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."No.Into the jungle.""There is much jungle in Brazil.Most of it is jungle.I have yet to haveanyone ask to visit it.""I am looking for someone who has.""No esta here, beautiful young woman."Consuela waited for either Remo or Chiun to say they would never find theright guide, that the trail was lost, that she was a fool, that she wasincapable of making a right decision because she was a woman.But by noon whenConsuelo was hot, tired, and disappointed that neither of her companionsaccused her of feminine frailty, she gave up and headed right for the name shehad taken down back in the States.The guide was in a hotel.And he remembered a James Brewster.The man seemednervous.He left the day before on a trip up the Amazon.The guide pointed toa map of Brazil.It was like a large peculiarly shaped pear.The greenrepresented jungle.The dots represented civilization.The pear had very fewdots.A thin dark line ran hundreds of miles into the green.That was theAmazon."He took our main boat but we can get another," said the guide.He spokeEnglish.Much business was done in English, though the main language of thecountry was Portuguese.Consuelo reserved the boat."Even if you find him," asked Remo, "why should he tell you anything?""Because I'll promise not to follow him anymore if he tells me who paid him.You and I are after the same thing," she said."No we're not," said Remo."What are you after?" she asked."Honestly, I don't know.I just keep doing my job, and hoping someday I'llfigure it out.""I have already figured it out," said Chiun."Your purpose in life is to makemine miserable.""You don't have to stay.You don't have to come with me.""It is always nice to feel welcome," said Chiun.The Master of Sinanju did not like South America.Not only did it bear littleresemblance to the modern travel brochures but it was unrecognizable from theaccounts given in Chiun's histories.The Masters of Sinanju had been herebefore.They had served both of the great South American empires, the Mayanand Incan, and were paid well for their services.But since the Spanish andPortuguese had moved into the neighborhood, nothing was the same.What had been great cities were now slums or areas overgrown by the junglethat had reclaimed terraces and parapets.Where gold-clad emperors had walked,monkeys now chirped in trees that grew from crevices in what had once beenroyal walkways.The place, as Chiun commented on the way up to the Amazon, had become ajungle.Consuelo, who was part Spanish, wanted to know the history of South America.Her mother's family had come from Chile."The tales of the Masters are only for other Masters," said Chiun."You should be grateful for that," said Remo."What can one do with a son who despises the family history?""Is he your son? He doesn't look Oriental," said Consuelo.Page 47ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlTheir boat chugged through swarms of flies hovering around the mud-brown riverthat seemed to go on forever.The flies landed only on the guide, Consuelo,and the sailors.Remo and Chiun seemed immune."He denies any possibility of Oriental blood," said Chiun."I have to livewith that.""That's awful," said Consuelo."You shouldn't be ashamed of what you are.""I'm not," said Remo."Then why do you hide your Koreanness?" she asked."I don't hide that I ampart Hispanic.No one should be ashamed of who he is.""He's ashamed that I'm white," said Remo, "if you want to know the truth.""Oh," said Consuelo."Oh," said Remo."I'm sorry," said Consuelo.The boat turned into a tributary, and the crew became nervous.The guide didnot.Remo picked up little comments about something called the "Giri."The guide said it was nothing to worry about.There were no more Giri nearhere.They were less than fifty miles from Rio.Would poor pitiful savagesremain near Rio?Remo checked the map.On the map, everything outlying Rio was built up but thedark green patch and the brown line they were traveling on.All it said was"Giri.""What is Giri?" Consuelo asked a crew member when the guide had gone into thecabin to briefly escape the bugs.The Amazon and tributaries had bugs thatfeasted on normal insect repellent."Bad," said a crew member."What's bad about it?""Them," said the crew member.And then, as though even the sky might belistening, he whispered, fearful even to mention the name."Giri all around here.Bad.Bad." He made a motion with his hands about thesize of a very large cantaloupe; then he made his hands smaller, to the sizeof a lemon."Heads.Take heads.Small.""Headhunters.The Giri are headhunters," said Consuelo."Shhh," said the man.He looked to the thick foliage on the banks and crossedhimself.Consuelo went directly to Remo and Chiun to warn them."Not Giri," said Chiun."Anxitlgiri."''You know them?" asked Consuelo [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]