''The Land Beyond Time'' Adventure in the Amazon

An Al Ranlom Action Adventure Novel

The Land Beyond Time is a non-stop, fast paced, action packed adventure that takes place in the jungles of the Amazon River. It is a story about traitors, sabotage, espionage, greed, hate, love and romance, cold blooded murder, and justice.

It is the story about the trials and tribulations of a dozen human beings whos sabotaged aircraft crashes into the Amazon jungle. The crash survivors, 6 men and 6 women, including 2 drug cartel bosses, being extradited to the US, now must compete against their individual fears, each other and those unknown unexplained challenges facing them in the hot, wet, dangerous jungle.

The terrifying but strange animals that abound there, like the giant spiders, boars, anacondas, and crocodiles; two hostile tribes and the headhunters; a Colombian drug cartel group of professional killers coming to rescue their bosses; and a small, but elite team of US Marines conducting search and rescue operations for the crash survivors; all are tossed together in the jungles of the Amazon.

Our adventure begins during December 1999, in Lima, Peru, when a US military aircraft (C141) preparing to take a number of government passengers back to the US, is commandeered by an Embassy official. He orders the aircraft to take on10 additional passengers, including two recently captured Colombian drug lords being extradited to the US. Hours into the flight the plane is sabotaged by someone onboard and it crashes into the Amazon River dumping the survivors into the hostile terrain north of Manaus, Brazil.

Two of the 12 crash survivors are immediately separated from the main group and have adventures of their own to contend just to remain alive. The remaining survivors are captured by one of two hostile tribes (the Ingou and Sangou). The survivors are taken to the Ingou village and interrogated, while second tribe prepares to attack the Ingou village to pre-empt an escaped prisoners arrival there, who possesses information which could change the delicate balance of power in the jungle.

Back in Peru, an Embassy official is fingered as an espionage agent for the major drug cartel. The official gets nervous and runs to his new bosses in Colombia. Meanwhile, the cartel sends 24 professional killers to retrieve their two drug bosses from the sabotaged aircraft. Their additional instructions are to eliminate all the remaining passengers. When the aircraft fails to show up at Manaus as planned, the cartels killers immediately begin a search pattern, and within hours of finding the crashed aircraft, their journey begins.

Back in Lima, the Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge (NCOIC) of the Marine Security Guard (MSG) Detachment, a friend of Al Ranlom, a former Marine who is aboard the missing aircraft, hears of the espionage and the plane crash. Not one to stand by and watch, the NCOIC forms an unofficial search and rescue team, which picks up the trail of the missing craft and her survivors.

The dangers to all involved: the survivors, the cartels professional killers and the Marine Security Detachment rescuers, are found in every turn they take. They are all around them, in the trees, at ground level, on, under and above the waterways, swamps and mangroves. These hazards eat away at their self confidence, and tears at their moral fabric. They are tested continuously, passing one test only to encounter another challenge. If it isnt attacks by giant spiders, anacondas, and crocodiles, its tigers, flesh eating worms and blood sucking bats. Or its problems from hostile tribes or from the natural environment, like earthquakes and lava flows or from the failure of their sophisticated equipment, like the GPS systems, radios, and walkie-talkie