Free The Amazon Code by Nick Thacker

closely, still not trusting the man that had saved their lives. In an instant, his facial expression changed. His eyes and brow receded back to its prior state of cold nothingness, and the smile was replaced with the look of someone who’d been through enough in life to deserve a serious outlook on it. “Here’s the plan: I’m in charge, at least until we’re clear of these bozos. When I say we’re safe, then — and only then — do we try to figure out what they want with you, Doc.”  
    Everyone but Ben nodded, and Reggie continued. “However, we do need a destination, so we might as well get somewhere safe that might also help us along. Any ideas? A library? An office?”  
    Amanda shook her head. “No, just somewhere with a good internet connection. Julie — the laptop?”  
    Julie’s face brightened a bit. “Right! I forgot all about that.” She swung the laptop bag around and unzipped the top, showing off the silver machine tucked inside. “Here it is.”  
    Amanda explained to Reggie. “Let’s move out. Anywhere but here. We think Dr. Ortega — one of my employees — was trying to tell us something. I’ll need to access our shared folder from the secure cloud backup site.”  
    Reggie was already moving down the hallway, but he nodded and motioned for them to follow. “Right on. Sounds good; let’s take the side exit, see if we can’t get out and around the building. I parked over the hill in the parking lot next door, and we can all fit there.”  
    “What about their stuff?” Paulinho asked.  
    “Right, and our rental car?” Julie added. Ben and Julie had a rental, but Paulinho and Amanda had driven over in Amanda’s hatchback.
    “You won’t need it anymore,” Reggie said, still talking over his shoulder. “Besides, you ever see those movies with the cars that blow up when you turn the key?”  
    Julie shot a glance at Ben, but he didn’t say anything. This guy’s sick , Ben thought. But he seems to be confident enough to get us through this. And if Ben knew anything about these situations, it was that confidence — if nothing else — just might be enough to carry them through.  

13
    THEY DROVE FOR WHAT SEEMED like hours, toward Reggie’s self-described “compound.” He wouldn’t give more detail until they’d arrived, but only said that it was where he lived and worked when he wasn’t in the city. When Ben awoke again and looked at the dash clock, he was surprised to see that they had, in fact, driven for nearly two hours. Straight north, almost reaching into the lower basin of the world-famous jungle territory. Most of the drive was pitch black, and Julie and Ben had used the time to catch up on their sleep.  
    Amanda and Paulinho were on Julie’s laptop, using Reggie’s ad-hoc wireless network from his cellphone to connect the computer to the internet and download the information Dr. Ortega had left for them.  
    Julie had been right — Dr. Ortega had indeed been trying to tell them something, without the information getting into the wrong hands. He’d meticulously organized the images in the folders into numbered files, then uploaded an explanatory video he’d titled pega-veretas . The video was large, and since the phone had an almost-unusable download speed, they’d been waiting the entire drive to discover what the video and files were all about.  
    Ben heard a gentle ding as the download finished, and he nudged Julie. She wiped a trickle of drool from the side of her mouth, then looked up at the computer on Amanda’s lap in the front seat.  
    “It’s done,” Amanda said. Paulinho stretch up in the seat behind Amanda’s, next to Ben, and looked over her shoulder at the screen. “Ready?”  
    She pressed play before anyone could respond.  
    “Dr. Meron, if you’re watching this, there is a good chance I am dead. I…” the man in the video, Dr. Juan Ortega, swallowed hard, then clenched his teeth and began again. “I — I’m sorry. Please