"Anthony Wall - The Eden Mission (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wall Anthony)

with respect, harvest its treasures wisely. They know the secrets of the
plants that can be used for food and medicine. The rain forest is sacred to
them. They believe it holds up the sky.

Beautiful, dangerous, mysterious. A hundred million years it has stood.
Osuna's reverence was akin to the Indians.

In there, steeped in a stagnant and steamy atmosphere, you imagined you had
travelled back to the beginning of the world. In there live iguanas, like
scaled-down prehistoric monsters; brash gangs of parrots; slow, upside-down
sloths; grotesque vampire bats; tiny monkeys, three inches high, chirping like
birds; frogs that can secrete enough poison to kill 2,000 people; spiders with
leg-spans of more than ten inches; army ants advancing in foot-wide, mile-long
columns, flanked by officers, eating everything in their path; twenty-stone
tapirs which look part pig, part horse, part elephant. In there too flourish
flowers of every shape, size and hue--such as orchids--and bamboos sprouting
65-foot leaves, and plants with marvellous medical properties. And the Amazon
itself, mightiest of all rivers, is home to no less an exotic array of
species. Thirty-foot snakes, electric eels that can shock the life out of you,
three-foot lizards walking on water, sting-rays, massive alligators typified
by stitched teeth until the jaws yawn and snap, dragonflies hovering on
seven-inch wings, shoals of savage fish that are capable of stripping a body
to the bone in minutes ...

The Jeep lurched as it hit a pothole, jolting Osuna's thoughts back to his
assignment. Not long now.

He double-checked the safety-catch on his revolver and patted the pocket which
contained the warrant for Mendoza.

Shadows fell over Osuna again. More vultures. Despite the warmth, he shivered.
The jail was in sight at last.

Slowing the Jeep, he drew up at the wooden shack. Seconds later a man in
uniform led out the handcuffed prisoner. Osuna showed his papers, and the two
law officers exchanged a few words. Then, with evident relief, the other
officer handed over Mendoza. He looked every inch the villain he was, his
brutal air emphasised by a scarred cheek and murderous eyes.

Saying nothing, Osuna guided his charge to the Jeep. He chained Mendoza to a
fixed metal bar beside the driver's seat - and began the return journey.

They were about four miles from the jail when Mendoza doubled up, clutching
his stomach. Osuna immediately suspected a trick, but Mendoza kept on
groaning. He blurted that he was in agony, had to vomit. Still wary, Osuna
pulled off the road and on to a clear patch by the river. With a warning that
he would shoot Mendoza if he tried to escape, Osuna unlocked the handcuffs.

The prisoner stumbled out, heaving. He took two or three steps before
collapsing on his back. Osuna loosened the revolver in its holster--he wasn't