The jungle at night was anything but peaceful.  Within the boundaries of the lush green plants hundreds of creatures went about their business.  A night bird cocked its head high in the branches and listened for a minute to the cries of other nocturnals before echoing with its own.  A family of wild pigs grunted along as they hurried towards water.  They were safe for the moment – the huge cat sleeping above them only ate an hour ago.  A lizard leapt onto a nearby rock, but scurried away quickly when it sensed large movements beside it.  It hid under an exposed root and watched the two disturbing shadows slid past.

            The shadows did not belong in the jungle.  They were not there to search for prey, nor were they headed towards the river.  In fact, they were going in the exact opposite direction, towards a group of temporary shelters that were even more out of place than the shadows were.  Masked by night and the natural jungle noises, the two moved as silently as possible into the camp.

            They paused by a particular building.  One of the figures conjured up a device of some sort and appeared to check it, then shook its head at the other figure.  They moved on, stopping at each structure, until finally-

            "This is it," whispered the first shadow.  The second nodded and put an ear to the cloth wall of the tent, then motioned and they slipped inside.

            It was even darker inside the tent, but shadows have no fear of darkness.  These two walked about easily, as if they were a pair of the night-seeing animals from outside, and had lived there all their lives.  In fact they were from quite far away, and at least one of them was acutely aware of this.  The first shadow shivered, though the thermometer in the watch it was wearing read 99˚F.  The second shadow was sifting through the contents of a crate.

            "Cimon, what's taking so long?"

            "It's not like they're just going to leave it out in the open, you know.  What's your hurry?"

            The first shadow stiffened slightly.  "No hurry.  This place just gives me the creeps is all."

            "What're you afraid of?"  There was no answer.  "Rats?"  If a shadow could laugh, the second one would have.

            "Very funny."  The first shadow was not amused.

            "You know, this would go a lot faster if you would deign to help me."

            "Not my jurisdiction."  But the first shadow lifted the lid of the nearest crate.  "Oh.  My.  Um, am I looking at what I think I'm looking at?"

            The second shadow immediately stopped what it was doing and came over to look in the crate.  "Oh man."

            "I knew we shouldn't have taken this job!"

            The first shadow picked up something and looked at it in awe.  It was cylindrical, green, and gently glowing.  There were about 40 others still in the crate.  The shadows looked at each other, then the first spoke.

"We are in a whole lot of trouble here," it said with a slightly hysterical edge to its voice.

            Suddenly, the lights went on.  Blinded and de-shadowed, it took the figures a moment to be able to see the mass of burly men surrounding them.  So that's where all the guards were.