It all started with one woman's desire to prove that Amazons existed. Yes, that's right those legendary female warriors. Her name was Sylvia Riesling, the heiress to the Riesling billions. She was completely obsessed with the Amazons. Sylvia had commissioned a big international conference on the Amazons in Frankfurt Germany. I, Nelson James, was the keynote speaker.
I am a professor of Anthropology at an Ivy League university. I was nothing special, just another academic in an obscure field toiling away to feed my wife and three sons. My area of interest was the Amazon River basin and the primitive people still living there. Sure, I had heard rumors of Amazon's but never really was that interested until that blockbuster movie Amazon World came out.
Sheer genius it was, a story of how the legendary women warriors got fed up with the patriarchal world and emerged from their self-seclusion to overthrow it. Plenty of women wanted to see it because it had a good plot, of course the defeat all the male governments. (This was a movie so there were zero female world governments at the time to overthrow) and the lead actresses were all A list. Men went with their wives and girlfriends because of all the Amazon warriors in their skimpy battledress were former Playboy bunnies or cheerleaders. Another attraction for many was the first-rate special effects, lets face it action movies with babes sell.
I heard about the movie when it started production and knew what I had to do. I was in the running for a full professorship, and this could be my way in. I knew my obscure area of study would have a brief time in the limelight and I had to take full advantage. Immediately I researched an academic paper on the Amazons. It would be published in the usual dull Anthropology Journal. That would provide me with the material to write an article in regular English for the New York Times and any other media outlet that wanted to pick it up. This would get me promoted.
I called it Amazons Fact or Fiction. The Times was interested, and I retained the syndication rights after they had the first exclusive release. In order to write the paper though I had to get access to the journal of Francois Canard. He was the famous 19th century explorer who's journal documented his discovery of the Amazons. Unfortunately, no one believed Francois at the time, and they declared him mad and institutionalized him. He was known to the Amazon crowd as Bizarre Canard and his family detested that name and what happened to him. They were always trying to rehabilitate his name and this movie, Amazon World, would bring his name to the forefront. I contacted the family and flew to France to meet with the heir, Jean Paul Canard.
I promised to set the record straight on Francois. They would have right to reject anything I wrote before publication, and I would give them a portion of any profits I made to pay legal fees to have the official record changed. ln exchange I would have full access to his journal and any other records the family held. For some reason, Jean Paul felt I was trustworthy and agreed to my offer. The movie came out and broke records on its first weekend. My article came out on the Saturday of that weekend and on Monday was reprinted and reposted all around the world. The university loved the publicity, and I was given the full professorship. Moreover, the syndication money was greatly appreciated by my wife Connie. She was great at making our money stretch, but it always was tight.
This is where Sylvia came in. With all the hype about the Amazons, she held her conference. Since I was acknowledged as a "world renowned Amazon "expert" I was selected keynote speaker. No expense was spared. Sylvia even paid for Connie and the boys to accompany me. We made a holiday of it and Sylvia had one of her staff tour guide us around Germany for a week. It wasn't all altruistic though. She wanted me to go to the Amazon River basin on an expedition she was funding. Again, no expense would be spared in the quest to prove the existence of the Amazons. However, there was a problem with me going on the expedition. I had promised Connie no more trips to the Amazon until the boys were through their teen years. Connie had not complained about my previous trips when they were younger when I was building my career but bow she now she wanted my help at home.
I had the professorship, so I was pretty secure, and I liked staying home. I loved Connie and being a father. Sylvia was tenacious however, at our first meal together before the conference she had mentioned the expedition and my role in it. I had explained that I had made a promise to Connie but would be glad to help with the preparations. Connie was very happy with my response and showed me her appreciation that night. Sylvia however was relentless and by the end of our trip in Germany Connie had not only released me from my promise but was encouraging me to go!
That conversation would replay over and over again in my mind over the next year. I suspect it haunted Connie as well. Connie had it all figured out,
"Nelson I know you made a promise to me, and you keep your promises. You are a great husband and father; I love being married to you. You are a great provider, working hard to give us what we need and more. Sylvia has offered you an amazing sum to go on this expedition, This is your reward for all your years of hard work. If it is successful you will receive an even larger bonus, this would make us set for life. Sylvia thinks you will be gone a month, maybe two at the outside. I will be fine for that long; both of our parents will help. I really think you should go."
I would have stuck to my promise but I also I did want to go, it would cement my reputation and place at the university. The money was a stupid amount, one million dollars. I did also want to stay with my family. I could stay home and still milk my expert status at the same time. Yet Connie was pushing me to go so I agreed.
Sylvia had no time to waste, a group was assembled and outfitted in a month. The leader of the expedition would be Lori Becker a self-made millionaire. She came from the wrong side of the tracks and had never failed at anything she had tried. Of course, our leader had to be a woman so she could speak on equal terms with the Amazons we hopefully would meet. Francois had mentioned this in his journal. His expedition included some women, and he made one of them the "leader" since the Amazons would not speak to him.
Then there was the two security women, Alesha Murray, and Estelle Rodrigues. They were former special forces and from what I could see the two women were the real deal. There were plenty of primitive locals, robber barons and other assorted bad guys in the Amazon River basin so we needed protection. Again, women warriors made sense for the obvious reasons.
Then there was Paulo and Mateus and their river boat. They would provide the grunt labor for the group as well as run the boat. They both were very handy and knew parts of the river. They also knew many of he main characters among the legitimate and illegitimate goings on in this part of the basin.
Finally, there was me, the expert advisor, and hopefully with the help of Bizarre Canard's journal the navigator. From my previous experience, this was a good size group for an Amazon river exploration. Small enough to be effective but not too big to be unwieldy and attract to much unwanted attention from anyone.
The three women and I would fly into Iquitos and meet up with Mateus and Paulo. We then would head down the river toward Ecuador as outlined by Canard in his journal.
The first few days were uneventful but soon enough we had left the vestiges of civilization behind. We kept a sharp eye out for the indigenous peoples, and others who didn't like outsiders on their turf. It was beautiful part of creation, with so many vibrant colors and exotic plants and animals.
We continued down the river and had the feeling that we were being watched. This increased with every mile. Estelle was convinced attack was imminent. Alesha not so much, the attack was coming but not yet. We were almost into the mountains, and she was sure it would occur then. There was no doubt in anyone's mind however that we were being watched and that the watchers had changed. Originally it had been the indigenous who were watching us. They were great at camouflage and concealment, but the high-tech gadgets of Estelle and Alesha could pick out their heat signatures among other things.
Now someone else was watching us. The high-tech equipment couldn't pick them up and neither could the naked eye. These people were masters of the hunt. Yet Alesha and Estelle were convinced we were still being watched.
When we entered the mountains the river increased in speed but decreased in depth and width. We knew that we would soon have to leave the boat and move forward on foot. Then we saw the arch mentioned in Bizarre Cunard's journal. Everyone was excited that we seemed to be on the right path. Soon after that we stopped for the night at what we thought was a secure location. It was a sand bar with the river on one side and sheer mountain walls on the other side.
While we set up camp Estelle was on guard duty, and she was sharp noticing the stranger first. The person was dressed in a wet suite complete with a mask and carried what looked like a bow in their hand. The person had seemingly appeared out of nowhere but must have come out of the river. Estelle ordered the person to stop moving and identify themselves. It was at this moment I knew that the expedition had succeeded, but would we live to tell the tale? The stranger spoke,
"It is you who should not move; any movement will be met with deadly force. You shall identify yourselves and your purpose here immediately."
I could not place the voice; it clearly was translated by a machine. I couldn't see the face of the person who had spoke, but I was sure that the translation did not convey the menace of the threat implied. Estelle started to raise her gun, but an arrow flashed out of nowhere and Estelle went down.
After a moment to process what just happened Lori Becker spoke for us,
"We have come in peace; we are on an expedition to find the legendary Amazon warriors."
The person in the wet suite did not reply immediately. The silence was painful, Estelle was bleeding out from the arrow in her chest. It looked like it had pierced her heart, and she wasn't moving. I think all of us were holding our breaths waiting for a reply. Then we were stunned when it came.
"You have found what you are looking for. Now listen very closely, any deviation from these instructions will result in your death."
I hoped everyone else took that to heart, after Estelle I certainly did. As she spoke a door opened up in the sheer mountain. She continued,
"Very slowly you will strip naked, then you will enter the mountain taking nothing with you."
Soon enough the five of us were naked and travelling on foot through a mountain tunnel. I never looked back to see if we were being followed by the person in the wet suit. I did hear the door close. I could see light ahead of us and we all just walked toward the light. Once we reached it we could see a valley before us. There also was a woman warrior standing in front of us. She had on a breast plate of some kind of metal, forearm guards and a skirt that also looked like armor. There were sandals on her feet. There was some kind of sword on her hip. She did not look very welcoming,
