Michael Vey 3 ~ Battle of the Ampere Read Online Free PDF Page B

thanks,” I said. “I’m starving.”
    “Come inside the tent to eat,” he said. “We will talk.” Jaime lifted the mosquito netting around the second tent. We ducked under the netting and went inside. The interior was a square, about twelve feet by twelve feet, cluttered with crates and barrels. There was a small collapsible plastic table against one side of the tent with a ham radio and a digital clock. Stacked up next to the table were long crates with the word PELIGRO stenciled on them.
    Jaime grabbed himself a box of food, and all three of us sat down on the tent’s vinyl tarp floor.
    “I like this Inca Kola,” I said. “It tastes like bubble gum.”
    “You have this in America?” Jaime asked.
    “No,” I said. “At least not in Idaho.”
    “Shame,” he said.
    I lifted the fruit.
    “What is this?”
    “Granadilla,” Jaime said. “Try it.”
    I peeled it open. Inside, the fruit was gray and looked like mucus.
    “It looks like snot, “ Tessa said.
    Jaime laughed. “Yes, Americans call it ‘snot fruit!’ Try it!”
    I looked at it for a moment, then took a bite. It actually was quite good. Tessa just looked disgusted.
    “I just threw up in my mouth,” she said.
    I ate the rest of the fruit, then took hers as well.
    “There’s something I’m wondering,” Tessa said. “How did the Amacarra know to find you here?”
    “A few days ago, when I saw smoke coming from the compound, I asked the chief to keep an eye out for Michael and the others.”
    “So that’s how he knew my name,” I said.
    “Yes. I told him about you.” Jaime looked at Tessa. “But I am surprised that he did not tell me about you.”
    “They were looking out for me,” Tessa said.
    Jaime shook his head. “Our affairs are not the Amacarra’s affairs. But the Elgen have been bad to them.”
    “Do you know where my mother and friends are?” I asked.
    “Your mother and Tanner made it to the rendezvous site. They are now safe with our people.”
    Hearing this filled me with a powerful sense of relief. “And what about the rest of the Electroclan?”
    Jaime’s expression turned. “They have been captured.”
    My relief vanished. “The Elgen got them?”
    “No. The Peruvian army.”
    I shook my head. “I don’t understand why they’re hunting us.”
    “It was my country’s electricity you stopped.”
    “Do you know where they’re being held?”
    “They are at a jail in Puerto Maldonado. But we are sure they will take them back to Lima to be tried.”
    “Tried? For what?”
    “For terrorism.”
    “Terrorism! We’re not terrorists! The Elgen are the terrorists. We were helping your country!”
    “They did not ask for your help. The way they see it, you put my country out of power. Shops and businesses shut down. Hospitals are on backup generators. People will go hungry. The power outage cost my country millions and millions of dollars. Only we know that what you did was good.”
    “That’s not fair.”
    “No. But that is how it is in the world—the wise are hung and the fools are glorified, at least while they are living.”
    I raked my fingers back through my hair. “What will happen if they try them in your courts?”
    “They will probably find them guilty of terrorism.”
    “What will they do to them? They’re just teenagers.”
    Jaime’s voice came slowly. “If they are found guilty, their age will not matter.”
    “What will they do to them?” I asked again.
    Jaime hesitated. “They will probably be executed.”
    My blood ran cold. “They can’t do that.”
    “My country abolished the death penalty in 1979, but not for treason and terrorism.”
    “We can’t let that happen. I’m not going to let that happen. How many soldiers are there?”
    “More than you can fight,” Jaime said. “Maybe as many as four thousand soldiers. Even if our organization risked everything and came out in the open to help you, we could not rescue your friends.”
    “An army couldn’t,” I said. “But a