The two zodiacs had traveled for about three hours down the swift flowing Aguarico where rocks were the enemy rather than logjams. They had made good progress, perhaps forty miles. Benecio was in extreme pain from the bumpy ride which jostled his collarbone-the doctor had told him to wait another two weeks before removing the sling,but his gut instinct had told him that now was the time to move forward with the mission. They pulled into a bend in the river out of its flow and debarked, only to received a burst of mahinegun fire.
"Ah," said Paco Moreno," It is only Cocqueros. The pendejos think we are DEA."
He nodded to his troops which to Benecio looked younger everytime he took a good look at them and three of the four fired off their Machineguns while the fourth as if by training went to Paco's side who with Benecio had taken cover behind the buttress of a tree. They stopped firing.
"Listen to me , Cocqueros,"he shouted," I am with the revolutionary Army and I don't want to have to come over there and kick your asses. I have an army coming down this river behind me and they will smight you where you sit if I tell them to so just go back to whatever it is you were doing and maybe bring us a taste of your product because we are weary soldiers and have a long way to go."
There was silence, save screaming piha's and cicadas, but before long a shirtless and shoeless man wearing only tattered shorts, broke through the thick river edge growth , head bent, carrying a banana leaf with a mound of white powder on it. He presented it humbly to Paco.
"Very nice," said Paco receiving the cocaine and giving the man a loaf of sliced white bread in a plastic sack and two cans of sardines,"Now shoot any DEA hijo de puta that you want coming down this river but leave me and my men alone. Will I find and other gentleman with machine guns further down this river ?"
"I don't think so."His voice was as soft and humble as any subsistence farmer who earned his pay from the sweat of his brow.
"Very well," return to your work and never forget what we are fighting for.
After the man had left, Benecio Drank heavily from a bottle of Sinchicara which he hoped would relieve his pain and he handed one of the two bottles of Johnny Walker Blue he had brought for Paco to him as a surprise .
"Benecio ! Your name rhymes with vicio. And I want to introduce you to a vice that you may have tried in some other place in some adulterated way before but this is like our famous Colombian Juan Valdez, the Coffee Man on a Donkey that the yanqui's adore. This is the freshest cleanest coke you can get and I guarantee it will get rid of the pain of your clavicle and it will give us the energy to go on and on and you can explain for us one more time the route of our mission because we are all compadres and my boys have privately asked me some questions and I really have not been able to answer them properly. First we need a hundred dollar bill. Nevermind I have one."
Benecio watched Paco reach into his pocket and was sure it was one of the 100 dollar bills he had given Paco as part of his ten thousand dollar advance.
"And you roll it up like this,"he said , making a cylinder and then you-"
He snorted deeply into the pile of cocaine which benicio figure must be several ounces and not familiar with the street value of the drug calculated its value at several hundred dollars.
Benecio snorted next and around they went untill all the compadres had had enough and Benecio felt elated and painless and elaborated in the good company of his compadres the full details of his plan.
"The napo river is impassable because of the...the...the logjams but we must get to a lake very near there where we will find- and I have paid you gentleman enough to believe in me an El Dorado beyond your wildest fantasies. Now this river we are on runs paralell to the Napo and at a certain point that I know of, another 40 miles or so from here where we reach the closest point to a river called the panayacu which is only 8 miles overland we must carry the boats and don't you worry I will help with the carrying.
Once in the panyayacu if we follow it to its source we would arrive at the Napo but at a point below where we want to be and in the logjams and so that would not do us any good. But I know this country like the back of my hand and I know that if we take the panyayacu for two days and then carry the boats for one day maybe two we will arrive at a lake called Chaluacocha. Now in this area I have discovered the existence of an ancient civilization and this civilization was very sophisticated and they built canals rather than walk or use the Napo. So I know the canal system that will get us into Garzacocha,"
"And what will we find in Garzacocha , asked Emilio, 17 or 18 years old with a strong mestizo complexion and a severe case of acne, particularly on his chin.
Benecio passed around a handful of emeralds for the young men to look at and their lack of reaction, he was sure, must have been similar to his own assessment of the coke. They had no notion of their value.
"How much are they worth ?" asked Alfonso, the fairskinned member of the group.
Paco Moreno answered. "Emeralds are not like diamonds . There are no clear rules for telling their value. But if you get enough of them you can make a living right Benecio?" He took a swig of Johnny Walker Blue.
"You're right, Paco, Diamonds are generally better in terms of assigning value, but if you boys want I'll make you a deal that if we pull off this mission successfully I will guarantee you that you will double your money. No matter how much I make from it. What do you say?"
"And what stands between us and the emeralds ?" asked Washington. He was tall and slender and wore an angry streak.
"Yes ," said Enrique, "who appeared to have the most indian blood of the lot," who do we have to fight?"
"Three women and two men with two shotguns."
The boys started to laugh and Paco and Benecio joined in. The rest stop became a camp site as the boys snorted themselves senseless until the wee hours and Benecio and Paco ate and Drank the boys' rations of food and drank rum and passed out themselves around midnight.
It was 2pm of the following day before this band of mercenaries was ready to set off on the next leg of their journey.Paco vowed discipline from this day forth as he nursed his hangover with sips of Johnny Walker Blue and the whole band looked like refugees from some unspeakable attack as they seemed to moan their way down river.
