Chapter 21

The next boat leaving Lima was a private vessel which had many of the close Morales family aboard.

With the relative fiasco that had occurred delivering the current precious cargo through the Andes to Lima, Natalia and her brothers wanted to ensure that the Morales’ family’s main trade route to Europe was secure. It was also vital for Natalia to establish the Morales’ way with their contacts in the UK and Europe and this needed to be done face to face.

Senor Morales would still oversee the whole operation from his base in Lima. Natalia was his eldest and only daughter, and she had been brought up to look after herself. She knew that she would not let her family down; if she did, there would be trouble. Her life would be at risk.

The Morales family were now settled within their cabins on the freighter The Islander, and what they could not know was that two of the tribal men’s friends had followed the Morales brothers and the tall Spanish lady with dark, black, shoulder length hair, grey-green eyes and still the dark red lipstick, onto the vessel.

The friends of the tribal men, who had attempted to collect payment and then been dealt with by the Morales brothers, had found their colleagues with broken ribs and broken noses limping back to their humble homes in the mountains. This was not acceptable to any human society and the ways of the Andean tribes meant that the Morales needed to be taught a lesson.

It would be enough for any of the Morales to have an accident. The tribal men did not need to announce themselves. They worked hard on the land. There was no need for them to make a big deal about what they were doing. This was how they lived their everyday lives. Hundreds of years ago they may have let the Spanish think that they had conquered most of South America, but the tribal way of life lived on. The people were too strong emotionally to be conquered and this would be a small token of their resistance.

The Morales brothers reviewed their itinerary, detailing who needed to be seen over the few days that were being spent in the UK. It was a busy schedule and essential that all of the contacts being seen were aware of how the distribution routes needed to be run.

The Morales family could then spend time overseeing the distribution; ensuring that it operated like clockwork. Their sourcing of the supply had highlighted that the Andean routes were clearly becoming at risk and the Bolivian government were currently on the coat-tails of the Morales’ existing suppliers. The family were not aware of any issues with their local distribution networks. They appeared strong. It was important that no details could be traced back to them. The many intermediaries were not aware of any information more than one link in the chain away. If they knew anything of the Morales family, then it was because of their impressive international reputation for the quality of their supply of leather goods, rope, hemp and netting.

On the first evening of their fifteen day voyage the Morales were already relaxing in their cabin. The first leg would take them through the Suez Canal and into the Atlantic, prior to their crossing to Portsmouth.

Meanwhile, the two tribal men were having difficulty sleeping. They were cold, tucked away in one of the small life rafts just in front of the bridge. “Pass me some Coca leaves,” one of them said. The other looked at him with a slightly glazed expression, grunted, and then tossed over the full bag of dirty green leaves.