Despite the jokes, Virginia couldn't quell her anger. She'd failed the mission, and now she had no leads to Calvert—at least, no positive leads. She had loose leads she could try out. But this had been her best one yet. She looked past Jake as she clung to him.
Then she looked above them.
There were three men falling, parachutes open.
One man, right then, fell past them, no parachute, screaming.
Within a few seconds the scream was drowned and lost.
Virginia scanned the land as far as she could see, looking for a building or sign of civilization. None that she could see. They were falling into the heart of the Amazon rainforest.
She didn't know much about rainforests.
In USI, they don't train you to survive rainforests.
She lifted her head back and looked into Jake's eyes. "You know anything about rainforests?"
He shook his head, water rolling down his face. "You?"
"No."
*****
Shannon ran into the woods nearby.
The undergrowth was minimal to nonexistent.
She ran on shaky legs. Pain started coming into her head. She'd obviously hit it against something. Other than her ribs and head, she felt fine.
She could hardly believe she'd made it this far. She'd escaped that initial convoy of USI agents. The three Suburbans. She knew more would arrive any minute now.
USI may have even reached out to local cops.
Maybe.
USI didn't like to share things.
Either way, she was somewhat hopeful she could make it out of this and disappear. She was surprised by her positive thinking. She'd just gone off a cliff in her car. She'd just faced off against USI. Against Ryan.
A pang of hurt entered her heart.
Ryan. She realized now he wasn't the one.
Not by a long shot.
So at least there was that.
She remembered Virginia.
She needed to help Virginia.
She'd gone this far, and there was no turning back.
Perhaps beating that convoy made her realize it was possible.
She was running through this wooded area, trying to get back into the city. She didn't have a car or phone. She had a gun, though, and that was always helpful.
Didn't matter.
If she could catch a cab before USI reinforcements arrived, she'd be fine. She heard the sound of a helicopter in the distance. The noise grew as she ran through the woods.
The louder it got, the faster her heart beat.
Maybe this wouldn't be so easy.
*****
Virginia was starting to feel the cold bite. Even holding Jake wasn't helping much. In about a minute they'd reach the ground—the forest. She was trying to recall what she knew about the rainforest. Jaguars were the number one predator. And anacondas and crocodiles. Poisonous snakes. Leeches. Indigenous tribes, but maybe not so many of those. Still.
She wasn't scared of these things.
She had a gun and a clip of bullets—ten bullets.
She didn't have shoes, and all she was wearing was a dress, which was soaking wet, sticking against her skin.
Jake was wearing a suit, complete with a sports coat and tie. He had a button-up shirt and she was sure an undershirt beneath that. Nice and warm compared to her.
Still, in this weather, their apparel was lacking.
Virginia hated survival training. They hadn't been trained for rainforests, but they had been dropped off in deserts and made to survive. Build a fire, keep warm, collect food. Boring, boring, boring, but essential to living. Wasn't as fun as gun or fight training.
CIA and USI knew where they were, had been tracking them. They'd dispatch a team to this general area. They'd dispatch a qualified team, with plenty of weapons. Virginia had ten bullets, and Jake probably had a clip or two. Maybe.
Virginia, despite her best efforts to ignore it, felt the cold more now, and her teeth began chattering. Jake noticed, always attune.
"Anything I can do?" he asked.
"Don't ask meaningless questions," Virginia said. "You know as well as I that there's nothing you can do. I'm not a fan of meaningless politeness."
Jake didn't respond.
Then they were twenty seconds from the trees. Jake had been directing them. There didn't seem to be any open land nearby, just dense trees and the river.
"Trees or river?" he said.
Their only two options.
They were above the trees and beside the river, but before she could give an answer, a strong wind blew them aside, sending them over the top of the river. The wind didn't stop, and it carried them directly over the center of the wide and murky waters.
Virginia was scanning for crocodiles.
Nothing she could see.
But of course the water was churning from the rain.
Reflecting the dark, black clouds.
And then lit by the mountains of lightning forming and un-forming.
They were flying fast towards the bank, which wasn't much of a bank—just a line of trees. "Coming in hot," Jake said, pulling down on the parachute's guidewire.
Whoooosh!
They went straight for the trees, and there was nothing much they could do about it. Virginia held tight as their feet—well, Jake's feet, skimmed the top of the river.
The wind slammed them into the forest. A tree loomed in their flight path. Jake pulled against the toggle and tried to put his body between Virginia and the tree. They slammed into the tree.
That was the last thing Virginia remembered about the landing.