“I’ll pass.” She turned away, not even looking at it.
Max drank it all up in one go. “If this were served in a crystal glass, this would be thought of as three-star cuisine.”
Davi was looking on happily.
“I definitely want to know how to make it,” said Max.
“You don’t know? They ferment the nuts. Using saliva,” she said, frowning. “So says my former housemate.”
Max choked a little.
The banquet lasted until midnight. Max returned to the hut and sat on the log. He was so exhausted, he felt like he could melt into it. Light was still glowing from the assembly hut. Katya sat down next to Max, holding a coffee cup in each hand; Max took one. The smell was comforting.
Max took a sip. “Noticed anything about the villagers?”
“There are few girls. The ratio of boys to girls is seven to one, out of fourteen kids. Not a big enough sample size, but it’s certainly odd.”
“And yet when it comes to the adults, there are overwhelmingly more women than men. The older the age group, the more the ratio skews female.”
“Maybe something happened to this village in the last few decades? A war? Maybe the adult men died. And the girls died as babies or in their teens? Either that, or . . .” Katya paused for a few seconds. “Maybe the girls didn’t die. Maybe they were taken.”
Max recalled the operating room and the cells in the lab building.
“But Jake said all the tombs belonged to Nazi soldiers and German civilians. No Indigenous people.”
“Couldn’t that be for religious reasons? The villagers’ graves may be elsewhere.”
They heard footsteps, and when they looked up, a shadow was looking down at them. Max hugged Katya, who was about to scream. The short man who looked like a dignified statue against the jungle backdrop was none other than Davi. He sat down between Max and Katya. He had a faintly sweet scent about him, and it wasn’t booze. Max had smelled that smell before somewhere.
“A long time ago,” began Davi, “when I was younger than the girl you saved, many white men came, and made the brown men carry their bags.”
“Dona told us about them, remember?” said Katya.
“The white men asked our fathers whether we would fight or obey. If we obeyed, they wouldn’t harm us. Our fathers talked among each other and concluded the white men were too strong to fight. They had sticks that could shoot fire and weapons that could blow away our homes. The villagers chose to obey to survive.” Davi sighed deeply. “The men took villagers to the forest, where they ordered them to cut down trees and mow the grass. Our fathers cut down the trees and cut the grass continually.”
“The clearing with those buildings, right?”
“The place was swallowed by the forest, and no longer exists.”
“It’s the airplane runway. That’s the first thing the Nazis had them make.”
“On the night of the fifth day of cutting the trees in the forest, our fathers were told to line up trees on the long and wide road that they made and spark a fire. A big metal bird flew down sounding like thunder.”
“A plane,” said Katya quietly.
“Men dressed in black came out from the belly of the bird. They were allies of the men who had passed through the forest. They ordered us to carry the things that the bird spit out.”
“What kind of things?”
“Some were big and some were small. They were in wooden boxes and couldn’t be seen.”
“And then what?”
“The iron bird came over and over, spitting out men and their things before flying off again.” Davi closed his eyes to reach the depths of his memories. “There was a big tattoo on the metal bird’s body.” He traced it on the ground with the tip of his cane.
“A swastika,” Max muttered.
“Many were young men, and friendly. They taught us their words, gave us new food, and healed our injuries and illnesses. They stabbed needles into our arms and cut our stomachs, just like you did.”
“That’s why you asked me to perform Tania’s surgery. You already knew about injections and surgeries.”
“They built three buildings using the materials carried in by the steel bird. We helped them, but we were forbidden to approach them once they were built.”
“The lab building and the two lodging houses.”
“Ever since those buildings were created, villagers went missing. They would come back two or three days later, but without remembering anything.”
“Were they anesthetized, I wonder?” Katya turned to Max, who nodded.
“Did all the missing people come back?”
“Most of them came back, but some didn’t.”
“Were they men or women?”
“Women.”
“How old were they?”
“I don’t know. Young women. Some children and babies, too.”
Max said no more.
“Do you now know what they were doing in the lab building?” asked Katya.
“We couldn’t get close. When we did, that was what they hated the most. They were kind the rest of the time. Sometimes we were called to help build roads, to draw water from the river, or to carry the things the metal bird spit out. And each time, they . . .” Davi trailed off; he was staring vacantly at the sky. Eventually: “We lived the same way as before.”
“Did they ever request anything else of you?” asked Max, but Davi turned his eyes to the jungle and did not answer. Seconds passed.
“We offered up our blood,” said Davi undramatically.
“Blood?”
“They used the tools with the needles attached that you use to draw blood.”
“So that’s why they weren’t afraid of injections,” Katya said, turning to Max. “They didn’t even ask what we were doing, despite us taking their blood. Also, I doubt the Nazis were doing a blood drive.”
“Maybe it was a blood drive, only one meant to prolong their own lives,” Max muttered.
“There was a homeothermic incubator and a shaker in the lab. They were trying to make some kind of blood serum.”
“Probably.”
“But to what end? They obviously weren’t trying to create a pharmaceutical company.”
“It’s possible,” Max said expressionlessly. “When did they disappear?”
“Dozens of rainy seasons ago. When I was still about the same age as your male companion.”
“Jake, he must mean,” said Katya. “If Jake’s over forty, and Davi’s about seventy, then that would make it about thirty years ago. I wasn’t born yet.”
The old man ruminated for a long time. “Sometimes, even after they left the place, some men would come to the village.”
“But it doesn’t look like the airfield has been used in a long time,” said Katya.
“The bird wasn’t as big as the one before. It was like a hummingbird. It descended from the sky.”
“A helicopter,” said Katya. “Did it come to the village?”
Davi shook his head. “The trees around it are too tall. It’s like falling into a hole.”
“There was a spot in the middle of the airfield without shrubs,” said Katya. “That’s where it landed.”
“What were they doing here? That lab building hasn’t been used for more than a decade.”
“They wanted our children—babies born that year.” Davi was staring at the dark forest.
“Babies?” asked Katya.
“Yes. It was always babies.”
“Boys or girls?”
“At first it was both, but lately, only baby girls.”
“’Lately? Are they still coming?”
“They came on the day of the full moon three moons ago.”
“Three months ago?” Max exhaled deeply.
“Why just hand them over? Their parents don’t resist?”
The old man silently looked up at the sky. Max got the feeling he saw a shadow in his eyes. Katya also noticed it, and turned away from Davi.
&n
bsp; “One mother refused. The men brought a drink that night. We drank it. The next morning, the mother and baby were gone.”
“They must have spiked it,” said Katya.
“What happened to the baby?” asked Max.
“Some have come back. Some haven’t. All we can do is pray.”
Max’s heart started pounding. He took deep breaths to calm down.
“So that’s why there weren’t any babies when we came,” said Katya. “The villagers hid them.”
“What else did they do?”
“Gather women and take blood and urine. Whenever they were with child, they examined them using a method we don’t know.”
“Pregnancy tests.”
“The pit of hell sent the Devil’s envoys on the full of the moon,” Katya muttered.
“More like the Devil himself,” said Max.
At that, the three fell silent.
Max’s mind was swimming with questions, but they just refused to come out of his mouth. He bit his lips in frustration.
Davi stood up quietly.
“I still have questions.”
“I’ve talked enough.”
Max grabbed Davi’s arm. His arm was slender and dry. Davi gently slipped from Max’s grip and returned to his hut. Max and Katya sat there in silence. The waning gibbous moon illuminated the square.
“So, it’s drugs,” Max sighed. “The Nazis enslaved the villagers with drugs.”
“What makes you think it’s drugs?”
“There was an injection mark on his arm. He’s not horribly addicted, but he’s been hitting it for years. And some of that drug was also in the drink he gave Tania before her surgery.”
Katya sighed.
“He’s hiding something.”
“Dona?”
“Something more substantial.”
They sat silently for a long time. The assembly hut’s lights were on, but the voices had gone silent. The village was wrapped in a serene hush.
“Feel like digging up some graves?” said Max. “I want to see who was buried in them.”
“Nazis, no?” Katya was staring at Max.
“Not the Nazi graves. The villagers’.”
“Please don’t disturb their graves, Professor.”
“I’m going to search for them tomorrow.”
“Do you have a place in mind?”
“No, but I think near the river.”
“On what basis?”
“The villagers have a special attachment to the forest, the earth, and the water. They don’t want to be thirsty in death.”
The wind blew in from the forest. Max took a deep breath, and detected a familiar scent. It was what he’d smelled on Davi.
“I’m going to go check on Tania.” Max stood up and walked toward Davi’s hut.
CHAPTER 13
The next morning, Max and Katya went to Davi’s hut to see how Tania was doing. When Tania sensed their presence, she opened her eyes. Her wound had almost closed. Her pulse and blood pressure were normal.
“Is this some kind of miracle?” Katya asked. She couldn’t hide her surprise. “God has blessed her.”
“I told you I don’t believe in God.”
“We need to examine her blood, her cells—everything.”
“But only after she recovers her strength.”
Max and Katya went into the woods looking for the villagers’ tombs. They asked the villagers where they were, but they all just gave them strange looks.
“I wish they could at least tell us where the graves are.”
“Their graveyard is a sacred place. They don’t want to tell outsiders about it.”
“They must think you’ll dig them up, like Jake.”
“That is what I’m going to do.”
They had to find the graveyard by the end of that day. They were leaving the next morning. They walked along the river for two hours, even though they were afraid to walk through the jungle alone. The towering trees and lush foliage continued in every direction. Mosquitoes and blackflies followed them, and leeches fell on them. Bocaiúva had warned them to watch for vipers.
“They can’t be this far away.”
“If only that girl were with us.” Katya’s shirt was sticking to her sweaty body. The rainforest was a maze without a guide. Even if they walked for an hour, they might only travel for less than half a mile.
Max stopped. He picked up on a faint sound through the thick canopy. He looked up, but he couldn’t see the sky through the layers upon layers of leaves. The sound passed overhead and disappeared toward the village.
“That was a helicopter, wasn’t it?” Katya asked Max. “Is it landing in that airfield? Are they Nazi remnants or friends of Feldman’s?”
Max turned back. Katya ran after him. “Professor!”
After about thirty minutes, Katya grabbed Max’s shoulder.
They heard gunfire, and not handguns, but the rapid fire of automatic rifles—along with people screaming.
“Hurry!” Max shook off Katya’s arm and started running. They could smell something burning, a strong smell. Gasoline, and . . .
Max ran faster. Katya’s breathing became labored and she began to lag. The gunfire stopped, but the smell got stronger as they approached the village. Smoke was blowing toward them. Then they heard a helicopter in the air. The whirring rose sharply, before disappearing to the east.
Max stood at the entrance of the village, or rather what used to be the village. The huts had been razed, and their wooden frames were smoldering. Katya reached Max and gasped. Dozens of bodies were stacked up like firewood in the center of the clearing, and a massive fire was issuing black smoke. The stench was horrible. They had been sprinkled with flammable chemicals.
“Genocide,” came a quiet voice from behind.
Max turned around, to find Jake with Bocaiúva and the others. His face was stained with soot; his clothes were torn. Dark red smears of blood streaked his face and arms.
“What happened to you?!”
“They attacked out of nowhere,” Jake said, stunned. “We were looking at the graves one last time when I heard a helicopter, and I followed the sound to the airfield. It was a UH-1 that landed there—a troop transport chopper the US used in Vietnam. Now South American communist guerrillas are using them. When we arrived, we saw the pilot and a guard with an automatic rifle. Then we heard gunfire from the village, and hurried back to it. Ten or so men gathered the villagers in the center of the clearing, fired their guns and killed. Then they set the huts on fire and threw the corpses into them. We didn’t have any weapons. We dashed back into the jungle and hid.” Jake’s shoulders began to tremble, and he was tearing up.
“The men who came back from hunting are now the bodies burning in the clearing. It all happened so quickly. It took less than thirty minutes.”
Max entered the clearing. The flames were getting more and more intense.
“Put out the fire!”
Katya was about to run, but Max held her back.
“Leave it. There’s no water and we can’t bury them.” The flames were spreading over the pile of bodies. He saw black lumps in it, and they looked more like charred dolls than people.
“What about Tania?” Katya asked Jake.
“I don’t know. They burned down the huts using something like napalm. They didn’t even look inside. They threw the villagers they’d killed into the flames. And then, that girl, she’s probably . . .” He turned to the jungle. Smoke was rising above the trees from the lab building. “The buildings were also destroyed and set on fire. They turned everything to ash.”
The three stared at the smoke, saying nothing.
“The samples we collected are also in flames,” said Jake. “If they had spotted us, we would’ve been killed, too.” He was trembling.
Max turned to the smoldering corpses. He knew there were corpses in the razed huts, too. They were piles of charcoal and ash obscured in plumes of smoke.
Almost an hour later, Jake finally
calmed down.
“They were dressed in camo. All of them were men around thirty. They were planning to massacre them all from the very beginning. They didn’t even say anything. They just murdered them all in cold blood.” Jake was grimacing, and he’d begun to sob.
“Who were they? Do you have any idea?”
“I’d know who they were if they attacked us, but they attacked the villagers.” Jake turned his attention to the bodies of the villagers. Their carbonized shapes could be seen through the flames and smoke.
“They were so innocent! I can’t believe what I’m seeing! What did these people do to deserve this horror?” Tears streaked Katya’s cheeks as she stood still and gazed at the fire. She was staring at a pair of little legs. Bocaiúva pushed them into the flames using a tree branch.
“If they’d known about us, we’d be dead, too,” Max said, as he scanned the area. “We need to leave, and fast. We don’t know when they’ll be back.”
“We don’t have any food or equipment, Professor. What do you want us to do?”
“Call a chopper. You have a satellite phone, and you know the location of the village. We also know for sure it can be reached by chopper. And I know Feldman’s on standby someplace not too far from this corner of the world.”
“I don’t want to use it if I can avoid it. We don’t know who’s listening in.”
“Then what did you bring it for?”
“As a last-resort trump card.”
“Look!” Max shouted, pointing to the pile of still-smoking bodies in the center of the clearing. “Now is the time.”
Jake hesitated, then shrugged and called one of his assistants, ordering him to take the satellite phone out of his backpack. The assistant pulled out a laptop-sized bag and assembled an antenna.
“I’m not thrilled about this because I’m sure someone is listening. Both enemies and allies included,” said Jake.
Jake was referring to the satellite communication system “Echelon.” Five English-speaking countries (including the US, the UK, and Canada) intercept and automatically analyze millions of communications per hour in order to advance their military and economic interests. Did Feldman’s organization have any connection to it?
“Beats dying a dog’s death in the Amazonian hinterland.”
“Mr. Feldman will surely look the other way,” Jake said, resignedly.
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