The Oracle (Fargo Adventures #11) - Clive Cussler Page 0,81

tiny stream into a swirling current of mud and debris.

They were trapped.

Remi searched for a location to hide the children so that she could draw the men away. “There,” she said, pointing to the top of one of the massive boulders.

“How?” Maryam asked, craning her neck. “It’s too high.”

“Amal,” Remi said. “You first. You can help the girls.”

Remi kneeled and Amal climbed on her shoulders, using the boulder to balance herself as Remi stood, lifting her. Amal then pulled herself onto the boulder. Remi repeated the process with each girl, Amal gripping their arms as they scrambled up.

It wasn’t until they were all safely on top that they realized Remi had no way up herself. A couple of the girls started crying. Remi put her finger to her lips. “Be brave and stay flat, out of sight. I’ll be fine.”

The kidnappers’ voices grew louder, one of them complaining about the muddy trail.

The water was now several inches deep, swirling around Remi’s ankles. She was taking a calculated risk, hoping that centuries of runoff would continue in the same direction as it always had, between the mountainside and the boulders. With the rain beating down, she poised herself near the craggy rocks. As the four kidnappers rounded the corner, she started running through the shallow stream. One of them ordered her to stop. Halting, she slowly turned, saw their automatic rifles pointed toward her. Remi planted her walking stick to balance herself in the quickening torrent. “Help,” she called out.

Pili and his men trudged up the hill toward her. A sound like the far-off surf of the ocean grew in intensity. Before they realized what it was, a muddy river roared toward them. They turned, trying to outrun it. Remi scrambled up the rocks, using her stick to brace herself against the boulder as the current rose to her knees. It wasn’t the water she worried about, it was anything carried along with it. Within moments, tree branches and rotting logs swept down from the mountain, some getting stuck in the rocks, until the force of the surge knocked it loose. A tree trunk as thick as a telephone pole hurtled straight toward her, missing by mere inches as one end struck the massive boulder. The other end angled toward Remi, creating a barrier that protected her for a few short minutes, until the far end swung out. The onrush sent it slamming against the mountain on the other side, bridging the flood. Seconds later, fast-moving debris caught against it, the water rising and threatening to rip her into its swift current.

CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

With a little seed of imagination, you can grow a field of hope.

– NIGERIAN PROVERB –

High above the forest, Sam lowered his binoculars, leaning forward to look out through the rain-splattered windshield. A downdraft caught the helicopter, sending him back against his seat as the pilot wrested control of the craft.

“Sorry, Mr. Fargo,” he said.

“Circle around again.” Sam scrutinized the valley. They’d made two trips over the area, seeing nothing but cows slowly moving through the floodplain to higher ground. What he couldn’t see was anyone attending them. The Fulani herdsmen had either abandoned their stolen cattle or they were taking shelter from the storm.

One of the soldiers pointed. “I see someone. In the tree near the waterfall.”

The waterfall that hadn’t been there yesterday, Sam realized.

The pilot maneuvered the helicopter around. Sam caught sight of a man draped high in the branches of a tree growing at the base of the cliff as though he’d been swept down the precipice.

Sam focused his binoculars on the flooded field directly below the tree jutting out of the cliff, saw several men lying lifeless at the bottom. Definitely not the Fulani. “Can you get us in closer? I’d like to see the source of that waterfall.”

The pilot continued his ascent, giving them a view of the entire valley and the multitude of swift-moving swollen tributaries and streams feeding the river below.

“Mr. Fargo,” Okoro said. “You look worried. If those dead men are the kidnappers, surely that’s good news?”

“I hope so,” Sam said, wondering how close those men were to Remi and the girls when they were swept away. “Can you follow that waterfall to its source?”

“I can try.” The helicopter swung around. Rain beat down on the windshield, while a gust of wind sent drops of water across the glass, making it difficult to see. An army of chimpanzees raced down the mountainside, drawing their attention. “Something’s spooked them,” the copilot called