There was no sign of traffic. Eddie checked his watch; it was coming up to nine p.m. ‘Let’s hope somebody’s out at this time of night. And that Venezuela doesn’t have laws against hitchhiking!’
They laid Becker down beside the northbound lane, and waited. After a few minutes, headlights appeared to the south. Eddie stood in the road and waved for the approaching vehicle to stop. Macy joined him. ‘What?’ she said, to his look. ‘If the driver’s a guy, he might be more likely to stop for a hot babe, right?’
She was covered in dirt and sweat, clothes torn, hair a ratty, tangled mess. ‘Right now you look about as hot as I do. But maybe he likes it dirty . . . ’
‘Shut. Up!’
The vehicle, a beaten-up pickup truck, stopped. Macy did the talking, explaining that they had been in a crash – she left out that it had involved a plane to avoid awkward questions – and forced to walk through the jungle. The driver, an elderly man, chided the yanquis for lacking both caution and survival equipment before agreeing to take them to Puerto Ayacucho. Osterhagen rode up front with Becker, while Eddie and Macy sat in the rear bed.
The drive along the empty road didn’t take long. They passed the airport, Eddie keeping a wary eye open for military patrols, and entered the city. The driver pulled up outside the hospital. ‘Eddie,’ said Osterhagen as the Englishman climbed from the truck, ‘I am going to stay with Ralf.’
‘You sure? They might still be looking for us. Two gringos in the hospital . . . they could make the connection.’
Osterhagen looked at the wounded man. Becker had drifted in and out of consciousness through the entire trek, but never been lucid enough to do more than mumble in German. ‘He will need someone to tell him what has been going on. Besides . . . ’ He regarded the hat he was holding. ‘He is my friend. I should be with him.’
Eddie put a hand on the older man’s shoulder. ‘I can’t argue with that. Just be careful, okay?’
‘I will. And you be careful too.’ They lifted Becker from the truck. ‘What about you and Macy? What are you going to do?’
‘Rescue Nina and Kit. And kill Stikes and Callas. Not necessarily in that order.’
Osterhagen’s face suggested that he thought the latter objective a dangerous step too far, but he said nothing. He and Eddie carried Becker into the hospital. Macy gave a modified version of her story to a nurse to account for Becker’s wound, the ‘crash’ now happening while fleeing armed robbers. The story seemed to be accepted, and Becker was taken away for treatment.
Osterhagen shook Eddie’s hand. ‘Thank you. For keeping us alive.’
‘Shame I couldn’t do it for everyone,’ Eddie replied glumly. ‘But look after Ralf. And yourself. Hopefully see you both again soon.’
‘Thank you,’ the German repeated, before following his friend.
‘So how are we going to rescue Nina and Kit?’ Macy asked once they were outside.
The pickup driver had waited for them, keen to learn Becker’s condition in the hope of adding a happy ending to his tale of Samaritanism. ‘We need to get to this Clubhouse place,’ said Eddie. ‘I doubt this bloke’ll take us all the way to Caracas, but ask him how we can get there – if there’s a bus or something.’
Macy did so, learning that there was an overnight bus between Puerto Ayacucho and the capital, with still enough time for them to catch it. ‘Ew, I hate using buses,’ she added after reporting this to Eddie. ‘There’s always some really gross guy trying to check me out.’
‘You want to walk three hundred miles?’
‘Depends how gross the guy is.’
‘Can’t be as gross as those bugs. Ask if he’ll give us a lift to the bus station. Oh, and if there are any payphones there.’
‘Yes, and yes,’ she said after posing both questions. ‘Who are you planning on calling? Someone in the government we can warn about Callas?’
‘I would if I knew who to call, but I don’t – and I don’t know who we can trust, either. If Callas is planning a coup, he’ll need more than just the military on his side. He’d have to have people in the militia too. They’re the biggest threat to him.’
‘Except for you.’
Macy had meant it as a joke, but the smile Eddie gave her had a very hard edge. ‘Yeah. Except for me.’