scribbled as fast as she could to get his words down, feeling thankful that she’d brought a Dictaphone for later.
When she looked up his grey eyes were fixed on her, and she found herself annoyingly self-conscious. At least she wasn’t wet and covered in coffee this time—she’d put on a very respectable knee-length blue dress for the flight, one that accentuated her small waist, and she’d left her long hair down around her shoulders. Also, he seemed to be making a concerted effort to be friendly, for which she was more than grateful.
‘The flying doctors were known as the Angels of the Amazon, is that right?’ she asked him, reaching for her necklace.
‘Correct,’ he said, watching her fiddling with the silver chain as she slid the small crystal apple up and down on it. ‘They were angels, Madeline. Still are. They deliver medical aid by aircraft. If they didn’t these people would only get help after weeks of travelling on foot through the jungle, or by boat.’
‘So, would you consider yourself an angel now, too?’
Ryan frowned, drumming his fingers on his tray table. ‘I just do what’s necessary—like they do,’ he said. ‘These people live and breathe the Amazon—a place most of us know little about, except that it’s a living pharmacy essential to billions of lives on earth, right? They’re the caretakers of the jungle and everything in it. By helping them and looking after their health we’re helping the environment.’
The plane jostled them again and Madeline’s tray table jumped.
‘Do you know where we’re going?’ he asked, catching her notepad before it slid off.
‘Caramambatai,’ she replied quickly, hoping she was pronouncing it right. ‘Your producer says it’s an indigenous settlement...’
‘The Ingariko tribe, yes. They’re spread all over South America, but this camp is pretty much hidden on the border between Brazil, Venezuela and Guyana. It’s about as remote as you’re going to get. Legend has it people have been swallowed whole by thick morning mists in these parts. They’re more likely to have been finished off by surucucu snakes, if you ask me. Highly poisonous, by the way. If you see one it will probably be the last thing you see.’
She realised, now that he was so close, that he had lines around his eyes—proof of laughter, perhaps, more than age. He’d been happy once. Happier than the media made him out to be now anyway. He looked sexier in person, too, she decided.
Then she caught herself.
Sexier? There was no way she was letting herself think that again. She was here to do a job—and besides, as if anyone would go near her, let alone this guy. Her friend Emma had said she reeked of heartbreak, which wasn’t particularly nice but was definitely true. Hardly surprising after what Jason had done.
Madeline could still recite every line of that love-struck email to Adeline she’d read by mistake after he’d left his laptop open.
I’m just trying to find the right time to tell her, baby. You know it’s not her I’m in love with any more.
‘So, how do we reach these people once we get to Brazil?’ she asked, trying and failing to cross her legs properly under her tray table.
They’d been on the plane for four hours already, and she’d already counted at least nine things in her head that she’d forgotten to pack or research. She was hoping she’d have time to sort a few things out in Rio—where they were stopping for supplies before taking another flight to Saint Elena.
‘We’ll take a Cessna,’ Ryan said. ‘Either that or a Black Hawk—whatever the team have booked. Both are pretty good on the runways.’
‘There are runways in the rainforest?’
‘Well, they’re mud strips, really.’
Ryan opened the peanuts and offered her one. She shook her head, trying her hardest to write without scribbling on the tray table instead. They were still bouncing up and down, as if the plane itself was on some sort of trampoline.
‘The runways were carved out by the gold miners initially,’ he told her. ‘Illegally, of course, but they help us do our jobs so I suppose the real value of that gold just keeps on increasing—wherever it is. You can write that down.’
She realised her pen was hovering and that she was lost in thoughts of Jason again. But this time Jason was standing next to Ryan Tobias in the jungle, and being somewhat dwarfed by him.
She blinked to get rid of them both. ‘Right, yes. Good idea.’ She started to scribble, flustered.
‘Whatever you do, stay close to us,’ Ryan said suddenly, in a tone that pulled her eyes to his again like a magnet. ‘People go missing out there all the time.’
Her breath caught as she saw an emotion she didn’t recognise cross his face.
He continued without looking at her. ‘Last time we found a burnt-out helicopter which must have crashed twenty years ago. No skeletons inside...who knows what happened to them? The jungle has a way of luring people in and keeping them.’
Madeline tried not to shudder. For some reason she knew he was thinking of Josephine McCarthy. What had happened to her, exactly?
‘When were you here last?’ she asked.
‘Eight months ago. Five-day CAN mission. No cameras. We treated six hundred patients for minor infections, brought some ultrasound machines. We felt bad we couldn’t help the guy who got shot, though.’
‘Shot?’
‘He did it to himself—his gun got all twisted. By the time we found him his leg had more larvae in it than a dead horse. We cleaned him out, worked on him a long time, but he didn’t make it. So, like I said, don’t go wandering off on your own, please.’ He met her eyes, concern shining around his pupils. ‘And watch what you do with your gun.’
Madeline realised she felt quite ill. ‘Ryan, I wouldn’t be comfortable with a gun, and I really don’t think...’
She trailed off as she caught the smile creeping onto his face and felt her cheeks flush crimson. He was joking.
‘Don’t worry—you’re safe with us,’ he chuckled, nudging her gently with an elbow.
But just as quickly as it had appeared his smile was retracted, as if a memory had snatched it back again. Something stopped Madeline asking any more questions, though a million were fizzing on her tongue.
‘I feel safe with you,’ she said instead, meaning it. ‘How could anyone not?’
Ryan leaned back against the seat, and looked past her, out of the window again. ‘You’ll be safe with me as long as you’re smart. It’s no one’s job but your own to protect yourself out here, Maddy. Can I call you Maddy?’
‘Sure.’
‘The Brazilian military uses these trips to gather intelligence sometimes, so if we have any guests you’ll know they’re on to something and it’s a sign to be on high alert.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Cocaine trafficking,
