No Room for Error: A Lexi Carmichael Mystery, Book Seven Read online

  “Jeez,” I murmured.

  To my left I saw a large piece of wreckage, so I detoured toward it. I glanced to my right and saw a man’s shoe protruding from beneath it. My heart jumped as I bent down for a closer look. The shoe was still attached to the leg. I recognized the pants.

  Cezar.

  To the right of him, beneath more wreckage, was another body. I could only see one arm and shoulder, but the insignia on his shirt indicated I’d just found the co-pilot.

  My stomach heaved. I leaned against the wreckage and covered my mouth. “Oh, God,” I said aloud.

  I wasn’t sure how much more of this I could take. Still, I had to make sure they were dead. I sucked up more courage than I thought I owned and touched both of the bodies. I wasn’t sure what it should feel like, but neither felt normal and I could find no pulse of any kind.

  Tears welled in my eyes. Even though I knew intellectually the events that had transpired weren’t my fault, I still felt guilty and sickened by their deaths. I wanted to cry, to crawl to a shady spot and take time to grieve, but I didn’t have the luxury. Instead, I gave myself a moment to get composed and then pulled myself into a standing position, holding onto a piece of the plane.

  I had to focus on the living. On the here and now.

  Steeling myself, I walked closer to the cockpit. It had probably smashed into a tree or the ground during its final slide. The nose had crumpled.

  I circled around to the left-hand side, away from the incline. On this side, the cockpit was cracked wide open.

  The pilot was still sat strapped into his seat, his head hanging sideways. Insects buzzed around.

  “Hey,” I shouted, swatting at them. “Hello. Are you are okay?”

  No answer.

  He could be unconscious. He could be dead. There was no way to tell for sure. I couldn’t reach him from my angle and I wasn’t sure I wanted to try. Any extra weight on the cockpit might cause the whole thing to slide down the incline. I looked around and saw a long branch. I poked it gently at the pilot.

  “Hey, are you okay?”

  His limbs were limp. I squashed the nausea that roiled in my stomach and forced my feet a little closer.

  “Hello? I’m here to help. Can you make a movement of any kind?”

  He didn’t answer.

  Testing the stability of a small piece of wreckage, I stood on it so I could get a better look at him. Using the stick, I carefully turned his head toward me. I dropped the stick and nearly fell down. One side of his head had been crushed in.

  I slipped off the wreckage, shaking so hard that I had to steady myself against a piece of the hull.

  I forced myself to examine the other side of the cockpit. Surprisingly, the seat was intact, which is where I presumed Oliver would have been sitting. The black seatbelt dangled down. I peered up at the seat and could see blood spatters. But there were no signs of another body.

  I crept as close to the cockpit as I could and noticed a black canvas bag partially wedged under a piece of debris. I yanked on it until it finally came free. The bag was surprisingly heavy and I dropped it to the ground to examine its contents. I knelt beside the bag and unzipped it. I pulled out a hand axe with a strange looking hook on the back. I set it aside and pulled out the rest of the contents. There was a flashlight, a thin silver space blanket, a roll of duct tape, a black tarp, a coil of rope and another small first-aid kit.

  Bingo.

  I put everything back in the bag and slung it carefully over my shoulder. I did a quick tour of the area, but found no additional bodies or usable supplies. Staggering, I hiked back to Basia and Finn.

  I was encouraged to see Finn looking more alert.

  “Did you find anyone else?” he asked.

  “Everyone except Oliver.”

  “Do you think he might still be alive?”

  “I have no idea. I didn’t see his body anywhere, but it’s possible he got thrown from the plane. The cockpit was traveling at a pretty high speed when it smashed into the trees.”

  I dropped the canvas bag next to them. “This was in the cockpit. Looks like an emergency bag. It’s got some useful items and another first-aid kit.” I unzipped it and pulled out the odd axe with a hook. “This may be our only weapon. Pilots use it to smash the window in case of an emergency.”

  It wasn’t a traditional axe. It looked more like a small pickaxe with a flat, slightly curved blade mounted like a hoe on the end of the handle.

  I pulled out the silver blanket. “This will be useful. It’s an emergency space blanket. It retains eighty percent of a person’s radiated body heat.”

  I needed some water to push off the lightheadedness. I squinted at the sun trying to calculate the time. We were supposed to have landed in Jakarta at seven-thirty in the morning. I figured it had to be closer to nine or maybe even ten o’clock by now. My watch had been torn off in the crash and I didn’t see one on Basia or Finn either. I had no idea where my purse was and a quick check of Finn’s pockets didn’t turn up a cell phone either. Guess we’d have to tell time the old-fashioned way.

  The first spatters of rain hit my arm.

  I stood up and shook out the black tarp. “We need to cover our supplies. Basia, help me stack our supplies on either side of Finn.”

  I retrieved the titanium briefcase, still inside of Wendy’s sports bag, and added that to the pile. As I dropped it next to Finn, I snapped my fingers.

  “Wait. The titanium case has a GPS locator. I totally forgot. Xavier and Elvis should be able to track us via the case.”

  “What?” Basia’s eyes lit up. “Really? That may be the best news I’ve ever heard.”

  Finn looked stunned as well. “So, that means we just have to stay out of reach of the bad guys until we are able to be rescued.”

  “Hopefully, yes.” I dropped a blanket on his lap. “We can’t count on them getting here first, so we have to plan accordingly. But maybe now we have a fighting chance.”

  Basia and I each took a corner of the tarp and then covered Finn and our supplies. It wasn’t an ideal set up, but it was the best I could come up with on short notice. Finn instructed us to funnel the tarp so the water would run off of it and into the bottles. It was a good idea so I did what he suggested. When I finished, the droplets were coming down with a bit more regularity.

  “Let’s go, Basia,” I said. “We need to hurry.”

  Finn peered at us from under the tarp. “Wait. Where are you going?”

  “We’ve got to check on Wendy. We’ll be right back.”

  We walked as quickly as we could toward Wendy when Basia spotted something red in the bushes. She gave a small cry and held up a red bag. “Look! I found my purse. What a good omen.”

  She held the strap, letting the purse dangle from one hand. It was red and had a big black gash on one side, but was remarkably intact. She unzipped it and peeked inside. Giving a gasp of triumph, she pulled out her cell phone.

  “Please work, please work.” She turned on her phone and then beamed when it turned on. “It’s working.”

  I sighed. “I doubt we’ll pick up a signal out here, but it’s worth a shot.”

  She waited while it loaded and then walked around trying to find bars. “No service. Well, crap.”

  I hadn’t in my wildest dreams expected her to find bars, but I still felt disappointed. I chalked it up to extreme desperation.

  I rubbed the back of my neck. “Turn it off and save the battery. We’re on our own for now.”

  She turned it off and stuck it back in her purse and then rummaged around. “At least I have my wallet, a couple of credit cards and some lipstick.”

  “Just what you need in the jungle.”

  She rolled her eyes and put the strap over her good shoulder. I followed behind her. As she walked, I sudd
enly noticed something else.

  “Basia, stop.”

  She stopped, turning around. “What? What’s wrong?”

  “What kind of shoes do you have on?”

  She lifted her foot. “A red medium heel from Versace. I got them on sale—a complete steal. They’re comfortable, although a little snug. That’s probably why I didn’t lose them in the crash. Why?”

  “Why?” I threw up my hands. “Let me see. Because we are on a freaking mountain and you have heels on.”

  She straightened. “They’re medium heels and I’m walking just fine. In fact, I walk better in heels than flats. They are very versatile.”

  It wasn’t like I could do anything about it at the moment, so I just sighed. “Fine. Let’s go.”

  More raindrops pattered us as Basia reached Wendy. She knelt beside her, then touched her wrist.

  “Lexi, she doesn’t have a pulse.”

  I dropped the first-aid kit and squeezed in beside her, pressing my finger against Wendy’s neck.

  Nothing.

  I immediately started CPR and instructed Basia to give her breaths. We worked on Wendy for several minutes until the rain started to fall, softly at first and then in a heavy dump.

  “It’s no good,” Basia finally said, sitting back on her heels and pushing the wet hair off her forehead. “She’s gone.”

  I kept pumping. “We can get her back.” I kept frantically pumping on her chest. “I promised I would help her. I promised.”

  “Stop it, Lexi. Please. She’s gone.”

  “She can’t be dead. She was alive when I left her. I shouldn’t have left her.”

  “Please Lexi.” Basia’s voice was so soft I barely heard it over the rain. But the heartbreak in it stopped me.

  “She’s cold. She’s probably been gone for a while.”

  I touched Wendy’s cheek. Basia was right. It was cold. Maybe not cold as ice, but that’s how my heart felt at the moment.

  I sank back on the wet ground, staring at the body. It was too late. No matter how hard I pumped, it wouldn’t make a difference.

  Wendy was dead. And if I didn’t do something soon, we’d be dead, too.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  I sat there in frustration, resting my elbow on my knee. I might have been crying, but it was hard to tell with the rain. Wendy was someone’s daughter, sister and maybe even mother. I should have done more to help her. I’d promised. But she’d made a bad choice, helped the wrong people and now she was dead. As much as I wished for a different outcome, it was too late to change that.

  Rain fell harder, sluicing down my cheeks. As I looked down, I could see that the water dripping off my nose was tinged with red. The weight of our situation and my helplessness collapsed on me. I wondered how far gone I really was.

  “I can’t do this, Basia. I just can’t.”

  “Do what?”

  “Save us. Figure out what to do next. People are dying, possibly us next, and I don’t know how to stop it.”

  “We’ll figure it out. We have to.”

  “Exactly how are we going to do that? I’m a geek. We’re not supposed to figure out how to survive plane crashes in a tropical environment. I don’t even do well in the sun. You know that!”

  “You’re going to do fine.”

  “How? I’ve never been in a jungle before. I’ve never even been camping. I can’t search the web to find out what to do. Don’t you get it? Without a computer I’m useless. A total fish out of water.”

  Basia knelt beside me, the rain dripping off her nose and chin. She grabbed my shoulder with her good hand and glared at me. “Haven’t you learned a single damn thing since we’ve been friends? Do you really think you are nothing more than a geek?” She wagged a finger at me. “Now you listen to me. The computer is nothing more than a tool in your hands. It is not an extension of you, and it’s certainly not what defines you. You may be a geek, but you’re a hell of a lot more than that, Lexi Carmichael. You’re a good person with a kind heart, a wonderful friend and a strong woman with a smart and resourceful mind. You don’t need a computer to survive and you’re not alone.”

  I stared at her surprised by her vehemence, so I tried a different approach. “I appreciate your belief in me, Basia, I really do. But I don’t think you realize how much trouble we’re in. Finn is injured. You’re a city girl. You’re wearing heels, for crying out loud. Those guys are coming back to get us and soon. I guarantee you they will be trained professionals, probably expert trackers and marksmen. They will be fresh and not hampered by injuries or lack of food or water. If they find us, it’s going to get ugly. How are the three of us going to survive against that?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “That’s your answer—we’ll survive because we’re survivors. We made it out of that plane crash alive. We’re going to make it out of here. Slash will be frantic looking for you and so will Elvis, Xavier and all the executives at ComQuest. We just have to hold on until someone figures out how to rescue us. I’m not giving up. I don’t like wet feet or snakes, but I don’t care what I have to do to survive. I will. So will you. Died on some remote jungle mountainside will not be our obituaries.”

  She poked me in the chest. “Now if we are going to survive, we are going to need that unique analytical brain of yours to start analyzing our situation and resources and come up with some practical solutions. That’s the Lexi Carmichael I know and love.”

  I watched her in fascination. Through the curtain of rain, she glared at me. Her chin was set and her eyes ablaze with determination. Basia wasn’t giving up. The city girl was game to give survival in the jungle a go. What was wrong with me? If she could accept the challenge, then so could I.

  Shame swept through me. Of the three of us, only I had been in a survival situation even remotely like this recently. Yet somehow I’d become the one least convinced we could survive. The more I thought about it, the madder I got at myself.

  I wiped the water from my eyes. “You’re right, Basia. The pity party is officially over. We just have to put our heads together and think—use our skills to the best of our abilities. The truth is I feel hobbled and vulnerable right now without my digital crutch. That scares me. A lot. It’s totally uncharted territory. But you’re correct. We don’t need technology to survive. We’ve already got what we need—our brains, our determination and each other. So we need to start using our brains...right now.”

  “Now you’re getting it.” She patted my shoulder. “There’s nothing else we can do for Wendy, but Finn needs us and we need a plan.”

  She began to walk away, heels wobbling on the gravel of the road. As she did, I had an idea. Offering a small prayer and an apology to Wendy, I took her wet blanket then slipped off her flight safety-approved flats from her feet, wrapping them up in the blanket. We couldn’t overlook anything that could help us survive.

  In the short distance it took us to return to Finn, it had stopped raining. A surprisingly bright beam slid out between clouds, blinding us with the transition. I wished for my sunglasses or at least a hat to shade my face, but neither was forthcoming. Unlike Basia, I hadn’t found my purse. My wet clothes clung to me and my shoes squished from the downpour.

  As we approached, Finn smiled at us from beneath the blanket.

  “How’s Wendy?” he asked

  Basia beat me to a response. “She didn’t make it.”

  “Then it’s just the three of us?” he asked

  I nodded. “I’m afraid so.”

  I watched him for a moment. His speech and visual acuity had improved. He was recovering much more quickly than I had hoped.

  “Can you ladies help me stand?”

  I hesitated. “Are you sure you’re ready?”

  “No better time than the present to find out.”

  I didn’t want
to rush him, but before we could make plans, we needed to know how well he could move. I stretched out a hand and Basia and I got on either side of him, pulling him to his feet. He swayed unsteadily, but we kept him upright. He tested his legs.

  “Nothing seems broken or sprained.”

  “Thank goodness.” I’d probably said that with too much enthusiasm, but I was totally in the moment and hoping for the best.

  As soon as I said it, he swayed and nearly toppled Basia. I managed to straighten him, but he was darn heavy. He stood there for a few additional minutes, adjusting to the new position, getting his bearings and wiggling his legs.

  He looked down at the gaping hole that stretched up to his crotch. “Mary, Mother of God. My pants are nearly ripped off.”

  I felt my cheeks heat. “Can you walk?”

  “I’ll give it a go.” After a bit of initial unsteadiness, he seemed pretty good on his feet.

  Basia stood in front of us, her hands on her hips. “Okay, team, now that we’re all vertical we’ve got to figure out what to do. Lexi, what do you think?”

  “Let’s start by inventorying our supplies and agreeing on a plan of action.

  “Do we know where we are?” Finn asked.

  I considered. “Well, if we were diverting to Port Moresby, it’s reasonable to assume we are somewhere in the mountains of Papua New Guinea. As I recall, Port Moresby is on the southeastern coast of the island. Since we’re in the mountains, then it means we are somewhere in the middle of the island. Unfortunately, that’s probably a couple hundred miles from Port Moresby. That’s actually good because it buys us some time. I doubt the other airplane will be able to land, get access to transportation like helicopters or all-terrain vehicles and get back here very quickly. However, the bad news is that there are no major towns or cities nearby and no place for us to go for help. So they may be able to take their time, figuring that if we survived, we would just hunker down here and wait for rescue.”

  Finn bent over to look at the gravel. “We’re on a road. I think I heard Oliver say it was an old logging road. It’s pretty heavily compacted, but none of the ruts look recent. I doubt it’s seeing much traffic. Do we have any ideas about locals? I mean, perhaps there are native villages where we might get assistance to help us to a phone or one of the larger towns.”