Mrs. Echave looked at Nilson and nodded.
-the Obregon family has never followed the rule that the firstborn succeeds the lord of the city and will choose the best scion to succeed him, Nicolas is slow to announce the next lord of the city and Carlos’ move to reactivate the economy of Ciudad Echave this time is so sensational that it has given Efraim a sense of crisis?
Yerma reflects, denying:
-No Ma, if Efraim knows who Carlos is he must also know that Carlos has to leave after three months in Salamonsa and that Carlos is no threat to the post of City Lord that he is thinking of….
Nilson suddenly said:
-What if behind Efraim there was an accomplice? What if that person’s purpose was not originally for the position of City Lord?
Yerma froze, her heart fluttering and her eyes flickering slightly, when he said,….
Mrs. Echave nods her head.
-That’s probably it, Yerma, give me the phone and I’ll call Nicolas.
…
In the bamboo forest, as Carlos had guessed, the men who wanted to kill them, well prepared and knowing that he and the girl were definitely on the mountain, began to search the mountain in separate groups, Carlos alert and careful, taking the woman with him, dodging the men again and again without moving.
The hills are large and the undergrowth favors hiding in short trees, making the search quite difficult.
Carlos took Micaela by the hand, without showing signs of nervousness, showing her the various plants of the mountain, and having fun with her, he wove a hat with bamboo branches for the girl. Micaela took out her cell phone and took several selfies, as if it was really a date in the bamboo forest, as Carlos had said…
Between chasing and dodging the enemy, the sun began to tilt to the west and it was after 4 o’clock in the afternoon.
-Grrrrrr.
The hills were quiet, only insects and birds were chirping, and Micaela’s hungry voice was clearly heard in Carlos….
The woman blushes at once….
She is breastfeeding and has more appetite than ever, in fact she had been hungry for a long time…..
Carlos was especially distressed, not that he hadn’t thought about getting food for the girl, a few times, he had seen earlier the trap the rangers had set on the hill, which contained freshly shot hares, pheasants and the like, but, without a knife, if he made a fire, it was sure to attract the enemy….
-Carlos, it’s all right, I can hold on…..
The woman saw the self-condemnation on the man’s face and hurried to speak.
When Adriana first locked her up on the third floor, she too had gone a day and a night without a drop of water….
Carlos reached out to take her in his arms….
-Micaela, he put you through the wringer….
Micaela, however, resisted his embrace, rested her hands on his chest to give him distance, blushed even more, averted her eyes and whispered:
-It hurts…
Carlos was alarmed, his eyes scanned her body anxiously and his hands groped her quickly, his muzzle full of anxiety.
-Where does it hurt? Why didn’t you tell me if it hurt?
How could she not know where the girl was hurt if she was clearly by her side all the time?
Could it be the soles of her feet?
He rushed to bend down to examine her feet and Micaela grabbed his hand to stop him.
-No Carlos, I’m not hurt, you heard wrong…..
Women blush and are too ashamed to explain….
Carlos was skeptical, the girl really didn’t look hurt and was walking normally, could she be hungry and have a stomach ache?
Carlos instantly felt instantly more distressed and immediately decided to speed things up by taking her by the hand and walking in one direction.
-Micaela, don’t worry, I’ve actually been looking for a place where I’m sure there’s food and maybe even internet, hang in there a little longer.
Micaela was startled, indeed, after three or four hours on the mountain, he had not been leading her blindly, avoiding the searchers while walking always in one direction, only, apparently, not finding what he was looking for, he proceeded to change direction again….
The woman followed his example and asked curiously:
-Where?
-The forester’s quarters.
-The ranger?
-Well, this bamboo mountain is planted with many varieties of bamboo, and now that we are about to enter winter, there will be winter bamboo shoots, followed by spring bamboo shoots, and there will be people who will take the opportunity to go up and dig, and when the shoots are dug up, it will affect the bamboo production, and as you can see, we have seen signs in many places prohibiting digging bamboo shoots, surrounded by fines and so on, so there must be people here to take care of it, and then you have to build simple shelters. .. The mountain is very boring and maybe even has an Internet receiver installed.
Carlos deliberately goes into as much detail as he can, just to distract the woman from the fact that she is hungry?
Unwittingly, the woman swallowed….
Bamboo shoots are also one of her favorite dishes, crunchy and very light and sweet….
Carlos looked at the woman behind him, already with a gluttonous face, looking down to see where the sprouts were on the ground, and immediately blamed himself and thought the girl was cute….
Halfway down, Micaela thought of something, looked up abruptly, paused, tugged his hand and asked with a sad face:
-Carlos, could it be then that the ranger’s place, as you say, has also been invaded by the man who wants to hunt us?
Carlos nodded, with a grateful gleam in his eye.
-Yes, it’s definitely occupied where it’s too obvious, but the hill is so big that there’s definitely more than one shelter, so don’t be afraid.
Even if they are busy, it doesn’t matter, as long as the numbers aren’t exaggerated, he has the means to claim them as his own, and the lack of internet on the mountain is an advantage, they can’t move help either….
Carlos looked off into the distance and, with a frown, quickly crouched behind the low, short tree next to him with the girl in his arms….
Micaela’s heart skipped a beat when she heard that Carlos had seen the searchers again. She looked through a gap in the branches and, indeed, in the distance, four figures were approaching….
-Micaela, then hide here and don’t make any noise.
Carlos lowered his voice and spoke.
Micaela took his hand, her eyes full of tension.
-You don’t want to get involved…
Wouldn’t it be better to hide here and not be found, like we did before?
For the first hour, they remained catatonic, playing hide-and-seek with the men, and as the enemy approached, they hid where they had checked, dodging under their noses again and again in a thrill….
Carlos’ thin lips quirked into a smile as he rested a hand on the back of her neck and strode up and down her figure, his forehead pressed to hers.
-Don’t be afraid, silly, keep your voice down.
Then he gave her a kiss on the lips, turned around and ran quickly behind the plants on the other side in a feline fashion….
Micaela’s heart raced instantly, not daring to utter a sound, squatting down with a dull ache in her chest and with no time to worry, watching Carlos’ figure disappear not far away….
She strained to adjust her breathing and turned her head to look through the plants in front of her at the people coming from across the street, who were looking row by row for someone behind the low trees….
The four men spoke as they parted and searched, separated by some distance, their voices deliberately raised.
-That guy is really good at picking sites, this shitty bamboo forest is so big and there’s no internet, loitering he doesn’t even know what to do!
-That’s what proves that person is cunning, if he had run down the road earlier, he would have been a ghost long ago, so badly haunted, and still let him find such a good hiding place, tsk tsk….
Micaela sounded rather proud of herself – My man, of course he’s smart!
-It’s been so long and there’s no sign of them, have those guys grown wings and flown away?
One of them immediately said:
-You can’t fly even if you grow wings!
Another agreed:
-That’s right, the boss has not only arranged for people to keep watch at the foot of the mountain, he has also arranged for helicopters to hover in the sky, they will be seen from wherever they come out of the bamboo forest.
-Yes, they are definitely still in the bamboo forest, just blame the damn tea trees, they block the view too much! We must find them before it gets dark or we’ll all spend the night on the mountain.
Micaela was a bit surprised to see that the plant in front of her was actually a tea tree….
As she continued talking, the man at the head of the line carefully looked for people hiding behind each row of tea trees:
-Hey, guys, why did the boss have to kill that man? Even if he wasn’t one of Salamonsa’s men, there was no need to kill him, was there? I really want him to die, hold him here, once the three months are over, still not obedient die here, why bother, the city boss knows that he mobilized so many helicopters, and organized so many people out, it is also troublesome to ask ah….
Micaela’s heart hung in her throat, the man was a meter or so away, she covered her mouth and her heart beat faster while listening to the man’s comments….
Did they know that Carlos was not one of Salamonsa’s men and they were actually after him?
Why?
Carlos had only been with Salamonsa for less than two months, who had he offended to get such a heavy hand?
The man said half a day did not see anyone respond, puzzled to turn back, suddenly found the object of the search is standing behind him, was about to exclaim, the man’s hand with his brother wooden stick, swing hard on ….
The man lost consciousness and, as he fainted, he saw his companions lying on the ground not far away…