Chapter 16: Land of the eternal spring
After three hours of uncomfortable, tense flying the jet nimbly touches down on a rough runway beside a reservoir, deep in the Guatemalan jungle. Crocodiles vanish into the vast lake and toucans watch warily from the trees jutting out of the water, as local villagers flock to greet the plane.
The General is the first passenger to emerge from the jet, lighting a fat Cuban cigar as he takes in his surroundings. Stepping down from the plane he waves mockingly at the Mayan villagers who have been eagerly awaiting the plane to help refuel and earn a humble wage, blissfully unaware of the corrupt cargo they are helping to ship. The aircraft can only fly three thousand miles before refuelling, and their journey is twice as far, so a pit stop is necessary. Guatemala, still recuperating from decades of civil war, is having its society ripped to shreds by the surging influx of drug runners.
“Do you need to go to the bathroom?” Ray Stevens asks politely as he turns to Valencia. Valencia nods her head vigorously, having fought the urge for the past hour. Ray unties her, and the two of them make their way into the cabin and towards the exit. Pancho, seeing Valencia walking freely through the cabin, reacts angrily.
“Where the hell is she going? And why have you untied her?”
Ray looks around swiftly and judgmentally at Pancho.
“I have business other than flying your hostages and crack across the world! I’ve only just had these refurbished and I’d like them to remain clean and urine free! And by the way, Pancho, the next time you murder someone in my plane, you can be the one to replace the blood stained seats and scrub the cabin. Now, can’t we just let these people relieve themselves in a civilised manner so that we get on with our jobs hassle free?”
Ray Stevens fixes his gaze, not giving an inch, fully aware of how volatile and unreasonable Pancho can be. “And another thing. Take those goddamned muzzles off these kids! How are they going to fulfil their task if they die of suffocation before they even get to Mexico!”
Twenty years ago Ray wouldn’t have given a damn about the hostages, but the older he gets the younger they look, and his conscience is starting to get the better of him. In fact, he has his mind set on this being his last mission before he retires from the game altogether. As far as Pancho is concerned, Ray is pushing his luck.
“Never tell me how to do my job, old man. Never!”
“Don’t talk to me like that. These people could have been using the toilets aboard this plane if it wasn’t for you trying to flush the body parts of that poor girl down the pan after you chopped her up!”
“She was getting on my nerves!” Pancho stares vacantly at nothing in particular, as the hostages listen on in despair.
“Yeah, well, the toilets haven’t worked ever since. So I’m untying these people so they can go in the bushes outside.”
Pancho looks towards The General for back up, but The General has no interest in what he views as a petty dispute. Ray waves his hand dismissively towards Pancho, and turns away mumbling to himself, wondering why he bothers trying to reason with unreasonable people. Pancho reluctantly unties the hostages from their chairs and releases them from the plane to relieve themselves in the bushes.
A couple of teenagers push fuel drum trolleys over to the aircraft. Ray checks the silver drums to make sure they are not leaking and that the original seals are intact. Once happy with the condition he pays the boys handsomely and lets them commence with re-fuelling his pride and joy.
Valencia, Emilio and Karl step down from the plane, followed by the Llera brothers and walk hastily to the edge of the ancient looming jungle, headed for an old, clapped out truck beside a row of twisted trees. The forest is so dense in this spot that there is no way of escaping through it. Pancho is walking directly behind the group, aiming his gun and finding the situation highly amusing.
“Excuse me! But I’m going to need a bit of privacy!” Valencia says proudly, realising Pancho is following them into the trees. She is trying her best not to let her vengeful anger get the better of her.
“You will go where I can see you!” Pancho arrogantly responds.
“Well, I can’t fucking go while people are watching!”
“You’re telling the wrong man, lady! I don’t give a fuck if you go here or sat back on that plane!”
Emilio hates the way Pancho is talking to Valencia and cuts in to back her up.
“Maybe you could turn your back for the lady!”
Pancho takes his assault rifle and aims directly at Emilio’s groin.
“Maybe you’ve got a big mouth. Maybe you think you have big balls. Maybe you keep talking then we will see how big they really are!”
Valencia doesn’t want any harm to come to Emilio so she duly drops her pants and knickers and crouches down on the ground as low as she can in an attempt to conceal herself. She starts to pee, mainly because she’s desperate but also because she’s determined to just get the uncomfortable situation over with. Pancho laughs at the episode and glares at her in a predatory manner. The boys turn their backs and urinate quickly. Zipping themselves back up they stand between Pancho and Valencia with their backs facing her to form a barrier to block the vile pig’s sight. Pancho takes a cigarette from the packet in his breast pocket with his left hand, placing it on his stained bottom lip. He sparks up, while glaring at the boys with hatred and holding his gun on them, feeling the urge to kill them both and leave their remains to be consumed by the reptiles. Pancho raises his rifle and starts lazily aiming at each of the boys in turn, in a crude, undignified selection process of who to murder first. Cathos walks up behind Pancho and places his hand on his brother’s shoulder. He can see his brother is pent up with anxiety and close to the edge.
“Pancho, let me take over while you get yourself a drink. Things don’t need to get out of hand again.”
Pancho reluctantly lowers his gun and gives the boys a dirty look before walking away. Cathos turns to the hostages and points to a spare deckchair beside The General and Ray Stevens, twenty feet away.
“I’m going to cut you some slack. Remember, there’s nowhere to run. We will be leaving soon.”
Cathos walks away and Valencia rushes over to Emilio, wrapping her arms around him.
“I thought he was going to shoot you square in the head, his eye’s looked black, as if he was dead inside.”
Valencia’s choice to run to Emilio hits Karl with intense jealousy. Feeling rejected and left out, pangs of hatred bubble up inside him.
“Hey, I could have been killed just then as well, you know!” Karl vents his frustration directly at the entwined pair.
“I know! Are you ok, too?” Valencia feels slightly awkward, but is reluctant to release Emilio from her embrace.
Valencia looks at Karl’s despondent face. She doesn’t want to get in the middle of the two boys, and so relinquishes her hold on Emilio. They are all under enough pressure as it is, and she doesn’t want any bad feelings to get in between any of them. She side steps away from Emilio, embarrassed at her strong show of affection.
“Don’t give me that crap! You don’t care.” Karl spits, unable to tame his anger.
“Don’t you ever say I don’t fucking care, Karl. I’ve just lost a member of my fucking family, you asshole!” Valencia points her finger right in Karl’s face.
“Whoa, whoa, calm down, seriously!” Emilio soothes, getting in between them.
Valencia walks away from the argument, keen not to lose her head completely. She walks over to the teenagers who are peacefully filling the airplane with fuel. She stands beside them and returns their respective smiles, which she finds difficult to fake as she mourns for Elmanda while trying to suppress her rage.
Waves of sickness, heartache and betrayal surge through Karl’s body.
“You know how much I like her, Emilio, why didn’t you push her away?”
“You’re joking, right? You can’t be serious, Karl.”
“All these years I’ve been walking in your shadow, watching girls acknowledge you and look straight past me. And all the time I’ve been loyal, being your best pal, and this is how you repay me.”
“She just wanted a hug, it’s no big deal, calm down. She’s grieving.”
Karl starts ranting. As his temper boils over he reaches for a shard of glass from the carcass of the old truck and stabs it into the tree beside him in frustration. He then starts pacing around, toying with the glass, before squaring up to Emilio.
“It’s more than that, Emilio. You lead us into all this, and now we are fucked! We are going to die.”
“Don’t say that, Karl! It’s not like that!”
Fuming with blood red rage Karl swings to punch Emilio with his right hand, keeping the glass in his left. Putting all his bodyweight into the punch he clumsily loses his balance and falls onto Emilio, accidentally pushing the glass into Emilio right shoulder. Lying on the floor with Karl on top of him and in considerable pain Emilio reacts angrily.
“You fuckin idiot, get off me!”
Scrambling up, Karl sees blood on his hands and gasps in horror and disbelief.
“Holy fuck, Emilio. I’ve fucked up!”
Emilio sits up, watching the blood oozing from the top of his ripped shirt and tries to catch his breath.
“No fuckin way, Karl. Oh shit!”
“I didn’t mean to stab you, man!”
“You fuckin happy now!”
Valencia looks back, hearing the heated argument between the boys. She sees Emilio clutching his shoulder, which is pouring blood. She instantly starts running towards them, yelling for help. The three brothers and Ray look towards the direction of the commotion and see Emilio’s shoulder dripping with blood.
“Looks like I won’t have to kill them! They are killing each other.” Pancho quips. The General and Cathos start laughing, and pass the vodka bottle round again. Ray sighs at the inconvenience.
“For fuck’s sake, it’s always me that has to clean up the mess.”
“That’s right, gringo! You’re our chapero! Pancho taunts disrespectfully.
“Don’t fucking start, Pancho, or I’ll leave you marooned out here!”
Ray gets up in a temper and storms off to his plane to fetch a first aid kit. He grabs the kit and walks over to the kids.
“Pass me the vodka!” He shouts back to Cathos.
Cathos takes one last gulp and spins the half full bottle of vodka across the ground, much to the annoyance of his elder brothers. Ray investigates the deep cut, which has luckily missed any major arteries and tendons.
“It’s just a flesh wound! You’ll live kid!”
Ray opens the vodka with his teeth and takes a swig, before pulling the large shard of glass out of Emilio’s shoulder. He then pours the vodka generously onto Emilio’s shoulder, making Emilio howl as the excruciating pain runs through him. He tries to compose himself and looks up at Karl while Ray wraps the white bandage tightly around Emilio’s wound.
Valencia stands over them, relived that the situation is not as serious as it had at first looked. Ray laughs, realising the state of paranoia they are all in.
“That should stop the bleeding. You’re lucky. Another half an inch to the left and this could have caused some serious damage! I think we should get you all back on the plane before you kill yourselves.” Ray dusts himself off and saunters back towards the plane. Emilio hauls himself up, and then extends his good arm to help Karl to his feet.
“I can’t take any more of this! Where are we going now?” Karl whimpers.
Emilio smiles grimly “We’re going to Mexico, my friend!”