Amazonia

He ignored the oddity and hurried to a cement-block building set amid a row of dilapidated wooden structures. The letters FUNAI were painted on the wall facing the street. It was the local office for the Brazilian Indian Foundation and represented the sole source of aid, education, and legal representation for the local tribes, the Baniwa and Yanomamo. The small building housed both offices and a homeless shelter for Indians who had come in search of the white man’s prosperity.

FUNAI also had its own medical counselor, a longtime friend of the family and his own father’s mentor here in the jungles of the Amazon.

Nate pushed through the anteroom and hurried down a hall and up a set of stairs. He prayed his friend was in his office. As he neared the open door, he heard the strands of Mozart’s Fifth Violin Concerto flowing out.

Thank God!

Knocking on the door’s frame, Nate announced himself. “Professor Kouwe?”

Behind a small desk, a mocha-skinned Indian glanced up from a pile of papers. In his mid-fifties, he had shoulder-length black hair that was graying at the temples, and he now wore wire-rimmed glasses when reading. He took off those glasses and smiled broadly when he recognized Nate.

“Nathan!” Resh Kouwe stood and came around the desk to give him a hug that rivaled the coils of the anaconda he had fought. For his compact frame, the man was as strong as an ox. Formerly a shaman of the Tiriós tribe of southern Venezuela, Kouwe had met Nate’s father three decades ago, and the two had become fast friends. Kouwe had eventually left the jungle with his father’s help and was schooled at Oxford, earning a dual degree in linguistics and paleoanthropology. He was also one of the preeminent experts in the botanical lore of the region. “My boy, I can’t believe you’re here! Did Manny contact you?”

Nathan frowned as he was released from the bear hug. “No, what do you mean?”

“He’s looking for you. He stopped by about an hour ago to see if I knew which village you were conducting your current research in.”

“Why?” Nathan’s brow wrinkled.

“He didn’t say, but he did have one of those Tellux corporate honchos with him.”

Nathan rolled his eyes. Tellux Pharmaceuticals was the multinational corporation that had been financing his investigative research into the practices of the region’s tribal shamans.

Kouwe recognized his sour expression. “It was you who made the pact with the devil.”

“Like I had any choice after my father died.”

Kouwe frowned. “You should not have given up on yourself so quickly. You were always—”

“Listen,” Nathan said, cutting him off. He didn’t want to be reminded of that black period in his life. He had made his own bed and would have to lie in it. “I’ve got a different problem than Tellux.” He quickly explained about Tama and her illness. “I’m worried about her treatment. I thought you could consult with the doctor.”

Kouwe grabbed a fishing tackle box from a shelf. “Foolish, foolish, foolish,” he said, and headed for the door.

Nathan followed him down the stairs and out into the street. He had to hurry to keep up with the older man. Soon the two were pushing through the hospital’s front doors.

Takaho leaped to his feet at the reappearance of Nathan. “Jako…Brother.”

Nathan waved him back down. “I’ve brought someone who might be able to help your daughter.”

Kouwe did not wait. He was already shoving into the ward beyond the doors. Nathan hurried after him.

What he found in the next room was chaos. The slender American doctor, her face drenched with sweat, was bent over Tama, who was again in a full grand mal seizure. Nurses were scurrying to and fro at her orders.

Kelly glanced over the girl’s convulsing body. “We’re losing her,” she said, her eyes frightened.

“Maybe I can help,” Kouwe said. “What medications has she been given?”

Kelly ran down a quick list, wiping strands of hair from her damp forehead.

Nodding, Kouwe opened his tackle box and grabbed a small pouch from one of the many tiny compartments. “I need a straw.”

A nurse obeyed him as quickly as she had Dr. O’Brien. Nathan could guess that this was not the first visit Professor Kouwe had made to the hospital here. There was no one wiser on indigenous diseases and their cures.

“What are you doing?” Kelly asked, her face red. Her loose auburn hair had been pulled back in a ponytail.

“You’ve been working under a false assumption,” he said calmly as he packed the plastic straw with his powder. “The convulsive nature of electric eel disease is not a manifestation of a CNS disturbance, like epilepsy. It’s due to a hereditary chemical imbalance in the cerebral spinal fluid. The disease is unique to a handful of Yanomamo tribes.”

“A hereditary metabolic disorder?”

“Exactly, like favism among certain Mediterranean families or ‘cold-fat disease’ among the Maroon tribes of Venezuela.”

Kouwe crossed to the girl and waved to Nathan. “Hold her still.”

Nathan crossed and held Tama’s head to the pillow.

The shaman positioned one end of the straw into the girl’s nostril, then blew the straw’s powdery content up her nose.

Dr. O’Brien hovered behind him. “Are you the hospital’s clinician? Dr. Rodriguez?”

“No, my dear,” Kouwe said, straightening. “I’m the local witch doctor.”

Kelly looked at him with an expression of disbelief and horror, but before she could object, the girl’s thrashing began to calm, first slowly, then more rapidly.

Kouwe checked Tama’s eyelids. The sick pallor to her skin was already improving. “I’ve found the absorption of certain drugs through the sinus membranes is almost as effective as intravenous administration.”

Kelly looked on in amazement. “It’s working.”

Kouwe passed the pouch to one of the nurses. “Is Dr. Rodriguez on his way in?”

“I called him earlier, Professor,” a nurse answered, glancing at her wristwatch. “He should be here in ten minutes.”

“Make sure the girl gets half a straw of the powder every three hours for the next twenty-four, then once daily. That should stabilize her so her other injuries can be addressed satisfactorily.”

“Yes, Professor.”

On the bed, Tama slowly blinked open her eyes. She stared at the strangers around her, confusion and fright clear in her face, then her eyes found Nathan’s. “Jako Basho,” she said weakly.