Author's Notes: Many many many thanks to the reviewers: luv2beloved, the Nessie's, sonia48, Miamore, SamAdams, mysteryfan09, VanessaEmilyBlack, midtwilight, ConradKCat, Renesmee is Awesome, babygirl187, blocklesx3, nessie125, and x-rayLady!


Disclaimer: The Twilight saga and all characters therein are the creation of Stephenie Meyer. No profit is being made from this fanfiction and no copyright infringement is intended.


Chapter Eighteen

Jungle

I was in a tangle of legs when I drifted awake early the next morning. The first rays of sunshine peeked over the ocean and poked through the white curtains to light up the room. I looked down and found myself relaxed in Jacob's arms. It was his legs – still wearing his jeans – that were entwined with my bare ones.

Also, someone was banging on the door.

Sighing, I extricated myself from Jacob's embrace. He was snoring lightly and he tried to pull me closer in his sleep and prevent me leaving; I gently unwound his arms. I also put my robe back on. There was no one else for whom I dared answer the door in just my underwear. Then again, it was a lot more modest than that swimsuit Rosalie bought.

It was Bella. Her eyes paused on my mussed hair and she grinned knowingly. "Wakeup call! It's six. The hotel has sent a car to the airport to pick up Quil and Embry; their plane's landing in an hour, 'member?" She peered past me. "Jake! Time to get up!"

"Mom," I protested.

"I can smell him. And your father…"

"I hope he kept himself distracted from me."

"I did my best," said Bella.

"Thanks," I said, smiling. Then it occurred to me what she might mean, and I made a face.

"We found an animal test facility on the city limits. Carlisle ordered enough primate blood for all of us to drink up before we leave. We'll need to be well-fed."

I held her hand. Just like that?

Bella shrugged. "This is South America. Anything goes."

"Okay. I'll get dressed and set up my super-awesome hack attack on the facility's computers. It'll take them at least two days to untangle what I'm about to do."

"However you say, hon," said Bella, looking bewildered. "I'm just glad someone knows about this stuff." She turned to go and then paused. "And I'll leave you to make sure Jacob's awake." She winked and then was gone.

Ugh. I knew I would have to endure some teasing now. I just hoped Emmett stayed out of it… but that was too much to hope for.

My mood was buoyant as I pulled out my designer jungle combat skirt and top. I jumped in the shower and came out in only my towel and changed in front of Jacob, pretty sure he was still asleep, not caring if he was faking it. Then I leaned over and left a trail of kisses up his arm, shoulder, neck, and ending at his ear, which I grazed my teeth over and whispered, "Jacob… Jacob…"

Faster than I could react, he reached up and pulled me down with him. And tickled me.

Too bad I'm not ticklish, I taunted, until he read my thoughts (there was one exception) and he grabbed my feet. I laughed so hard I cried. Alice'll be mad if I wrinkle my skirt before the battle, I thought. Stop it!

Jacob grinned and leaned over me, his face filling my vision. My eyes fell closed. Kiss, please…

His lips were warm, gentle, a perfect good morning kiss.

Also, I thought, Bella says that Quil and Embry will be here in, like, an hour.

"All right," he said. "Oh, it's today."

I sobered. Yeah.

Jacob was up in a flash. "Mind if I use your shower?" His face was serious, but his eyes glinted.

"If you like." The corners of my mouth turned up as I imagined…

Another knock on the door. "Renesmee!"

Ugh. I stood up, straightening my skirt. Door's open, Dad!

Edward came in, nodded once at Jacob. For once he didn't seem suspicious. I had a feeling that my mother had given him a little talk last night. After all, if we were flying into the dangerous heart of Brazilian science experiments today, it was no time to be a stickler for rules.

"Nessie, we've got some breakfast for you," said Edward.

"Mmm, blood!" I said for Jacob's benefit.

I heard him say "Aw, little leech-ling," from the shower.

In the suite's living room, I saw Tanya, Kate, and Garrett standing in a corner, talking to Carlisle. "Hey, guys!" I said.

"Nessie!" said Tanya, bounding over and sweeping me up into a hug. "We're so glad you're all right."

I paused before letting Kate hug me. She grinned widely and said, "Don't worry, I'm switched off at the moment."

Garrett laughed like she had a double meaning. "Hi, Ness," he said.

"Hey."

"So this should be pretty straightforward," Garrett said. "Get in there, put a halt to the dastardly deeds, get out with the hostages." He rubbed his hands together with glee. It was no wonder he and Emmett were such good friends.

"No, we wait," said Carlisle.

"But they tried to kill Nessie," said Rosalie, entering with an closed plastic IV bag: the blood. I could smell it. "If she hadn't thought fast with Demetri…" a quiver of horror passed over her face. "I say we give them their due."

"We will," said Jasper, from the doorway. "But Carlisle's right. If we go in quietly, we can assess who's who out there. We need to confront them and ask what's going on."

Alice's tiny hand joined with Jasper's. She'd been in a happy mood since having her vision of Marcus. "I just saw something," she said. "Denalis, your plane home is going to be delayed four hours in Atlanta."

"Oh! Um… thanks, Alice," said Kate.

"No problem!"

"So, you still don't foresee trouble?" Carlisle asked Alice.

Her brow crinkled. "Not with us. All I can see is us back at home. Aro, Caius, Marcus, and their immediate guard on their way here in a couple days. The werewolves I can't see," she shot me a look of apology, "and the facility must be full of half-vampires who will be making their own decisions. But I – I can't explain it, but I don't feel that anything's wrong. I feel almost like this is meant to be."

Several of us shifted uncomfortably. Alice's visions had always been so precise. This was a new, foggy sort of premonition that didn't give us much assurance. Especially me; who cared about anything unless Jacob was going to be all right? And the rest of his pack? The loss of one of them would be like losing a brother to me.

"I believe Alice," said Bella, touching Edward's shoulder. "I know exactly what she means."

"Yes, because you kept saying that when you were pregnant, that everything was going to be fine," Edward grumbled.

"And it was!"

"Sort of," said Edward.

"Hey!" I interrupted. "I'm not just sort of!"

"Not you, Ness. I mean what happened afterward."

"That was the Volturi's doing," said Garrett. "They were going to find a way to attack your coven and oppress all of us, no matter what."

"We need to do the right thing here, regardless," said Carlisle. "If we let the Volturi get away with this, they'll keep building their talent army. If there's anything I've learned about human history – and vampire nature – it's that if evil is given an inch, it will take a mile."

"Exactly," said Garrett. Kate smiled adoringly up at him.

I giggled at how cute a couple Kate and Garrett were.

After I'd had my share of blood – cold, but that was all right – I went into my own hotel room and set up my equipment on the balcony. I would need to bypass the hotel's connection; I didn't want Mendel suspecting that his attacker was nearby. Edward and Bella came with me.

Jacob was gone from the room. Is he with Quil and Embry?

Edward hesitated. "Yes."

I noted his hesitation. Everything all right? Bella, too, looked curious.

"The pack's been having some issues," Edward admitted. "It's not really my place to talk about it."

I held Bella's hand. Yes it is, if it'll affect them today!

"All right. Well, they'd been having some issues for awhile, actually. The others are finding it very difficult with Jacob gone from La Push. They feel leaderless. And Leah, though she's second in command, just doesn't have the presence. Also, Jacob's supposed to be the chief of the tribe, and their elders are getting… well… old. So there's some tension about being asked to fight thousands of miles away, while Jacob lives so far away."

"Oh, no," said Bella, obviously feeling guilty, as was I.

"He hasn't mentioned anything, I take it," said Edward.

We shook our heads.

"It's really not to worry," said Edward. "Jacob's authority is unchallenged. It would just be… like if Carlisle decided to take off. We'd be without the father of our family."

I turned to my computer, still frowning. This was my fault, whatever anybody said. I couldn't see a solution without disappointing someone. Hmph. My specialty was data and programming and the pathways of computer language… not emotional issues. I seemed to have trouble with those.

It was ten minutes to eight. Silvius and DeviDiva were already online and we prepared the assault. I routed my signal through a server in France to disguise my location. Our combined efforts were impressive: thousands of lines of conflicting code, directed by bots, would wash through Mendel's system, putting him offline for days. I had a hunch that all their communications were on the same signal; it would be too impractical to run a backup land wire through the Amazon rainforest. That meant their phones would be down, too. They couldn't call Volterra for help.

Edward and Bella were murmuring behind me and I waved at them to be quiet. I needed my full concentration. I put on a headset so I would have a direct voice connection to Silvius and DeviDiva. Really, I couldn't think why I'd imagined them as anything other than human; Sil's voice was squeaky, like a teenager's, and Devi's was throaty, like a smoker's.

"Ready," I said into my headset. My voice was also translated into a text chat box in the corner of the screen.

Then I dove into the system, seeing nothing but commands, code, lines and lines of complexity. It was like reading music. I spoke fast to my friends. I wished for my Spider, again, but my lack of power was made up by the others' systems. Using a triple-pronged attack on the security system, we traced his signal and followed it right into the hard drive at the facility.

"We're in," I said, my voice exultant. "Let's do it."

The swarm began. I was engrossed, breaking through firewalls, shutting off security alarms, opening back doors. I watched as Mendel's system was destroyed from the inside out. Pages of data flashed in front of my eyes. The pathways grew narrower as the bots clogged them, like clots in an artery. Soon they would reach the heart.

Then, a flashing line caught my attention. Silvius cursed.

"He's onto us," I muttered. "Spike him!"

"Can't," said Silvius, "he's blocked it."

I watched in horror as Mendel traced our signals back to their origins. Please, outrun him, I pleaded as the bots worked. Soon, Mendel would see that I was in Rio de Janeiro. Soon, the attack would disable him. Now I could only pray that he was forced offline before he discovered my friends and me…

My hands, clutching the chair underneath me, produced a pile of sawdust as I pressed my fingers against the wood.

Go, go, go… Sil and Devi were silent, too… then, just as Mendel's reverse spike was bouncing off the satellite above me, he vanished.

Dead.

Offline.

"Yes!" I shouted, jumping up and pumping my fist in the air. "Take that, sucker! We're coming to getcha!"

"Morphette?" DeviDiva took a moment away from her own celebratory shouts. "What do you mean?"

"Oh," I giggled nervously, "just that we've got him. He'll probably show up in the authorities' systems now."

I must have convinced her, because we allowed ourselves a good five minutes of gloating. Signing off, euphoric with our success, I turned around to see my parents staring at me with identical expressions of shock and pure pride.

"Did it," I said.

"You sure did!" Bella said.

I hugged her, then Edward.

"Nessie, even I couldn't follow your thoughts through that," said Edward, dazed. "It was like you were the computer."

I could have received no greater compliment. I'd achieved the perfect meld of mind and machine. "Well, he should be incommunicado for at least a couple of days. He's cut off."

"Now we go to him," said Bella. I was surprised by the undertone of eagerness in her voice.

She must want a vampire kill under her belt.

Edward winked at me.


The plane banked high above the clouds, spread out like a soft blanket in all directions, obscuring the Amazon rainforest below. Up ahead, a range of thunderheads promised rain. Alice said, "It's raining tonight," in a quiet voice.

The luxurious interior of the charter plane was silent and serious. Five werewolves, eleven vampires, and I were lost in our own thoughts and worries. I clasped Jacob's hand tightly. The door was open to the front cabin where Edward was in the pilot's seat.

I felt naked without my electronic support. Once we were in the jungle, it would be all senses and instinct and my only gadget: a GPS navigator. Still, I would have felt better to at least have a cell phone on me… though it wouldn't have reception.

Jacob knew why I was anxious and he whispered, "Nerd."

A few had the glint of anticipation in their black or gold eyes. Seth, Quil, Embry, Emmett, and Garrett were having trouble restraining themselves from an all-out pep rally.

"Where are the Amazons?" Tanya wondered. "Kachiri, Zafrina, Senna?"

"Too far to reach in time," said Alice. "I saw them in the foothills of the Andes as of tomorrow."

"Ness, maybe you could do something like Zafrina over time," said Bella. "That's almost what she does, projecting images."

"Yeah…" I said.

"You need a summer internship with the Amazons," said Jacob.

"That's actually a very good idea," said Carlisle. "And you're right, we probably should start keeping a large home down here."

"In addition to the island, you mean?" asked Jacob.

Carlisle just smiled.

Then, we ran out of light things to say, and no one wanted to talk about the dark things ahead.

An hour later, Edward eased the plane down through the clouds and into a smooth landing at the airport in Manaus. From the air it looked like a colonial city, and surprisingly large for being so deep in the jungle. I supposed that that the Amazon River, writhing like a giant serpent beside it, was a good line for supplies.

And hovercrafts with vampires.

I could have been on that craft, and then taken to the sinister facility with Nahuel, my family with no idea where I was or the danger I was in. I shuddered and Jacob squeezed my hand even tighter. It had been far, far too close. I was glad to be amongst my loved ones now, all of them experienced enough to be a formidable force.

I reminded myself that right now, the facility was cut off, and even if they'd sent a runner to call Italy, there was no way they could get word out in time. Besides, they had no reason to suspect a physical attack. As far as Mendel – whatever his real name was – knew, it was just a hack attack.

Jacob nodded beside me, reassuring me. "Want to ride on my back once we're on the ground?" he whispered.

Yes, please! I hadn't done that in awhile – not since we moved from Forks. Probably because riding between Jacob's wolf shoulders had seemed too intimate in the awkwardness of Rochester.

The plane wheeled to a stop and Jasper opened the door. The stairs reached down to touch the tarmac. It was a domestic flight so we didn't need to go through any officials, although Edward had to log the flight, which took a few minutes.

Then we were standing in a group, the most conspicuous bunch of people ever to stand around anywhere. We looked like an Amazon safari fashion photo shoot, without a photographer.

Rosalie glanced up at the clouds; I could almost read her thoughts. We were about to get our hair wet.

Fortunately, the airport was on the outskirts of the city, which meant we could take off running straight northwest. I pulled the GPS out of my pocket and swung it around my neck.

"Let's go already," said Seth.

We walked as a group to the edge of the airfield and into the trees. It smelled like loam, like overabundance, like a million rotting things and growing things. We would be running for about three hours, putting us at the facility just before dusk.

"What does it look like up ahead, Alice?" Carlisle asked.

We would be relying on her to avoid human settlements.

She said, "There's a way through the trees. Follow me until we're clear of the villages. Then we'll follow Ness and Jacob."

In the gloom, we all looked at each other. Then Quil said, "Enough waiting!" He walked behind a tree and emerged as his enormous wolf self.

The rest of the pack followed suit and we were soon surrounded by the pack, already seeming protective. The Denalis were a little spooked, I could tell, but also appreciative. It took a lot of deprogramming to get used to shapeshifters and vampires working as a team. I was pretty sure that anyone other than we Cullens and our fellow vegetarian Denalis – including Garrett, who now had golden eyes – would not qualify.

Jacob's wolf eye winked at me and I leapt onto his back. My legs just fit on either side of his massive shoulder blades. Jacob heard my slightly naughty idea through my hands that spread through his fur and he let out a huff of a laugh.

Edward pretended not to notice. Emmett waggled his eyebrows.

Yep, we weren't in Forks anymore.

Then Jacob and Edward were looking at each other, obviously communicating, and Edward nodded once. "We're ready when you are, Alice," Edward said.

"This way!" said Alice, leaping artistically over a fallen log.

We were running, almost flying.

It didn't take long to settle into a steady rhythm as I rocked with Jacob's pace, keeping balance with my knees. Around us, the smell of human faded as we swung along the river and into the untamed jungle. Other scents took over, layering into a complex portrait, lush with color and variety. Our acute senses noted the stillness of the wildlife as our party passed them by. They sensed the unnatural things in their midst. I wasn't bored as we ran; the scenery was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. My eyes kept wandering down to the soft, spongy floor, where fallen vegetation rotted… and then upward to the soaring canopy, hundreds of feet above us, where monkeys ceased their chatter and birds quieted their song as they waited for us to pass.

Very little light penetrated the canopy and it felt like twilight already. This would be a good forest to be a vampire. Always shaded, mostly deserted, scenic, and for a vegetarian, the big wildlife was varied.

I didn't like the heat much, though. It made me feel sticky. The wolves were panting in their thick fur coats. Interesting though the Amazon was, I preferred the northern forests where my body temperature was naturally protective against the elements… and where there were computers, lots of computers.

I glanced down at the GPS. We were bearing down on the coordinates. "One hour," I said aloud.

"I hope they don't have advance warning," said Tanya. "If what you suspect turns out to be true… who knows what kind of talents they have."

"We'll find out soon enough," said Carlisle.

The light filtering through the trees grew ever dimmer. Rain fell on the canopy above; we were sheltered from the full brunt of it, but heavy rivulets were channeled down leaves and trees and gathered into puddles at our feet. I felt like I was plunging forward into chaos, into the entrapment of vines and the den of monsters lurking ahead. This place had sucked in all kinds of connections for us… Nahuel and his sister Aylen, the friend I didn't even know yet… Alice's own distant relative, turned for the simple misfortune of being related to a vampire… who else did we already know at this birthing center of Volturi power?

"Smell that?" asked Esme. "We must be close."

I felt Jacob take a deep, long breath through his snout, and I did the same through my nose. A bare trace of something discordant in the forest set me on edge. It was faint; it rained a lot out here – rainforest, of course – and scent trails would be washed away. But it was there: vampire, and the strange perfume that was a hybrid.

I ran my fingers against Jacob's fur, touching his skin beneath. This could be the trail left by Nahuel and Heidi and Chelsea.

His huge head nodded.

I glanced down at the GPS. We were close. Very close.

Jacob and I, in the lead along with Edward, slowed slightly. The others' faces tightened, knowing what that meant. How I wished I could project my thoughts in a big bubble. That would be so convenient for giving orders and passing information.

"Bella?" Edward breathed.

"Still up," Bella said, meaning her shield. She'd cloaked us with her shield since we took off from Rio, in case the Volturi had come up with another tracker like the late Demetri.

Our pace slowed even more as the scent grew stronger. If they didn't know we were on our way, they would soon know we were arrived. They would be able to smell us.

I was surprised we didn't run into any sentries in the jungle. I kept my ears tuned for electronic surveillance devices, but didn't hear anything. In fact, the forest was quiet.

Too quiet.

We stalked slowly now. The wolves pushed lightly through the dense vegetation; the vampires leapt in dancing, hunting motions. The cool glow of the GPS screen flashed a bull's eye at me: we were right on top of it.

Then, like emerging into the eye of a hurricane, we found ourselves in the clearing.