THE RAINFORESTMEN (62,000 words) PROLOGUE: OUT OF THE GREEN HELL - Born in the Brazilian rainforest, the Tukano Indian kid Marcos works in a jungle lodge where he meets Max, an American entrepreneur who wants to reach the site in the jungle he has just bought. Marcos is an educated native who was raised by an American preacher and speaks perfect English, so Max decides to hire him. THE WILD SHORTCUT - Daniel Backwood is an engineer who devised a way of "stretching the envelope" in order to send an ordinary, single-stage rocket to orbit and back, but it depends on launching it from the equator line. Max has already found the perfect launch site years ago, and now Daniel and his wife Daryl move to Manaus, a city at the heart of the Brazilian rainforest. Reaching Manaus, he meets Marcos "Mark" Tukano and the shocking poverty of this boiling-hot, rainy city. ACTUAL KING OF THE JUNGLE - In their Manaus offices, they receive the governor of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, Governor Gilberto, a half-Indian man who knows the forest intimately; he tells them about "his" forest and the political and environmental conflicts he is facing in Amazonia. The rocket arrives and is transported through the Amazonas and Negro rivers to the launch site. G.I. BLISS - Their problems with the Brazilian national politics begin with the Minister of Aeronautics, Brigadier Boaventura ("G.I. Bliss"), who is in charge of everything that flies over Brazil, including their rocket. The minister comes to the site and says it must be brazilianized, otherwise it cannot be launched. He also explains them the military pet project, the Northern Trench Project, a plan to level 9,000 square miles of rainforest in order to patrol the country's northern frontier. MR. ILLITERATE SOCIALIST - Their launch site is invaded by the leftist candidate in the upcoming presidential election, Severino Silva ("Mr. Illiterate Socialist"), and his partisans. They claim they are just checking what the "CIA" is building in "the people's property," but end up injuring one of the site's Brazilian employees. THE SINLESS UNDERSIDE - Impressed with the country's liberalism, Daryl Backwood pays attention to its social environment (porno soap operas, widespread intermarriage) and also to its indulgent criminal law. She agrees to join an expedition of college students through Amazonia and meets new friends. With her husband, she goes to the crowded hospital where their injured employee is and meets Severino, who uses his political influence to put the injured worker in the crowded Intensive Care and keeps threatening them. HEVEA FORDIENSIS - The expedition begins. Daryl and her friend Elaine feel physically attracted to a handsome native boy, son of the boat's owner. Of the two American ecologists in the expedition, one of them, Keith, feels attracted to Daryl, but she rejects him; she wants Fernando, the handsome native. The expedition enters the Tapaj?s River and stops at Fordlandia, a decrepit city in what once was Henry Ford's ambitious rubber-tree project in the 1930s. TWILIGHT PLACE - In Manaus, Mark Tukano, now reaching adulthood, hates the poor, wild place where he's always lived and dreams of reaching "The World." He believes that his job with the Americans will take him there. He goes to a birthday party in his old neighborhood and promises himself he will never return to it. A MOGUL'S OWN COUNTRY - In the expedition, Daryl tries to seduce the handsome native with her broken Portuguese but fails. The expedition enters the Jari River and stops at the Jari Project, created in the 1970s by the aging American billionaire D.K. Ludwig. The other American ecologist in the expedition, Phil, explains her how Ludwig bought a farm bigger than Connecticut and leveled 20,000 acres of rainforest per year. MR. MAGELLAN'S ROUND TRIP - In Manaus, Max and Backwood go to the local court with their lawyer Mr. Magalh?es (Magellan in Portuguese). They face Severino's partisans again and the judge ends up trying to prove that the local judge- only system is superior to their "Hollywoodian" trials. HIS ROUGHEST RIDE - The expedition enters the Madeira River and stops at a small village where Teddy Roosevelt ended his expedition in 1914. Reading the Brazilian half-Indian backwoodsman Marshal Rondon's autobiography, Daryl sees a different Teddy Roosevelt; a compassionate, aging yet strong man who nearly died in the then-unknown River of Doubt (now Roosevelt River) and asked to be left behind in the jungle. She finally manages to grab Fernando and make love to him in the Madeira River. Afterwards, when Phil tries to swim in this river with a bleeding knee, the piranhas devour his leg. SOME COALITION - The United Nations decide to act against the military Northern Trench Project and the Brazilian Army occupies strategic places in Amazonia, including their launch site. The minister, Brigadier Boaventura, blackmails them and makes them support the Trench. Keith, the ecologist, makes a speech against the Trench for the Red & Green Coalition campaign. SHUTTLING IT - Their reusable rocket ship is successfully launched for the first time. Governor Gilberto and Brigadier Boaventura watch it. THE COUP GAME IN TOWN - Mark Tukano tries to understand his own country's political system in the Election Day. He returns to his old neighborhood to meet a sick friend who's being healed by a medicine man and falls in love with his cousin. Keith is deported (because of his speech). A WELL OILED DEVICE - Backwood sees Brigadier Boaventura and president- elect Severino, formerly political enemies, together on the evening news. In their site, the Army platoon dumps oil in the middle of the jungle. Their lawyer, Mr. Magalh?es, explains that the Army dumped oil in their site in order to confiscate it and prospect for oil. (Oil wells cannot be privately owned in Brazil.) They ask for the governor's help, but he can't do anything for them. Meanwhile, Mark is dating his new girlfriend and feels that her family is trapping him because he is richer than they are. GROUNDING IT - Mark is fired and realizes that he never had back-up plan; he feels depressed although Max has found a new job for him. They decide to move the launch site to a neighboring country, the Dutch Guyana, and discuss what has just happened to them and the society they are leaving. EPILOGUE: BACK IN HELL - One year later, Marcos (formerly "Mark") reads about their rocket launched from Dutch Guyana and realizes that he has betrayed his own dreams; he cries. Then he proposes to his girlfriend and definitely enters the so-called donkey life.