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Back Jungle Up Save as PDF
Chapters (63)
  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
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  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. Author’s Note

“In the current telephone system, voicemail offenses like robocalls, things that should have been sent as a text message, and long drawn-out messages—I’m talking to you, Lacy—are considered especially heinous.”

“Come on, you moron,” Gina whispered, shaking her head.

“In Thomas Prescott City, the dedicated detective who investigates these vicious voicemails is a member of an elite squad known as the Special Voicemail Unit, or SVU.”

How had she fallen in love with this idiot?

“These are my stories. Dun-dun.”

“Thomas!” she shouted louder than she intended. “I don’t have much time! Four days ago, a group of men came to my village and abducted me. They said they needed a doctor. I think they are narcotraff—”

There was a rustle just outside the structure.

Someone was coming.

“Oh, shit, here they come!” she whispered. “Please find me, Thomas! Please!”

She ended the call and pressed the phone against the front of her shirt to hide any residual light from the call screen, then she ducked under the table and found a spot between two of the plastic drums.

A moment later, the tarp crinkled as someone brushed up against it. Then footsteps.

Gina brought her knees up to her chest and sucked in a breath.

There was a flicker of light from a lighter.

It was one of the soldiers. He came a few steps in her direction, then said, “Aquí vamos.” Here we go.

She heard lips smacking and then a satisfied sigh.

Gina pulled her legs into her chest until her ribs screamed. She stiffened every muscle in her body. Her heart thrummed in her neck.

The soldier was two feet to her right, his body pressed against the plywood. Gina could see his knife dangling off his belt. There was a slurping sound, and Gina imagined him sticking his fingers in the paste and then sucking them clean.

The soldier chuckled lightly to himself.

His boot was large. Gina guessed it was Guillermo, who was well over six feet. He was the one whose wrist Gina had twisted at the Tibióno village when they first abducted her. His dirt-covered boot was nearly touching her right shoe.

Gina tried to silently wriggle backward another inch.

There was a soft creak.

She must have leaned back against one of the bamboo poles supporting the tarp.

Gina froze.

Guillermo stepped back, then squatted. He held his lighter out in front of him. He probably expected to see a snake or some other form of wildlife.

The flicker of his lighter lit up wild, drug-crazed eyes.

“¡Puta!” he said.

23

23

jungle
august 16, 2:02 p.m.
days since abduction: 11

I reached out my hand and showed Vern the satellite phone.

He asked, “You think that’s the phone she used to call you?”