Chapter 4

Ten minutes before six, I entered my den to check for any missed calls. Two on the home phone, both from Julie. Same with the cell sitting next to it. Remembering the easy instructions from the manual, I listened to Lieutenant Perkin’s exasperation and explanation of an emergency in Manaus City that she left on my cell phone’s voicemail. My presence was strongly requested by the Brazilian government.

Calling my government assigned aide back, “What is the emergency?”

Aggravated, the intelligence officer snapped. “I thought you were going to carry your phone? The Tarantula attacked a teen beauty pageant in Manaus City. Three dozen sixteen-year-old girls were kidnapped, along with ten of the chaperones. Twenty-nine confirmed dead at the pageant site.

“Tarantula headed south into the rainforest with his captives. The Brazilian forces are keeping an eye on the situation, but since his poison is too strong for any of the locals to survive, no one is willing to make a move.

“I am five minutes away, go pack.” My newest aide was excitable today.

“I’ll have Rebecca pack a to go.” Click.

Carrying my phone as instructed, “Rebecca, would you pack dinner to eat on the plane?”

“Where are you off to this time?”

“Brazil.”

“Don’t forget your homework,” she snickered.

I didn’t, but worried that I would not make my next class.

Julie sat across from me, while the pilots checked down their preflight lists. Jan and Oliver were on today’s rotation. The young Lieutenant still glared at me for the additional delay. She had been calling me for the two hours previous of me returning her call.

Let her fume, I too had a life and could not always make it to every emergency in time. Some were too far away and some happened to quickly for a response. Then there were the ones that should be handled by the locals and I had no interest in interfering.

She would learn or burn out.

I called up the report to read while waiting for the plane to taxi.

“I’m surprised you don’t have a hostess.” Someone was being snide.

“It’s easier without. Sometimes a second flight team travels with us in case of multiple planned stops.” I let the sudden acceleration push me back in the seat, as the engines revved up and the nose of the aircraft lifted off the runway.

“I can’t believe you have your own Air Force One.”

“It was a gift from the UN.”

“Less excuses not to help other nations?”

“Correct. But it’s well equipped and I still chose when and who.”

“Like Myramar?”

“That was a Super sponsored revolution, not a Super uprising. I will not get involved with those. If the UN wanted to settle that, they could have sent in their forces. They didn’t, but expected me to do their bidding.”

“I heard that they had a closed-door session after that. It was about you, not them, right?”

“I might have delivered a message.”

“I bet. You get these types of requests all the time, don’t you?” Finally, she was settling down and thinking again.

“Four hundred and ninety-seven last year.”

“And they expect you to fly off to all of them?”

“Not anymore.” I grinned. At least some of the powers that be received the message learned from the mistakes of others.

“How do you choose?”

“Most cases are the individual countries not wanting to look bad and trying to shove the responsibility and blame on me. It’s the same with me refusing the requests, yet they blame me. Some, like this one, are impossible to resolve cleanly. Tarantula uses traps and generates an extremely deadly poison. I won’t be able to save everyone.”

Trying to understand my reasoning, she asked, “Is that a criteria for you to help them?”

“No. It needs to involve a Super and the locals need to be in an untenable situation. Something I feel that no one else can do. This one, a team of snipers might be able to kill Tarantula, but if they fail, it will lead to a slaughter of the captives. What are his known specs?”

“Jesus Diago, age 29, 5’9” 160, active Villain for six years. Type II in Body, Agility, Strength. Type V in Poison generation. Exceptional skills are ambush, traps, botany. I sent you a picture of him. Pox marks on the left side of his face, upper and lower cheeks; besides that, he is unremarkable.”

We spent the rest of the six-hour flight discussing what was expected of me and what I would accept in return. She, like the rest, expected too much of me.

Shortly before eleven, our time, her phone rang with a silly children’s friend meme as the ring tone. “Hi ... in the air ... Georgetown area, I think, we just crossed over into South America ... Brazil. Bach got called for help ... A couple days, its work not fun ... No clue ... It is work. We won’t have time to go to the opera ... save some girls from the Villain Tarantula in the rainforest...” I tuned out the rest of her conversation with Tracey. Though the body of this plane was wider than normal for its size, the executive Lear was still only an eighteen-seater with a small bedroom, bathroom and kitchenette.

The following morning, Lieutenant Perkins and I sat with Brazilian Super Heroine Light Ray and four members of the local military, going over satellite images and what information they had of the area and the disposition of the girls.

The thirty-five sixteen-year old’s safety were my priority, then the ten chaperones. Tarantula was tertiary. If he were to walk away right now, I would return home. He was an internal matter.

“Has he offered any demands?” Julie opened in English. Neither of us spoke Portuguese. All five of our hosts spoke English well enough.

“Just one. ‘Go away.’ He sent the message out with one of the chaperones. A mother of one of the contestants. She was heavily poisoned and died on the way to the hospital.” Which, according to my briefing, was over forty minutes away on the unpaved cart paths they called roads in this area. We were well clear of any heavily populated cities.

“Snipers?” Not that I expected a positive answer but needed to ask.

“Limited range and visibility. Tarantula took over a small village from the natives. Too many hiding spots and partially buried hovels. Never are more than five of the girls seen moving around at one time. All naked, except for bottoms, doing typical chores such as carrying water or cooking.”

“Any sighting of the chaperones?”

“Never more than one at a time. In the last twenty hours, we have counted six of the nine remaining.”

“This place should be a haven for snipers. You don’t need to be that far away and still keep coverage.”

“The whole area is laced with his webs and strong corrosive poison.” added the native Heroine contact, Light Ray. “It eats through your clothes and paralyzes you. Two men have died, trying to infiltrate the area. Two are still in the trees waiting for a shot. We are afraid that he will kill more women before we can get good gear delivered.”

“Sounds like your side is dragging their feet. Show me the satellite images.”

In the next two hours the seven of us, mostly Julie and her counterpart, a Captain Rothchild of the Brazilian army, discussed the terrain and Tarantula sightings. They had pinned him down to an area around the largest tree, often seen in the company of two slow moving girls. From the thermal images alone, Julie was doubtful that they were the same two. The canopy was too good of coverage against the eyes in the sky for any decent identification.

We needed more information. I was good in forests, but this was his home turf and rainforests were different than what I was used to in southern America, pre- and post-Civil War.

“Date not go well?” Kendra met her friend in their agreed meeting spot, sitting alone in a private room in the library

“That was great. Mom.” That last word was laden with disgust.

“I thought she would be happy, he’s older, rich and good looking. What did she complain about now?”

“Everything. The usual, she is unhappy that I don’t like any of her friend’s sons.”

“You never gave them a try.”

“I didn’t need to.” Lea shot her best friend a sharp look.

“Allen wasn’t bad.”

“Right. ‘wasn’t bad’. I noticed you never went on a second date with him, or anyone else from Hill Shiire.” The private country club that their families shared membership in.

“But I tried. It got me off the hook for the rest of those asses.”

“Mom wouldn’t have given up until I married one of them. I don’t have to worry about that now, though.”

“What happened?” sensing the depressed mood of her friend and knowing what Lea’s controlling mother was like, anything was possible including boarding school.

“Grandfather threw her out. He told dad they had to move out in thirty days. There was a huge fight in my room over it.”

“Woah.”

“Yeah, ‘Woah.”

“You have to move too?”

“No. Grandfather said I can stay as long as I want. He has been hinting that he was tired of her shit since he retired. I think mom went too far last weekend and he snapped.”

“What did your dad say?”

“He was cool about it. He ended up dragging mom to their room. I put my headphones on and did homework after that.”