The helicopter blades sliced through the thick air as Zarah, Ayodele, and Tunde hovered over the vast green expanse of the Amazon. Below them, the rainforest seemed endless, but Tunde pointed to a clearing where large industrial containers sat half-hidden under camouflage netting.
"That's it," Tunde said, his voice barely audible over the roar of the engine. "That's one of their primary hubs. They're not just dumping waste there—they're processing it for transport."
"Processing it for where?" Zarah asked, gripping the edge of her seat.
"Anywhere they can pay off officials to bury it. Some of it's being dumped offshore, some buried deep in abandoned mines," Tunde explained. "They'll deny everything unless we catch them red-handed."
The helicopter landed on a concealed airstrip several kilometers from the site. They had to move carefully; the guards at the site weren't just hired security—they were mercenaries.
---
As they trekked through the dense jungle, Ayodele took the lead, mapping the route on his tablet. Behind him, Zarah struggled to keep her footing on the uneven ground. Sweat poured down her face, but she kept moving, fueled by the urgency of their mission.
Tunde trailed behind, surprisingly quiet. Zarah didn't trust him—she never had. It wasn't just his past with the corporations; it was the way he avoided eye contact, the way he seemed too comfortable in their dangerous surroundings.
"Are you sure we can trust him?" she whispered to Ayodele during a brief stop.
"He has as much to lose as we do if this fails," Ayodele replied, though his tone didn't entirely convince her.
The tension between them eased as they approached the edge of the clearing. From their vantage point, they saw workers in hazmat suits unloading barrels from trucks and transferring them into unmarked shipping containers.
Ayodele pulled out the drone they had carried in their gear. "This will give us the evidence we need," he said, launching it silently into the air.
Zarah monitored the live feed on her tablet. The drone's camera revealed workers pouring a thick, viscous substance into nearby streams—streams that fed directly into villages downstream.
"It's worse than we thought," Zarah said, her voice shaking.
Tunde crouched beside them, his face grim. "This is what they're hiding. The barrels might be labeled 'industrial chemicals,' but I guarantee you they're filled with banned toxic waste."
Suddenly, the sound of a twig snapping behind them sent Zarah's heart racing. She turned quickly, spotting a guard moving through the brush with a flashlight.
"Hide!" Ayodele hissed.
The three of them pressed themselves against the ground, holding their breath as the guard's light swept dangerously close. The seconds dragged on like hours until the guard finally moved away, muttering something into his radio.
"That was close," Tunde said, his voice barely a whisper.
"Too close," Zarah replied. "Let's finish this and get out of here."
---
As Ayodele piloted the drone back to their location, Zarah began transmitting the footage to an encrypted server. But just as the upload neared completion, their radios crackled to life.
"Unknown drone detected near perimeter. Search the area!"
"They've spotted us," Ayodele said, packing the drone into his bag.
"Time to run," Tunde said, already on his feet.
The three of them sprinted back through the jungle, the sound of shouts and footsteps growing closer behind them. Zarah's lungs burned as she pushed herself harder, the weight of her bag and the humid air slowing her down.
"We're not going to make it to the extraction point!" she yelled.
"Keep moving!" Ayodele shouted back.
Suddenly, Tunde stopped, pulling a small device from his pocket. "Go! I'll distract them!"
"What are you doing?" Zarah demanded.
"No time to explain," Tunde said. "Just go! I'll meet you later."
Before she could argue, Tunde pressed a button on the device, triggering a loud explosion in the distance. The mercenaries immediately changed course, heading toward the noise.
"Did he just save us?" Zarah asked as they kept running.
"Or buy himself time for something else," Ayodele replied, not slowing down.
---
They finally reached the airstrip, collapsing onto the ground as the helicopter lifted them into the sky. Zarah looked out the window, her heart heavy despite their escape.
"We have the evidence," she said, her voice tinged with both relief and exhaustion. "But at what cost?"
---