The big custom-built Hummers bumped their way through the
jungle along the rutted road to the oil fields. It was hardly Callie's first
trip out there but it was the first in such prestigious company. Her father's
boss and some man from the State Department, of all things, traveled with them.
It didn't look as if she'd need the book she had in her backpack, or get the
chance to read it.
Oddly enough, it was turning out to be something of an
occasion. Originally, they hadn't planned to bring her along on this trip but
she'd just turned eighteen and was due to fly back home to the states in just a
few weeks. In less than a month she'd start her first year at Princeton
University with a major in international studies. As it happened, Princeton was
where both her father's boss, Tony Gallegos, and the man from the State
Department, Phillip Reeves, had attended college. Once her father mentioned it,
both men insisted on bringing her along so they could fill her in and trade
stories of their time there.
There were several vehicles in the expedition into the
jungle where the oilrigs were located, a truck with some of the oil field
workers, cars with guards both ahead and behind, another truck carrying
supplies and their own Hummer.
Except for the presence of Mr. Reeves, it was a fairly
routine trip. Tensions over the oil were rising among some of the more radical
groups in the area so he'd come to try to negotiate with them to see if he
could smooth the waters a bit.
First, though, he wanted to visit the oil fields. A lot of
people were pretty pissed about it and some of them would be even more so if
they knew about this trip. Some of them thought that statement said too much
about his priorities, that like in Iraq the oil fields were more important to
the U.S. than the negotiations. It was the oil that Reeves really cared about.
Callie had even heard some of that kind of talk on the
streets among the people she hung out with there, her parkour and free-running
friends.
Listening to him on the way out, she couldn't really argue
the point, it was all he talked about, the importance of the oil fields. That
was, when he wasn't talking about Princeton and the bars she had to visit in
the towns near the campus once she was there.
So far, though, the trip had gone pretty quietly with the
two men trading stories of their days at college. Callie caught an amused and
resigned look from her father when the other two men weren't watching. He gave
her a wink and she smothered a grin.
She glanced out the windows at the thick undergrowth that
ran so close beside the windows here along the road where the sun could reach
and then up at the trees that towered high above them. Branches clattered and
scraped against the glass. The sky was cloudy and dark above them, the sunlight
of the morning vanishing as the rainy season clouds rolled in. To those who
didn't know the rain forest it was surprisingly cool, the clammy air thick and
heavy with moisture. Some folks thought the humidity at home was bad but they'd
never been in the jungle in the rainy season.
Both Mr. Gallegos and Mr. Reeves were reminiscing again over
their days at college. Callie restrained a sigh, listening with only half an
ear. A part of her longed for the book in her backpack. It was a long usually
boring trip, broken only by the appearance of an animal or bird erupting out of
the brush but now she couldn't even read or she'd look rude.
The sudden chatter of automatic weapon fire shattered the
boredom, the quiet.
Instantly it became a green and scarlet nightmare as bodies
shuddered with the impact of bullets, blood sprayed, screams and cries ran out
as men fell amid the shouting and confusion.
