Chasing El Dorado

  Chapter 12

  Jack and Jolly walked across the tarmac approaching the 1935 DC3. Each man carried a large rucksack that contained his toiletries and personal belongings. Each also carried a Springfield Model 70 rifle and, a leather satchel that contained handguns and ammunition. The airline bagCage porter placed these items in the belly of the plane under Jack’s watchful eye and then the two men made their way to board the plane. As they walked down the length of the aircraft Jack looked up at the seven windows searching for Sophie’s face, however it was not there. Climbing the gantry, they gave their names to the co-pilot standing at the entryway. After checking their names against his list, they were directed toward the back of the plane. Looking in the direction the pilot had pointed Jack saw Sophie sitting by the window on the opposite side. Raising her head erect she spotted the two men and after a moment she smiled and Jack thought, hoped, she looked relieved.

  The copilot closed and sealed the hatch after Jack and Jolly found their seats. The plane was occupied by about twenty other passengers, men and women alike, most appeared to be tourist. The copilot asked all the passengers to fasten safety belts and prepare for takeoff. Jack sat down next to Sophie and Jolly took a seat across the aisle and one row forward. Jack and Sophie were quiet while the airplane taxied toward the runway. Sophie sat near the window, watched the ground speed by, and then shrink away beneath them. The blue green ocean spread out to the South West and the afternoon sun sparkled off the waves. As the plane banked East, she could see the royal blue sky above. This flight path did not allow any of them to see the black Volvo speed away from behind an airport hangar far below them.

  Turning to look at Jack, Sophie saw that he had been staring at her.

  “I am sorry if I offended you Sophie.” Jack apologized.

  Sophie looked at the tanned ruddy face of Jack Cage. His steel gray eyes caught hers for only a moment before he looked down at his hands.

  “Why did you change your mind Jack?” Sophie asked gently.

  Jack thought of all the reasons why he should not be here. He thought about how dangerous and ill- conceived this expedition was. He wanted to tell her that even suggesting they proceed was silly and naïve. He wanted to tell her that he felt asinine and ridiculous for following her.

  “I… couldn’t let you go alone.” Jack’s own words surprised him.

  Sophie felt a slight flush cross her cheeks and, turning her head toward the oval window; she let a broad smile spread across her lovely face.

  “Thank you Monsieur Cage.” She said without turning back.

  Coming from one row forward Jack could hear a deep-throated chuckle. His boot found the back of Jolly’s seat.

  The DC3 leveled off at altitude and passengers began to mingle. Jolly was able to move to the seat directly across from Sophie and Jack. Sophie drew forth a map from her satchel. Jolly gave Jack a slight nudge and grin.

  “Monsieur’s, shall we discuss our plans?” she asked with a wry smile.

  “Please, tell us what you have in mind.” Jack said sarcastically, leaning back in the seat.

  Sophie took advantage of this maneuver and spread the map out in his lap. Jack raised his arms as if she had poured hot coffee on him. Jolly moved in for a closer look. Laid out on the map were two routes, one marked in red and one in blue.

  “Of course the red route is that which I expect will be followed by the German’s.” Sophie said. “I believe their plan is to travel overland to Planaltina, then on to Rio Vermelho to resupply then continuing on to the Rio das Mortes.” Sophie traced the red line with her long tan finger.

  “We will fly directly to Planaltina and be ahead of them by several days.” She continued touching the blue line. “We will then move to intercept, set up an ambush and rescue my father.”

  As Jolly smiled at the young woman Jack moved his upraised hands to cover his face.

  “Bon! Très bon Sophie.” Jolly said as he placed his hand on Jacks knee and gave it a firm squeeze. Jack bit his tongue and kept his mouth shut.

  “Your route is most likely accurate and Planaltina is most assuredly the German’s initial destination.” Jolly continued. “Jack and I were present as the German’s offloaded equipment and supplies in Rio. After crossing the Brazilian savannah, they will need fuel and food. We also observed about seventy armed German Storm Troopers. I have a bit of military experience and so I must tell you that a successful ambush of such a large force will require more than the three of us.”

  “I see.” Sophie said sheepishly. “Monsieur Joley I should leave these things to you. In my eagerness to secure my father’s release, I have overlooked your expertise. Please tell me how you would proceed.”

  “Planaltina is where we shall wait for your father.” Jolly said. “We will have the city to hide in, we will have the support of the local authorities and, we will have the airport as a means of escape.”

  “We may never have to fire a shot or even enter the jungle.” Jack said, hoping to convince Sophie.

  “Thank you Monsieur Joley.” Sophie said as a tear rolled down her cheek. “I am so happy you have come. I just know all will be well now that you are with me.”

  The DC3 touched down in Planaltina on schedule. The three companions retrieved their belongings and found a hotel. Sophie unpacked and rested while the men went out to look up an old friend they hoped could be of some help. At a small cantina, they found the man whom they were looking for.

  Sitting at a table playing cards and smoking a big cigar was “Fat Charlie”. Charles Hamilton weighed at least four hundred pounds. He wore a yellowed cotton suit that, at one time, long ago, had been white. A white straw hat, with a dirty sweat stain for a hatband, sat atop his round head. Beads of perspiration rolled down his fleshy cheeks soaking into his dingy collar.

  Charles Hamilton was the unofficial Mayor of Planaltina’s underground. Nothing nefarious occurred in the city without Fat Charlie first approving it and then getting his share. He was a dangerous and powerful man. He was a pirate, a racketeer and a killer.

  Charlie spotted the two visitors the moment they entered the room.

  “Jolly! Jack!” The plump man called excitedly. “My dear boys, is it really you? Come sit with me. Have a drink.”

  Fat Charlie waved his hand dismissively. The four men who had been sitting at the table rose in unison moving to the bar a few feet away, their piles of cash and playing cards left on the table in front of the chairs. The men leaned against the bar staring at the approaching strangers suspiciously.

  Jack and Jolly had met Charlie in 1932. The two had traveled to Planaltina to act as Security Agents for a wealthy businessman who was transporting a large amount of cash back to Rio. Jack and Jolly had arrived a day early and were staying in a local hotel awaiting the businessman’s arrival. Charles Hamilton had contracted malaria and was staying in the same hotel to recuperate and had hired an old Indian woman to act as his nurse.

  That night, while returning to their room’s after dinner, Jack and Jolly heard the sounds of a scuffle coming from behind a door. They went to investigate the ruckus and found that the door had been forced open. Stepping inside, they saw the body of the old Indian nurse lying on the floor, her grey hair and white blouse soaking up an expanding pool of blood.

  On the opposite side of the room was a small, wiry, evil looking Indian man sprawled out on top of an obese white man who was attempting to keep a ten-inch long blade, held by the assassin, from entering his neck.

  Without any hesitation, Jack sprang forward knocking the Indian to the ground while Jolly kept an eye on the white man. The Indian rolled away, and like a trained gymnast, nimbly landed on his feet thrusting his long knife in Jack’s direction. Jack quickly grabbed for the man’s wrist but missed and received a nasty cut for his failed effort. The Indian grinned with satisfaction. If he thought this small victory would discourage Jack Cage he soon learned otherwise.

  Jack lurched toward the assailant with a feint th
at caused the Indian to strike out again with the knife. This time Jack caught the assassin’s wrist with his left hand and his throat with the right. A wide-eyed look of fear and pain spread across the little man’s face as Jack clamped down tightly on the his trachea. The Indian attempted to strike at Jack’s head with the upturned knife. The blade dropped to the floor, the dull thud of it following the sharp crack of the attacker’s two wrist bones breaking under Jack’s powerful grip. The Indian screamed in pain and then spit in Jack’s face. Jack threw him out the window.

  “My boy’s, it has been much too long. You look well, how have you been?” Charlie pointed to two of the empty chairs at the vacated table.

  “And you look like you have gained a few pounds!” Jolly said with a smile as he patted Fat Charlie’s oversize belly. Jack studied the rotund man and realized that he had never seen Charlie on his feet and thus had no idea how tall the fat man was.

  Fat Charlie laughed heartily; a long “AAAGHAHA” followed by an airy “HEE, HEE, HEE” forcing all the air from his lungs. Jolly and Charlie exchanged a few good-humored insults, both laughing long and hard. They then turned their attention to Jack and had a raucous time at his expense. The men emptied a glass or two of cheap whiskey before Charlie finally got down to business.

  “So, my boy’s, you have not come all this way just to visit your old friend Charlie. What brings you to my city?” Charlie asked.

  Jolly explained how he and Jack had come to be in Planaltina. Jolly did not mention Sophie’s presence but only that the Professor’s family hired them to secure his escape.

  “Nazi’s! How exciting! How may I be of assistance? Do you need weapons? Do you need men?” Charlie asked.

  “We need a way out of the city, and we may need a place to hide, that is all.” Jolly replied.

  “Of course, I owe you that much. I have cargo flights leaving here daily and I can delay a plane to leave on your schedule. Hiding you would be easy enough as well. Tell me though, what is it these Nazi’s want? Why are they here?”

  “I do not know.” Jolly replied

  Fat Charlie contemplated Jolly with a dubious eye.

  “Jolly, you are not keeping something from me are you?” Charlie asked with a mischievous grin. Jolly looked at Jack anxiously.

  “Well, I am sure you have your reasons.” Charlie said still grinning. “While you are in the city you will be under my protection. Now go get some rest, but tomorrow you will be my guest here for dinner.”

  As the two men rose to leave Charlie added. “And bring that beautiful, young woman. I am looking forward to meeting her.”

  Jack stopped abruptly. Spinning on his heal he glared threateningly at the fat man. Jolly placed a hand on jack’s chest, restraining him.

  “Relax Jack, relax! I told you, you are all under my protection. She is safe. Just remember that I see and know everything that happens in Planaltina.”

  Jack and Jolly made their way quickly back to the hotel. As they approached, Jolly spotted a man across the street smoking a cigarette and leaning against a car. Another sat on the hotel porch in a rocking chair guarding the entrance. As the two approached, he simply nodded his head in recognition. Making their way up the stair’s Jack ran to Sophie’s room. Trying the door he found it unlocked. Jack gently worked the latch and held the door ajar. Light from the hallway illuminated the room just enough so that Jack could see her sleeping comfortably in the bed. Sighing in relief, he gently closed the door. The two men entered their room across the hall.

  “Can we trust Charlie?” Jack looked to Jolly for reassurance.

  “No, however, we have little choice but to rely on him. We can always offer to pay him. I think though that the best plan is to ask as little help from him as possible.” Jolly said.

  The next evening the three companions made their way to Fat Charlie’s establishment where they found the round man sitting in the same place wearing the same suit and sweating even more profusely. The table, draped with clean, white, linen and appointed with silver and porcelain, was lovely.

  “Good evening my dear friends!” Charlie said. “Oh my dear you are even lovelier than I was told. Please, come, sit here next to me.”

  “Charles Hamilton, may I introduce Sophie de Wulf?” Jack directed Sophie to the empty chair opposite of Fat Charlie while he himself took the seat offered to Sophie by the big man. Charlie smiled knowingly.

  “Ah, I see. Well that is alright, sitting there I can better see your lovely face.” Charlie conceded.

  “Thank you for your hospitality Monsieur Hamilton.” Sophie said graciously. “And thank you for your kind words.”

  The four ate a surprisingly fine meal and made small talk. Fat Charlie regaled Sophie with the story of Jack’s heroics the night the men had met. Sophie reached out and moved Jack’s sleeve to view the scar left by the assassin. The warmth of her fingers on his skin moved up his arm and settled in his cheeks.

  When the meal finished and the brandy served, Charlie asked Sophie “Tell your new friend, Fat Charlie, what is your part in all of this intrigue?”

  “My father is the kidnapped man!” She answered.

  “I am sorry my dear.” Charlie answered with genuine sympathy. “I hope that your father is well and that Jolly and Jack are successful in securing his escape.”

  “Tell me dear.” Charlie continued his interrogation. “Why do you think the German’s would be interested in your father?”

  “She doesn’t know!” Jack intervened.

  “Sophie found her father already missing when she came to Berlin for a visit.” Jolly covered quickly. “Witnesses said only that the Nazi’s had taken him.”

  “I see. How terrifying that must have been for you Miss de Wulf. But surely you have some idea why these German’s would be interested in such an imminent physicist as Dr. Kermit de Wulf.” Fat Charlie said with a devilish grin spreading across his face.

  Jack fidgeted uncomfortably in his chair and Jolly looked down at his hands. Sophie sensed that something was wrong. Perplexed by the sudden tension between the men she grasped Jack’s hand anxiously. It was clear that Fat Charlie knew they were keeping information from him. Jolly decided it would be in their best interest to tell the brigand everything they knew before his patience ran out.

  “Charlie, we truly do not know why the German’s are here.” Jolly said, as he looked the fat man in the eye. “Their commander, a Major Schmidt, told us they were looking for Nazi settlers lost in the jungle. It was obvious that they were lying and so we turned down the charter. When Sophie arrived we agreed to help her rescue her father.”

  “Why do you think they are here Jolly, if not for Nazi settlers?” Charlie asked, pleased that his guests were being forthright.

  “They are looking for something Charlie. However, I do not know what.” Jolly said. “They are expecting to have to fight for it though, judging by the size of their arsenal.”

  “Where?” Charlie pressed.

  “I found a note that my father had hidden for me. It indicated where they may be going.” Sophie said.

  “And where is that my dear?” Charlie asked greedily.

  “Xingu territory!” Jack said. “Rio das Mortes, to be exact.”

  Charlie was quiet for a moment while he contemplated this unexpected information. “Well, don’t we all feel better now that our cards are on the table.” He said finally. “I do wish you had told me this sooner and I am hurt that you did not trust me.”

  “Does this change anything Charlie?” Jolly asked.

  “We have an agreement my friends!” Charlie reassured them. “I will provide you with transport out of the city if you are successful in your attempt to rescue Professor De Wulf and I will provide you a place to hide should you fail. I have given you my promise. This however, settles my debt to you both, agreed?”

  That night in the hotel Jack and Jolly awoke to the sound of gunshots in the hallway outside their room. The two men reached for their pistols and moved, Jack to t
he door and Jolly to the window. Jolly shook his head indicating that he saw no one outside barring an escape route. Jack quietly cracked the door, resisting the overwhelming urge to bolt across the hall to Sophie’s room. A narrow beam of light played across his eye as he peered out the door. Lying on the floor in the threshold of Sophie’s room was a familiar man in a white suit with a bright crimson stain growing rapidly around a small black hole in his left lapel. Standing at the end of the hall thirty feet away, a smoking revolver in his hand was one of the men Fat Charlie had assigned to protect the three companions. Jack leapt from the doorway and across the hall to Sophie’s room, his heart pounding as if it would explode from his chest. Through the open door, light filled the room and illuminated her empty bed. Jack realized real fear for the first time in his life.

  “Sophie!” He screamed in hysterical panic.

  “Jack.” A low sweet voice came from the shadows behind the open door.

  Turning quickly he saw her step into the light. She wore a delicate chiffon nightgown, the contour of her figure silhouetted in the low light from the hallway beyond. In her right hand was a .32 caliber Walther PP. Compelled by his relief at seeing her unharmed Jack impulsively took her in his harms. Her back rigid and tight, she was trembling.

  “Are you alright Sophie?” His voice was low and heavy with emotion.

  “Yes Jack, I am unhurt, I am alright.” She reassured him.

  Pressing her cheek against his bare chest, she could hear and feel his pounding heart. Looking up into his face, she smiled, her cheeks flushed, her moist lips luring his mouth toward hers. Jack looked into her vibrant, dynamic eyes ablaze with tumultuous excitement. Gently, languidly, he kissed her.

  The frenzy of the moment turned tranquil as he enveloped her, his racing heartbeat quelled by her touch.

  Suddenly the sharp percussion of gunshots coming from the street below extinguished the moment. Jack moved into the hallway finding only the body of the Nazi assassin. Drawing his pistol, he bounded down the steps and came to a stop just inside the hotel entrance. Looking out he could see Jolly and Fat Charlie’s man standing over a still, white suited body in the street. Jack moved to their side cautiously keeping a lookout for more danger.

  “These two men arrived by airplane earlier today.” Charlie’s man said. “They had made inquiries after you. We have been watching them. Do you know them?”

  “Yes, we know them.” Jolly said. “Do you know where they were lodging?”

  “Yes, this way!” He replied.

  The men found a Western Electric Model 13C radio transmitter in the hotel room of the dead Nazi’s.

  “Schmidt knows we are here!” Jack declared.

  “He may know we are here but he does not know that his assassins failed kill us.” Jolly reassured him. “We will need to move quickly Jack. We must intercept the German’s before they realize we are still alive.”

  Jack and Jolly returned to the hotel to find that both the dead German and Sophie were gone. The men gathered their things and went to see Fat Charlie. There, to Jack’s great relief, they found Sophie sitting at the table drinking Scotch with the big man. Jack rushed to embrace her.

  “I am sorry to cause you any distress Jack but I thought it best to keep a close eye on her.” Charlie said when he saw Jacks reaction.

  “I must ask you to continue looking after her Charlie. We are going after the Professor tonight!” Jack said.

  “I am coming also!” Sophie announced.

  “No, you must stay here.” Jolly said gently. “Jack and I will have a better chance of success if we attempt this alone. You must trust me Sophie. If you want to see your father again you must stay here.”

  “She will be safe my friends. My men will provide you with horses and whatever else you may need. Your escape flight will be waiting upon your return. Good luck!” Charlie said.

  Sophie moved toward Jolly, reaching up she touched his face and pulled it toward hers.

  “Faites attention mon cher capitaine, et apportez-les tous les deux sans risque de nouveau à moi. (Be careful my dear captain, and bring them both safely back to me.)” She whispered as she gently kissed his cheek.

  Moving to where Jack stood, she removed a silver pendant from around her neck. Placing it in his hand, she tenderly kissed his lips. “This was a gift from my mother, it is very precious. You must return it to me, do you understand?”

  Jack and Jolly walked out into the night. In less than an hour, the stars being chased away by the rising Sun, the two men were riding South East onto the Brazilian savannah. Jolly observed that jack was sullen.

  “She is safe Jack, Charlie will protect her.” He reassured his friend.

  “I know Jolly, it’s not Sophie.” Jack replied.

  “Then what has you so melancholy?”

  “I never expected to be fighting German’s again.” Jack said.

  “Scio quid valeant humeri quidferre recusent. (I know what shoulders can bear, and what they refuse to bear.)” Jolly quoted. “You will bear this burden for loyalty and for love Jack.”

  “Yes, for love.” Jack agreed.

  “What’s more, you are insidiously good at it!” Jolly quipped.

  A devious grin spread across Jack’s face.