0046 Naked Adventure

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Laura says.

Miguel nods. “We go no further in this direction!”

“Says who?” Lilith says.

Miguel raises a finger into the air. “Says this country’s president!”

“Who ever listens to him?” Lana says.

“Down this river is the fastest way out of here,” Laura says, “and if we stick to the water our trail goes cold quick. Any other way and we are getting steered back into them or giving them a way to cut us off.”

“River leads into a very rough area,” Lilith says, “La Muerte Verde, 25 miles of the worst terrain imaginable. High mountains on both sides, nearly every river is a steep drop with rapids. Too wet to burn, grows too fast to settle, and the ground is too steep to bulldoze.”

“That is why!” Miguel says. “We would surely perish in such a rough and inhospitable environment! Surely you ladies have had no experience navigating-“

Eight blank stares silence him.

“Well, all right!” Miguel says. “Of course, you have endured such perils before as members of the Adventure Society! But surely those rivers are impassible, you ladies are not skilled enough-“

“Can we just get going?” Lana says.

Miguel stands his ground. “If you pass further, I shall have you arrested!”

Lilith smirks. “And hand us off to the people chasing us and trying to kill you?”

Laura lowers her glasses. “What are you afraid of? What are you hiding here?”

“Like, we are showing him everything,” Lana says. “Only fair.”

Miguel looks away, staring at the ebbs and flows of the river beneath them. The bubbles on the surfaces of the water that ride the surfaces to swirl and dance as they make their way downstream. The eddies and whirlpools, the bubble-like flows of water over rocks, and the soothing hiss of the waterfall behind them. He raises his eyes to meet Laura’s stare, and she sees fear in his eyes.

He almost imperceptibly shakes his head “no” as if to not want to let anyone else but them know.

Laura nods.

A part of her feels his pain. She knows the look. The suspicious locals. The outsider coming into an area and asking a lot of questions. The reluctant spite cafes and hotels have when taking her money, and the wary looks of locals knowing why she was here.

To loot. To pillage. To destroy and bring death to a place where the ancestors of these people once lived and wanted nothing more than to be left in peace. And the current residents would like nothing more than to be left alone to live their lives and work the lands. Instead, the stranger comes into their lives, with criminals, cartels, and mercenaries soon to follow.

And the people’s heritage and history become a battleground of death, looted for big money buyers around the world to launder stolen taxpayer money between each other in a secret black market of antiquities and stolen art.

Laura gives Miguel an almost imperceptible nod in response, and she notes his still pained look. She lets her eyes tell him her word can be trusted. 

He returns the nod.

Laura turns to her extended stepfamily.

“Whatever we see, whatever we find, whatever lies down this river,” Laura says, pausing to emphasize her seriousness, “goes with us to our graves.”

“And if we lead others in there?” Miguel says.

Luna purses her lips to one side as her eyes narrow. “Then we kill them. All.”