LITMIR.BIZ

       CHAPTER TWO

      ‘DID YOU KNOW that CAN’s first pilots were called the flag-bearers of the skies? That was in the early nineteen-forties.’

      ‘I don’t know much about CAN at the moment,’ Madeline said. ‘This was all a bit short notice, as you know. Maybe you could explain?’

      She was trying her hardest not to let turbulence affect the way she was talking to Ryan. This plane was far too shaky for her peace of mind, but of course this man flew everywhere for a living and didn’t even look as if he’d noticed they were bumping up and down in what felt like God’s hugest tantrum since the last giant tornado.

      ‘Correio Aéreo Nacional,’ he said, picking up a packet of peanuts and running a tanned thumb over the seal without opening it. ‘Their mission was to help integrate the most remote Amazon outposts with the rest of the country.’

      ‘How did they do that?’

      Madeline pulled out her notebook, wishing she’d put her laptop under her seat instead of up in the overhead locker. She could type much faster than she could write these days, but there was no way on earth she was climbing past Ryan. She’d rather not risk feeling his eyes on her again as she tripped, or did something else stupid as a result of her nerves.

      There was something in his stare, she mused. It stayed with her even with her eyes closed. She’d seen it a thousand times in camera close-ups, of course, and it was part of what drew people in their thousands to watch him in action. It had the power to make you feel like you were the only person on earth. It also had the power to make you feel like an idiot.

      Ryan smiled, apparently scrutinising her handwriting from his seat on the aisle. ‘CAN transported isolated residents from riverside communities to places where they could be helped—usually the city. They had dozens of planes flying over the Amazon—more than they do now anyway.’

      Madeline scribbled as fast as she could to get his words down, feeling thankful that she’d brought a Dictaphone for later.

      When she looked up his grey eyes were fixed on her, and she found herself annoyingly self-conscious. At least she wasn’t wet and covered in coffee this time—she’d put on a very respectable knee-length blue dress for the flight, one that accentuated her small waist, and she’d left her long hair down around her shoulders. Also, he seemed to be making a concerted effort to be friendly, for which she was more than grateful.

      ‘The flying doctors were known as the Angels of the Amazon, is that right?’ she asked him, reaching for her necklace.

      ‘Correct,’ he said, watching her fiddling with the silver chain as she slid the small crystal apple up and down on it. ‘They were angels, Madeline. Still are. They deliver medical aid by aircraft. If they didn’t these people would only get help after weeks of travelling on foot through the jungle, or by boat.’

      ‘So, would you consider yourself an angel now, too?’

      Ryan frowned, drumming his fingers on his tray table. ‘I just do what’s necessary—like they do,’ he said. ‘These people live and breathe the Amazon—a place most of us know little about, except that it’s a living pharmacy essential to billions of lives on earth, right? They’re the caretakers of the jungle and everything in it. By helping them and looking after their health we’re helping the environment.’

      The plane jostled them again and Madeline’s tray table jumped.

      ‘Do you know where we’re going?’ he asked, catching her notepad before it slid off.

      ‘Caramambatai,’ she replied quickly, hoping she was pronouncing it right. ‘Your producer says it’s an indigenous settlement...’

      ‘The Ingariko tribe, yes. They’re spread all over South America, but this camp is pretty much hidden on the border between Brazil, Venezuela and Guyana. It’s about as remote as you’re going to get. Legend has it people have been swallowed whole by thick morning mists in these parts. They’re more likely to have been finished off by surucucu snakes, if you ask me. Highly poisonous, by the way. If you see one it will probably be the last thing you see.’

      She realised, now that he was so close, that he had lines around his eyes—proof of laughter, perhaps, more than age. He’d been happy once. Happier than the media made him out to be now anyway. He looked sexier in person, too, she decided.

      Then she caught herself.

      Sexier? There was no way she was letting herself think that again. She was here to do a job—and besides, as if anyone would go near her, let alone this guy. Her friend Emma had said she reeked of heartbreak, which wasn’t particularly nice but was definitely true. Hardly surprising after what Jason had done.

      Madeline could still recite every line of that love-struck email to Adeline she’d read by mistake after he’d left his laptop open.

      I’m just trying to find the right time to tell her, baby. You know it’s not her I’m in love with any more.

      ‘So, how do we reach these people once we get to Brazil?’ she asked, trying and failing to cross her legs properly under her tray table.

      They’d been on the plane for four hours already, and

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