Chapter 13. Quixotic Odyssey
They wanted to lay low while the hot pursuit cooled a little. They cross Saskatchewan and Alberta at a languid pace. The long sojourn in the wilderness didn't begin in earnest until one brisk, invigorating morning in late April. It was windy and cold but with a clear brilliant blue sky when they set out at last on foot. The Crown Victoria had been sold the day before, and the fugitives now thought it best to lose themselves in the roughest country, where they had to rely on their own boot-heels for their transportation.
They might have a look at Tweedsmuir Provincial Park - steering north of Mt. Waddington - but their route was far from certain. They certainly wanted to complete their swing through British Columbia before the first snow fell next autumn. Haakon hoisted a 100 lbs pack on to his back. The women carried half of that, and Amanda had half of that. Sergio would have to carry Al most of the time.
The trail followed the Nechako river, on the banks of which were crowded both evergreen and broad-leaf trees. They had gone about 200 yards down a path when Al began to make some protests.
`This isn't going to work. The poor little guy will end up becoming a snack for a big hungry bear,' teased Amanda. `Let's go back. I'm quite sure Al will get eaten by a bear if we keep this up.'
` Mana bad!' cried Al. `Mana bad!'
`Keep walking,' said Pamela.
They walked for less than 2 hours that day, as that was the limit Al could endure even though he was carried in comfort for most of the time. They fished and painted, listened to music and read paperbacks, played chess and washed in the river, ate and slept to pass the time. They had to duck for cover once, as there were a few other hikers about, though it was really only crucial for Amanda to hide herself. She was almost a 13-years-old and her face was not one which people would not soon forget. She was quite striking. When they all had sunglasses on it was unlikely anyone would recognize them, but so far Amanda had been able to dive into the cover of the trees by the side of the path before they encountered strangers.
They were all lounging in the shade of some pines when lunch was served. The main course was the trout which they caught in the river and which they roasted over their campfire.
`When we first got to Isle Royale,' Haakon was saying to Amanda, `you said we would have to fight to get away with our lives. What is your intuition telling you about this trek we're on now?'
`Bears, mountain lions and avalanches,' said Amanda.
`Forgetting to use the iodine,' said Sergio, `and thereby drinking parasite-ridden water - and I'm thinking of Al especially - is our greatest danger. We'll have to watch him every second to make sure he doesn't hurt himself.'
`Tell us a tale, ma,' Amanda was saying, `about when you was a spy in South America.'
`It was way back in 1990s, and Haakon and I were working in Mexico and in various Central and South American nations. Haakon fell in love with Maria in Mexico - she was generally working in either Mexico or Bolivia. Your father was still trying to not flunk out of graduate school at Southern Illinois University at the time - he told you how much he liked to drink beer so I'm not telling you anything here which you don't already know - and of course you know I met your father in Oaxaca, and you know how you wouldn’t be with us today if I hadn't slept late one morning and missed my flight out of Houston, a flight which later crashed outside of Guadalajara killing everyone aboard. After Guadalajara Haakon and I went to Acapulco, then to Vera Cruz, then to Havana - travelling as tourists under Canadian passports - then to Bogotá and then to Cali where Haakon and I finally corned this Red Chinese diplomat / spy who was blackmailing a womanizing right-wing Columbian businessman, and who was pocketing most of the money for himself and was only giving a fraction of it to the Columbian Communists. If we could prove to him that we could prove to his bosses that he wasn't giving all of the money to the Columbian Communists, then we could put pressure on him, by saying: either help us, or we will show your bosses that you're not giving all of the money to the Columbian Communists.'
`Why did you want the Communists to get the money?' asked Amanda.
`We wanted the Red diplomat to give us valuable information. He probably didn't know much at the time, but in 20 years, if he got some promotions, he might learn a few things. Once he started to cooperate with us he had to keep on cooperating, because if he didn't keep on cooperating we would show his bosses that he was a traitor, and then he would be executed by a Red Chinese executioner. So, we had to get him to cooperate with us. He had a prestigious job, so, naturally, he wouldn't want to lose it. Therefore he wouldn't want his bosses to learn that he was keeping most of the money that he got from the womanizing businessman for himself. Therefore he might co-operate with us, because, if he didn't co-operate, we would prove to his bosses that he was keeping most of the money for himself, and then he would be shipped back to China, where he would be given a new job, such as driving a yak to Mongolia. Well he was caught in a trap and that was too bad for him! But we had to find out if the USA was being threatened by Red China in some way that we didn't know about. Maybe they had a cache of H-bombs outside of Kansas City. Who knows? Putting pressure on greedy diplomats is one way to learn the secrets of an enemy power.'
`So you blackmailed the blackmailer,' said Amanda.
`Yeah,' said Pamela.
`You were pretty good with the plans and schemes once. What's the plan now, by the way?' asked Amanda.
`The plan is to soak up all this beautiful nature. Cast your gaze on those mountains. They hold you spellbound with their magnificence, don't they?' inquired Sergio.
`That's godless Communism! Loafing and worshipping nature is at least Socialism. Capitalists toil and exploit and thereby acquire Capital,' said Amanda in her teasing way.
`The plan,' Sergio was saying, `is that you're going to love it when we're piloting a raft down the Mackenzie latter this summer. That will be idyllic because the summer air will be filled with warmth and sweetness. The fragrance of the wildflowers, the grass and the evergreens you know. It's not all scrub and tundra in the North Country. Grasslands and timber proliferate. There are deciduous trees: maples, oaks, elms, lindens, poplars and sycamores. And then it's a coniferous paradise with miles upon miles of firs and pines and spruce stretching off into eternity. Riding the raft down the Mackenzie will be a wonderful and luxurious excursion for us. When a thunderstorm hits and bolts of lightning are slicing the air all around us, the waves on the river might get a little wild, but nothing like the waves on the ocean or on a Great Lake. I read this book that said the Mackenzie, on its march to the Arctic is like the Danube on its march to the Euxine. Just as the latter becomes wild and tumultuous as it ploughs through the Iron Gates, the Mackenzie can get wild as well when the mountains crush in on it from both banks. But first we must prepare our minds and bodies. We'll have to hike close on a thousand miles before we reach the Mackenzie. I'll teach you to hunt and fish, to fight bears and wolves, to philosophize under the constellations, to…'
`You're crazy, pops, if you think Al will consent to be carried a thousand miles any time soon, just so that you can drift down a big dirty river on a raft,' said Amanda.