Prompting Kyle to inquire, “Smoke clouds? Really?”
Raina nodded, “Yeah—it’s all up and down the horizon.”
Kyle then offered, “Really, you would think that these guys would be a little bit more careful than that.”
Mason then scoffed, “Well no one ever said that we were working with professionals here.”
Benton then asked, “Well—just who are we dealing with.”
Mason clearing the path a little further then entertained, “We don’t really know. It could be the Columbians; it could be the Peruvians.” Raina then supplied the obvious, “Columbians? But we’re in Brazil.”
Mason laughed, “It doesn’t matter these things cross stateliness and their hideouts change with the wind.”
After this bit of chatter the group grew silent as they traversed about another several yards.
Mason suddenly sniffing the air remarked, “Wait a minute… That’s it alright… I smell microcrystalline phosphate. We’re getting close.”
To which Raina laughed, “Oh my God Mason, are you telling me that you are literally so close that you can smell it?”
Mason shrugged, “Yeah—I guess so. I’ve broken up enough drug houses in my day. I know what the stuff smells like.”
Raina was amazed, “You’ve got a nose like a bloodhound mason.”
Mason remarked, “Yeah maybe after this I’ll take a job in the K-9 unit.”
Raina asked, “As an officer?”
Mason laughed dryly, “Or maybe as a dog.”
Kyle then suddenly came to life in all of their earpieces telling them, “Yeah, according to the heat signatures I’m seeing, he’s absolutely right you will be right upon their compound any minute now.”
Kyle then paused before quickly adding, “And I would strongly advise putting on your masks.”
Kyle’s mention of masks wasn’t in regard to masks of concealment he was referring to oxygen masks. Raina looking at the ugly half breather in her possession asked, “Is it really that bad? Are these masks really necessary?”
Benton answered for her, “Yeah—if their brewing all I think their brewing, you are not going to want that mask to drop for even a second.”
Putting the mouthpiece on, Raina remarked, “Well—if the fumes are really that bad, how do the drug dealers stand it?”
Mason laughed, as he put on his own mouthpiece, “Stand it? There mostly immune to it!”
Benton then offered, “Yeah, and even if they aren’t completely immune by now, I bet they don’t even mind the contact high.”
Mason replied, “Right. But I don’t feel like seeing a dance troupe of purple elephants floating in front of my eyes any time soon!”
This was of course in reference to the hallucinogenic effects that the drugs were supposed to provoke in those who consumed them. Mason himself had never done much in the way of drugs except for a little pot he smoked in high school, but he had busted up enough drug rings in his day to know the heavy toll that hard drugs took on societies all over the globe.
As Mason mulled these things over Kyle piped in, “Hey guys, and speaking of bad trips. How was that last vacation you and Raina took?”
Mason snapped, “Kyle! What the hell is this? Why are you all up in our personal business all of a sudden?”
To which Kyle meekly but with a slight undercurrent of anger responded, “Well, while you two love birds were out frolicking on the beach, I had my hands full getting this next mission ready.”
Raina seeking to calm the agitated computer nerd down, spoke up, “Kyle, it’s really nothing to get upset about…”
The conversation was suddenly interrupted however when Mason announced, “Hey! Everybody listen up! We’re at the end of the trail!”
The group then stopped as they heard an unmistakable voice cry out, “Hey! Amigo’s!”
The voice was so strange and so surprising in the middle of this wilderness that it caused almost all of them to jump—all that is except Mason, who calmly turned and zeroed in on the sound, muttering, “Who the hell is that…”
Thinking their cover had been blown they all stood like statues in the middle of the trail as they heard once again the same voice call out to them, “Hey! Amigos!”
This was then followed by some sort of chirping, bird type sound, and sure enough Mason looked over to a branch right above hm to see a giant tropical parrot of some sort staring out at him as it again repeated, “Hey! Amigos dos Amigos!”
Raina laughed softly at the realization that they were being tormented by a mere bird, but Mason was too agitated to find humor in any of it as he cursed, “Damn it!”
Benton then echoed his frustration, “Man…these damn birds must have picked that shit up off of the many traffickers roaming around through here.” Benton then glancing down at his drawn weapon remarked, “That parakeet is lucky it didn’t get shot! That almost had me for a second!”
As they stared at the bird, Benton added, “I was almost certain that we had company, or that we were starting to suffer from auditory hallucinations from all of that smoke that the narcs were producing.”
Annoyed, Mason snapped a branch off a nearby tree and aggressively waved it at the bird, causing it to fly off in the other direction. His sudden burst of adrenaline already fading away he then finally relaxed enough to laugh, “Yeah that’s what I love about these remote missions—you never know what you might be up against.”
Their comm link crackling to life, Kyle informed them “Yeah, sorry I forgot to tell you about the parrots. They’re all over the place here.”
The group then found themselves entering into another clearing where they observed what looked like an old farmhouse. Mason asked incredulously, “How many farmers have homesteads out in the Amazon?”
Raina answered, “Um—I’m no expert, but I would wager not too many.”
Mason then followed up this question with, “What about drug lords?”
Benton then came up behind them and voiced his own astonishment, “Oh crap—what is all this?”
Mason with a look of determination flashing across his face muttered, “We’re about to find out.”
MEANWHILE, THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY IN UNITED STATES AT THE
