by RB Schalin
Chapter 17
The journey down river was long and hot. After two days of watching monkeys, children and fishermen the excitement turned into boredom. Kerry spends much of the time with his notebook and different maps of the area. Julia and Hogan check their equipment so many times they can wake up in the middle of the night and say exactly where Hogan’s blue socks are in his backpack. They had bought the equipment in the States before they left and Hogan was in charge of it. Since he had a military background Kerry felt safe leaving that part of the planning with him. Hogan got everything he needed except weapons. Kerry had told him he foresaw no reason to go in armed, but Hogan wasn’t happy. He figured he could buy something along the way, maybe a shotgun, anything that could protect them from the four and two-legged animals.
"We are almost there, " says Ortega early in the morning on the third day.
Kerry is making a second cup of coffee on their gas stove and Hogan and Julia are brushing their teeth at the railing.
When they come back Kerry says, "Ortega is saying we have reached the first part of the journey on the river. We have to decide if we should ask him to take us the rest of the way or change to another boat."
"I like him, apart from cheating on his girlfriend, he seems like a nice guy, and he has taken us this far without any problems, " says Hogan.
"I agree," says Julia.
"OK, talk to him and see what he says Julia."
Kerry and Hogan watch as Julia talks to Ortega and soon realizes from the tone of his voice and her pleadings that he is not interested.
Julia comes back to where they are sitting under the tent and sighs when she sits down, "he won’t do it. Says he needs to go back and take care of Juanita and her kids. The good news is that he knows a guy where we are going, and he thinks he can help us out."
"Sound's good," says Kerry and begins to pack.
Hogan gets the tent down and they stand by the railing when the barge slowly comes into a small quay on the right side of the river.
They say goodbye to Ortega, who turns his boat around and heads back to where he came from. As he waves to the Americans, he gets a feeling that they might not come back from where they are going. A chill runs down his spine, but he shakes it off and gets ready for his confrontation with Juanita.
They find the man Ortega talked about. He could have been his twin brother, he even even wears a cap, but this one says Ferrari and is bright red.
Again Julia is the one talking and when she is finished the man who presented himself as Ortiz shakes his head.
Kerry walks up to them, leaving Hogan with their equipment, "what’s he saying?"
"He says he knows where we want to go, It’s a small village, maybe a hundred people in total, but he says they don’t like what they call foreigners."
"What? They don’t like white people?"
Julia translates and Ortiz chuckles, and then says something.
"He says they don’t like anyone who isn’t from their village. Last year they chased a team from a nature magazine out of the village and shot at them with arrows, seemingly the arrows were the children’s so they had no points, but it scared the team." Kerry thinks about the information and says, "tell him we will pay top dollar, all he has to do is drop us off and come back two weeks later to pick us up."
Hogan is sitting on a stone wall looking around. There are quite a few people around, mostly men going to and from boats up to the little town above the river. As he sits there he notices almost all of them are carrying some kind of firearm, a revolver or pistol in the front of their pants or a shotgun over a shoulder. Another thing he notices is that several of the younger men have expensive looking watches and gold necklaces. Drugs, he thinks, these people smuggle drugs downriver from other smugglers from the border to Colombia and Ecuador. This far back from the user a kilo of Cocaine should be as cheap as buying a pack of cigarettes.
He is brought back from his thoughts by the arrival of Julia and Kerry.
"He’ll take us, and pick us up in two weeks," says Kerry, and then continues, "we are leaving in an hour."
Hogan jumps down from the wall and says, "I’ll buy us some water, wait here."
He walks up the sloping road towards the town and finds what he is looking for, a general store. When he walks in the room is dark and there is an old fan in the ceiling. The store is filled with canned goods. In the corners are rolls of rope, and fishing gear. He walks over to a desk and knocks on it to wake up the man sleeping on a stool which is leaning against a floor to ceiling shelf behind him.
The man opens his eyes and immediately picks out a pack of cigarettes from his shirt pockets and lights one, then looking up at Hogan he asks in broken English, "what do you need?"
Hogan isn’t sure how to get what he needs and decides to be direct, "I was wondering if you have any guns for sale?"
The man takes a long drag on his cigarette and says, "guns are illegal, I can’t sell them."
Hogan has been around and puts two hundred Dollars on the counter. The man looks at the wad of twenty Dollar bills and scratches his head. Then he comes around the counter and walks over to the entrance door and locks it. He walks past Hogan and disappears into a back room. After five minutes he is back with an old suitcase in leather. He places it on the counter and opens it.
Hogan looks inside and feels his hopes vanish. In the suitcase is an assortment of pistols and revolvers, most of them are rusted and scratched. He looks through the collection and decides on a Smith&Wesson revolver. It’s a 44 Magnum with a six inch barrel. He checks it and decides it's good enough. Looking at the man he asks, "you don’t happen to have a shotgun by any chance?"
The man shrugs his shoulder and goes back to the room where he got the suitcase from and comes back carrying three rifles which he places on the counter.
Hogan picks up a pump action Remington and checks it. He then ads another fifty Dollars and asks for ammunition. After another trip to his stash the man gives Hogan four boxes of shells.
After thanking him and buying some bottles of water Hogan leaves the shop and walks whistling down to the quay where he finds Kerry and Julia waiting for him on the boat and Ortiz working on the engine.
"What did you buy?" asks Kerry and points at the package Hogan places next to his backpack.
"Insurance, I like to go into uncharted territory with something to protect me with."
"OK, but you carry it, I know nothing about guns," says Kerry.
"I can shoot, an ex boyfriend of mine took me to a shooting range a few times, what did you buy?" asks Julia.
"A shotgun and an old revolver," says Hogan.
"Cool, I’m comfortable with both."
Ortiz gets the engine going and slowly backs out of the quay and turns the boat downriver. Hogan is pleased to see this boat has a cabin and it’s a lot faster than the barge. They make themselves as comfortable as they can after stowing away their gear. Hogan and Julia are up on the deck and Kerry stays below in the cabin. It doesn’t take long before he is up on deck moaning about the heat down below.
There is not much to see along the river apart from more children and miles and miles of jungle along the banks. Hogan finds a fishing rod among other things in the cabin and makes himself comfortable against the railing. Ortiz laughs at him and through Julia says he doesn’t think he will catch anything since they are going so fast. Hogan tells him he doesn’t expect to catch anything either.
Both men are wrong, after a while the rod bends and when Hogan reels in the line there is a Catfish on the end. He guesses the weight at around twenty pounds and is pleased with his catch. Julia translates and Ortiz says they are in for a very good dinner.
After enjoying the catfish, the three Americans fall asleep on the deck, and Ortiz in the cabin. They have laid anchor in a small cove and the jungle surrounds them. As they sleep eyes watch them from behind trees and vines. They are both of the four-legged variety and the two-legged. Just before the sun comes up a dark shadow crawls over the
railing and on quiet feet move to where the white people are sleeping. He looks down at them and his nose twitches a little, the smell is different, like nothing he has smelled before. He reaches out and touches the clothes the bigger man is wearing, and it makes him stir. As silent as he came on board the shadow goes back the same way he came. When he meets with his friends he tells them what he found and they agree to follow the newcomers. Even though their transport is fast, the shadow and his friends know ways that makes them faster, and they can travel at night.
