HELIX (a technothriller)

14 - Aberrations

TODAY

Cartagena, Colombia

Damien woke suddenly, Nasira's elbow catching him in the ribs. She was in the back seat, peering through a window with her night vision monocular. Damien was beside her, sitting so low that he'd fallen asleep. Driving in shifts through half of Central America would do that to you. Even with regular changeovers, they'd clocked thirty hours and seven vehicles before they'd even reached Colombia. Her latest steal was an old midnight blue Chevrolet sedan. Damien found the blue an odd choice but didn't comment. Until they figured out who'd flagged Jay's passport, they weren't going anywhere near an airport.

'They're here,' she said.

Damien rubbed his eyes and checked Nasira's phone. The GPS locator she'd fixed to the vessel was blinking close to the port. Their guess had been right, this port was where they were heading. He looked past the front seat and saw a large lumbering freight vessel approach the Colombian port of Cartagena.

He checked his watch. The sun would rise soon, but for now the bay was dark and still. On the other side, wafer-thin skyscrapers sparkled in the night.

'They have a bus ready?' Damien asked.

'Nothing yet,' she said.

Damien reached for a fresh bottle of water and slowly opened it. It fizzed, and he cursed. He'd purchased carbonated water by accident again because his Spanish was terrible.

Nasira kept her eye glued to the monocular. They waited for the vessel to dock.

She spoke quickly. 'Standby,' she said. 'I think I see the captives.'

She handed the monocular to him. He peered through and saw four armed guards in civilian clothes guiding two people with hands bound behind their back. They weren't blindfolded or hooded, but they looked sluggish, sedated.

'OK, I see two of them,' Damien said.

'Front seat. After me.'

Damien waited for her to wiggle forward, into the driver's seat, careful not to bump the wheel and hit the horn. Then he climbed through to the front passenger seat.

'I don't see a—'

'There it is,' Nasira said, looking over the dashboard.

She didn't point, but he could see she was watching a small silver van as it pulled up in front of a shipping crane mounted on rail tracks. The van's headlamps bathed Nasira's Chevrolet in blue-white light. Damien slid down, just in time to avoid the light catching his pale skin. In the driver's seat, Nasira slouched low.

Risking a glance over the dashboard, Damien counted two men in civilian clothes, armed with carbines and rifles, climb out of the van and wait.

Damien cracked his window open a fraction. The air was still warm and heavy, and he could smell the sea salt. Putting his enhanced hearing to good use, he listened as someone orders to put the two passengers in the van. The engine growled. Nasira flinched. She wanted to move but she couldn't just yet. Damien rolled up his window.

He held their last GPS tracker in his hand. 'I could try and sneak up, slap it on there.'

Nasira shook her head. 'I want you to tag them more than anyone. But if their security is half decent, you'll blow our chances.'

'I know, but if I pull it off, we can follow from a distance and then—'

'And then they get spooked, switch vehicles and we lose Jay forever,' Nasira said. 'No way.'