Jack Canyon and The Curse of The Spider Queen | CHAPTER SEVEN

Words: 1857

Jack stared at all the guns that the gang had pointed at him
as he froze and held his arms up. "I'm unarmed."

"Check him," Adriana, the leader spoke to one of the men.

Jack jumped a little as the man frisked him. "Hey, I'm
ticklish."

"Ah, an American sense of humor," the Latin woman spoke.
"Who are you?"

"I should be asking you the same question, sweetheart," Jack
said in response.

"Cocky attitude, signature Carhartt pants, and tee," she said
as she circled him. "It doesn't take a genius to spot the
world renown tomb raider, Jack Canyon."

Jack gave a cocky grin. "So, you've heard of me way down in
these parts, eh?"

"We have," Adriana Juarez replied. "We do not like
competitors." She stopped in front of him. "What we do to
those who come looking for what is ours is. . ." She pulled a
small dagger from a sheath on her belt.

"Surely, we can work a deal," he bargained.

"We don't make deals, Mr. Canyon," Adriana stated. "We just
kill and take money."

"You're nothing but a gang of looters, robbers," Jack
scoffed, which didn't get a happy response.

"Bring in Kel," she spoke to one of the males.

"Kel?" Jack asked.

"Yes, that is what we call him," Adriana answered. "His name
is Kelmo." She smiled as Jack's body was engulfed in a
shadow. "Little Kelmo."

Jack felt something against his back. "I sure hope that
isn't Kel." He looked back at the large man and then back at
Adriana. He laughed nervously. "That's not Kel, it's a
tree."

The husky man wrapped both his large hands around Jack's
throat and lifted him straight up.

"Maybe not a tree even," Jack struggled through chokes. "He
smells like a mammoth. Maybe you should bathe him more
often. Take him down. . ." He gasped. "To the local
watering hole."

"Now, you're infamous for having a female partner," Adriana
said as she looked up at Jack. "Where is she hiding?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Jack said hoarsely.


The Brazilian woman nodded at the mountain of a man. "Kill
him."

Jack put his feet flat against the beast's chest and pushed
himself off. He landed on his back and rolled away just
before Kelmo could stomp on him.

Kel reached down and grabbed Jack by the shirt and tossed him
through a fragile brick wall. Before the dust could clear,
Kelmo walked through the newly made hole. He didn't see Jack
at all.

Jack had climbed up a staircase to his left to get away from
the burly Brazilian man. His clothes were covered in dust now, as was his
face. He turned back to see the man chasing him.

Sophia continued to watch the two women giving orders to the
men in their native tongue. The men began to fan out in
search of something, in search of her.

Suddenly, right behind her, Jack crashed through another
stone wall. He rolled down the rubble and came to a halt.
Sophia had screamed and jumped out into the open where the
Brazilian men could take her into custody.

"Stop or I kill her!" Adriana shouted with her blade to
Sophia's throat.

Jack stood up but was a little shaken and beaten. "Alright,
I'm stopped."

"Good," Adriana said as she turned away and made way back to
the gang's campsite. "Bring him."

"Whoa! Whoa!" Jack's hands rose in a surrendering position,
before Kel could force him forward. "I'll move on my own."
He joined Sophia and they walked down the hall toward the
bonfire. "Nothing witty to say?"

Sophia's stare turned toward Jack. "You just couldn't leave
these people alone, could you?"

"This isn't entirely my fault," Jack argued.

"Well, there's no one else here to blame," she told him.

"Why are you here?" Adriana asked as she turned around
abruptly and faced them.

"We're searching for the lost city of the Spider Queen," Jack
admitted. "Maybe you've heard the story."

"Who hasn't?" The other Brazilian woman spoke out. She was
the same build as Adriana, but shorter. Her name was
Jacarei.

"You think it is here?" Adriana questioned. "You think it
is in my jungle?"

"Well, yeah," Jack replied confidently.

"If it was anywhere in my jungle, I would know about it!"

"We have a map," Jack spoke up. "If you help us find it, you
can keep all the riches inside."

Adriana narrowed her eyes at the archaeologist. This sounded
too good to be true. "What's in it for you?"

"I'm just here looking for a friend of mine," Jack stated.
"John Baxter. He's an archaeologist. Maybe you heard of him
or had seen him." Jack opened the journal to the map with
this temple and the river. "He came through here."

Adriana examined the page in the diary for a brief moment.
"That is Rio Madre de Dios."

"Can you lead us here?" Jack asked. "We just want our
friend. Whatever is in the city is all yours."

Adriana looked at Jack's eyes to see if he was sincere.
"Fine. We have a deal, but cross me and Kel will be your
demise."

"Once we reach the river, I'll show you the following pages,"
Jack told her.

Adriana nodded and then spoke to her men, who quickly began
gathering their things.

Jack and Sophia stood firm and awaited for everything to
settle down.

Once everything was calm, Adriana approached the duo. "The
river is not far. Come."

Jack and Sophia blended into the gang as they all hiked
through the jungle toward the river.

Once at the river, Jack noticed canoes tied to trees on the
bank. He hoped this wasn't their form of transport. "You
know, they have boats with motors."

"Motors make noise and alert people," Adriana said. "With
our manpower we do fine."

Jack glanced back at Kelmo. "Well, when you have King Kong
paddling the boat, of course."

Adriana looked up at the two archaeologists from the long canoe. There were three canoes, with two seating all the men and one for Kelmo, Jacarei, and Adriana. "Get in," she said forcibly.

Jack and Sophia slowly stepped into the canoes, but Kel couldn't help himself and shoved Jack down. The canoe might have been fifteen or twenty feet long, but it was very claustrophobic with the giant in it.

"Kelmo!" Jacarei cried out. She kept her death glare at him until he lowered his head and got into the canoe.

Jack and Sophia sat on separate ends, so they could not plan an escape. Jacarei and Adriana sat in the middle of the canoe while Kel sat in back to paddle. Their canoe went out first, drifting along the current of the river.

The second canoe held about four or six men, as did the third canoe. It was a large gang with a vast territory all over the Amazon rain forest and parts of the Andes mountains.

Sophia noted a family of otters along the bank as well as some monkeys and macaws in the trees. It was really a jungle out there. Even a lone jaguar was moving through the trees in search of its prey. She suddenly felt her own arms cuddling her at the sight of the jaguar. She was slightly skittish of the large cat. "Oh, look, turtles."

"Amazonian turtles," Adriana mentioned.

"Why are they all swimming in unison in one direction?" She asked, looking up for a moment. That's when she saw desolate banks. The Giant River Otters had vanished along with the monkeys and parrots (macaws). "Did the jaguars scare them off?"

"No, caiman," Jacarei pointed out along the bend in the river.

Caiman?" Sophia asked as she looked up ahead. "What's that?" That's when she spotted large alligators. "Oh, that can't be good."

Two large caiman slid off into the river to Sophia's dismay. The smaller ones stayed on the sandy bank.

The canoe shook for a moment startling Sophia. It felt like it bumped into a floating log. Then the canoe shook harder, throwing Sophia out.

"Sophia!" Jack screamed as he stood up in the rocking wooden canoe. The water was calm for only a moment. He kept his eyes focused on the water until he spotted the tail of an alligator raise up and dive under where Sophia had fallen. Remembering that Kelmo had a large knife on his side, Jack jerked around and pulled the knife free before diving into the water.

"Jack! NO!" Adriana cried out as he dove off the canoe. "Idiot."

The water was splashed about and whirled in places, but stopped moments later. Everyone in the canoes watched with anticipation. Then blood billowed up to the surface of the water.

"Oh, no," Adriana said squeamishly. Then she spotted Sophia's head pop out of the water. "Help her, Kel."

Kelmo grabbed her arms and pulled her into the boat.

"Where's Jack?" Sophia asked, gasping for breath. She flung her head back, whipping her hair out of her face.

In a shimmer of light, something came out of the water and over the side of the boat. It was an arm that clenched Kel's dagger. Kelmo immediately pulled Jack into the boat.

"That was the dumbest thing I have ever seen," Jacarei and Adriana spoke simultaneously.

Jack lay in the front of the canoe just staring up at the others.

"Jack," Sophia said, getting his attention.

"What?" He asked, exasperated.

She shook her head trying to find the right words. "Thank you." She moved to him and comforted him.

"Hey, you would've done the same for me," he replied.

"No, I wouldn't," Sophia told him with a chuckle.

Jack leaned back as he tried to catch his breath.

"But thank you, anyway," she continued through his silence.

Night fell upon the river and the canoes as they progressed down river to their next destination. Jack still lay in the front of the canoe, though he was asleep. Sophia and Adriana sat in the middle with Jacarei.

"Jack was amazing back there," Adriana stated bashfully to her new friend. She had grown to respect Jack Canyon for his show of bravery.

"Yeah, I have never seen anything like that from him before," Sophia replied.

"And he's single?" Jacarei asked.

"You can have him," Sophia offered.

"You have your heart set on him," Adriana stated. "You're a lucky woman to be working with such a man."

"Surely these guys would do the same," Sophia said as she looked back at the other canoes.

"It's only sexy if they do it out of love," Jacarei told her. "These fellows are just. . . here for the money."

"But they seem to follow your every command," Sophia pointed out.

"Out of fear," Adriana explained. "They've seen what we can do to competitors and back stabbers."

Sophia smiled because she found it all amusing. A gang of bandits out in the Amazon was an interesting thing to her. "How much further until we reach our landing?"

"Another hour," Jacarei replied. "Maybe less if we're lucky."

"When do I get to see the next pages?" Adriana asked.

"When we reach our destination," Sophia guaranteed.