Legacy of Atonement by Maitland-Lewis Stephen

Author:Maitland-Lewis, Stephen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hildebrand Books, an imprint of W. Brand Publishing
Published: 2023-06-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

* * *

Emilio was the name of the pilot Felipe had told him about. It was also one of the only pieces of information about the young man Daniel had been given. He certainly didn’t have a way of knowing what Felipe meant when he said Emilio would be Daniel’s kind of guy. This was one of so many areas where he placed his trust in Felipe—blindly and without concern that Felipe might one day let him down.

“This is perfect weather for flying,” was the first thing Emilio said when Daniel met him on the tarmac, such as it were, beside his plane. “You bring the money?”

“Yes, of course,” Daniel replied, smiling. Emilio was his type of guy. He could see the cigarette pack congesting the pocket of the young man’s clean, white button-up. None fell out as Emilio checked over the two-engine plane.

From where he stood, Daniel had a clear view of the one runway, corrugated iron hangar, and parked planes; what he didn’t see was any other person. A couple potholes in the runway looked menacing, as though they could easily burst a tire.

“Do you have to notify anyone that we’re taking off?” Daniel asked.

“There’s no control desk, if that’s what you mean. There’s also no runway lighting. That’s why I’d like to be back before it gets dark.”

“What about those potholes over there?”

“Don’t worry about them. I know where they are.” Emilio smiled again. “Climb aboard.”

Daniel, in the copilot’s seat, fastened his seat belt as Emilio started the engines. Daniel closed his window against the noise and the dry heat outside. It was a four-seater plane, provided no one weighed more than 175 pounds or had a waist size greater than thirty-six inches.

Emilio maneuvered the plane across the patchy grass toward the runway. He looked across at Daniel. “Don’t be nervous. I fly this beauty three or four times every week. Relax and enjoy the flight.”

Daniel nodded. “I’ll try.”

“These are great planes. Argentinean, Dinfia. We can get up to one hundred fifty miles per hour. We should arrive in Mariscal in about two and a half hours. Around ten thirty with luck. I’m going to fly this bird at about ten thousand feet, so you’ll have a view of the landscape all the way. Unfortunately, you won’t find it all that interesting. We fly over the most boring area in the whole of Latin America.”

Daniel watched, holding his breath as Emilio accelerated down the runway, skillfully steering the plane around potholes.

The noise of the engines rendered it impossible to carry on a conversation, so Daniel contented himself with looking out of the window at the scenery. Emilio wasn’t wrong. There was little to see. Endless miles of a deserted region, a few small streams but mostly dry riverbeds. Short trees, brushwood, cactus dunes, and some small hills. They flew over two or three large cattle farms. He reached to grab the binoculars from behind and saw the occasional Paraguayan cowboy.

Emilio shouted above the engines, “This area, the Chaco, is known as the Green Inferno.

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