Love in the Midst of Chaos

Favelas

"But they can't know it. The animals, the bats."

"Can't know what?" I look over to Chloe.

"That's it's only our technology that keeps us from being their prey."

Mitch shifts a bit, "Are you asking if the animals have somehow developed a hyper-intelligence?"

I take a deep breath, "whether they know it or not, this mission just became a whole lot more interesting."

"And much less amusing." Abe nods.

"How far can bats see?" Chloe looks between Mitch and I.

I shrug, "depends. Some can only see about 25 feet, others a few hundred yards."

"Why?" Mitch sighs.

"We go far out into the forest" Chloe looks between the three of us as she stands and puts her hands on her back, "and we hook up something with an electromagnetic signal, and we boost it somehow so the bats can't miss it."

"Once there, they'll be too fat away to see any other electromagnetic source." Abe stands and nods.

"Exactement." Chloe nods, "so maybe they remain there."

"All right. Whoa. Whoa." Mitch shakes his head, "Let's try and remember our designations here, okay?" Mitch gestures between him and I, "we're the scientists. You're the analyst." he looks from Chloe to Abe, "Still not sure what you are."

I shake my head, "But it could work."

"No... yes... maybe... if we had something that gave off that kind of signal."

I think for a moment, "the cellular antenna. From the favela."

"The favelas..." Mitch looks over to me a bit shocked, "Yeah, you don't remember what happened to us out there?"

Chloe nods, "Real cellular antennae, those owned by phone companies, will be secured behind locked gates."

"No. no way."

I stand and cross my arms as I look down to Mitch, "do you have any other ideas?"

"You support this plan?" Mitch looks over to Abe.

"Yes." Abe nods.

"We have to do something." I shake my head, "if we don't, it will literally rain poison, and as you pointed out and I already know, that will affect every living thing in Rio. Now I'm not sure about you, Mitch, but I'm pretty sure that includes us and being poisoned wasn't' exactly on my list of things to do."

Finally Mitch gives in and we head back to the favela. But not before Abe steals a truck for us to haul the box in. Chloe, Mitch, and I head to the antenna before Abe gets there, hoping we can get it down and ready by the time Abe gets there, so there is less of a chance we will get caught. Chloe and I watch as Mitch climbs up the pole and starts to try and remove the antenna. While we wait Chloe's phone goes off and I can only assume it's Abe, "We'll be ready." She states before putting her phone back in her pocket.

"Think I almost got it." Mitch grunts as he undoes a few bolts.

"Almost got what?" Chloe and I turn as we hear someone call out to us, "I can't even begin to understand what's happening right now." We turn and see the men who stopped us earlier.

Chloe moves to take out her gun, but I stop her, "Don't," I whisper. I turn my attention to the men, "you're making a mistake."

The leader gestures for the men to take Chloe's gun and they do, as he points a gun at us, "Only mistake was keeping Enzo on his leash earlier."

"Hey." Mitch pants, having climbed down, "we're... we're actually just trying to solve your bat problem."

"Oh, yeah?" The man lowers his gun, "Aliado, it looks to me like you've got

a bat problem all your own." Enzo runs over to us and hits Mitch in the stomach with the bat. He grunts as he falls to the ground. I drop to my knees to make sure Mitch is okay, helping him set up.