Op in Brazil

2 Setting Up Heading Out

Evan’s eyes flew open at the sudden sensation of falling. Scrambling to take in his surroundings, he quickly found that he was still in the stuffy jet. It was descending fast. He took a deep breath and eased himself back in his chair. He hated flying sometimes. He hated the way the stuffy cabins always seemed to make him sleep, and he hated the rude awakening during touchdown. Krug didn’t seem to mind. He was asleep and snoring. A crumb hung from one corner of his mouth.

Evan waited patiently through touchdown and taxiing, waking his partner only moments before the doors were opened and a breeze invaded the artificial cabin atmosphere. The two men exited the plain to be greeted by the strikingly hot and humid high noon air and the smells of beer, bananas and dew. Evan drew in a deep, satisfied breath. He loved traveling that feeling of suddenly being in a new place. He’d never been to Brazil before. Most of his time was spent up north in Europe and Russia.

“Brazilia.” He mouthed to himself, before turning to Krug. “Get a load of that air! It’s almost as wet here as back home, ey?!” He asked, removing his wool coat.

“Great.” Said Krug absentmindedly. Evan swept his gaze across the hills, thickly forested with tropical plants and encased in majestic wisps of low lying cloud. The sun beat down on the land like a fierce dragon. Lowering his gaze, he caught sight of a grey CRV. A strongly built Latino wearing a dark tee shirt and sunglasses was leaning against the driver’s door. The man’s shirt did little to cover his mural of tattoos.

“C’mon Krug, There’s our man!” Evan said, giving Krug a quick backhand to the stomach and briskly setting off to meet the driver.

“In.” was all the driver said when they reached him. Just that one word carried a heavy accent. Portuguese was not on the list of languages Evan could speak, so conversation with their escort would be impossible. All they could do was pile into the CRV and quietly stare out the window. The scenery rushed by as they sped off the tarmac down the poorly paved road. The roads only got worse from there as they left the city’s outskirts headed into the jungle.

As the bumpy ride wore on, Evan found himself in a daze, drooling as his eyes took in the magnificent jungle whizzing by. He found himself quivering with excitement. It was always difficult to sit still in a place as cool as this. He wanted nothing more than to get out there and see what the jungle was all about. Conceding to the fact that he was here on mission, he strove to content himself with simply looking. He marveled happily as they passed by all sorts of awesome trees and plants that he didn’t know the names of. They drove by three spectacular waterfalls and traversed the side of a sheer cliff with a brilliant view of the jungle’s expanse before them. All this scenery was beginning to excite Evan about his coming trek. He couldn’t wait to be a part of the action, creeping through the jungles, tracking leopards and capuchin monkeys, climbing all the awesome ancient trees.

They continued driving for about three hours, eventually reaching a vast clearing nestled in a basin. It was surrounded on all sides with a tall chain link fence wrapped in savage razor wire. Two camouflage clad soldiers in black berets came up to the vehicle. One of them said something to the driver in Portuguese and he handed over a paper. After inspecting the paper, the guard handed it back to the driver, who stuffed it in his coat pocket. The two guards opened the gate to admit the CRV. Once the gate was opened, they stood to the side, allowing Evan and his companions through to the compound.

The compound was no more than a field encased in fence with a guard post on each corner. Several rambling brick buildings were scattered about. All the windows were barred. There were vehicles everywhere, both military and commercial, parked with absolutely no care or order whatsoever. To one side of the compound was a hefty looking concrete bunker with several helipads in front. On one of the helipads was a Blackhawk undergoing inspection. Evan supposed this was their next ride.