Taterskin & The Eco Defenders: Book 2, Chapter 51
Book 2 ("Tell It to Future Generations"), Chapter 51 of 56
CHAPTER 51
As Ravelle stepped away from the group to relieve himself, his left arm was gripped firmly by a camouflaged man on his left, while a similarly-garbed man on his right grabbed his right wrist, cast a pair of handcuffs onto first that wrist, then jerked Ravelle’s left arm behind his back and secured him in that way.
When Ravelle called out for help, a group of animal rescuers seemingly instantaneously converged on the scene. But the hired thugs had prepared for precisely that scenario. The handcuffer pressed the muzzle of his pistol against Ravelle’s head and said that any attempt on the part of the animals to attack would result in him being forced to discharge his weapon in the general direction of Ravelle’s brain.
“If he has one!” the goon added.
The childish taunt did not merit a response. Nevertheless, the situation seemed to be a Brazilian standoff (differing from a Mexican standoff in locale only).
The animals instinctively knew what to do, though. Harpy Eagles and Macaws flew off to seek help from Chapawee, the Terena warriors, and the New Amazons, while the Howling Monkeys sounded the alarm, one that was quickly carried by ‘jungle telegraph’ two to three miles at a time, repeated every few seconds.
Once the last Howler Monkey north had been alerted of the nature and location of the emergency, he relayed it to the nearest Jaguar, who sprinted off to tell Albert and the rest of us at the northern edge of the Basin. It only took a matter of minutes for us to hear about the kidnapping of our friend Ravelle.
To “cut to the chase,” as the saying goes, it didn’t take long for all of us to converge on the place where Ravelle was being held. How were we able to get there that fast, you might wonder, when we were so far away and didn’t have a JNG?
At the same time the message was being spread, Ooga realized the quickest way to get to us was to fly the Zephyr to our spot and pick us up. He raced as fast as he could through the forest to the vehicle, fired it up, flew it at top speed (Mach 32), and reached us in practically no time. Coincidentally, he arrived shortly after the racing Jaguar had. After a hurried explanation of what was taking place down at the southern end of the Basin, both from the Jaguar and from Ooga, all of us piled aboard the Zephyr and returned there, also flying at 25,000 mph, as Ooga had done on the way out.
Chapawee and her new fellow workers, the Terena warriors and the New Amazons, had beat us there, but not by much. Our friends had been impatiently waiting for us, especially Stripes, Rory, and Jubatus, who, along with Ooga, felt partially responsible for the debacle, thinking they should have gone with Ravelle when he stepped away from the group. They were agitated, annoyed with themselves and the kidnappers, and bursting with energy to right the wrong.
Albert, Alexis, Rovette, and I let them know it was not their fault. The rest chimed in with their agreement to that.
“We are in this together,” I said, “and we will rescue Ravelle, one way or another. Remember our motto: ten quintillion for all, and all for ten quintillion.’ One of us, or all of us thinking and working together, will find a way to save him.”
Ravelle was being held nearby in a heavily guarded camp surrounded by barbed wire. Scarlet had seen him being taken into a certain hut, which she pointed out to us. They had told us they would kill Ravelle if we attacked the mining operation. So we held off on launching any assault.
But if Ravelle’s captors were to kill him outright, there would then be nothing stopping us from an all-out attack on them and their beloved mine. They doubtless knew that, and thus had good reason not to execute our friend.
They had offered to return Ravelle to us on two conditions: we quit the area, never to return, and we pay them a large sum of money. I don’t remember the amount. We didn’t pay much attention to it, because we had no intention of paying it even if we had it because, as we told them, we refuse to negotiate with terrorists.
They had objected to that term, but they were minions of those terrorizing the earth, and they themselves were directly terrorizing our friend and fellow Eco Defender, Ravelle. So terrorists they were, plain and simple.
Our counteroffer to them was that they return our friend safely to us. If they did so, we promised that we would leave their camp intact (we promised nothing about the mine itself).
But they rejected that proposal without even considering it. So, the only option left open to us was to take matters into our own hands, feet, paws, and wings.
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