Avery McShane and the Lost Tepui
I thought we were done with Lieutenant Sanchez. He’d been sent to jail in Caracas and they’d thrown away the keys. Things were back to normal here in Campo Mata, in the middle-of-nowhere Venezuela. We were going on a jungle trip with my dad to hunt for diamonds along the banks of the Orinoco River. It was the first time he’d invited us Machacas, which is what Billy, Todd and me called our super exclusive, no-girls-allowed-ever club. Our headquarters were in the middle of the jungle that surrounded our camp, in a tree house high up in the branches of a huge mango tree. So, even though Sanchez had sworn to me that he’d find me one day and kill me for what I’d done to him, I wasn’t worried about it.
Maybe I should’ve worried. That’s because we got nabbed by some diamond smugglers while we were on our trip and their leader was none other than Roberto Malo, the twin brother of Pablo Malo. It was Pablo that blew his own head off with his shotgun when he’d meant to blow my head off. To make matters worse, Sanchez had escaped from jail and was on his way to the smugglers’ town where we were being held for ransom. When he got there, he’d be telling Roberto what’d happened to his brother. For sure they’d just strangle us and feed our dead bodies to the piranhas and gators. Good thing we managed to escape before he got there, but things had just started to heat up. Besides, they had shot Mati, my dog. So, of course, that meant war!
They came right after us, trailin’ us with their demon dog, Loco. We didn’t have a clue where we were, except in the middle of the deep, dark jungle. We ended up hiding in a cave behind a waterfall, in the cliffs of Lost Tepui. It was one heckuva chase. Along the way we saved a missionary family that had been kidnapped by the smugglers, blew up a few things, got caught in a big flood and, as usual, we had to deal with all the nasty, hungry critters in the jungle. When the dust settled, Roberto had gone to meet up with his brother in that place where all the bad guys go when it’s their time. And Sanchez? Well, he’s still out there somewhere. He’d lost his nose and his ear the first time we met up with him, and now he’d lost one of his eyes. Something told me we’d be seeing him again.