Napoleon lived for a challenge. Especially a challenge involving the river and the jungle.

"  Of course I will speak to this woman, Jack. What is her name? Where does she come from? What does she seek in such a remote area that even Florry won't touch it?"

Napoleon's excitement got the better of him and he rattled off the questions in rapid fire succession.

After dinner he will make a pooint to thank Maria for the fine meal and beer, and will agree to sleep wherever the O'shea's can put him up, in order to meet with the possible female employer in the morning.

"She hasn't given a name, or a place, to me."  O'Shea responded, "But if I had to, I would call her Firecracker, seeking Hell.  She belongs to that group of beautiful and dangerous women, Napoleon, and her Spanish sounds Bolivian.  You will see her tomorrow.  But let me tell you....the rubber barons, they are causing a lot of trouble.  They're taking Indians and driving them like slaves, and there have been a lot of killings.  With your looks, they may try for you."  With the few candles flickering in the room, the Irishman's pale eyes looked even stranger.  His wife bustled around, collecting plates, refilling beer.

The rubber industry was always in need of workers, and here in Manaus it was very competitive...big business.  The rain had washed the stink of processing rubber from the air now, but it was only until the dawn came.

"Thank you for the warning, Jack. , Napoleon replied, " Do not fear. If the rubber barrons should get ahold of me it would be a small matter for me to simply dissapear back into the jungle while working out in the orchards."

Napoleon said this to put his freind at ease, as O'shea seemed very concerned for his safety. Of course, Napoleon, while quite confident of his skills in the jungle, was not as sure about his chances with the barrons as he let on. Besides, something in his freinds eyes was starting to make him... uneasy.

Napoleon glanced at Maria who was clearing away the plates. He knew she would not accept an offer to help.  Still she was so easy to watch.

"I look forward to tommorow then.  I am anxiuos to meet this Bolivian Firecracker and see how beautiful and dangerous she really is." Napoleon said , in an effort to break the tension.

Jack O'Shea's booming laugh rang through the tavern. "You will not light her fuse, I am hoping, unless you are ready for the explosion !"

Maria then served the sweet, rich coffee to the two men, pointedly taking away their tankards.  Jack smiled at her fondly, then returned his attention to Napoleon. "So, then, I will tell you the other news.  There has been trouble along the west, at the gold-mines.  Robberies, killings...a lot of trouble.  So when you tell me you need a boat, I will be only giving you my white boat.  It has an engine seven years old in it.  I will not cry a lot when it is sunk."

The half French, half Guyanese Indian laughed heartily with the big Irishman, " Sometimes the explosion is the whole point. We shall see, old friend, we shall see."

"The white boat will be fine. Often enough older is better, " Napoleon grinned at Jack. " I assume the usual rental fee will suit you, assuming I return?"

"Why so much trouble out west near the gold mines, Jack? What is the government doing about it?"

Napoleon sipped at his hot coffee, although he would have prefered another tankard of the house beer. He was enjoying this time with his old freind and the clatter of the rain as it drummed on the tin and thatch overhead.

"You won't be bringing it back,"  Jack O'Shea replied, in that offhand tone he got when the Fates were whispering to him.

"So, you'll have to replace it."  His voice resumed its more normal resonance.  "The gold mines are always trouble, but you know, Old Pete got shot over that way."  He shook his head. "Pete went back to his village, to heal up.  He said that it was getting very bad."  Old Pete ate and slept trouble, so that meant it was indeed very bad.  "He said there was a new company out there, one that had a lot of men, a lot of guns, taking over the smaller mines.  Some Yanquis are running it.  The government.....well, they are not helping the Indians."

Between Jack's matter of fact statement concerning the inevitable loss of his white boat and the news that tough old Pete had been shot and even said it was bad with a new company of Yanquis oppressing the Indians, well Napoleon was in need of another beer.

Instead he just drank his coffee and contemplated what this Bolivian woman, the one Jack refered to as a firecracker, might want to find or see in the jungle, up river where those gold mines are. It seems there is more here than meets the eye

" I will go all the same Jack, " The little half Indian man said, " without risk life is not worth living. Besides, I assume she pays good, this Bolivian firecracker?" Napoleon smiled, his teeth slightly stained from the sweet Cofee.

Good," said Jack O'Shea, "I am sure she will pay well.  Anyone wearing an emerald that large will pay very well indeed, more than enough to buy me another boat and keep you in luxury for many months."

The rain let up, prompting the old dog to roll to her feet and amble outside.  Maria Alonza bade them goodnight, and Jack waited a full minute before going to the bar to pull out a dusty, dark glass bottle.  "She will fuss if I pour this out, my old friend, but liquor this fine is meant for drinking."

Napoleon laughed good naturedly when Jack brought out the dark bottle, " You speak the truth Irishman." He waited until Jack had poured them each a glass, then held his aloft in a toast, " To old freinds and new. May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows your dead."

The Indian titlted his head back and threw down the hot liquid in one gulp, feeling the rush it brought to his belly then his face almost immediately.

" Jack, " Napoleon paused for a moment, " what exactly do you... see about the expedition,the white boat, me and this Bolivian woman?  What sort of vision is it that troubles you?"

"What must be,"  Jack O'Shea said, in a calm, serious tone. "You must go, and
she must go.  The white boat won't come back.  It has to do with the cycle of
time..."  He drifted off into the vague expression, his eyes fixed on
somewhere faraway.  "The mountain will waken, the lifeblood will spill forth,
and old reckonings made anew.  One watches.  One betrays."  He shivered then,
and rubbed his face with his calloused hand, clearly worn out. "Time for bed,"
 he muttered then, tiredly.  "You have the cot in the storeroom, for as long
as you need it."

With that, he staggered off to the small room that was their bedroom, and that
was it.

Napoleon listened intently to Jack's enigmatic, prophetic vision. He said not a word as the big Irishman concluded and watched him walk away. Not long after Napoleon finished his coffee and headed out towards the storeroom, enjoying the cool night air. He whistled for the dog to follow him, as was his custon when he stayed here, and shared the storeroom with the animal. Napoleon had a hard time drifting off to sleep, but he chalked it up to the coffee he had been drinking.

The night was a long one, and more than once Napoleon heard shots and shouts, and screams too, deep in it.  Whatever mischief afoot stayed away from Jack's place.  The old dog settled down to sleep, and the rain came again, pattering more gently on the tin roof.  Finally, he slept, deep dreams of the emerald jungle and the black river, and then the smell of frying bread and sausage awakened him.

Morning had come, and the world was bright with sunlight and promise again.  He came out as Maria Alonza was carrying a plate of food to him, and saw Jack already at the table, eating.  "Today, after the firecracker comes, we will take the engine down to the boat.  I don't leave the engines in them anymore, they get stolen."  Jack said. "And then I have to buy them back, and it becomes troublesome.  Did you sleep well ?"

After such a fitful sleep, Napoleon was quite glad to be awake. He took the plate from Maria Alonza and thanked her, noticing haow very pretty she looked in the morning light.  Jack is a lucky man


Napoleon seated himself across from Jack and said grace  silently, then commenced to enjoying the bread ans sausage Maria had fried for the two men.

" I slept fitfully. There was shooting in the night and screams. I don't remember manaus being like that when last i passed through here?"

After Jack had answered the French/Indian said, " So today I meet the Bolivian? I am anticipating this event very much."

"It's about rubber," Jack replied.  "All that fuss, about rubber, and the money from it.  She will come today, the Bolivian firecracker.  Our old dog, she will bark twice, because the woman gave her a treat.  So it is." They ate breakfast, washed down with the rich dark coffee, and considered the day.  There was no clock, and Jack did not keep a watch.

The old dog rolled back onto her belly and barked...twice, and a shadow fell across the doorway.  Napoleon noticed first the woman's eyes....a richer brown than he had ever seen, large and lovely, and raking him with a fierce look, as if fire lurked in their depths.  The rest of her was a delight to the eyes.  She was slender in the waist, full-bosomed and full-hipped, and wearing a khaki explorer's get-up, complete with pith helmet, her dark hair tied up in a knot at the back of her neck.  Her expression was serious, almost comically so, and she had a leather satchel over one shoulder, her hand possessively over it.

"Mr. O'Shea,"  she said, in a warning tone, her voice deeper than Napoleon expected, her accent Bolivian. "I have been waiting for two hours for you to come to my hotel, and finally I find you here, eating breakfast.  Does no one in Manaus keep a schedule ?"

"Begging your pardon, Miss Doctor,"  Jack O'Shea said, with a charming smile that did nothing to mollify her.  Napoleon heard Maria Alonza stifling a laugh at the scene.  The old dog snuffled at the woman's knees, hunting for a treat, which the woman absently pulled from a pocket and handed to the dog.  "You had said you wanted a guide to go into the high jungle, and it took some finding of him.  Here he is.  Miss Doctor Corazon, may I introduce you to Napoleon La Tour.  He has a boat to take you where you want to go, as soon as I put an engine in it."

Napoleon just nodded somberly at Jack's mention of the trouble that the rubber boom was causing the countryside. It was the same story all over South America and had been for years, Since the European's had come and brought with them their overwhelming avarice.

Napoleon thought the Bolivian was the most gorgeous woman he had ever laid eyes on. He believed this trip, no matter the danger, would be worth it if only for the time he would get to be near her. For a few seconds he could do nothing but stare. First into her beautiful eyes and then at the rest of her pretty frame. Finally he remembered his manners and stood, nodding his head slightly in her direction, " I am at your service, Mademmoiselle Corazon".

The Bolivian firecracker surveyed him as if he was a sack of manioc she did
not particularly care for.  "You know much about the Amazon ?"  she asked,
doubt tinging her tone.  The eyes that had such fire behind them, narrowed.

"There's no man better,"  Jack O'Shea said, and received a hostile glare for
his troubles.  Maria Alonza again had to try to cough to cover up her
laughter, that her charming husband was getting nowhere with this lady.

"I am a doctor in Bolivia,"  she said, speaking haughtily, and slowly, as if
her temper was on edge and she was trying not to lose it.  "I am going into
the Amazon to try to find my father, who went several months ago on an
expedition to speak to healers out there. He is also a doctor, a great man.
I will find him, or find what has happened to him.  I will be going into the
north jungle, deep into the jungle, following his map.  I do not have time
for any nonsense.  So you had better be a guide of some skill.  I will pay in
gold."

Napoleon looked steadily into the Bolivian woman's eyes and said flatly, " I know the jungle and the river well. I will find your father. The only nonsense will be if you cofuse simple for stupid. I am a simple man, but I am far from stupid, Doctor Corazon."

The Bolivian Firecracker went off, as threatened.  "Do not DARE to compare yourself to my father !"  She snapped, prompting the old dog to look at her in alarm and shuffle off.  "But at least you are looking at my face, while that other useless guide could only stare at my body.  I will hire you at twice your normal rate.  What is it ?"

Jack O'Shea promptly spoke up, naming Napoleon's usual fee - but quadrupled.

"Done,"  said Doctor Corazon, eyes flashing.  "When do we leave ?"

"Have to get the boat ready,"  Jack said. "Day after tomorrow ?"

"Tomorrow,"  growled the lady.  "Tomorrow !"

Napoleon's only reaction to the Bolivian woman's shouting "episode" is to blink, once while continueing to look at her eyes and resisting the temptation to observe the woman's beautiful traits.

He glanced sidelong at Jack when the named the extremely high figure for his fee but said nothing, only nodding once.

" The boat will need work, Senora, if we are to succeed.

"Fine, but do not waste my time,"  the Bolivian firecracker snapped.  "I will pay you in gold, one-quarter when we depart, the rest upon our return. Tomorrow, at dawn, I will be here, and you had better be ready !"  With that, she turned on her heel and left.

Jack O'Shea let out his breath, in a long sigh, and Maria Alonza dissolved into helpless giggles.  "Told you.  Come on then, Napoleon, we have work to do !"

The day was well advanced as the two men finally got the engine mounted, and were busy priming it to test it, when a shadow fell across them from the dock.  A burly man in a tan uniform stood there, smoked-dark glasses concealing his eyes, a splendid oiled mustache obscuring his face.  "You are the men who work for Doctor Corazon ?"  he asked, in a voice that sounded threatening. A large and ugly sidearm was at his hip.

Napoleon held the hefty crescent wrench he had used to tighten the bolts that held the engine in place loosely in his right hand as he straigtened up to look at the menacing man with the pistol on his thigh. Napoleon cursed himself silently for leaving his knife in his duffel bag on the deck.

" Not him, Monseiur," Napoleon said in reply and indicating Jack with a jerk of his free thumb, " He just helps me with the boat. I work for the Doctor." He eyes the man's hands and not his eyes, ready to move at the first hint of trouble.

"Ah," said the army officer, "You are the man I want to talk to."  He turned the sunglasses toward Napoleon.  Somehow, the blank gaze was terribly threatening, and a chill ran along Napoleon's spine as the man spoke.  This fellow, whoever he was, was a stone-cold killer.  "That Doctor, she is making a lot of trouble for me.  Many things can go wrong in the jungle...and her luck, it is running out.  I do not want her father found.  I do not want her to find what he seeks.  Do you understand me ?"

Napoleon La Tour matched the man's gaze now and nodded solemnly. " I think we have... an understanding.The jungle, she is a big place and much can go wrong, yes?" Napoleon grinned with the man as if he was sharing some private joke with him.

"That is good,"  the officer replied, with a smile no more pleasant than that of a crocodile.  "See to it that something goes wrong, and all will be well for you, La Tour, very well.  I do not want to be bothered by Dr. Corazon again.  Come to me with proof, and this will be yours.  She wears a little gold cross - bring it to me."  He held up a raw emerald, green as life itself, bigger than Napoleon's thumbnail. It was worth a small fortune. The gem vanished quickly, as did the smile.  "Fail me, and you will find Manaus...and anywhere else...to be very...difficult."

The little half Guyanese, half French man only smiled back at the man with the big emerald and the bigger gun, letting him draw his own conclusions from the facial expression. Napoleon then resumed working on the engine, plainly dismissing the officer with his actions. He did, however, keep the man in his peripheral vision until he had left the area, just to be sure he did not decide to attack La Tour or his large Irish friend.