The Parrot Tree
by
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The stranger arrived late afternoon, just before dusk, when the tropical rain had been particularly heavy, accompanied by thunder and lightning and gusty winds. In fact, Xavantinho had found him sitting under a huge jungle tree the roots of which reached out into the swirling river where the soil had washed away. He was still strapped to a padded airplane seat quite unlike the canvas ones used in the pontoon-equipped AMA planes that carried freight and passengers -- prospectors, Indians, nuns, health officials, rubber tappers like Xavantinho, and other simple people -- from jungle airstrip to jungle airstrip, or from igarapé to igarapé (as the quiet side-waters of a big river were called) in this desolate corner of the upper Amazon, the outer limit of the territory reached by Brazil in the last century, when it acquired -- or extorted -- the territory of Acre from Bolivia. When the stranger saw Xavantinho, who had come out into the rain to investigate a loud roar of engines that suddenly broke off, or was swallowed by the storm, he tried to rise, but was held back by the seat belt. He fumbled with the buckle, unfastened the belt and stood up, raising his right hand in a hesitant gesture of peace, half salute half defense. His eyes expressed stark terror. Did he take the caboclo for a wild jungle Indian, quite possibly a cannibal? The half-breed's features were, in fact, Indian, with high cheekbones and straight black hair, but he also had African and Portuguese blood flowing in his veins. **************** The following month Solana contracted a team of American oil geologists, and another team of Russians, to start ground surveying the five areas identified by the dowser. The range between Purús and Tapuá was assigned to the Russians. The geologists, with Peruvian support crews supplied by Solana, started by collecting surface samples, and then drilling to extract soil- and rock "carrots" down to two-three hundred feet. What they found was utterly fantastic: high-grade iron ore ready for surface mining, in quantities they estimated to be twice those of the Carajas complex; nickel-cobalt, also for strip-mining; gold, white platinum, silver; copper; cassiterite. In two places emerald-bearing conglomerate was extracted from a depth of thirty feet. Even without polishing them, the geologists could tell that the stones were of exceptional, Colombia plus quality. A similar bonanza was found on the Serra do Divisor. As to the three oil and gas finds, they turned out to be part of a single huge field ranging from the Colombian provinces of Guainia and Vaupes all the way to the upper Rio Negro, the Brazilian state of Acre and the northeastern tip of Bolivia. Here again, both amount and quality were fantastic. A new Saudi Arabia.
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About the Book
While investigating the shooting of a well-known Brazilian publicist and critic of the Government, Yeda Olivares -- a young, ambitious woman police lieutenant -- traces the murder gun to an European underworld figure, who a year before had survived a mysterious plane crash in upper Amazonia. With the reluctant help of Uba, the Amerindian-born wife of the murdered publicist, and against her bosses' orders, the lieutenant follows that lead and stumbles upon evidence of a drug baron and mafia-led conspiracy to take over the mineral-rich Amazonian regions of Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. In the end, the two women uncover the mafia plot, which is aborted in the last minute without ever becoming known to the public. At the same time it turns out that the shooting of the publicist was purely fortuitous, and had nothing to do with the events in Amazonia. Although the lieutenant succeeds in tracing the man who had fired the gun, she concludes that he had not done so deliberately, and drops the investigation without informing her superiors, showing her mettle by overcoming both the blame for not having been able to solve a politically sensitive affair, and her own feeling of guilt and existential doubts when she feels attracted to the man she exonerated.
About the Author
Peter Koenz has two distinct sides to his life. On the one hand, he is an international lawyer, official, and scholar who has traveled widely and has lived in New York, Europe, Asia and Latin America. On the other, he is a painter and sculptor devoted to visual creativity. When not on the move, he resides in rural Normandy, but his heart is still in the mountains of Switzerland and Afghanistan, in the interior of Brazil and in New England.