Saving Macaws
by Cleve Taylor
Wade was pleased that he and Judith were able to foil the plot to use an imported scarlet macaw as a bioweapon. He had no sympathy for the perpetrator of the plot to kill "Socialists" around Washington, but who had the tables turned on him and died of the virus he intended to unleash on Washington.
He had, however, developed a concern for the beautiful multicolored scarlet macaw that was to be used to spread a virus deadly to humans.
Although an exotic birds retailer had assured Judith that the macaw they were selling was legally imported from Belize, information he had run across about poaching of macaw chicks by Guatemalans crossing the border into Belize and efforts by conservation groups to protect the macaws suggested that legal exportation of macaws was very unlikely. Rough estimates were that the scarlet macaw population in Belize numbered only in the low hundreds. And even if some loophole in the government allowed export of the birds, it would still be a bad idea.
Wade did a little checking and verified that the United States was proactive in trying to stop smuggling of antiquities, banned items like ivory, and endangered species. But where there was a market, there was a way. And America was the biggest market in the world, so smuggling was both rampant and profitable. With macaws, the picture was further clouded by the existence of legal breeders. A macaw had a retail value between $2,000 and $4,000, so there was a profit to be made. In the wild they had a life expectancy of about 50 years but could live up to 75 years in captivity.
Wade contacted the Belize Embassy on Embassy Row, Massachusetts Avenue, and set up a lunch with a representative of the Belize Embassy to discuss issues surrounding bird smuggling. Meeting at the Old Ebbitt Grill they met and talked about Belize, its resources, its needs, and the problem of protecting their macaws. The representative saw the macaws as a tourist draw as well as a species needing protection.
The representative told Wade of a Scarlet Six group protecting and raising scarlet macaw chicks. He said that they were meagerly funded by the National Audubon Society and that the FCD Rangers (Friends of Conservation Development) helped protect the macaw and supported Scarlet Six efforts.
After the meeting Wade concluded that the best way to give monetary support was through the National Audubon Society. Putting his check where his mind was, he sent the Society a check for $25,000 with a note detailing his interest in their support of the macaws in Belize.
Wade was, however, more a man of action than a passive philanthropist. Using government contacts, both national and local, he identified a middleman bird smuggler in New Orleans through which one could procure a macaw if one had $2,000.
Wade pretended to be such a man and made arrangements to meet the smuggler in Jackson Square in front of St. Louis Cathedral. After dining at Antoines, Wade met a short, swarthy, shifty looking man at 8:30 in front of St James at the edge of Jackson Square. The man kept darting his eyes toward a man leaning against the wall of the cathedral who reached for a gun in a holster under his arm as he walked toward Wade’s back.
He never reached Wade. A woman who appeared to be a tourist intercepted him and pressed her sig sauer into his side saying “Leave your gun in your holster. Draw it and you are a dead man.” Startled, the man dropped his hand to his side and stopped in his tracks. The short man, seeing what was happening, turned to run, but Wade grasped him by his arm and firmly said “Stay,” which he did.
At gunpoint, Wade and Judith walked the two men through Jackson Square to North Peters Street where a limousine with darkened windows picked up the four of them. In the car, Wade determined that the short man was just a street hire whose only job was to identify and engage Wade. Wade made sure he was unarmed and let him out of the car across from the Algiers Ferry. Having relieved the armed man of his pistol Wade turned to him and displayed a Texas Ranger badge inside a flip wallet, and said, “I am Wayne Bridges, Texas Ranger out of Houston, Who are you?”
The man, feigning anger initially, said he was a tourist who was going to intervene in what looked to him to be a mugging. Wade reminded him that the man they had just let go was his associate. He told him that the Rangers were tracking a bird smuggling ring that had been involved in some deaths in Dallas that had Federal implications, and that he was going to be transported over to Texas where he could expect to spend the next twenty years in Huntsville, the Texas State Penitentiary. He also said that if the man gave him any trouble, he might be dropped off in the Henderson Swamp as gator bait on the way back to Texas. “You f--- with me, you f-- with Texas, and Texas doesn’t f--- around,” Wade declared.
They determined that the man's name was Miguel, that he was part of a bird smuggling ring, among other things, and that he would tell them anything they wanted to know if they didn’t take him to Texas. By then they were back in the Quarter across from Central Grocery.
Wade tapped on the glass separating the passengers from the driver. The car stopped. “Hey Fontenot,” he said to the driver. Did you get what you need on the tape?”
"You bet. Thanks.”
“Good . He’s all yours. He’s cuffed to the door, so we’ll get off here.”
Wade and Judith exited the car and walked down the street for coffee and beignets.
Working their way through the mountains of powdered sugar on the hot delicious beignets, they agreed that they would meet the next morning for Breakfast at Brennans, a traditional New Orleans treat before catching a plane back to Washington.
As they were parting, Judith asked. “Why didn’t you give me the opportunity to make a donation to the Audubon Society when you made yours?”
“I’m sorry Judith. I’ve been so busy I forgot to tell you. I did make a $25,000 donation to the Audubon Society in your name. I figured we would work it out later.”
About the Creator
Cleve Taylor
Published author of three books: Ricky Pardue US Marshal, A Collection of Cleve's Short Stories and Poems, and Johnny Duwell and the Silver Coins, all available in paperback and e-books on Amazon. Over 160 Vocal.media stories and poems.
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