Abandoned by her parents at the age of nine, Kim Min-jeong learned to survive alone on the dangerous streets of Seoul. Along the way, she learned how to protect those she loved, and punish those she hated.
She thrived in a world that was perpetually...
[A/N. This chapter has the usual extreme violence but also includes mentions of torture and self-harm. None is described in detail. Also full disclosure: The plot of this mission is inspired by Joseph Conrad's book "Heart of Darkness," as well as the movie "Apocalypse Now," which was based on Conrad's book.]
. . . . .
Parker sighed and leaned back in his chair.
"This... this is going to be a difficult, dangerous mission, Arkangel. This is the kind that gets inside your soul and turns it black. You'll never, ever want another mission. This makes the people you love strangers. But I'm confident that you'll be successful and that you'll come back the same person who left. You'll be taking a boat up the Rio da Dúvida, or The River of Doubt. Theodore Roosevelt and his expedition explored it in 1913, and barely made it out alive.* That's saying something because T.R. was made of steel and he nearly died of malaria."
He continued. "I know it's hard to believe that there are places this remote, but remember, a satellite photo on Google Earth is not the same as being on the ground. The reality is disease and filth and danger. Two years ago, we sent an agent named Kurtz upstream to assassinate a group of illegal gold miners who were threatening an uncontacted tribe. The mining they are doing is an ecological holocaust, and involves clearing enormous patches of old-growth forest and using chemicals such as gasoline and pure mercury to process the ore. Of course, all of that runoff is simply left in the bottom of the hole, and then works its way into the water table. But, as far as we can tell, Kurtz has recruited the miners and made contact with the tribe. Kurtz is unbelievably charismatic. He's become something of a cult leader to the miners and the tribe. He's sending them on missions of his own, attacking legal petroleum drilling and those clear-cutting the tribe."
"Wouldn't we sanction something like that?"
"Yes," Parker replied, "Except that Kurtz has become... eccentric in his methods. He beheads whole families. He sets people on fire in public, and has his followers read his bizarre screeds, like this." He picked up a document from his desk.
The whores are killing the men of god. The assassins are killing the whores. Without god, fetid slime bubbles from the graves, madman won't stop laughing, and I will neatly, slowly, and precisely remove the eyes of all the lying pigs...
Winter's jaw hung open. "God, Parker... I don't even know what to say to that. Why don't we just bomb him?"
"We can't harm the indigenous people. Not just in his cult, but all around. Everyone involved needs to see that we are capable of striking whenever or whenever we want. You'll have to think like him, Arkangel. But don't take it too far. Don't come back a stranger to Karina and me."
. . . . .
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Karina flew to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and then hopped a small, very bumpy plane to Porto Velho on the Madeira River. A helicopter dropped her off near the end of the River of Doubt.
