Shadowline Drift: A Metaphysical Thriller Read Online Free PDF Page B

well-respected negotiator to be a small man—as though the job itself demanded height to be done properly.
    He ’d used it though, that shock, to his advantage. Let people think he was as naive as the child he resembled. Not that he was proud of it, but you played the hand you held.
    “ Morning,” Jake said coolly. He fished in his pants pocket, found the translator, and put it in place.
    “ Sleep well?” Mawgis asked.
    “ Poorly. Strange dreams.”
    “ You mix journeys and dreams in your mind,” Mawgis said. “The visit to your president was real.”
    Jake , his face as blank as smoothed sand, gazed at the Tabna chief and waited for him to go on.
    Mawgis raised his eyebrows and held out the mug. “Maté . You will feel better for it.”
    Jake thought he couldn’t feel much worse. He reached out both hands and took the mug, drained it, and handed it back. It irked him that he did feel better.
    “ Come,” Mawgis said. “We will walk.”
    He couldn’t say no. There was a deal to settle. The aspirin had kicked in, and the maté, softening the burn in his head.
    They strode through the camp, past women preparing food, some with babies suckling at their breasts, todd lers and older children playing, and men making spears and arrows. Jake and Mawgis might as well have been invisible for all the attention the people paid them. Joaquin and Kevin and his crew were nowhere to be seen. Still asleep, Jake supposed.
    The T abna chief never broke stride, even as they reached the camp’s edge and plunged into the forest. He moved with a purposeful and steady gait through the tangled growth. Jake half ran, half hobbled along behind, his boots slapping noisily against the wet, gummy soil where the Tabna’s bare feet had stepped in silence. A stork lifted itself heavily toward the sky—probably upset by all the noise he was making, Jake thought. He half tripped over a tree root, knocking his shoulder against a giant green-and-yellow flower that filled the air with an overripe scent. He caught his balance and picked up his speed to try and catch up with the man in front of him.
    “ Mawgis,” he called several times as they went deeper into the forest, but each time the Tabna waved him off with a determined shake of his head and kept going.
    Winded and lost, Jake wondered where Mawgis was taking him and why. He was a fool to have followed the man into the forest and to have kept following until he no longer knew the way back and had no choice but to stay with his guide. He was a fool, and this was his job—to stick with Mawgis until negotiations were completed or had broken beyond repair. He silently cursed Mawgis and Father Canas, and his friend Ashne Simapole of World United, who had sent him here so ill prepared. His feet hurt and he cursed them too, but he kept after Mawgis.
    A heavy cannonball fruit crashed like a small bomb exploding from a tree in front of them. Startled, Jake covered his ears and nearly fell. The smell of decaying leaves rose from where the fruit had hit the ground. A burst of blue, yellow, red, and black filled the air as parrots and toucans took flight from a nearby fig tree.
    At the banks of a small river, the Tabna finally slowed his pace and stopped. He looked around at the landscape as if assuring himself he’d come to the right place, and then settled himself on a large flat-topped rock. He motioned for Jake to sit as well.
    Jake stood half bent over, trying to catch his breath. His pulse hammered. Dirt stuck to every exposed inch of his sweat-washed skin. Mosquitoes buzzed through the air. His frustration with Mawgis burned brighter by the second. When his heart had slowed its pounding and he could breathe normally again, Jake adjusted the translator to make it more comfortable in his ear and sat next to Mawgis on the rock. He leaned forward and loosened the too-tight laces on his boots.
    “ Feet first?” Mawgis said. They were the first words he’d said since the two of them had left the