trust him, although I have to give him credit for being generous with
bonuses and stocks. He’s cleverly given everyone connected with the
project a real stake in the venture, particularly Bertram and
Siegfried.’
‘So, that leaves it all up to us,’ Melanie said. ‘Let’s find out if it’s
your imagination or not. What do you say the three of us take a quick
trip to Isla Francesca?’
‘You’re joking,’ Kevin said. ‘It’s a capital offense without
authorization.’
‘It’s a capital offense for locals,’ Melanie said. ‘That can’t apply to
us. In our case, Siegfried has to answer to GenSys.’
‘Bertram specifically forbade visits,’ Kevin said. ‘I offered to go by
myself, and he said no.’
‘Well, big deal,’ Melanie said. ‘So he gets mad. What is he going to do,
fire us? I’ve been here long enough so that I don’t think that would be
half bad. Besides, they can’t do without you. That’s the reality.’
‘Do you think it might be dangerous?’ Candace asked.
‘Bonobos are peaceful creatures,’ Melanie said. ‘Much more so than
chimps, and chimps aren’t dangerous unless you corner them.’
‘What about the man who was killed?’ Candace said.
‘That was during a retrieval,’ Kevin said. ‘They had to get close enough
to shoot a dart gun. Also, it was the fourth retrieval.’
‘All we want to do is observe,’ Melanie said.
‘Okay, how do we get there?’ Candace asked.
‘Drive, I guess,’ Melanie said. ‘That’s how they go when they do a
release or a retrieval. There must be some kind of bridge.’
‘There’s a road that goes east along the coast,’ Kevin said. ‘It’s paved
to the native village then it becomes a track. That’s how I went on the
visit to the island before we started the program. For a hundred feet or
so the island and the mainland are only separated by a channel thirty
feet wide. Back then there was a wire suspension bridge stretched
between two mahogany trees.’
‘Maybe we can view the animals without even going across,’ Candace said.
‘Let’s do it.’
‘You ladies are fearless,’ Kevin remarked.
‘Hardly,’ Melanie said. ‘But I don’t see any problem with driving up
there and checking the situation out. Once we know what we’re dealing
with, we can make a better decision about what we want to do.’
‘When do you want to do this?’ Kevin questioned.
‘I’d say now,’ Melanie replied. She glanced at her watch. ‘There’s no
better time. Ninety percent of the population of the town is either at
the waterfront chickee bar, splashing around in the pool, or sweating
buckets at the athletic center.’
Kevin sighed, let his arms fall limply to his sides, and capitulated.
‘Whose car should we take?’ he asked.
‘Yours,’ Melanie said without hesitation. ‘Mine doesn’t even have
four-wheel drive.’
As the trio descended the stairs and made their way across the
sweltering blacktop of the parking area, Kevin had the gnawing sense
they were making a mistake. But in the face of the women’s resolve, he
felt reluctant to voice his reservations.
On the east exit of the town, they passed the athletic center’s tennis
courts, which were chockful of players. Between the humidity and heat,
the players looked as drenched as if they’d jumped into a swimming pool
with their tennis outfits on.
Kevin drove. Melanie sat in the front passenger seat, while Candace sat
in the back. The windows were all open, since the temperature had fallen
into the high eighties. The sun was low in the west, directly behind
them and peeking in and out of clouds along the horizon.
Just beyond the soccer field the vegetation closed in around the road.
Brightly colored birds flitted in and out of the deepening shadows.
Large insects annihilated themselves against the windshield like
miniature kamikaze pilots.
‘The jungle looks dense,’ Candace said. She’d never traveled east from
the town.
‘You have no idea,’ Kevin said. When he’d first arrived he’d tried to
take some hikes in the area, but with the profusion of vines and
creepers, it was all but impossible without a machete.
‘I just had a thought about the aggression issue,’ Melanie said. ‘The
passivity of bonobo society is generally attributed to its matriarchal