Chapter 31.
Chile
They stand on the beach and watch in silence as the body of Luca Tommasi is lowered into the inflatable Sea Eagle boat that will shortly head back to the ship.
It is the beginning of Luca’s long journey back to Italy, where he’ll be reunited with his wife and son, just not the way he had intended.
Jack watches the body settle into the boat—handled and placed with cargo. He feels something in him go cold that has nothing to do with water. He’s seen plenty of death before. Too much of it. But this—this feels stolen. Like it was taken on purpose.
As the Sea Eagle begins to make its way across the water, Jack looks around for Ant Tipton, very much wanting to look him in the eyes and ask if he really left Luca on the trail to die.
Nothing.
Either the man is already on the mountain . . . or he’s made sure nobody can find him.
“Elena,” Jimmy says quietly, staring at the water. “You talked to him last night, right?”
Elena nods once. “He kept talking about his son.” She turns to Jack. “He just wanted to make his son proud.”
Jack tightens. “He thought he could do something bigger than his job. I believed him.”
Jimmy is standing with them, eyes still fixed on the water.
No sharks in sight.
Just the inflatable boat with Luca’s body on it. Jack stands there with his arm around Rupert, propping up the boy, who could drop to the ground at any moment as the boat moves farther away from shore.
Jimmy finally looks away from the Sea Eagle. “Isn’t that why we’re all here?” he says. “Because we’re the idiots who still believe we can make a difference?”
Before Jack can answer, The Host fills the beach, shattering the solemn quiet.
“For those who weren’t here earlier,” The Host says, “your second test of this day is to make it through the jungle and up to the lighthouse at the highest point of the island. Some are already on their way there. The rest of you need to check your phones now, because all of you have been given detailed routes up the mountain. Once you’re on your way, we will be tracking your times, and your progress. ”
Elena checks her screen. Jimmy does too. His route is on the far side.
“The obstacles are fairly obvious,” The Host continues.
“Heat, extreme humidity, the snakes and spiders you will almost surely encounter along the way. Despite what you may have heard, the venom from these snakes is rarely fatal. But, as we have all just discovered, being bitten by a recluse spider can be an entirely different story.”
He doesn’t sound remorseful in any way about Luca, Jack thinks. To him, Luca was never here.
“In a few moments, we will blow a horn and those of you standing on the beach can follow your maps to begin your journey to the lighthouse,” he says. “If you can make it, of course. I know this might sound harsh: But the show must go on.”
Jimmy’s voice is flat. “Some show.”
Jack finally checks his phone. Jack is leaving from a point on the south side of the mountain, Elena from the north. Jimmy will start out all the way on the other side.
“I’d rather be going with you,” Elena says to Jack.
“You’re tough enough to do this on your own,” Jack says.
“You don’t know that,” she says.
He grins. “I know tough when I spot it.”
“Luca was tough, too,” Elena says quietly.
The horn blows.
Steven Noble