Chapter 362

We had things alright, but what we needed was intelligence. I was trying to decide how I would go about getting the solar guy's location. It was while I was still running bad idea around my mind that the knock came on the door.

I hid the fire arms quickly then opened it. The woman standing there might have been twenty five but she looked fifteen. "Yes?" I asked in Spanish.

"I am from the American Embassy," she said. "They call me Olivia there."

"Come in," I said quickly. "I am Maxine and this is Jerrod."

"Welcome, I am sorry you are here for such an unpleasant matter. My people are not like this," she said.

"We all have things happen that are not ordinary," I suggested. "Do you have Mr. Williams location yet?"

"No, we are working on it, but so far nothing," she said.

That's not good. Do you know what group has him?" I asked.

"We are pretty sure it is a religious sect that has kidnapped him. Since they have made no demands, we have no idea why," she informed me.

"Maybe he is just leverage to make you listen to their demands. whenever they decide to issue them. He might have just been a target of opportunity. They are probably trying to get their list together now," I suggested. "What we need to do is concentrate on finding where he is being held. We can't do much of anything without information. The longer it takes us the better he will be secured."

"We have a couple of leads, but we just haven't been able to find out anything for sure," she suggested.

"If you knew anything for sure, I am sure that you would raid the location. Jerrod and I are going to just take a look around any places that just seems suspicious. So where would you suggest we start?" I asked it not at all sure she would answer.

"From a phone tap, we think they might have Williams in a small village about ten miles down the road. They could drift into the jungle, if the army pulls into the village," she suggested.

"Well that would be a real good plan for sure," I said. "Can you get us a couple of bicycles. We need a cover story. I think a couple of newly weds on a bicycle trip would be a good cover. Of course that means we will have to leave all these cute weapons behind. I am going to hate that," I said.

"Jerrod get a good nights sleep, we will be leaving in the morning for that little town where the sect is located. By the way Olivia, what do they call themselves?"

"They call themselves The Shining Path. They have always been militant, but this will be their first kidnapping. I want to come with you," she said.

"I can't fit you into the cover story. We can meet there if you like, just tell us where to go," I suggested.

"The Path has a meeting house in El Riola. If they have Williams, he will most likely be in one of the buildings surrounding the meeting house," she said.

"You know odds are this is going to be a wild goose chase," Jerrod said.

"Yes, but if you never chase, you are definitely never going to find anything," I informed him. "Besides now and then you have to get lucky." Actually the odds were a little better than fifty/fifty. The locals had reason to believe that the Path was planning something so this just seemed to fit in with that. If not there would likely be something else for us to check. We had things to do for sure.

Olivia had a large Mercedes, so she and I went shopping for bicycles while Jerrod slept. He was exhausted, as I would have been if I had been normal. Since I was who I was, I didn't need to rest. I would have to find an hour to be alone with the power grid at some point, but at that moment I was fine.

I found two bicycle with gears and suspension systems at the international department store in Santa Cruz. The bicycles were pretty good I suspected. We weren't planning to ride them for twenty years, so I was sure they would do fine. One of the bikes was red and one was yellow.

I put a couple of large backpacks onto the cart along with the two boxed bicycles. I was forced to pay for them, before the store mechanic would put the bikes together for me. One of the bikes was red and one was yellow. They cost me the equivalent of $165 American dollars each. Since I was on my honeymoon, I felt as though I should have bought the best.

I also bought a bike carrier for the Mercedes. It was after 9PM when we got back to the bungalow. Jerrod awoke when we entered. Once he was sure that it was me, he returned to sleep. It was a good thing to be able to do, sleep in strange places and at strange times that is.

For the next couple of hours I rested and recharged, which was really just recharging. When the sun came up, I was ready to go. Jerrod was starved, as well ready to go. We rode the bikes to a small sidewalk cafe.

I knew nothing of the local food, so I just asked, "Could I have what that young woman over there is having?" Since it looked pretty good and she seemed to be enjoying it, I felt pretty safe in trying it.

It was actually quite good. There was the flavor of cinnamon and animal flesh. They were combined somehow inside a pancake like thing, but it was good. Jerrod and I looked the part of a couple on our honeymoon. We were very attentive to each other's needs.

When we rode off toward the small suburb of El Riola, I had to force myself to keep the pace down to a comfortable cadence for Jerrod. Even so we made the ten miles in just over two hours. We might have done much better had the road not been just awful. It was a real struggle to keep the pace up.