The plane carrying Kodiak, Logan, Roksana, and Oleg touched down on a small airstrip that only the most experienced pilots would have been able to navigate and live to talk about it. They were mindful of the dangers that came with being in unfamiliar territory and on foreign soil. As the plane taxied to a stop, they were relieved to see that they weren’t alone, until they got a closer look.

“Wow. If that’s the welcoming committee, maybe we should ask the pilot to keep the engine running,” Logan whispered to Kodiak as she followed him off the plane.

Four men had emerged from the jungle to stand at the edge of the clearing. Despite their grimy faces and disheveled combat fatigues, they had a barbaric mystique, complete with rifles hanging by straps over their shoulders and machetes secured at their hips.

Standing at the front of the group was a tall man whose grim countenance and defiant stance clearly identified him as the alpha of the pack. His thick, coarse black hair was pulled back haphazardly into a man bun. Prominent sideburns led to a full beard that was in serious need of a trim. His deep-set dark eyes gleamed in the mid-day sun, missing nothing as he assessed each member of the Bratva group.

“Too late,” Kodiak muttered. “There no turning back now. And anyway, looks can be deceiving.”

“We don’t need this guy to be our best friend,” Oleg cut in harshly. “He just needs to get us where we need to go.”

The plane’s engine roared as it took to the sky on its return flight. As it disappeared into the clouds, silence soon reigned, and the two groups faced each other once more.

Roksana stretched her arms high above her head, then put her hands on her hips as she looked around, taking in her surroundings. Nothing but dense jungle in every direction. Somebody needed to say something, so she forged ahead. “So, I guess you’re here to–”

Their guide abruptly turned to his men and tilted his chin to the side, silently ordering the Bratva contingent to follow him. He and his men led them along a circuitous path that appeared to have no rhyme or reason. As night fell, the sweaty, fatigued group entered a clearing. The setup was simple enough: a few tents and a small cabana-like structure where a simple repast of food and drink had been laid out.

“Home, sweet home,” Kodiak said with a grin. Their silent guide gestured for them to sit. The crude folding chairs creaked ominously as, one by one, they took their positions and prepared to be filled in on plans to retrieve the canary diamond, tie up some potentially messy loose ends for the cartel, and get the hell out of there.

“Coffee, please,” the man said to one of his men as he lowered himself into a chair. “My apologies for not indulging in basic courtesies upon your arrival. My name is Xavier but I go by X. Let us get right to the point. This kidnapping is problematic, to say the least. Amicus, the villain in our story, is a guerilla fighter. An ambitious guerilla fighter. One of my best. He is not a major player but has, on occasion, done odd jobs for the cartel. He has surprised us all with this stunt. He kidnapped the son and daughter of Guillermo Chavez. He leads our black-market interests, and, as you can imagine, we want this situation rectified by whatever means necessary. Both children are adults. Cesar is a black-market operative who has become his father’s right hand and is being positioned as his successor. Amata has been sheltered like a nun. She is being groomed to be the perfect cartel wife. Half-Sinaloan. The plan is that she will be offered in marriage to a rival cartel, most likely the Sinaloans, to forge a blood alliance.”

“What, are we in the Dark Ages, people?” Roksana fumed.

X turned his dark eyes toward her and said solemnly, “Not the Dark Ages, no; but things are done differently here. I assure you that such things are not questioned within the cartels. Amata understands her purpose. It is considered an honor to make such a contribution to the future of the cartel.

“Interestingly, the kidnapper appears to be obsessed with Cesar’s half-sister, Amata, so he took them both. According to Chavez, Amicus met her briefly years ago. No one thought anything of it. Now Chavez is convinced that she was the real reason behind the theft of the canary diamond, as a way for Amicus to get close to her. As you can imagine, Chavez is concerned for his daughter’s virtue. If she is returned home without her maidenhead intact, it will ruin their hopes for a good match for her and, thus, kill any prospects for an alliance of any real value. Chavez has called in a marker with the Ramirez brothers, and that is where Glazov comes into the picture.

“I can only hope the Ramirez brothers are as understanding as I am. I’d hate to lose him. He’s one of the best men we have on payroll. His death would be a tremendous loss. I have no doubt he would return the bauble if given the chance, but the woman? Ah, now that is another matter entirely,” he said with a wicked grin. “According to Lucca, one of the men here in our camp, Amicus is quite taken with her; obsessed might be a better word.”

“God help us all,” Kodiak muttered.

After a brief quizzical look at Kodiak, X continued. “Lucca has worked with Amicus on occasion and seems to disagree with my take on things. He thinks the canary diamond is long gone by now and that we are wasting our time. Time will tell. Our first move is to find the diamond, and that, we hope, will lead us to Amata and her brother.” He smiled unexpectedly and stood. “Well, enough about that. Let’s get a good night’s sleep and we’ll begin our trek through the jungle in the morning, in search of the elusive canary diamond. Lucca and his men will be nearby in the tent at the edge of camp. Oh, one more thing—" X directed his attention to Kodiak. “The racing bikes you wanted are right through there.” He pointed toward a patch of trees where a small tarp had been rigged to protect the expensive motorcycles. “Impressive, if I do say so myself. Powerful, but sleek and able to handle rugged terrain. The best of both worlds, really. Seats a passenger relatively well, but I don’t recommend them for long trips. You chose well. Follow me and I’ll see you to your tent.”

With that, he directed them to their tent and disappeared into the jungle where they assumed he was on patrol or perhaps had a tent of his own. This was one time they were all glad to be sharing sleeping quarters, not even minding the lack of privacy. The last thing on anyone’s mind was sex.

The screeching of what Roksana dearly hoped was just a monkey prompted her to say what the others were already thinking. “These fucking noises out here are making me nervous.”

“Yeah,” Oleg agreed, “it’s kind of funny how we aren’t bothered by crowded city streets and gangbangers, but this is different. It’s an unknown. Too many variables. Now, for a little Show and Tell.” He reached over and grabbed a large duffle bag, dumping out the weapons they’d been provided with. They couldn’t bring their own weapons because they’d been concerned about anything they transported being intercepted by the authorities. The last thing the team needed was for one mistake to get them all locked up. This country was nothing like what they were used to.

“I guess even badasses can be leery of the unknown,” Roksana said.

Oleg pulled back the chamber of one of the guns and loaded it. “Ah, just what I ordered, Glocks.”

“Now, there’s something we’re all familiar with,” Kodiak agreed as he took one and followed suit. The women took the hint and did the same thing. One thing they weren’t about to do was be in the jungle unarmed. Whether it be guerillas in human form or primate form, Bratva never entered a situation unprepared.

Logan looked up from where she was checking her gun. “Kodiak, I think we need those bikes closer. If we have to get the hell out of here unexpectedly, I don’t want to have to run through the jungle to find them. I think we should pull the bikes closer, sleep with one eye open, and have a plan of escape. I don’t feel good about any of this and I won’t take a chance on any of us not getting home safely.”

“We’ll be fine. We always sleep with one eye open anyway. But it wouldn’t hurt to have them closer.”

“So, what are we going to do? Wait until everybody goes to sleep and then sneak out and pull the bikes into camp?” Roksana asked.

Before Kodiak could respond, Logan commented, “Did anybody else notice that Lucca guy and his buddy rummaging through the supplies when we first got here? I can tell when somebody’s hiding something, and he wasn’t just getting a snack. I think he’s hiding something.”

“He knows Amicus,” Roksana said.

“That he does.”

“X said Lucca made a big deal about the diamond being long gone. Like he didn’t want anyone looking for it,” Kodiak muttered. “What the hell’s up with that? Nobody’s going to give up that easy.”

“Unless they don’t want anyone looking too hard,” Roksana said.

“Damn straight,” Logan replied. “So, he says the canary diamond is long gone, huh? Whatever he was so interested in is in his backpack now. I want to know what it is. I’m not wasting time looking for a diamond that may be right under our noses.”

“You know, it makes more sense the more I think about it. Amicus has the woman,” Kodiak mused out loud. “If he’s truly obsessed with her, he won’t want her in danger if he can help it. I don’t believe he has that diamond anymore. I think he handed it off to someone. We need to find it, and this Lucca guy is our only lead at the moment. I say we watch him like a hawk tomorrow. It’ll be a busy day, breaking down camp and moving on to the next location in pursuit of this Amicus character.”

Roksana chimed in, “And, speaking of men who are obsessed with their woman -- failure is not an option, people. Because there’s only one thing that scares me more than jungle wildlife…”

They all laughed and said it at the same time: “Alexander Glazov.”

Mauricio entered X’s tent, leaned on his AK47, and studied the man who had been more like a father to him than his biological one had. His father had barely been around when he was growing up, so it had been easy to swear loyalty to the cartel when Xavier had found him on the streets of Colombia. Things had gotten so bad at home that Mauricio had taken to sleeping in back alleys to escape the beatings whenever his father came home drunk. If his mother wanted to put up with the sorry son of a bitch and make excuses for him, then let her – but he refused to.

X looked up from his laptop. He couldn’t help but feel a pang of compassion for the kid. Though the guy wasn’t that much younger than X, nonetheless X still looked upon him as a son.

“Everybody settled in?” Mauricio finally spoke.

“As settled in as jungle virgins can be.”

That warranted a laugh. “I guess this place would be a shock to the system if you’d never been in the jungle before. The sounds alone are enough to unnerve anybody.”

“Yes. The nighttime sounds of the Colombian jungle are often enough to make anyone question their sanity. When you live here and are used to it, it’s second nature. I’d venture to say this is the first time they’ve ever been in the jungle. From what I hear, thought, we don’t need to worry about the Bratva women; they’re tough as nails. It’s their men I worry about out here in the big, bad jungle,” he said with a smirk. “Fascinating, isn’t it, how some people can be so arrogant about their two-legged enemies, but shake in their designer boots when it comes to the four-legged variety?”

“Are you awake?” Logan whispered in Roksana’s direction.

“You know I am. All these jungle sounds don’t exactly make it easy to sleep."

“I know. But it’s the things you can’t hear that you need to worry about.”

“Wow, that so doesn’t help, thanks. And I know I’m going to hate myself for asking, Logan, but do tell.”

“Well, of course there are the larger predators like jaguars and such, but it’s the creepy-crawlies like spiders, snakes, and frogs that are the silent, lethal types. Makes it hard to believe that the jungle is home to some of the cutest monkeys.”

“Monkeys.”

“Yeah, cotton top tamarins—they have a little tuft of white hair that sticks straight up on the top of their head and they’re fucking adorable. I’ve always wanted a monkey as a pet, but Kodiak says they’re too mischievous. He swears it’s my substitute for having a baby.”

“Really. So, is he right?”

“No. I mean, I want kids, but we have to space them out so the Pakhan isn’t put in a bad situation with too few resources.”

“Girl, please. Father has all the help he needs.”

“It isn’t the same as family, Roksana, and you know it. Until he’s established in the new business, I don’t want to take a chance.”

“We’ll never be legit. Not completely. It’s not in the cards for us. We’ve made too many enemies over the years.”

“But we’ve got peace treaties established with all the key players.”

“Aw, that’s sweet,” Roksana drawled as she rolled onto her stomach and folded her hands beneath her cheek. “Don’t be naïve, Logan. We’re too powerful to not have new enemies cropping up all the time. People covet our power; they want to be us. They would do anything to knock us off our pedestal just to watch us fall.”