The pelt transporters arrived at their connection in mexico. There was a large drive-on ferry which they were due to board soon that would take them all the way to rio. As they were pulling up to the first of many cues a man walked up to their van and knocked on their window.
"Could I interest you in the sale of a fur coat," the man said, holding up some cheap fake fur coat.
"Ummmm, no." the driver said uncertainly.
"Wake up idiot," the other man hissed quietly," that's the code remember."
"Oh yea," the driver realised ,"i'd like *ummm...* to purchase one for 140.99."
"You're meant to say 1400,99 these are pesos," the salesman corrected ," are you the two coming in for pickup in minnesota."
"Yup," the driver said ,"that's us,"
"Good, your on track," the so called salesman said ,"now have you by any chance run into that blue macaw. If you came from Minnesota there's a good chance that you passed it. There's also rumours that there was another one hanging out in the town you were in."
"Birds nope, didn't see any of them," the driver replied, visibly panicking ,"what's a bird? I...
The other guy pinched his friend and leant over to talk to the man at the door.
"Sorry about that," he said ,"no, we didn't come across the blue macaws,"
"Ok, you guys have a nice ride," the salesman said before walking off. But as he was leaving something caught his eye. He turned and saw a striking blue feather lodged in the back windscreen wipers of the van. He also noticed the rear view camera on the van and a collection of scratches
"Well what do you know," he said, walking back up to the van and plucking the feather from the wipers, "something interesting happened."
The boss was sitting in his room with a laptop on his lap researching ranges, densities and calls of various different creatures he may want to hunt. All around him was the scurrying feet of marmosets. Clambering over the bare tables.
One sat on the arm of the boss's chair and reached over to take his watch but another monkey slapped his hand away and shook his head. The boss pulled a brazil nut out of his pocket and tossed it onto the floor, chuckling to himself as the monkeys fought over the morsel.
"Uhg boss?" said Tipa (the fat goon) timidly, poking his head around the door, "I've got some news on the birds. And what's with the monkeys?"
"I think that they could be a great asset in my future hunts," said the boss ," agile, obedient and cheap. To kill wildlife, you've got to use wildlife."
Some of the marmosets ran up to Tipa and began to ransack him of all possessions. They tossed all the change out his pockets, pulled his ring of keys out of another and unbuckled his belt causing his trousers to fall down.
"Those things are out of control boss!" Tipa exclaimed, pulling his trousers up.
"I think you'll find that they are very much under my control, i just don't care about you," the boss explained coldly ,"now what's the news."
Right on cue one of the monkeys found a usb drive and a crumpled blue feather in tipa's back pocket and swiftly passed it up to their master.
"That feather was lodged in the back of one of your transportation vans and the usb has some footage on it." Tipa explained trying to keep his trousers up.
The boss plugged the usb into his laptop and opened up the video file. He watched silently as a grainy black and white video played on his screen. It captured everything, jewel climbing up the back of the van, blu being shot and the dive into the lake.
"Hmm, I was really that close," he said, playing back the bit where one of the smugglers grabbed Jewel, "any news from these birds since?"
"No boss," Tipa answered ,"they're probably at the bottom of that lake."
"Hmm, I wouldn't be so sure." he replied slyly, rewatching the end of the clip where he could , for a couple frames, see the tiny pixelated form of a parrot breaking the surface of the lake.
"I have a feeling we'll be hearing from these birds soon enough."
(with the introduction of the monkeys my idiot self called them macaques, or more accurately "macacs" because i can't spell. I tried to change them all to marmosets in proofreading but if you see the odd macacc, just ignore it.)
"Ah, it's good to be back," Jewel remarked, breathing in the hot humid air of rio. She was pacing freely about Tulio's shoulder having just gotten off a passenger airline.
"That plane ride wasn't so bad was it," Blu said, sitting on Lindas soldier next to her. "It's just sitting but in a different place."
"I don't think I can take any more sitting," she said, still strutting about on tulio's shoulder, "i'll even take just walking at this point."
It was pretty much night by the time they arrived. It took most of the last day and night to find a suitable flight back to rio. Linda and Tulio walked back to the observatory and left Blu and Jewel sitting on the hand rail.
Blu yawned "it's been one long week, day, month, whatever this is."
"I'd say it's all been worth it," Jewels said snuggling down beside her partner ,"what good's a life without excitement."
"Still better than no life with excitement," blu replied, "anyway, good night jewel."
And as soon as he dropped his head he immediately fell asleep.
Meanwhile in the forests a marmoset was watching the two birds using a pair of binoculars. The monkey chuckled sinisterly and took a bite out of a cookie before scampering off into the jungle.