Hi everyone! Thanks for your patience – I have finally updated, hope you will enjoy.

Thanks to LittleMissBump for her Beta Reading skills – I hope you'll find both chapters much improved. Please let me know what y'all think!

Jungle

"John? John!"

A blur of sounds assaulted him as he swam back to consciousness. John opened his eyes, groaned at the spinning world around him and shut them again. "John?" The voice held an edge of panic now and John managed to prise his eyes open. The world had stopped spinning and he surveyed their immediate surroundings. I'm still in the plane, that's good. The plane's in tree. He swore loudly and creatively, to the relief of the voice behind him, that of his youngest brother.

"I'm OK," John ground out through gritted teeth. He couldn't say as much for the biplane. He tried to turn in his seat to look at Alan, but the tree beneath them creaked alarmingly so he stopped dead still. "Are you all right?"

"I hit my head." Alan's voice held a tremor. John struggled for words of reassurance, but as he glanced over the side his mouth dried up. They were eighty- no ninety- feet off the jungle floor. John swore again.

"Do you think we lost them?" Alan asked.

"I doubt they'll look down here," John said dryly, but worry gnawed at his gut. He couldn't hear the hum of the pursuing plane, but there was no guarantee they were not circling around to finish them off. "We need to get down."

Alan's bark of laughter was tight, nervous, "You're kidding, right?"

"You want to wait until they come back?"

A few beats of silence and then, "There's no way, John, no way…"

John reached up and grabbed one of the branches, "You've been climbing trees since you were five, it'll be a piece of cake." He broke off as the wind changed direction, forcing a cloud of smoke from the aeroplanes tail to pass over them. "Unless you'd rather wait here until the engine explodes."

Alan fell silent and John took a moment to reassess the situation – after all, bravado will only gets you so far. The plane was lodged nose-down at a forty-five degree angle in a fork in the trunk of the tree. It looked as if there were some sturdy branches surrounding them – in theory they should be able to climb out. John reached out again and the plane tipped alarmingly.

"John!"

"It's OK. It's OK," John managed, willing his heart-rate to settle.

"Like hell it is!"

"I thought you liked a challenge." Carefully, he took hold of the nearest, firmest–looking branch and began to slide his way out of the fuselage. He paused for a few seconds, breathing heavily. The plane stayed steady. "Are you coming?"He tried to keep his voice light, cocky, but it didn't quite come out this way.

"No way," Alan said more forcefully. John pivoted to look at his younger brother.

"It's OK, kid, come on." He tried to keep his voice steady, level. He needed to keep perspective here. Alan was only nineteen after all and not one of John's recruits. Alan was shaking his head as the plane made a sudden, dizzying lurch forward. John was pulled clear and for a sickening moment he thought the plane would plunge all the way to the floor with Alan still inside, but the descent was halted. John's heart was thundering like a jackhammer.

"OK," Alan said unsteadily, "I'm coming." He reached out for the hand John offered and pulled himself free of the plane slowly but with surprising ease. Cautiously, he made his way to a thick branch near the trunk and rested a second before turning to John. "That was close, I really thought—"

He was cut off as the sound of creaking branches and twisting metal heralds the beginning of the plane's final descent. As the plane crashed down through the branches at sickening speed, two thoughts flew through John's mind. Firstly, that they had just narrowly avoided a gruesome death and, secondly, that it was not his plane.

"Scott's going to kill us," Alan said shakily, echoing John's second thought.

"Agreed," John managed, trying to swallow though his mouth was completely dry. There was a heavy silence which John felt compelled to break. "Come on," he said grimly. "Let's get out of here."

He tested the branch carefully before stepping down, checking that Alan's progress was matching his own. Carefully, gently, they started to make their way down towards the jungle floor.

"Why do you think they shot at us?" Alan grunted.

"I have no idea," John replied, although actually he had several ideas. Take, for example, the fact that they were sons of one of the richest technology developers in the world – a prime target for hostages. Or perhaps their father had more enemies is Belize than he had realised when he had OK'd this jaunt. Or they'd offended someone (or Alan had , more likely). Or it was a case of mistaken identity. Whichever, they had been lucky to escape with their lives. If not for John's extensive pilot training and Alan's quick eye, it might have been all over for the second and fifth Tracy boys. Perspiration dripped into John's eyes, stinging. Of course, they had to make it out of the jungle yet. Their pursuers must have realised it wouldn't take bullets to finish them off out here. Alan paused for a second and John looked up.

"You OK?"

"Just peachy," Alan replied with a grimace. John noticed for the first time the fresh blood on Alan's temple, and the swelling starting above his right eye.

"When we get down I'll take a look at your head."

"It's fine," Alan replied with the conviction of a moody teenager. John didn't bother to argue, he looked down instead.

"I reckon about thirty feet to go."

"Is that all?" Alan muttered. He started his descent again and after a moment, John followed.

"We need to salvage what we can from the plane," John said, "We might need to spend a bit of time out here."

"Someone will find us," Alan replied confidently.

Quite probable, John thought, but perhaps not the rescue party Alan has in mind. He didn't voice his concerns. "The jungle's big. It might take a few days."

"Oh, man," Alan mumbled, "we wrecked the plane"

"With great style," John added dryly, picking through the still smoking metal with a stick. He paused to note the stricken look on his brother's face. "Relax! Scott'll yell, eardrums will bleed, and then he'll get over it. That's why we have insurance."

"Huh!" Alan was unconvinced.

"The more pressing problem is that we are stranded, in the middle of the jungle, with a day's worth of supplies and some murderous loons on our tail." John sighed deeply, and quashed his inner despair before turning to his brother with a smile. "Well, boy, you wanted an adventure".