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The team eased out of the plane fully armed but kept their weapons aimed at the ground. First off, Richie tied a rope from the float to a handy banana tree so that the plane didn’t drift off the narrow sandy beach without them. The long wing practically touched the thicker kapok and Brazil nut trunks that clustered tightly along the river. He then stayed low, hoping the angle might help him see more.
The silence of the Upper Orinoco River was shattering after Maracaibo and the flight. There was a bird cry that must have been a parrot from high up in the forest. An answering call sounded from the other side of the river, perhaps a hundred meters away, and then silence.
It was dark beneath the jungle canopy, though the evening still brightened the wide river itself. A fish the size of
