City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende

decided.
    "Nadia said the same thing."
    "That girl is smart; she should be my granddaughter, Alexander."
    The trip upriver was much like the run between Manaus and Santa María de la Lluvia, although the landscape was different. By then, Alex had decided to follow Nadia's advice and instead of battling the mosquitoes and bathing himself in insect repellent, he let them attack him, overcoming the temptation to scratch. He also took off his boots when he saw that they were always wet, and when he found out that the leeches bit him as much as if he weren't wearing them. He hadn't noticed until his grandmother pointed to his feet: his socks were bloody. He pulled them off and saw the repulsive creatures clinging to his skin, swollen with blood.
    "It doesn't hurt because they inject an anesthetic before they suck your blood," César Santos explained.
    Then he taught Alex how to make the leeches drop off by burning them with a cigarette; that way the heads weren't left under the skin and you avoided the risk of infection. Santos's method was somewhat complicated for Alex since he didn't smoke, but a little warm tobacco from his grandmother's pipe had the same effect. It was easier to remove the leeches than to spend all his time trying to keep them off.
    From the beginning, Alex had the impression that the tension among the adults of the expedition was almost visible; no one trusted anyone. He couldn't shake the feeling that he was being spied on, as if thousands of eyes were observing every move of the motorboats. He kept looking over his shoulder, but no one was following them on the river.
    The five soldiers were
caboclos
, all born in the region. The Indian guide Matuwe, hired by César Santos, served as an interpreter with the tribes. The other pure Indian was Karakawe, Leblanc's assistant. According to Dr. Omayra Torres, Karakawe did not act like other Indians, and quite possibly he would never go back to live with his tribe.
    The Indians shared everything among themselves; their only possessions were the few weapons or primitive tools each carried with him. Every tribe had a
shabono
, a large, round, communal hut roofed with straw, and open to a clear space in the middle. They all lived together, sharing everything from food to the care of the children. Contact with outsiders, however, was taking its toll on the tribes. It not only poisoned their bodies with illnesses, it affected their souls. As soon as an Indian held a machete, a knife, or any other metal instrument, his life changed forever. With a single machete, they could increase productivity a thousandfold on the small plots where they cultivated cassava and maize. With a knife, any warrior felt he was a god. The Indians' obsession with steel was as powerful as the foreigners' lust for gold. Karakawe had passed the machete stage and had moved on to guns; he was never without his antiquated pistol. Someone like him, who thought more about himself than he did his community, had no place in the tribe. Individualism was thought to be a form of madness, like being possessed by a demon.
    Karakawe was a gruff man who had very little to say; when someone asked a question he could not avoid, he answered in one or two words. He didn't get along well with foreigners, with the
caboclos
, or with the other Indians. He did Ludovic Leblanc's bidding reluctantly, and his eyes glittered with hatred when he had to speak to the anthropologist. He never ate with the others, he did not touch a drop of alcohol, and he went off by himself when they camped for the night. Nadia and Alex once surprised him going through Dr. Omayra Torres's baggage.
    "Tarantula," he said by way of explanation.
    Alex and Nadia decided to keep an eye on him.
•
    As they continued, progress became more and more difficult because the river often narrowed and they came upon rapids that threatened to overturn the boats. In other places, the water seemed stagnant, and there they were impeded by corpses of animals and