Refreshed and clean, the two friends wandered over to the main house, while the sun started to drop below the tall trees. George, the little monkey, was still inseparable from Jonathan and sat comfortably in his special carrier.
Inside the main house, people were preparing and carrying food for a fine feast. Linorio was sitting at the large table and waved Molly and Jonathan over.
“Come, my dear brave friends. I will tell you everything.” He passed them bowls of seeds and nuts to pick on before dinner. Jonathan devoured them hungrily.
“We set up the community here years ago, to keep watch. There are 15 hidden villages like this one, set up in strategic places as monitoring stations. Not much for such a huge area, but we have other lookouts posted around. And we have surveillance equipment. Over the last few years, things have started happening here which are not good.”
Molly told him about what they had seen: the animal traps where they had found the little monkey, and the rosewood logging and distillery.
“Yes. It appears the animals and birds are taken to private zoos, or for exotic pets,” explained Linorio. “It seems they are sold under the cover of being bred in captivity. Many never make the journey, of course, and many die in the traps. That little fellow there, Jonathan, is one lucky little monkey. That bait is clever. It attracts all sorts of animals and birds, and it is so concentrated that an animal can live on it for a week or two. It always stays fresh, and insects keep away from it. We’ve had it analyzed and have pinpointed where we think it is made.”
Molly told him that she had picked up some of the bait; it had fascinated her too. She also told him how she had closed the traps and left the yellow caimito fruit, in the hope the hunters may think the Chullachaqui had been there. Linorio laughed. He thought it would certainly give the hunters a scare. He said they were very superstitious people and would know the fruit and its link with the Chullachaqui.
“Those Palo Rosa trees you saw are so rare. The oils are worth a fortune, and the wood, too. There are some people who still want the so-called luxuries of the past, even if it means it will be extinct for the future. Like caviar. People just wanted it, kept buying it, and now the sturgeon is extinct. We have looked after those trees for 30 years now, keeping them secret. But they found them, and even worse, they found people who were prepared to buy the illegal timber and its beautiful essential oil.
“We also have parts of the jungle, much further in the north, where precious gems are being mined again and they have found a new gold reserve. It is polluting the water table. They think nobody is watching, so there is no clearing up, just covering up.
“The communities were also set up as experiments. We are helping to preserve the old traditions and knowledge, and we are keeping three languages alive. It started with small groups and families who were prepared to step out of society; people with enough knowledge, and enough guts, to live here without contact with the outside world. When the Amazon was declared a nature reserve we hid the communities. It’s as if we’ve created unknown tribes. But we are connected, very connected. And look at this village. We started with six families with 23 adults and children, and there are 56 people here now. Children have been born here; a few people have seen out their last days here. Sometimes people leave, or new families join. And about once or twice a year, we get supplies to each of the communities.”
“That was when you made your mysterious trips, yes?” asked Molly.
“Yes. Mostly, I brought communications and surveillance equipment, and a few extra resources like medical supplies. But the villages use traditional methods as much as they can. They are like space stations in the jungle.
“We picked the sites carefully. They needed to have fertile land and a good water supply yet be safe from flooding. They had to be remote enough that nobody would pass through. They also needed a hidden but easy way in and out, so that people could come and go if needed.”
“I’d hardly call that route we took an easy way in and out!” laughed Molly, rubbing her feet.
“I am sorry my dear friends. That is a dangerous route! How on earth was I to know you still had that map from such a long time ago? I am so thankful you made it through. Good timing, too! Although we didn’t know it was you two, we've kept an eye on you some of the way. But there are blind spots.”
“You knew we were coming? Since when?” Molly asked with total surprise.
“Since you arrived in Shiringa. But, of course, we were expecting the entomologist and her assistant. All we knew was there were two people coming this way.”
“So that was Viktor in the village that night?”
“No, Viktor is still in the city, he’s thousands of kilometers away. Why do you say that?”
“Oh, nothing. I’ll tell you later. So how do you come and go?” said Molly.
“We only rarely have to take the trail you took! Just when the water is very low. And you won’t go back that way, I’m sure you’ll be pleased to hear. There is another way. Much faster. I’ll show you my map.” He reached inside a small bag and produced a recent-update, ultra-lightweight Screen, and flicked it to display a detailed map of the area. This map was exactly what Jonathan had looked for. This place certainly was hidden from the world.
“Ok, here is Puerto Verdad. You came up the river to Shiringa. Then you doubled back a little and traveled into the jungle to get to the lagoon. This is where you started walking.” He traced his finger over the map, followed the riverbank and described what they had passed. He pointed out where they had found the Palo Rosa trees and the traps.
“And here is the firefly trail, and the village. ‘You are here’, as they always say on the maps! But this is the way we come and go. If you walk out of the other side of the village there is a little trail that leads to a lagoon, about a 15-minute walk. The entrance to the lagoon is tucked away, and we’ve made a sort of door out of branches that hides it even more. There we keep a small boat which has a motor that’s almost silent. From the lagoon, it is about two hours to the main river. See here? It cuts straight across the terrain. When we get there, we hide the boat in this small tributary and walk down to the main river. A five-minute walk from there, and we are at a village called Monococha. From there we can pick up the regular boat to Puerto Verdad. So far, we’ve slipped in and out without anyone noticing us. We hid the entry points well. And so far, nobody has ever found any of these villages accidentally.”
“We walked 40 kilometers or more when we could have paddled up that stream?”
“Well, it flows down to us, so you actually could have floated down stream! Sorry about that, but you took a trail nobody ever uses these days. Except the poachers and loggers, of course. We think they also use these rivers here on the map, and here’s where they set up camp. You would have seen it. But this time of the year they are in Iquitos for the fiesta. You were pretty much safe from bumping into anyone. But they are sloppy, they rely on the fact that nobody comes through this part of the jungle and they leave their evidence lying around. And of course, supposedly no one lives in this area!” he added with a grin.
“So, what about the entomologist and her assistant? What happened to them?” said Jonathan.
“They were here to study the magnificent purple dragonflies.”
“The dragonflies by the lagoon? We saw them!” said Jonathan.
“Yes, they are beautiful, aren’t they? In fact, they are usually deeper in the forest, but we moved a cluster of them a while ago to that lagoon. Then we sent out a publication to an entomologist association with news of a rare sighting of the purple dragonflies. We knew a specialist in the association would be in the area for a conference and she could be a very influential ally. It was a small diversion we set up to lead them here. But we’ve just now found out that she got sick in Puerto Verdad, and they had to go home.”
“So, what if we had missed the firefly trail?”
“We actually switched the firefly lights on for you. Although we didn’t know it was you. We have a camera that monitors the trail. It’s in that big tree. We saw you taking the photograph of it, Jonathan. But we also had someone posted, let’s see, about here,” he pointed to the map. “We were going to intercept you if you went much further.”
“We think there may be a settlement about here,” said Linorio as he pointed to the map. “We’ve recorded them on the surveillance system, but they move camp often. They seem to know many of the shortcuts that appear when the water is high, so they know the area. We are still putting the pieces together.”
“The pirates!” exclaimed Jonathan. “Maybe they were from there.”
“Pirates? What happened? Where?” Linorio asked.
Jonathan told him about the ambush on the boat and pointed out roughly where it had happened. And he recounted how Molly had saved the day. Although Linorio smiled when he heard the story of Molly’s intervention, he was horrified that his friends had been endangered.
“There have been a number of ambushes lately. We think it is likely they are part of that group,” Linorio agreed. “And we think they are involved in the smuggling.”
“But how do they transport the illegal goods?” Jonathan asked.
“Good question, young man! It looks like the smugglers are using an old trick of the drug traffickers from years ago. They put the contraband in canoes, or rafts made of smuggled timber, and hide them inside the islands of foliage that float down the river. It floats straight passed the border control, and then it’s picked up easily for road transport once it’s downriver.”
“We saw those floating islands. Some of them are huge. Yes, that make sense,” said Jonathan.
“We can’t directly expose any of this, without exposing ourselves,” Linorio explained. “We’ve managed to get news out anonymously a few times, but it is always stopped. This is the very worrying thing. We got news out to the border patrol about a huge delivery of gemstones hidden in a floating island, but nothing more was heard of it. Same with several other attempts we’ve made. There is corruption somewhere that blocks anything we have exposed so far. There are still dark forces out there, and they are gaining strength. But we have a plan.” Linorio sat and nodded to himself. He had just made an important decision.
“But for now, let’s eat, drink and celebrate!”