Massive Attack (A Guy Niava Thriller Book 1) by Dana Arama (e reader for manga .txt) 📗

“If need be, we can cut off one of our sleeves and use that,” I said. “I want to get going.”

After we had made it about another kilometer, which took longer than anticipated, a big smile appeared on Zorro’s face for the first time.

I recognized the line of teeth in the dawn gloom and the look of satisfaction in her eyes. She pointed at the sign etched on the tree.

“This is the first sign of El Desconocido,” she announced, happily.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Laura seemed frustrated, “This is chicken scratch.”

“This is El Desconocido’s sign,” Zorro insisted, “And we are going to proceed according to these signs. Once the signs become more abundant, we’ll know we are getting closer to the forbidden place.”

Despite Laura’s misgivings we continued in the direction Zorro had indicated and we soon arrived at a banana field. It filled our eyes with a brilliant green, as if fighting against the dimness of the forest. It seemed to encapsulate the human war against nature. We stayed hidden along the forest’s line and scanned the area.

“The banana field is just a camouflage,” Zorro said. “Beyond this field is an even bigger field of marijuana. This village,” she pointed to a few houses at the end of the field, “has been known for years as a collaborator with the Sinaloa, but I don’t know what’s happening with them now. There are about four or five scouts in each town or village like this one, exactly because of people like us -- strangers who suddenly appear. We should try to avoid going through them. We will go around the other side of the field.”

Laura looked at the area and the town. She said, “If we stick to the line of the forest, it’ll extend the journey by quite a bit.”

I looked at her. If it wasn’t for her injury, it wouldn’t have been a factor. “I don’t see we have any other choice,” I answered. “This is the exact place where we must take extraordinary care.”

“I believe that we won’t have to walk all the way along the tree line. It seems as if the banana trees are quite high, high enough to conceal us. We can cut through them. You’ll have to hunch in the areas the younger trees aren’t as high.”

“The movement of people in the banana plantation can be seen in the village.”

“So then let’s walk through the far side, which borders the marijuana field.”

“Won’t there be more guards there?”

Laura hesitated. “Okay… Let’s carry on along the tree line westwards and later cut southbound. I don’t feel like fighting everyone along the way.”

In the end, we came across a thin pathway at the end of the field and decided to take the risk.

We wanted to get to a spot where we could make camp, before it got dark, and sleep quietly. The thought of a nice ripe banana also stimulated my saliva glands. I reminded myself that leaving a trail of banana peels would be a mistake and we would have to take them along with us. The marijuana field spread out before us was enormous and reminded me of an old joke of a druggie who dies and arrives at heaven’s gates to find that hell is a field of marijuana weed without a lighter. I was happy that the field hadn’t been set alight. No fire meant that there were no local skirmishes and no skirmishes meant that we could progress faster. That was until we reached the forest, which was too thick to pass through.

Laura Ashton,

The middle of the Chiapas jungle, Mexico

November 13, 2015, 2:45 p.m.

The marijuana field ended at the entrance to a virgin forest. The only way through was to chop down branches to create a trail. We knew we had no choice but to go via the marked trails, where the chance of being found out was just as risky. I thought we must have walked about fifteen kilometers up the mountain when we saw our first obstacle. It was a barrier of rope stretched along the width of the road.

“Rope barriers don’t usually worry us,” Zorro remarked quietly, but her body language told a different story. She bent down behind a cluster of bushes on the side of the road and told us to do the same. “A rope means it is a toll point for cars.”

“But…?” I mumbled

She smiled at me and answered, “You understand how it works here. But it could also be a checkpoint to kidnap or rob people.”

“One way or the other, there will be people here that we don’t want to be seen by, or to notify anyone about us,” Guy said.

“Yes. This is a strange barrier.”

“Why?” Guy and I asked in unison.

“Because if it is a barrier for kidnapping, it should be built out of stones or trees. Something that makes you get out of the car or to stop, because the road is not passable. At a toll barrier, there is usually a team before the barrier, which scouts the car, and a team after the barrier, which raises it and collects payment. From the general look at it, everything seems fine but…”

“But if the barrier is up…” I said, and Guy finished my sentence for me, “We would expect to hear a car coming.”

“Exactly. And we haven’t heard a car or any engine of the sort.” Zorro changed her position, still crouching behind a bush and added, “There is a good chance this barrier was built for us.”

“What are we going to do when we find them? Kill them?” I asked. I wasn’t blood thirsty and didn’t like the idea of leaving a trail of bodies behind me, like my boss had said, but on the other hand, I didn’t want such a barrier to stop me from performing my mission.

“I would prefer not to have to kill anybody!” Zorro reproached me into the earpiece. “Even though a person’s life isn’t worth much here.”

“She’s right,” Guy whispered. “It’s