Chapter 197: A Game of Life and Death

Chapter 197: A Game of Life and Death

Desmond laughed like a madman. David snapped his neck in one clean motion, turned, and walked away. "Plane."

Raynor wiped the blood from his face. "Boss, headquarters—"

"Hold it." David didn't break stride. "Till I get back."

The transport shot out from Manhattan's night sky and dropped low, skimming across the ocean.

No one in the cabin spoke.

Mia studied the screen. "Last ping from the commercial jet was southwest of the Amazon. No crash reported on the ground, so they're probably planning to take you alive."

"Veda should still be breathing. Assuming Mateo's still interested in playing his little death game."

"Mateo?" David said. "He's going to die badly."

Hours later, the transport swept over the Amazon's outer edge.

The jungle spread below like a vast black sea. Hot, humid air blasted through the hatch.

"We're here." Mia handed David the tablet. "About twenty miles in, navigation cuts out. Satellite maps go dark. Magnetic field's a mess. Most people who go in get lost."

David stood and picked up his blade.

The transport hovered briefly over an abandoned logging site. Two figures dropped to the ground. The aircraft pulled up and disappeared.

Mia had just opened her portable terminal when the screen flickered. "Damn it. Signal wall's thicker than I thought. They've rigged a magnetic interference net through the trees. Comms won't last more than ten minutes."

David glanced ahead. "That's enough."

They entered the rainforest. Within minutes, Mia frowned. "You smell that?"

"Spores," David said.

Behind a tree root sat several large mushrooms. Their cracked caps released fine gray powder into the warm, humid air, spreading fast.

Mia immediately held her breath and pulled on a filter mask. "These lunatics turned the whole forest into their personal lab."

A sound came from the left front.

David's hand shot out, stopping her.

A leaf drifted down. A silent fireball erupted from the ground, hurling mud and heat in all directions.

Heat-triggered mine.

Mia's back went cold. "He's not planning to face us head-on at all."

Static crackled in her earpiece, followed by a low, raspy laugh. "Welcome to the jungle, David."

Mateo. His voice was cold. "You made good time. I was worried you didn't care that much about the girl."

David kept walking.

Mateo wasn't in a hurry. "I spent a lot of time preparing this hunt for you. Spores, landmines, infrasound, venomous insects, swamps."

"Every step, your body slows down. Your mind gets cloudier. You'll hear sounds that aren't there. You'll see people who shouldn't exist."

Mia swore. "Come out here if you've got the guts!"

Mateo laughed. "Miss, don't be impatient. Once he meets his maker, it'll be your turn."

Communication cut out completely. Then the forest filled with a humming sound.

Mia's face went pale. She nearly dropped to her knees. "Damn it... infrasound generator..."

David grabbed a nearby branch. With a flick of his fingers, the branch shot through the undergrowth twenty meters away. A black device disguised as a tree knot exploded on impact.

The humming faded.

Two more frequencies emerged from different directions.

Mia's breathing quickened. "He's herding you toward the center."

David tore a strip from his shirt and tied it over his eyes.

Mia stared. "What are you doing?"

"He wants to fool me with sight." David raised his blade and moved forward. "So I won't look."

Wind slipped between leaves. Air brushed past tree trunks. Insects churned in the mud. Fungal caps trembled faintly as they released powder. Metal devices buried underground gave off tiny heat signatures. All of it entered his sensory map.

He stepped left, avoiding a tripwire beneath rotting leaves.

Half a meter forward, his blade flicked up. A pressure mine flew into a distant puddle and exploded, sending up a spray of water.

When a cluster of red-leafed flowers started to open on his right, David swept his hand. Telekinetic force ripped the entire plant—roots, dirt, and all—and hurled it into the canopy.

Mia followed, growing more unnerved by the second.

He looked like he was taking a stroll.

Mateo's voice returned. "Interesting."

David stopped abruptly, blade tip resting on the ground.

Thirty meters ahead, nearly invisible nano-wire stretched between trees. Bone-spike traps hung below. The ground was seeded with motion-triggered mines.

David stepped on a stone and tapped it forward. The stone snapped the first wire. The entire trap chain activated. Bone spikes, explosives, poison needles, snares—all went off at once.

Mia couldn't help but laugh. "Mateo's face must be priceless right now."

"Keep going." Mateo's voice turned colder. "I'll be waiting at the finish line."

The jungle grew denser. After about ten minutes, a clearing appeared ahead.

A crumbling Mayan temple sat deep in the jungle, stone steps overgrown with vines, pillars carved with totems.

In front of the temple was a murky green pool, its surface churning with piranhas.

Mia's face darkened. "David."

Above the pool, Veda hung suspended in midair. Her hands were bound behind her back, black tape over her mouth, face deathly pale. Her ankles dangled less than a meter above the water.

Mateo stood on the temple steps in jungle camouflage, playing with a knife, eyes bright with excitement. "How do you like this scene? I spent a long time designing it!"

David stopped at the edge of the pool. "Let her go."

Mateo smiled. "You don't know the rules yet. The moment you use telekinesis, I cut the rope. When she falls, those little guys down there eat her face first. Then her organs."

Mia said quietly, "There's a high-sensitivity transistor array inside. Trigger threshold's extremely narrow. I can't operate it remotely—the magnetic field here's too chaotic."

Mateo raised the knife and licked his lips. "David, get on your knees. Throw away the blade. Hands up. Walk to the bottom of the steps. I want to see what it looks like when someone like you bows his head."

David looked at him. He raised his hand, threw the blade aside, lifted both hands, and walked forward.

Mia's eyes went wide. "David!"

Mateo's smile grew brighter.

David stopped at the pool's edge, only ten or twenty paces from the temple steps.

Mateo's tone was gleeful. "How rare. I thought all you knew how to do was kill."

"That's all I know how to do," David said.

As he spoke, his left hand moved slightly. No obvious change occurred—just an extremely subtle vibration that drilled into the black sensor box.

Inside the box, a micro-transistor cracked silently. The red light stayed on. The surface showed no sign of damage.

Mateo was still smiling. "Now, get on your knees—"

David moved. The ground exploded beneath his feet. He became a blur.

Mateo slammed the remote. The sensor box didn't respond.

Before Mateo could retreat, David had already reached the pool. He leaped, yanked the suspension cable, and caught Veda with his other arm.

They hit the ground and rolled. Piranhas leapt from the pool but caught nothing.

"You—" Mateo pulled his gun to fire.

David landed, yanked the blade from the mud, and threw it in one motion.

The blade sliced through Mateo's throat. Blood sprayed.

David shielded Veda behind him.

Mateo's body tumbled down the steps and rolled into the pool. The surface immediately frothed with murky blood.

Mia ran up and crouched down, tearing the tape from Veda's mouth. "You're okay. Just breathe."

Veda grabbed David's sleeve, voice shaking. "I knew... you'd come..."

"I'm here." David snapped the rope binding her wrists. "Can you walk?"

Veda nodded. "Yes."

Mia stood and kicked Mateo's tactical terminal. "That psycho finally shut up. Give me two minutes. Let me see what else he was hiding."

Mia plugged in a data cable and her fingers flew across the keyboard. "Lots of encryption layers, but there's no live biometric check anymore. How thoughtful."

David surveyed the area outside the temple.

After a moment, Mia swore under her breath. "Found it."

She pulled up a new map.

An island near the equator. The island was circled in red. And it was an active volcano.

"This is where the Soul Sanctum's leader is hiding." Mia looked at David. "The main fragment of the Origin Meteorite is there."

"Not a warehouse or an outpost. The real core of the Soul Sanctum."