Amazon Burning (A James Acton Thriller, #10)

FROM USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR J. ROBERT KENNEDY

IN THE DEPTHS OF THE AMAZON, ONE OF THEIR OWN HAS BEEN TAKEN!

Days from any form of modern civilization, archeology Professor James Acton awakes to gunshots.
Finding his wife missing, taken by a member of one of the uncontacted tribes, he and his friend INTERPOL Special
Agent Hugh Reading try desperately to find her in the dark of the jungle, but quickly realize there is no hope without help.

And with help three days away, he knows the longer they wait, the farther away she’ll be.

And the less hope there will be of ever finding the woman he loves.

USA Today bestselling author J. Robert Kennedy reunites James Acton and his wife Laura Palmer with Hugh Reading, CIA Special Agent Dylan Kane,
Delta Team-Bravo and others in a race against time to save one of their own, while behind the scenes a far darker, sinister
force is at play, determined to keep its existence a secret from the world. The stakes are high, the action is full-throttle,
and hearts will be broken as lives are changed forever in another James Acton adventure ripped from the headlines.

"James Acton: A little bit of Jack Bauer and Indiana Jones!"

Though this book is part of the James Acton Thrillers series, it is written as a standalone novel and can be enjoyed without having read any
of the previous installments.

USA Today bestselling author J. Robert Kennedy has been ranked by Amazon as the #1 Bestselling Action Adventure
novelist based upon combined sales. He is the author of over twenty international bestsellers including the smash hit James Acton Thrillers series of which the first
installment,
The Protocol
, has been on the bestseller lists since its release, including occupying the number one spot for three months.
He lives with his wife and daughter and writes full-time.

"If you want fast and furious, if you can cope with a high body count,
most of all if you like to be hugely entertained, then you can't do much better than J Robert Kennedy."

Amazon Vine Voice Reviewer

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Find out more at
www.jrobertkennedy.com
.

For the best friend I ever had, Paul Conway.

You are missed.

“There are many humorous things in the world; among them, the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages.”

Mark Twain, Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World

“You can't measure the mutual affection of two human beings by the number of words they exchange.”

Milan Kundera

Imagine a small town in the middle of the desert in Nevada. It has
no roads leading in or out, and never has. The people have lived there for as
long as anyone can remember, happily, peacefully, at one with each other and
their land. No planes fly over it, no tourists stumble upon it and only the
occasional explorer or adventurer has even been near it. It is isolated and
unknown to the outside world. The outside world as much a mystery to it, as it
is to the outside world.

Then
imagine one day it was gone, its population wiped out because under the town,
there was something a previously unknown town wanted, and they were in the way.

Who
would know? Who would weep for them?

Though
fictional, this scenario is happening today, in the real world. On July 3
^rd
2014 it was reported that a previously uncontacted tribe had emerged from the
Amazon Rainforest in Brazil, near the Peruvian border. The tribe, to this point
able to live in peace far from Western civilization, had been forced ever
closer to other tribes by illegal logging in Peru. As their traditional lands
were destroyed, they eventually had no choice but to make contact with another
tribe who they knew had relations with the “white man”.

International
treaties protect these uncontacted tribes, once thought to be so desperately
primitive that we would actively seek them out and “rescue” them from their
misery, inviting them into the bottom rungs of Western society. Modern thinking
has evolved to the point where we now leave them alone. Many are aware of us,
but chose not to contact us, and still others are not. Brazil estimates there
are 77 uncontacted tribes in their territory, with another 15 in Peru and still
more in other Amazonian countries. Dozens more have been located through aerial
surveys in New Guinea and the Andaman Islands off India, and still more are
thought to live in Malaysia and central Africa.

Though
these tribes may appear primitive to us, who are we to say our lives are any
better than theirs? They live, they work, they laugh, they love. They have
friends, families, homes and communities. They have purpose and they have
problems.

So how
are they different from us?

In one
fundamental way. They cannot harm us, but with our technology, with our greed
and ambivalence, we can wipe them out in a single stroke.

But when
it happens, and it does, who would know that one more uncontacted tribe had
disappeared when no one remains to sing their songs and tell their stories,
including the final story, of when the white man came.

Northern Amazon
54 Cycles after the Year of the Screaming Eagle
Fifth Day of the Third Moon

Tuk blushed.

Quickly looking
away, he pretended he hadn’t been staring at TikTik, instead following the
track of an imaginary bird in the sky. Out of the corner of his eye he glanced
back in her direction and saw her smiling at him as she brushed her future
mate’s grandmother’s hair.

She’s
so beautiful.

His
heart sank as he saw Bruk sneak up behind her then roar as he wrapped his arms
around her and lifted her off the ground. She giggled in glee, a shy kiss
exchanged before Grandmother snapped at them to settle down and wait for the mating
ceremony otherwise they’d be cursed with ugly children.

Another
peck was exchanged behind the old grandmother’s back before TikTik returned to
her ministrations, Bruk receding into the forest, spear in hand, probably off
to slay something for dinner big enough to feed most of the small tribe.

And it
ate him up inside.

You’re
pathetic.

And he
was. Among the men he was the slightest, the weakest. His voice was high and
lacked any of the confidence the others had.

He was a
woman with a penis.

And you’ll
never get a mate like TikTik.

His face
fell with his shoulders as he shuffled into the forest leaving the village
clearing behind him, the sounds of life and laughter quickly fading, replaced
with the constant cry of the jungle. The creatures they shared their home with
were well known to him, one of his many intellectual talents the ability from a
young age to distinguish the sound of every creature in the forest.

His
father, the greatest hunter he had ever known, had taught him how to track and
Tuk had become exceptional at it. Unfortunately he didn’t possess the strength to
throw the spear to take down the prey he found. He could aim and hit a target
with ease, it was piercing the skin deep enough that was the problem.

A
tremendous disappointment to his father.

As he
quietly walked through the forest, his bare feet enjoying the coolness of the
damp morning ground, he heard a wild boar squeal in the distance and knew Bruk
had found his next kill.

And his
heart felt a twinge of regret for the poor, helpless creature. And perhaps that
was it, that was why he could never throw hard enough. Perhaps it was that
these creatures who would be their dinner were as helpless as he was. Weak in
the face of the mighty hunters of the tribe, like he was. Perhaps they were his
kindred spirits.

He
gently pushed aside a large, lazy snake with his spear as it dangled in front
of him, eyeballing him. Even his slight state would present a challenge to this
particular creature, but he knew some of the bigger ones could swallow him
whole with ease.

The
thought terrified him.

As a
child he had seen a yakumama snake devour a boar then regurgitate the still
live creature as if toying with it, only to swallow it down again moments
later, the look in its eyes one of pure evil. It was to be respected, and
avoided. Rarely would the tribe tackle such a creature, though there had been
times when one would get a taste for man and they, along with some of the other
tribes in the area would cooperate to hunt it down and kill it. The feast would
be glorious, though he always wondered if they were indirectly eating their
fellow tribesmen.

He
shivered.

Maybe
I should see how she is doing?

The
thought of his future mate warmed him and brought a smile to his face. He would
be marrying from outside the tribe, which was encouraged whenever possible. She
was no TikTik, but was beautiful in her own unique way, and in time he knew
they would both grow to love each other the way he secretly loved the forbidden
TikTik.

A scream
from the other side of the village had him frozen in place as he turned his
head, cocking an ear as the sounds of the forest changed.