On his way home from the dental office, he got a flat tire. After AAA came, he made his way home only to find the Amazon delivery he’d been alerted to earlier that day had been stolen. And if that wasn’t enough, he ended up getting food poisoning that night from Thai leftovers and spent most of the night in the bathroom.

Since that day, he’d arranged his schedule around the changeover, even going as far as to take a ten-minute break during his Tuesday and Thursday lectures, so he could see it.

Andy continued to stare down at the cheap Timex on his left wrist. The digital watch gave only hours and minutes, so Andy never knew exactly how many seconds he had left. Like most days, the minute dragged on for an eternity, much like waiting for a pot of water to boil or, worse yet, for a girl to text back.

There was a snapping of branches, and Andy instinctively snapped up his head and gazed around. Nathan Buxton and Alejándro Cala were barely visible through the tangle of jungle to Andy’s left. The noise must have come from them.

Andy glanced down at his watch, but he was too late. It was 3:33 p.m.

For the first time in six years, Andy had missed seeing the two turn into a three.

“Aw, man,” he said under his breath.

The next twenty-four hours were going to be bad. Really bad. Andy could feel it.

What have I done?

There was another round of snapping branches. It sounded like an animal. No, a group of animals!

It’s starting!

Andy was going to get gored to death by a pack of tapirs or eaten by a jungle jaguar simply because he’d taken his eyes off his watch for two miserable seconds!

He ran toward a nearby tree, hoping to get to higher ground. There were several vines hanging near the tree, and Andy grasped one in his hands and attempted to pull himself up. A harrowing montage of unsuccessfully climbing the rope in gym class flooded his brain as his upper body strength failed him again seventeen years later.

His fingers slipped from the vine, and he tumbled backward to the ground. When he opened his eyes, he was surrounded by several dark-skinned men. Each of the men held a large black rifle.

Andy’s first thought was the men must have been a group of jungle outlaws. Drug traffickers, illegal loggers, or illegal miners.

Andy put up his hands and said, “¡Por favor, no me hagan daño!” Please don’t hurt me!

The men began to laugh. One of them reached out his hand. On closer examination, Andy realized all the men were clad in fatigues.

Andy took the soldier’s hand and was helped to his feet.

Standing behind the circle of seven soldiers was the lieutenant from their meeting at the hotel in La Paz: Mauricio Goytia.