B004L2LMEG EBOK Read Free Page A

worse than the sickness, General. Unthinkable, terrible. Are you going to permit this atrocity?”
    “The bra, the stockings,” Pantita perspires, throws himself down, leans back, stretches out. “Tiger was right: in this humidity, you breathe fire, your blood boils. C’mon, nibble me where I like it. The ear, Pocha.”
    “I’m embarrassed in the daytime, Panta,” Pochita complains, wraps herself in the bedspread, sighs. “You’re going to fall asleep. Don’t you have to be at headquarters at three? You always do.”
    “I’ll take a shower,” Pantita kneels, bends over, straightens up. “Don’t talk to me, don’t distract me. Nibble my ear. Like that, just like that. Ahh, I already feel like I’m coming. Oh, babe, I can’t tell who I am.”
    “I know very well who you are and why you’ve come to Iquitos,” mutters General Roger Scavino. “And straight off I’ll tell you that your presence in this city doesn’t please me one bit. Let’s get things clear from the start, Captain.”
    “Excuse me, General,” Captain Pantoja stammers. “There must be some misunderstanding.”
    “I’m not in favor of this Special Service you’ve come to organize,” General Scavino moves his bald head nearer the fan and closes his eyes for a moment. “I was opposed from the beginning and I still think it’s an outrage.”
    “And above all, an unspeakable act of immorality,” Father Beltrán is fanning himself furiously.
    “The commander and I have kept silent because our superiors are the ones who give the orders,” General Scavino unfolds his handkerchief and wipes the sweat from his forehead, temples, neck. “But they haven’t convinced us, Captain.”
    “I didn’t have anything to do with this project, General,” Pantoja, motionless, perspires. “It was the surprise of my life when they told me about it, Father.”
    “Commander,” Father Beltrán corrects him. “Can’t you count stripes?”
    “Excuse me, Commander,” Pantoja lightly clicks his heels. “I didn’t have anything to do with it, I promise you.”
    “Aren’t you one of the brains in the quartermaster unit who thought up this nonsense?” General Scavino grabs the fan, puts it in front of his face, his skull, and clears his throat. “Anyway, there are some things that have to be understood from the start. There’s no way I can stop this from happening, but I’ll see to it that this touches the armed forces as little as possible. No one is going to spoil the image the Army has won for itself in Loreto since I’ve been in charge of the Fifth Region.”
    “That’s what I want too,” Pantoja is looking over the general’s shoulder at the muddy water of the river, at a barge filled with bananas, at the blue sky, at the fiery sun. “I’m ready to do what I can.”
    “Because if the news leaked, there’d be an ugly mess,” General Scavino raises his voice, stands up, rests his hands on the window sill. “The strategists in Lima calmly plan dirty tricks at their desks, because it’s General Scavino who’ll have to weather the storm if the thing becomes public.”
    “I agree with you, you have to believe me,” Captain Pantoja sweats, sees the sleeves of his uniform getting wet, implores. “I never would’ve asked for this assignment. It’s something so different from my usual work, I don’t even know if I’ll be able to carry it out.”
    “Your father and your mother came together on wood to make you, and the woman who carried you struggled and opened her legs to give birth to you on wood,” Brother Francisco is screeching and thundering up there in the darkness. “The wood felt H IS body, grew red with H IS blood, received H IS tears, grew moist with H IS sweat. The wood is sacred, the plank brings health. Sisters! Brothers! Open your arms to me!”
    “Dozens of people will march through that door. This office will be filled with protests, with signed documents, with anonymous letters,” Father Beltrán gets