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Back Jungle Up Save as PDF
Chapters (63)
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  63. Author’s Note

I handed Gina the knife and said, “Your call.”

She took the knife, knelt down, and stared at Patrick. Stared at the man who had kidnapped her eighteen days earlier.

Part of me wanted her to jam the knife into his throat, or at the very least, his leg. But she showed restraint and sliced through the zip-cuffs on his ankles and then his wrists.

“I really am sorry,” Patrick said. “I’ll do anything to make it up to you.”

“Yes, you will,” Gina said. “You will help your son get his bacteria back to the States, and you will lower the prices of all your medications back to something reasonable.”

“Got it,” he said. “It will be my first move when I return as CEO of Belippa. And you can bet your ass we’re going to get that autobiotic figured out and distributed to the public. And for cheap. And your friend here, Thomas—we’ll get one of the first batches of autobiotics to his sister.”

“I would appreciate that,” I said.

Gina leaned down and offered Patrick her hand.

He took it.

She helped him to his feet.

Then with all her might, she kicked him in the balls.

61

61

tribal village
august 23, 5:03 p.m.
expedition: day 10

“I can’t believe you stole the artifacts,” Andy said, clapping the man on the shoulder. “And you faked that limp!”

They were grouped in a semicircle near the poles where Thomas and the others had been restrained.

“I didn’t steal anything,” Vern said. “And I wasn’t faking anything.”

“Come on, Vern,” Thomas said. “We know you took the artifacts. And thank God you did, or else we’d all be dead right now.”

“I didn’t,” Vern said, putting up his hands. “Swear to the Almighty.”

Andy still had a hard time believing him. He asked, “Then how’d you end up with them?”

Vern nodded at the large red pack on the ground.

“No way,” Andy said. “Roth?”

Vern nodded. “I didn’t want to lug my shitty pack around anymore, so I snuck into Roth’s tent and found his pack. He was dead, he wouldn’t need it. I was emptying it out when I found the artifacts.”

“That asshole,” Darnell said.

“Why would Roth take the artifacts?” Thomas asked. “Didn’t his whole film depend on them?”

Andy said, “I think he knew the ruins probably weren’t Paititi. And if the ruins weren’t Paititi, his documentary would lose a lot of its magic. He could unload the relics on the black market for a couple million. Pay off his debts.”

“I thought he was raking it in,” Thomas said.

“According to Libby, the IRS was coming after him for a decade of back taxes.”

“So those artifacts could have been his salvation.”

“I guess so,” Andy said.

“But then what about your knee?” Thomas asked Vern. “How could you go from barely walking in base camp to trudging twenty miles?”