Amazonia

Amazonia by James Rollins Page B

Book: Amazonia by James Rollins Read Free Book Online
Authors: James Rollins
Tags: Sci-fi thriller
said, finding his breath again. "I have wonderful news."

    She rolled toward him, reaching in his direction. She made a small sound, encouraging him to join her. Tshui seldom spoke. A word here or there. Otherwise, like some jungle cat, she was all eyes, motions, and soft purrs.

    Louis could not resist. He knocked off his hat and slipped from his jacket. In moments, he was as naked asshe. His own body was lean, muscled, and crisscrossed with scars. He swallowed the draught of natem laid out for him while Tshui lazily traced one of his scars down his belly to his inner thigh. A shiver trembled up his back.

    As the drug swept through him, heightening his senses, he fell upon his woman. She opened to him, and he sank gratefully into her warmth. He kissed her deeply, while she raked his back with sharpened nails.

    Soon, colors and lights played across his vision. The room spun slightly from the alkaloids in the tea. For a moment, it seemed the scores of shrunken heads were watching their play, the eyes of the dead upon him as he thrust into the woman. The audience aroused him further. He pinned Tshui under him, his back arching as he drove into her again and again, a scream clenched in his chest.

    All around him were faces staring down, watching with blind eyes.

    Louis had one final thought before being consumed fully by his passion and the exquisite pain. A final trophy to add to these shelves, a memento from the son of the man who had ruined him: the head of Nathan Rand.

Act
     Two

Under the Canopy

    PERIWINKLE

    family: Apocynaceae

    genus: Vinca

    species: Minor, Major

    common
     names: Periwinkle,
     Cezayirmeneksesi, Common Periwinkle, Vincapervinc

    parts used: Whole Plant

    properties/actions: Analgesic, Antibacterial, Antimicrobial, Antiinflammatory, Astringent,
     Cardiotonic, Carminative, Depurative, Diuretic, Emmenagogue, Febrifuge,
     Hemostat, Hypotensive, Lactogogue, Hepatoprotective, Sedative, Sialogogue,
     Spasmolytic, Stomachic, Tonic, Vulnerary

Four

Wauwai

    AUGUST 7, 8:12 A.M.
EN ROUTE OVER THE AMAZON JUNGLE

    Nathan stared out the helicopter's windows. Even through the sound-dampening earphones, the roar of the blades was deafening, isolating each passenger in his own cocoon of noise.

    Below, a vast sea of green spread to the horizon in all directions. From this vantage, it was as if the entire world were just forest. The only breaks in the featureless expanse of the continuous canopy were the occasional giant trees, the emergents, that poked their leafy crowns above their brethren, great monsters of the forest that served as nesting sites for harpy eagles and toucans. The only other breaks were the half-hidden dark rivers, snaking lazily through the forest.

    Otherwise, the jungle remained supreme, impenetrable, endless.

    Nathan leaned his forehead against the glass. Was his father down there somewhere? And if not, were there at least answers?

    Deep inside, Nathan felt a seed of anxiety, bitter and sour. Could he handle what he discovered? After fouryears of not knowing, Nate had learned one thing. Time did indeed heal all wounds, but it left a nasty, unforgiving scar.

    After his father's disappearance, Nate had isolated himself from the world, first in the bottom of a bottle of Jack Daniel's, then in the embrace of stronger drugs. Back in the States, his therapists had used phrases such as abandonment issues, trust conflicts, and clinical depression . But Nate experienced it as a faithlessness in life. With the exception of Manny and Kouwe, he had formed no deep friendships. He had become too hard, too numb, too scarred.

    Only after returning to the jungle had Nate found some semblance of peace. But now this...

    Was he ready to reopen those old wounds? To face that pain?

    The earphone radio clicked on with a rasp of static, and the pilot's voice cut momentarily through the rotor's roar. "We're twenty klicks from Wauwai. But there's smoke on the horizon."

    Nathan peered ahead, yet all he could

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