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MAMACOCA, p. 7
From the jungle, led by a Serrano guide, arrive the two cocaine buyers, the killers who had made the deal with Lorenzo. They look more dead than alive, wet to the bone clothes in rags. Lorenzo, Charles, and the two Americans gather inside the Chunca chief's hut. The cocaine is ready. Lorenzo, the only man present who can speak Quinchua, Spanish, and English, translates for the chief. The Americans will be let free and be given the cocaine after delivery of the guns and ammunition have been dropped in by helicopter. Charles is suddenly aware that he is in the middle of a dangerous arms and cocaine tradeoff between anti-government rebel leaders and drug traffickers. The feast goes on. Three days pass and still no sign of the helicopter. Charles is growing inpatient. He does not understand why the chief desires to trade cocaine for arms. Lorenzo tries to explain that his people, the Indians who once ruled Peru, have been subjugated for 500 years. Coca has helped his people in the past, and it will help them now to fight with the weapons of the White Man for ultimate freedom. Finally the helicopter arrives, hovering over the jungle vegetation. It lands, scattering dust. Two men jump out and begin unloading the crates. The chief, standing by, commands that the crates be opened and the submachine guns and ammunition inspected. The man talk of patrols and army search units on the move. The two Americans are summoned from the chief's hut. Their cocaine bags in hand, they climb into the helicopter and are lifted out of sight. The crates of guns and ammunition are quickly packed onto waiting mules. Lorenzo and his large party of guerilleros cut their way back through the jungle, heading once again toward the high country. They are moving fast. Everyone, including Charles, is chewing the coca leaf. The helicopter is landing on a short jungle air strip surrounded by dense jungle. On the strip a private plane has already started its engines. The men get out of the helicopter, clutching their precious bags of cocaine, and run to the waiting plane. Suddenly from out of the jungle a band of army troops equipped with submachine guns appears. The cocaine traffickers surrender without resistance. Several army officers climb in the helicopter and at the gun point force the pilot to take them back into the jungle from whence they came. Taking the radio microphone in hand, the head officer gives orders to the army posts, alerting them of the ongoing operation. From the helicopter, the mules are sighted. Firing ensues. Lorenzo is able to strike back and manages to circumvent the attack. But now Charles, the only stranger among the guerilla, is suspect. Scathing accusations are made against him. One man claims to have seen him with a CIA girl, and the American CIA agent Groves. In his native Quinchua language Lorenzo instructs his men to bind Charles and tie him behind a mule. Charles cries out to his teacher that a terrible injustice is being done to him. The old man tells him that soon he will be tested by the death challenge of the Sun Kings in the Place of the Condors. The armed party has now arrived at the top of a flat mountain high into the sierra. Giant condors circle over the chasm thousands of feet above a roaring waterfall. The mules are left in the shelter of a rock wall. Matraca's men gather in a circle, as if at a trial or strange ceremony. Although Charles understands nothing of their language, he senses something dreadful is about to happen to him. A fire is lit and an infusion of the huaca plant made into "tonga," a liquor that causes to go back in time to their ancestors. Lorenzo forces the potent narcotic into Charles who goes into convulsions. The fire-lit faces of the Indians observe his reactions. Charles feels the nearness of death. He is shaken at the sight of the Spanish murderers and witnesses the great Inca treasure being delivered to ransom ATAHUALPA. After they baptize him in the Christian faith, the Spaniards strangle him. Charles
looks down at his own hand. He is holding a Spanish sword, red with
blood. |
