Hunters Run Page 0,82

place I'd been working that was about to go tits-up. I got some old surveying software from the widow of a guy I knew that died. Took off. It just went on from there. You know how that goes."

"I do," Ramon agreed. "You ever see her again?"

"The dumpy cook girl? No, man. Why bother, you know?"

She'd snored a little, just a wheeze in and then out. She had a cheap poster of the Virgin of Despegando Station over her bed, the bright blue eyes and robes glowing in the near dark. Ramon had thought he was in love with her. He'd written her letters but deleted them before he hit send. He couldn't conjure up what he had put in them. He wondered if the other man remembered what they said. If not, the words were gone forever.

He hadn't told that story in years. If he had, he would have talked about her exactly the way his twin had, just now. Some things you just don't say to people.

"You got quiet," the man said. "You thinking about that Carmina? She had you whipped, mi amigo. I could hear it when you talked about her."

A sneering tone had crept into the other's voice, and Ramon knew he was on dangerous ground, but he couldn't keep himself from asking, "How about you? You got a girl now?"

"I got someone I fuck," the other said. "She's got a mouth on her sometimes, but she's okay. I don't mind fucking her. She's pretty good in bed."

Time to take a chance, push it a little. "You love her?"

The other man froze. "That's none of your business, cabron," he said in a hard voice.

Ramon allowed himself to lock eyes with the other man for a heartbeat, then said gruffly, "You're right. Sorry." Not rising to the insult. Backing down, but in a way consistent with his tough-cop persona. Not craven enough to arouse the other's ire.

After a moment of silence, Ramon said, "Let's get some sleep, eh? Long day tomorrow."

"Yeah," the man said, his tone sour. "Sure."

But, as Ramon had hoped, the subject of who he loved didn't come up again.

Chapter Twenty

They launched the raft around noon the next day, the morning spent in final preparations and unsuccessful hunting. It was more cramped. The fire pit sat at the back, where one of them could both tend it and steer with the oar. The lean-to ran lengthwise along one side. It unbalanced the raft a little, but if Ramon had put it in the midline, he wouldn't have been able to see ahead and steer. Of course it blocked part of his view no matter where it sat. And as a counterbalance, he'd put a pile of wood for the fire on the other side, not so near the edge that it was likely to get soaked.

Ramon steered them out into the river where the flow was swiftest, then spent the afternoon holding steady. The man sat at the side, a fishing line in his hand. And here it was, the grand escape plan brought to its perfect end. Two unwashed and unshaven guys on a grungy raft, fishing to eat and taking turns steering down the middle of the river. Ramon scratched his belly. The scar was growing, and the one on his arm. His hair was slightly coarser too; he could feel it. No doubt he was starting to get the creases in his face back as well.

He wished he'd kept the cigarette case. Or anything he could use for a mirror. How long would it be before the other man realized what was happening? Every time his twin glanced back at him, Ramon felt his belly growing tighter.

As they moved south, the forests changed. Needle-leaved iceroot gave way to lacy sponge oak. Twice, Ramon caught sight of the great pyramids of dorado colonies, their sides swarming with the crawling black spiders. The sounds also changed. The chirr and squawk of the thousand varieties of half lizard, half bird, as they threatened one another and fought for food and mates. Deeper calls, like the voices of women singing in some beautiful African tongue, from kyi-kyi preparing to shed their summer skins. And once, the soft, whistling sound of a redjacket cutting through the underbrush. Ramon didn't see the animal, though, and since it didn't attack, apparently it hadn't seen them either.

Above them, the sky-lilies were being blown south and east by some high-atmosphere wind. Their distant bodies looked like points of deep green