My stomach heaves, but there’s nothing to vomit. I can’t remember the last time I ate.
I pull up my wet shirt and squint at the display on my pump. My glucose level is at sixty-four. Not good. I drop my shirt, and the world spins again. I catch myself against a tree and breathe deeply until the vertigo passes.
If I don’t eat soon, I will pass out. Then I will die on the jungle floor, and there will be no one to help Ryan.
I push forward again, but every few steps, I have to stop and rest against a tree.
Score one for the jungle.
GENESIS
Domenica glares at Holden as Sebastián give us a “get going” gesture. “I’m not taking anything off,” she says
“Nobody’s taking anything off, and we’renotgoing for their guns,” I whisper. We veer west along the muddy trail again, facing into the sun. “Our plan needs to be one hundred percent less smutty and suicidal.”
“Agreed.” Indiana ducks under a low-hanging vine. “What do you have in mind?”
But then Óscar and Natalia pull even with us on the path, and we have to march in silence until they move ahead, fifteen minutes later.
“Soft targets and psychological manipulation,” I say when they’re out of earshot.
“Well, you are uniquely qualified for that one.” Holden means it as an insult, but I value every weapon in my arsenal.
“Silvana may as well be carved out of stone,” I whisper, just loud enough for the three of them to hear. “But Sebastián tried to help Ryan. I don’t think he wants anyone to get hurt. We can use that.”
Holden looks at me as if I’ve lost my mind. “So you want to what? Get him on our side?”
I shrug. “Or at least off Silvana’s side. He’s different from the others. He doesn’t seem to like violence, and he’s Nico’s friend.”
Holden rolls his eyes. “Nico’s had his tongue in your mouth, so naturally you trust his friend with your life.That’sa solid decision-making strategy.”
My gaze narrows on him. “And pimping out your girlfriend to an armed kidnapper in exchange for a gun is a much better plan?”
“Yes. Nico’sin on this, Genesis,” he insists. “We can’t trust anything he’s said or done.”
I thought so too, at first. But the kidnappers left Nico behind. They probably shot him. I think they’ve been using him from the time we landed in Cartagena.
From the moment I walked into my grandmother’s house and saw him fixing a cabinet, they were using him to get tome.
MADDIE
Bananas. Bunches of them. But they’re all too green and hard to eat.
I stumble on, shoving blurry vines and branches out of my way until a familiar greenish-brown fruit catches my eye.
It’s some kind of jungle mirage—my brain showing me what I need to see, rather than what’s really there.
But then I pluck one of the avocados hanging a foot above my head. It’s real.
Its skin is soft enough to pierce with my thumbnail, so I kneel in the mud and pull back a section of the green peel. I eat the meat like a mushy apple until I get to the pit.
Then I pick three more and eat them as I walk.
Food brings the world back into focus, and I realize I have no idea where I am.
I look from tree to tree, from vine to vine, searching for a familiar landmark.
Ryan doesn’t have time for this.
