The Chimera Sequence (23 page)

“Can’t imagine this irrigation system is doing much for the grass, so I guess you must be right!” He wiped his eyes with the edge of a sleeve. “Me and Tyson have been here a few times before when this happens, but it’s always been a regular sprinkler spray. The kind that actually gets the ground wet, you know?”

“Well I’m not complaining. It’s kind of like those new misters that are getting so popular at all the amusement parks now. A perfect way to end what has turned out to be a very enjoyable evening with you two.”

She gave what she hoped was a cute little curtsy.

“Who said anything about ending our evening? It’s early!” He looked sincerely surprised. “Why don’t we drop Tyson off at my place up in Chinatown and then get something to eat?”

Tyson was apparently bored with the sprinklers and sat patiently by Danny’s side. Anna had not had any intention of turning this first hang out session into a real date, but why not? She knelt down next to the dog and brushed some of the excess water off his coat.

“What do you think, Tyson? Should I let your dad take me out tonight?”

He barked. A short, friendly bark, and Anna’s jaw dropped.

“That’s a yes.” Danny smiled down at her, one thin black eyebrow raised. “Come on, we can swing by your place first if you need to change into something dry.”

She nodded her head slowly.

“Fine, but only because Tyson is a very effective wingman.” At that moment, her phone started vibrating in the pocket of her jean shorts. She pulled it out and looked at the tiny screen. “It’s Chase, give me a second.”

“Hey,” she said, walking away from Danny and Tyson. “Whatcha up to?”

“Hey yourself, where are you?” Her brother sounded excited.

“Just hanging out with my own little Secret Service escort here at the Capitol. Everything okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said. “Have you seen the news, though?”

“No, why?”

“You know the gorilla deaths Cole is trying to figure out? It just hit CNN, big time.”

“Wait, what?”

Since when was a disease outbreak in African gorillas worthy of CNN? She looked over her shoulder to see Danny attaching a dark leather leash to Tyson’s collar.

“Just get over here. You need to see this.”

Cole clenched his jaw at the first burning brush of stinging nettle on the back of a hand. There would be plenty more where that came from. A heavy fog had descended on the mountains overnight, and at this darkest hour before dawn it was impossible to see more than a few feet in any direction. Bonny led the way, stopping for an extended sniff at the edge of the maize field before pushing straight into the dense brush that marked the border of the park.

“Come. This is the place.” Innocence Kambale looked over a shoulder, his normally booming voice now a hushed whisper. Then he followed the bloodhound, giving her a long lead as she moved steadily into the thick bamboo. How they chose that particular spot to begin the trek was beyond Cole, but he trusted the pair completely.

He had pulled in on the Ducati a couple of hours earlier, exhausted but relieved to have found some initial closure in the speed and freedom of the open road. He knew it would take a few million miles like that before he would stop blaming himself for Marna’s death, even though he knew deep down it wasn’t his fault. But now he needed to regain focus for the tasks ahead.

First on the list was to wake and brief the Kambale brothers. There was no doubt in his mind that they would join him, if only out of professional loyalty to the park they were sworn to protect. And he was right. But the silent looks they exchanged when he mentioned Kony and the LRA made him wonder if there might also be something else in the men’s complex personal history that made the decision to accompany him so easy. They would enter the park before first light, taking a little-used path at the base of Mount Karisimbi, far from the watchful eyes of both local farmers and Rwanda’s park guards who stayed closer to the main entrance. No reason for anyone to raise eyebrows and start talking about this quick-moving group of three armed men and a strange-looking dog.

An unearthly scream shattered the air, and Cole froze.

Again, but this time it was answered, high on the invisible slopes above them. He brought his cradled Kalashnikov up into a ready position. Not quite an M4, but it would get the job done. The screams sounded like an evil combination of a hyena’s laughter with the wails of a woman being choked to death, and within seconds they echoed from every direction.

Then a hand on the shoulder, and Proper Kambale’s whispered voice in his ear.

“The tree hyrax is the least of our concerns on this day.”

Cole nodded in embarrassment and continued on up the trail. How could he have forgotten? Every classic book on the region made at least one reference to the harmless creature’s horrifying mating calls, and he had promised himself he wouldn’t freak out like every other visitor to the Virunga volcanoes lucky enough for a serenade. Yes, it would be a good day if the rabbit-sized hyrax was the only enemy they encountered.

The fog lifted over the next hour, burning off slowly in the warming rays of the morning sun as they filtered through the towering bamboo in a glow of verdant green. The tall reedy plants were too thick to allow for much undergrowth, so the silent group’s progress was mercifully free from the nettles and grasping vines Cole knew would soon plague them when they moved into the higher elevation Hagenia forest. A chorus of invisible birds joined the ever-present drone of insects. Would he even be able to hear another person approaching them, tracking them? Maybe not, but that’s why he was glad to be in such good company. Nothing could sneak past Bonny’s notice, even if her almost cartoonish features—the quivering nose, drooping eyes, and floppy ears—were sometimes hard to take seriously.

As if in answer to Cole’s thoughts, the dog froze. She put her nose to the ground, then threw her head up into the air and turned from side to side. Within seconds, Cole thought he heard something in the distance. A rustling of leaves somewhere up ahead, then silence. Whoever or whatever was up there was now aware of their presence. An angry buffalo or bull elephant could mean serious trouble, but he was far more worried about other humans.

“Gorilla.”

Proper’s soft voice behind him brought a quick smile to Cole’s face. Gorillas they could deal with. Maybe he’d even have a chance to make a quick health assessment. The biggest question right now was whether or not the virus had moved beyond the Rugendo family into the rest of the mountain gorilla population.

The hollow thumping of a gorilla’s rapid chest beat broke through the forest’s morning symphony, followed quickly by a burst of breaking branches and low grunts. And then he was there with them, a massive silverback in the path just ten feet ahead of a now extremely tense Bonny. The gorilla crouched on all fours, staring at them for thirty seconds…a minute. He rested lightly on giant knuckled fingers, the muscles of his broad back and shoulders rippling with every movement. Cole could clearly see the unblemished inky black skin of hands and face. No sign of infection meant no reason to knock him down for samples, not when they had so much ground to cover.

“I don’t know him.” Innocence spoke slowly and gently.

“Wild?” Cole tried to respond in the same unthreatening tone. Only a fraction of the gorillas were members of tourist-friendly habituated groups. Those that were not were much less predictable.

Innocence nodded in reply, then started in with the low grunting.
Just let us pass, old man. We are not here for you.
Even Cole could see the surprise on the silverback’s face. The animal tilted his head to the side, as if deciding how to respond to this strange creature speaking his own language. In an instant, he was standing upright, an ear-splitting roar coming from deep within gaping jaws. King Kong in the flesh. Cupped hands rose to his chest again in a blur of action, the rapid slapping accompanied by a crescendo of angry bellows.

Then he was gone, disappeared into the bamboo as quickly as he had come. Cole knew that violent confrontations with wild silverbacks were possible, but this show of strength and hasty retreat were far more common.

Bonny took one tentative step forward, then another.

Time to go.

Cole lifted the satellite phone from the top of his pack. Another loan from Dave Wong. This one wasn’t quite as valuable as the Ducati, but much more useful for the journey ahead. At over eight thousand feet in elevation along the northern slopes of Mount Karisimbi, they were outside the range of the local mobile networks. Not that it would have mattered for this particular call. He dialed the number Colonel Alsina had given him.

“I seriously couldn’t believe it when the colonel got in touch last night.” Jake Russell sounded the same as ever. “How the hell did you convince him this was a good idea?”

“I have my ways,” Cole said. “Great to hear that ol’ Texas twang again.”

“Right. Not that I’m complaining. I mean, we’ll take all the help we can get. But still, it’s been a while since you’ve even touched a weapon, right?”

“Yes and no,” Cole said, glancing at the rifle resting easily against his leg. “I’ve been surprised how much the old skill set has come in handy working out here.”

After ten months supporting Operation Enduring Freedom as Green Berets with the 10th Special Forces Group, the two young officers had convinced Colonel Alsina to send them to Fort Benning for Ranger school. Bonus for a job well done on the deployment, they said, and he took the bait. It was sixty-one days of hell in the mountains of Georgia, but Cole knew the training had prepared him well.

“Lots to catch up on both sides, sounds like,” Jake said. “But we should have plenty of time for that, if we can actually find each other. Any chance you can make it all the way across today?”

“No way. I know the distances don’t look like much, but the terrain is a game changer. Ravines and creeks make it impossible to go in a straight line, and we’re staying far from all the more trafficked routes for now.”

“That’s alright, it’ll give us more time to get up into the park ourselves.”

“So where are you thinking for a rendezvous?” Cole didn’t really care, as long as he got to make some basic assessments of the other gorilla families in the area. Their exposure and disease status would help pinpoint where the initial outbreak had occurred. He looked out over the velvety green forest carpeting the wide saddle below. The rocky outcropping they had chosen for their break provided the first full view of Mount Mikeno, only a couple miles across the invisible international border to the northeast. Its ancient volcanic cone jutted sharply out of the forest and into a now cloudless sky. The mountain was over a thousand feet taller than Grand Teton in Wyoming, but its solitary stretch for the heavens made it impossible to compare the two. Literally a world apart.

“After five hours on the Puma last night,” Jake continued, “I’m pretty sure our targets are camped out right about halfway between Mikeno and Sabyinyo. Kind of a no man’s land, from what I can tell.”

“Nice, didn’t realize you had a drone over there.”

In Afghanistan they’d almost always had full coverage from the big boys—Predators and Global Hawks. The added layers of information and security couldn’t be beat, but those full-size drones also required a secured runway and support team on the ground. The next-generation mini-flyers like the Puma were proving themselves a whole lot more useful for situations like this.

“Yeah, she picked up a pretty clear mother lode of human thermal patterns, along with what looked like a couple generators. We’re gonna send her back out as soon as she’s charged up again—try to get some regular video for confirmation.”

“And where exactly are you now?”

“Just about ten klicks south of Rumangabo, hanging out next to an old military post of some sort.”

“Okay, why don’t you move out now for the Bukima tented camp on the northern slopes of Mount Mikeno. It’s one of the old Virunga tourist accommodations and should be a good base for tracking your guys. I wanted to check out the area anyway—it’s pretty close to where we found the first dead gorillas a few days ago.”

“Sounds like a plan. Just check in with me this evening sometime. You know, to let me know you haven’t been eaten by a leopard?”

Cole was putting the phone away when Innocence and Bonny appeared from behind a large fallen Hagenia trunk. The park ranger had a finger to his lips.

Never a good sign.

“Eight men, coming this way. They speak Acholi, language of the LRA.”

Even worse.

Distant voices of shouting men floated in on a warm breeze through the open flaps of the tent. Lars Olsson stopped writing and listened. He would welcome almost any interruption of this extended vigil. They had exhausted what was left of the medical supplies the night before, so there was no question anymore of even the most basic support for the dying patients in his care. And dying they were. There were now over fifty bodies dumped unceremoniously in the mass graves at the edge of the camp, and about that many still suffering. He couldn’t make them better, or even more comfortable, but at least he could record his observations. Hope that someone might find the notes and understand what tragedy had come to this lonely spot. So that is what the physician turned to—documenting in careful detail the hour by hour progression of signs and symptoms as the virus ravaged the bodies of its forgotten victims.