Fighting Land: Costa Luna

Iguana Infestation

Chapter Twenty-two: Iguana Infestation

Hacienda Buenavista de Uruguay
5 miles east of San Isidro de Pepever, Cimarron Province, Costa Luna
7 November 2013
1000 hours local time

Hacienda Buenavista de Uruguay was one of the largest plantations in Costa Luna; that was an undisputed fact. Covering over 4,900 hectares (over one-one-hundredth of Costa Luna's total land area), the hacienda grew almost every crop there was to be grown in the Caribbean, ranging from bananas, mangoes, rice, coffee, berries, and potatoes. And, in the darker and more humid parts of the hacienda, hundreds of marijuana plants also grew on the property. Upon reaching maturity, the plants would be harvested and processed in labs both inside and outside the hacienda for future distribution across Costa Luna, the Caribbean and beyond.

The central mansion stood right in the middle of the property, a massive Spanish Colonial Revival house three floors tall and with over a hundred rooms inside. It was designed by none other than Patricio Domenico Buenaventura Ximenez, the Uruguayan Basque patriarch of the prominent Buenaventura clan of which Juan Marcos Domingo Estrada was part. The mansion was built to house the entirety of the family as well as over three hundred of their most trustworthy workers and servants, but today only three members of the Buenaventura clan lived there along with only a handful of workers and servants, and the majority of those that did stay in the mansion now were soldiers of the Army of Socialist Revolution. The irony of the son of a hacienda-owning clan leading a supposed "socialist revolution" against the monarchy of Costa Luna was not lost on Magnus Kane; in fact, he enjoyed it.

Kane had also made use of the massive basement underneath the "Big House" and turned it into some sort of a makeshift safe where he could hide the money made by the ASR when they had turned to drugs to finance their operations during Kane's incarceration at Isla de los Penitentes. The money was earmarked for future transfer to Kane's own property in Costa Estrella, but for the moment the money was spending a lot of time in the Big House's basement because not only was the Army of Socialist Revolution fighting against the Kingdom's Defense Army for full control of Costa Luna but a United Nations mission led by Costa Luna's old enemy and new ally Costa Gravas had made the situation dangerous for Kane and his money as this United Nations force now exercised control over the strait separating Costa Luna and Costa Estrella. And they were now about to deal with a new and quite unexpected problem with the money.

"It's bad, Domingo," Santiago San Antonio said to his friend and commander in the Army of Socialist Revolution Magnus Kane.

"How bad, Tiago?" Kane asked as he entered the attic.

"It's best if you see it for yourself. I have trouble believing it myself, and I've already seen it."

"Madre de Dios!" Kane exclaimed as soon as he saw the inside of the basement. He could see dozens upon dozens of iguanas chewing on the stacks of dollars, euros, and Costa Luna solars. Kane took out the Colt Python revolver in his hip holster and began firing indiscriminately at the iguanas. When he was finished, shredded bills and iguana guts splattered the inside of the basement.

"Fucking iguanas eating my fucking money!" Kane muttered. "Santiago, this is a stupid fucking problem to have. But it is a problem nonetheless," he continued, with an emphasis on the "but". "We need to solve this as soon as possible, Tiago. Fucking iguanas," Kane trailed off.

"Si, fucking iguanas," San Antonio muttered as Kane stomped on a juvenile iguana.

"Look, Domingo, the last time we tried moving some of your money, it ended up getting crazy, remember?" San Antonio said as they made to move out of the basement. "This Russian chica working for the Santiaganos was a goddamn maniac lunatic. The goddamned Sinaloans tried to ambush her but she wasted a bunch of those wannabe Mexicans and got the load to the backup drop."