“Nice to meet you, Jose.” Dan swallowed.
“Yes, yes, good to know you too.” He looked about. “Just, ah, you two?” he asked.
“Don’t answer that.” Jenny whispered. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Did you bring the guns?” Dan asked.
“Sure, lots of guns. Not easy to get. Did you bring the money?” Jose had stopped but his two friends walked forward a few paces to stand at each end of the buggy.
“You stay right there,” Dan said.
One of the huge men kept coming in, and then stuck one huge hand out. “Money.”
“Sorry, it doesn’t work that way,” Jenny said evenly.
“I think we will tell you the way it works.” Jose laughed corrosively, and then spoke rapid Spanish to his man.
“Oh shit,” Jenny said as the guy lunged in and put a hand on Dan’s shoulder, grabbed a handful of shirt, and started to drag him closer.
“I haven’t got the money,” Dan said.
There was a thump and a grunt, and the guy who held Dan looked over his shoulder. Dan also peered around him.
Ben was holding the other of Jose’s henchmen from where he had knocked him to the ground. He lifted him and turned the still groggy man around, holding him by the collar.
“I’ve got the money.” Ben’s voice was full of controlled menace. Immediately, the dynamic changed. The guy who held Dan let him go and swung around to focus on the bigger threat.
Dan felt relief wash over him. “My security. Protection against wild animals and all that.”
Jose stood side on and waved his remaining man to be at ease, who now had his hand on his gun. “You are armed, señor? Why don’t you let my friend go and come out where we can see you? All friends here.”
“You think I’d come to this transaction unarmed?” Ben stepped further in, and shook the men he held. He kept his other hand in his pocket.
Jose cursed under his breath. Ben was a big man and obviously immediately had an impression on the smaller Venezuelan.
“Ex-military,” Dan said. “And I’m afraid, very short-tempered.”
“I hope we can conduct a pleasant transaction, and then all go home happy,” Ben said continuing to maintain an edge to his voice. He pushed the man he held forward where he sprawled for a moment, and then got up to crawl forward and rub his jaw.
There was silence for a few moments, and Jose’s colleague looked to him and then back to Ben. After a moment, Jose chortled and waved his hand.
“Sure, sure.” He turned to his men and snapped his fingers. “Poner las armas, rápidamente.”
The two men set to laying a sheet on the ground on which they placed row after row of handguns, rifles, and ammunition.
Dan exhaled with relief as Ben came in closer, and Dan and Jenny came to his sides.
“Flashlights,” he said and kept his eyes on the men, as Jenny and Dan turned on their lights and shone them down on the weapon’s cache. Ben glanced down briefly, his experienced eye running over the cache.
“We’ll take six of the Sig Saur, 9mm semi-automatic handguns.”
“Six?” Dan straightened. “One for Andrea as well? I don’t think she can even shoot?”
“She’ll learn.” Ben eased Dan out of his line of sight. “Also two spare magazines a piece.” He edged closer, looking at the larger weapons. “Nice. I’ll take that M4A1 carbine, and two spare mags.”
“Very good, señor.” Jose grinned. “But not elephants down here.” He chuckled. “Maybe in a zoo.”
Ben grunted. “The zoo, huh? In that case, I better take that Mossberg shotgun as well. Plus two boxes of shells.”
Jose rubbed his hands together. “Excelente.” He waited.
“That’ll do.” Ben stepped back. “Best price.”
Jose blew air through his lips. “These weapons, top of the line, very hard to acquire.” He began to shake his head. “And premium for discretion.” He shrugged. “Fifty thousand, American dollars.”
Ben snorted. “Make it —”
“We’ll take em,” Dan shot back. And turned to Ben, nodding vigorously. “No haggling remember?” he whispered.
Ben hiked his shoulders. “It’s your money.” He turned back to Jose. “Collect them all up into one of those bags, ammunition included for me to do a spot check; then we’re done here.”
Jose had his men separate out their chosen weapons and lay them in the bag. Ben put his hand in, took one of the handguns, snapped a magazine in, and quickly turned, firing two test rounds into a tree trunk.
“Now, I’m armed.” He tucked the gun into his belt. “Pleasure doing business.”
Jose snorted, and Dan handed over several wads of cash. Jose quickly counted it off. He then saluted with two fingers. “Good luck, señors and señorita, with whatever war you intend making in our beautiful country.” He chuckled and then the three men vanished into the darkness.
They watched them go for a moment and over the sound of the waterfall, they could just hear the faint rev of an engine for a moment before that too vanished.
“They’re gone.” Dan exhaled and then slapped his thighs as he bent over. “Je-zuz, was that a rush or what?”
Ben grinned. “Expensive day’s work, Mr. Murakami.”
Jenny smiled. “Oh well, we got the guns, and no one has any holes in them, so, there’s that.”
“Yep. I’m happy with that,” Ben said.
“Now what?” Dan asked.
“We get these home. We leave tomorrow morning, and when we’re in the jungle, we do some limited practice shooting.”
Dan looked in the bag and hefted the Mossberg shotgun. He looked up at Ben. “So, looks like you’re starting to believe there really might be something out in that jungle, huh?”
Ben closed the bag. “Well, as the saying goes, it’s better to have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it.” He hefted the bag. “And yeah, this jungle, the Amazon, is a land of mystery and myth. If there’s anywhere in the world where something can remain hidden, this is the place.”
He headed to the buggy. “Let’s go.”
CHAPTER 17
Edward Barlow held onto his broad-brimmed hat as the helicopter took to the air. The riverbank grasses flattened, and he squinted momentarily as he waited for the whirlwind to abate while the craft lifted away.
He opened his eyes and grabbed his hat to swipe it down his side to dislodge grass, seeds, and dirt. He quickly jammed it back on his sweating head as the sun stung his pate, yet it was still only just past nine in the morning.
Janus Bellakov checked their gear, and already had a rifle thrown over one shoulder with his sidearm strapped to his waist. Bellakov’s two men worked tirelessly; Walt Koenig and Arthur Bourke were experienced hunters and trackers, and both had brawny arms hanging from sweat-soaked shirts. Although, truth be known, Bellakov was more mercenary than hunter.
They had been dropped fifty miles southeast of the Canaima National Park, and well into the uncharted areas of the Amazon. The river here was still free-flowing, but only a few dozen feet in from the bank, the walls of the jungle were like a green cliff face.
Barlow had invested in the best mapping technology money could buy and had used the 1908 notes made by Benjamin Cartwright, as well as his hand-drawn maps, to check the geography at the turn of last century to find his launch position. He also made use of the observations the young Ben Cartwright had made in his own notes, and these too had proved invaluable.
The software had pinpointed this area, and the small clearing was as close as he could get. Further inland, the visibility vanished in thick tree canopy cover and low clouds that obscured everything below it. Somewhere in there were rocky slopes, large plains of towering tree ferns, low hills, and also spongy swamps.