauze that looked as if it might have been used before. As his thoughts cleared, his expression darkened.

"No, there isn't much time," he said excitedly. "There's a woman in the hospital. Her name's Sandy. She's going to be killed — operated on and then killed. I think they are going to take her heart. They — "

Natalie calmed him with a gentle finger to his lips.

"You are very dry and dehydrated," she said. "You need water. If we can't get enough fluids in you, you won't be able to help anyone."

"That woman behind you, she's giving me some sort of incredible drug."

"She's a shaman, and a friend of Luis's. Her name is Tokima, something like that. She speaks a mix of Portuguese, which I understand fairly well, and some kind of tribal dialect that I don't understand at all, but Luis does."

"Well, ask Luis to see if she wants a permanent job making me feel like this."

"The color just left your face, Ben Callahan. That's your blood pressure dropping off the table. In a few more seconds, you are going to start feeling rotten — very rotten. I think you'd better lie down."

"You can predict what's going to happen?"

Natalie checked his pulse, which was rapid and weak.

"Your cardiovascular system is under stress. You need rest and lots of fluids."

"And some more of that medicine," he said, just before he drifted off.

Ben awoke twice more. Each time Natalie Reyes was nearby, looking down at him with deep concern and caring.

"I saw you on the rock down there when that monster was hunting you," she said at one point. "You were so weak and you were so brave. Now that I know what brought you here, I think you're even braver."

She gave him water, and the medicine woman, Tokima, treated him with some of her mixtures. Each time he felt stronger and sat up longer. Piece by piece they were able to share the accounts of how they came to be in Dom Angelo.

When Ben opened his eyes for the third time, Natalie was still there as before, but crouching next to her was the man who had saved his life.

"Luis," Ben said, rolling to one side and extending his hand.

"Ben," Luis said, his grip incredibly strong.

"Luis doesn't speak English," Natalie said, "but he's kind enough to speak Portuguese slowly, so I can translate what needs to be translated."

"Tell him I'm sorry about his sister," Ben said.

"You're a very sweet man to think of that," Natalie replied. "Brave and sweet. I like that combination."

She had a brief conversation with Luis, who met Ben's gaze and nodded. Ben saw the intensity of a warrior in the man's good eye.

"The woman you are worried about," Natalie said, "is still unconscious in the hospital and on a breathing machine."

"She's drugged," Ben replied. "She was kidnapped, and now she's drugged. Back in Texas she was screaming about her child. She yelled that she was being kept in a cage. Then someone, probably Vincent, shut her up." He sat up with no assistance. "Is there anything we can do?" he asked.

"Tell us exactly who came in with you on the airplane."

"Three in the cockpit, four in the cabin — now three thanks to Luis. One of those is — was — Vincent's girlfriend. There were also two aft with the patient. One of them is an older woman — I think she may be an anesthesiologist."

Natalie translated for Luis and got some information in return.

"At the hospital we have Barbosa, he's a crooked policeman? Santoro, he's a crooked doctor? Vincent's assistant, whom apparently you met? plus a few kitchen, housekeeping, and janitorial people."

"Long odds," Ben said.

"They're going to get longer. Another group — the nurses from Rio and those others surrounding the recipient of that poor woman's heart, are due very soon."

"Somehow we've got to get her out," Ben said.

"What do you mean, we?" Natalie asked. "You are in no shape for battle."

"I'm going to do what I can. I've come too far not to. Here, give me a hand."

Ben reached out and was effortlessly pulled to his feet by Luis. For a few seconds, the cave reeled, but he braced himself against one wall and remained upright.

"Sweet, brave, and tough," Natalie said. "Nice. Okay. We've got the two of us, plus Luis, his girlfriend Rosa, and one other guy from the village that Luis says we can count on. How good are you at war strategy?"

"I got an A in it in college. Do I have time to get my notes?"

"Luis," Natalie said, gesturing to Ben, "I think we are five."

Luis did not reply. Instead, he crossed over to where Tokima was working, and spoke with her. She nodded, took a small plastic pail, and headed off into the forest.

"Tokima has been healing people for many years," he said. "Perhaps eighty."

Natalie translated for Ben, who merely grinned, nodded, and commented that although she had already worked a miracle for him, he hoped the medicine woman could give him something long-acting for the hours ahead.

"Does she know my insurance probably won't cover this treatment?" he asked.

Natalie translated for Luis, who actually smiled. Then the two of them spoke for some time, before she turned to Ben.

"As you probably know, there are many, many psychoactive drugs in the plants out there," she said. "Tokima has gone out to get the strongest of them all — a root. Luis only knows the Indian name for it, which is something like Khosage. Dried, ground, and smoked, it is a very powerful hallucinogen, but taken in excess, there is little time to enjoy the more pleasant and interesting effects. Violent vomiting and diarrhea, along with severe abdominal pain, disorientation, and even death will soon intervene. Assuming Tokima can find enough of the root, Luis thinks he can either get it into the food that is being prepared for lunch, or have one of the kitchen help do it for him. With any luck some of the people at the hospital with guns can be disabled, as well as those who are scheduled to assist with the surgery."

"Sounds like a plan," Ben said. "What about Sandy'"

"Assuming you can make it, you and I will cut through the forest to where I have left the Mercedes of the policeman I killed. Then we'll drive around to the access road and down to the hospital. By the time we arrive, there should be absolute chaos. Somehow, then, we've got to wheel Sandy out and get her into the car. Luis and his people will then just have to melt into the forest."

"He's ready to do that?"

"He loved his sister very much."

Ben patted the man on the arm. Then, unwilling to have either of the others know that his light-headedness was returning, and that both knees and his lower back were throbbing, he took a mug of water, shuffled out to the granite shelf in front of the cave, and sat, his back against the rock. Be low him and to the south, sparkling in the late-morning sun, was the hospital. Hospital. Ben laughed ruefully. Aside from Nazi Germany, the word had probably never been more inappropriately used. The brutality of what had been done to him there, and to so many others, made him shudder. Now, hopefully, it was going to end.

We're coming, he thought savagely. We're coming.

A short while later, Tokima returned, her red plastic pail filled to overflowing with thick, gnarled, rust-colored roots, glistening from having just been washed. With hardly a word, she set about preparing the poison. Luis, moving like the predator he was, headed down the hillside. Natalie moved outside the cave, settled down next to Ben, and took his hand.

"A private eye, huh," she said. "Do you own a gun?"

"Of course."

"Ever had to use it?"

"Of course. Boot Hill in Chicago is full of the men I've put there — women, children, and pets, too."

He shot the hospital with his finger and blew the smoke from the barrel.

"Absolutely terrifying," she said, gently folding his finger back in place. "They don't stand a chance."

"Do you think we do?"

"Of course."

"We're both sort of living on borrowed time anyway."

In another fifteen minutes, unheard and unseen, Luis suddenly appeared at the side of the cave opening.

"People are nervous about the disappearance of Vincent," he said. "It is being assumed that Ben killed him. I am supposed to be out looking for his body right now."

He went into the cave and returned with a heavy clay bowl containing the root preparation, covered with leaves.

"You ready, Ben Callahan?" Natalie asked, helping him to his feet.

Ben clenched his fists and willed the dizziness to lessen.

"Ready," he managed.

"The kitchen staff is preparing lunch," Luis said, allowing time for Natalie to share the information with Ben. "I need to get the final ingredient down to them. The doctors are in with their patient, awaiting the arrival of the one who is to receive her heart. The flight crew is sunning by the pool. Santoro is everywhere, preparing for two operations. Barbosa and the other guards are ready for trouble. The time is now."

"The time is now," Natalie repeated.

"Come," Luis said, "I will point you in the direction of your car. Plan on being outside the hospital with it in one hour. With any fortune, we will be bringing your patient out to you for a ride."