Collins leveled the Cessna at about five hundred feet and continued his banking turn over the airstrip and village. “Yeah. The Pemón guides will take you up- or downriver. Buck an hour.”
“I just want the boat.”
“I don’t know… you can ask.”
Taylor was kneeling now between the two cockpit seats, and she asked Brodie, “See anything interesting?”
“Looks green,” he replied, using the radio code word for a safe LZ. Yellow meant caution, and red was hot, but you usually didn’t know that until you were on the ground.
Taylor said, “I would call yellow. Too quiet.”
“Maybe.”
Collins did a few glances at his passengers. “Folks?”
Brodie explained, “I think the huts are green. My wife says a quiet yellow.” He peered down at the airstrip. “I see the wind sock. Wind coming from the east, Captain.”
Collins glanced out his windshield. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” He remarked, “I don’t see any birds.”
“They’re probably in the jungle, Mr. Bowman.”
“Right. They hang out there.” He asked, “Anything down there that can eat you?”
“Yeah. Cougars and jaguars.”
“Sorry I asked.”
“Also piranhas in the river. Maybe some crocs.”
Brodie said to Taylor, “There goes our midnight skinny-dip.”
Collins agreed, “I wouldn’t go in that river.”
“Good advice.” He thought they’d circled enough—maybe too much if anyone was watching—and he said, “Okay, let’s continue our sightseeing.”
Collins glanced at his fuel range. “Yeah, we can fly maybe another hour and still have plenty of fuel to get to TDH.” He put the Cessna into a climb. “What do you want to see?”
Taylor replied, “We’d like to see an area along that river, maybe six or seven miles southeast from Kavak.” She added, “That’s where we’re going later to see birds.”
“Okay.” He banked left and took a new heading.
Taylor said, “Lower, and slower please.”
Brodie recalled that Carmen had mentioned seeing another tepui from Mercer’s camp, so he asked, “Any other tepuis around here?”
Collins nodded. “If we keep heading in this direction about twenty miles, we’ll reach Chimantá Massif—a huge complex of about a dozen tepuis. Together about the same size as Auyán.”
Brodie nodded. So far the terrain was checking out with Carmen’s testimony.
They flew low and slow over the small muddy river as it snaked its way through the grassland and then entered the jungle, which stretched to the south and east as far as the eye could see. When Brodie thought they’d gone about six or seven miles he said to Collins, “Let’s do a tight circle over this area.”
“Okay.” Collins put the Cessna into a steep right bank and began circling.
Brodie raised his binoculars and looked down at the carpet of jungle below.
Taylor moved to Brodie’s passenger seat and also peered down into the jungle canopy. “Let me take a look.”
