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Back Jungle Up Save as PDF
Chapters (63)
  1. 1
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  10. 10
  11. 11
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  63. Author’s Note

There was a bit leftover at the end, and Vern took it and rubbed it into his knee.

Ten minutes later, my bites and testicle feeling surprisingly better, I pulled the Garmin inReach from my pack and turned it on.

My eyes opened wide, and I said, “I have service.”

≈

“How’s the signal?” Vern asked.

“Three out of four bars,” I said with a grin.

I quickly opened up the messenger app and texted Lacy.

Hey Lace . . . Phone just activated . . . Any word from Gina?

I sent the message, imagining it sneaking through the tall canopy, shooting upward twenty thousand miles to low earth orbit, bouncing off who knows how many of the sixty-six Iridium satellites, then shooting down to France. I wasn’t sure how long I should expect to wait for a response, and while I waited, I checked the weather on the phone.

It was currently seventy-nine degrees with 63 percent humidity, which aligned with how muggy it felt.

I was checking out several more of the phone’s functions when a message came in.

Tommy!! I’ve been trying to text you for two days. Was starting to get worried. No word from Gina. But Mike Gallow called yesterday with some good news. He was able to track down the owner and last-known coordinates of the phone Gina called you on. I had him text the details. I’ll copy and paste his message and send it to you.

I glanced up and said to both Vern and Diego, “My contact was able to get the coordinates of the sat phone that Gina called me on.”

Diego gave me a thumbs up, and Vern’s eyebrows raised slightly under his maroon cap.

A moment later, another message came in. It was a copy-and-pasted text from Mike Gallow.

Hey, Prescott. Here’s what I found. The sat-phone number is from the GlobalSat network. Registered to a J. Gonzales. Paid for a yearlong subscription with a prepaid Visa. Dead end. Only two calls were made. First call was August 3rd, 2:03 p.m. Just outside a town in Brazil called Rio Branco. Call lasted six minutes. The receiving number was a Bolivian area code. I called that number. No answer. Didn’t have much cooperation from Entel (Bolivian cell company) trying to track down the owner. Second call was to you on August 9th at 7:03 p.m. Lasted 17 seconds. Coordinates registered are: -10.402809, -66.481275. Phone hasn’t had an active signal since. Good luck. You owe me one.

Yeah, I did.

A big one.

Vern was standing near my left shoulder, and he pulled out his own GPS and said, “Read those coordinates out to me.”

I did.

Vern plotted them with his GPS, then turned the device toward me. There was a route going from our current location to the location where Gina’s call had originated.

It was 8.3 miles away.

≈