Max is dispatched to the Amazon rain forest to investigate, as large swaths of the forest are mysteriously being cleared. There's another N-Tek operative, named Kat, who has been on the job for a few days, but her communications have gone silent. Also, 'Berto has to come along, because Max's communications won't work properly inside the dense rain forest (huh ??) and 'Berto knows the area. (Being from Columbia, he knows Brazil well.)

After landing, Max & 'Berto are jumped -- and it turns out that they've surprised Kat, alive & well, but with a broken communicator. Kat doesn't need any help, thank you. Nor does Max need Kat. But they have to work together, or at least in close proximity. Orders, you know.

Kat is mildly pleased when Max saves them from an enormous boa constrictor, while they're motoring up river, but the boat sinks, and she turns sarcastic again.

They find some of the clear cuts in the forest, where 'Berto examines a felled tree, and identifies it as one with a sp