The Chaos Order (Fanghunters Book Three) (36 page)

T
he guy at the workshop was sympathetic to their needs once they lubricated his palm with enough cash. He even fetched them some rope, which Rafa needed for the bow.

Rafa got to work, while Dom watched on. Rafa knew what he was doing; he’d made these things before, but the blueprints were for a more powerful version. The guy who owned the workshop watched them with suspicious eyes. Dom just flashed him a grin every now and then, just to keep him cool.

After a lot of sawing and hammering, eventually, Rafa had a fully operational crossbow in his hands. He brought it up to his eyeline, aimed and pulled the wooden trigger. The bow pulled forward.

Rafa nodded in appreciation. “Good.”

“You the man, Rafa,” Dom said, giving him a high-five.

The workshop guy just stared at them like they were crazy. No doubt, he was wondering why these two foreigners were making crossbows.

“We’re hunting snakes,” Dom said to him. The guy just grinned and nodded in response. Dom had no clue if he understood or not.

Rafa grabbed one of the skewers Trixie bought from the barbequed meat guy outside. The workshop guy had already sawed off the handles for them. Rafa slotted the skewer into the crossbow; it fit perfectly. He brought the string back and aimed. He nodded. “Good.”

He then pointed at a beat up chunk of wood over in the corner. The workshop guy went and grabbed it and set it up on a nearby counter. Rafa stood back and aimed.

Dom watched on in anticipation. Rafa squeezed the trigger. The skewer cut through the air like a bullet. It slammed into the piece of wood with a dull thud.

Dom flinched, then began clapping. “Woohoo!”

Rafa nodded his head slow and deliberate as he stepped up to the chunk of wood. The skewer had dug right into it as straight as an arrow. He grabbed it and pulled, having to yank it out with a lot of force it was so embedded.

“Man, that thing’s powerful,” Dom stated, staring at the deep hole in the piece of wood.

Rafa nodded. “Better than an AK-47 for killing vampires, huh,
amigo
?”

Dom grinned. “You know it!”

They both began laughing. The workshop guy just carried on staring at them in bewilderment.

T
rixie bought a pair of denim jeans from another stall and cut off the legs. A bit of duct tape on one end and rope attached to the other and hey presto, they had a couple of quivers. By then, Rafa had fashioned another crossbow. He wanted to get to work on a third and fourth, but the workshop guy started to get agitated. The gist was he didn’t want them around any longer. Either they were spooking him out, or they were interfering with his day-to-day stuff, they couldn’t work it out. Either way, they had to leave.

They would’ve preferred a weapon each, but hey, beggars couldn’t be choosers. At least a couple of them were armed.

They hit the streets once more. They decided the boys should have the toys, so Dom and Rafa took a crossbow each and slung them over their shoulders with the rope Rafa had attached to them. They rested on their backs, visible for everyone to see. Trixie went and bought a couple of lightweight jackets for the guys to wear to conceal the crossbows. Once they hit the Amazon and were out of the harbor, they could get rid of them.

Now they had weapons, Dom felt much more secure. It wasn’t perfect, and he questioned the durability of a homemade crossbow, but hey, it was better than going in unarmed.

He loaded up his quiver and wore it around his other shoulder; it hung by his waist nice and snug. Now, they were set. All they needed was a boat.

W
hile Dom and Alicia went to get some food for their journey, Trixie and Rafa looked for a boat to hire.

The water by the harbor was littered worse than a child’s playroom. Trash bobbed on its surface; rotten food and plastic that would most likely still be there in a hundred years’ time. Trixie pushed past the lines of people waiting to get on boats, seeking out a small, fast one. She finally found what she was looking for right near the end of the harbor.

A small guy with a mustache, wearing shorts, a Brazilian soccer shirt, and flip flops then came strolling toward them from the deckchair he’d set up. He grinned and nodded. “
Olá,
” he said.

Trixie nodded her head in return. She pointed at the boat. “How much for hire?”

The guy began calculating in his mind, most probably adding foreigner tax to the summation. He showed her one finger.

“One thousand per day?” Trixie asked.

The guy grinned.

Even though Trixie had no experience with the value of Brazilian money, she knew it was too much. It didn’t matter. She pulled up her smartphone.

“We want to go here,” she said, showing him the screen.

He stared at it with a frown. He then nodded. “Okay.”

CHAPTER FORTY

D
om and Alicia met them at the harbor. Their boatman, the small mustachioed guy, Gustavo, but they should call him Gus, helped them get their stuff on board and then they set off.

Gus choked the engine into life and they moved out, chugging through the basin, where they’d join the Amazon. As the boat pulled away through the dirty water, Dom fell back in his seat. He looked around him, checking out the boat; it was rickety, chipped, the paint worn off in places. Jaws would snap it in two with one bite. “Man, is the best thing you could find?” he asked Trixie.

“It’ll get us there. In good time,” Trixie replied, her eyes fixed on the horizon.

“Let’s hope we won’t need a bigger one,” Dom quipped, twitching his nose against the miasma of gas and polluted water filling the air.

The engine roared, and the boat glided through the water. Gus weaved in and out of tourist boats with the expertise of an F1 racer. In no time, they left the touristy parts of the Amazon behind them. As they delved deeper into the river, the jungle took over. Now the wide banks were flanked by overhanging palm trees and thick vegetation, the kind of which Dom had never seen before. Bright yellow and cyan colored birds flew from tree-to-tree with energetic squawks, the flap of their wings vibrating the canopy.

Dom looked overboard. Dirty brown water stared back at him. His mind fizzed with images of piranha fish lurking beneath that opaque surface. He pulled himself back in, suddenly the notion of falling in a living nightmare. He fell back, his stomach grinding up and down with the motion of the water. Dom didn’t mind traveling, it was the getting there that was the problem. At least water was better than air. The current was pretty stable and his stomach was only dancing instead of somersaulting like Trixie chasing Blacklake thugs. The good thing was, they were moving at a good pace; old Gus had this thing down, avoiding and overtaking other boats.

Dom glanced up at the sky. The sun was baking the whole area; it reflected off the dirty water in dazzling fragments that burned Dom’s retinas every time he looked at them.

“How long is this boat ride?” he asked, putting on his Yankees cap.

“I’ve got no idea,” Trixie replied.

Dom looked over at Alicia and Rafa. They were sitting at the back of the boat, watching things unfold. Dom went and sat next to Alicia. “Enjoying the ride?”

“I’ve always wanted to see the Amazon,” Alicia told him.

“Betcha never guessed it would be hunting an ancient vampire.”

Alicia laughed. “No, I thought it would be with my father. He would have found this fascinating.”

“Shame he couldn’t be here to see it.” He gave her a sympathetic smile.

“Thanks for helping me get revenge for him,” Alicia said. “You were very brave going after Víbora.”

Dom shrugged sheepishly. “Eh, it was nothing. I’m used to chasing down vamps now.”

Trixie rolled her eyes.

“You’re so heroic, Dom,” Alicia told him.

Dom flexed his triceps. “Yeah, I suppose I am. I dodge bullets, hunt vamps, swing from trees, punch bad guys. When you think about it, I’m a regular survivor type. Like a James Bond or a MacGyver.”

“Ma-
who
?”

“Oh, some guy. Don’t worry about it.”

Alicia rubbed his arm. “I like the water. It feels better than being in the air.”

Dom looked around. They’d reached a more isolated part of the river with just a few boats here and there, the water stretching out to lush green banks. Their boat bobbed up and down on the current, the engine chugging like an old chimney.

“Don’t you think, Dom?” she asked, looking up at him.

Dom painted on a smile. “Yeah, it’s great.”

An hour passed and the boat continued along through the endless stream of water. The sun rose higher into the sky and grew more intense. There was no escape from it other than underneath his cap. And with nothing to look at apart from dirty water and jungle, boredom was setting in. To help relieve it, Dom took out his trusty Zippo. He flicked her open and sparked her up. The flame burned against the mid-morning sun. He popped the lid back on, killing the flame.

“What’s that?” Alicia asked.

“Lucky Zippo. Mary Lou from Kentucky gave it to me as a parting gift.”

“An old girlfriend?”

“Kinda.”

“She pretty?”

Dom glanced over at Trixie. He met her emerald eyes for a split second. They held, then she looked away to the water. “Yeah,” Dom said. “Very.” He started grinning as he recalled the image of Mary Lou. “She was a cheerleader. So, yeah, she was hot.” He cupped his hands in front of his chest. “She had the most amazing—” He caught Trixie’s acidic stare. His grin drooped. “Brain,” he finished with a sigh. “She had the most amazing brains.”

Trixie looked away.

Dom shook his head. Man, he hated having to watch his mouth.

He turned his attention back to Alicia.

“How about you?” Dom asked. “There a man in your life?”

“There was,” Alicia replied and looked downward. “Pablo. His family owned a farm just outside Tijuana. But, Los Verdugos forced him to join them. They were looking to recruit new members. Young, strong guys. They took them away in trucks, made them fight for the cartel.”

“Jeez... I’m sorry to hear that.”

“They’re always the first to die,
hombre
,” Rafa said, his face contorted in disgust. “Then, the cartels just go and kidnap more.”

“Do you know what happened to him?” asked Dom.

“He died,” Alicia told him.

Dom met Trixie’s stare; she looked down.

“Died in a shootout with a rival gang. At least that’s what I heard.”

“I’m sorry, Alicia,” Dom said.

“He was the reason me and my father and the others created the
autodefensa
against Los Verdugos. That’s why I fight.” She glanced at Rafa. “Why we all fight.”

Rafa gave her a firm nod. He placed an arm around Alicia and rubbed her shoulder.

“These vamps have caused all kindsa trouble, huh?” Dom said, nodding his head in a rueful fashion.

“It’s why they must be stopped,” Alicia said.