Page 42 of Rio (Knight Empire #3)

RIO

I went back to the caye where Raquel and I got caught in the storm, and I looked at the mangrove basin. I saw exposed roots, the dirty, cloud water, yellowing and dead foliage, trash tangled in the roots.

It was bleak, and it was right under my nose, if I’d bothered to look sooner. If I hadn’t taken the old man’s orders blindly. It was hard to miss, just like Raquel said it was. What stared me in the face wasn’t just deception and lies, but irreversible damage to the ecosystem.

I felt sick to the core. It would have been easier to stop there, and return to my hotel.

To swim for an hour, and then have a couple of drinks at the bar.

To call Raquel and see how she’s doing. Any of those would have been a great distraction from facing the ugly truth, but I didn’t take the easy way out.

Instead I drove to a small fishing village near the eco resort and got a local fisherman to take me out.

He didn’t say much, in fact his silence spoke volumes, and I had sneaky suspicion that he recognized me from the community hall meeting.

When we reached the reef, I looked down at the murky water and didn’t relish the thought of diving in, but I had to, in order to see for myself, firsthand.

I stripped off my shirt, took a deep breath, then dove in. The salt burned my eyes, and everything blurred for a few panicky seconds. I swam around in the cloudy water and saw it, what Delport did its best to hide.

I saw the coral reef, bleached a pale white and damaged beyond repair, nothing like the myriad of colors I was expecting.

There was no sign of life here. I remember Tomas telling me these waters once teemed with schools of fish.

Not anymore. There is no sign of life here, only silence and decay.

What was supposed to be untouched marine paradise is no more.

It’s what the locals said. What the people in the community hall said. What Raquel tried to tell me. But the reports didn’t show this. The reports said the reef was thriving, and the photos I saw seemed to confirm it.

I finally understood. This whole coverup has been perpetuated by Delport, and indirectly by us, by me, by Knight Enterprises.

Fuck.

I gasped, coming back to the surface, my chest burning from the dive, but also from what I’d witnessed.

The fisherman looked out, silently. A quiet dignity surrounds him, and he didn’t look at me once.

I was filled with shame and guilt, because I had a part in this.

I might have been in the dark to begin with, but deep down, I had my suspicions and I chose to ignore them.

My eyes should have been wide open from the start, but I kind of treated this trip like a much needed getaway; a little jaunt the old man sent me on. A PR stunt.

Turns out, people’s lives are at stake, and I should have done better. Now I’m wrestling with my regret.

Delport blinded me with polished reports and touched up photos. The old man kept me busy in meetings with people who talked about issues other than the ones I was interested in. I stood at that community hall and pretended to listen to the people. Lied and told them I’d look into things.

I still didn’t do a damn thing about it.

But Raquel did.

That woman doesn’t need anyone’s permission. She knows right from wrong. She knows what needs to be done, and like the justice warrior she is, she goes out and does something about it.

I was annoyed that she blindsided me with that injunction. But the truth is, she woke me the hell up. I’ve seen that Delport is hiding something. As for the old man? He’s not just aware of everything that’s going on here. He’s counting on it.

***

It’s been a long day, and I’m about to head to the village to meet with the elder who told us the villagers now had to drink bottled water.

Tomas said he’d meet me there, because I’m not sure how the locals will take to me turning up like this.

Also, he can help with translation, if need be.

With construction halted on the eco resort, the workers are tasked with minor things and Tomas was tasked with taking stock of equipment and materials on-site. No wonder he’s offered to meet me here.

As I head towards the village, the Jeep slows down as the road turns to gravel. There are no signs or fences, just a narrow path between palms and half-flooded ditches. It smells like wet leaves and brine as I pull into a clearing.

I scan the area around me. Scattered around are a handful of homes on stilts, chickens wandering aimlessly, and children watching silently from under the porches.

Tomas is talking to a few people, but he stops and heads toward me as my Jeep pulls up.

“Hey, boss.” He nods. When he asks about my earlier visits to the mangrove basin and the reef, I tell him the truth.

“You saw then, eh?”

“I saw, and I’m angry and ashamed.”

He tilts his head, his eyes examining me. “It’s good that you saw. It means you can do something.”

I feel the pressure already, and know I have to make good. These people must hate us. I must have come across as such an awful douchebag at the community hall.

Then there’s my old man to contend with. It’s going to be a fucking nightmare.

“Let’s see what we have here.” We start to walk towards the area in front of the houses, where a few people have gathered.

“You told them I was coming?”

“Did you want to surprise them?” he asks. I feel like they’re getting ready to attack.

“They’ve been asking for help for over a year,” he says. “They’ve been sending emails, letters and reports to Delport, but they get nothing back.”

This is the first I’ve heard of it. “Are you sure?”

“Yes boss. You know what they got back?”

I don’t answer. I already know what they got back.

“Marketing brochures and bottled water,” he says.

I have no words. What can I say that will make any of this better?

The local elder walks towards us. I recognize him. He’s the same man from the community hall meeting.

“You came,” he says, his heavily lined and tanned face, making me wonder about the life he’s led.

“I told you I would.” But I’m a liar. And a cheat. When I said that to him at the meeting, I had no intention of doing such a thing. It was PR. Easy words. I needed to look good, and convince the audience, but I never really had any intention of coming here.

It’s being with Raquel that’s made me look at myself. It’s seeing what she’s seen, at last, with my own eyes. It’s opening my eyes, and letting the veil of lies disintegrate, that’s led me to this place.

I feel like a phony, and this man is looking at me like I’m a saviour. The injustice, the lopsided scales of justice are all that these people have known, and people like me have benefitted from their misfortune.

We walk together. “Show me where you used to get your drinking water from.”

He leads me behind the houses, and he tells me he used to draw water from the spring beyond the mangroves. But the spring is gone.

“It is not dry,” he says. “It is blocked. It is buried.” He motions for me to follow him as he goes behind the houses.

Black plastic drums line the wall, catching rain.

I peer closer and see that one drum has algae on the surface.

He points to the drums. “This is what we have to drink now. It’s why we have to buy bottled water. ”

My stomach churns, and I feel the urge to heave. I wouldn’t give this to my pet—if I had one.

I remember the words of the Delport engineer I spoke to the one who told me that the impact would be minimal. I ask Tomas, and his eyes fill with contempt. “Maybe he said it and believed it. He didn’t say it out of experience, because he’s never lived here.”

I grind my teeth together, feeling even more ashamed.

I see a lot more during the visit, and it all fills me with loathing.

The eco resort means death for the habitat, and a poor quality of life for the people who live here.

The rich tourists will have a great time, but will they even know at what cost?

Raquel was right, and I feel like shit for doubting her. On the ride back, Tomas is silent and staring out of the window. I wonder if he’s judging me. He has every reason to.

“My father told me the environmental audit came back clean,” I finally say. “He said the reports were exaggerated. I was told that the mangroves were already degraded before we arrived.”

“You believed him?”

“I had no reason to.”

“Maybe you believed it because it suited you.”

“I was sent here not knowing the truth. I was sold a lie, and now my eyes are open.”

“Then you understand why EcoGuardians did what they did.”

That hits like a punch to my stomach. Even Tomas knows we’re on the wrong side.

I drop him off to his small raised wooden house.

It’s built on stilts to protect from floods.

It’s a world away from my hotel suite, and I feel even more guilty as I drive away, feeling sick to my stomach, wallowing in my wretchedness, with a dawning realization that Knight Enterprises is truly one of the bad guys.

I can’t forget the algae drifting across the surface of the water drum, just like I can’t forget the children’s faces as they watched me walking around.

It doesn’t sit well with me that they’ll grow up in this, while the guests at the eco resort enjoy a wonderful vacation.

They’ll leave without knowing the abject misery of the people who have suffered, people who will never experience what they did.

It’s a good thing that Delport Realty has been forced to stop all building activity while we wait on the court’s decision.

The old man was furious and wants me to fix it, but I can’t overturn this decision. Nor do I have any intention of trying.

Delport Realty are scrambling to gather evidence—counterevidence, or at least something to reassess the permits. But this time, I’m here to fix what I think my family has caused—indirectly—through Delport.

I’m starting to see things as Raquel saw them.