CHAPTER 15
Comet P/2018-YG874, designate name Primordia, was on its approach to the third planet from the sun. The magnetic bow wave that preceded it caused collisions between electrically charged particles in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, creating an Aurora Borealis effect over the jungles of South America.
In one of the most inaccessible parts of the eastern Venezuelan jungle, clouds began to darken, and in another minute or two, they started to swirl and boil like in a devil’s cauldron, throwing down a torrent of warm rain.
Beneath the clouds, a gigantic tabletop mountain became cloaked in the dense fog, and brutal winds began to smash at its sides and surface. Thunder roared and lightning seemed to come from the sky, air, and even up from the ground.
The first of the bestial roars that began to ring out even drowned out the crash of thunder, and before long, the hissing, roars, and screams rose to be like those from the pits of hell.
It had been ten years since the primordial sounds had been heard in this part of the Amazon, and even the creatures on the jungle floor over a thousand feet below the plateau scurried away in fear.
It was the wettest season and Primordia was returning.
CHAPTER 16
The plane ride from London across the Atlantic to Venezuela took nearly 10 hours. Caracas was Venezuela’s capital and largest city, located in a mountain valley on the northeastern side of the country.
Ben rolled the stiffness from his shoulders and looked down. The city had two million inhabitants and was a modern metropolis nestled in amongst mountains and lush green forests. They were close to the Caribbean Sea, but still separated from the coast by a 7,200-foot range of mountains.
He’d been on longer flights before, and even though Dan had booked them all business-class seats with extra legroom, constant snacks, and movies, it still felt like it was never going to end. Perhaps it was the anticipation, impatience, or maybe even the feeling they were now in a race and speed mattered.
True to her word, Jenny had organised people to meet them at the airport. Following a brief delay at immigration control, they were quickly shepherded to a small and cramped Cessna airplane — destination Canaima.
It meant another three hours flying time, but the only other option was 14 hours by bus, which would have been murder on the narrowing tracks through the thickening jungle.
Canaima was an area that encompassed three million hectares on the border of Brazil and Guyana. It was jungle, thick jungle, and remarkable for its numerous tepuis, massive flat-topped mountains, that rise from the jungle floor and are usually covered in mist.
Once again, Ben looked down as they soared above the canopy that was now so dense there wasn’t a trace of the ground visible below them. From time to time, a reflected shine from a ribbon of snaking river glinted back at him, and flocks of birds soared across the green rooftop that could have been ten feet or a hundred up from the ground. This was the Amazon jungle he remembered — dense, unforgiving, and sometimes damn deadly.
In the seat in front, Emma dozed and made a small squeaking noise that Ben found cute and a little child-like. Everyone else was also pretty wiped out by the amount of travelling they’d just gone through in the past 24 hours. They’d soon land in Canaima airport, and then it’d be a short hop to their accommodation.
Dan had organised an overnight stay at a hotel, and the following morning, they were to meet the contacts Jenny had organised. According to the plan, which he had reviewed, they would travel overland, first by truck, then by riverboat, and finally via canoes where they’d enter areas of the jungle that just fell off the map.
Ben sighed and let his eyes slide to Andrea. She had earphones over her head and read a glossy magazine. He wondered what would happen if she decided she wanted to go home — would they be able to send her back if they were hundreds of miles from nowhere? Would she be safe even attempting that, even if they split the guides?
He doubted it. Once they decided to travel to the Amazonian interior, like it or not, they were all committed. He’d need to impress this on her, and everyone else, before they left — last chance to pull out and all that.
The plane started to drop, and Ben leant forward to peer through the porthole window. He smiled as he beheld the sight of the Angel Falls — the cliff-top river looked like it fell off the Earth. It was the world’s highest uninterrupted waterfall and dropped 3,200 feet from the top of the Auyántepui Mountain. In the air, the powerful watercourse spread and finally turned to a shimmering spray before it made it to the river below.
He narrowed his eyes as he looked back at the massive tepui — this is what he expected they were looking for. The Canaima jungles were in thousands of square miles of national park, but beyond that were largely unexplored wilderness. In addition, the park was renowned for the strange and prehistoric-looking tabletop mountains. These geological wonders weren’t just millions, but billions of years old, with vertical walls rising thousands of feet to almost perfectly flat tops. Most, if not all, had been found, mapped, and climbed. But out in the deep jungle, there could be others. And that’s what they were banking on.
Ben reached forward to grab Emma’s shoulder and squeezed. “Hey, wake up, sleeping beauty, or you’ll miss the show.”
“Huh.” She looked around groggily, turning first to him. Ben pointed to the window.
“Angel Falls.”
She sprang forward to the window, and her mouth dropped into an open grin. “Oh, wow.”
Jenny leant forward onto their seat backs, also looking out. “Those tepuis are amazing.”
“I did some research on them,” Ben said. “They date back to when South America and Africa were part of a super-continent. Some are nearly 3 billion years old.”
Jenny grinned as she looked from the window. “Well done… and they told me you were just the muscle.”
He shrugged and smiled back at her, but then put on a mock frown. “Hey, who’s they?”
She nudged his head. “Something else. The Pemon have an intimate relationship with the tepuis, and believe they are the home of gods and monsters. And also demons.”
“My ancestor, Ben the 1st, made mention of them, and also the Pemon. Same people?” Ben asked.
“Sure, they’ve been here for thousands of years. They have no formal writing, but they have a fantastic inherited knowledge system via stories and songs. If there’s any hidden tepuis out there, they’ll probably know about them.”
“The trick will be getting them to show us.” Emma turned around in her seat and rested her chin on the back of it. “We’re outsiders.”
Jenny nodded. “Yep, true. We’re going to need to win their trust. I’ve worked with them before, so hopefully that’s going to help.” She headed back to her seat.
Emma turned to look at him… and kept looking.
“What?” he asked with a grin.
“I can’t believe I’m here.” Her grin widened. “I’ve never been to a real jungle before. I’ve been to forests, deserts, seashores, and mountains, but never a real, real jungle. But you have.”
He nodded. “And this is about as real a jungle as you can get.” He smiled back. “Emm, they’re no picnic. Quick mud, spiders the size of your hand, bugs that drink blood, or try and lay eggs under your skin. Big cats, caiman alligators, and even the plants can sting you. You really have to respect it, and then maybe it’ll let you walk out in one piece.”